Playa Grande

We are now in Playa Grande. It is on the Central Pacific coast. It is the top 4 spots to see the leatherback turtle nesting sites! We hope to take the tour this evening. We're staying at the Hotel La Tortuga, a beautiful resort that is ecoconscious and respectful of their relationship with the turtles. We will be here for the next four nights and then make our way back to San Jose.

The last few days have been hectic and we've covered quite a bit of Costa Rica. After San Ramon, we drove to Volcan Arenas, an active volcanoe - the smoke can be seen bellowing out of the top. Near Volcan Arenas, we went to the La Catarata (waterfall) of La Fortuna, a 70 m waterfall. It was absolutely beautiful. The night we stayed in the small mountain town of Tilaran at the Hotel Gaudalupe.

The next day we drove to Canas and then north to Upala, passing between Volcan Miravalles and Volcan Tenorio. Volcan Miravelles is active. We then drove west near the Nicaraguan border to La Cruz. The road was gravel and bumpy most of the way, so the trip took a while. Along the way we passed mile after mile of citrus trees, Del Oro. Bethany decided to lay her chair down to rest while driving, but she couldn't get it to come back up. So she has had to lay down while driving for the last two days, until we got to Liberia today, when they fixed it at Thrifty.

Yesterday we went swimming in the Bahia Salinas, we had the entire beach to ourselves. Aiden had a great time. We were going to spend the night at a resort on the Bahia last night, but decided instead to stay in La Cruz. The resort wasn't open yet and just wasn't very convenient for us. But before we decided not to stay there, we had already taken all of our stuff in the room. So when we decided to stay in La Cruz on the spur of the moment, I forgot to grab the dirty clothes. So we'll be coming back to the U.S. minus a few items of clothes.

Anyway today we headed south to Liberia and then west to Playa Grande, where we will rest and enjoy ourselves the next few days.