Riu Guanacaste Beach 2Wednesday was our beach day and the only day we didn’t have any activities pre-booked. Between the time difference and early sunrise we woke up bright and early and were off to check out the breakfast buffet. We were pleasantly surprised to see all of the things Francisco recommended available on the display including Gallo Pinto and guava. They also had a selection of fresh squeezed juices and fruit. I was surprised to discover that I really like the taste of Pineapple! It’s amazing how much fresher and more flavorful the fruit is there.

Riu Guanacaste BeachAfter breakfast we headed down to the beach and were immediately accosted by five different vendors selling tours and other activities – how annoying! We got some chairs and set up in the sun for the morning. I’m not sure if this is standard of all Costa Rican beaches but this beach had black sand (very hot on the bare feet) and had lots of broken shells and rocks in the water. We were hoping to do some snorkeling and sea kayaking but the sea was too rough and we were told “women and children” could not do any of the water sports. We still had fun playing in the water and jumping through the waves (read: getting knocked down.) I was done with the water when I looked in and realized there were hundreds of white/translucent fish swimming in the water and there was a big wave coming that was going to wash them all into me. EEEK.

RIu Guanacaste PoolTired of the beach and sad about the lack of water sports we decided to head into the pool. There our next activity fell into our lap. The activities director happened to walk by, “Ping Pong! Ping Pong?” After the prior days ping pong practice I realized this ping pong tournament would not be for me but it was right up Little Star’s alley. She signed up, joined the tournament and made friends with the director and all the other players. The interesting thing about an all inclusive resort is after a day or so you get to recognize the other people at the resort and make up stories about them in your mind. It seemed that most of the people staying at the Riu Guanacaste were local to Costa Rica or other Central American countries. So Little Star’s top opponent was a local gentleman who was traveling with his two small daughters. He didn’t speak much english but was very friendly and we became friends.

After Little Star’s impressive ping pong playing we were in dire need of getting out of the sun and re-hydrating. Into the lunch buffet we went and had some Tipical food (Tipical food is the local Costa Rican cuisine) including chicken rice. In the afternoon we rested some and then swam some more. As it got later in the evening we went to the lobby bar and ordered some Mojitos with the local rum and got more nachos for a snack to take back to our room to enjoy the view from our patio. We played our favorite card game, Monopoly Deals which I won many times! Overall a relaxing afternoon.

Riu Guanacaste RainOne of our big concerns going into this trip was that we were traveling in the rainy season and tropical rain is no joke. Saturday night we got our first sampling of this as the skies opened up and it downpoured for several hours. Fortunately, we didn’t really need to go anywhere and ate dinner at the Italian restaurant on site. The food here was average and the wine was not so great, but I don’t think you are supposed to drink wine in tropical countries, it just doesn’t keep right. After dinner we checked out the theatre where all of our friends (read: the staff) were now performing a show. We saw Byron the towel guy, Jo the activities director and JJ the social butterfly. We stuck around at the show for a bit, then wandered over to the casino to check that out. The casino was dead and not anything to write home about so we did not stick around long before heading back to turn in for the night.

Back to Day 1

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