I already found one new years resolution: sorting out photos within a month of the event! And posting my Costa Rica pictures before 2016 arrives, haha! I have been meeting some lovely couples lately and we talked about their weddings in 2016, so it feels really really close now. Time for me to hurry up with those honeymoon pics ;)
Prepare yourself, this is a long one again! (but there are baby animals involved, so it’s worth it!)
One of the best things about roadtripping in Costa Rica is that you can drive from a cloudy rainforest to a picture perfect beach in a day. So after our chilly and rainy days in Monteverde, this little piece of paradise called Playa Carillo was quite literal a warm welcome. White sand, palmtrees, sunshine, flowers and the PACIFIC OCEAN!! *eep!*
On top of all that, our wonderful Italian hosts made us feel so welcome too. Like an aunt&uncle we have known forever. We instantly regretted our booking was only for 1 night. Way too short for such a nice place! If we When we come back to Costa Rica, we will definitely stay here again.
You should book this bnb for the breakfast alone! Fresh baked bread, homemade jam, fruit, cake.. We even ate the crumbs because we didn’t want to waste anything. Cinzia knows how to spoil her guests! (I promise this is not a sponsored post, haha!)
Told you: tropical paradise! And such a contrast with the rainforests the days before. All the colours and flowers! It was like we arrived in a completely different country. I made Stefan stop on the middle of the road for these luscious bougainville flowers. A feast for the eye! If only they could survive our Dutch climate.. trust me, I have tried, but they don’t like it. Diva behavior.. it’s only a 20 degree temperature difference ;)
This is what pure happiness looks like :)) *some GoPro photos of 2 happy honeymooners for you*
After a day of swimming, playing, snorkeling, chilling and laughing we sat on the beach to watch the sun set in the sea. A perfect ending for a perfect beach day. Like one from the movies!
Our brave little car, just before we started our long-so so so long-driving day. I hated those ‘reductors’, that are a lot less subtle than regular speed bumps. Although, compared to the road to Rio Celeste.. Oh well, we can handle anything after Rio Celeste!
Colorful graves at a local cemetery. I have seen the most festive decorations, it almost felt like a celebration of life in stead of something sad. I must admit, plastic flowers do help in terms of permanent color. But I am the last person to recommend plastic flowers, so I will wisely shut up now.
Butterfly and bird spotting over breakfast in our B&B at Montezuma. Apart from the wildlife, we didn’t really fell for Montezuma. It is a very popular backpacker/hippie town. It was quite crowded and we are anything but social party people (no really?!), it just wasn’t for us. The B&B was a bit noisy too, so we had a mild breakdown here. “WHY did we leave our Italian paradise for this?!?!” But then, we discovered a turtle hatchery on Montezuma beach…
*A little background info before you read on: seeing turtles is ranked high on my bucket list. Really really really high*
When we spoke to the B&B hostess about things to do, we mentioned we like anything with nature&wildlife. She talked about waterfalls, hikes, zip-lines.. active stuff we have done the week before. Nothing about turtles. We spend the rest of our afternoon at a crappy beach she recommended and had dinner at a wonderful hidden, quiet place we found at the edge of the town.
The next day we scrolled through Instagram to see what other people were doing at Montezuma (tip! just check the hashtag of the town you are in or check Instagram places). On that feed, again a lot of waterfalls, hikes, zip-lines and hippie-party-backpack selfies. And, pictures of baby turtles hatching! On the beach we ignored yesterday because the hostess told us it wasn’t a nice beach. BABY TURTLES!! And I wasn’t there!! Unacceptable of course. That second day we watched the hatchery like a creepy stalker in the bushes until we saw someone move. (no, that is not overreacting, it’s dedication!)
Finally!! Baby leatherbacks! *omg so happy I could die!*
Apparently there was a big group of babies the day before, these two little guys were the underdogs. We are always fan of the underdog (totally ruding for Rianne in Expeditie Robinson this season!), especially if there are animals involved. So cheering for the 2 tiny turtles that saved our stay in Montezuma was a perfect fit. I took pictures, I cried a little when the turtles reached the ocean and felt like the luckiest woman in the world.
Can you believe the people that formed the ‘fence’ -to direct the turtles in the right direction- stepped on these beautiful markings when the babies reached the ocean? I would put a red cord around it and guard it with dogs. But that is just my reasonable, objective opinion.
This is the effect of seeing baby turtles on our honeymoon, two very very happy people! And.. no make up! Unless you count my run-through mascara that washed away in the sea. Waterproof mascara should have a disclaimer for the Pacific Ocean.
(oops, Stefans picture got a bit under-exposed, risk of shooting manual)
All the negative feelings we felt about Montezuma disappeared after the turtles and a perfect golden hour on the beach. Nature is the best medicine! We didn’t feel bad about leaving tough. We drove away while cheering in the car, haha! On another dirt road, that is.
Our last Pacific stop. Uvita. Our favorite place! Not because of the cute private house with breathtaking view (^), the wildlife spotting we did from our bed (toucans!), miles of pretty beaches, snorkeling, cute towns or the most incredible ceviche. Nope. It’s because of the friends we made here. Our hosts, Canadians Jacqui and Randy, were super friendly in their e-mails to begin with and it just ‘clicked’ from the moment we met.
We ended up spending a lot of time together those 3 days. They showed us around, we had dinner in their garden and talked for hours about music, plants, animals and well.. life! Stefans favorite moment was when we drove on/to a secluded beach. Come on, driving on a beach, going kayaking and boogie boarding with no-one around. My man was living the dream! We had a wonderful, relaxing day there with their American friends and ended our day with cold beers and a toast to new friends.
Jacqui&Randy, we WILL come to Canada one day!! No toucans and bikini’s, but I am sure there will be some beers involved ;)
That GoPro was the perfect birthday gift for my husband. We spotted lots of fish and coral at Whales Tail beach. All in shallow water, we were really amazed by all the life here! Stefan promised to edit some clips for my blogposts.. I guess we are a match made in heaven in terms of deadlines..
Shopping in Costa Rica. Fresh citrus fruits from a tree in Jacqui&Randy’s garden, a lot of veggies, fruit (bananas!) and beer. We had some wine while we were in CR, but it’s just too hot for wine. Imperial is the way to go! Unless you are a sucker for Corona’s, like me.
The Nauyaca waterfall is one of the most magical places we visited. A long and hot hike, but you forget about sweating and hiking a dirt road up a steep hill the moment you see the falls. You just want to take of your clothes (and put on a bikini, you dirty minds!) and jump in the water! I am so happy we skipped Manuel Antonio for this one. Pure magic!
We almost had the falls to ourselves. So incredible and surreal! Pure honeymoon bliss ♥
On our way back down we saw a scarlet macaw!! I had seen something red fly over and a few minutes later it just sat there, on a branch above our path. In the picture below you can spot a toucan, we saw two of them when we stepped out of the car that morning. Perfect, perfect day.
And white faced capuchin monkeys too! They are quite easy to spot in Costa Rica, we saw a lot of them. This guy was giving me the creeps with his evil stare, he looked like he could jump at my face any second so we quickly moved on haha! (I don’t have a zoom lens, remember? ..)
We could have stayed in Uvita for weeks, but it was time to go! Back to central CR to check out some vulcanos! To be continued :)
♥ Anne
Read all my Costa Rica blogposts:
1. Costa Rica honeymoon: driving in a green world
2. Costa Rica honeymoon: rainforest wildlife
3. Costa Rica honeymoon: pacific paradise (that’s this one!)
4. Costa Rica honeymoon: foggy volcanos
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