Day 10 - Tuesday March 11th

Top pic: Actually should be the last pic, taken at the beach of the beautiful sunsets they get here. Even more beautiful than Texas, believe it or not.
Middle pic: Arriving at the secluded beach to do some snorkeling. Jen is waving at Carmen, who had already been there for awhile.

Last pic: All of us chatting with our brother Heiner at the restaurant.

I went outside this morning before breakfast and checked my email, I found a spot a stones throw from our front door that I can get wifi, so no more need for the internet café! This morning we got up, ate breakfast and then headed down to a beach that Jen found in service yesterday. It is suppose to be really secluded and great for snorkeling. We had to park on the road and walk down but before we headed down we saw monkeys in the trees. That was Jen and Sam’s first contact with them! The beach was beautiful but on heading out to the reef where the snorkeling was suppose to be the best we realized that it might be too dangerous because it was low tide and the waves were coming in over the rocks, which could easily cause you to slam into them. After getting out a ways we decided it would be wise to call it off and head back to shore. At the shore were 2 good old boys from San Antonio, Texas who said they’d been to Costa Rice now 6 times and this is were they always come to snorkel and that they were going to attempt it. Sam and I watched them thinking they were going to get pounded, but they made it! So Chastity, Amanda and I went for it. There was a local out at the reef who had some food that he was feeding the fish . There were hundreds of these beautiful fish surrounding us. It was great!
From there we went to Costa Verde, a restaurant with this incredible view and a nice breeze. After eating we were taking some pictures and our waiter came over and asked me if we were brothers. Looking at Sam I said, “no, he’s just a friend, this is his wife Jen, that is my Chastity, and she is our friend Amanda”, he was still looking kind of confused when I realized he was asking if we were spiritual brothers….lol. I said, “oh, wait, you are a brother?” He was a local brother in the Spanish congregation named Heiner. After lunch we went down to Manuel Antonio beach and I rented a surfboard. After getting up on the board twice, I realized that the waves were just not for beginners so I switched to a boogie board. The waves were the biggest that we have seen yet, some of them were probably up to 10ft swells. Sam and I stayed in the water until sunset, as you can see in the pictures, just having too much fun!
After the beach we came home to change and then head to Nancy and Carmen’s place. On our way out all the local kids were outside playing and when they saw us they all came running. They practically attacked us. They all came running up and hugged all of us and then wanted to play. They were jumping on our backs and yelling, “no happy……si’ happy”. It was sad to have to leave them but we were already running late for the girls. Nancy and Carmen’s rental is very nice. We ate and played cards until 9:30pm. It started pouring rain just before we left and it is still pouring at 10:30pm. Time for bed!