And Finally.....

Well...today we spend about 5 hours getting back to San Jose so that we can all catch our respective flights home tomorrow. So, needless to say, our trip is essentially over.

Saturday night we went to Tabacon (sp?) Resort which is an area of natural hot springs, somewhat Vegasized with manmade pools, swim up bars, waterslides etc. It was a blast...drinking and soaking into the night. The volcano is once again the back drop, but, unfortunately we never saw it erupt. (It's possible I mentioned an “erupting” volcano on some earlier posts, but I guess that was a bit of an embellishment. It was really just a volcano while we were here.)

Yesterday we spent most of the day at the Baldi Hot Springs. These were not as nice as Tabacon…but “not as nice” is pretty relative when we’re talking hot springs.

And so, that’s it. The vacation is over and it's back to work. Oh wait! Actually, the Couple get to go back to their jobless lives, and I get to go back and quit my job. Sweet!

Later
-R

And Finally.....

Well...today we spend about 5 hours getting back to San Jose so that we can all catch our respective flights home tomorrow. So, needless to say, our trip is essentially over.

Saturday night we went to Tabacon (sp?) Resort which is an area of natural hot springs, somewhat Vegasized with manmade pools, swim up bars, waterslides etc. It was a blast...drinking and soaking into the night. The volcano is once again the back drop, but, unfortunately we never saw it erupt. (It's possible I mentioned an “erupting” volcano on some earlier posts, but I guess that was a bit of an embellishment. It was really just a volcano while we were here.)

Yesterday we spent most of the day at the Baldi Hot Springs. These were not as nice as Tabacon…but “not as nice” is pretty relative when we’re talking hot springs.

And so, that’s it. The vacation is over and it's back to work. Oh wait! Actually, the Couple get to go back to their jobless lives, and I get to go back and quit my job. Sweet!

Later
-R

Waterfall

Well…there’s not much to write about today. Which is good ‘cause I don’t feel like typing. This is not to say it was not a good day.

We spent the morning reading by the pool, and the afternoon by the Fortuna Waterfall. It’s a 60 meter fall over some basalt with nice columnar jointing (for you geologists). Erik and I had dreams of rock climbing near the falls and jumping from high cliffs. Unfortunately the set up was not suited for this. As you can see, we made some feeble attempts to gain some altitude.

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

R

Two-Can

For our second day in MV we did a guided tour of the MV Reserve Cloud Forest. It was pretty good…though we didn’t see much other than birds (and we saw most of the stuff in the parking lot). We did see a Quetzal, which is a pretty amazing looking bird. No sloths, no monkeys. Bummer.

After two days in MV we got a bit tired of the cold and rain and high prices (3 dollars for a beer??) and made the trip to Arenal. On the way we stopped at a rest area that had a parrot that was more friendly then some dogs I know. If he wasn’t showing off doing flips around his perch (holding on with his feet) we was climbing on your arm, neck, head, playfully biting you. Also met back up with the Swedes on the boat ride over here. Small country.

It’s great here. Perfect temps, cheap food, nice hotels. Oh yeah, and an active volcano for a back drop. For our first full day we got up early for a white water rafting trip. The rafting was ho-hum, with only a couple of big rapids, but it was a great day. It was only the three of us, a guide, and a guy in a kayak on the entire river. Early in the trip the guide had us jump off a small 6 or 7 foot cliff…not sure why. But, later in the trip when Erik spotted a 30 foot cliff he asked if we could jump it. The guides response? “Sure”. In order to get up we had to scale a 30 foot vertical wall of clay. The bottom was pretty easy, but near the top you were reduced to climbing with only small sloping muddy holds to grip. I kept telling myself that, if I feel, I’d be able to kick back off the cliff and land safely. I didn’t really believe that, but it kept me going. Eventually made it to the top, and jumped off.

Later in the trip the guides found three poison dart frogs for us! They were amazing, bright and poisonous. Erik and I held both of them (that’s right, the neurotoxins are on their skin…I don’t know, the guides said we’d be okay) which wasn’t something we ever expected to do. We washed thoroughly in the river after. We saw toucans and several species of herons on the trip too.

Now, you think that’s cool! On the way back to town the van driver asked if we wanted to “see the toucans”. Why not! So, we stopped at a place where a guy had two pet toucans. They were in a large cage, but were allowed to fly out (no clipped wings here). So tame though. They climbed on our arms and shoulders, ate out of our hands, and enjoyed being pet.

One more stop on the way home to see lots of iguanas hanging out in some trees. Some babies, some twice the size of Hatshepsut. I should have brought her here since she needs a new home.

I yeah, I have pictures for none of this.

Zip A Dee Doo Da

The trip to Monteverde (MV) was surprisingly simple for travel outside the US (Okay, and I guess Canada). Sub 4 hours, and the van was comfy. The roads up into the mountains were pretty treacherous, but..in this case it seemed adventerous (as compared to similar roads from beach town to beach town which just seem obnoxious).

