Costa Rica ABC's

A- Amazing and active, Arenal's apex appeared after ages


B- Boogie boarding on the beach beneath big breakers


C- Cerro Chato, a challenging cardiac climb to a crater


D- Driving down dirt roads, dusty and dry


E- Emily!!! Exciting albeit ephemeral, experiencing everything with her


F- Face to face with fantastic flora and fauna


G- Grazing ganado beneath the green Guanacaste (tree)


H- Horseback riding high on a hillside


I- Iced coffee or ice cream after sweating incessantly


J- Julia jubilantly joins our jamboree


K- Kilometers of caretera criss-crossing the country


L- Large lizards laying on logs listlessly lapping up light


M- Mischievous maraudering monkeys make off with munchies from mindless madames


N- Noseeums nibbling naked limbs, nearly neurotic from itching


O- Ogling at Oro Pendula, often orchestrating oblong nests


P- Pieces of pineapple and papaya while playing in the pool


Q- Queso on crackers or cooked with casado


R- Ratatouille roasted in Robert's own recipe


S- Scrabble: strategically set spellings signal success




T- Thermal Hotsprings: torrid temperature, totally tranquilo


U- Under the bridge ugly crocodiles usurp unsuspecting ungulates


V- Volcano Viewing, linda vista


W- Wonderful weather, wind free with warm sunshine and worriless skies


X- X-cellent X-perience but X-cited to go home


Y- Why did I try to write this?


Z- Ziplining: zooming from mountain to mountain

Volcan Arenal

Here we are at Volcan Arenal. The area is stunningly beautiful and feels unlike any other place in Costa Rica. It is SOOO green! Not just in the National Park/preserve area but all around. There is this huge man-made lake that spreads out in front of the perfectly conical volcano. The Volcano has been shrouded in clouds for the past month but, with a stroke of good luck, has decided to show its face the past couple of days. On our drive up here from Nosara we had to circumnavigate most of the lake. The golden afternoon sun kissed the lush green Bavarian-like hills. The clean lake reflected the blue sky and the volcano had a halo of clouds at the very top. Our first full day here we walked around in the Arenal National Park. You don't get to get too close to this still active volcano but we did do some scrambling on lava rocks and could here the pleasant rumble of the molten rock boiling out of volcano. It fondly reminded me of the sound of Dzeda's coffee maker. In the afternoon we hiked to the La Fortuna Waterfall which was also beautiful. The Finkels arrived in the evening and we ate dinner with them. I soothed my bug bites in the hot tub that night while Emily and I caught up on the 9 months of life in which I have been out of the country.

Today we visited the local Mariposario/Ranario. In the afternoon we went Ziplining with Sky Trek. We took a tram up to the top of a hill and zoomed down across over 8km of zipline back to the bottom. Supposedly we reached speeds of 50mph, but I am not positive. The ziplining (again) was super fun. It is just fast/high enough to be thrilling but secure and no free-falls to not be scary at all. So it's basically FUN FUN FUN.

This evening at dinner we got to see a lava show from the volcano. The clouds had cleared and the volcano burped up quite a bit of glowing orange rock that rolls and flows down the hillside. Pretty Spectacular.

Monkey Business

We spent the past four days in Nosara covered in dust or salt water. Nosara is a small town in Guanacaste on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. We rented a stylish glass house called "monkey business" and true to its word we saw a flock of howler monkeys in the trees right outside our house every day. In the afternoon they would migrate across the trees, swinging and climbing.In the evening they would howl which was pretty cool and sounds like a deep manly dog bark. The sound of the howler monkeys, however, was nothing compared to the cicadas which right at dusk began screeching. It sounded something like a high-pitch electrical hum.


The water was wonderfully warm, and though the beach attracts many surfers, the waves weren't too big so swimming in the water was nice. Abba and I threw Frisbee and though we were on the shore the wind wasn't too strong. Of course, we also took long walks on the beach both midday and at sunset. Mom and I even got the courage to ask about taking surf lessons, but they were all booked. After we asked at the next surf school and got turned down because the instructor was on holiday, we decided it was a sign we weren't meant to surf. We did some body surfing, which I am pretty abysmal at. Uncle Walt will have to show me and mom some techniques...We also ate at a delicious sandwich/ice cream shop that seemed to be transplanted to Costa Rica right out of Berkeley!

On another day we rode bikes out to Playa Ostional (a beach in the other direction). We started the bike ride early (at like 7am) and were still dripping buckets of sweat a couple minutes into it. Biking was fun even though my bike had no brakes and broken gears. The bumpy dirt roads vibrated like crazy; it made me feel all shook up for the rest of the day. Luckily there were not that many cars so we didn't have to inhale their clouds of dust that billow up behind them.

