{"id":664,"date":"2016-04-23T09:03:11","date_gmt":"2016-04-23T13:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/?p=664"},"modified":"2016-04-23T09:03:11","modified_gmt":"2016-04-23T13:03:11","slug":"day-8-thursday-march-24-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/?p=664","title":{"rendered":"Day 8: Thursday March 24, 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0highlight of the morning was to be a visit to Manuel Antonio National Park, a nature habitat for the white face monkey, the rare squirrel monkey, and many tropical birds.<\/p>\n

\"Spider<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Capuchin\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Our hotel was adjacent to the entrance of the park, so our group was\u00a0among the first to enter. I was in\u00a0the front. As we moved along, I asked \u00a0if anyone\u00a0had seen Dawn and \u00a0David. Someone replied that they were in the back. I let everyone pass me, but I still saw no sign of them. Then I overheard someone say that one of the couples in our group didn’t get into the park. I ran to find Cinthia to see if she was aware of what happened to them. She wasn’t.<\/p>\n

Cinthia had given us our entry tickets the night before. Dawn put \u00a0hers and David’s in her handbag, but when we were standing on line to get in, they weren’t there. They could have bought new entry tickets, but this was a big holiday (Holy Thursday) and a very popular destination for\u00a0the locals. \u00a0There were \u00a0at least fifty\u00a0people on line waiting to buy tickets. Dawn and David\u00a0quickly retraced their steps and found the tickets in their room! They ran\u00a0back to the ticket holders’ line and and raced to catch up with us. I was still totally distraught, unaware of what had happened to them.<\/p>\n

\"Walking<\/a><\/p>\n

Once inside, Nick and I had to decide on an activity. We could take either \u00a0a long or a short \u00a0hike through the jungle, or simply spend the time at the beach, but there wouldn’t be enough time to do both the long hike and the swim. Nick wanted to do the long hike, and I wanted the swim. We agreed to a compromise. He had to walk\u00a0 quicker than usual,\u00a0stopping to\u00a0take fewer photos so that I could have time in the ocean.<\/p>\n

I made sure we had \u00a0applied enough sun block and insect repellent before starting the walk. The trail\u00a0through the jungle was a\u00a0rustic\u00a0rain forest path\u00a0with\u00a0some wooden staircases that made\u00a0the hike\u00a0easier. Nonetheless, with the help of others on our tour (you guessed it, Gloria and Phillip) we found\u00a0all four types of monkeys in\u00a0the trees.\u00a0After awhile, whom should approach us\u00a0 but Dawn and David! I was so relieved that they had found their tickets and didn’t miss this part of the \u00a0adventure.<\/p>\n

We only had a few minutes left when we arrived at the beach, but I made the most of them. The water was fantastic… calm, warm, and very salty!\u00a0We\u00a0enjoyed \u00a0every moment!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4723\"<\/a>Many people have told us about \u00a0zip lining while in Costa Rica. I’m sure that is great fun. However, our tour included a tram ride \u00a0instead. With our guide, the four of\u00a0us were together in a tram that glided through and above a dry tropical transitional forest. It was a bit harder to see the animals, but they were definitely easy to hear.<\/p>\n

\"Our<\/a><\/p>\n

In the evening,\u00a0our group enjoyed a farewell dinner at our hotel. I had let Cinthia know in advance that this day was Dawn and David’s anniversary. When we were all gathered together, she called them up front and presented them with a special dessert\u00a0as we all sang to them. I’m so happy that Nick and I were able to spend their 9th anniversary with them!<\/p>\n

After dinner I headed to the pool. The only couple there was, you guessed it, Gloria and Phillip.\u00a0I’ll \u00a0always try to follow their example by\u00a0making the most of each of life’s experiences.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0highlight of the morning was to be a visit to Manuel Antonio National Park, a nature habitat for the white face monkey, the rare squirrel monkey, and many tropical birds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-costarica-2016"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=664"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":675,"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions\/675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pisarro.org\/aboutnick\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}