MV kicks ass! Much colder than the beach (50s at night...and super windy). We got up early this morning to do the SkyTrek & SkyWalk tour. (Saw one sloth on the way). SkyTrek is a group of 11 ziplines through and above the rainforest. You put on a harness, clip onto the cable, hold onto a pulley...and go. The first four or five cables were the shortest (only up to 200 meters or so long) and lowest (60 to 100 feet up). Some of these went over the trees, some carried you through the forest so that you felt as if you were going to run into trees. After these beginner lines we climbed a big tower and got ready for a 450 meter long cable that ran between two mountains 500 feet above the deck! The cable just disappeared into the clouds as your rode it. Another cable was almost half a mile long...and you haul some pretty serious ass on some of them (40 mph?). This was the best part of the trip so far.

After that we did the SkyWalk which is just a hike through the forest. There are several suspension bridges to go over and some are very long and very high! We didn´t see much for wildlife, but the fauna was unbelievable. We´re gonna hike through the MV Reserve with a guide tomorrow and should see lots of animals at that.

After we got back to town (Santa Elena) we visited a insect (well, arthropod) museum with lots of insect, spider, and scorpion, specimans. Then we toured through the terrariums. This some how turned into an exercise of how to let giant insects walk all over your face. I got to hold a huge tarantula. There´s a great picture of a walking stick walking on Erik´s face. Unfortunately I don´t have my camera with me, but I´ll update the pictures soon...so check back.

So long all you working fools!

(updated pictures: note the photo of the people on the zip line...not the highest zip line mind you)

R

Last Days on the Beach

Okay..I just wrote this once and lost it..so this is going to be truncated:

The diving here was a bit of a bust. Poor vis and nothing to see..but what are you going to do. I've done worse dives (like 44 degree water and ZERO vis). Plus we got to see dolphins, turtles, and these crazy small rays that jump out of the water constantly...all from the surface.

Last night we did a ""booze cruise", (though they don't call it that here) on a sail boat. It was a lot of fun. We got to see more dolphins and turtles, and a manta ray. Karen claims to have seen a sea snake..but I don't believe her.

We went out a bit last night, but Keriken went to bed early. Refusing to be a party pooper I went out on my own. Ended up meeting two Swedish girls and hanging out with them until 3am. (How many of you guys can say you've closed down a beach bar in Costa Rica, and walked out with a beautiful Swedish woman on each arm? None of you? That's what I thought.) This is why you don't go to bed early. You never know what you're gonna miss. Some people just don't get that.

Tomorrow we head to Monte Verde (one word?) We decided to pay the big bucks (40 dollars) for a direct trip on a comfy shuttle. I'm actually a bit bummed to leave the beach, though I'm not usually a beach person. But, the rainforest and volcano will be....

I'm off to gorge on some more fresh sea food.

-R

Playas del Coco, Playas del Tamarindo

Ahhh..the sweet sticky smell of rainforest and diesel. I made it into San Jose with out a hitch. Went straight to a hotel, got a quick meal, and got ripped off at least three times before I got to bed. (When I said.."any hotel" I didn't mean one in the middle of the red-light district.) But, no need to write about San Jose.

On the morning of the 26th I got a bus too Playas del Coco, and met up with Keriken (per my previous post). On the 28th we went diving. It was decent, though pretty cold, and the vis wasn't great. We saw quite a few stingrays though, some up to 6 feet across, and eels, and seahorses, and a turtle. All in all I was happy with it. The following day we walked in the blistering heat 3 kilometers to a nice black sand beach..had a few drinks, did some snorkeling..Erik taught me his new free diving breath holding techniques (It works!!). We hitchhiked back as it was too damn hot to walk. Got a ride in a nice dirty flat bed truck. I can't remember what else we did (this is what happens when you forget your journal and don't keep up with your blog). That's okay, cause the fun really began when we left Coco.

On 1 March we hopped a bus to Playas del Tamarindo. We asked several people the best way to cover the 40 miles and thought we had it all figured out. Turns out our trip took 4 hours! It was basically like being on a city bus, which stopped any place anyone wanted to, and took a lot of detours, for 40 miles! Oh yeah, and most of it was dirt road. It was ridiculous, but we made the mistake of assuming a bus ride would be easy. Not smart. Of course, the ride did cost a dollar.

Tamarindo is pretty nice..though Gringodized (There's a B. King, P. Hut, and Subway). There are more bars and restaurants right on the beach here, which is the best way to enjoy a beach in my book. We are also splurging on a hotel with AC and a pool (50 a night for three people). We're gonna spend some time here surfing and diving before we head inland. I'm diving a spot in the morning where there may be manta rays and whale sharks. We'll see.

Can you spot the howler monkeys in the picture? Not really, I know..but they're there.

-R