Another Nature Hike

Since we are so close to the Manuel Antonio National Park, we walked with Danny, our naturalist guide, on yet another nature walk.  And despite the fact that we have gone on four other hikes, we have seen different flora and fauna.

Danny showed us bats, birds (the best was the yellow throated toucan) and lizards and Susanna found a pretty green snake. We saw more howler monkeys and white faced monkeys, several sloths and a beautiful amorphous butterfly. The amorphous has irridesent blue wings but when they land they fold their wings and all you can see is the brown underside. 

At the end of the hike was the ocean and beautiful beaches.  The hotel sent towels, water and fresh fruit that we enjoyed after our swim. 

For our evening meal we took a cab into town and found a bar where we could enjoy the sunset and then had dinner at this fabulous seafood restaurant called "Z". We ordered a fish platter with enough fish to feed 6 but there was only 4 of us. We ate barracuda, Mahi Mahi, sea bass, tuna, salmon and ceviche!  Stuffed!

Last Stop - The Pacific Ocean

Today's journey was a six hour drive up and over the Costa Rican mountains, then down the Pacific coast to Quepos, a tourist area nea the Manuel Antonio National Park and some of the most beautiful beaches in Central America (or so they say). The road was narrow and very, very winding. Our driver pointed out banana plantations, sugarcane fields and miles and miles of ornamental plants and greenhouses.

Just before lunch we crossed a long bridge over a river full of crockodiles!  At first glance it looked like a log jam but on closer inspection we could make out their long snouts, broad backs with spikes and legs. They were amazing!  

We arrived at Hotel Parador after our driver negotiated the narrow, steep, curving roads of the coast that was packed with more hotels, souvenir shops, restaurants, bars, and cars!  It's a  tourists' destination!

Sky Adventures - Zip Line

Oh My Gosh!  We had the most amazing day!  When planning this trip, Susanna and I insisted that we try Ziplining. Both of our husbands were reluctant to do this but gave in to our pleas. This company took us up over 1000 meters above the forest. After one very short line to get us started we zipped along their highest wire followed by 6 more lines zig zagging across a very deep valley with wonderful views of Lake Arenal. The last and longest line, at 1/2 mile in length, ran between the trees not just over them. We had such an adrenaline rush, you wouldn't believe!!

Then, our bus driver took us to the very top of a very steep hill and dropped us off for a superb lunch at Benedictus. This house/ restaurant had a magnificent view of the valley and volcano plus wonderfully grilled steak and lamb along with a tasty Malbec wine. 

Mistico Hanging Bridges

All the leaves on trees and bushes in a rainforest have pointed ends. Do you know why?  Because they get so much moisture that they need a way for it to run off and not pool on the top of the leaf. This is just some of the information our naturalist, Marvin, passed on to us today as we walked along the forest floor then up to the treetops. Mistico is a privately owned reserve but the current owners are making a great effort to up grade the paths and keep everything in as natural state as possible.

We saw two 'Eyelash' vipers whose name comes from the two scales over each eye that look like eyelashes.  They are extremely poisonous!  We also saw a hooded lizard who was nearly invisible as it waited on a tree for its prey. Leaf cutter ants marched along or over the trail in several places. They cut the leaves from the tree tops, carry them back to the nest and then chew them into a paste which covers a certain fungus to preserve it. This fungus is their food, not the leaf as I always believed. And, of course, more birds!

The steel palm and broccoli tree were just two of several trees we studied from the ground and from the treetops. Another palm was called the walking palm since it put down roots in a way that moved the tree from one place to another. The broccoli tree has a beautiful, lacey, umbrella-like canopy and the steel palm has such huge palm branches that it held a prominent position in the eco-system. 

The hanging bridges were 50 to 330 meters tall and up to 30 meters long. We had to tread lightly to prevent the bridge from swinging. They offer a wonderful view of the forest from the top down. 

After naps we hired a taxi so we could explore the nearby town of La Fortunate. We found a $2 beer bar, souvineers shops, hikers' hostels and several interesting restaurants. We dined at a nice place that featured grilled meats. It turned out that the chef's wife works at the front desk of our resort. 

A Real Live Volcano!

A new adventure awaits as we moved to the interior of the Monteverdi Reserve.  It took two all-wheel drive cars to drive us on gravel roads to the Arenal Lake at the base of the Arenal Volcano.  A thirty minute boat ride and another 20 minute car ride and we are at the Hotel Arenal Manoa Resort and Spa.  The volcano is still considered an active one since it last spewed gases and lava in 1992 and still has steam excaping today.  The resort is made of individual casitas with views of the volcano, two pools, spa and restaurant.  The afternoon was spent relaxing and enjoying the amenities.

Santa Elena Cloud Forest

Our naturalist guide, Carlos, loves his job. He could hardly wait to get us in the van to drive to the hotel next to ours where a troop of white-faced, capuchin monkeys were playing and eating.  It was so much fun watching their antics and they have such cute faces!

