It’s Been a While!

It’s been a while since my last post – over 2 years! We haven’t traveled much in the COVID era, and this is our first international trip since India. I’m out of practice in a lot of things travel, not the least editing this blog! Time to knock the rust off an continue my travel journal.

This is my first time in Costa Rica. We flew in today, and by “we” I have to clarify it’s my sister-in-law Amy and me. Ben had a small passport issue, so I hope he joins us soon. It’s a shame, since the timing of this trip fit perfectly with his retirement. Congratulations love!

I’m a sucker for the plane window photos. Here’s my first look at Costa Rica and the shoreline. The flight was uneventful, landing in the Liberia Guanacaste airport.

We’ve arrived at the airport and are waiting for the rental car shuttle.

A view from our balcony! I found a nice condo on AirBnb about 30 minutes from the airport. Driving here wasn’t too bad, the roads narrowed as we got closer to the coast.

We took a walk along the beach. It’s pretty quiet, just a few groups hanging out. There are rocks all along the shoreline and on each end of this beach that we’ll explore later. There’s an island we’re going to see if we can walk/swim to. My edits on these photos don’t show that the beach actually has black sand. There were more shells on this end which made it lighter. There’s a lighthouse in the distance; I’ll figure out how to get up there.

Where we had a few drinks and a snack. This is the one restaurant on the beach within walking distance of us. I’m sure we’ll be back. Overheard the lady sitting in the swings that she hurt her foot the 2nd day she got here. She had crutches, that sucks! I tried a local beer, not bad. IPA was more west coast IPA for my taste, but it had good flavor.

I didn’t get a photo of them, but there were two blue magpies that were eyeing our chips and salsa. One flew close to my head, and I ducked, thinking nothing of it. Not a minute later, he swooped back down from behind me and grabbed for the chip in my hand! His claws weren’t sharp, so I didn’t get scratched. I did drop the chip and learned not to hold on to the food in between bites. They were hopping on the table by the time we were ready to leave.

I tuckered out about 6pm. Not surprising, that’s 8pm my time, and I was up at 3:45am to catch my flight. We stopped by the pool on the way back to our place, mainly to cool off. It’s a hike up a lot of stairs!

I am getting fully acquainted with all the local animals. There’s a very large lizard that hangs out under a concrete pad by the pool. Luckily, he moved out of the path when we came through. I’m pretty sure he could have taken us both.

We have a beautiful view of the sunset from our balcony. I need to work on my sunset photos; maybe I’ll have plenty of practice this week!