Days 71 and 72 - Montezuma, Costa Rica

MONTEZUMA, COSTA RICA ( 13/03/09 & 14/03/09)

A great view to wake up to. Shame about the telephone wires but you can´t have everything for 10 pounds each a night!

Adam thought this bird had taken a fancy to him but it turned out it was just trying to steal his banana bread ( see cafe sign).

These pretty blue magpie-like birds have almost no fear. They tend to hang around restaurants and cafes trying to steal peoples food.

Our lunch of peanut butter rolls. Unfortunately the readily available Bimbo brand of bread is very similar to a real life bimbo- looks alright on the outside but inside is mostly air.

These brownish green crabs blend in perfectly with the rocks, but if you disturb them they wave their bright red claws to scare you away.

Some of the rocks close to the sea were absolutely covered in crabs of varying sizes. Liz is rapidly becoming a huge crab fan.

We decided to go for a long walk across the rocks and sand. It always pays to walk for an hour or so because very few other tourists seem to be bothered. When we got round to this picturesque beach it had virtually no one else on it.

Enjoying our seaside holiday.

The intense rays from the sun meant that some of the isolated rock pools were almost too hot to stand in.

For some reason the area around Montezuma felt like we were on an island even though we were on the mainland.

It was fascinating to watch the huge waves crashing against the rocks, we spent hours watching them.

Having a beautiful tropical beach all to yourselves is quite a special feeling.

If only we didn´t have to carry several litres of water to the more remote places. Although it does mean that the bag is always considerably lighter on the way home.

It was such a hot day we kept going in the the sea to cool down, taking advantage of what little breeze there was.

The mixture of ordinary and black volcanic sand made interesting patterns on the beach.

The land near the beach was so dry that very few plants other than cactii could grow there.

Having clambered over rocks in the hot sunshine we then realised that there was a shady path all the way back.

On the beach we spotted this cracked coconut full of smaller shells. On closer inspection, however, we realised that every single one of the smaller shells was a hermit crab feeding on the coconut.

There was a lot of drift wood on the beach, bleached white by the sun.

Dozens of palm trees added to the desert island feel of the secluded beaches.

A couple of long exposure shots of the sea at dusk.