Costa Rica Re-Cap #6 (The Finale): Go Big or Go Home!

"I do not bring back from the journey quite the same self that I took."

*If you missed any of the Costa Rica Re-Caps, click here!*  Linking up with Miscelleny Monday and Cup Half Full.



People thought it might be strange, me going to Costa Rica with three people who had never met each other.  People who are different ages, with different levels of education, different backgrounds, different interests, and who live in different places.  But I wasn't worried.  I know my friends.  And I know that no matter who they are with or what they are doing, a good time is sure to follow.

And I knew we all had one thing in common:  we needed a vacation.  It had been a rough year.  Love issues, losing parents and uncles and friends, family problems, work stress....you name it, we did it.  I don't think there could have been a better trip to have some adventure, tons of fun, a little soul searching and maybe some healing.

Photo via La Mia Vita

After our 8 days together, I do not think we came back the same people as we were before. We learned to do things that scared us.  To jump off the ledge.  That being nice to people really pays off, whether that means an upgrade to first class or new friends from Ohio or Texas or Virginia.  Not to panic and to keep our heads above water when things get tough.  To stop and appreciate the scenery.  That sometimes you have to hike a while to get to the good part.  And that some days, when you least expect it, a Monkey parade appears to brighten you day.  We analyzed our dreams, our relationships, our make up products, and our diets (thank you Cousin Swiss Mister!).  It's amazing the problems you can solve when you're bonding in the sunshine after a couple of drinks containing little umbrellas!  

Early on, Cousin Swiss Mister deemed the four of us "The Family Unit."  No matter where we go from here or what we end up doing, the experiences that we had will always bring us together.  Back to that week in Costa Rica when we rode the rapids, swung like Tarzan, swam in a freezing cold waterfall, met complete strangers and hosted a party at the swim up bar, parasailed, sunburned delicate areas, and almost got hijacked on the way home.  Back to the lessons we learned and the bonds we formed.

Our trip theme was Go Big or Go Home.  I think it's clear that the Family Unit went Big.   I love you guys!

Costa Rica Re-Cap #5: Last Supper, Monkey Parade and Attempted Hijacking

"I love those random memories that make me smile no matter what is going on in my life right now."

Well the crazy adventures were pretty much complete by this point in the trip.  So we enjoyed a little down time the evening after the beach and the last day.

The Last Supper

So after the big day of parasailing and beach lounging, it was time for The Family Unit's Last Supper.  Of course, we had to include our new friends The Ohios in the fun. 

We went to a great little restaurant overlooking the ocean and had dinner and drinks.  Oh, note about Costa Rica.  Every restaurant is outside.  Even ones that have a roof do not have walls.  I love it!  Anyway, after dinner we hit up a little coffee shop for dessert.  At that point, we were walking back to the hotel when low and behold....we hear Waylon playing on a jukebox!  Well, being the country girls we are, BOKG and I freak out and drag Cousin Swiss Mister to go find this mecca of country music in Costa Rica.  Sadly, it was a wedding and although we tried to crash, we didn't make it.  Instead we headed back to the room where we listened to one of The Ohios and BOKG sing karaoke (Islands In The Stream was one of their better numbers) and then BOKG, Cousin Swiss Mister and I jammed into one bed to watch Silence of the Lambs on his computer.  Random night?  Yes.  Great night?  Also yes!

The Last Day

Our last day in Costa Rica was pretty chill.  It was SUPER hot outside and rained for a long time that afternoon.  We mostly just hung out in the hotel doing nothing, save one little jaunt to buy souvineers.  That afternoon we had to bid farewell to Cousin Swiss Mister who had to head to the airport.  We were all pretty dang sad to see him go.  And we are SURE he missed living with 3 girls and all of our stuff for a week!

 So in the middle of the afternoon, I walked outside to smell the rain.  What did I see?  A whole freaking herd (I learned from one of The Ohios they are actually called a "tribe") of Marcel monkeys right outside the room!  Of course I called the girls and we all freaked out.  I tried to get some pictures, but the little suckers did not want to cooperate. 

Everytime I tried to get this dude, he would turn around and moon me!

 

The Attempted Hijacking

And then it was time for us to say goodbye to paradise.  We got up at like 5 am for the ride to the airport only to have like a 4 hour wait for our flight.  I bought and read on an amazing book that I'll be reviewing soon called The Glass Castle.  I guess after how great the flight to Costa Rica was, we should have expected problems on the way home.  When it was finally time to board, BOKG got paged over the loudspeaker and she was randomly selected to have her carry on checked.  So she goes to do that and boards the plane.  The Bride and I were in line to board when all hell broke loose. 

