- Feeding the Crocs - by *Hand*
- Dancing Show Before Dinner
- The Whole Tour Group
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Guanacaste to San Jose
- Feeding the Crocs - by *Hand*
- Dancing Show Before Dinner
- The Whole Tour Group
GUANACASTE TO SAN JOSE
Tuesday March 20
We left our beautiful resort after breakfast. On our journey Juan told us to look for signs for "Beano de Cajoles". Apparently it is a fruit juice made from certain palm trees. However, if you drink this particular juice and then go out in the sun, you start to ferment and you get drunk. The effect can last up to 3 days. If your drunken state starts to wear off, you just go out into the sun and start to ferment all over again!
We had a stretch break and a lunch break. Anytime Anton leaves the bus without his money pouch, that is the time Frankie sees something she wants to buy. If he would just bring the money pouch every time, she wouldn't want to buy anything!
We took an afternoon crocodile jungle cruise on the Tarcoles River through some mangrove reserves. We saw some macaws, and some really neat birds called yellow-headed caracaras. Our guide could not pronounce the word "yellow", so he called them "jello-headed caracaras". We had several crocodile sightings. The driver hopped out of our boat with some raw chicken and slapped the water until the crocodile came and snatched it out of his hand. Amazing! He did this with three different crocodiles. The last one was named Tyson and was 40 years old. Absolutely huge. He made an iguana go scurrying. This section of the river is ruled by Osama, the largest croc at 16 ft. Crocs can live to be 100 years old.
After the cruise there was a gift shop with live music, we bought some t-shirts.
We arrived in San Jose around 4 and had a few hours to pack everything up. At 6 pm we were all supposed to meet in our finest clothes for a "surprise". That turned out to be dance show, rather Dancing With the Stars-ish. Salsa, cha cha, tango, etc. For the last bit, they grabbed half our group to go up for lessons. We volunteered to take pictures.
There was a group shot on the lobby stairs, and a very nice dinner. Not buffet! It was a little sad to say bye to all our new friends. Anton and I are booked on the 4 am shuttle to get to the airport in the morning. Good night!
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RESORT DAY
Monday March 19
SUN.
Walk on beach as far as lava flow.
SUN.
Pool.
SUN.
Lunch.
Hide from sun while group enjoyed the Caravan "happy hour" from 1 to 4.
Pool.
Walk on beach.
Play in ocean waves.
Pool.
SUN.
Our tour guide checked our return flight for us, and by gosh, United had cancelled our seats on our flight altogether! We have no idea why, someone made a mistake on their end. Juan spent an hour and a half with us after dinner talking to United and trying to find us a new flight. Argh.
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Hanging Bridges
- Medicine Tree
- Vegetation
- Peek-a-Boo!
- On a Hanging Bridge
HANGING BRIDGES AND RESORT
Sunday March 18
We seem to have traveled from one universe to another between this morning and this evening. We left our beautiful (but rainy) Arenal Springs Resort and drove all the way around Arenal Lake. Apparently when the volcano erupted, the town that was there is now under this lake. When the tides recede you can sometimes see the church steeple in the middle of the lake.
This morning was what we had been waiting for: the hanging bridges in the Monteverde Cloud Forest! There were options of shorter to longer hikes, we opted for the long hike of course, which was over 3 kms. We followed a guide who explained the vegetation and pointed out the tarantula hole, otherwise the trail was almost a straightforward loop. We found the path to be difficult because of the uneven paving stones, which were needed to keep us all out of the mud, since it poured rain the whole time we were hiking. There were 6 suspension bridges and many many other bridges, all overlooking the beautiful jungle and a waterfall. The highest bridge took us into the clouds. It was a beautiful hike.
Back into the bus (we finally made it up to the second row today!) and when we crossed the continental divide it was almost magical the way it stopped raining and the hot sun came out. We stopped at a lunch restaurant called The Barn and basked in the sunshine as we ate outside on the terrace and watched a lizard. They sold absolutely beautiful wood products. The wood is protected in Costa Rica, so they are only allowed to claim wood from the forest if the tree has come down for natural reasons.
We stopped in Liberia (where Costa Rica's other airport is) at a supermarket where we found ice cream and lots of people bought booze. We finally made it to the JW Marriott Resort around 4:30. We were assigned a room that was adjoining with a noisy family, so we switched to the top floor. The first room was "ocean view" which really looked over the pool with the ocean in the background. The second room was "garden view" which looked over a wild area with the ocean in the background, which seemed much more natural and much prettier to us.
