September 26: Three months up...time to exit the country

It's hard to believe we've been in Costa Rica three months already.  The time is going very fast and as we've settled into the school routine the days seem to go by quickly.  What that means for us is that we need to leave the country for 72 hours every three months in order to enter back in for another 90 days.

Today we left Quepos in a rental car and headed north toward the town of Liberia, which is on the way to Nicaragua.  On the way, we stopped in the town of Cañas for lunch (you'll hear about this town again on Sept 28th's post).

The unique characteristic of the cathedral in Cañas is that it's covered entirely in mosaic tile.

 Five kilometers beyond Cañas we visited Las Pumas Rescue Center, a center for rescued animals, including many wild cats native to Costa Rica.  The kids loved seeing pumas, jaguars, ocelots, monkeys, scarlet macaws, parrots and a variety of other rescued animals.

Our lodging destination tonight is a working horse and cattle ranch:

We didn't have the time or money to do any of the extras but the hacienda offers horse back riding, ziplining, rafting, and 'cowboy for a day' activities.

No matter where we go in Costa Rica the views and vegetation seem to be beautiful.  In the Guanacaste province where we are now there are many pretty Guanacaste trees (like the big one in these two pics)