Adventures of "Diego the Daihatsu Bego" in Costa Rica

After picking up our rental car in the town of Liberia, our first adventure was a misty, muddy hike at Rio Celeste through the rainforest where we saw aqua pools, a beautiful waterfall, and hot springs. Here's the car and the waterfall (and our Belgian friends, Flo & Britt!):

From Rio Celeste we drove to Monteverde, which didn't look very far on the map but ended up taking hours on the winding, pothole-filled dirt roads. We were surprised when we arrived to a chilly, bustling town in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. We had heard fantastic reviews about the Canopy tours here and went on a ziplining excursion which definitely lived up to the hype. What a rush - and a VIEW! (Jenn2E - Jody wore the orange Fernie shirt just for you)

The chilly weather in Monteverde left us craving the sun & sand so we headed for Playa Samara, which really is 'paradise on the Pacific' (apparently Mel Gibson owns a beach 15 minutes from here). We stayed in relative luxury and cooked up some delicious meals while trying to beat the extreme heat in the ocean and hotel pool. Wanting to ensure we took full advantage of having the car we went exploring down the coast and stumbled across Playa Carrillo a.k.a. Heaven. Jody was testing out the panoramic photo setting on my camera and captured this beauty of Carrillo beach (that's Britt & I reading on the beach just before sunset):

We drove down the Pacific coast of the Nicoya Peninsula until the dirt road turned into a river that our little Bego couldn't cross :( We ended up in a little town called Jicaral where we were the only foreigners at the local rodeo & fair. Needless to say, I loved it! After riding the bumper cars like 5 year old kids, we watched the rodeo which consisted solely of bull riding the night we were there; it was ridiculous - guys were riding 'no-handed' and it took an average of 20 minutes with a combination of man and horse power to get the bull out of the arena after each ride. Ten riders took about 2.5 hours... it was definitely no Calgary Stampede but entertaining all the same

The next day we drove down to Quepos, the gateway to Manuel Antonio National Park. It was extremely hot so we didn't last very long in the park but were able to see loads of monkies, swim and make lunch on the pretty beaches, and hike to a 'Mirador' overlooking the Pacific coastline. It was also St. Patrick's day so afterward we put on all of our collective green clothing and enjoyed some beverages at the closest thing to an Irish pub we could find - oh ya, and Jody's now sporting a handlebar mustache...

 A lovely sunset in Quepos capped off a fantastic week of cruising around Costa Rica.

We're now in San Jose attempting to get our Brazilian Visa's at the embassy (to no avail) and catching up with our families on Skype. Tomorrow we're heading to the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica for a few days before heading down to Panama. Hopefully everyone had a great St. Patty's Day weekend :)