We have the best friends ever! I will get to Ocotal and the journey home in a minute! I just need to take a sec and thank the wonderful friends who power washed and painted our deck and side porches while we were gone! We also love the new patio table, chairs, and umbrella that they got us!! Amazing! And we came home to a wonderful welcome message! And, Thank you to the Higginses and the Carsons for taking care of the kitties while we were gone! Very much appreciated!
So anyways, leaving Punta Islita was tough! We really enjoyed our stay there! But, we did finally get to ford the river! It was actually very fast moving water!! The drive to Ocotal was pretty uneventful, other than our stop at the Costa Rican WalMart!! And, right up until we dead ended at the ocean and we still hadn't seen the hotel!! We were in a small oceanside town that reminded me of Old Orchard Beach. So we turned around and went down a side street in the general direction we thought the hotel might be in. We went through a small part of the town that was very busy! There were people walking and biking everywhere! We finally left the little town behind! I was all for turning around and asking directions when we once again dead ended at the ocean! Luckily we were at a gated community type place and we asked the guard for directions to the hotel. I don't think he spoke very much English, but he pointed us in the right direction. The entrance to the driveway seemed to be the entrance for several different properties, so we ended up having to go through two different gates - one right at the road, and then one for the hotel. We got all checked in and got to our room. The Hotel El Ocotal is one of those hotels that was probably really nice 20 years ago. It has a really great location up on the hillside of the rocky coastal area - but it is very outdated, the rooms are very small, and it just didn't seem that nice! But, it wasn't terrible either - I think that it is really trying, it just isn't quite there yet! Anyways, once we settled in to our room a little bit, we decided to head back into the town for some dinner and souvenirs.
The name of the town is Playa Del Coco and it is a pretty cool place! It just has a really nice atmosphere! We did a little shopping and then stopped at a sports bar (yeah, they have those!) for dinner. It was happy hour so we got $2 margaritas! They were yummy! We also got to watch a couple of monkeys play in a tree that was hanging over the road! So cute! We then drove back to the hotel, changed our room to one with a king sized bed (a racoon chased me down the walkway!), and spent the rest of the night reading and watching spanish tv.
Our very last day in Costa Rica was a sad one! While we were glad to be going home, we were also sad to be leaving! We ate breakfast at the hotel, in the company of a very large Iguana and about 5 blue birds. The drive to the airport in Liberia was pretty short (we had to drop off the car and get a shuttle to the airport). Luckily we had someone to tell us what we needed to do, because we had to get in line to pay a customs tax, and then fill out a form before we could go in! The Liberia airport was an experience! It is a very small airport, and like everything in Costa Rica, it is totally open air. As far as I could tell, there was only one "gate", and the ceiling fans wobbled scarily! There was a food counter where you could also get beer or whatever! So we had our last pina coladas sitting at the gate waiting to go home. Loading the plane was a pain since they searched every single passenger's carry on bags before letting us board! But, we finally got on the plane! Our layover in Miami was not as eventful this time around. We hung out at a bar for a few hours and talked to a guy from Montreal while we waited. The flight from Miami to Boston took longer than it should have since we had to fly around some weather. The most eventful occurance on our trip home happened just after we got into Maine, around 2:45am - We got pulled over and Derrick got a speeding ticket! Luckily the cop did not get us when we were going like 100mph, but it's totally ridiculous since the ticket is for going 74 in a 65!!! Totally dumb!
And so that is the story of our trip! I am sure there are things that I left out, so feel free to ask questions! I will update you on what we have been doing since we got back as soon as we do something interesting!
Apparently we did not advertise our wedding Photobucket site very well! Sorry for that! I will try to gather some of the pictures that have been uploaded in other places and get them up there so everyone can view them! http://photobucket.com/derrickandsarahwedding
More pictures from Ocotal and home: http://s295.photobucket.com/albums/mm160/arolin1/Costa%20Rica/Part%203%20-%20Ocotal%20and%20Home/
Love, The Cotes
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