Costa Rica
We're in Costa Rica for Xmas (12 days). Gotta get out of the USA as they don't want us staying here too long. Apparently we run the risk of being considered "residents" and there are some tax issues that could result. So fu%k 'em - we'll leave for a bit.
To get to Costa Rica we had to over night in Houston - nice airport - the flight was over the Gulf of Mexico so not much to report there.
Central America from 37,000 feet.
As we were getting closer to Costa Rica we flew over Nicaragua. The shot below shows a volcanic island in Lake Nicaragua - which is the 19th largest lake in the world.
A closer shot. I think it's cool that a little baby mountain has it's own cloud.
A couple shots of the Costa Rican coastline.
We're staying at a place on the peninsula shown below.
A closer shot. All the open green space is a golf course. There's a Fours Seasons Resort at the end of the peninsula and a guy we met on the plane said rooms will go for $1,200 a night in January. Yikes!.
This is the view from our place. Not too shabby.
DAY 2 December 16
This guy was sitting outside our window this morning.
We met this guy later in the day. Video to follow. He seemed as curious about us as we were about him.
Playa Nacascolo. An almost desserted beach nearby where we are staying. A few Costa Rican (I assume) familes showed up while we were there and had a lot of fun with their kids in the water.
The water was bathtub warm and very calm.
The exterior of our place.
And some inside shots.
We even have a Christmas tree this year.
A typical Luxus place - very well laid out and furnished.
Here's the monkey video.
Direct link to video if wrong one plays
And here's a video of a wee small little critter just trying to avoid detection.
Direct link to video if wrong one plays
DAY 3 December 17
Today we went zip lining through the trees. Great fun indeed. Neither of us had ever done this before but the guides made it easy.
Terri getting ready to go. Our guide's name is Emmanuel - great freindly, funny guy.
And away she goes.
Here's the ROF setting off. It doesn't look like I'm having fun but I am.
The red leather gloves that we're wearing are used for slowing down. Each glove has a heavy piece of leather fastened to the palm. When you need to slow down - like when you're approaching the next platform - you just pull down hard on the wire. First time it's a but iffy but after that it's a piece of cake. One of the guides is always at the next platform to assist with your landing at any rate.
This is us with our other guide Diego before blasting off.
We saw scorpion while waiting for a ride back to the start of the zip line.
After zip lining we went to Playa Del Coco for some groceries and had lunch on the beach.
DAY 4 December 18
A beach day. Didn't do much.
They have this hoity-toity beach club here called the Prieta Beach Club. So we went there. You can't bring outside drinks or food.
The sand is very black and super hot.
They do have nice beach chairs - way better than the back breakers in Mexico.
So like I said...you can't bring your own drinks and it was a hot day so sooner or later you need a beer. Sooner in our particular case.
Check out these prices.
Heineken - $8.00 I guess that's not too horrible. Right?...I mean you're out in the middle of the jungle and you need a beer - what you gonna do??
So then check out the words at the bottom of the menu...
They add an additional 13% tax and then just in case you don't want to give them a tip they give themselves one...a 20% tip to be exact.
So the $8.00 beer now costs $10.64 and that's in US dollars. Convert to Canadian and it's over $12.
Anyway what you gonna do?
So 4 beer were $42.56 and the guy still though I should give him an additional tip...right...good luck !
Day 5 December 19
We went on an excursion today to the Palo Verde National Park. A guide picked us up at 7:00 (which hurt a bit) and we were back by 1:00 PM so...about six hours...$310 for two people.
We took a cruise on a boat up and then back down the Tempisque River. This is one of the main rivers in Costa Rica. The river is home to a variety of migratory birds, crocodiles, iguanas and other critters. We saw quite a few but not a whole lot - certainly not as many as described in the tour literature.
I also think the animals get tired of people gawking at them all the time and they just plain disapppear during the busy time of day. We saw lots of crocodiles that slid into the water as soon as they saw our boat.
This guy and the next were a couple that didn't.
I think this guy was stoned or something. The captain of our boat just got closer and closer to him and he didn't budge.
This is a sexually mature iguana hanging in a tree. Zoom in. You can tell he's sexually mature by his colour - he's orange - all the other males are a grey / green colour and of little or no use to the iguanitas...the only want the orange dudes!
This is either a young male or a female.
And this one is definately a female. You can tell by her bikini top.
Lots and lots of birds. Egrets, herons, vultures and a whack of others. The guide new each and every one of them...or at least he prentended to..how would we know any different.
At the end of the river cruise the guide took us to this wee little house in the woods where a couple local ladies made us some lunch. Beef, chicken , rice, black beans, corn tortilla...it was wonderful. I'd say the best meal we've had here yet.
Here's a couple Iguana videos.