We hear some woman screaming in Spanish on the gate agent's walky-talkie, and then see all the gate agents take off running for the plane.  I turn to The Bride and say, "Please tell me that it's not BOKG!  What was in her bag?!?"  About 5 seconds later, there are five cops that show up and take off running down the jetway.  At this point they clear the jetway and tell us all to take our seats in the waiting area.  A couple minutes later, out come the cops carrying this white dude.....one cop was carrying each of his arms and legs.  All the other passengers are yelling and cussing at him and one guy even tried to kick him.  At this point, I'm still not sure what was going on.

Enter BOKG, who comes running up the jetway with her eyes the size of saucers.  Um....yea.  Dude tried to hijack the plane.  No lie.  To get the full story, check back for BOKG's blog about it here!  Apparently he ran onto the plane, got into the cockpit and demanded that it take him to Nicaragua.  Um....that's the bordering country.  Rent a freaking car, nut case!  At this point, everyone on the plane was apparently quite calm.  Other than BOKG who was screaming for them to shoot him!  Oklahoma justice, y'all.  Anyway, they probably sent that guy to Costa Rican jail forever, cleared everyone off the plane, did a security sweep, and then as we boarded they searched our carry on bags by hand and wanded everyone down.  Once again, crazy experience, lucky it was not worse (could you imagine if he had done it in the air?) but good story to tell.  Another chapter for my book one day!

On Monday I'll be wrapping up this little series with a Costa Rica Finale blog!

Days 6, 7 and 8 Summary

List of Activities:  Last Supper; Lounging at the hotel; monkey parade; attempted hijacking.

Quote of the day:  "Are you kidding me?  Shoot his ass!"  ~BOKG to the flight attendants

Lessons Learned:  (1)  Wedding crashing is harder than it looks.  (2) Sometimes in the middle of an ordinary day, a monkey parade will brighten your world.  (3)  It's easier to rent a car than hijack a plane to go to the next country to the north.  (4)  Don't mess with Oklahoma girls.

Costa Rica Re-Cap #4: The Beach

"But for now, we are young.  Let us lay in the sun.  And count every beautiful thing we can see." ~In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

So after three amazing days in La Fortuna, we took a bus across the country to hit up what's called the best beach in Costa Rica--Manuel Antonio.   That was the extent of Day 4 of the vacation.  Despite the 5 hour car ride on HORRIBLE roads (during which I was handing out carsick pills to other passengers on the bus...way to be prepared, Tiffany!)..it was worth it!  Here's the re-cap of days 5 and 6 of the trip....our beach days.

The Regular Beach

So after going, going, going in La Fortuna, I think we were all ready for a little down time.  Cue beach, umbrella, chairs and a nice cabana boy named Alejandro.  Seriously, that was his name.  You can't make this stuff up.

So that's pretty much the sum and substance of our Day 5.  We spent lots of time chilling under the umbrella, I finished the 30 Things book and we discussed that, Cousin Swiss Mister discovered he did not like coconut water and then went for a run, followed by a massage on the beach.  Oh yea, one more tiny detail.  BOKG and I managed to get majorly sunburned.  Particularly on our *backside.*  It's easy to forget sunscreen back there!  So we basically came home, took showers, slathered ourselves in aloe and whined the rest of the night.  Wear sunscreen, kids.  Wear sunscreen!

Fancy Dinner

After such a long day in the sun, we all got dressed up and headed out for a fancy dinner at Kopi Kopi restaurant.  Seriously, how cute is "The Family Unit" (as Cousin Swiss Mister deemed the four of us!)  In true vacation style, we met up with The Ohios, who invited some friends they met, who in turn invited some friends they met, who in turn did the same.  We ended up with like 14 people at dinner.  Have I mentioned before how much I LOVE traveling??

 

Parasailing

We kicked off Day 6 with a big event...parasailing!  This baby has been on my bucket list for YEARS, so I was super excited to check it off.  Because Cousin Swiss Mister loves me, he said that he'd go with me.  (Turns out he'd been once before with some crazy girl he was dating just before they broke up and she threw her keys to him....he has great taste, but that's a whole 'nother blog!)

