Pura Vida! Costa Rica Photos added

[Melbatb]

Sounds like a wonderful few days - except for the heads in the way!

[Taffy1959]

Sounds amazing, enjoy the rest of your holiday

[ali-s]

Third time lucky posting this- the first time I lost connection when I clicked post, second time my ' token expired' !
Sunday we went on a snorkeling trip to Cano Island. DH stayed behind as he doesn't like water.

Leaving Drake Bay


The boat trip to Cano island took an hour, first snorkeling was about 100 Mts off shore, water was so choppy it was hard to follow the guide and we didn't see much.


We had a much needed rest on the beach near the ranger station then off to a second much calmer spot where we saw maybe 10 species of fish plus two reef sharks. I wasn't expecting much as Costa Rica is not known for it's snorkeling, so was happy with what we saw.

Cano Island ranger station

We had a picnic lunch on a different beach , a capuchin monkey appeared as lunch was being set out, he waited on a nearby branch just like a dog waiting St a table. The guide chased him off and he climbed up into the tree above the table and got his revenge by peeing into the drinks cooler!

Monkey about to take revenge


lunch on beach

After lunch we then a little walk to the river we floated down the day before for a swim to wash off the salt. Then back on the boat to Drake Bay.
I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to squeeze our carry on luggage into smaller bags as tomorrow we are flying to San Jose and our carry on should be a Max of 20 linear inches, which is tiny. I eventually gave up and planned to pay for excess luggage for the first time ever.

[ali-s]

Monday. We say goodbye to Drake Bay today. We got a taxi ( local guy with 4 x4) to the ' airport' , the airport is a tarmac strip in a field, but the two airlines each have their own ' terminal' a concrete hut with a check in desk - counter with scales and gift shop - counter with drinks cooler and souvenir display All my efforts to conform to the size restrictions were unnecessary as each passenger ( there were 11 of us ) was weighed with the items they wanted to carry on, then the check in luggage was weighed separately and everything totalled up on a calculator. Our backpacks were fine, no extra to pay. We were given boarding passes- laminated cards saying ' 1 San Jose' and after making purchases in the ' gift shop' we sat in the departure lounge- a bench out front

While waiting for the plane we entertained ourselves by wandering around the 'terminal'

wonder if these were travelling 'cattle class' ?

When the plane approached the check in guy put on a fluorescent tabard, loaded our luggage onto a trolley and pushed it out to the air strip.

We had fantastic views , our flight lasted about 40 mins.

and when we arrived in San Jose we walked through to baggage claim where instead of a conveyor belt our luggage was pushed through the rubber flaps by a guy stood on the other side, well it made me smile
Our driver met us by the free coffee stand and we were soon on our way to Arenal.
We stopped at Zacero for lunch and to see the topiaries in the park for which the town is famous. Very pretty but I'd say the topiaries were done with more enthusiasm than skill LOL.

Zacero







One thing I have noticed about Costa Rican towns, they love their shoe shops, in every town we've been through, every third shop is a shoe shop, maybe with the climate they get through a lot of shoes? Certainly our trainers were worn once a week ago and are still slightly damp and stinky.
We are now at Arenal Observatory Lodge, the nearest Lodge to Arenal volcano, lovely room with an ' in your face' view of the volcano.We are only here for one night as it's quite a way from town where all our activities are. We will walk some of the trails on the property and hopefully see some wildlife ( we've already seen and heard howler monkeys) before moving closer to the town of La Fortuna tomorrow.

Our room with picture windows


and the view of Arenal Vocano from our balcony


resident grasshopper on balcony

[ali-s]

This morning ( Tuesday) I was up early and out to walk some of the trails belonging to the lodge. I saw a family of coatis, 3 frogs in the frog pond and monkeys again.




hotel grounds





Lake Arenal


yet another view of the volcano, we were very lucky, most of the time the peak is covered in cloud




Back on our deck waiting for DH and boys to get up I had a front row view of toucans and a hummingbird.





We had breakfast at the buffet then joined the free guided walk for guests. I was undecided whether to do this as large groups tend to scare away the animals, but we saw howler monkeys, spider monkeys, an anteater, a big family of coatis ( the babies are so cute) more toucans, a laughing falcon and a wild turkey who seemed to want to be in every shot ( animal photo bombing? )

photo bombing bird
















We had lunch while waiting for our taxi to take us to our present hotel nearer town. I would have loved to stay there longer but with an 18 km drive on a dirt track to get there and a 30 dollar taxi fare every time you want to leave it was just not convenient.
We are at our present hotel for the next 3 nights, it has thermal hot springs I plan to soak in later and it's own farm supplying eggs and cheese, I can hear cows and chickens along with all the native bird and insect noises, weird LOL
Edit- just been visited by a chicken , now I feel at home ( I keep chickens)

[Melbatb]

Thanks for sharing - really sounds like a wonderful holiday!

