Adventures in Costa Rica

I traveled to Costa Rica to attend Melissa and Parker's beach wedding. I am fortunate I was able to attend their wedding and visit Costa Rica - it's amazing! As promised, here is a little more about the trip...

On Friday evening, I flew from SFO to Denver where I met up with a majority of the wedding crew. We flew on the red eye Frontier flight into San Jose, Costa Rica (flight is 4.5 hours). Once we arrived in San Jose we took a 25 minute flight in a puddle jumper (whose pint size terrified me and threw my nausea for a loop. my eyes were closed most of the flight.) to Tambor where we stayed during our visit. 

The crew piled in two vans and headed to Tango Mar. A few of us shared a villa at Tango Mar and the bride, groom and their families rented a gorgeous house just down the beach. This is the view from Tango Mar - paradise!

Beautiful flowers everywhere!

In addition to the wedding activities, we spent two days at the pool and beach. This sign is no joke! The waves were fun and relentless. We all got knocked down by a rough wave or two (or three in Layna's case, in addition to her run-in with a jellyfish).

We were able to take pictures in the water thanks to Dave's rad waterproof camera case (which I can't seem to find a link of. He bought it at REI). This is my favorite of the wave photos!

The day after the wedding a few of us went on a Super Tour coordinated by the resort.  The tour took us through mangroves where we also saw lots of birds and a spotted manta ray. We then took a walk through Curu Nature Reserves where we saw tons of animals up close and personal.

 

Of all the animals we saw, the monkeys were my favorite! Here is a white face monkey:

 

And here is a spider monkey:

We had a great tour guide, named Layna, who pointed out all the animals (if you ever need to phone-a-friend regarding animals, pick L). We had an official guide who also pointed out animals, trees and plants.

After the nature preserve we got to jump off the boat and snorkel. There were tons of fish! Especially when the guide gave them a little snack, as seen in this picture. 

The last stop on our tour was tortuga island where we had lunch and cervesas while relaxing in the sun. White sand beaches and turquoise water make for a good place to relax! 

Hands down the best part of the trip was spending time with some of my favorite ladies. Amazing how much has changed since our reunion six months ago!

Up next: photos from Melissa and Parker's wedding day!

all photos courtesy of jnelly