So we all headed down to the beach for the big event.  If you ever get the chance to parasail, do it.  It was amazing--beautiful, quiet, peaceful--I loved it.  Except for the part where Cousin Swiss Mister threatened to unhook one of my harnasses mid-air.  I informed him I would never be doing anything with him again.  We have that on video.  It's good.  Here are some photos.

Because we had such a good time, The Ohios decided that they'd parasail and Blonde Oklahoma Girl did the same.  Go Big or Go Home, you know!  Everyone had an absolute blast!

Sidenote, the woman running the parasailing place was from America.  She had a degree from UVA, a law degree from George Washington and was working at a white shoe firm in New York City when she met the love of her life on vacation.  He was from Costa Rica and after he tried to live a year in Manhattan and hated it, she quit her job and they started their own parasailing business.  If you think that didn't get the wheels turning in my little head, you're crazy!

National Park Beaches

After the parasailing, The Ohios said they had to take us to the beaches located inside the Manuel Antonio National Park.  We had to hike through the park (think jungle paths) to get there, but let me tell you, it was worth every minute.  The beaches are prestine and beautiful.  There are not that many people, nothing is bought or sold, it's just you, trees, sand, beach, and monkeys.  It was like a little pack of Marcel monkeys (yes, the extent of my monkey knowldge comes from friends).  It was an absolutely beautiful place and day!  I posted several of my favorite shots from the beaches here.

Before we left, we had to take some shots doing my favorite pose of all time.  I'll be adding these to my collection. :)

Stay tuned tomorrow for The Family Unit's Last Supper, our day spent lounging around the hotel, a monkey parade and our plane almost getting hijacked.  No lie....it happened.

Days 4-6 Summary

List of Activities:  Travel from La Fortuna to Manuel Antonio; lay on the beach; fancy dinner at Kopi Kopi; parasailing; hike through Manuel Antonio National Park; swimming at park beaches.

Quote of the day(s):  "Cousin Swiss Mister, NO!  I am never doing anything with you again!"  ~Me (when he tried to unsnap my harnass mid-air)

Lessons Learned:  (1) Apply sunscreen everywhere.  Backside included.  (2) Parasails have two snaps to connect you to the harnass.  (3) Sometimes you have to hike through the forrest to find the perfect beach.

Costa Rica Re-Cap #3: Ziplining, Waterfall, Volcano Hike

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.  You must do the thing which you think you cannot do."  ~Eleanor Roosevelt

Fair warning, this is a long one.....I promise I tried to condense it down!  If you missed Day 1 or Day two, click here!  (And I'm linking up with What I'm Loving Wednesday!)  Remember, you can click on the photos to make them bigger!

Well after my near death experience the day before, I was excited to cross two items off my bucket list on Day #3:  ziplining through a jungle and seeing a waterfall!  Not only did I get my two checkmarks, I also got to Tarzan swing, swim under said waterfall, and met two new friends, who we'll call The Ohios!

I'm Loving....Ziplining

This was the #1 activity that we all wanted to do in Costa Rica.  I was pretty darn jazzed up about it....right up until we climbed up the big ol' ladder and it came time to step off that platform.  At that point, I was way less sure!  I had to have quite the conversation with my little friend the guide to ensure that I was, in fact, clipped in twice and that I would not die during this little adventure. 

Not going to lie, the first pass....not fun.  Not fun at all.  But after that was over, it was absolutely amazing!  We had wonderful views of the rainforest, the volcano, horses grazing below....I mean it was really incredible.  Here are a few shots from the adventure (including crazy Cousin Swiss Mister going upside freaking down!!)

So...turns out, I was not so good with the brakes.  I swear I was doing what they told me, but I could not stop myself, which was pretty stressful when you think you're about to slam into a tree!  Here's Cousin Swiss Mister signaling me to slow it down.  You can see from my face that didn't work out so well.  Luckily Gustavo there had my back.

Stop!!

The craziest part of ziplining was the Tarzan swing.  We are such failures that we didn't get any pictures....but we do have it on video!  I promise to include this in the video montage that we are making.  But picture it, you walk up to this clearing.  There is a wooden platform and above it is a trapeeze looking thing hung on a tree.  You look out and there are trees everywhere, and you look down into the clearing and just see the tops of more trees.  In other words, you're freaking high up.  Anyway, they strap you onto the cable hanging from the trapeeze thing and push you off out into the jungle where you swing like Tarzan.  I kept saying, "Guys, I don't think I can do this."  To which everyone reminded of me of my "Go Big or Go Home" statement the day before.  Me and my big fat mouth!  BOKG was not sure either...she got up for her turn and looked at the guide before he strapped her in and said, "Let's have a conversation about this."  He ignored her, shoved her off, and away she went.  It was incredible!  Bucket List Ziplining:  Check!

