Tag: Costa Rica

We left the Arenal area and set to drive for a good while under the sun, for a change.

We stopped by the side of the road as Vlad spotted monkeys in a tree, spider monkeys.

We made quite a detour to see the Catarata de Cortés, the prettiest waterfall I ever saw.

In its vicinity there was a little pool of water where no tourist was, that was populated by lizards, one of which was really big, grey, and crested from head to tail, possibly a basilisk.

We didn’t stay long as there was driving to do, but Vlad took a dip. On the road again, we quickly saw the change of vegetation and scenery as we were driving south. Less forest, more plaines.

We were in Tarcoles, our next stop, around 4 p.m. This place is famous for its long bridge under which many crocodiles rest.

We even saw an iguana.

We had a little more than two hours of daylight and hit the road again to reach a place between Quepos and Manuel Antonio. We arrived a bit after dark which comes a half hour after sunset. And then there was thunder and rain.

Fast forward to next day, a rainy day, but the one day we could visit the Manuel Antonio National Park. In a tree right next to our room there was a howler monkey.

We were advised to take a guided tour as only a guide could show us animals on this rainy day, but we didn’t feel like being with a guide and preferred being on our own, taking our time. We didn’t regret that choice. We saw so many animals!

A deer, a toucan, woodpeckers, a bird big as a pigeon with a red chest and a striped tail, butterflies, dragonflies, an urubu (red-headed vulture), hermit crabs, crabs, spider monkeys, a bird of prey which was all black, a female capuchin carrying her baby and which let us follow her for a while in the forest –a most magical experience!– and finally, a female sloth.

The Park also had lovely beaches. Vlad went in the water (I forgot my gear). As I was on the sand, I saw two raccoons.

The park closed at 4 p.m. It was still raining. We rewarded ourselves with drinks and a late lunch of snacks. I chose a mango rita, the most delicious cocktail I ever tasted.

---

See my Flickr album (241 photos).

The Arenal volcano is supposed to be active, although not to the point that there is lava flowing or explosions. What we saw is a lot of cloud activity around it! But on two occasions, the summit was clear enough that we saw the shape of it, and we distinguished two sources of fumes, like thin streams of clouds, except they were going in opposite direction from the clouds.

We’re staying at the Arenal Observatory Lodge. From the deck that faces the volcano, we tower above a lovely garden, that many animals inhabit. Mostly birds –including hummingbirds, toucans and oropendolas–, but also a coati or two and a couple of great curassows.

Yesterday we walked on a few of the trails around the lodge, reaching a river with old lava, a hanging bridge, a waterfall.

Today we went to the Arenal Hanging Bridges, a park of 600 acres of rainforest with 6 hanging bridges and numerous regular bridges, a trail of 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) that we “achieved” in slightly over 4 hours (possibly a world record of unspeed).

We saw a blue ara in the parking area. It flew noisily above us and landed close to us. Then it posed on top of a fence and even let us stand quite close.

Inside the park we saw lizards, ants, a few birds, two black squirrels, insects (not a lot, thankfully, there was one, somewhere between the ant and the wasp, that was as big as a little bird. Eek).

On the way back we stopped next to a field where cows were grazing. Or rather a breed of cows. They looked like zebus with ears like those of donkeys. Their head was very much like that of Jar-Jar Binks, in fact.

---

See my Flickr album (241 photos).

The visit to Volcan Poas almost happened. We drove on tracks and bumpy roads, passed through clouds and when we reached the entrance of the park, the cloud we were in was so thick that we made a U turn and went somewhere else instead. A wonderful place, La Paz waterfall gardens. In retrospect it’s too bad we wasted time earlier.

Highlights of La Paz waterfall gardens: walking in a giant aviary –including walking where toucans fly, seeing many kinds of snakes –including some of the most dangerous ones of Costa Rica, I walked among a myriad of butterflies, and of course the waterfalls.

We continued on bumpy roads and pretty good roads, but also very shaky ones (Vlad got to push the 4WD button on the dashboard) for 2.5 hours to reach the Arenal Observatory Lodge.

We arrived a bit after sundown. The Arenal appeared enshrouded in clouds too, I see a pattern here. We’ll see tomorrow if we see it. We’re here three nights. There are numerous hikes. But now, there is sleep to be had.

---

See my Flickr album (241 photos).

We are in Costa Rica and the place we are at tonight happens to have wifi, woohoo!
We landed in the afternoon, it was raining, but by the time we got outside it had stopped. We didn’t see much yet, as the sun sets slightly before 6 p.m. But we hear a lot from the outside! Insects, presumably. Many of them.

The flight was long but OK. Entertainment wasn’t so much provided by the in-flight TVs –there was one every five rows, attached from the ceiling, and while the list of films was impressive on paper, they showed only a couple. Instead, some of the entertainment was provided by a group of eleven Russian next to us, all males. The stewardess even took from them a big bottle of alcohol, and kept coming back, asking them to not stand in the aisle. There was this one massive guy, one as we see in movies, and he acted very much like he was either a body guard, or a handyman –or both. All of them looked Russian, to the exception of two old men, who looked British, and one teenager. The boy didn’t look like any of them, except he had blue eyes. The rest of our entertainment came from eating tray food, playing Angry Birds, listening to music, and sleeping. Sleeping wasn’t an issue. We went to bed real late the night before and woke up entirely too early.

Fast forward to the car rental place at a five-minute drive in shuttle from the San Jose airport. The people wanted us to rent a GPS and were amused that Vladimir refused because we’re using the program *he* wrote. Amused and doubtful. One of them repeated that there is only one GPS program that works in Costa Rica, because they don’t really have addresses there. Anyway. It took us where we wanted, all right.

Where we wanted is Tetual Norte, in Alajuela, not far from San Jose, and thirty kilometers away from Volcan Poas –where we’ll go tomorrow. We arrived shortly after sunset. The colours were really pretty and the noises from trees and bushes were pleasant. We ate an early dinner of Indian cuisine.

Here is an overview of our holiday:
Volcan Poas tomorrow morning and then to the Arenal where we’ll stay three days. Followed by two days near the Manuel Antonio Park, two days near the Parque Nacional Los Quetzales, three days in the Osa Peninsula near the Corcovado Park. We’ll then spend one last day near San Jose before we fly back in two weeks.

---

See my Flickr album (241 photos).