[Jet]

It all sounds really fab!

[ali-s]

Last night we did a frog walk at a nearby hotel to make up for the evening tour that was cancelled in Drake Bay. Of course it started raining again and less than 30 mins into the tour we were sheltering from torrential rain , thunder and lightning in the entrance to a butterfly enclosure. Also sheltering with us were several large crickets ( OK) and a large wolf spider ( not OK ! ) on seeing our reaction to the spider our guide agreed to brave the downpour and take us to the cafe area to wait. We were given complimentary coffees but I just wanted to go look for frogs as we were already soaked LOL The rain eventually eased a little and we ventured forth with our torches to see what we could find. The frog chorus was like surround sound but spotting them was so hard. We did see about 7 more boring coloured froggies- but interesting when we learnt about them, some skip the tadpole stage and instead have miniature frogs in the frog spawn, others lay only 4 or 5 eggs in different places and visit each tadpole as it's growing to make sure it has enough food. We also saw stick insects, millipedes, bats an eyelash pit viper and finally, the colourful red eyed tree frog. He was worth getting sodden for !













The elusive red eyed tree frog






Back at the hotel the restaurant had closed ( we were late due to the time spent sheltering) so we had to make do with whatever snacks were still available at the bar for our dinner. Even lack of a proper meal didn't dampen DHs enthusiasm for the tour, think that's a first
Today ( Wednesday) we are going horse riding. I had my own horse 25 years ago before swapping him for a mortgage, but DH and boys have never ridden, so should be interesting
I'm going to go turf them out of bed now as I want my breakfast, last night's bar snack was not very filling.
Edit- just been visited by ' my ' chicken, she jumped up onto the table to say good morning

[ali-s]

Yesterday ( Thursday) was an eventful day. Our guide/ driver was 10 mins late picking us up due to road works, which meant we happened along at the right time to rescue a sloth. We had only been driving 10 mins when we saw a coach pulled over at the roadside and a group of teens huddled around what turned out to be a two toed sloth. Poor thing had a broken claw and bloodied face and had obviously been side swiped while trying to cross the road. The American teacher explained the students were upset as school regulations wouldn't allow a detour to help the sloth, so Danny ( our guide) loaded the sloth into the back of the 4x4 and we drove to the nearest rescue centre which, luckily was only 25 mins away. The vet there said they'd clean him up and assess him and hopefully release him back where he was found. If his injuries don't allow release the rescue centre will be his new home.



I've since had an email from the rescue center and the sloth is making a good recovery.

Onwards to the ranch for our horse riding. As I said earlier, I haven't ridden for 25 years, the boys and DH never.DH and DS19 were a bit uncertain but DS16 was eager and wanted to know if he'd be able to gallopLOL
It was just our family ( one of the reasons I chose this ranch) and 4 horses had been picked out for us and were saddled and waiting.The Costa Rican horse ( paso) tends to be small and narrow and has a very short, high step, can look like it's prancing.

note the 'bridle'


We'd stopped on the way to buy bananas to feed them- yes, bananas! Apples are not common in Costa Rica, I had to get a photo to prove these horses love bananas, skin and all



Even though I hadn't been in the saddle for so long I found it hard to forget the English style of riding. Here the bridles ( just a piece of rope) don't have bits, you hold the reins/ rope one handed and move your hand to the left to turn left and right to turn right and you ride western style with long legs and, no rising to the trot. Make a kissy noise to indicate forward ( the horses were too well trained to need to use your heels) and gentle pull on rope to slow/ stop/ reverse.
The horses had been well picked. DH and DS19 s mounts barely moved out of first gear, they ambled along 100 MTS behind us oblivious to what we were doing. My horse wanted to be in front but sneakily just walked very fast to get there, I found the short stride very choppy compared to English horses, but DH and the boys with nothing to compare to thought it comfortable. DS 16s horse was also happier in front and we were often jostling for position, when I trotted and cantered DS16s horse was there too, DS with a big grin on his face, I often caught him sneaking a trot whenever he could. We rode in a loose group, the two plodders at the back, me and DS16 in front and Danny riding along with whoever he was talking to. Another reason I chose this tour as I didn't want a nose to tail ride.
We crossed a river ( our wet, stinky trainers got another dunking) and two streams. Rode through farmland and sugarcane plantations, saw 2 more sloths and loads of birds and hawks. The ride lasted 3 hours and I could barely walk on dismounting, we had a soak in the hot springs last night but are all suffering today












Returning from our riding we had time for a quick change, no time for lunch , then back out to our tour of traditional chocolate production. Very interesting learning the history of the cocoa bean and chocolate and we got to taste as much as we wanted ,adding our own flavourings to the chocolate paste. It made up for missing lunch LOL

The cocoa plant






Dinner in town afterwards then back to soak our aching muscles in the hot springs.

[Melbatb]

Again wow!

You must put up some photos - please! 📷