A rugged land of mountainous beauty, towering volcanoes, long stretches of brunette sand, dense, damp, vibrant rainforests, exotic wilderness, birds of paradise, and a continental divide. That's Costa Rica land of PuraVida.
12/12/14 - Chicago to San Jose & Vara Blanca
The rain was pouring cats and dogs as we drove up the winding road, twisting and turning, slowly overcoming the altitude of 5,000 feet above sea level. As the evanescent sunlit sky gave way to the nebulous night, the pitter patter of the raindrops blended with the swish swash of the windshield wipers, creating a calm, soothing, peaceful atmosphere. Little did we know,that the calm rythm was preparing us for the wild, rip-roaring, spine-tingling, zestful, hair-raising adventures tucked deep into the recesses of Costa Rica's rainforests. For people from the prairies, it was a hair raising drive. Kudos to my dad for being an awesome driver. We went to sleep dreaming about hummingbirds and the native Costa Rican critters that the preeminent La Paz Waterfall Garden would bring us.
12/13/14 - Vara Blanca to Arenal
While we devoured our much needed breakfast for the upcoming day, a chirpy, gleeful humming bird zipped in to say its usual "Hello Good Morning !" to the lodge owner. A genial Costa Rican placed the chirpy bird in my cupped hands. The minuscule bird danced in my hands, eager to get out and soar to it's freedom.
We visited the grand La Paz garden in the central highland cloud forests of Costa Rica.
A beautiful array of colorful butterflies fluttered across the room as we entered. Dolefully, I seemed to be an insect repellant, for not one butterfly landed on me. As we were about to leave, a beautiful red and black butterfly settled on my leg as if to say good bye.
Chestnut mandible and keeled bill Toucan were everywhere, dominating the area as if it was their own land, snatching papaya out of peoples' bowls. Well..it wasn't really the toucan's fault ...people were feeding them.
A baby monkey was smashing watermelon on a branch. It tried and failed hopelessly to get a succulent piece of watermelon from the rind. An older monkey scampered past the baby with a bunch of bananas. The baby, suddenly disinterested with the watermelon, left its play and made for bananas..only to be shooed away. This childish act was a scene nobody could obliterate from their mind..
A giant boa constrictor laid in the man's hands as he handed it to me. It's scaly belly pulsed in my hands as the three of us held the gargantuan snake.
Pairs of blazing orange eyes stared at me from behind the glass partitions..A young puma, baby ocelots and leopards inhabited the cages.
An iota of colors whizzed by on to the nearest nectar field...Did you know that the iridescent gorgeous colors of humming birds are not because of the pigments but the refraction of light?
Pristine water tumbled down jagged rocks into a rushing stream of water, stretching far into the sunset.
After an animating and provocative day exploring LaPaz, we made our way to Arenal.
Night Hike: We set out to explore the nearby jungle to meet the amphibians of Costa Rica. Gawking in amazement we followed the guide through the canopy of trees, beams of light from our flashlights pierced through the pitch darkness. I strained my eyes to catch a glimpse of the many critters hidden from plain sight, snakes camouflaging to get it's prey, and exotic flowers and their fragrance. As we got accustomed to the dark, we began to see, "froggy with blue jeans" everywhere.
The exciting experience set my hopes high on what we would experience on this trip.
12/14/14 - Arenal
Arenal Suspension bridges Mistico: Thick foliage bloomed around the edges of the trails as we hiked up the trail to the first suspension bridge. The park had installed 15 sturdy suspension bridges through the rain forest, giving tourists, a bird's eye view. We walked the bridges, taking pictures of the natural surroundings and waterfalls, listening to the rushing of streams gurgling below, and the continuous chipper of the birds up above. Halfway through our trek, we came across the Arenal Volcano, standing proud and regal with fluffy clouds topping it's high peak like a crown, and greenery surrounding it like a king's loyal subject. As we finished our walk, tall trees with thick bark and years of plants,vines, and moss snaking up its rough thick bark, flourished on either side.
The chocolate tour left me drooling for fresh Costa Rican chocolate. At the tour, they explained the evolution of chocolate, how it came to be and the process of turning it from raw cacao beans to the rich chocolate we savor today. Breaking open the fruit of cacao, they took out the cacao beans cocooned by cacao butter that tasted faintly like watermelon rind. After taking out the beans, they dried the beans which after a few days, smelled rotten. Using beans that were pre-dried, we smashed them into smithereens. To get rid of the husks of the beans, we poured it back and forth in a bowl while blowing. When there were no more husks in the bowl, the guide ground it into a fresh powder, adding a few ingredients to make the chocolate smooth and soft. Man, the base chocolate was so bitter! They even let us make our own soft chocolate with toppings of our choice. Since the ancient civilizations used the cacao beans as currency, they gave us a bag full of the beans either to "buy" chocolates or to keep. What a yummy experience!