I'm Loving....The La Fortuna Waterfall

So because I'm not a very good relaxer, I insisted that we jam as much into our last day at La Fortuna as humanly possible.  This included the La Fortuna Waterfall that I had heard great things about.  Having not seen a waterfall before and having that on my bucket list, I knew we had to go.  So we get to the waterfall park and it's starting to look a little like rain.  We hiked down the 480 steps to the waterfall and enjoyed the views!

 When we got to the waterfall, the water was freezing and it started to sprinkle.  A couple was there and they said they really wanted to get in, but it was just too cold.  Ha....Go Big or Go Home, we told them, and us girls stripped down to our swim suits and swam (froze our butts off!) in that waterfall! 

After adjusting ourselves (see below) we took some photos.

Ahem...getting ready for the photo shoot.

And after a couple of pictures, it started to rain.  By rain, I mean POUR.  Cousin Swiss Mister took off running for the covered bridge, leaving us girls to fend for ourselves.  Chivalry is dead, apparently.  Freezing cold water, soaking wet clothes, and a hike back up the 480 stairs was a small price to pay to get another checkmark that day!

I'm Loving....A Volcano Tour

If there was one part of the trip I could have skipped, this was it.  However....had we not gone, we would not have met The Ohios, our new trip BFFs, so I'm super glad we did.  Long story short, our group and The Ohios were the first people on the bus.  They ask where we are from and we each tell them the state we live in--all 4 different.  They ask how we know each other and we explain the complicated story.  Then we decide that to simplify, we should all say that we are from Ohio.  And we made up a story about how one of The Ohios was my ex and we broke up because of the Blonde Oklahoma Girl and that the other Ohio used to date The Bride.  You know, just to jazz things up a bit.  So for the rest of the hike, we were all from Ohio.  And we decided any guys crazy enough to go along with our hairbrained scheme had to be our new friends.....so we hung out with The Ohios for the rest of the week! 

On the hike, we learned about the volcano and hiked through the rainforest, but saw no monkeys or any other cool animals.  The funniest part was watching Cousin Swiss Mister freak out anytime something moved thinking it was a snake.  He's still got PTSD from his experience at the ranch 20 years ago.

I'm Loving....A Pool Party

You'd think after all that craziness in one day, we'd have been too tired for anything else.  Instead, we ended up at the swim up bar for pretty much the whole night.  We were totally the fun group and we ended up with a whole circle of friends (anyone who came into the pool got sucked into our party) and had THE best time.  After they kicked us out of the pool (literally BOKG, The Bride and our new friends stayed in the hot springs even after they trained the water), we all headed over to the lawn where BOKG and I totally got bucked off of a hammock and everyone just laid around on the grass and in the hammocks and had a fine time.  One of my favorite parts about traveling is the chance to meet other people from totally different backgrounds and all just have a great time!

Stay tuned tomorrow to hear about our adventures at the beach in Manuel Antonio!

Day 3 Summary

List of Activities:  Ziplining; Waterfall Swimming; Volcano Tour; Pool Party.

Quote of the Day:  "How do you like knowing that your life is in the hands of the lowest bidding welder in Costa Rica?"  ~Cousin Swiss Mister to me while on a ziplining platform

Lessons Learned:  (1) Even when you're scared, sometimes you just have to jump!  (2) Lots of times the unplanned events are the best ones.  (3)  You  never know where you'll find new friends...a bus, a swim up bar, or a hammock!

Costa Rica Re-Cap #2: White Water Rafting

"I'll look back on this and smile because it was life, and I decided to live it."

Okay, I have a confession to make here.  I didn't really want to go white water rafting.  I'd already checked that off the bucket list, but the others hadn't done it before and the travel agent kinda pushed it, so we signed up.  Um....could not be more glad that I got out voted.  Probably the coolest, craziest part of the trip!

FYI--you can click on any of the photos to make them bigger!

We loaded up for the hour drive down even more wonderful, windy roads, to the river.  At that point, the guides gave us a speech about all of the potential dangers:  You lose a paddle.  You fall out of the boat.  You fall out of the boat and are not within reach of a raft.  By the end I felt like if a freaking nuclear disaster struck, we would be ready.  Turns out, they left one thing out.....we'll get there.