It was a short ride to the Santa Elena Reserve which is owned by the Santa Elena school district.  It is about 5000 acres and is worked by the students as they study the bio-diverse cloud forest. Carlos was very good at spotting birds and then getting them in his spotting scope and taking pictures through the scope with our cameras. One of the first birds was a hawk.   

This forest was rich with trees covered from base to tree top with 20-30 different plants like philodendron, ferns, orchid, and many kinds of succulents.  Some trees will survive this way, others die inside of all that cover and others are toppled by the wind due to the heavy weight it carries.

This reserve is on the east or Caribbean side of the mountains so it gets lots of rain and cloud cover while forests on the Pacific side are drier and less dense. 

While the guys watched football or read by the pool, Susanna and I took in the Coffee, Chocolat and Sugar cane tour.  We picked the coffee berries, saw how the beans were removed from the pulp, dried, seperated from their papery cover and then roasted.  We rode in the oxcart which was used at one time to transport the coffee to market.  We then did the same this with the cocoa bean, learning how to open the cocoa pod, seperate out the beans, fermentment them before drying and crushing them.  Mixed with pepper, vanilla, or brown sugar and then trying the resutant concoction was the highlight of the tour.  We also tried fresh squeezed sugar cane.

Monteverde National Reserve

Monteverde was settled in 1951 by Quakers who were leaving the US to avoid the draft.  They chose Costa Rica because the government had abolished the army. They chose this region because it looked like a good place to raise cattle.  But 20 years later they decided that too many trees had been cut down by loggers and the natural beauty of the land needed to be preserved.  They established 4,000 acres for the reserve and added over 20,000 more that was then leased to the government for the reserve. Many scientists and conservationist study the flora and fauna. 

Our naturalist, Donald, was very good at spotting the birds native to this area and then directing us to  look in the trees for each one. He also had a spotting telescope for the times our binoculars were not good enough.  We walked about two miles total and saw the Costa Rican national bird - the  Resplendant Quetza - a green toucan, a blue bird of some sort, and macaws or parrots,a sloth.and an anole (lizard).  He lured a oranged kneed tarantula out of his hole and gave us lessons on the symbiotic nature of the trees, the need for water and bromiliads and orchids. 

Even though we are not huge birding fans, it was a very informative and interesting tour of the cloud forest. Near the entrance to the reserve was an area set aside for the hummingbirds of the forest and for coffe or hot chocolat for the humans.

On the Move

This morning we traveled from Tortuguero to San Jose to Monteverde.  The first leg was in a very small 6 seater airplane but the 6th seat was taken up with our luggage.  

It was a short flight over the clouds and mountains into San Jose where a driver picked us up in a mini-van and drove us 4 hours north and west to the Cloud Forest of Monteverde. The last 30 miles were all gravel, pretty rough, and real slow.  This area was developed in 1954 by a group of Quakers looking for a peaceful place to live.

This small community is full of hostels for the young hikers that flock to this area. We found a very nice restaurant for dinner after walking almost 3 miles to its old location.  But it was nice way to acquaint ourselves with our surroundings.

Kayaking in the Jungle

Our naturalist guide, Priscilla, led us in our kayaks up a large creek that empties into the Tortuguero River.  No motorized boats are allowed up this arm of the river so it was a very quiet and peaceful journey.  We saw several of the same animals as we saw yesterday from the motor boat but most were spotted by us and not the naturalist.  We watched spider monkeys climbing  up tree limbs and then suddenly dropping down to catch and swing on a lower branch.  John J. scared a Jesus Christ lizard so we could watch it 'walk' across the water.  

Priscilla and I eyed a long caiman (btw it is pronounced 'kye-man' in Spanish).  We learned that a particular tree with large hand-shaped leaves is the McDonalds of the jungle; another tree is hollow so that ants can live inside of it and keep parasites off the tree; and the fig tree has large, wide roots that help secure the sediment and mud to the river banks. A large peace lilly or calla lilly had a spider centered on its while flower making it look very special.

It rained off and on all morning but it is so nice and warm that no raincoats were used. It was very quite but occasionally we heard the howler monkeys, toucans, the spider monkeys and other birds.  We almost saw a river otter but he was too fast for our slow responses.  We also learned that a small orange snake will coil around certain flowers so that he can catch hummingbirds when they move in to get the flower's nectar.

The rest of the day was spent in leasure.  Thats easy to do when it is raining, warm and quiet.

Tortuguero National Park by Boat

Up early, again, but this time it was the howler monkeys who woke us up.  They are very loud!

We went on a 3.5 hour boat tour along the Tortuga river and into the Tortuguero National Park.  Our guide was hard to understand but he was very good at finding and pointing out the camouflaged wildlife along the river. It rained off and on during the boat ride but that is common in the rain forest/jungle.

We saw howler monkeys, toucans, anhinga (a bird), iguanas, the Jesus Christ lizard (he appears to walk on water by running very fast using his tail and hind legs), 3 caimans (related to the crockodile), spider monkeys, several varieties of heron & kingfishers, buzzards, perigrin falcon, the 3-toed sloth, a jungle porcupine, turtles, a crockodile, termite nests and wasps nests. We were not able to get pictures of most of these animals as they were too far away or in their natureal habitat and mostly hidden.  Our guide also pointed out and named some of the trees and flowers we saw.  It's an amazing world we live in!!

