We found the beach!: Manuel Antonio

I'm sorry I've taken so long to update this poor blog. I've had a few other blog worthy weekends that took up my time. Now I need to catch up on those too. This is kind of a good exercise for me though. It's refreshing to go back through these photos and remember the incredible trip we had just over a month ago. So now...the final installment of our trip to Costa Rica!

In a somewhat last ditch attempt to find a white sand beach with a lush jungle behind it, we made the decision to travel from Monteverde to Manuel Antonio. Manuel Antonio is a national park on the west coast that encompasses the most lush jungle, gorgeous beach, and sunshine. It was a full days drive south from the mountains of Monteverde. I want to describe what the road was like from Monteverde, but I don't have the words or pictures. I bounced around so much that it was impossible to hold onto anything, let alone a camera.

But once we arrived...we were in paradise!




And there's that coconut and that white sand we were looking for. This was the best way to end vacation. Up until this point it had been a frenzy of tours, shuttles, buses, hikes, and adventures. All of which were a blast, non of which were particularly relaxing. This was relaxing!



Let it go on the record! This is me wandering into the open water of the ocean on my own without any coaxing. Apparently I have the reputation of never going in any body of water without arm twisting and teasing. Ruth says she has many memories of me going to the beach in high school with jeans and shoes on. I don't often expose my skin to the sun, let alone the open water.

Lakes are cold! What can I say? This was not cold, this was like a cool bath tub amidst 100 degree heat. It was absolutely refreshing. I'll do it again someday, but not likely at Canoe beach in Salmon Arm. Too cold!



This male iguana was huge. And he was chasing this female...



...all over the beach and around our towel.

And this basilisk was watching intently.


What a gorgeous animal.

We scheduled an early morning hike through the park on our last day in Manuel Antonio. The park was like a zoo. It was full of wildlife! The tour guides were incredibly knowledgeable, and had the most amazing ability to spot animals through the dense forest.

I however had the amazing ability to not check the setting on my camera when ever any monkey landed directly in front of me. This photo was brought back from the dead. :(



A sleeping sloth!



The amazing stump bird. Shaped and colored like the end of a stump, so when it sleeps through the day on the end of an actual tree stump, it's completely camouflaged.

And this trip would not have been complete without bugs!



One of several amazing orb weaver or golden web spiders. They were huge and gorgeous, and everywhere!




This is what leaf cutter ants do to leaves. The leaf cutter ant was the one bug I didn't get to photograph. We saw some, but the pictures didn't turn out.



Touching this caterpillar would've caused a severe rash that would be painful and itchy. It warns you with it's color.

And this guy...oh this bug... was by far the largest wild bug I've ever seen in my life. I actually photographed it in La Fortuna but I thought I'd save it for last. It's a harlequin beetle. It's front legs are huge! It's leg span was easily the length of my forearm or longer! It's body was roughly the size of a wallet.



Amazing!

Well, we had one more banana colada before we left at one of the many beautiful, open air restaurants.


And while we were there, we were visited by a traveling pack of squirrel monkeys. A species we hadn't seen before. At first this little guy landed right in front of us, and I took a blaze of photos without checking the setting (once again). But I was still able to get a few good shots when I calmed down and realised he was going to stick around for a few minutes.



One of the females was carrying a tiny little baby around on her belly. Again with the baby theme!

Well that was our last experience in Manuel Antonio. From there we began the long drive north back to Playa Del Coco. Of course along the way, Ruth's hypocratic oath was put into practice as we came along a motorcycle accident on the side of the highway.



The wind blew him off his bike. Ruth held his head and neck steady until the paramedics arrived...and stood around on their cell phones for a while until more paramedics arrived. It made me thankful for our medical system, even though Costa Rica is probably far more advanced then most developing countries. The guy was in a lot of pain, but didn't seem to have any life altering injuries.

Two birds on the Costa Rican travelers 'check list' are the local Toucan, as well as the great Macaw's. Ruth caught a few glimpses of a toucan from our vehicles. We saw some from a distance in a sort of "there goes a touc- ah it's gone" kind of spotting. But at our final rest stop before Coco Beach, we actually saw a gaggle of Macaw's in the trees outside the gift shop. Blue and golds, as well as scarlett's. They were incredible to see wild like that..well right above the rest rooms anyway.



One... last...final...banana colada before we got on the plane. We enjoyed it in Ocotal, just a few minutes from the airport. We sipped and watched the sun set on our incredible adventure together.




And that was our trip to Costa Rica.

Since my original post, we received some photos from our friends that we met on our canyoneering adventure in La Fortuna. Martin and Catherine from Vienna, put their little digital camera at great risk in two zip lock bags, and took pictures of us all and sent them to us. Thank you guys so much for sending these! They're much better then our little disposable!

Ah. I want to go back.

One more photo of that incredible lizard on the beach!