We departed from the chocolate plantation and went to the breath-taking La Fortuna waterfall. La Fortuna sat at the base of Cerro Chato Volcano. Climbing down the grueling 400+ steps, we got to splash for a while in the pool around the waterfall before going back home.
12/15/14 - Arenal
We woke up very early to greet and meet the country's native birds. We started the day's adventure with a bird tour filled with turkey vultures, parrots, hummingbirds, robins, a laughing falcon and armies of leaf-cutter ants.
We went on a panoramic drive to the Arenal Volcano National Park where a hike captured the mountain's majesty. Along the way, we found metamorphic, igneous, and sedimentary rocks. A band of leaf-cutter ants crossed our trail. I found out that there are 4 ranks in an ant colony. The Queen, soldier ants, farmer ants, and weak farmer ants. The soldier's job is to spread pheromones for the farmers who were blind and smelled with their feet back to the hole. They have to re-spread the pheromones whenever the path is destructed by a human( example: using a stick, draw a line through the path and you will start to see the neat little row of ants scatter as panic erupts. Then the soldier ants come back to re-spread the pheromones.) The farmer's job is to bring leaves down to were the weak farmers would bring them back to the hole. Sometimes the ants will sit on the leaf. Many people consider the ants lazy and that they are just hitching a ride. They do this because sometimes parasites lay their eggs on the leafs and when they hatch inside an ant colony, they will eat all the ants' food and the colony will disappear. So the ants on the leaf will battle to death with the parasite so that the colony can stay alive. Since a colony is all female, the queen from each colony will come out on a special day and so will the lone males in the forest. They will mate, the queen will collect the fertilizer and the male will die.
After an interesting hike with our very knowledgeable guide, we drove to a hot springs near by and took a nice, warm dip and went for dinner. Afterwards we got ice cream, gum and other goodies and the whole city of Arenal went to sleep.
12/16/14 Arenal - Monteverde
Moving day. We moved from our place in Arenal to Monteverde to experience the cloud forests. Through our scenic drive of wonder, we spotted a farm filled with keel billed toucans happily demanding and devouring papaya and a Crested Guan standing proudly at the side of the road. As we drove through, we took panoramic pictures of the pulchritudinous scenery.
We stopped by a tea house for tea, but we were in for a pleasant surprise when hundreds of colorful hummingbirds buzzed gaily in the courtyard and whizzed past us.
After unloading at our resort, we headed off for our Monteverde adventure. It was beginning to get dark as we pulled to a stop at the designated start of the hike. The guide handed out flashlights before asking a few questions. Q&A Q:How does a cricket hear? A:With it's feet. Q: What do bats eat? A: Fruit, insects, mammals, fish, etc. As we walked into the deep, dense forest, the guide began to point out birds like the Swainsons Thrush and Wood Thrush. The forest held many creatures in different sizes, shapes, and colors ranging from a frog as TINY as my thumbnail to a GIANT orange elbow tarantula, the size of my hand! As we neared glowing mushrooms the guide had us turn of our flashlights. After our eyes adjusted, a faint glow emitted from the group of fungi. As we walked through a narrow trail, a government of army ants crossed our trail. Their vicious stings were soon revealed as a huge portion of the group got bitten. As we made our way up, the guide introduced us to the darkness of the jungle. He had us make a human chain and switch of our flashlights. I was so scared I could hear my heart thumping in my chest. Suddenly, everything around me was pitch black. You could not even make out the faint outline of the person in front of you! Scared talk from the group came from behind the line. After what seemed like an eternity, lights began to flicker on. We continued the rest of the hike with an abundant supply of light ( it was not much but after a few minutes of pitch black, any light was fine.) On our way out we saw a couple of bats and a walking stick (the creature).
12/17/14 - Monteverde
I woke up bleary eyed to hear my mom say, " Wake up sleepy heads, you don't want to miss horseback riding do you?" Horseback riding!!?? We hurried and got ready.. in a few we were on the road that our tires had ran over the day before. We mounted up on our beautiful horses as the guide introduced horses to us. The guide showed us how to use the reins but told us we would not need it because they would follow the lead horse( the guide's horse of course.) He gave us sticks to give the horse a light tap to get the horse moving. Soon we were riding in a line with our horses, stick in one hand, reins on the other, up and down the mountain. We trotted into a big, open, clearing where the horses stopped to feed and we got to race them around the field. My horse kept stopping to eat and I found myself using the stick more than I thought. Such a nice outing.
