Yesterday was el Dia de Independencia for the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica. Way back in the 1800s Guanacaste used to belong to Nicaragua even though they were attached to Costa Rica. The people of Guanacaste, seeing how laid back and fun the ticos were, wanted to get in on that and so they took a vote and in the mid 1850s became a part of Costa Rica. And so this past weekend was a huge celebratory weekend for all of Guanacaste, not that the Costa Ricans need more of an excuse to fiesta.

The Guanacaste province is also known as the Nothern Pacific area.

As it turned out my mama was heading to Guanacaste for the long weekend to visit her husband who works there during the week and returns to Alajuela (four hours away) on the weekends. She offered to give Neal and I a ride directly there Thursday after school. Great - that would save us a lot of time and money! So Thursday at noon the two of them picked me up from school, and after a quick look around my school we headed out. The trip was great and it was fun for me to have "new eyes" with which to look at the beautiful scenery, and also to have someone next to me who I could say, "See?! I TOLD you it was beautiful!!!". My host dad works in the town of Nicoya, and I chose a beach in the south of Guanacaste called Samara - known for long, lovely and totally remote beaches. Very private, no gringos, just what we were looking for.

We arrived in Nicoya around 4:00, just when my dad was getting off work. Neal and I had anticipated taking a taxi down to Samara, an additional 45 minute drive, but my parents readily offered to take us down which was awfully nice of them because it saved us even more money and time. We ended up getting to Samara in the early evening and my god it was even lovlier than I'd imagined...by far the best beach I've been to yet. The beach itself was long and wide and beautifully clean, fringed by tall palm trees and other greenery. The town of Samara was small, small, small - so small in fact that they didn't have a bank. Only a police station, a school and ten or so restaurants or hotels. Samara had perfect calm, warm and shallow waters that were perfect for wading in.

Our hotel room was directly on the beach and cost us all of $10. None of the hotel there were really aimed at luxury, but ours was just fine and just what we wanted...a beachfront room with a bed and private shower for us alone. It was heaven! That evening we walked along the ocean which was warm like bath water. After sundown the entire beach cleared and I mean there was no one around for miles. That gave us liberty to spend an hour or two languidly enjoying the warm water, the moonlight and each other's company. The temptation of privacy was too much...we dispensed with the trappings of bathingsuits immediately. Playing naked in the warm Pacific ocean water of Costa Rica for hours in the middle of the night is about the best thing I can imagine!!

The next day we had to return to Nicoya because, as I'd mentioned earlier, there was no bank in Samara and we barely had enough cash for one day. So we befriended a taxi driver and on the way into town I told him that we really liked having "local" experiences and could he recommend a beach. He was happy to oblige made several great recommendations. While we were in Nicoya the town was getting ready for the festival that weekend and when we went into the bank to get money we were suprised to find a band of marimba players and the bank was handing out free corn on the cob to all patrons! So we stood in line slathering our corn on the cob with butter from the paintbrush we were handed and listened happily to the men playing the marimba!!! How's that for a day at the bank?!

After we were done there and had walked around the city center a bit our new friend the taxi driver spirited us over to Playa Carillos which I can't find on a map it was so remote. Neal and I spent the day playing around at Playa Carillos and then walked up to a soda the driver had recommended for lunch. Neal thus far has been extremely impressed with Costa Rican food and that day was no exception, we both got the traditional lunch called "casados" which consisted of Gallo Pinto, meat, two or three different types of salad and fried platanos. Oh, and of course fresh juice: fresco (con agua o con leche). The beach at Playa Carillos was spectacular, but all the beaches in that area were breathtaking in their own way. It was obvious that they hadn't been spoiled by tourists.

After spending quiet time in Carillos we headed back to Nicoya to meet up with my mama y papa. I'd made plans to hook up with a bunch of friends going to Tamarindo and so the four of us (Neal and I, my mama y papa) drove the hour to Tamarindo and made reservations to stay two nights. Now keep in mind that the last time I was in Tamarindo I thought it was a bit touristy, but that was nothing compared to the surge of tourists and ex-pats that had decended on the area for the holiday weekend. My lord, I don't think I heard a lick of Spanish in the whole town! It was annoying because the tiny town was busting at the seams with quintessential "American Tourists"...the kind that expect everything to be priced in dollars and communicate in Spanish with the locals by adding an -o at the end of every word. You know, "Hooola. I-o Need-o to....um....BUY-o this T-Shirt-o". Really really annoying. So seeing as how the vibe there wasn't what we were looking for the four of us busted out of there and headed up to the much more beautiful and secluded Playa Grande and Playa Carbon, the latter being a beautiful black sand beach. Everything was really chill and quiet and much more what we were looking for. In fact, Playa Grande is known as being a turtle egg laying landing spot and so some eco-minded industrialists bought the land and then resold it to hotels under the condition that they don't build on the beach and if they build close to the beach they can't have light bearing windows facing the beach because it confuses the little turtles.

We enjoyed exploring Playa Grande, and while we were there my papa mentioned that he knew of a local outfit that ran tours of the local canals. We were totally up for that, and so he made a few phone calls and the next thing we knew we were boating through the jungle!!

This is the guide coming to pick us up on the side of the canal. It was just the three of us and this kid not only was able to identify every single species of bird but also knew dozens of bird calls AND could replicate Howler Monkey calls too! This kid had to be a hit at parties!!

We saw all sorts of cool birds but of course they were usually too far away to capture on film. One thing I thought was really interesting was how the trees that lined the canal adapted their root system to allow for being mostly water based. Their root systems are shallow and branch out in all sorts of crazy patterns. Also roots grow not only from the bottom of the tree but also vines, which act as root systems too, come down from the branches and end up in the water to nourish the tree.

At one point the guide asked if we'd seen monkeys. I had but Neal hadn't and so the guide said he knew of a spot where some Howler Monkeys liked to go to chill. Great! So we parked the boat and set off on foot about 500 meters inland. Before I knew it the guide was belting out the awful sounds of a howler monkey (if you haven't heard what that sounds like, just keep in mind that they're not named the Singing Monkey or Softly Calling Monkey...). We got a response, he tracked it and then we were in the middle of about twenty monkeys hanging in the trees all around us. It was soooo cool!!!

It was so overwhelming to see all the monkeys right above us I was hardly able to take pictures, and the ones I got weren't that great (they blend in, you know). It was great though. The whole tour was nice, and we sailed quietly home while the sun was starting to go down.

After that was done with and mama y papa came to pick us up we all went on a little drive to Playa Carbon, the black sand beach, where they left Neal and I alone to watch the sunset. How lovely!

Neal and I spent an interesting night in an interesting hotel which housed more ants than people, but it was only $10 so...cool. The next morning the four of us got up early, my mama fixed a kick ass breakfast and we all headed back. It was a great long weekend and a nice introduction for Neal to the playas of Costa Rica.