I am so fortunate that I have wonderful friends who are willing to take the time off work and buy a plane ticket to come down and visit us in Costa Rica.  This past weekend one of my best friends from Elon came down for a long weekend.  Anytime someone is coming in for a long weekend for their first time in Costa Rica, I always recommend going to Manuel Antonio.

Elaine landed Thursday afternoon and we headed straight to the office to wait for Andrew to finish work.  However, when we went to pick up the rental car at Economy, we were told they were out of cars.  Andrew had previously made a reservation online and then confirmed it with the workers there at that specific store the day before.  Needless to say, after many fighting words and wasted time a car showed up.  Elaine’s first taste of the “pura vida!” lifestyle here in Costa Rica.

After we finally got on our way to Manuel Antonio, we were all starving so we stopped at one of our favorites, Graffiti in Jaco, for a delicious meal.  We stayed at La Mariposa again, again one of our favorite hotels in the country.  I feel like I need to reiterate just how INCREDIBLE the views are from this place.  They are truly out of this world.

In the morning Elaine and I got up and went down to the park for some hiking and beach time.  She was so fortunate that she was able to see: the two toed sloth, three toed sloth, capuchin monkeys, and even howler monkeys!  This was the first time I was able to get close enough to a howler for a picture — they are HUGE. he capuchins got soo close and were extremely playful that day.  She really, really lucked out, because I think it was one of the best days for wildlife I have seen since we’ve been here!

After a long morning of hiking and swimming in the ocean, we headed back up to Mariposa for some drinks and pool time before hitting the road and heading towards Dominical! Stay tuned for Part 2 of our trip!

PS- We miss you already, Elaine!