Pura Vida - Costa Rica

I'm taking a vacation in Costa Rica this week. My oldest daughter surfs and had visited the Mal Pais area in Costa Rica before so this time the rest of the family tagged along. Due to some misadventures, we spent over 3 days in transit on the way here so I didn't get much running done in the airports. Once we got to Santa Teresa (stayed at Casa Zen), I got out the shoes and ran up the road to Cobano which we traveled on the way into town. There was a light rain at the time so I was able to run at least 20k (which included a nice climb) without a water bottle in the afternoon. On the way back down, I stopped at a gas station which had a spigot and got a drink. The next day we went to Montezuma to ride the zip lines and I didn't get in a run although we hiked a hill that was pretty steep. However the day after that, I tried this road in town which looked pretty steep. Looks were not deceiving and it was a lot longer climb than I had hoped! I doubled that in the morning and had shorts that were completely soaked with sweat. I ran it again that night and again the next morning (today). We are now in Tamarindo and the hostel manager referred me to some routes just across the street from the hostel (Chocolate Hostel) so I just got in from a tour of those. I have seen some howler monkeys during my runs. They've just given off little barks when I see them. But at night and in the morning, they can be really loud. They sound something like a semi-truck skidding if you hear them at a distance. Anyway, Costa Rica has plenty of hill work available.