Our hike & a few more random pictures a.k.a. the last Costa Rica post, I promise!

On Friday afternoon we went on a hike. We started after lunch. 

Looking sassy at our restaurant.

Before we left the restaurant, I spied these two guys. A quick side note- I go back and forth between saying something about the pictures I include in my posts before the picture or after the picture. In an effort to keep things aesthetically pleasing to mine eyes, I'm going to try to be consistent about saying whatever it is I have to say {that I don't include as an "official" caption directly below the picture} directly before I include the shot since that's the writing that seems to stick close to the pictures. Anyway...the poor fellows were being zapped by the mid-day heat.

Prior to lunch, though, one of our girls and I modeled our tacky tourist gear...

My skeeter bites to add to it all.

then we ditched the socks because it was hot {the best laid plans...}.
We began our hike as a smiley group.

Then we picked up our tour guide for the day, Vaya.

She howled when we started on the trail...I tried to take her home, it didn't work.

We continued up little {or not-so-little} hills.

While we hiked, we checked out some monkeys up above us.

Our guide ran ahead and waited for us several times {do you notice a theme in the subject of many of my pictures?}.

We made it to our first stop, the top of a hill? The top of something which afforded us an amazing view of the Pacific on one side

and the jungly hillside on the other side.

We enjoyed this vista for a little bit, caught our breath and had some water.

I also had a little photo session wth Vaya {not the last of the day, mind you}. 

"¡Vamanos! Let's go!" she was saying {or so I guessed she was}.

We walked down then and wound around to a lovely little beach, Playa Izzquierda. On the way there we got to see the national tree of Costa Rica, the Guanacaste, which is the name of the province where we were staying too.

I also took a chance to look up at the lovely foliage.

Once we made it to the beach, Vaya took a well-deserved rest.

The hermit crabs were everywhere!

I took this video to show how it looked like the sand was moving...kind of boring if I think about it, but I want to remember.

We all hung out for quite a while just enjoying the sound of the surf and being on our own beach. I randomly started collecting little bits of pink, purple and red shells and just putting them on my leg. Soon, the girls were helping me {we were just sitting and shooting the &#($ against a big rock} and we had an interesting little mosaic happening. 

Vaya got in some good belly rubs from Lucie, our wonderful leader for the week from the school. 

We enjoyed this until the tide came up to where we were and it was time to go home. What a wonderful thing to do before we came back to California; ¡muchas gracias Lucie & Vaya!
Earlier that day I had to run to our little home really quickly and enjoyed these horses on the road.

This guy guards the school.

This was a great trip. Pura Vida is the catch phrase for the country, meaning "pure life" and it seemed more poignant to me in English..."pure life" to me can mean lots of things, I'm sure, depending on the day or how hungry I am, but when I was on the beach and now here at home a few days out it means feeling everything, embracing the poignancy of what happens {mundane occurrences or otherwise}. It also means enjoying EVERYTHING, even the not-so-enjoyable things. I had gotten SUPER bogged down in the business of my little life before I left-to the point where I was letting my feelings just fly past me and I was kind of numb, way too focused on little dramas; I shed that shell when I was in Costa Rica. I think that life in a beach town in whichever country runs a bit slower than life in a city, but I'm still dreaming of the warm water and the Spanish I got to speak when I was there and trying desperately to hold onto my vacation buzz. I don't want this to just be a temporary after-affect of my week away, though, I'm aiming to keep pura vida in my life by striving to be aware, intentional and deliberate in my feelings, reactions and presence. "¿Pura Vida?" a guy asked us one night walking down the road. "Pura Vida" I answered, then & there and here & now.
xoxo, natty ♥