MQ Sabbaticaling Fall 2021

What an adventure we had today! We were asked to be at the office at 6:30am, where we booked our snorkeling tour, to catch the van to get to the 1.5 hour boat ride to Cano Island. The morning got off to a rocky start when there was no van to pick us up! After some calling and waiting and apparent miscommunication... the driver (Irish James) found us and drove us to our tour just as the boat was leaving.  Cano Island is  a designated biological reserve so there are regulations in place to protect it. Because of this status and its location away from the shore the clarity can be awesome. And marine life plentiful.  Think dolphins, turtles, puffer fish, angel fish, parrotfish, an d more. So much more that I’m not even sure of everything we saw today. We got to the dock and went onto the boat and joined 10-15 other people (we were the only Americans). The boat started going not too fast but fast through the mangroves. Then the driver starts going really fast once we were thro...

We started the morning headed to Uvita to get Bam into a surf lesson. Running a little late, we ended up having to push the lesson to the afternoon. With our morning freed up, we decided to head back to the waterfall Cascada El Pavon. Last night we had ALOT of rainfall, so the current was even stronger today and the water was definitely more crisp than the previous time we came. We met a lovely family from LA, and after several attempts, we determined it was too hard to try to get behind the falls and should come back if we had the opportunity when there wasn't rain the night before.  After lunch at Restaurant Laureles, we headed to Uvita360 for Bam's surf lesson. We followed Dennis, the surf instructor, to Playa Colonia, a beautiful beach part of Marino Ballena national park. It was a perfect quiet afternoon of surf, sun, and relaxation.  After the beach, we decided to find a mirador to watch the sunset and eat and early dinner. We ended up at La Parcela in Dominicalito. Litt...

While we knew Manuel Antonio was going to be busy, we opted to go to this national park to hopefully see birds, monkeys and sloths! After an early morning hour drive from Uvita, we ended up at Manuel Antonio National Park. It was a beautiful morning in the park, not too hot or cloudy. We went to the line in the park and realized we couldn’t buy tickets there, so we got the tickets at a tourist office and get a guide. Our tour guide was Evelyn, she was so knowledgeable.  We got in to the park and Evelyn told us about the different trails at the map at the front of the park. We went down the sloth trail, she said it was the trail where we could see the most animals 😉. At the very beginning our tour, Evelyn put down her telescope and aimed it right for something in a tree. We look inside and it is a Howler Monkey. Every few steps, Evelyn would set up the telescope and show us all kinds of animals: iguanas, spiders, grasshoppers, bats all at close range. Then she says, okay, look up-...

This was our first full day and Uvita and we wanted to see it by day and explore one of the waterfalls. So after a lazy morning, we headed out to this waterfall.  Cascada El Pavon is a bit south of Uvita and we definitely needed a car to get there. The road is unpaved (once you turn off the highway) and it’s a good 10-15 minutes down this road before you reach it. We eventually come upon a sign on the left hand side of the road pointing to a path down to the waterfall. We simply parked along the side of the road.   After a short walk, there she was- Cascasda El Pavon. This beautiful waterfall with a boulder sitting at the top of the fall. There were only two other families there, so it wasn't too crowded. The water seemed safe for swimming so Bam and Kevin went into the water. I decided to wade in the water and watch. We saw a man go behind the waterfall the boys braved to go behind the falls as well. Kevin tried it before Bam because he wanted to know how hard it was....