On Thursday we walked around this biological reserve that flanked the shores of Nosara River. Again we kept most of our activity early in the morning and took a nice long siesta midday. I got a lot of reading done. I started and finished reading the Reader a book by some German guy that Alexis just saw the movie in German. It was a sort of strange book, but a good break from the other book I am reading, Hot, Flat and Crowded, which is a pretty disturbing book about the environmental/political global crisis we are in.
In the evening I took a short run on the beach in the sunset and then dove in the water to cool off. It was as amazing as it was cliche.

Tonight we are at the Arenal Volcano and I eagerly await Emily's arrival tomorrow evening.

Catarata de San Luis

Today was our last full day here in Monteverde and we leave tomorrow at 8am. These next two weeks will be our 'traveling time' in Costa Rica. We are spending one night in San Jose to pick up a rental car and go over to the Pacific Peninsula of Guanacaste and spend some time at Nossara Beach. Then (and this is what I am looking forward to most) we will head over to Arenal Volcano and meet up with Emily (one of my closest friends from High School) and her parents Bob and Amy Finkel! We will spend about 4 nights in Arenal and then head together to Manuel Antonio National Park for another 4 nights. It will be so nice to have company to come along with us...one of my complaints about Costa Rica is the loneliness/isolation I feel. Obviously mom and abba are great company, but since we had each other we did not integrate into our surrounding community. I think we have been plagued with this disconnected feeling that has floated along with us for the past two months. I think having friends along will really liven up our adventures. It's going to be especially nice to connect with the Finkels who have uprooted from their Oakland home, and for the past two years, have been living in Aix, France. I think Emily and my parents will have a LOT to commiserate about living abroad.


Anyways today we went to visit the San Luis Waterfall. A couple of kilometers down the hill from Monteverde seemed like a world of difference. The short hike reminded me of Yosemite as we traipsed across erratic boulders to cross a river multiple times. The day was gorgeous, the sun was shining but it was not too hot. The hike culminated at this impressive waterfall that was two teared like a small version of Yosemite falls. We sat in front of the falls and ate a picnic 'lunch.' And I put lunch in quotes because as is mom's style we have been working on eating all the food left in the house so as not to have to cart it around/throw it away. Lunch consisted of one potato per person, and 'sandwiches' consisting of a slice of bread with a slice of tomato. It may sound a bit bland and starchy but it was in fact delicious.

We walked back all the way home which meant climbing this HUGE mountain to get back up to Monteverde. Luckily I am used to hills these days...The views were also stunning since there was not a cloud in the sky. At the top we treated ourselves to Monteverde's own special ice cream mmm mmm.

Best of the Bichos

Compiling all of our photographic skills and camera zooms, here are 33 photographable animal sightings around Costa Rica. They range from cute and cuddly to downright disgusting, from mundane to awesome, and gigantic to itty bitty:

Famous Morpho Butterfly (very hard to photograph because they rarely open their wings when they aren't flying)


Mischievous White Faced Cappuchin Monkey about to steal Bananas from the corner store

Howler Monkey (Mono Congo)


Leaf Cutter Ants (who cut as much vegetation in a day as a cow eats!)


Atlas Beetle (2nd heaviest beetle in the world, and yes it is about 5 inches in length)


Millipede



Beetle with cool antenae


The SCORPION that we found strolling over the wrinkles in the sheets in the dead center of Mom and Abba's bed yesterday


Coati Mundi (relative to the North American Racoon)


Olingo stealing nectar from a humming bird feeder


The Tapir (google-image Tapir to get an idea of what this strange half-ton elephant crossed with pig looks like)


Poison Dart Frog endemic to the Osa Peninsula and very rare to see

Gaudy Leaf Frog, this frog is not poisonous although it is nocturnal

Red and Green Poison Dart Frog


Leaping Lizards! (Slender Anole) These guys leaped like crazy if you got near


Iguana


Highly Poisonous eyelash viper (very small)


Caiman

Sandcrab. These guys are super shy, they crack me up


Dolphins


Cow (afterall, Monteverde is based upon the dairy industry)

Horses


Three toed sloth


Grey Fox

Bare-Throated Tiger-Heron

Oro Pendula Birds and their intricately woven nests


Pava Negra (Black Guan)


Violet Sabrewing Hummingbird


Hummingbird Nest with 2 eggs

Roufus Tailed Hummingbird taking a little rest


Emerald Toucanette


Scarlet Macaw


Quetzal! This special iridescent bird is not easy to spot. We saw them this weekend up in the Monteverde Cloud Forest where they migrate through at this time of year. We saw were three males who were sort of fighting and one female who looks the same except she does not have the ruby red chest)


(taken through binoculars)

Osa Peninsula

This week mom and I went down to the famed Osa Peninsula. Its a big Peninsula in the south of Costa Rica that sticks out into the Pacific Ocean and, according to National Geographic, one of the most bio diverse areas in the world.

