Isla Tortuga, and our Beverly hill billys boat

This is a lapa, They call them lapas, Red Macaw many today at my house, this one is tame Here is What I call the Beverly Hill billy boat we rode on for the wedding in Isla Tortuga

Coming up to the island, OUR Beverly Hill Billy boat took for ever it should have been called TORTUGA INSTEAD OF THE ISLAND ( Tortuga =Turtle )

Aproaching the Island

We left at 7 am more or less, wadeing out in the beach at Playa Herradura, catching a small ponga that took us to this boat. I was thinking oh not so bad but after arriving to the island four hours later.. I had a change of heart, especially when I saw all the other boats that pulled up. Not only did we have a long trip but we had to wait out in the water some distant away from the shore in order for yet another ponga to take us all the beach. Waited about half an hour for that.. But it was nice once we got onto the island

This palm tree was on the upper deck along with a one arm mermaid and this guy who was one of the crew members. He probably just made that hat today to for the trip over. The boat was filled with the wedding party and guests, although they did not offer us even a glass of water. Not very organized. I tried to sleep some, as I got in late with Rossy the night before, waking me up at 6.00 am with only two and half hours of sleep.. he was trying to be cool the deck hand!

There she is the one arm Mermaid poor thing..at least put a sling on her! now your begging to understand why I called it The Beverly Hill Billys

Now your about to see why It was the Beverly Hill Billys boat, this is what we should have arrived in! This manta Ray flew past us as we waited for our other ponga with guests on deck drinking laughing.. music going and they glided right up on the beach the ramp came down and they all exited with out getting wet!! ok Next time Im going on that one!! OH MY GOD you should have seen Rossy and my mouth when that flew by, and all the other yatchs!

There is rossy we were laughing and thinking where did we go wrong??

We got to the island I was starving, I only ate some spaggetti sauce the night before little tiny bit with some meat, no pasta.. and then danced in the morning only time for a peice of toast. Four hours on the boat I wanted to eat this parrot. I was not asking everyone if they sold drinks of crackers anything I didn't know If could wait for the food for the weddding. It was prepared but they had to warm it and get it all ready that could be an hour.. so we walked about, I saw this parrot on the perch and told rossy lets bbq this Im starving she laughed alot at me.. We looked in the souveiner shop but no food. The beach was pretty the sand was white I found big peices of coral. The sun was partial it was cloudy and sunny perfect for tanning and laying out

As you can see it was a nice place, its only open in the day, walking the island is prohibited, you can only use the beach and that is it. There was a small place that sold food but wasnt ready till about 1:00 so we just laid out I drank some wine and wow got really tipsy fast!

The wedding was at 2:00 we had to leave at three so we were only there a couple of hours, shame to go all that way? stupid really.. that Boat really was a turtle

The weddings here are done by a lawyer not a minister, although you can have one a lawyer has to assist, they had one in Spanish a female, and one person translated in English because obvioulsy the Groom was a Gringo, marrying a Tica Here is the lovely couple.

I wandered about taking photos, many of us were but I think I got some good ones, We had a surprise brides maid show up but as you can see they were serious faced in this photo during the ceremony. It was fast maybe about ten minutes max, and she was done and off drinking champagne!!

Now don't get me wrong, but I wasn't impressed with the flowers, I was a high end wedding designer, of course this is Costa Rica But For crying out loud Gerbers??? that wilt in five minutes? And we have some of the most incredible tropical botanical flowers in the world. WHY NOT ORCHIDS AND baby gingers..???

The grounds were basically picnic areas but very pretty, I enjoyed it there I would like to return on a different boat soon and really hang out and snorkle and play.

This little darling is the daughter of the bride, she has three children, previous mariages.

She was adorable I tried to get as many shots as I could be she was camera shy. This shot was during the ceremony and she was wrapped up with looking at the surprise bridesmaid

Well here she is the surprise brides maid. This wild pig came strutting down the aisle on the path with roses, and then entered under the table of the ceremony. They said this is a sign of good luck , everyone was laughing the thing was pretty tame too.. use to the Island visitors. Wow first time I seen one of these! and the little girl too!

This is the other brides maid the older daughter of the bride, she picked her up so she wouldnt go after the pig

Well she did her part and said I guess the party is over and took off as soon as the ceremony was finished.. I thought this was so funny! And interesting too.. she was curious about what we were doing, not only just looking for food but curious.

Thats Rossy looking on as the finished up the ceremony I was walking around taking photos of everyone and every thing. It was a nice day, I enjoyed it as tired as I was I some how had forced some energy out of me.

The wedding was about over at this point and we were all just waiting for the kiss the attorney asked the all the questions and then they signed the papers. FAST AND QUICK Just like that done!

There they are again smiling now its about time for the kiss

Well I miss the kiss I was busy taking shots of the attorney and other people and so I missed it but this is the attorney.

He helped put the arch way up and build it out old palm leaves and some leaves, from a tree, pretty simple this wedding.

Here is the little darling again having fun with the flowers. She was so dang cute! I was in love with her

Here is rossy watching here play as you can see all of us were watching her

Isnt she adorable!!!

They tossed the bouquet and the gal that finally caugth it is a tica, she had to toss it five times kept throwing it over the side where this guy was.

The next bride and groom!