Jaco Beach! =)

Today we had the opportunity to go to our first beach in Costa Rica. It was definitely a long day. I woke up around 6:15 so that I could take a shower and eat before catching my bus to my taxi to my 2.5 hour bus to the beach...for those of you who know how much I hate driving... yes, it was terrible for me. Anyways, when I woke up in the morning (actually having "slept" in for the first day since I've been in Costa Rica), my whole family was already awake and ready for the day. This was really strange for me because my real mom and I like to sleep at every possible moment... especially on the weekends. It is said that Costa Ricans are the happiest people in the world, but I don't think anyone can experience true bliss until they take a nap in my parents' bed back in the U.S. Now that is happiness....

Back to the beach - We drove 2.5 hours to the beach, but it was actually a cool drive. We were going through mountains and there were a lot of beautiful sites to see that gave us ideas for some other weekend trips. We were all pretty hungry when we got there, so we stopped into a little bar and grill to eat. I ordered a burrito, but struggled to eat it because it was so spicy. This is the first time I had anything spicy in Costa Rica, but I wasn't surprised to find out it was a touristy restaurant run by Americans. One thing the Ticans can do is cook!! I need to get some pointers and recipes to bring back home for everyone to try.

After we ate, we all headed out to the beach...played in the water, took a million pictures, walked around, and laid out. It was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect... it was about 85 degrees, but cloudy so the sun wasn't beating down on you (luckily for my gringa skin!) and there was a nice breeze. The water was lukewarm and felt great. It was nice to be in an environment with such fresh air, too. The pollution in San Jose is taking some time for me to get used to!

All in all, a beautiful day... except I didn't see any monkeys. =( These photographs can not express the beauty of Costa Rica, but you can have a small taste I suppose.