I'm still working on catching up the blog... Now we're up to September 13th...

I had mixed emotions on my last day with my parents. On one hand, I knew they would be leaving within 24 hours, which made me sad. On the other, we still had another 24 hours remaining to spend together, which made me happy.

We had spent two amazing weeks traveling together; from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean through the Panama Canal; Trekking through the rain forest in Corcovado; Driving across Costa Rica to watch a volcano erupt; And we still had an entire day to spend in Playas del Coco.

My parents had seen most of what there is to see here in Coco, so on our last day together we decided to head to the neighboring beaches and have a look around. But first, I wanted to give them a slightly different view of Coco before we move on... a view I knew they would appreciate.

I took them up the hill, to a place I found when I first discovered HDR photography. There is a gated community behind my condo, and it has a spectacular view of Coco beach.

You might recognize this view from an earlier post, called Sunset with Enya. Its funny to see how my HDR skills have changed since July. Also, I'm using a much more powerful camera now. Still though, its fun to go back and look at the difference between the two.

We took a lap around the community, and admired all the pretty, & huge, and pretty huge houses. Most are for sale, which is just a sign of the times. It seems the depressed housing market knows no limits.

We then headed north, to Playa Hermosa, which is a short five minute drive. We had one specific thing we needed to accomplish, other than that it was play time all day.

Mom, Dad & I used to have breakfast together every Thursday morning. We had been doing this for 6 years before I left. Towards the end, we were meeting at Coco's, and we had become good friends with our favorite waitress, Mary.

They had brought a couple of signs with them which read, "Hello from Costa Rica," and we wanted to get some pictures together to bring back for her. Hermosa was an excellent spot to do this, so we brought along the tripod. This also let us get some pictures for ourselves, something that we had lacked so far in the trip.

On our way to Playa Panama, the next beach on our list, we past a road that I remembered from my last trip to this area. I was curious as to what was down there, since it looked like a newly built road, which usually means there is new construction somewhere.

We were stopped by the gates of some fancy hotel, over looking the bay, and had to turn around. All was not lost, since it afforded us the opportunity to take another group photo. In the background you can see Playa Panama... not such a bad view.

Playa Panama is a little smaller, and much more secluded, than Playa Hermosa. There is really not much to do there except sit on the beach, watch the tide, and relax. Playa Hermosa has a few restaurants along its shores. Panama, not so much. It all depends on what you're looking for. We were just here to put eyes on the beach, and move on.

Next up, Playa Ocotal, by way of a failed excursion to the Riu Hotel. I had heard that the Riu is a city within a city, a vast expanse of luxury that is worth the terrible drive out to it. We headed down the dirt road, bump after bump, for as long as we could manage. Finally we turned around, after we were all looking at each other, as if to say, "what are we doing?"

We made our way back and turned into Playa Ocotal. This beach is mainly focused on the high-end residential communities that fill the nearby valley. From what I hear around the camp fire, everyone who lives in Ocotal comes to Coco for an evening out, be that dinner or just drinks.

We had lunch on the beach in Ocotal at a little place called Father Rooster's. There were a half dozen of these White-throated Magpie-Jay's flying around, which we found to be very cunning creatures. The instant we turned our back on our food, one would swoop in and steal a fry. It happened so fast I barely noticed. They had their timing down to a science, probably from years of practice on unsuspecting tourists.

I had one more place I wanted to show my parents before we returned home for some R&R. There is a small community right on the beach in Ocotal, with a road that winds its way up the hill. We pulled the car in, and came face to face with a howler monkey walking straight down the center of the street, right at us. I imagine the three of us had that deer-in-the-headlights look. I know I sure did.


Fed & happy after a long day of sightseeing, we found our way back to the condo and threw on some NCIS. It was peaceful to lounge around with Mom & Dad, not a care in the world. We had nowhere to be, nothing to do, and felt absolutely great about it.

Mom & Dad had brought me down a card game called Slam! I loved playing this game with them. Its kind of a cross between War, Speed, & Scrabble, and we had some pretty good games going. We were all pretty evenly matched, which made the game that much more fun.

I snuck out at sunset to get some last minute pictures of our beach while I still had my parents here. The sky was extremely yellow that evening, as you can see. Even though I doused myself in bug spray, I still got eaten alive. I guess I have the good blood.

We spent much of that evening copying photos. I wanted to have a copy of all Mom's pictures, and vice-versa. We had purchased a pack of DVDs early, and used those to send all my pictures home with them. Somehow though, I didn't copy all of Mom's pictures, which I only found out while writing these blog posts. What a bummer!

After we had a handle on the photos, Dad & I jumped in the pool for a late night swim. We talked about life, love, experience, and how to take over the world! Ok, maybe not that last one, but the swim was very special for me. We swam until our fingers were so pruney that they could take on no more water. I cannot think of a better way to end our trip.

It was perfect......