Day 8: Shopping and Going Home

We were sad that we were going to spend our last day in Costa Rica. We decided to go to the beach to buy some more necklaces and decorations for our house.

They had some really awesome necklaces that Rachel liked (me too!). We also got a couple of pots to put on our coffee table and our toilet respectively.

Manuel Antonio is definitely not the best place to buy souvenirs. The vendors are pretty smart, and will only bargain down to the exact same prices as everyone else. On the bright side, they do have some great jewelry that you would have a hard time getting in the US.

Rachel will post some pictures soon of our finds, but we haven't gotten a chance yet.

After our shopping stint, we walked around on the beach where we saw an American tourist with just his underwear on. We decided we'd had enough of the beach and headed back to San Jose.

The drive to San Jose would be frustrating (the speed limit is very slow, around 40 mph), and very windy, but there are some incredible sights.

We nearly ran over every species of animal in Costa Rica (an Iguana, large birds, the Lizards that can walk on water), but narrowly avoided hitting all of them.

About half-way to San Jose there is a huge river where you can see crocodiles from the overpass. We decided to take a quick look. Those crocodiles were gigantic, and there were tons of them.

We continued our journey, and both became carsick and extremely hungry, and we faced the task of having to find our rental car company in the middle of the city. Suddenly we saw a Denny's in the distance. It was like an Oasis beckoning to us. Suffice to say, Denny's saved my life.

The odd thing about Denny's was that people treated it like an upscale restaurant. There were people having business meetings and wearing fancy attire. I was most impressed by the yellow bun that came with my hamburger. I thought for sure it was going to taste funny, but alas the brightly colored piece of bread tasted just fine.

We asked a guy if they knew where our rental car company was, and they said just a couple of blocks away...we had really hit the jackpot with the Denny's.

After returning our rental car we were dropped off at our last motel. Paul had made friends with someone that worked there and we got hooked up with a discount. Unfortunately, the guy quit a few days before we arrived. Our nice discount suddenly turned into an ok discount.

I worry about everything. Our flight left at 6:30 AM, and we were told to get to the airport 3 hours early, because you have to go through security and pay a special Costa Rican airport tax. When we checked in and told them what time we needed the free hotel shuttle, they seem less than excited. I got so worried about making our flight that I didn't sleep a wink the entire night...I think I drove Rachel nuts.

I woke up the wake-up guy and we were on our way back to the U.S. We loved our trip, but were excited to sleep in our own bed. It really is a beautiful country, and the people are quite friendly. We're so glad that Paul and Jill had gone to Costa Rica before, they really helped us out with our travel plans. If anyone is interested in going to Costa Rica, we'd love to give tips and advice. We look forward to going back in the future.