We explored the beautiful resort which is incredibly convoluted. Very easy to get lost. It seems that the only way to get anywhere is to find your way all the way back to the lobby and then go where you want. The beach is a little rocky before you get to the sandy part, and the ocean is very wavy. I don't think we would go very far to swim.
It sure is pleasant sitting out on our personal verandah writing the blog on our blackberry. No bugs whatsoever. At home we can't do this even in the summertime.
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Saturday, March 17, 2012
Rio Frio and Arenal Springs Resort
- Jesus Christ Lizard (it walks on water)
- At the Nicaraguan Border
- Arenal Volcano Covered in Clouds
- Enjoying the Hot Springs
RIO FRIO AND ARENAL SPRINGS RESORT
Saturday March 17
It was a hot sticky night, for some reason we didn't think to put the AC on. We still heard howler monkeys, we're getting used to them. Last night Anton had washed 2 of his t-shirts, and he found a clothesline across the back of the shower to hang them to dry. However, the shower is rather "naturalized" with plants and open to the elements, and the rain during the night made the shirts wetter than when he had hanged them!
We had a 2 hour bus drive this morning. On the way, our guide told us that he would show us a special tree, and if it was in bloom, it would be like no other tree we would see in the world. It was in bloom all right! The tree was covered with 4 to 5 foot iguanas, on every branch. They have aptly named it the Iguana Tree.
We drove to the San Carlos Valley and took a river cruise on the Rio Frio. This time the whole group was in one covered boat. Whenever there was a sighting on one side of the boat, everyone rushed to that side and the boat listed a little precariously. The guide then encouraged us to go to the front for our pictures! We had lots of bird sightings, we really like the amingas, a type of cormorant, who seemed to pose for us, showing first the front and then the back of the wings. We saw some caymen crocs again, and stared at a giant lizard. We watched the howler monkeys play with their children, and we spied on a bat-covered tree. We went all the way to the Nicaraguan border and I guess technically we can say we've been in Nicaraguan waters now (for 5 whole minutes).
We ate there at the dock, we're not sure if it was rice and beans or beans and rice. There were yummy corn chips and bean dip, and Frankie went back for seconds.
We had the option of going to the touristy Baldi Hot Springs or hanging out for the afternoon at our own resort. Not a single person in our group wanted the other resort, so we all went back and hung out at the pool for the afternoon. The resort has several pools, a cool pool, a nice warm pool, and a very hot pool which was the hot springs. We had a lovely view of the volcano while we soaked in the warm pool.
After dinner we went for a lovely evening stroll. The stars and the fireflies were out.
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Friday, March 16, 2012
Tortuguero to Fortuna
- Another Boat Ride Through the Jungle
- Giant Tree (and Frankie)
- Orchids
- Pineapple Sampling - Is this all I get?
Friday March 16
TORTUGUERO TO FORTUNA
The howler monkeys were much louder this morning because it wasn´t raining as hard. The noise they make is an eerie cross between a howling dog, a porpoise, and a prehistoric dinosaur.
In the morning we had an hour and a half cruise along the river to get back to where our bus (and our main luggage!) was waiting for us. Everyday on the bus they rotate where you are sitting, so you are beside someone new every time. It seems to be taking us an awful long time to rotate to the front of the bus, oh well.
Today was a long driving day, but we did make a few interesting stops. At lunch we stopped at a restaurant that put on a "fashion show of the jungle" for us. People came out dressed as morpho butterflies or tree frogs, etc. There was a flame juggling monkey. Outside the restaurant was a glass blower who studied in Italy, Frankie bought a beautiful glass turtle necklace. There was a humongous ceiba tree that we walked around, the trunk was the size of our double garage back home. Rather like the large redwoods we saw in California.
We stopped at a pineapple plantation and a guy taught us all about pineapples. Costa Rica is the biggest exporter of pineapples around the world. A pineapple comes from a plant that is only a few feet tall, we always thought it was a tree. The pineapple has an undeterminate flowering season, which means they never knew if each individual plant would produce a pineapple in a year or in 10 years. Then they accidentally had a fire in the field and 15 days later every single plant was in flower. They discovered it was the ethylene in the fire, so now ethylene is added to the crop to make all the plants flower together. It's much more proficient for the pickers. Ethylene can even be added to an organic crop. It takes a pineapple plant 14 to 16 months to produce a pineapple. Each plant only produces one pineapple, and then no more, so the plant is discarded. New plants come from the crowns of rejected pineapples (20 to 30% are rejected for export). Workers pick the pineapple by hand, and a single worker can pick up to 9000 pineapples a day, for the minimum wage of $500 a month. Pineapples are picked ripe because once they are picked they stop ripening. The way you can tell if it's a good pineapple in the grocery store? It is even size, the individual eyes are all the same size, and it is green with yellow on the bottom. If the pineapple is yellow, it has already started to ferment. If it is soft, people have probably poked it too much and damaged it.
