Day 6

Sadly, it was time to leave this most luxurious place.  

As I was checking out, Carlotta, the resident macaw flew in. She started playing with the attendant.

First she stole her pen.

 

Then she took some paper. I thought it was a nice farewell! Especially since I didn't get a picture of her the other night when we saw her. We also saw hero a power line the day before along a main road. Everyone was stopping to look. I had no idea it was the same bird. Turns out, macaws are not indigenous to this area but rather were found near the coast. Carlotta lives freely here on the grounds of the Nayara Springs. 

We headed to the coast where it was hot and sunny. Our driver today was Edwin. Along the way of our 4 hour drive, we stopped at a German bakery for pastries. He took us to a higher quality souvenir shop. I got  a Christmas ornament as I do whenever I travel somewhere new. And, he took us to a restaurant with local cuisine. We just wanted a little something to tide us over to dinner.  We invited him to lunch with us. He encouraged us to get the traditional Costa Rican lunch. None of us wanted that much food. He got it. There were 10 different things on the plate. He ate all of it---many things I could not identify.  Edwin said that Costa Ricans eat huge meals. His lunch was evidence of that.

We arrived at the Four Seasons Hotel. It’s gorgeous, but we already miss Nayara Springs. There’s just nothing like it ! Wish we were back! But, the Four Seasons is nothing to sneeze at. We’re ready for some relaxation.

After checking in---all the hotels have met us with wet towels and some sort of refreshing drink---we spent time settling in to our room. We spent a couple of hours on our balcony just enjoying all of the colorful birds---green and yellow parrots by the dozen, other little yellow birds and many we cannot identify. Karolyn got a laminated guide of the animals and birds---much like what our guides carried. We’re using it to identify some things.

We decided to do happy hour on our own balcony. We started with gin and tonics in the Broussards room. Then, we broke to get ready for dinner. While we were getting ready, a hotel attendant delivered two bottles of wine to us with a note. It was from Kensington tours apologizing for the lousy fishing trip. That was nice of them. A refund would have been nicer, but we’ll take the wine. Liquor prices at this hotel  are staggering. We couldn’t believe that we forgot to get something during all of our stops today.

Butch was so cute. He set up everything really nice to surprise Bruce and Karolyn. He put out some of our chocolate covered strawberries and some of the nut mix we brought from the other hotel. The maid came in to do our turn-down service and turned off the balcony lights and shut the door. After she left, Butch got everything ready again. He was hurrying me to get off the computer because “they’ll be here any minute!”

Bruce and Karolyn were indeed surprised! We figured we saved ourselves at least 50 or 60 dollars for one drink at the bar. We went down for dinner.. They had a live band which was nice. The food was really good, but we realized we easily could have split everything. That’s our plan for tomorrow night as we go to the fancy steak place. I don’t care if it makes us look cheap---it’s more about the size of the portions. It’s ridiculous. Halve the portions and halve the price! That’s what I say!!

This photo was a parking lot at the souvenir shop. I would LOVE to have this as my driveway. Awesome!