Days 14, 15, 16 and 17

We meant to find time to kick back, relax and enjoy each other's company on this vacation, and the Manuel Antonio area was the place to do it: a biological reserve, plenty of beaches and a low key agenda. I think this area gets everyone's vote for favorite place on the vacation.

Rach has mentioned some of the rainstorms in the area, and it sounds like they have been more than what the locals are used to. We had two hotels planned for the area, one in town (Quepos) and one on the beach. We ended up staying in Quepos the entire time due to rains and flooding at the beach hotel.

Day 14 was at the beach and day 15 we spent at the park: swimming, surfing, hiking... and chasing off monkeys. The first pictures are from the public beach just outside of the park with free access.

It's a pity we didn't go to the park a day or two earlier, the beaches were fantastic, in terms of fine sand and waves - but we had to pay to get in.

Zach spent the majority of his time tracking down and catching hermit crabs.

The monkies came down to help themselves from our lunch supplies.

We got to bring this one home:

We ended up seeing three species of monkey and two species of sloth. The sloths were hard to spot.

Definitely not sloths:

And what's a good day with everyone's favorite local Italian? A great day.

The next day we left early for San Jose - forgetting that the GPS was an hour ahead of the game we got there in plenty of time to return the rental, but this left us with some extra time for souvenir shopping and cinnamon ice cream in Mercado Central.

Here we are at Day 17, and after waking up at 2:30 a.m. Phoenix time, we arrived back safely at 2:00 p.m., tired, hungry, yet happy to be back in Phoenix: our friends, our people, our culture, our house, and yes, even our dry heat. Our Home.

Ok, and maybe even our Chloe.