The guy skinned some pineapples with a machete in 3 seconds flat and cut little pieces for us to sample. It was incredibly fresh and sweet. He asked who wanted the leftover center core, and Anton snatched it up in half a second flat. He ate it like a popsicle, leaning forward with the juices running down his chin. He was in perfect pineapple heaven.
We arrived at the Arenal Springs Resort in Fortuna at 6:00. It is called Fortuna because in 1968 the volcano erupted and the town on the other side of the volcano was decimated, but Fortuna wasn´t touched. The resort is a gorgeous place to stay! The property sprawls out forever, with cabin-like rooms. The 3 Franceses are all in cabins next to each other. We explored before dinner, the resort has many lovely pools and their own volcanic hot springs. We will have time to enjoy them tomorrow after our morning excursion.
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Thursday, March 15, 2012
Thursday March 15
TORTUGUERO NATIONAL PARK
Tortuguero is on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, just south of Nicaragua. It covers 47,000 acres, and is surrounded by 500,000 acres of rainforest. It is most famous for being the breeding grounds of 4 species of marine turtles, including the leatherback. During high breeding season, several thousand turtles will nest per night. In fact, Tortuguero means "Place of Many Turtles".
Last night we saw a cockroach the size of a volkswagon beetle, and a walking stick crawled up Frankie's leg because Anton took too long to photograph it.
They don't call it "rainforest" for nothing. It rained all night, and kept most people awake because all the lodges have tin roofs. The howler monkeys weren't really the issue!
We went for a two hour cruise through the jungle canals this morning. It rained for 75% of the cruise. The boat wasn't covered this time. They gave out rain ponchos and we enjoyed the cruise tremendously. We saw a lazy 3-toed sloth, lots of birds including toucans in flight, blue herons and snowy egrets, some giant iguanas in the trees, and monkeys. The driver found a caymen (crocodile) and took us so close that Frankie could have reached out the boat and touched it. The boat driver beached the front of the boat on a small island of reeds, letting all the rainwater in the boat drain to the back where it was bailed out. Then he scared up some "Jesus" lizards, so named because they literally ran across the water (without sinking) to get away from us. They ran on their back paws with their front paws spread up in the air, and toddled back and forth in super speed. So cute! Perhaps the nicest sighting was a giant blue morpho butterfly dipping past us in a narrow jungle channel.
We had a half hour break at the hotel and then back into the boats for a 5 minute ride to the turtle reserve. We walked along the beach (Caribbean Ocean) where the turtles come to nest, but it is off season for them. The reason they like this particular beach so much is because the sand is black, which helps retain the heat for the eggs.
We walked through Tortuguero village, a long strip of shops and homes. The sun was out and we were looking for shade, it was so hot. The concrete trail through the village ended at a sign stating that rubber boots were required beyond that point, because of the venomous snakes. There was a shop nearby renting out rubber boots if you wanted.
After 2 hours there, we were shuttled back to our resort for lunch and then almost everyone hit the swimming pool because it was so hot and sunny. The rain came just as we were finished at the pool.
There was another 2 hour jungle cruise in the late afternoon. It didn't rain, but it was overcast, which kept us from getting fried to a crisp. We saw lots of species of parrots and toucans, monkeys, another sloth, some giant lizards, and we chased a river otter down the canal until it found a fish and tottered away.
In the evening they had Caribbean music for us in the bar area, and a Caribbean dinner. We love this jungle place.
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Wednesday, March 14, 2012
San Jose to Tortuguero
- Passion Flower
- Rhinoceros Beetle
- Jungle Boat Ride
- Jungle Boat Ride
- Our Cabin in the Jungle
Wednesday March 14
SAN JOSE TO TORTUGUERO
The population of Costa Rica is currently 1.3 million. Costa Rica means "Rich Coast". The Spanish named it such when they landed and saw all the natives decked with gold baubles. Little did they know that the gold really came from Peru; the Costa Ricans were trading vegetables for gold.
This morning we left our comfy hotel in San Jose. We drove through Braulio Carrillo National Park. Braulio and Tortuguero National Parks average over 190 inches of rain per year. Today we had sunny periods, followed by sudden unexpected rainshowers. We never knew what to expect from one minute to the next.