Getting there is no easy task (especially from Monteverde). We had to bus to San Jose, spend the night and catch an early flight there. Luckily in San Jose we stopped at a book store (since I've read through almost all my books I brought) and got Harry Potter Y El Misterio del Principe--Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in SPANISH! It is great fun to read. Since I know in advance everything that happens, I can figure out all the vocabulary I don't already know. (I have already learned some words that I have heard in real conversation...super cool). I can tell its a really good exercise for my Spanish.

The flight to Osa is in this itty bitty 18-seater plane with huge windows. It wasn't nearly as turbulent as we expected. The 38min flight was definitely worth it because even though it was loads more expensive than land transportation we save a lot of time/energy. Land transport would have required some 8 hour bus ride, a night in some town, and a turbulent morning boat...in each direction!

We were staying in Drake Bay (also known as Agujitas). A small village that consisted of a dirt road with a Pulperia a multipurpose Restaurant (that also did laundry and sold ice cream), a few houses, a few more cabinas, and an elementary school. That afternoon mom and I walked along this trail that parallels the shore. We had to cross this rickety foot bridge and on it we noticed a bunch of White face Cappuchin monkeys swinging, eating and playing. Most were on the opposite side of the River but one was still in a tree on our side. It was clear that he wanted to get across via the bridge but was scared because we were standing there. So we sat down and he crossed right above us.

On Wednesday we woke up early for our tour of Corcovado National Park. It takes over an hour by boat to reach La Sirena Ranger station which is located in the center of the park. With a guide we spent all morning slowly walking along the trails. Rumor had it that this place was burgeoning with animals at every step. Unfortunately Corcovado had not seen rain in over 2 months so the whole forest was very dry and hot and thus the animals were conserving their activity. We did see: Spider monkeys, Kuwati, giant grass hoppers, red macaws, wild turkeys, currasow, and (this was the most exciting) a Tapir. The tapir was just resting in the shade of some dead brambles, so we couldn't really see its face but we had seen some fresh footprints (they are huge) and I really wanted to see the actual guy, and we finally did! We evidently just missed seeing a Puma mom and her two cubs because as we were getting back on a boat to leave we ran into another group that said the Pumas were walking right in front of them for about 15 minutes!

Instead of going back to town we had the boat drop us off at Playa San Josecitos. This gorgeous and tranquil little beach. Though mom and I didn't have our bathing suits we were so hot and sweaty and the water was so clear and calm we had to take a dip in our ropa interior. We collected a few more shells for the jewelery business, messed around with some hermit crabs (of every shape and size that populate every beach), and then walked the 6 miles back. In
the heat of the afternoon the walk felt really long, though it was remarkable gorgeous half through forest half along the sandy beaches. It was also nice to walk with some speed since all the hiking we do in the forest is slow and for the sake of animal sightings. We got ice cream as soon as we got back and the sweet cold dessert has never tasted so good.



Thursday we went snorkeling in Isla de Cano. On the boat ride over to the Island we saw some Dolphins playing. The morning snorkeling was sort of lame. The water wasn't too clear and the waves sort of choppy, and a few people who were with us got stung by some jellyfish. Even while I was in the water I began to get a little sea sick. So we headed back to shore for a lunch break and to let the tide go down some more. Mom was feeling too ill to get back on the boat to do more snorkeling after lunch, but I went and it was a lot better. The water was clearer, we were swimming over some coral reefs and I got to see tons of Parrot fish, some puffer fish, clown fish, and some other tropically iridescence fish. I even saw a small shark!



Our flight left at noon on Friday, but since we had been waking up before six (to the cacophony of parrots and other birds at dawn), we had quite a bit of time to do more stuff on Friday. We went with Don Jorge and Martin on a frog hike. On the only originally preserved land left in the Drake Bay area mom and I, equipped with knee-high rubber boots hiked along the river with our two guides. We got to see 3 different poison dart frogs that are SOOO cute! They are about the size of your pinky finger nail and are impossible to spot by the untrained eye. But these guys were experts and we saw a whole bunch. The frogs get their name because some indigenous tribes used to touch the tips of their arrows to the frogs skin to pick up some poison to hunt. The poison is a neurotoxin that paralyzes your muscles if it comes in contact with your blood. The frogs get their toxicity from eating ants, and it turns out if you raise these frogs in captivity and feed them other insects, they will loose their poison. We also got to watch a three-toed sloth (we have only seen 2-toed ones up until now) climb around, scratch himself and clean his nails.

The rest of the day was just a long series of well-timed transportation. From taxi to airplane to taxi to bus all the way back to Monteverde. Monteverde welcomed us with even worse winds and rain. Abba said the weather had been bad all week and he was definitely glad to see us back home.

P.S. True to the Lonely Planet's Danger's and Annoyances caution about Osa and our care to wear long pants, mom and I brought home at least 10 ticks!