Just horsed around today. Both did some work this morning, then hung out downtown. The horses above were also horsing around, and so were these two on the beach — until somebody started bothering them:     Lastly, this mono (monkey) was making interesting sounds, so we got some audio for you. It’s capped off with a bird call at the end.   http://ourleapyear.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Monos.m4a   This...

We first met Lisa and Brookie a few days into our time here in Sámara, at the Friday afternoon farmer’s market. They were selling (delicious) popsicles under the name Pura Paleta, which literally translates as “pure ice pop” and is a fun play on the popular Tico phrase, pura vida. They have their umbrella, camping chairs and serious cooler set up across from Palí, the big grocery store...

This is Xinia — she teaches the cooking classes at our Spanish school. We saw her zoom past us the other day on the back of a moto while we were stopped on the side of the road gaping at a monkey balancing on telephone wire. We’re technically not students this week, but last week she told us we could come to cooking class anyway....

In between Playa Barrigona and Playa Sámara is Playa Buena Vista, a beach typically only accessible during low tide and because its river-locked. The woman we’re renting our bungalow from, Cindy, took us there today to check it out. When we arrived, we started on the other side of this muddy river. Since it was raining pretty heavily this morning, it was deeper than...

This is Dennis from Café Diriá showing us what a coffee cereza (cherry) looks like throughout its six-month maturation. We’re coffee addicts and coffee is one of Costa Rica’s top agricultural exports (the other two are pineapple and bananas), so we took a coffee tour with two of our classmates.     Don’t laugh at my shorts. I haven’t owned shorts like this since I was...

My dad said he hasn’t been seeing enough of Holly on the blog, so here she is! No, we don’t normally hold her leash so tightly — only when we want to take photos because she won’t stand still. Here she is after her afternoon walk. Look at those eyes! She’s got the wild in her. We usually take her up and down this...

We are stuffed with patacones, flattened slices of green plantains that are then fried and topped with black beans and guacamole. We made them in a cooking class this afternoon. They were so tasty that I didn’t even think of you guys and take a photo. Sorry! But don’t worry, I did some Google Image searching and they looked a little bit like this. Today...

One of the things that’s really neat about Costa Rica is la naturaleza — the nature. We’ve already showed you photos of the lush forests, secluded beaches and monkeys. There are also lots of critters, and not just scorpions. There are lizards and geckos, iguanas and bats, crabs and frogs. Just yesterday, we caught this crab trying to get into our house. There are also these...

Our classmate Christina invited us earlier this week to check out Playa Guiones, a few kilometers away from Nosara — one of the towns near Sámara. It’s a surfer area with lots of hostels and yoga studios, and she was planning to take a yoga class and check it out. We opted to tag along and check out the town. What we didn’t know...

Tonight we’re treating ourselves to some A/C. It has been HOT here, to the point where we’ve been sleeping very poorly, so we decided to live it up for a night. Other updates: Yes, Sámara looks like this at sunset. I almost don’t want to post the other photos I have because it’s just mean. But here’s one more.     One of our...

Just north of Sámara is a small beach called Playa Barrigona. It’s known because it’s only accessible via a bumpy dirt road and because Mel Gibson lives/lived there. Fortunately, he wasn’t around when Jose, Chris and I biked over there.     This is the smoothest part of the road. We also had to bike through a small river. But it was worth the...

Holly is feeling much better. She’s walking like a champ (well, she’s walking like a 15-year-old dog) and her little cough is almost gone. She thanks you for the well wishes. We’re enjoying the relaxed life here in Sámara. It’s nice being surrounded by so much lush vegetation! The tree above is right near our bungalow. The sun comes up around 5am and we’re...

Holly is one tough old bitch. Seriously. If I live to be as old and tough as her, it will be a great, great accomplishment. Nothing can stop her: not tacks, not rocks… …not scorpions. After a day that felt too good to be true, we had a real wild morning. Let me begin by saying that Costa Rica has a high standard of living,...

Arrived in Sámara yesterday evening and we are literally in paradise. It doesn’t feel real. We keep waiting for something bad to happen because it can’t really be this nice, can it? This is the bungalow where we’re staying.     Right?! It’s also the least expensive of all the places we’ve stayed so far, because we’re here at the beginning of the “green season”...