Costa Rica 2020, Day 3
Thursday, February 20
On day three we headed over to Dominical for the first organized tour of our trip – an ocean kayak to see some caves with http://pineapplekayaktours.com. We arrived a bit early so we could walk around and maybe do a bit of shopping. Mike needed a hat and didn’t want to spend much on it, and eventually settled on a woven cowboy style hat. There was only one store on the main road and then some vendor’s stalls down closer to the beach. I picked up three cute dresses for our granddaughters. (fourth grand-daughter wasn’t born yet)
We had lunch at a small outdoor restaurant beside the tour company’s office. True to the no address rule, we were told we would find them beside the tourist police station.
We ended up having a private tour with Jovino as our guide. He drove us out to Ventanas beach and got us set up and lent us some hats to keep the sun off! These were actually the type of hat that Mike had been looking for.
Ventanas Beach
Jovino took a lot of time launching us into the waves as it was pretty rough and he wanted to make sure we didn’t tip over! (I did manage to tip over just before I got back to the beach!) Once we regrouped, we headed out to see the caves. Photos were included in the tour, which was a nice bonus. Mike bravely passed through the cave, even with the big waves. I decided to pass as I was feeling a bit seasick.
No, I did not hit Mike with my paddle and he did not tip over!
After we were done paddling, we explored the caves by the beach.
Ventanas beach is quite large and used by both locals and tourists. As with most beaches here, there is only an outhouse and no other facilities. That said, it is very beautiful and a great place to swim and play in the waves.
Not only did we see animals on this trip that were new to us, but also spiders and bugs. I’m not a big bug fan but took the opportunity to learn about them. We saw several Orb Spiders which make their webs with extremely strong silk. There were also a fair number of Cicadas. They are quite large – about 4 cm in length. We found this little Walking Leaf Katydid on our table. This is a tropical region so it is unavoidable. We also saw lots of Basilisks and Iguanas.
We finished the day with dinner and a drink by the pool!
Fun Fact: Native Costa Rican’s are called Tico’s. This is because they add tico to the end of a word to indicate that it is small.
Cindy Southgate's Travels 
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