Boys, beaches, bumps, and birds.

Having enjoyed our walk on the beach with the low tide, NGG checked the local nautical data for tide times so we could hit low tide for our morning walk again. On our way to the beach, we came across a familiar sound that caused us to stop in our tracks and search the trees off the road. NGG (of course) spotted the first one. Then we saw there was a small crowd of howler monkeys in the tree tops from 30'--50' above us. The ATV that passed us on the road prompted several of the monkeys to howl their claim to this territory. As we observed from below, we came to the conclusion that this was a band of bachelor boys that were traveling together.

Still amazed at how far the water recedes at low tide.

Adventure waits for no man-or woman, so we headed out again after lunch. GG had us heading for Ruta Nacional 160 (160). After about 10 km of paved road, we passed through Carrillo (yesterday's adventure) and were prompted to turn right. Without hesitation we followed GG's call to action. You can play the slideshow below to get a taste of what we drove on...but I'm darn sure it will not come close to the experience we "enjoyed." Once you've had a chance to look at those--try the video NGG shot from the front seat as she was kept from bumping into the windshield by her seatbelt fully engaged. I'm glad I got a good phone...otherwise you might've puked while watching this one.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained--and Playa Islita became another fantastical destination!

With the rental car still in one piece and blue skies over head, we had other sights to see and continued on the coastal highway, Ruta Nacional 160 (160) going south. Just in case I haven't mentioned the fact that there are no, and I mean no flat or straight roads in any part of CR that we've travelled yet--I thought I'd throw that in here again as a reminder. We managed to find a few "safe spots" on the 160 to stop and take the below pictures-but NGG wasn't always happy I got out of the car. As luck would have it, there came a turnoff on the 160, as there seemed to be no civilization or end in sight, so we (of course) took it. Well wouldn't you know...up ahead was a tree in the middle of the road! We looked at each other and smiled (you may remember why). But hold the phone; a short distance away was another tree in the middle of the road! We both giggled at that turn of events. We continued ahead and were crestfallen when we came to a sign prohibiting vehicles from further passage. Totally bummed; I mean what the devil did you build this "road" for anyway, we stopped and turned around. 

As we paused, and being pissed, I saw movement off to the right of our car. NGG identified what moved right away and I literally jumped out of the car! Macaws! Our pissed pause (no I didn't do that), had allowed us the opportunity to see these beautiful birds. 

Yeah, that's real.

After taking pictures and marveling at the spectacle of the gorgeous macaws; there ended up being 4 in the tree where we stopped, we thanked the luck of the tree(s) in the middle of the road and decided to head back home as the afternoon clouds were coming in. We definitely didn't want to be returning on our section of the 160 in any rain shower/storm. It was ironic that as we drove out, one of our trees in the middle of the road was hosting a few of our vulture friends NGG identified before. A couple of cool pictures from the "top of the world", and a herd of cows grazing on the steepest hill I've ever seen cows on was eye candy on the way back home.

This was dessert!