Our Costa Rican Adventure - Day 3

Our adventure continues on day 3 (technically day 4 but the first day was all travel and not too exciting) with a drive down to the west coast. We wanted to give Amy and Jason a break before they got too tired of us and this gave us a great opportunity to experience a different region of the country. Our day began with our personal tour guide, Amy, leading the way to the Courtyard Marriott where Michael's relatives from Colorado just happened to be staying. Michael's cousin Jeannie was in Costa Rica on business with HP and her mom, Linda, and her son, Christian, came down for a vacation while poor Jeannie was working. Ideally we would have loved to see everybody but our vacation was already so packed that the best we could squeeze in was a quick visit at the hotel on our way out of town. After that Amy led the way to the main road that would take us to the coast. Armed with a map that Jason had clearly marked and the Orlando's extra cell phone we said good bye to Amy and Sophie and started our 3 hour drive down to the Los Suenos Marriott Resort in Playa Herradura. http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/sjols-los-suenos-marriott-ocean-and-golf-resort/

The drive was very beautiful with short rainstorms as we made our way down the winding mountain road. We passed through Atenas and Orotina before we were out of the mountains and headed for the more coastal landscape. On our way to the hotel one of the most exciting sights was the Tarcoles river. The actual river wasn't exciting but rather the fact that it is infested with very large, okay HUGE, crocodiles. This was another one of Jacob's favorite things. After crossing the river we pulled over and walked back to the middle of the bridge on a very narrow concrete curb. Looking over the side we were able to see at least 15 crocodiles just swimming or sunning themselves on the sandbar. Michael and Olivia took a brief look and made a hasty retreat to the car but Jacob and I stayed for quite awhile going back and forth to each side to see how many crocodiles we could spot. It was such an amazing sight knowing that these crocodiles were not in a zoo or preserve, just right out in the river. A very brave person could walk right down the riverbank for a close up view. NOT US!

We made it to our hotel in the early afternoon and were very pleased with the resort. The people were so friendly and the grounds were beautiful. All around the hotel were places to sit and lounge, the pool was gigantic with lots of little bridges and waterfalls, the beach was just steps from the pool, and iguanas were all over the place. We took a tour of the grounds, hit the pool, had dinner in our room, and called it a night!

Michael's family!

Yikes! The crocodiles are huge!

My what big teeth you have!

Jacob looking over the side.

His favorite was the one with the orange necklace.

Just one little piece of a very large pool.

We are just steps away from the beach.

Ah, peace and quiet.

Playa Herradura

Los Suenos Marriott