Costa Rica

Our first evening in San Jose, Costa Rica at the Bougainvillea Hotel.

This a dream vacation to spend Spring Break 2013.

 

We met our guide, Marco "Tex" before dinner.  He decided that he would call me by my "Latina name", Juanita!!!  My family thought this hilarious because I have always complained about re-naming people using different languages.  

 Day 2- This morning we started off early (as we would every day here) at 7:30 AM.  Two hour drive from our hotel in San Jose to Arenal National Park- Silencio Reserve.

Pura Vida...we heard "everyone" say that ALL THE TIME.  So true!  It translates to Pure Life. 

It is so beautiful in Costa Rica.   

During this hike, we saw a gray hawk, white-collared manakin, spider monkeys, lots of birds and leaf-cutter ants.  No snake sightings during the week- gotta visit during the wet season for those! 

We were back in the van for an hour drive to lunch.
Listen closely and you'll hear the beautiful sounds from the rainforest....

We started off with yucca fritas (fried yucca) topped with smashed black beans and a very spicy hot sauce, pineapple and sour guava waters.  We all had the same lunch- garlic sea bass and rice.
Great Tican (Costa Rican) food all week.   Here is yucca fritas (fries made from the cassava- a root vegetable, native to South America).  We loved them with lime and a spicy salsa.  Traditional Rican food is beans, rice cabbage salad and meat, always with fried plantain on the side. 

 

 

We had a perfect view of the Arenal Volcano while we ate.

A short drive to a private reserve near El Castillo, on the north-facing slopes of the Cordillera de Tilaran was the Zipline trek. 

Here's Camille on one of her rides...

The cables ranged from 30 meters to 200 meters in height and 200-750 meters in length.  We were all most nervous for this experience.  There were 8 lines to ride.  

A great view of the volcano and Lake Arenal.

After a very long first day, we headed to our hotel for the next two nights stay- Arenal Observatory Lodge.  Below was right out from our patio door.

Tex, our guide, took us on a walk before dinner.  It was strange to walk through the forest of trees in the dark with only a flashlight.  We spotted two tarantulas, a rare white rat up in a tree, lizards, white scorpion and many other insects.

Day 3- My favorite adventure was on the agenda this morning.  We drove a short distance outside of La Fortuna to Pure Trek Canyoning.  We rappelled down four waterfalls.  We could have continued most of the afternoon.  There was a trek just getting to each of the waterfalls..up and down. 

Toucans (fruit loops) were all along the road in the trees.  Photo taken through telescope.

Our next stop was Vida Campesinos (the farm life) tour.  We arrived to make our own tortillas then to enjoy lunch.  After lunch, we were entertained by their youngest grand-daughter dancing a traditional dance.  The kids and I used the trapiche (sugar cane mill) to squeeze the juice from the sugar cane.  It was like squeezing juice from tree bark! Very sweet juice.  

Traditionally, the juice is fermented into "contrabanda" or guaro de cano.  

We milked a cow and toured the 150 types of plants grown on the property.

Next we drove to Fortuna Waterfall.  This fall has a 275 foot drop.  We had a long hike down...knowing that we would be climbing our way back out!  The falls were so strong that we could only swim in place.  It was so crowded as we left.

Sorry...my waterproof camera wouldn't allow me to rotate the picture (OR I couldn't figure how to)

The day ended at Eco Thermos Hot Springs.  The pools graduated in temperature.  It was a relaxing end to our day.  We stayed for a great Tican meal then back to bed to rest for another eventful day.

It was fun to spend time with Gallinita (our driver, seated next to Camille) and Tex (next to Ryan).

We enjoyed agua pina at almost every meal.

Day 4- Drive to Pacific Coast for our next 3 nights stay.  This was @ 4 hour drive.

We stopped at a little roadside cafe for break.  Macadamia nuts everywhere.  This area has had a large plantation.  Tasted two macadamia nut treats, coffee and agua pina (blended pineapple with water).

Kayak Jaco- outrigger canoe to small private beach, Playa Limoncita.  While we swam, our guides unloaded the canoe to set-up a table, chairs and lunch (ceviche was our fave).  

We stayed a while to enjoy the beach then paddled back to public beach and drove to our hotel, Clandestino Beach Resort.  The resort was VERY isolated.  We drove south to the small town of Parrito and even further south to Playa Palo Secco.  This road, like many, was only gravel.  It was a long, slow drive along the beautiful beach until we arrived. 

We were lucky to find a group of Capuchin (white-faced) monkeys along the road. 

Here's Clandestino Resort- our favorite place!  Unfortunately, we used the most bug spray here.

Above is a photo of our room.

Day 5- Manuel Antonio National Park. 

2 hour hike throught the park.  So hot and humid with many wonderful sightings of wildlife.

sloths, central american whip-tailed lizards, white-faced monkeys, howler monkeys, geckos, deer, eagle, bats, frogs, etc.  This is how we travelled all week.  Always with our packs...

Here's a video of a howler monkey.  You can hear Tex mimicking the sound of the monkey...

it was incredible hiking through the forest, hearing a sound then hiking to where the animal was.  It's a beautiful thing to find animals in their own habitat and not viewing them in a cage at the zoo.

We hiked to the look out of the ocean and beach below.

A teaser for our hike back down for a swim.

We spent an hour at Playa Tres then back into town for lunch a local place. 

We stopped for some fresh, coconut juice.  Much sweeter than any coconut from Whole Foods!

Day 6- Today we travelled to Los Campesinos Reserve.  It's a working farm of several families.  This was a 6 km hike (seemed like mostly all uphill).  Don Visai lives there and met us with his horse for the hike. The farmers all wore machetes strapped around their waists- like someone in the US would carry a pocket knife.  Camille rode the horse, Alex, first (and most of the hike).  She loves horses! 

This was the most heat and humidity we felt that week. 

Short break to get us a snack...manzanita agua.  They tasted like sweet apple-like pears. 

In this picture you can see the incline of the path.  

Below is the mimosa "sleeping plant".  Used in teas as muscle relaxant and sleep aid. 

We hiked all the way to the hanging bridge to swim below the waterfalls.  Lunch following.  We crossed the long hanging bridge...it began to rain.  It felt so good to hike in the rain after the high temps and humidity!

We hiked to Don Visai's home to be met by his wife, Dona Aurora with a special Easter treat, ground coconut w/ honey, cinnamon and cloves. 

Don Visai's house is very modest and losing ground, literally.  Six feet were lost in October due to heavy rain and mudslides.  Photo above is the view from his house.  We saw many webs full of Golden-Orb spiders.  They were close to 3 inches in diameter.  More monkey viewing...they travelled in groups of 8-12.  We stopped for long time to watch them climb/ jump through the trees above us.

Camille loves this!!!

Stayed in Parrita with Tex and our driver, Gallinita for dinner and few games of pool.

Day 7-  Last day...Slept in!  Drove to Tarcoles River to see the crocodiles.  They looked like pieces of wood...until we got closer.

To Atenas for typico comido (Tican food) at La Casita del Cafe (little coffee house) and a great view of the coffee plants scattering the hills.  I couldn't help but think of the coffee commercials of Don Juan walking the hills with his donkey picking coffee beans.  This was it!  Beautiful.

Spent last night back in San Jose before travel home in the morning. 

We were sad to say goodbye to our new friends, Tex and Gallinita (our driver).