Last Day in Playa Hermosa

We could hear the howler monkeys when we woke up yesterday. It was so loud!  We headed outside and we watched about 40 howler monkeys jump through the trees in front of our porch!  So cool!

Anna with the dog who lives here named Favi or Favel or something!

Mama and baby monkey

We had a bay trip and snorkeling planned. It left from Playa fro Coco which is the beach next to Playa Hermosa where we are staying. It’s only a 15 minute drive. 

Exploring a new beach

Playa fro Coco is a bit bigger than Playa Hermosa and it has a bigger tourist scene. Anna and I went for a walk to check out some of the shops while Trev and the boys stayed at the beach. 

10am ice cream!

Then we took a walk to find a spot for lunch. We had read about a brunch place nearby on a blog we were following. It was air conditioned!  Woo hoo!  We noticed Canadian theming in the restaurant and Trev looked up the website and it’s owned by Canadians!

The kids all opted for waffles with fruit!

We walked back down to the beach but Owen had seen this braided leather bracelet at a souvenir shop and decided to buy it.  Our first souvenir!

Owen with some doggies at the beach

By this time it was 2pm and time for our boat tour. When I was looking to book a snorkling trip, a lot of them were in catamarans and seemed like booze cruise type events and it wasn’t what I was looking for. I came across one post on a Costa Rica Facebook group I was in recommending the Sacred Dance boat. I honestly couldn’t find a ton of info on it online but it was in a sailboat and Trev loves to sail. It seemed more our style. I was able to find a couple of posts from families who booked. It was also way less expensive than some of the better established companies (which could be a red flag to be honest). But I reached out through WhatsApp (how almost all communication happens in Costa Rica). An interesting side note, all the people I corresponded with on WhatsApp sent voice memos instead of texting. Every single time. I actually found it difficult because when browsing back through the messages back and forth to confirm what time we said we’d meet or what the location was, I’d have to scroll up and listen to 10 voice memos to find the one where he said the time etc. seems to be the way they communicate in Costa Rica though!

The Sacred Dance

This is our captain Sebastian. He actually lives in this sailboat!

We had a nice sail out to a snorkelling spot. The water was a bit rough in the way out and Owen and I moved to the back of the boat where we were more contained rather than sitting on top of the boat like you are at the front. This turned out to be ok because I chatted with Sebastian whose English was pretty good from working as part of the crew for 10 years beforefor an American sailing around the world. 

We had some fruit. This is pineapple, mango, and watermelon. The watermelon was bright yellow which I’ve never seen!  Tasted just like regular watermelon!

Sebastian was telling us his story. An American came Playa fro Coco to sail because he had only 4 months left to live. He was sick with Cancer. They became friends and the American gifted Sebastian this sailboat when he passed. He said it changed his life. He talked about this man with a large amount of respect and showed me that he had his name, Artemis, tattoos in his chest. He quit his job working on big boats for other people and lives on this boat and just makes and sells jewelry (you can see he has a lot of jewelry on!) and rents out his kayak and paddle board and takes tourists on tours. He says he just enjoys every day of life and works when he wants to and doesn’t understand why anyone would want to have a real job and spend their life working when you can just live simply and enjoy life!  He was a really interesting guy. When we got back to where he socks the boat the sunset was still quite nice and he just looked out at the sunset and said, “I love my home so much”

Next stop was a snorkling spot. Sebastian.s brother Julio was also in the boat with us and he went snorkeling with us. To be honest, it wasn’t great snorkeling. The visibility wasn’t great and we did t see too much. A few small, colourful fish. At one point Julia caught a big spikes fish in his hands and brought it over for us to see under the water. We thought it was a puffer fish but I read after that they are extremely poisonous so I’m not sure what it was. We saw a spider star (the same thing we saw yesterday) and sea urchins. Turns out all of the hundreds of pictures I thought I was taking under the water weren’t working (I forgot that you had to use the side button when under water because the touch screen doesn’t work well in the waterproof case. Tre thinks he got a shot of the crazy spiked fish with his GoPro though. 

All in all it was enjoyable. It felt amazing to cool off in the water and swim around the ocean!

Julio with the spider star

Joel’s hair was looking particularly wild 😆 

Then we did a slow sail back while the sun was setting. It was glorious. Warm enough that we dried quickly but cool enough that we weren’t dying in the sun (it was probably about 30C.  The sea was calmer in the way back also so Owen and I sat up front which was great

I’m not sure when maturity hits but I can confirm it is not 13 or 15 years old!  Joel and Owen were cracking up at this! 

Owen posing 😂 

Off the boat and walking the main strip of Playa del Coco to find somewhere for supper

Coconut vendor

Not sure why my pictures of dinner came out insane. We are at a happening place called Coconutz that was packed. We had a table on the second floor that overlooked the action on the main floor. Turned out it was karaoke night so it was quite an entertaining dinner!

Pics from Trev’s camera that came in in the wrong order! 🤷🏼‍♀️ 

Monkeys!

Sebastian and Julio