Please note the crazy Inspector Gadget-style camera strapped onto Cousin Swiss Mister.  That's right folks, we have VIDEO of the entire trip!! We're working on editing (and by "we" I mean those members of the group that are more technological than me) and TRUST me, It'll be worth the wait!

So anyway back to rafting.  After the safety talk, we piled into the raft with hands down the best guide of the day, Jose.  Within about 3 minutes in the raft, we were in rapids that looked like this:

Yea...the first three minutes was bigger rapids than any that I had done on my last trip, so I knew that I was in for it!

I'm now going to just photo overload you with random fun rafting pictures and tell you that the day was filled with funny banter in the boat, the guide pushing The Bride out, Cousin Swiss Mister busting my lip with his paddle, me elbowing him in the face, Blonde OK Girl trying to save our guide when he fell out of the raft, a few curse words (Cousin Swiss Mister's favorite line was "Pedal, dammit!" instead of paddle) and lots of fun.

One of the coolest things we did was that we each "rode the bull."  This means that you put your paddle down and go sit on the very front of the boat and hold on by the rope.  It was insane!

About halfway through the day we took a break at a flat spot in the river for snacks of pineapple and watermelon.  During that time, they offered to let us climb up on some rocks and jump off into the river.  The Bride and BOKG were a little nervous, and I told them that the theme of our vacation was, "Go Big or Go Home."  (That came back to bite me several times when I wanted to skip out of something crazy, by the way!)  And so, of course, we all jumped.

And now for the scary part.  We're going along just fine after doing crazy things all day long (including spinning the raft in a circle over rapids) and we sort of get stuck with the boat leaning my direction.  The guide tells us to "get down" which meant to all move to the middle of the boat.  Well when Cousin Swiss Mister, who was sitting opposite of me did that, the balance got thrown off and we tipped over.  Cousin Swiss Mister, BOKG and I all went out.  The guide and The Bride helped to get the other two back in and when they were all back in the boat, BOKG looked around and said, "Where's Tiffany?"

Well, Tiffany was busy almost drowning.  Here's how that went down.  When we went in the water, my glasses fell off, so I had those in my hand.  I swim up to get my head out of the water and I can't seem to get to the top.  I realize pretty quickly that I'm in one of those little whirlpools that are created right next to a rock that has rapids rushing over it.  So here I am flailing my arms and trying to get a breath.  What went through my head, you might ask?  "Well, this is probably bad.  How as THIS left out of the 30 minute danger speech?" And, remembering a conversation with my Dad before I went to Europe a few years ago when he said, "If you die over there, I'm going to be really pissed", I thought to myself, "Well, Dad is going to be pretty mad about me dying here too!"  At this point I managed to get my head up enough to get a breath, held it, and went under the water.  Fortunately, the sutpid whirlpool shot me out down the river. 

By this point, I was good to go.  Felt fine and just wanted back in a boat.  Well another raft had see the whole debacle and were coming to get me.  The guide pulled me into the boat and was freaking out.  He made me lie down and kept asking if I was okay right smack in my face.  There was a doctor on board the raft and he turned aroudn to check me out as well.  He just freaked me out asking things like, "Did you think you were going to die?"  Not helpful, dude.  And the doctor's wife was crying saying she really thought I was going to drown.  Also not helpful.  I'm concerned about bedside manner in San Diego!

Anyway, all's well that ends well.  I got back to our boat, had a yummy lunch, and came away from the adventure with great photos and a pretty insane story.  I put that in the win column.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a busy day of ziplining, waterfall swimming, volcano hiking and pool partying!

Day 2 Summary

List of Activities:  White Water Rafting; More hot springs time.

Quote of the day:  "We're the best boat, right?  Obviously!" ~Me  (you'll have to see it on video to get it!)

Lessons of the day:  (1) Go big or go home! (2) When things get tough, just hang on and get your head above water.

Costa Rica Re-Cap #1: Travel and Hot Springs

"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone."  ~Neale Donald Walsch

Well ladies and gents, here we go!  (Linking up with Miscelleny Mondays and Cup Half Full.)  Bear with me as I attempt to put the most exciting vacation ever and load of "you just had to be there" moments into words.

Two housekeeping matters.  First, if you missed my blog yesterday, click here to check out some of my photography from the trip!

Second, here is a quick reminder of the Cast of this little adventure.

Now.  Let's get down to business.

