Chilling at the Grand Papagayo

The weather has been fantastic.....sun, sun and well...more sun. How can you go wrong with that? The resort is also fantastic. The staff are very friendly and pretty attentive. The wildlife at the resort is incredible. Each morning we are woken up to the sweet sound of birds chirping. The temperature has been hot... highs of 33-36C and lows of 25C. Even first thing in the morning (ie 6am) there is no need for anything more than a tank top and shorts. There are plenty of activities to participate in if you want to keep yourself busy or relaxing on the beach or poolside. Playa Buena is the beach by the resort. All beaches in Costa Rica are public beaches. The tides vary each day and if you want to sit on the beach you have to be there during low tide otherwise the high tide covers all this beach's area. The sand is very compact and wet given the tide movements and at the water's edge you can find beautiful shells and unique small rocks.

With the resort being an all-inclusive you have access to free water activities such as stand up paddle boarding and kayaking. On our first day here Z went SUPing and had a great time until a boat pulling a banana boat created a large wake....needless to say Z ended up in the water and unfortunately also lost a very good pair of sunglasses to boot. Another benefit of staying at the resort is they have beach bar service delivered right to your beach chair, and the drinks here are poured quite generously.

There is some pretty awesome snorkelling right off the beach. During low tide, the water isn't that deep and you can get pretty far out and still stand up on the ocean bottom. Being in a bay the water is quite calm. We saw some pretty cool fish, including rainbow fish, puffer fish, and a water snake (and I didn't even freak out). The water isn't as crystal clear as you would find in other places but visibility was still pretty good. The water was amazing, bath water warm and there were several pockets pretty far off the beach that had quite hot water; we weren't sure if there were natural hot springs in these spots or what caused these pockets. It was strange because you could swim just a few feet over and the water was back to warm.

We enjoyed a sunset walk one evening to a look out point located about a 15 minute walk off the resort property. This vantage point provided the ideal spot to watch an incredible sunset with the ocean as the backdrop.

The serene setting of the resort leaves you with no cares in the world, only complete relaxation.