Howler Monkeys, Playa Espadilla and a Fairchild C-123 CIA/Iran Contra Cargo Plane

On September 15, we loaded Kermit and our suitcases into the car and headed off to Playa Espadilla, Quepos, on the Pacific Coast.

On the drive to the coast, we stopped for lunch at El Avíón restaurant. This is a fun place to have a meal and the view is spectacular. I ordered ceviche and Lance had pasta with clams and prawns, which he said was excellent, as was my ceviche.

You must go to the restaurant’s web page (see link above) to get views of the Pacific Ocean and to learn the history behind how and why this airplane ended up where it did in Costa Rica - it’s really interesting.

Some restaurant photos:

The bar area in the fuselage:

The restaurant was not too far away from our accomodations, Buena Vista Beach Villas, a small boutique hotel with eight units - steps away from the ocean. Many Costa Rican hotels/resorts offer excellent discounts during the green, or rainy, season. Our room was 30% off. It was a unit away from the restaurant so it was private and quiet. The rooms are comfortable with air conditioning and a large outdoor covered patio.

The staff are excellent, friendly and helpful. Loungers are available on the beach and drinks and food can be ordered and delivered right to you.

We stayed two nights. The ocean is so close that we could hear it at night - there’s nothing better then falling asleep to the sound of crashing waves.

We ate all our meals outdoors:

View from our covered patio:

View of hotel from the beach. Our room was on the lower right.

Kermit enjoying leisure time on our patio, he gets over excited.

 

Some of our delicious meals:

Beach video:

Sunset photos:

There were two doggies at the hotel - one was the resident dog (an old fellow):

And the other one was this sweet little girl. She would gang up with the old fellow to chase horses on the beach.

She lives not far from Buena Vista and when her owner goes to work, she spends her day at the hotel. Here she is keeping Lance company. She would visit us in our room and also sleep beside my beach lounger.

The local monkeys are early risers - both the howlers and the capuchins. They can be difficult to spot but I made a video of them from our patio climbing through the palms. The haunting sounds of the howlers are not something one forgets.

We are also putting together a car cam video of the trip.

Playa Dona Ana

Last week, we had the good fortune to visit Playa Dona Ana with a great group of people of like minds as ourselves.

If you are already living in Costa Rica and want to join up with Beach Days, contact Paul and Gloria Yeatman at BY CLICKING HERE.  I've been following their web site for quite a while and finally got to meet both of them at last week's Beach Day. We don't have a vehicle so I asked Paul if anyone in the Atenas area was going and could we carpool with them.

Instant response from Sally and Len! Yes, they had two seats to offer in their SUV and we arranged to meet them at 0800 in front of Don YaYo restaurant on highway 3. Sally and Len are super people and we liked their beagle dog, Sprocket, who slept peacefully in his travel crate behind us. We drove the highway 3 route to the coast - the original road - the scenery is so amazing, just beautiful. We climbed up so high, lots of s-curves, then dropped down to the Pacific Coast. Len and Sally filled us in with all the local history of every area we drove through.

I think the drive took about 45 minutes - the traffic was light and road conditions good.

And there it was --- the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. So we have moved from the Pacific Coast of British Columbia to here.... and en route, over the years, we have experienced the Pacific Coasts of Washington, Oregon, California, and Mexico.

CLICK HERE to read more about this beach and where it is located. There is a small charge to park and get into the beach area. The first things we saw at the park gate were monkeys, beautiful white-throated capuchins. The park attendant was feeding them monkey snacks and they were taking them out of his hand. They are, of course, wild animals so they are very cautious. One female had a tiny baby clinging to her back.

Playa Dona Ana is an excellent beach to visit. It is very clean and safe and has a security guard. Workers  were raking the picnic area and beach the whole time we were there. They have washrooms, change rooms and showers. There are a lot of covered picnic areas with BBQ grills. No restaurant so bring your own food and drinks.

And bring bananas for the monkeys! We did and it was such a thrill to have these small monkeys gently and politely take bananas pieces from our outstretched hands.

The picnic area is heavily shaded with lovely trees so you can sit and read or nap. The day started out cloudy, the sun eventually came out, there was a brisk breeze off the ocean - it was marvelous. More humid than in Atenas.

I saw brown pelicans fishing and frigate birds riding the thermals. There are howler monkeys in the area but we neither saw nor heard them this day.

Ah, the water! So warm and salty. Perfect for body or boogie board surfing. The rip tides are very strong though. I couldn't get enough of the ocean and suffered for it the next day with a bright red burn. We need to be using much stronger sun block.

We met really nice people, made new friends and will do this trip as often as we can. One image that remains in my mind is of a Tico father and his son at the beach that day. Dad played with his boy for hours in the water and later they had a nap together on the beach.

Thanks again to Sally and Len!

Paradise

Picnic area

At low tide, it's possible to walk around this rock formation to the other side, which is where the surfers go.

Resident park kitty. Apparently the capuchins like to  chase it with sticks.

I Can't Wait to See the Birds

I've started following this Costa Rican blog:  http://www.anewlifeincostarica.com/nuevo_vida/. A couple and their teenager moved to Costa Rica a few years ago and this is the story of their life there. They are bird watchers and post videos of the birds at their feeders.....and they ain't sparrows. Toucans! they get toucans! They put out 50 bananas in their feeder and they were gone in an hour. Buying 50 bananas here would cost a fortune.

Other acquaintances of ours who live at one of the Pacific coast beach areas commented on how loud the howler monkeys were this morning.

I ask you - isn't this all so exciting?