It's a closet, not a sauna

Beach South of Dominical which is South of Manuel Antonio

We just stopped here for a little while on the way home from Parque Chirripo. If you drive straight west from the mountains you come to the coast. We chose this beach called Playa Hermosa, and it was aptly named as it was very pretty. There weren't many people there, but also there weren't any facilities for changing or rest rooms. Someone had written this in the sand so of course I had to take a picture.

I spent my time walking up and down picking up little smooth rocks and sea shells. I think they will someday make pretty jewelry. I hope I get t chance to collect a lot more over the time we are here.

The waves are bigger here. This is supposed to be a surfers' beach.

Waves crashing ashore.

Lots of drift wood. I picked up a few small pieces,

I think the tide was out so there were little white shells and little smooth stones to pick up.

Some boys out testing the waves.

I Am on a Roll Here, Blogger is Cooperating!

Lots of trees sporting yellow blossoms

Many large areas high up in the mountains with the yellow blossomed trees.

More yellow blossomed trees

We saw quite a few of these purple blossomed trees this last weekend too.

These particular ones were along the banks of the crocodile river. We stopped there on the way home again. I think this is Laurie's favorite wildlife spot. Since it has started raining more, there is much more water in the river, so the crocodiles in the water were less visible. But with the binoculars we could see a lot of them further out on the sand banks, so there were still lots of them there. I didn't take pictures of them as I have posted them before, and they are not my favorite creatures.

We came along here at the time the book says the Scarlet Macaws would be returning to their nesting areas, dusk. We did see 4 of them flying together across the river as we stood there on the bridge. But of course they went by too fast for me to get a picture. I have posted pictures of them before when we have been close up to them at Zooave.

It is interesting how different trees blossom in different colors during different seasons of the year.

Hotel Grounds Photos During and After a Rainstorm

Orchids

Close up of an orchid

Torch ginger

Stone Garden

More Stone Garden

Stone path with moss

Rain dripping off yellow berries

Rain dripping off heliconia

Raindrops on Heliconia

Rain dripping off hotel roof

Butterfly after the rain

Raindrops on a large leaf

Another butterfly after the rain.

Chapel and Houses on Church Property

The temple missionary couple who had been living in this house left for home a couple of weeks ago. Laurie had to inspect the other day because a new missionary couple were coming and would be living in this house. They are actually only going to be here a little while as one of our neighbor couples will be going home soon and the new couple will be moving into their house. The houses in our subdivision are a little newer and nicer. These houses here are owned by the church and were on the property when they bought the land for the temple. They plan someday to replace them with something new.

The 2 story house behind is where the other counsellor and his wife life. On the other side of that is one more missionary couple.

There is a back gate between these houses and the church and temple parking lot. In front is a high wrought iron fence with locked gates. The people who live here use the back gate a lot and probably don't use the locked gates very often.

I don't think I have shown a picture of our chapel. It is located behind the temple and shares the parking lot with the temple. The houses and the back gate are behind the chapel.

This is the front flower garden of the temple with the guard house in the corner and the Costa Rican flag. Laurie directed the whole redo of the sprinkler system and replanting of a lot of these flowers. Now that they are getting enough water, everything looks nice. The main car gate into the temple and church grounds is on the other side of the guard house. There is a full time guard in the little house. The property beyond that is also owned by the church.

Galaria of Wood Carvings on grounds of Hotel Pelicano

Obviously a Toucan. The man who did these creations had taken pieces of wood and made his creatures based on the original shapes of the pieces of wood. I

This one is a tortuga. I just hit some wrong button and eliminated a scorpion that I thought Arizonans would appreciate. I don't know how to get it back other than eliminate the whole post and start over. So pretend there is a picture of a large wooden scorpion here!

Camellos

This one has to be an elephant.

And this one is a monkey.

I am not sure what this one is.

This is the man who did the carvings and kept the collection.

Laurie in front of one of the carvings. Notice the new binoculars. They work pretty well. One of the carvings behind him is a quetzal bird with the long tail. I noticed that in my Book of Mormon yesterday where there are copies of some of the Arnold Frieburg paintings, the one of King Noah, his priests and Abinadi. The head piece King Noah is wearing has a plume made out of long green feathers, they must have been quetzal tail feathers.

This is an interesting cupboard complete with hinged door and decoratively carved shelves.

This is a carving of a quetzal bird. We didn't see any quetzals here, but there are supposed to be some as this is a cloud forest like Monte Verde. We heard a lot of birds but didn't get many pictures. We did find some with Laurie's new binoculars, but most didn't stay still long enough for photos.

This is a little carving of a Costa Rican farm cart and the oxen that pull it.

San Gerardo de Rivas, the end of the Road

The road to San Gerardo de Rivas is narrow and rocky but it is a road. From here on if you wish to go to the top of the mountain in the Chirripo National Park, it is a 2 day hike. We didn't go. We did drive further up a very narrow and rocky road. There were houses up there, people lived there. Some of the houses were really nice. I wondered how they got the building materials to the site. It would have been a real excursion out to do the shopping! The inhabitants must have been people who really wanted to get away from it all.

There is a really pretty river, lots of white water, lots of big boulders for the water to fall over on its way down the valley.

Another shot of the river.

This is a little church not far from our hotel.

Much of the high mountain sides are used for agriculture. This is a pasture. I hope the cows don't get altitude sickness. There is a cheese factory near by and people can go on tours, but we didn't make it this time. Some of the land as high up as this pasture appeared to be cultivated and they were growing things like bananas, coffee, potatoes, etc.

View from the mirador at the end of the secret garden hike.

Another mountain view.

I loved the color and the paintings of heliconias on the front of this building.

Rustic gate and the Costa Rican flag.

Another view of the river.

River water tumbling over big boulders.

Another cute gate. Reminds me of Carmel!

A very old and rustic home.

Another cute gate and fence.

This is the road up to our hotel. The main road to the left was a tad wider. Good thing we have a 4 wheel drive. This road was paved after it curved around to the right, but it was still extremely steep.