Oh Costa Rica… you are such a paradox for us.

We love your drinkable water and not having to filter and buy pure water.
We hate your wind… your crazy, strong and relentless wind.
We love your friendly people, so many of whom speak English.
We hate your buses… the huge ones that look like tourist buses, whose drivers are apparently not accustomed to have cyclists in the roads and thus fail to give us as much space as we like.
We love how quiet your buses are, and how little exhaust they blast into our faces.
We hate your expensive hotels and food.
We love your camping options.

And the list goes on. We feel like Costa Rica is a completely different culture than what we have encountered in the rest of Central America. There are times when we almost feel like we are back in the States. We have been able to camp outside several hotels for a discounted rate, or even for free… which is great, since we’ve been toting this tent around for weeks without being able to use it very much!

We have also seen some fantastic beaches. We spent our first night on the coast across the street from the beach in Puerto Caldera, a non-touristy spot where we virtually had the whole beach to ourselves to play in the water and cook dinner and watch the sunset.

It's just not that often that you're on a beach and yours are the only footprints around!

The sunset we watched as we cooked dinner on the beach in Puerta Caldera.

On day 2 we rode into Jaco, a popular tourist spot, where we were able to stop in and do a zip-line canopy tour—awesome!

Bethany zipping away into the canopy!

And here we are on day three, near the beach at Manuel Antonio, staying in a hostel that has internet. We spent the day here to do some surfing and boogie boarding and enjoying the beach.

We rented a surfboard, and the guy there said Dave could also use one of the t-shirts they had as a rash guard. Then he handed Dave a Georgia Tech t-shirt! What are the odds of that? So we had to take a picture, along with the Tech hat he was already wearing.

Dave riding in a wave on the boogie board we rented.

From here, we should have about three more days in Costa Rica before the Panamanian border. It’s gone by so fast! Our flight from Panama City to Atlanta is on December 20, so we’re doing well on time. And in case you’re wondering, I (Bethany) am getting into the Christmas spirit by listening to Bing Crosby on my iPod as we roll along.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… everywhere you go!

We bought tortillas at the grocery store and discovered they were the Christmas version! Feliz Navidad!