Monkeys and Mangroves and Boas...oh My!

June 20th was a full day! We got an early start and went on a boat ride that morning to Isla Damas to see mangroves and monkeys. Do you know what mangroves are? I didn't until we went but they are bushes or trees that grow in marshes or tidal shores, noted for their interlacing above-ground roots. We saw 4 varieties...red, black, white, and pineapple.

The pineapple mangrove was my favorite:

They have their name because when you pull the leaves together

they look like the top of a pineapple.
We also saw a lot of wildlife. We saw...

crabs
Basilisk, aka: Jesus lizards
(that's their name because they run on water)
Racoons, massive termite nests, various types of birds, boas...
and my favorite, capuchin (white faced) monkeys!

That afternoon we did find a chapel
but by the time we arrived church was over.
I guess they only had meetings in the morning.

We brought our lunch to the beach
and just enjoyed a relaxing afternoon.
Later we all decided to try piña coladas on the beach to cool off (since we all got fried!). Three of us got spiked piña coladas, we had ordered them virgin but when my first sip tasted funny and burned my throat I knew they weren't virgin! The waiter insisted they were so he tasted them and said "that's good rum."
Oops, so we drank rum by accident.
The virgin drinks he brought back for us were very good!
We had to leave the beach when a storm rolled in...

That night we drove back to San Jose. What an adventure! On our way we stopped at the Río Tárcoles bridge which is commonly known as crocodile bridge. What a view!

When we got to San Jose the gps led us through a sketchy part of the city, down a pedestrian walkway (where we got plenty of strange looks since we were driving!) and ended at our hotel which had barred windows with a "for rent" sign posted!

We decided to find the temple since we were close.
It was dark when we arrived but it beautiful to see all lit up!

We decided to head towards the airport and find a hotel there. The gps played another joke on us and took us on a road that just ended! By then so much had happened we were laughing so hard we couldn't breathe! It was frustrating but funny.

We did manage to find a place to stay at the Mango Hotel. We were all tired and didn't feel like venturing out to try and find food. So we thought we'd order a pizza. Ha! Here's our receipt...

Yep, that's right. We paid $21,890 colones (about $50!) for 2 pizzas. Crazy! So that night we stayed at the hotel to shower, we watched some TV, and ate some expensive pizza!
What a day!