After our final night of happy sleep in the cloud forest, we shipped off on another dirt road journey to Islita, a tiny town on the Nicoya Peninsula with Hotel Punta Islita as its centerpiece. Despite getting a flat tire as we pulled into the hotel's parking lot (what is it with us and international rental cars?!) we were happily in awe of the breathtaking view of the Pacific Ocean.
The hotel is spread over a sizeable hill with rooms scattered across the side of the slope overlooking the sea. The main area with a restaurant, pool and swim-up bar was at the top of the hill (along with our room) and the beach, more casual restaurant, and another pool was a 10-15 minute walk down the hill. Down was easy. Up was not, especially with afternoon temps in the upper 90s every day.
We quickly embraced a comfortable and relaxing beach routine for our four days there. Coffee and breakfast, walk down to the beach, make ourselves at home on a lovely hammock-type bed at the edge of the sand under the palm trees, play cards, take a dip, drink a fruit smoothie, read, lunch at the bar, icy coffee drink, take a dip, stroll on the beach as the sun waned, then hike back to the top of the resort. Reward for the steep climb was a cocktail at the swim up bar and amazing sunsets from the edge of the infinity pool. Rinse and repeat.
We didn't take advantage of the all-excursions-included aspect of the hotel (zip lining, horseback riding, etc.) but did opt to join Eduardo for a "monkey hike" one morning. It ended up being just the two of us with the guide and this was a real highlight of the trip. I was skeptical as Eduardo led us down the main road of the resort - I had assumed we'd have to go offsite to see monkeys but then Simon reminded me that we'd been hearing the monkeys every night of our stay.
We spotted a neat yellow crested bird, a drowsy looking bat, and learned all about cashew trees before Eduardo led us through a dried up creek bed, set down his binocular tripod thingy, and motioned us over. Monkey!!!! He was languishing in the treetop - legs, arms and tail all wound around the branches. Costa Rica has four species but the howler monkey that he showed us is the second loudest animal in the world. Eduardo got him howling a bit - wow! We saw 5 more, one of which tried to pee on us, one of which pooped on us but missed, and one of which was the sweetest little baby. I've never seen monkeys in the wild - it was awesome!
While this trip provided a much-needed relaxing respite from the winter, overall, I was surprised at how fascinating I found the bio-diversity. I wasn't expecting that. So many plants and creatures that I didn't even know existed, much less expect to ever see in their home habitats. The stomach bug tried to erase the memories of sun and adventure over the last week, but I love you Costa Rica. Pura vida!!!!
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