Costa Rica: The Wrap-Up

This is my last post about our trip--I promise! New Year's Eve was pretty interesting. We had heard that it could get pretty crazy and we were excited to watch it. But we went downtown at about 10:30 and there was hardly anyone there! So we made our way to the beach and there were quite a few people out on the beach having BBQs and picnics and stuff. About 11:30 or so, the whole town came down to the beach and there were huge bonfires and everyone was letting off fireworks. The thing I liked most was that the whole family was there...from the old grannies to the little kids.

We're not quite sure when exactly it was midnight because one minute one group of people would start cheering and then a few minutes later another group would start. Most of the hotels along the beach had firework shows and everyone else was also letting off fireworks, so it was a 360-degree firework show. It was pretty cool.

The funniest part was that at about 11:40 or so, the power went out. In the whole town. For about 2 hours. So after midnight, people were just out dancing in the street and they were burning random things for light. We saw a chair being burned on a street corner. Since the bars had no power, everyone was just out in the street by their cars--playing music and using the light from their cars. It was pretty funny. We left about 1 or so before it got too crazy. The power came back on about 2 am. It definately was a new experience ringing in the new year!

I had never seen a black sand beach before and there was one about 10 minutes from our condo. I loved it...it was so pretty. The waves were HUGE and it was fun to watch the surfers.

And we found another hammock to relax in while watching the sunset.

There's nothing like laying in a hammock and seeing this...

And this....
Here are some funny signs we saw.

Anyway, that about wraps it up.