Morning Run (that turned into a walk)

The hills around here are crazy steep -- it seems as though they might be more than 50 or 60 degree angles - seriously!  So, when I set out for a run this morning, I took the path that Dave recommended - "go out to the road and take the right hand turn - ya know, up that steep hill"

Okay... well I did take that turn and quickly my run turned into a walk - it was such a steep hill that my heart rate stayed up so I think it was still a good workout  ;)

I took a video at the very top...

and another video just a bit below the very top...

and some pictures along the way...

Our little resort is on Playa Azul - the very tiny beach that we seem to have all to ourselves most of the time.  That tiny bay is part of Golfo de Papagayo which is on the Nicoya Peninsula on the Pacific side of Costa Rica - we're in the northwestern state of Guanacaste in a tiny area called Playa Ocotal - the closest town is Playa Coco.  Liberia (where the Maxi Bodega is) is about a half hour away and is the second largest city in Costa Rica - I think... not sure if that's totally accurate but I do know that it is one of the bigger towns... It is the only other city, besides San Jose, where there is an international airport.

So, with that short geography lesson, this picture is of the bay we are on that is part of the Gulf of Papagayo

These next two pictures are taken from our beach looking up -- the house in the top-center of this picture is the house that I was standing next to in the first video... thought it might give some perspective...

Some Shots of the Scenery

Dave got creative with some shots of the scenery around our resort

Sand Castle

When your only worry all day is if the tide is going to reach your sand castle, life is good.

right click this and listen while you read this post: Knee Deep by Zac Brown Band

During nap time today, Meg and I spent some time building a black sand castle... good times.  No seriously -- GOOD times...

We used the shells that we gathered from Tamarindo beach to decorate the sand castle and we were really afraid that the tide would carry away our shells.

I couldn't stop humming "knee deep in the water somewhere... my only worry in the world, was the tide going to reach my chair?"

Tamarindo

Making Sweetie proud - gathering shells on Tamarindo beach:

The girls with their haul... most of these are from Tamarindo but some are from our beach here at Playa Azul.

Los Monos y Iguana y Brahma Toro

These monkeys were playing in the trees right out our back door... so cool to watch them and listen to them - we can hear the males quite a lot but this is just the second good look we've gotten of them.

(Shout out to Jason - thanks for letting me borrow this lens!!!)

Sandy's pics and video of the Howler Monkeys

and this iguana is just out our back door, too!

 This huge brahma bull, however, lives out in the country - away from our condo! ;)

A Link

So Sandy is up and running with her blog now too:  Laramie Huberts

It will give you more pictures to enjoy!

22 Years

On Thursday night we celebrated Wayne and Sandy's 22nd anniversary with a dinner out at Picante - the restaurant in our condo area.  We were the only table in the restaurant.  It felt like we had our own personal waiter and chef.  The only drawback were the raccoons - which we have found out are in fact raccoons and not coati mundi.