Costa Rica 3: Volcano to beach

Today was a big driving day. We woke up and enjoyed a relaxing early morning at our ranch. The volcano was obscured by clouds, so instead of hanging around Arenal, we got an early start towards Quepos and Manuel Antonio National Park. The drive took us through mountains and farmland, which was pretty darn beautiful. We played a great game called "Hey cow!" which involved yelling at cows and seeing if they respond. We also tried in Spanish and got the same response: no response.

Past the mountain range, we had a less exciting drive, but did eat our favorite Costa Rican junk food: plantain chips with lime seasoning. The drive got awesome again when we reached the ocean! Mostly it was awesome because I saw a pair of scarlet macaws flying over us! They were majestic. After reading the book "the last flight of the scarlet macaw," written by an environmentalist and zoo owner in Belize about the endangerment of the species, I was pretty pumped to see a pair in the wild. Later in the day we saw toucans, too!

We ate lunch in the beach town of Jaco before making it to our last AirBnb, a beautiful villa in the hills of Quepos that looks out onto the ocean. We had another yummy fish dinner tonight after spending a few hours relaxing and exercising in our pool. We did some pool yoga, Navy sit-ups and invented a new game called "crocodile," which is a breath-holding contest in which you keep your eyes out of the pool. Making your opponents laugh is a great strategy, too great for my hilarious friends. I did not win. We watched the sun set and the stars appear from the pool. 

Yay ocean!!