Our destination had no address, only directions. Granted, Playa Hermosa is only a handful of blocks long and since we were told the house we booked was next to a hotel, that narrowed it down considerably. Still, we weren't entirely sure we were standing at the right house, locked and surrounded by barbed wire, until we waved down a person inside who was, indeed, whew, the one we expected to meet.

Not sure what we, and our luggage, would have done otherwise (unless we had a really patient driver) but everything worked out! Hooray for the interwebs! The friendly keeper of the property gave us the tour, the keys, and a hug.

Then he left, promising to be back tomorrow. We filled the fridge, enjoyed the view, and divvied up the bedrooms. (Not knowing that one bedroom was next to the shrieking toilet! We only discovered later that turning off the water solved the mystery of high-pitched squeal.)

To be honest, the town -- and house -- felt less secure than our last two destinations. A reminder that we are indeed in a third-world country. But despite that, everything was as specified, enough rooms and beds for us all (couples, singles, & kids), and we were psyched!

Understanding the Spanish on the washer was the first challenge. Then dealing with the not-quite-cold-enough fridge. Solution: water bottles in the freezer until they froze, then put them in the fridge to act as a cooler. It worked! Our beverages chilled and our thirty eggs were safe.

We made use of the pool and finally went out to the beach. We were a little nervous since it was our first time in the ocean here and we'd heard concerns about the riptide; difficult to tell what was dangerous. As the light faded in a place we'd never been in, our concerns heightened. When it was too dark to swim, we hung out (safely) on the beach...

...taking a thousand photos of the sunset.

Just posting a few.

You're on a Costa Rican beach, what would you do? Well, you'd surf probably. But you're at a chill, quiet, non-surfing-wave-height cove. Now what?

First off, have a hearty egg breakfast of course!

Then, next, make sure you are stocked with beverages.

We took a walk through town, wandering through the neighborhood. (We found where the German Bakery truck lives! Tempted to go knock on that door...) We ran out of road pretty quick - not a big place - so turned around back to the "main drag." As we walked along the road by some restaurants and a small hotel or two, a random couple in a passing car greeted us. Not so random - turned out they recognized us from the hanging bridges tour! Coincidence! (Well, not a gigantic one or anything.) Some stray dogs wandered around as well, but didn't bother us too much.

Then we found a place to purchase some beverages, which was good because our short walk was already leaving us sweating.

The inside was mostly dark, likely to keep the store cool since there was no air conditioning.

The sand on the beach is fine, like the Jersey shore sand we're used to, except one minor difference: it's blacker. And therefore HOT. Luckily, a short run to the perfect-temperature water relieved our feet.

In a calmer tide than before, we jumped the waves, played frisbee, and I got a mud bath...

While sitting on the beach (with the sun DIRECTLY above, strange to us north-latitude type residents) my Mom and I were solicited by a man selling ceramics (holding multiple vases and bowls in his fingers), a woman selling jewelry, and another woman offering massages. The soliciting was not constant or aggressive, but a reminder that we are the "rich tourists." My brother-in-law didn't even get solicited once: the benefits of blending in.

We all, at one point, took the 15-20 minute walk to one end of the cove or the other (or both ends.) Our rented house was more-or-less in the center. A pleasant walk. Though be careful you do not linger too long or the high tide might block your beach route back!

Every hour is happy when you are vacationing on the beach! Brother's fiancee made guac (still no lemon juice) and as we munched, we enjoyed Mom's Iced Tea™ and our various beverages from the store. We ate and drank (passing food through the handy kitchen "serving window" thing) and taught the youngest family members the card game Hearts, though not the concept of shooting the moon yet.

By this time, we were in the habit of saying this, the most important of Costa Rican phrases:

The "pure" life, the good life, the simple life, the Costa Rican way of life.

It's so important, even beer cans have the reminder.

Our pool wasn't heated, but you really didn't need heat. Pretty much at any time during our stay, someone was enjoying the pool.

And not only family members....

Our iguana pals seemed unbothered by us (or the two resident cats) unless we came close, then they walked away.

They had three speeds: Completely still, slow-motion lope, and quick scurry. They liked to do the latter if I aimed a camera at them, though as soon as I changed to video mode, they went completely still, sigh.

When we first arrived at the house, the proprietors of the restaurant up the street welcomed us and said we should come eat over there.

So tonight after our happy hour at Casa Hermosa (in which Planter's Punch was the favorite order), we took their suggestion and walked to the Pescado Loco.

They were very welcoming! Considering we were the only patrons on this weeknight, they must have worked hard to prepare nine meals on demand. But first, they took our drink orders. Seeing our interest, they invited Mom to go behind the bar and sniff all their fancy rum! Folks ended up getting 12-year aged rum in pineapple juice YUM.