We stopped at a restaurant for lunch that had a beautiful enclosed butterfly garden. We loved the gigantic blue morpho butterflies.
We stopped at a banana plantation and watched the busy workers. Each banana plant (not tree) produces only one bunch of bananas, and it takes half a year for them to grow. They are picked 30 days early for shipment to Canada and the US. The stalk of bananas was hooked onto an overhead tram which brought the bananas from the field to the processing area. Then bunches of bananas were separated from the stalk (they say 60 to 80 bunches per stalk), thrown into a big vat of water and disinfectant, inspected for grade, and packaged into plastic wraps being sold under the DelMonte name.
In the early afternoon we reached the dock where we left the bus behind and the majority of our luggage. We were only allowed a small bag each, to serve for the next few days. We boarded a covered boat and cruised through jungle rivers and canals for 2 hours to reach our jungle lodge. We did see a roseate spoonbill water bird, and a caymen (small crocodile).
Our lodge is very interesting. Set in the jungle, our cabins are all separate and very basic. There is no glass on the windows, just screens, so we are told to expect an early morning wakeup call from the howler monkeys, which can be heard from over 2 miles away. There are lots of birds, and we really enjoyed watching the long line of leaf-cutter ants carrying leaves and twigs in a single file line until we found the spot where they popped down into the hole of their nest.
We went for an explore before dinner. There is a bar area, a spa, a turtle shaped swimming pool, and a restaurant. We had an orientation in the restaurant before dinner. After dinner we discovered that there is free wifi available, so we could send the blog!
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Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Tuesday March 13
POAS VOLCANO
Our tour guide's name is Juan Jose. Our bus driver's name is Jose. There are 3 women named Frances. Very unusual. Only one Anton, of course. The group is mostly American, but we have a half dozen Canadians making our voices heard. It was annoying when the tour guide would pause and calculate the American measure (ie gallons) without telling us the original metric measure. We quickly rectified that.
Our first stop this morning was the Poas Volcano. We had a winding drive uphill and we could feel the temperature steadily getting cooler. The volcano is a little different than normal in that it doesn't spew lava. Rather, there is a pool of sulfuric acid in the caldera, and once in awhile the magma under it heats the water so much that it spews into the air and splashes down. Not today, however. They warned us that there would only be a 30% chance of even seeing the caldera and nearby lagoon. However, we think they are probably inflating that number to give tourists false hope. Even though it was sunny in San Jose, by the time we reached the top of the mountain (9000 ft), we were engulfed in a misty cloud and nothing could be seen. Although we did quite enjoy the 2 hikes that we took and the lovely vegetation. The flowers have been a highlight on this trip.
After spending 2 hours at the volcano, we headed down the mountain to a lodge type restaurant where they put on a show of indigenous dancers (it looked more like people dancing in their underwear) and fed us lunch. Our tour guide had set the expectations quite low, telling us it would be beans and rice, but it was quite a good meal.
Our final stop for the afternoon was a tour of a coffee plantation. Quite amusing and informative, with free samples of coffee and chocolate. And a gift shop, of course.
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Monday March 12
TRAVEL TO SAN JOSE
Today was travel day and our adventures began before they even began. We arrived bright and early at the airport for our flight with United, and when we checked the departures board, ours was the ONLY flight that was delayed. Of course. When we explained at check-in that we would now be missing our connection to Costa Rica, they actually found an Air Canada flight for us instead. Leaving 2 hours later but arriving one hour earlier (no connection). Boy, were we happy that Air Canada did not go on strike! When we got onto the plane, it was very full, so I think we were very fortunate. And even more so, because the stewardess asked us to switch to the emergency row exit! Yippee!
When we arrived in Costa Rica, it felt surreal to walk in through the exact same gate that we used in our connection back from Peru. We stood outside for an hour while the Caravan reps gathered enough people for a van. We've met 4 very nice people already who will be on our tour. The hotel is absolutely gorgious, and huge! We looked everywhere and could not find stairs from our second floor to the main floor, so we have to use the elevator every time.
We walked across the road, or more like we took our life in our hands at the roundabout, and only noticed the pedestrian bridge afterwards.... We explored the "biggest mall in central America".
Back at the hotel we explored the hotel grounds. The sun was very nice but there was a gusty breeze. We look very white and pasty.
There was dinner at 7 pm (why do people in the tropics always eat so late?) and a tour group meeting at 8 pm. There are 42 people in our tour.
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