Ziplining through the cloud forest... We snapped on our gear and headed off for the practice run. " What if I don't like it," I worried aloud. "Don't worry, you can take the stairs back down if you don't like it" my mom said. The practice was nauseating. As soon as my feet touched the platform, I asked my dad if I could go back down. "Sorry, once you go, you have to finish" he said. My hands began to feel clammy. "How many 'lines are there" I asked. "12." "You will be fine" he answered. " Anyway, there are some partner 'lines " he said. And so the countdown began as I zipped through the clouds, taking a bite for snack.
Hmmm... this experience was not so pleasant...
We picnicked by the continental divide and suddenly rain started pouring on us. I got so much used to the rain.. that I loved it very much ( I usually don't like to get wet in rain ) !
12/18/14 Monteverde - Manuel Antonio
We geared up to explore the Quepos region. The drive was long and boring and boy what a change in weather! Wet and moist to sunny and warm ! On our way we saw clumps of people clinging to the guard rail and looking down into the river. With something that got this much attraction, my mom dragged us to see the commotion. My eyes popped out as we looked down. The water had turned a light sienna color and the texture was bumpy. We were not looking at water, but a bed of at least 20 alligators. A nearby shopkeeper threw chunks of meat to get the beasts in action and amuse tourists. As we watched the sleeping logs open their massive jaws for a bite of food, we got a clear look at the reptiles. They were about 10 feet at the largest and the smallest, about 7 feet.
We decided to explore a transitional forest ( between dry forests of Quepos and rainforest of Arenal and Monteverde ) in Carara. Our guide took us through not so visited trails that had small swamps, tall logs and a thick plantation. The guide had a huge telescope for viewing birds and the other creatures that took the forest as a home. We spotted a lot of colorful birds and heard their music drifting down from the tree tops breaking the thick silence of the jungle. We also saw a ton of monkeys, a baby was clinging to it's mom while the mom descended a tree to investigate us from a safe distance. The guide set his telescope to the right position and let us peer into the lenses to see them!
As the sun began to shine it's last rays of fading light, we checked in to our resort and raced towards the roaring waves of the beach. At the beach, we thew off our slippers and ran barefooted, the smooth, pearly, sand getting between my toes. Suddenly, I saw something red protruding from the sand. And wiggling! Startled we moved closer to get a better look and found ourself staring at a beached starfish that had washed up with the tide. My dad slid a stick under the starfish and carried back to the ocean where it belonged. After we washed, we settled into the pool to swim around and enjoy the rest of the day.
12/19/14 - Manuel Antonio
Dry forests of Costa Rica, what do you have in store for us? We first decided to take A SELF GUIDED TOUR! After days of being promised sloth viewing each tour we went on, my dad had had enough. " I want sloth!" A lot of commotion drew us in and we saw sloths! Sloths on the day we had no guide! As we continued down, we spotted a sign saying " Beach". We took a turn and ran onto the pier where we settled down. Calm, shallow waves lapped on to the beach as farther in the distance, huge waves rolled into soft, calm waves that met the sand inches from our feet. We immediately splashed into the warm waves. The sun, instead of it's usually vigor, relaxed and shone brightly. My dad sat on a tree, not willing to come into the water. " Hey, who's the sloth eating all of our bars" my mom asked pointing at my dad? So even when the sun dissolved, our appetite for play wasn't. Eager to explore I rounded the corner and came face to face or should I say, page to page with a library! One of my third grade favorites was assuring me delight so I grabbed it and sunk in to a couple minutes of word time. I was jolted out of my world of reading when my parents told us to grab our slippers so we could go walk on the beach.
12/20/14 Sanjose to Chicago
The dreadful last day was here... Today we were leaving Costa Rica. Sunny, Tropical, Cloudy, Rainy, Chilly, Beautiful Costa Rica. :( . I surely will miss Casado's and fried bananas in sugar cane juice.
We quickly got ready and and hopped into the car for last minute souvenir shopping. We found some exquisite necklaces with butterfly pendents and toucan and butterfly earrings along with a free Costa Rica bracelet and 2 shirts that read "Costa Rica Pura Vida''.
We hurried to the airport to board our plane to Chicago. Back to blankets and blankets of fresh chilly snow. Bye bye sandy,warm beaches!
