Sarah and Derrick Unplugged!: Costa Rica Part 2

Ah, Punta Islita! The relaxing part of the honeymoon! Punta Islita is a very secluded hotel on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. It is built up on a hillside with spectacular views of the ocean! The drive to get here was much less eventful than our drive to Arenal, but we still had to stop a few times to get our bearings! On the way out of Arenal we FINALLY had good views of the volcano! Go figure!

Anyways, the drive to Punta Islita included quite a stretch through interesting dirt roads that wound their way up and down the mountains of the coast. And then we had our first glimpses of the ocean! Ahhhh! Gorgeous! Derrick used Trip Advisor a ton when researching where to go in Costa Rica, and the roads to Punta Islita where supposed to be horrendous! We were supposed to have to ford a river to get here! I decided that the people on Trip Advisor were just pansies that had never driven a dirt road in their lives! That is, of course, until we took a different route on the way out and got to cross the river! It was pretty cool!! When we finally arrived, our consierge greeted us with cool towels! While we were getting all of our stuff together with her, a little lizard took up residence on the back of her chair! Then she showed us to our room. Down the little paths that wend their way down the hillside till we got to our room. Another king sized bed! There is also a little sitting area inside as well as out. And, while we do not have an outdoor shower, we do a have a little plunge pool and a hammock. Not to mention the sights and sounds of the pacific ocean right outside our door!

The first night that we were here we just ate at the restaurant, hung out in the room, and went to bed early!! We had a little friend in the light fixture by our table that was really cute! Some kind of little salamander or something! Very neat! The first full day that we were here did not go much differently! We got up, ate breakfast, hung out on the hammock, read, and tried to decide what, if any, activities we would do while we are here. We did get to spend Earth Day planting trees with some of the hotel staff and other guests! Punta Islita is really trying to be a "green" hotel, and they try to plant like 2000 trees a year! It was the first time that we had ever done anything for Earth Day! That afternoon, while we were in the plunge pool, a small group of monkeys were hanging out in a tree just down the hill from us and we watched them for a while. I have no idea what kind of monkeys they were (Derrick says they were howler monkeys), but it was neat to get to watch them. We were supposed to have a romantic dinner for two down on the beach, but as the afternoon wore on the thunder clouds rolled in! And then it began to rain buckets!!! We decided to postpone our romantic dinner until Saturday and instead had dinner in the hotel restaurant again. We then spent the rest of the evening reading in our room.

The second full day that we were here, we had decided that we wanted to go ziplining, horseback riding, and to the spa. We ate our breakfast and then went to see our consierge. Unfortunately, the ziplining was not available, the sunset horseback ride is only offered in the dry season, and there was only room for one at the spa (that's what we get for waiting until the last minute!). So, we scheduled ziplining and the spa for Sunday and then set off in search of rum! There is a very small village next to the hotel that sometimes carries wine, but there is a larger town (with a little airfield!) about 10 minutes further on. That litte store did not have any rum. It did have a few beers that we grabbed and then we headed back. We spent some time in the village looking at their little art gallery/souvenir shop. When we got back to the hotel, we went up to the pool for a little while. We had some drinks and some ceviche and enjoyed the infinity pool! The view was amazing! We then had just enough time to change and head down to the beach for our dinner! It was beautiful! White table cloth and scattered flowers! We were right on the beach watching a storm out at sea! Very romantic!! The food was really good and we had fun! We have definitely noticed that they take their time with meals down here! When we got back to the room, Derrick started taking pictures of something in the folds of the curtains. I just ignored it thinking that it was probably just a big bug that I didn't want to see. After he finished taking pictures, he took his shoe and swatted it out of the curtain and smooshed it on the floor. Then he showed me the pictures - it was a scorpion!!!!! So friggin creepy!!

The third full day at Punta Islita, we zip lined through the canopy! I wish it could have lasted longer - it seemed to go by so fast! We went down 8 different cables of varying lengths and heights. It was a ton of fun! After the zip line we hung out in our plunge pool for a while and then headed down to the beach for a little while. We had the beach almost completely to ourselves! It is a huge beach and so private and unspoiled! Very cool! I am glad that we decided to come here instead of one of the more touristy beach areas! We went right from the beach to the spa for our couples massage and body scrub! I am glad that we didn't have to wait another day, since we both have sunburns and the body scrub would not have been fun today! The spa was wonderful, very relaxing! After the spa we went down to a little restaurant just down the street from the hotel (cheaper!!). I had casada, and Derrick tried Conch! It really isn't bad - kind of a cross between crab and shrimp! And then, that's right, we spent the rest of the evening reading in our room! Our little porch is covered, and it has been fun watching the little salamanders running around eating bugs at night!

And now we are packing up, getting ready to leave this beautiful, quiet place to head to Ocotal for the night before flying out of Liberia tomorrow. We are going to be so sad to leave! We have enjoyed our stay in Costa Rica so much! But, we have missed all of you too, and can't wait to tell you all about our adventures in person! Just a few more days!