And one with a crocodile
DAY 6 December 20
Another lazy day. Went to Hermosa Beach or Playa Hermosa en español.
Great beach, warm water and great waves.
When we got back we saw this little guy. It's a coati and he's related to the racoon family.
DAY 7 December 21
Today was an activity day. Another guided tour to a volcano...Rincón de la Vieja where we road a horse, did another zip line, got all muddy and then sat in some hot water.
.....from Wikipedia
Rincón de la Vieja is an active andesitic complex volcano in north-western Costa Rica, about 25 km from Liberia, in the province of Guanacaste. Its name means "The Old Woman's Corner", a reference to a local legend about a girl whose lover was thrown into the crater by her father; she became a recluse living on the mountain, and was credited with powers of healing.
The place we were at is called the Borinquen Mountain Resort and Spa. Here's their website in case you want to make a booking.
I don't know how people find this place though as the roads are the worst you've seen and the are no signs at all to show the way. we went with a guide and he found it no problemo!
Here's the horse master, Nati, getting our steeds ready. I was assigned one that was "tranquille". The bugger tried to run a few times and I had to teach him who was the boss.
First time ever on a horse. I am a lot more frightened than I look.
A shot looking back toward the ocean. Zoom in.
So after the horsey ride we did a zip line again. Pics and videos to follow.
After that we had a volcanic mud bath folloed by dips in hot and cold pools. Supposed to reinvigorate your skin.
I was more serious about it than Terri as you can see below.
The pic below show volcanis steam coming up through hte ground - at least that's what we were told. Our guide, Jaime - pronouced Hymee certainly seemed serious about it when describing it to us.
Anyway my skin did feel a bit softer after washing the mud off and then sitting in the hot pool for a while but a day later it's back to alligator skin.
This is a video I took of Terri coming in on the zip line.
Turn your volume up and focus on the centre of the screen.
One of the zip line guides took a whole bunch of pics and videos and I'll add those later. You can see him in the video above coming in right behind Terri. That wasn't the normal mode - usually each person went and reached the other side and then the next person went and so on. Once I have it ready - the video he took will be right below this paragraph.
Terri's ride
And the ROF
A couple more
DAY 8 December 22
Another sit-on-your-ass-at-the-beach day.
We went to Tamarindo today. It's about 1 hour away but we got lost so it took us a bit longer. We got lost on the way home too. Navigation problems. Out TPS - something like a GPS but not as accurate - was malfuntioning. Too many cervezas maybe.
The beach from our perch.
First looking north
and then south
Then we walked to the very southmost point and took this picture. Zoom in.
and the selfie...like I said before....gotta get a longer arm
This is a very popular surfing beach and these guys are just learning. That guy on the right side has perfect form.
And here's a prime example of being in the wrong place at the wrong time...poor gecko got squashed by the door to the utility room.
DAY 9 December 23
Another activity day.
Today we went on a nature hike. We saw a lot of neat stuff - mammals, birds, funky trees and vegetation etc. but it's hard to get good pictures as the jungle is quite dark - compared to a wheat field.
What you see below is a strangler tree. One tree using another tree for support. It looks like a huge snake coiling down the tree.
Here's another example.
What ultimately happens is the strangler tree totally envelopes the host tree and the host tree dies. This takes many, many years.
Below you see an example where the strangler is really starting to totally cover the host tree.
And this is the final result - the host tree is long dead and rotted away. Only the strangler tree remains. It is now strong enough to support its own weight.
A short video of a waterfall we found on our walk. Our guide, Diego, invites you all to visit.
Our guide called these ear mushrooms.
A couple other critters we met in the forest.
Strangely enough we did not see an awful lot of brightly coloured plants. Our guide said that it costs the plant a lot of energy to create a bright flower. We saw a few though.
We also saw huge ttrees with very strange root systems. Again the guide explained that the soild does not allow deep penetration of roots so the roots must grow above the soil.
This tree has sent out a huge root - must have been 40 feet long - for support.
We went out for dinner this evening and Terri had a special guest.
DAY 10 December 24 - Christmas Eve
Feliz navidad en Espanol.
We went to Hermosa beach again today. No time to arrange additional activities. We tried to get a catamaran cruise but no luck. All the yankees are pouring in now and it's getting noisy. A bunch of noisy hill billys have moved in next door and I can truly say that I'm glad we're out of here in a couple days,
DAY 11 December 25 - Christmas Day
Another beach day.
Here's how Costa Ricans act on Christmas Day
DAY 12 December
Pretty much a wasted day. We have to wait for the car rent people to come and pick up our rental car. They're supposed to be here at 12:30. Normally we would have taken it back ourselves but we're leaving so freakin' early tomorrow (5:00 AM) that we didn't want the extra hassle. Hopefully they will get here soon so we can take the golf cart to the playa.