Internet connections being what they are, picture posting has been hard so if this post doesnt have any maybe the next will...this lack of pictures is unfortunate too, as we´ve both had our cameras out more often and have seen some amazing stuff. today red tailed squirrel monkeys, little whitefaced, and well, you guessed it, red tailed monkeys, swarmed all over our hostel. the proprietors of the place feed them bananas daily so they are pretty adventurous with people.

we are now in manuel antonio, the site of a small but very popular national park. this morning we left the nicoya coast, and the sleepy beach towns we loved so much. a two hour speedboat ride isnt a bad way to start a day, unless you were up all night drinking like some of the people our boat. we loaned one guy a plastic bag...we told him he could keep it after we saw what he used it for. vomit. the guy vomited. nicole was sitting next to him. when he vomited.

-Jackson

So, this is my first blogging experience. Take it easy on me. The last two weeks have been amazing, and it´s hard to believe that the time has slipped away that fast. After leaving Nosara and the surrounding beaches, we headed to Samara, a laid back beach town home to the love of my life, Chola. A blacklab-looking mut who hung around the beach last year. She followed us to our rooms the two nights we stayed and trotted along the shores on our daily beach walks. She even dined with us late in the evening. In Samara, a Budget car rental agent offered his bungalow, quaint and modest, but it had a TV! Something we´d been missing almost more than all of you on this trip. It was nice of him, especially since we didn´t rent a car from him.

After Samara we arrived in Carrillo and stayed in the downstairs of an American families house. It had a full kitchen and a beautiful view of the ocean from the hillside. Their dogs also fancied us and ¨took¨ us for a walk on the beach every morning. They watched us do yoga on the beach. Taking advantage of the kitchen, we took turns cooking for each other. I made pasta with tomato-garlic and onion sauce and Jackson made a tico favorite, arroz con pollo (chicken with rice).

Last night we just left one of my favorite places, a laid back hippie town that is stuck in another era. At the El Sano Banano rest. and bar we paid six whole dollars for drinks so that we could watch nightly movies, The Motorcycle Diaries and the next night, The Queen. We tried to leave the day before yesterday, but had set our watch to an hour later than the rest of the country and missed our water taxi, it´s a wonder we made it in time for anything.

We have read two books together since being here, aloud. It calms us down after a long day of swimming and walking. I reccomend both of them, Entering Fire, a City Lights book and ¨Not a Country for Men¨by the man who wrote All the Pretty Horses.

The internet cafe is closing, so we must be off. With the money we´re saving on our room tonight we´re going out for Sushi in quepos.