Beautiful Barbados

After Tom's conference call we went back by the pool for a bit until the thunder started and we decided to head home. On the way back we signed up for a tour of Manuel Antonio National Park (description below) which will happen tomorrow. So all our days are now filled with activities. I'll need a vacation day when I get home to recover...

Tom took the picture of me today on our balcony. Which reminds me: they told us yesterday if we were on the first floor to be sure to lock our back patio doors because the raccoons had figured out how to open them to get food. Glad we're on the second/top floor.

I was looking at some receipts. The money here is the colones, about 500 to $1.00. Our ATM receipt showed that we're millionaires, just not in US currency.

The temperature at home was 104. Here, near the equator, it's 78. Very strange.

Getting up in less than 6 hours for Manuel Antonio. Night, all!

Manuel Antonio...
With the establishment of ManuelAntonio National Park in 1972, the people of Costa Rica decided to preserve, for future generations, one of the most beautiful and bio-diverse areas in the world. Although it is the country's smallest national park, the stunning beauty and diversity of wildlife in its 683 hectares is unequaled.

Manuel Antonio contains a charming combination of rain forest, beaches and coral reefs. This beaches are the most beautiful in the country, lined with lush forest, and the snorkeling is excellent too. The forest is home for sloths, iguanas, the rare and adorable squirrel monkeys and millions of colorful little crabs. And the trail that winds around Punta Catedral affords some spectacular views. The park is easy to reach, south of the town of Quepos, and is near a good selection of hotels and restaurants.

Visiting the park, one is treated to an abundant diversity of wildlife. Cathedral Point, with its forest topped cliffs was once an island, but is now connected to the coast by a thin strip of island. This land bridge now forms the spine separating the parks two most popular beaches, Playa Espadilla Sur and Playa Manuel Antonio.

The southern facing beach, Playa Manuel Antonio, is a picturesque half mile long, white sand crescent bisecting deep green foliage to one side and a private, secluded cove to the other.

Standing with your feet dug into the sand and watching the wave crash against the rocks on either side of the lagoon, it is easy to believe that you are a thousand miles from anywhere.

I just took this sitting by the pool. When I tried to get closer, he scuttled into a hidey-hole.
Sorry my phone doesn't take as good pictures as the camera.

I thought I was being so clever last night. I had a thing to plug into my iPad which I could plug my camera SD card into. I downloaded my pictures and and wrote my post. All was well until I put the SD card back in the camera. It says the card is damaged but Tom's computer can read it.

So I need to find an SD card here. I asked Michael to bring one when he comes on Thursday. I definitely want the camera for whitewater rafting that day. Meanwhile, pictures will be from my cellphone.

What I alluded to yesterday... On Saturday I realized we didn't have a confirmation for this place so we called RCI. They said that they would resend. Still didn't get it.

When we got here, very tired, on Sunday night they wanted that confirmation,of course. Tom managed to convince them we would have it and to let us stay.

I tried to log on to the RCI site and login didn't work so I asked for that info to be resent to me. When the confirmation page came up I saw that they had my email address wrong. Someone else had our confirmation and login info.

A long phone call to RCI finally straightened that out and we got the confirmation info yesterday. I had asked them to send it to the resort as well so I figured all was well.

We stopped by the desk to see and they hadn't gotten anything. Trying to communicate was kind of hard with them speaking mostly Spanish and me mostly English I got their email address and forwarded it to them. The email came back undeliverable.

I took the iPad down to the office so they could see we had the confirmation but they needed a print out. I couldn't do that from the iPad and I couldn't send it to them so I asked if I could use their computer.

Yes! Logged on to RCI with new info and printed the thing out. The computer commands were all in Spanish which was a bit of a challenge but we are now here legally.

Tom has a conference call in a few minutes so I'll be going to the pool to "read". I'll post more later...

Pictures from our balcony in Quepos, Costa Rica.  Text to follow after breakfast/orientation.

We finally got our plane tickets today - that makes it "official".

We traded our timeshare a while ago for a place in Quepos, Costa Rica.  We had originally traded for Saint Martin but after reading the online reviews changed our mind and switched to Costa Rica instead. Neither of us has ever been there before so it looks like it will be really fun.

Here's someone else's video:

Some of the things that I thought were really neat about this place was that it was near to Manuel Antonio National Park, rainforests, volcanos,  ziplines and whitewater rafting.

From http://www.govisitcostarica.com/travelInfo/nationalParks.asp

With over 615 wildlife species per 10,000 sq km, Costa Rica sits atop of the list as the most bio-diverse region of the world. Home to an incredible plethora of exotic and tropical flora and fauna, this tiny Latin American country is the habitat of 12 key ecological zones. With an estimated 5% of the world’s biodiversity found here, it is no wonder that Costa Rica is often referred to as ‘the living Eden’ by many scientists and naturalists from all across the globe.

In an effort to preserve much of Costa Rica’s natural beauty and surroundings, 25% of the country’s land has been set aside and turned into protective parks and reserves so as to safeguard the beautiful and lush environs from deforestation and logging. To date Costa Rica has 27 national parks, 58 wildlife refuges, 32 protected zones, 15 wetland areas/mangroves, 11 forest reserves and 8 biological reserves, as well as 12 other conservation regions that protect the distinctive and diverse natural habitats found throughout the country.

Home to a staggering 10,000 species of plants and trees, Costa Rica is also the home of over 850 indigenous and migrant birds, 205 species of mammals, over 35,000 species of insects, 160 species of amphibians, 220 species of reptiles, and around 1,013 species of fresh and saltwater fish.. This diversity and richness of nature and wildlife makes Costa Rica a truly natural paradise.

Deciduous forests, mangrove swamps, rainforests, herbaceous swamps, cloud forests, riparian forests, swamp forests and coral reefs are just some of the many habitats that are protected by the national parks and reserves of Costa Rica. Areas of geological and geophysical interests, such as active volcanoes, hot springs, caves and relict mountains as the result of plate tectonics setting; areas of historic and archaeological interest, such as battlefields and pre-Columbian settlements; areas of scenic beauty, such as beaches and waterfalls; and areas of conservational importance, such as islands where the brown pelican and magnificent frigatebird nest, or enclaves with the last remaining stands of Mesoamerican dry forest, or beaches where huge sea turtles flock, all fall under the protection of the national parks and reserves in Costa Rica.

Home to many endangered wildlife plant and animal species such as the Leatherback turtle, Olive Ridley turtle, West Indian manatee, Scarlet Macaw, Resplendent Quetzal, Tapir, Golden Toad, Jabiru and Ocelot, Costa Rica’s national parks offer tourists a wealth of diversity that was previously unheard of.

Some of the popular national parks in Costa Rica include; the Arenal Volcano National Park – with the country’s most active volcano; the Barra Honda National Park – with its Pre-Columbian limestone caves; the Chirripo National Park – home to Costa Rica’s tallest mountain; the Corcovado National Park – considered to be the most biologically intense place on earth; the Las Baulas National Marine Park – where millions of Leatherback turtles nest; the Turrialba Volcano National Park – with the largest volcano craters and the La Amistad International Park – which is a biosphere project.