We were served the jumboest jumbo shrimp we'd ever seen along with garlic mahi mahi. Tasty, tasty. I let my niece borrow my phone to take photos around the restaurant. She found a cartoonish setting I didn't even know was there!

Our house's caretaker offers trips out on his boat (or someone's boat?) for snorkeling excursions. Initially, I was turned off by how hard he pushed his offerings, but in the end, I wanted to do a water activity while here, so I took him up on it. The negotiation involved lots of Spanish and eventually talking to his friend (who spoke English) on the phone, but we agreed on a 2.5-hour trip for $25/person.

Early the next morning, he arrived with another guy with a backpack who asked who the "jefe" was (turned out to be me since I arranged it and had the cash to pay) and then we walked down the beach a ways, where he tried to sell me a volcano trip (sigh.) Anyway, the six of us waded out to the little pink boat and climbed up into it.

As we skidded across the smooth water, our captain asked (as every guide / driver has) about my nonexistent husband and kids.

The morning sunshine was warm (with a sunrise at 4:30am, it gets high in the sky quick), but with the shaded top and wind from the boat, it felt nice. Our driver let my nephew do a bit of fishing. We sped out to the island we could see from the beach and slowly looped around it. Saw some cool flora! And fauna!

We settled into a spot recently vacated by fishing boat (so, lots of fish?) and not yet vacated by a bunch of pelicans.

Our driver got everyone equipped, then the snorkelers climbed down the ladder off the side of the boat into the warm water. Some cool snorkeling followed!

About forty-five minutes or so later, our driver called everyone back to the boat for a tasty treat. Same treat as we got at hanging bridges. No complaints here!

Afterward, our host joined the snorkelers (I stayed with the boat) and dove down, finding some wacky sea creatures to show the kids!

The wind picked up, so we moved to another spot. Then, he asked if we also wanted to do some fishing. Not sure if he just wanted to do some fishing or if patrons in the past have enjoyed this (or enjoyed eating the results?) Unclear. But we declined and headed back, where our remaining party met us on the shore!

During our last full day in the country of Costa Rica, we enjoyed some time on the beach and met our neighbors, who had a boogie board to borrow. Then, sitting in the sun (decidedly hotter than the previous few days), we admired skills of the pelicans who dive-bombed the ocean for food. We got good and sunburnt. (Being 4/20, maybe it's a good day to get baked? Har har.)

Mom said, "We have this leftover wine we should finish." We also had a half a watermelon and several strawberries. Conclusion: sangria!

We made more guac for our pre-happy hour, but this time, we put candles in the shape of "100" on it and sung happy birthday to Mom and Sister, whose combined ages will reach a century.

Because we're nerdy like that, we also sat and calculated that sometime later this year, the combined ages of Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother, Nephew, Niece, and I will reach 250!

We got our cards out, sat around the table, and continued our instruction, properly teaching how to "shoot the moon" as well as all the silly things you say to each other playing Hearts.

Niece promptly shot the moon.

Then Nephew lost his tooth.

Not sure which was more surprising!

Outside by the pool, we heard some unusual noises coming from above. Looking up, we spotted monkeys! A family, we think. A big papa monkey was making quite a racket in one tree, while in another a mama monkey swung from branch to branch, baby monkey following behind. (Hard to see in the photo, but we could see pretty well in real life.)

Dinner tonight was a restaurant three doors down on the beach. A meal with an ocean view at sunset is hard to top, even if they do not have 12-year-aged rum. We sat around a giant table. Niece and Nephew ordered in Spanish which was impressive, and our waiter literally replied, "Pura Vida" in response to everything we ordered.

We ate and enjoyed looking out at another gorgeous Costa Rican sunset.

After dinner, we had a nightcap (because one cannot have too many happy hours when on a beach vacation) and played boggle. A family tradition. The competition was brutal, as usual. I didn't win, but I got 42 points!

We dried out wet clothes on the pool chairs and enjoyed our last few hours in Playa Hermosa. Being Saturday, the beach was filled with families here for the weekend and vendors, the most we'd seen.

Nephew got some colones from the tooth fairy (must have been local) and since I like to leave a country with one of each kind of coin as a souvenir, we laid out what we had.

To fill in the missing coins in our collections, me and Nephew went back to the Super Dayi convenience store and found something cheap to buy to break the 2-mil bill. The lady at the counter was SUPER SWEET when she realized we were interested in the coins. As we paid, she laid one of each type out, told us what they were worth, and made sure we had one of each before departing.

Was there even a question?

The same driver promptly picked us up; good thing, because we still didn't have an address.

As we waited for each of our three flights to depart, we found a great spot by the giant fans and chatted until it was time for our epic trip to come to a close...