The last place on our tour was Samara. This is a fun small town with a beautiful beach. We stayed here for the last three full days. Is was a beautiful place to relax and enjoy the sun.
Our hotel room had hibiscus flowers all over. It was very festive, since they had just been picked that day.
And there was a little patio out the door with a hammock. The weather was great and the hammock was comfy!
There was a lovely pool, with a volleyball net and a swim up bar. We played and relaxed there, and enjoyed some chicken strips and fries at the bar while we sat in the pool and watched football.
The first morning it looked like this:
The air conditioner in our room wasn't working. We told the front desk and they went right away to fix it, and came back and told us it was fixed. When we went back later that night it was cooler in our room, although the air conditioner looked the same. We decided to believe them and went to bed. Then it got hotter. I woke up around 2 am because it was too hot, and I was annoyed that they told us it was working when it wasn't. Marc woke up as I was trying to mess with it, and we decided to go see if there was anyone at the front desk. The rooms were individual buildings, so we walked outside to the front desk (which was just an open pavilion basically). It was so peaceful out there, and the stars were shining much brighter than in Miami. There wasn't anyone at the desk of course, but there was a fan behind it. So we took the fan and left a note that said our AC still didn't work and they could have their fan back in the morning. We slept much better afterwards. When we returned it in the morning (in the pouring rain) they sent someone to fix the AC and it worked nicely the rest of the time. Marc's jeans that got drenched the first day finally had a chance to dry!
We had breakfast at the restaurant. Breakfast came with the tour, so we ordered two meals each. I had french toast and a fruit plate, Marc had pancakes and a Costa Rican breakfast which was pretty good. Then the rain cleared up and we went kayaking. It was a two person kayak, and it was fun to kayak together. We got pretty good I think. We were cruising and controlling it very well :)
We kayaked out to the island pictured behind us. It was perfect because of the clouds we didn't get too hot or sunburned. Though our faces still got a little red from the sun. On the island we snorkeled to look at the fish. It was really fun, because the guide told us to pick up the rocks and turn them over, because the fish love to come eat whats under the rocks. Marc had fun flipping the rocks, and I enjoyed watching the fish that came. He even uncovered a couple star fish. While we snorkeled, the guide cut up some delicious fresh pineapple and watermelon for us!
And then we kayaked back to the mainland.
Afterwards we got dressed and walked to town. It is illegal to close off beaches, so all the coastline is public land. This is good in part, because we could walk all the way to town, as long as it was low tide and we could cross the streams running into the ocean. We were able to do that without too hard of a time. 
The town was small and a little sketchy in some places, but it was fun. We got some tasty ice cream and lunch. It became a bit of a joke with the tour group that Marc always had an ice cream. Part of this probably came because every time we went out to eat everyone got a fancy drink, so we would get shakes or smoothies.
In town we met up with some people from our group, and took a taxi back with them. This was good because the tide was coming in and it would be more difficult to walk the beach back.
One of the tour members of the group (Tom, pictured below) had come by some extra alcohol from a group who was leaving and couldn't take it with them. So he invited everyone in the group over that night for a party with some different kinds of alcohol and pizza. We went by too, because they were a fun group. One of the guys in the group had asked if we were Mormons earlier in the tour and so we told him we were. He was really cool, because you never know how people respond to that, but he was excited and said he had friends who were Mormon and they were really neat people. I think he later shared that with the rest of the group, because during the whole tour people would offer us drinks, and talk about their drinks, but when we came to the party everyone just told us how good the fruit nectar was and that we should try that. :) They didn't even offer the alcohol to go in it. It was nice to have a group that was so accepting and fun.
You can see we got a little sun that day!
Below are the animals that ate with us. This bird was hilarious. He would fly to an empty table at the restaurant and steal the sugar packets, then fly up into the tree and open it, and then come get another packet.
Here are the male and female black iguana's who wanted to have breakfast with us. They came right up too us, until he was a little too close for me. Marc fed him a piece of fruit (which I recorded and the link is right below if you want to watch it), and so immediately after the female came up looking for some as well.
The rest of the next day we spent hanging out at the beach and the pool. Marc has been going through Ultimate withdrawals, because we haven't been able to play really at all since we moved to Miami. We packed a disc just in case we could play. It was fun to get out and play on the beach and in the water. This picture is cool, because he's throwing a disc, but his shadow looks like he's shooting a basket!
It was so peaceful and beautiful here. One of the ladies in our tour snapped this picture of us as we were walking along the beach. Thanks Gail!
The next day we walked along the beach into town again.
It was delightful to walk all the way into town with my shoes off!
The beach had tons of little holes along it. If we watched close enough we could see these guys scurrying into their holes in the blink of an eye as we walked by. This is the closest we got to one.
Marc couldn't resist taking a picture for his team. (The Colts)
Finally, the time had come. We shared a van with another couple back to the San Jose airport. This meant we saved almost $100! That was a nice surprise. Thanks Christa and Ben, it was fun to ride back with you!
And then, after paying a fee to leave the country. Yes, at the airport before you can check in you have to pay the government a fee to allow you to leave. Kind of weird I know, and dumb since it costs about $50. But then we were off, for our two and a half hour flight home. The flight was quick, and with JetBlue we had much more legroom than normal. I don't really like flying, but I didn't mind this at all.
Goodbye lovely Costa Rica, hello Florida!
That looks fantastic. Makes me want to go on a fun vacation.
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