The road to Monteverde

Here's the second installment of our Costa Rica trip. If I practice restraint, I should be able to get through our key photos and experiences in three blogposts. The second destination for our trip was Monteverde. Monteverde is a small town up in the cloud forests of the Guanacasta province. It was 6 hour trip from La Fortuna, but it was hard to leave that beautiful little town under the volcano.




We definitely needed to sit in our beautiful hotel and contemplate leaving La Fortuna over a Banana Colada.

Ruth? Are you ready?




I'm not ready yet. Let's just sit here a minute longer...






Ah, that place was really special. We'll have memories of Casa Da Luna in La Fortuna for many years to come. It was such a beautiful place to stay. So peaceful.

But the time came to say goodbye to the volcano as we boarded our ferry transfer to the mountain road that would lead us up into the cloudy jungles of Monteverde.




We transferred from the ferry into a small 15 passenger van that took us, several drunk college girls, and few backpacking hippies up the mountain roads.



I need to find the right simile that will best describe this road. Driving on the road to Monteverde isn't like driving in a van over an old mountain road full up wheel-deep potholes, it was like being inside a pop can being dragged behind a van driving up an old mountain road with wheel-deep potholes. I'm pretty sure I'm a few inches shorter from all the bouncing and compression on my spine.



At one point the van actually spun out in the gravel because the road was too steep. He turned around and asked three people to exit the van so he could make the hill. Ruth and I jumped out with another tourist and walked for bit and then hopped back in.




The farmers plant these beautiful 'living fences' along their property.


A few slurred college stories from the front seat, and debate about how best to store marajuana from the back seat, and we were there! We had just a few minutes to throw our luggage into our hotel and catch our first tour.

Can anyone guess what this little plant is?



It's root, is the literal root of the Lepp addiction.
It's berries were discovered by a shepherd in Ethiopia who noticed that when his sheep ate these little berries...



They seemed to have more energy, more bounce, and less need for sleep. It started as a tea, drank by monks to enable them to stay up late in prayer, until one day their storehouses burned down to reveal an the amazing aroma of the berry's roasted inner bean.



If you haven't guessed it, let's just say this is the first time Ruth has ever really had to work like this for her coffee.



This was the Don Juan coffee plantation, where we were able to pick coffee, and watch the coffee making process .

Each berry has two beans in it. If it has one, it's no good, if it has three, it's no good. It must have two. Once the beans are removed from the berry, they're spread out in the sun like this to dry.



Or in the greenhouse on the many rainy days in Monteverde.



The chaff is then removed from the bean with a mortar and pestle.



Then the chaff is separated from the bean through the use of 'man-made' wind.



The beans are then roasted for an exact amount of time. If they're in the roaster for 4 minutes too long, they're ruined. When the roaster is shut off, the beans are drained instantly and cooled.

And Ruth and I know how to do the rest, but we still let Don Juan do it for us...



Mind you, they have modern machines that make that whole process much easier today, but that was a very informative history of coffee.

The next day we drove up into the higher parts of the mountains to go Zip Lining. Also called a cloud forest "canopy tour".



Ruth has told me that she has a mild fear of heights.. that's her in the yellow jacket...



I don't know. It looks like she might be cured.

This was a fun experience. If it's not clear in the photos, it's basically a cable connecting two parts of the forest, you zip through the canopy and out above the forest on a pulley that you're harnessed to. It was a blast!



We followed up that little adventure at the Tree House cafe. A restaurant built around a huge tree.







Good times!

Well, we went to Costa Rica to see wildlife. But this is one creature we had no intention of seeing in the forest...



The Fer de Lance (Iron of the Spear). Someone in Costa Rica is bit by this venomous snake once a day. And for this reason, we chose to see this snake from behind glass at the serpatarium.

This snake is also the reason we chose to see frogs behind glass, because where the frogs in Costa Rica are prolific, so are the snakes their predators. The night tours and day hikes actually keep away from places where frogs are known to be in high numbers.



This is the green tree frog, an icon of Costa Rica.



Ah, the frog pond was cool.

Next we went to the butterfly gardens in Sevultura.








This is the morpheus butterfly. Another icon of Costa Rica. We saw some in La Fortuna but they were much harder to photograph when they're fluttering by. In the gardens they're captive bred and fed, so they're everywhere.



One of the popular hikes to do in Monteverde is the night hike in the children's forest reserve. We wait for the sun to set, we're all given flashlights and then we head out into the forest with a guide looking for creepy crawlies and sleeping birds. We saw a lot but it was hard to photograph in the dark.





Well that was Monteverde at a glance, we have so many more stories and photos, but I gotta cut it off somewhere. This was the view from our hotel in the clouds...




We left Monteverde headed for Manuel Antonio, six hours south. That was to be the last major stop in our trip. We were in search of a "paradise beach" on which we could sit on white sand and drink out of a coconut.

Until that post, here's some more sloth pics!