The trip started out with panicked text messages from Blonde Oklahoma Girl who somehow, despite being up like 3 hours early, managed to get to the airport 20 minutes before her flight left.  Thank the Lord for the good folks at United who somehow got her on the plane.  Apparently this involved some tears, the threat that she was going to throw up, and a mad dash sprint through the airport. 
The girls and I all met up in Houston and were on the same flight to Costa Rica.  After we boarded and the plane was less than half full the flight attendant asked if we would be willing to move to the front of the plane to help balance out the weight issues.  My response, "Are you saying we're fat?!?"  But of course it meant way more leg room, so we went, even if it did mean we were fat.  And we became bffs with the flight attendant, Eddie.  And when I say bff's, I mean bffs.  He talked to us the entire flight, gave us free drinks on the plane and mini bottles to take for the road, free peanuts, free pie and then upgraded us to first class for the rest of the flight.  Pretty sure everyone on the plane hated us.  Yep.  We're those girls.

Free Drinks on our way to First Class!

After we arrived we loaded into a van for the 4 hour drive to our first stop, La Fortuna.  You want to talk about the curviest, windiest, most horrible roads in the world....this was it.  For a girl who gets horrible carsickness, it was not enjoyable.  But we made it and arrived at our first resort....Arenal Springs Resort (highly, highly recommend this place!).  Not a bad little home away from home.

So we grabbed some dinner and took a dip in the hot springs and hit up the swim up bar.  Look, we had to kick this vacation off right.  And then while we were sitting on our front porch enjoying the beautiful evening, Cousin Swiss Mister showed up.  The group was complete and the party was about to begin!

Stay Tuned tomorrow for the white water rafting report, complete with my near drowning experience!

Day 1 Summary

List of Activities:  Flight to Costa Rica; Dip in the hot springs.

Lesson of the Day:  Arrive at least an hour prior to your flight to avoid tears, nausea, and losing a shoe running through the airport.

Quote of the day:

Flight Attendant (talking about riding horses to the volcano):  "You can rent horses, but they don't listen very well."

BOKG:  "Is that because they only speak Spanish?"

Flight Attendant:  "Um..."

Costa Rica Photography!

So tomorrow I will kick off the big Costa Rica recap series, but today you're going to get a sneak peak at some of my artsy photos that I snapped while on the trip!  In addition to being great for the adrenaline junkie in me, Costa Rica is an amazing place for photographers--beautiful beaches, volcanoes, rain forests....you name it.

As always, I'd love to know which shot is your favorite!  Please comment below!  And feel free to follow along with my Costa Rica vacation re-cap blogs next week.

Photo No. 1:  Quotography

Linking up with Quotography for my best May shot.  I have loved this quote for years, and thought this picture was perfect for it!  Snapped this on the beach in the Manuel Antonio National Park.

Photo No. 2:  Shoot.  Edit.  Submit.

Captured this shot of the shaved ice cart on the beach in Manuel Antonio.  I thought the Yesteryear edit from PicMonkey gave it a nice touch.  Linking up with Shoot, Edit, Submit.

Photo No. 3:  Sunday Snapshot

This picture also came from the beach in Manuel Antonio.  Loved watching the surfers ride the waves.



Photo No. 4:  Shots of the Week

Got this photo of the waterfall through the trees on our hike down 480 steps in order to swim at the base of the waterfall.  Totally worth it!

Photo No. 5:  Black and White

Caught this shot of Cousin Swiss Mister and BOKG walking in the rain in La Fortuna.  Linking up with Black and White Wednesdays.

Photo No. 6:  Straight Out Of The Camera

I took this shot of the Arenal volcano from the front porch of our hotel room.  I'm linking this baby up with with Straight Out of the Camera with Marvelous Mommy!

Photo No. 7:  Sunday Best

Loved this sunset shot on the beach in the Manuel Antonio National Park.  Linking up with Rural Journal for Sunday Best.

Photo No. 8:  Sweet Shot

I loved the way this shot caught the waves crashing and hte blue color of the water at the beach!  Linking up with Sweet Shot Tuesday.

Photo No. 9:  Show Off Your Shot

As you can tell, this is another Arenal shot from our hotel.  I love this kind of photo, so I'm linking up with Show off your shot.

Photo No. 10:  Finagle a Photo

My view from the shade in the National Park.  After getting a good sunburn the day before, I tried to be smarter and keep it parked under the trees!  Linking up with Finagle a Photo.