Manuel Antonio Beach - Day 3

Saturday, February 9

After another delicious breakfast, we planned to go for a walk into town or on the beach.  The kids had other ideas… they hopped in the pool.  It was so hot out, we couldn’t blame them.  Kirsten took the opportunity to Skype with her parents, and Eddie discovered a few messages from Amanda.  Eventually we got a hold of her and learned that a window had been broken in our house.  All is well, nothing was taken; but we were confused as to how it had happened.  To make a long story short, we think the kids that like to play by our house threw a rock (they said "at a snake").  Whether by accident or not, we don’t really know.  It has been fixed and they are not allowed to play at our house for a little while because they lied about it.  It is a sad moment, but we hope to see them learn a lesson and that we can continue to build a relationship with them and show them the love of Christ. 

Once all that was resolved, we decided to go on that walk.  It was so hot, and we didn’t find much this time around.  

We headed back to the beach and let the kids play in the shade.  

The guys headed to town to buy our bus tickets for tomorrow morning, and they found us some lunch and dessert.  While they were gone, we got another fun surprise.  I had gone down by the water to try to get Jaden cleaned off and to play in the water.  He was still not happy about it.  When I glanced back up at the beach, I see Kirsten pointing at the trees and making strange monkey like gestures.  I called Noah out of the water and took Jaden up to see.  There were about 6 monkeys eating and playing in the trees.  They were so close to us!  It was amazing!

Eddie and Ryan missed it.  Amongst all the chaos of the monkeys, there was a guy there who looked up in another tree and spotted the sloth again.  He had come down during the night and climbed up a different tree.  It was much shorter, so we could see him pretty well.  It is hard to see in the picture, but his face is just above the lower branch on the left side of the tree:

Kirsten shook the tree and it slowly turned its head to look at us.  It was pretty cute!  After all the activity died down, Jaden took a long nap in the shade and we all played in the sand.  We found a hermit crab and it entertained both the adults and kids for well over an hour.  Eddie did his beach ritual: digging a hole to China, and the kids and I tried to make some sand sculptures.  We had a blast!

When we got sick of being sandy, we cleaned up again and spent some more time in the pool before dinner.  We also chatted with some other hotel guests.  They have been visiting this hotel for the past 12 years and knew all about the monkeys and sloths.  While we were eating dinner, another monkey swung down through the trees and sat on a light pool right next to the restaurant.  There was a big bug flying around the light and we watched him catch it and eat it before moving on through the trees down the beach.  We are so thankful for these exciting moments where we get to see parts of God’s creation that we don’t usually get to see!

On our way back to our room... we saw a guard carrying this in his bare hand:

... and it was still alive.  I am not sure where he found it or what he was going to do with it.  I think it was better not to know.

After getting the kids in bed, Ryan and Eddie felt like getting some pizza from a local restaurant, called The Wagon.  They took the bus there, and then walked back to the hotel.  Kirsten was in bed a sleep and I was just finishing packing up and getting ready for bed.  That didn’t stop us from each polishing off 2 slices of pizza.  It was delicious.  Eddie and Ryan told me that they met two missionary girls from Honduras.  They were in Costa Rica to renew their passport, and the owner offered to give them free food for the week if they would help him out in the restaurant.  They were staying in the hostel by the beach for about $4 a night and getting free food.  What a great way to spend the week!

 

Sunday, February 10

We met for breakfast around 7:30 and planned to check out and catch the 8:20 bus to the main bus station.  Our tickets to San José were for the 9:30 bus.  Since the boys hadn’t quite finished their breakfast, she stayed down by the restaurant with them while Ryan, Eddie and I went and got our stuff and checked out.  She was taking forever to meet us, and we were worried we would miss the bus.  When Ryan went to get her, we discovered what the hold-up was.  After we left, about 30 monkeys came in and just about raided the kitchen.  They were taking bananas off the buffet and running on the tables and the rafters, hanging from the roof and even baring their teeth.  The aggression was because there was a momma monkey with a baby on her back that was passing through with them!  Kirsten was in shock and a bit afraid for her kids so she didn’t get many pics, but she did snap one of the momma and her baby!  She was then told that the monkeys pass through that area every morning… why didn’t we know that?  We missed it 3 mornings in a row!  Oh well.

We caught our bus and started out trip.  We were a bit nervous that this trip would be more difficult because we hadn’t purchased all of our tickets ahead of time.  We arrived in San José around 1:15 and were able to buy tickets for the next bus at 2:00.  We were back in Turriabla by 4:00 and home by 6:00 (Not 5:00 because we stopped in La Suiza for some groceries and to watch Josué play fútbol in the plaza.

When we got home, Amanda treated us by making tacos for dinner!!!  I love tacos and have not had them since October!!!  They were delicious!  We unpacked and told her all about our trip, and she told us more about what happened with the kids and the window.