Costa Rica 2010

Bret and I were lucky to be invited again this year on a fun trip to Costa Rica with some friends. As I started to post about our trip, I realized that I've never posted anything about past trips. So this post is a little bit long and has pictures from a couple years ago too.

We fly in to San Jose, Costa Rica and then drive for about 2 hours to our friend's condo. On the way to the condo we stopped on a bridge and looked out over this river. This river is a great spot for tourists because there are live crocodiles living in the water.

It was a little freaky to see these monsters right below us. The only thing Bret wished we had with us was a big piece of chicken that we could dangle (spelling?) down from a string so we could see the crocs jump to get a bite. Eek! It was freaky to think that they were wild and so close to the road we were traveling on.
This is a picture that I took from the balcony of the condo we were staying in. It's not the greatest picture, but if you could see past the tree line at the top . . . you would see the ocean. We're not very far away from the beach.


The location of the condo is really neat because it's right in the middle of a little "village". These are some pictures of the homes that people live in all around us.


This home was vacant this year . . . I don't know what happened to this family.


This house is right on the road that we walk down everyday to go to the beach. This family's swimming pool is filled with water everyday for a little swimming by the family members. Then each night they drain it.


This home is right at the bottom of the hill from our condo. This is the front of the home . . .

. . . and this is the back.

I was standing just out the front door of the condo we stayed in when I took this picture. Each day we would walk down this road (you can see the home at the bottom of the road that was in the above pictures) and then walk down the road to the beach.

After walking down this road we just turn right and the beach is about 100 yards away.

These Macaw birds are wild and they fly all over the place by the condo and along the beach. Their colors are so vivid and bright that they almost seem like they could be painted. They squawk like crazy as they fly and chase each other.

Every once in awhile we will drive to the nearest town that is about 15 minutes away called Jaco . This is a picture taken of the main road in town.

This year we went to one of the biggest tourist spots in Costa Rica. It's called Manuel Antonio. You start by walking through the jungle/forest for about 20 minutes and watch for all the wildlife that lives there. Then all of a sudden it opens up to a big ocean bay/cove. This is a picture of Bret walking out of the jungle after we spent the afternoon at the beach. While walking we saw . . .

Monkeys . . .

sloths . . .

and big lizard/iguanas! It was pretty cool to see their wildlife.

This is Bret on the beach after the big walk.

Us on the beach in Manuel Antonio!

Some of the funnest times were just talking with all the couples, late at night, outside in the warm air. These are just some funny pictures Bret and I took of each other . . . You can tell it was late and we were tired :)

Oh . . . Baby!

The last afternoon we were there, we headed down to the beach to boogie board one last time. I volunteered to take pictures while Bret went for the waves.

Of course, he was in heaven!

Why is he always the one to loose his shorts?

As the sun was setting, all of a sudden 5 horses came running down the beach. I couldn't get my camera fast enough before they were pretty far away, but it was cool.

This is the night before we left as the sun began to set.

(This picture is for Jamie!)

Isn't that beautiful?!

The sun was huge that night and absolutely gorgeous.

Thank you to everyone who helped us with the kids while we snuck away for a few days. It's so good to have Bret all to myself. We always have so much fun together. We love you all.

XOXOXOXO