We got up relatively early, and explored Margarita’s a little bit.  I believe we were the only ones staying there.

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After hearing several stories from Margarita, and some tips for where we should go, we rented a car and headed off to Manuel Antonio.  The GPS almost immediately got us lost, as we headed up a road that was only a road in the sense that there were not trees there.  Other than that, there were some rocks in a clearing, so I guess that was road enough for us!  We drove for a little bit until the GPS told us to take a right at the same time that we were going under what was clearly a well paved highway.  However, there was no way onto said highway.  So after attempting  a couple other bike trails, we realized we were not getting on that highway.  So we went back down the way we came, forced the GPS to recalculate route, and it to0k us through some roller coaster like winding roads, that were blessedly paved, and eventually onto the right highway.

Couple observations as we were driving:  First off, it’s oddly comforting to notice that there are dickhead drivers everywhere.  Shortly after that you realize that it’s not just that there are dickhead drivers in Costa Rica, but rather that they are all crazy.  And when you get into the mountainous roads near Jaco, it gets even worse.  Nevertheless, it is beautiful, we survived, and managed to snap off these photos.

We also got stuck in our first Costa Rica traffic jam!  Turns out there would be a few more to come.

 

 

 

Margarita told us about a spot where you could stop and check out crocodiles on the way.  And she was right!  So we had to stop

 

Then we continued on the rest of the drive.  For the record, I may have been singing the Jurassic Park soundtrack in my head the whole time.

 

Then we arrived at Villa Azul in Manuel Antontio (the place we were renting)

We got a brief glimpse of the view, but were a little early for check in, so decided to get some lunch from Barba Roja down the street.

Yeah, it was lovely.

Corinne loves to say “typical Morgan shot” and take pictures like that one.

 

I was trying to capture the rain over the ocean with this shot.

Notice the umbrella in the hair.

Umbrella drink #2

 

 

Back to Villa Azul, which was far more beautiful than the pictures could describe it.

At this point we were pretty wiped from our white knuckle driving, and so we picked up some food and rum from the nearby store, and had a very relaxing evening.

Turns out if you mix rum with various fruit juices it’s really really deliciouszzzzzzzzzzzz…………