Day 9: Parasailing, teaching, and another night hike

Today was hot and sunny, perfect weather for this morning's adventure: parasailing!  We started with breakfast on the beach and then a walk down the shore to the parasailing company, Aguas Azules.  

We met them at their pop-up on the beach, where they were running a pretty efficient operation.  Melanie and her husband were the owner operators, and they had three parachutes and boats that they could run at a time.  Each boat had a crew, plus there was a beach crew that got passengers kitted up, a crew that ran everyone through what to expect and helped us launch, and a guy on a jetski who retrieved us after we splashed down.  H and I went up together and got a tour around Puente Catedral.  It was really amazing.  We both felt totally safe.

After getting back to shore, we hung at the beach for an hour before I had to go to teach and have appointments.  Today's the first day of classes, so while I was teaching, S and H had fun on a zip coaster and at the pool.  

When the afternoon was winding down, we all reconnected, got cleaned up, and headed into Quepos (the town just north of Manuel Antonio) for dinner and yet another stupid beautiful sunset.

'

One of the things that I'm missing in Costa Rica is an inventive and culturally rich culinary culture.  The tropical fruit here is outstanding - everything is five times better than what you can get in the states, but outside of every restaurant doing a version of Gallo Pinto (Costa Rica's rice and beans dish) and more ceviche than you can shake a stick at, there's not really much to the food culture.  Even the 'nice' restaurants we've gone to have been just ok, food wise.  We've had some amazing bites (tortillas, here, grilled octopus there, and Manuel Antonio's cocktail scene is on point), but nothing that lives up to hype. We've enjoyed what we ate, but I think that Costa Rican restaurants are graded on a curve.

After the dinner (another highly-rated restaurant that served food that was 'fine,' we met our guide Kevin at Biophilia Natural Reserve for another jungle night hike.  Unlike the one that we did in La Fortuna where we were part of a group of around 12 people, and our group was one of 4 wandering the grounds, we were the only group in the reserve and we Kevin all to ourselves.  He showed us a bunch of great animals, and we were all three astounded at his eye. He could pick out tiny animals at such a distance!

The first two photos are mine.  The others are ones that Kevin took with his iphone mounted against his nature scope.

Croc.

This little guy was the size of a quarter, and H found him!

Wandering Spider eating a cockroach. Good riddance.

Don't be sad for the bug-covered sloth.  Kevin says this is a symbiotic relationship.

Apparently it is rare to see the Camron climbing salamander.

Beautiful half-moon!

After we said goodnight to Kevin, we came home to pack a bit and go to bed.  We've got one more sweaty adventure tomorrow!

S and I both feel like we're ready for this trip to be done.  It's been a packed adventure, but we're ready to get home and resume our lives, sleep in our beds, etc.