A typical Nosara day for our family

My day started early – the kids were up at 5:45am – their new “usual” – and I got up soon after. Unfortunately, Rylan had woken up his sisters (he said he did not wake them up, he just started singing when he woke up and they just happened to wake up soon after), and this had meant a couple of grumpy girls for their first hour awake. I decided to skip my run and do yoga later that morning so I could help get the kids back to a happy state.

My parents had planned a morning at the beach with a picnic lunch, so I helped get them all packed up with sandwiches and more. They took lots of beach toys and towels, and left early enough that they got one of only two shaded spots at the beach. They were there all morning and well into the afternoon!

Meanwhile, Tim and I stayed at the house and took care of work. At 9am I went over to the Harmony Hotel to do their “Harmony Yoga” session – my third one since we’ve been in town. I have really enjoyed it, and yesterday’s was particularly fun because the attendees were all pretty comfortable with the yoga positions, so the teacher challenged us a little more than usual. I also learned, from my first session there, that while the outdoor classroom is beautiful and tranquil with jungle, ponds and waterfalls surrounding it, that it is also rampant with mosquitoes. I got about 30 bites on the back of my legs during my first class (newbie tip: make sure to thoroughly put mosquito repellent on your skin and clothes when exercising in the jungle). I have since managed mosquite bite prevention much better and went from having received over 60 bites my first week, to getting only a handful in the last 5 days.

Walking back from a relaxing and invigorating yoga session, I walked by the weekly farmer’s market and bought myself a coconut for a drink. Enjoying the sounds of the ocean, birds, and jungle around, I couldn’t help but think how grateful I was for moments like these.

The kids and grandparents came back well after lunch time, full of stories of how they played in the waves, built sand structures with tunnels, and found sand dollars in the surf! Very animated and worn out from the day, we let them relax on the sofa with a movie for some downtime.

In the morning, we also got a call from our property manager that the Arribada (turtle nesting time) just north of us at Playa Ostional, had begun. I was thrilled because I had read that the  turtles usually came to shore just before the new moon, and that time had already passed earlier this month. So, apparently its not so tied to the new moon and luckily someone let us know!

We headed out to Playa Ostional before sunset — this was advised to us to go while it was still daylight, but near the night time, since the turtles usually come during the night, but we are likely to see a few if we arrive just before nightfall. Tim also was looking forward to the USA vs. Costa Rica soccer game at 6pm, so we were trying to fit both in with our outing, planning to stop at a restaurant on the way back from seeing the turtles.

While the town of Ostional seems close on the map, and is one of the closest towns to Nosara, we were surprised to learn, during our drive, just how the quality of road can affect how “close” another town is. The roads leading into Nosara from the south are pretty smooth, but once you head to the less traveled roads to the north, they become very bumpy! We also foudn ourselves crossing several small rivers during the short 12km drive – each one progressively deeper! We were thankful that it hadn’t rained much recently, nor threatened to rain, as I wouldn’t have wanted to risk driving through the rivers had it been much deeper. Turns out half the adventure of going to see the turtles is driving there!

We did get to see one turtle, who had indeed come ashore to lay eggs, then we watched as she buried her eggs thoroughly (quite impressive a task) and headed back out to swim into the ocean. The guides told us that there were about 300 turtles that had come and laid eggs the night before, and there are reports of hundreds of thousands of turtles coming during a single 5-7 day Arribada… unfortunately unless you are very adventurous to come out at night, it is hard to see many turtles at once. We were satisfied with our one turtle siting and headed back before it go too dark.

With three hungry and tired kids and rivers and bumpy roads on our return, we headed into the north side of Playa Guiones (Nosara) with the darkness descending upon us. Tim and I managed to navigate straight to our destination for dinner (despite my mom in the car behind us being sure we were lost — you’d think it with the twisty, jungle-strewn lonesome streets we had to navigate). We had a scrumptious meal at the KayaSol hotel, where the kids, much to the adult’s approval, agreed to sit at their own table next to ours. I had Mahi Mahi with a mango salsa, vegetables and potatoes, my dad had a Red Snapper (and literally had the entire fish on his dinner plate), Tim had Tuna and my mom an Alfredo with shrimp – every one of us was entirely satisfied with our meal and the prices. I don’t know if we’ve ever had such success with ordering new foods on vacation and ending up with such delicious new finds as we have in Nosara, another reason we will recommend this town for other travelers and hope to return! Tim got to see the second half of his soccer game, we enjoyed drinks and lots of seafood, and the kids woofed down their selections from the kid’s meal and ice cream for dessert.

Back at home, at 8:30pm (which often feels like 10pm since the sun starts to go down around 5:30pm here), the kids, Tim and myself all called it a day and went straight to bed.

Wildlife sightings today:

A very large rock iguana climbing up the tree in our backyard, one sea turtle at Playa Ostional, crabs along the beach trail at Playa Guiones, hermit crabs at the beach, numerous birds, and Birdie, the neighborhood dog who visits when we are cooking and we’ve come to adopt as our vacation dog.

Weather:

Sunny, hot and humid all day.