Andrew is a fellow LGO with Paul, and you've probably seen him lurking about on the blog...he's super tall, so you can't miss him. That's why I call him my Jirafa, or Giraffe. Well, his internship is in Puerto Rico, so for July 4th, he decided to come visit Costa Rica and celebrate with us. We adore Andrew, so we were so excited to have him. On to the post!
Wednesday, Andrew's flight arrived and we left early Thursday (July 4th) with a rocking patriotic playlist for the Caribbean coast in Puerto Viejo. The weather was GORGEOUS the entire time, quite unheard of. It must be the Bower magic. We spent the first hour on the beach, just...
Lotioning,
Coconut throwing,
Frolicking,
and chatting.
Afterward, we decided to go to an animal rescue center, because even though there are tons of animals roaming about in Costa Rica, we wanted some security in showing Andrew the local wildlife. It was worthwhile, because we got to sit in a cage with MONKEYS! They didn't seem to want to bond with us because some child screamed the entire time. We weren't pleased about that. However, we were pleased that we took the Spanish tour instead of the English tour because we not only understood a lot, but we didn't have to be around the large obnoxious group that was with the English tour.
I was a giant salt lick from the ocean, and the deer had a field day licking me.
...I miss Buncombe :(
So happy
Afterward, we checked into our place, which was from AirBnB. It was perfectly suited to our needs and came with all the comforts of home. We played a little more on the beach and then went to the local bar for some burgers, because although we are in another country, it's the 4th of July! You gotta eat a burger. We make it to the bar, and it was so depressing. Everything was sad, the band, the people, even the fireworks. So, we livened it up. We started singing the national anthem. And you know what? It worked! The entire bar joined us and it was such an uplifting moment.
Beach time before dinner
Our host cut up coconuts for us!
Preparing for American partying!
We're so old, we were in bed by 9.
The next day, we saw a sloth in the trees and did more beach time fun. We rented bikes for the day, which served as an excellent way to get around and was very liberating.
This is when I busted my bike
Awesome
My bruise
That evening, we set off our own fireworks and took a bunch of lovely, random pictures.
Abandoned shipwreck
Our fireworks were amazing
Last day: we went to Cahuita National Park and finally found some wild monkeys. They were really wild because they kept pooing on us. We had a couple of close calls, but no hits at least.
This spider grosses me out
Admiring monkeys
After the park, we went to a chocolate museum, or as we called it PLANT TREK COSTA RICA! We learned how chocolate was made in the day and were given some homemade- legit-just-5-ingredients chocolate. It was like a tasty brownie.
32 seeds in a cacao fruit. You can eat the fruit surrounding the seed, but I learned that too late and just ate it. Not great.
Where the seeds go to ferment
Dried seeds
Perfectly roasted cacao beans
In front of the big dryer vat. LGO bros
Tasting the roasted seeds
Paul grinding
Mix it all together and you get chocolate!
She didn't like us
We then made the long trek back to San Jose and slept some. We had a wonderful time with our Jirafa and we were too sad to see him go. But we did sleep all day Sunday, so that was the consolation.
This marks the end of our adventures in Costa Rica. It's so weird that 6 weeks have already flown by and that we will be in Peru next week. This upcoming weekend, we will get to see some ruins in Guatemala, so get pumped. Even though we have had tons of fun here, I'm getting so excited about Peru and the large fun trips we have planned in South America.
And thank you Andrew for visiting! We had so much fun and you're a great travel companion for us. Hopefully, you and Paul can hang out when he's in Colombia. We'll always remember "we gotta go!"
So Happy Belated July 4th! Here's a couple of photos mas:
Hey LGO, "Pura Vida", <3 and="" andrew="" br="" los="" meggs="">
Wow can't believe you are already heading to Peru! Hope and pray all goes well. The big kitty does remind me of Buncumbe! He is so sweet! So lovable in the morning.
ReplyDeleteLove you,
Mom