Having crossed the border from Nicaragua at Los Chiles on January 2nd we bussed it to the town of La Fortuna which lies beneath Volcan Arenal.  The plan had been to hike, but the weather was against us – rain and low cloud which obliterated any view of the imposing volcano.  So, to the beach we went!  All the way across to the Pacific coast and the Nicoya Peninsula.  Here we hired a 4×4 and explored beach upon beach …..

Rocky ones, long wild ones, perfect white sand ones ….

We spent time around the popular surf beaches such as Playa Carmen and Hermosa

And there were more beaches ….

And lots of bird life …..!

The car enabled us to get off the beaten track, but there wasn’t always a service station and we had to buy fuel from the local store!

We stayed in some dreamy places …..and found various places to rest …

Our go to breakfast has become gallo pinto – if you can’t beat ’em, join em!

We’ve seen some spectacular sunsets, one where the sun just seemed to pour itself in to the ocean …

Also some colourful seaside scenes …

On the Osa Peninsula we saw toucans, scarlet macaws and sloths – wow!

Also a tapir, troops of capuchin monkeys and an anteater in a tree

We hiked up to 8000ft on Costa Ricas highest peak, Chirripó ….

And did some hiking at 5000ft through the cloud forests …

Continuing on we drove through the central highlands, true coffee country …

….. where we did a tour of a coffee processing plant and a tasting ….

Grey clouds and torrential rain joined us on the Caribbean coast taking away some of the glory of palm fringed golden beaches. But David embraced it all with his usual joie de vivre and I found certain aspects to enjoy ….!

So, all in all a great time – wonderful beaches and great places to chill and watch the sunset

And we tried to obey the rules……!

 

 

 

 

….