This afternoon we walked the beach of the Caribbean Sea for about 3 miles on black sand. So pretty. 

Tortuguero

UWe were up early today to catch our ride to the small-plane airport where we caught a 12-seater plane for the 20 minute flight out to the coast north and east of San Jose.  At the Tortuguero air strip we rode a boat across the river to Tortuga Lodge.

We were greeted with a big breakfast and then an orientation about our stay. Every thing here is open, there are no glass windows to close, no A/C, no enclosed rooms.  Our room is all screened windows and doors.  The dining hall is an open air patio with numberous ceiling fans.  We explored the resort, took and nap and ate lunch, then napped again.  That whole time it poured down rain!

Mid-afternoon we doned our complimentary rubber boots and our rain coats (its still raining) and took a self-guided walk along a path through the jungle.  Actually, we mucked our way through the jungle.  The whole path was underwater and muddy.  I didn't take a walking stick and wish I had, but I never lost my balance.  John's left boot leaked, making for an uncomfortable walk for him.  The mosquitoes attacked Susanna while her John walked along undetered by any adversity. I want to go back and do it again while trying to observe the jungle around me rather than concentrating on the path only.

A refreshing dip in the pool before supper then good food and rain rounds out our evening.

City Tour

The adventure began with a walking tour in the center of San Jose led by Carla, a college student and native of Costa Rica.  Since everyone in the city had escaped to the beaches for the Xmas to New Year's holiday, the streets were dirty but the number of people on the pedestrian way had increased considerably from yesterday since people were back at work.  The children were still on their summer vacation.

Our first stop was the Temple of Music. Young folks used to dance around the temple as a way of meeting possible mates.  Costa Rica fought with Spain for its independence in 1821 as did most of Central America.  In 1856 William Walker from Tennessee (yes, in the USA) tried to invade Costa Rica but was defeated by Juan Santa Maria.  The park held cork trees and coffee bushes, both important exports along with sugar cane, pineapple, bananas etc.  Nearby was a school made of metal in 1897 and is still in use as a school .  On the otherside of the park was a large building that could have been a fort but was a liquor factory established in 1853,  producing rum and gin and guaro which is a vodka like liquor made from sugar cane.  Today it houses the National Cultural Arts Center

A central plaza surrounds the National Theatre at ground level and the Gold Museum is a three tierd underground structure under the plaza.  As in most Central American cities there is the Central Market built in 1880, full of fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, breads, souvineers and cafes.  We tasted some of Costa Rica's prize winning coffee, ate Xmas tamales, and tasted ice cream made from the same recipe for over 100 years.

After a short siesta we caught a cab to the Barrio Escalante where many fine restaurants and bars are located.  The Beer Factory caught our attention first so we tried two of their craft beers. We also enjoyed a stroll around the neighborhood before dining at a very good Italian restaurant.  On the way back to the hotel another bar drew us in with a nice wine selection where we bought an excellent Argentinian Malbec that we took back to the hotel to enjoy as a nightcap.

San Jose, Costa Rica

After a flight that seemed to last forever, we arrived in San Jose where our guide from Costa Rica Expiditions met us at the airport and accompanied us to the Hotel Presidente. Along the way we learned that our 30 pounds of luggage includes our carry-on backpacks. So now we are each 12 pounds over weight for the rest of the trip. Anytime we fly or take a boat while here they will charge us a lot extra for being overweight or we may have to leave some stuff with Expiditions.

Our first stop was a local bar for frio cervese - cold beer!  A short exploration of the pedestrian road took us to an Argentina Steak House where we had a nice Malbec wine with tasty skirt steaks. We passed by this church on our way back to the hotel. 

It was a very early night for John and I !!

A New Adventure Begins

I took down the Xmas lights, undressed and stowed the Xmas tree and stored all the nutcrackers for another year. Now to pack for our next adventure - two weeks in Costa Rica with good friends John and Susanna. We gave an early flight so Sweet Dreams!!

All Roads Lead to Norman

Tuesday was spent hanging around our campground or fly fishing.  We built a big campfire but ended up retiring early due to rain. 

We left Cimarron Canyon and headed east on Wednesday. Even though it is only a 10 hour drive to our daughter's home in Norman we decided to take our time driving and make it a two day trip. As we rounded the corner in Pampa, Texas in the late afternoon, we came across their fairgrounds with nice sites so we spent the night next to the lake. 

That left us with a 4-hour drive today that turned into a 6-hour drive due to poor roads and detours around road construction. We will have a very busy weekend watching both grandsons play soccer and our son-in-law competing in a "Rugged Maniac" competition. Home beckons.

This has been a very busy two months but a wonderful time of the year to visit the Rocky Mountains from NM to CO. We may have to do this again sometime. 

In the meantime watch for our next adventure in early 2016.