Costa Rica

Tom and I were in Costa Rica for 2 weeks in February. We flew into San Jose and booted it out of there pretty quickly. We hopped on a Tico bus and headed towards Puntarenas near the Nicoya Peninsula. We stopped there over-night, planning to catch the first ferry out to the coastal village of Montezuma where we were meeting out buddy Mike. Turns out the guidebook had the ferry times wrong and we missed the ferry by about 20 minutes... despite trying to get there early! We took this shot of the mountains while we were nibbling some breakfast goodies.

We caught the next ferry and flagged down a bus on the other side heading for Montezuma. The hotel we were supposed to meet Mike at was full, but it's such a small town that we figure'd we'd bump into him eventually... and we did during a hike to the Montezuma Waterfall the next day. The lower falls are about 70 ft high, with a 60 ft and 10 ft fall above that. There weren't too many people on the top ones because it meant scaling a steep path up the waterfall and clinging to roots... well worth it though! There was a rope swing that the guys had fun with... and then Mike jumped off the 60 ft falls (after seeing some locals do it). It was pretty safe since it plunged into a deep 30 ft. pool, but no way I would have done it!

Fortunately Mike had run into another traveler who recommended Domingo for deep-sea fishing. What an awesome experience & deal. If we went with one of the tour operators we would have paid at least 3 times as much and would have had to share the lines with a bigger group. (Okay, I didn't actually fish, but it was fun to be out there and watching the guys reel them in). Tom and Mike caught 2 fish each - one black tuna and three Jacks. The top picture is after the first catches, and the second has the guys showing off all four.

We kept the tuna and half of one of the Jacks so we could cook them on the beach that night. By dinner-time we were starving and added a ton of potatoes and watermelon to the mix. We built up a big bonfire, let it burn down and started cooking... but misjudged the amount of coals needed. We had to restart the bonfire to finish cooking the fish, but when were done it was the best meal of the whole trip!

We spent the next day recovering on the beach (from getting scorched out in the sun while fishing). Tom did a bit of snorkeling and I hung out with a good book and some monkeys on the beach.

After a few days in Montezuma we headed inland - took a shuttle to Santa Elena to see the Monte Verde Cloud Forest. We met a cool Norwegian girl who showed us this neat tree. Technically I think it's a strangler vine that grew around the tree, then the tree rotted out leaving a cool place to climb. I didn't climb too high because I'm a chicken, but the fearless guys climbed about 70 ft to the top of it.

A trip to the Cloud Forest wouldn't be complete without a zip-line tour! I was terrified for the first half - full on shaking (I'm scared of heights), but after I calmed down it was amazing! Not that you got to see any wild life, but it was neat to fly over the tops of the trees and feel the mist of the clouds. The pictures of Mike and me because Tom was the one with the camera... I was too shaky to be trusted with it.

We made one last waterfall hike that afternoon to the St. Luis Waterfall. Yes, I know I've mentioned two waterfall's but haven't included pictures of them ... they're all side shots that I haven't had a chance to rotate yet. Here's our hiking family posing with a huge fig tree.

We said good-bye to Mike in Santa Elena - his 50 days were up and he had to head back home. Tom and I took a boat across Lake Arenal to La Fortuna to see an active volcano. We weren't too thrilled with La Fortuna itself... imagine Niagra Falls meets Cancun. This is a picture of Arenal Volcano from La Fortuna... yes that's a Burger King sign in the foreground. Disappointingly the hotel we ended up in was behind the BK, but was a decent price, had warm water, towels, toilet paper and a toilet seat, so what more can you ask for?

We hopped on a tour that night to hike through a private rain forest reserve (saw these guys on the way but can't remember what they're called). We saw some neat insects and monkeys, but none photographed very well. Included was also a chance to see lava at night, but the clouds were too low. As part of the deal we got a second chance the next night if we didn't see any lava. The last part of the tour was to some hot springs that were right out of Vegas or Niagara Falls... definitely not our ideal place to hang out for 3 hours. Prices were like $8 a beer and $20-40 a meal! You may think that's not bad, but this is Central America we're talking about! Needless to say, we had a late cheap dinner back in La Fortuna.

The next day was a lot more clear weather-wise. We went to hike around the base of Arenal - you can't climb it because it's too active with a near constant flow of lava. Some hikers were killed a few years ago and it's been shut down since. Still a nice hike though.

The clouds lifted enough that evening to warrant a second trip to see the lava at night. You can see a little glow and smoke on the side of the volcano in this shot. Of course the big eruption came just as we were getting back on the bus so we didn't have our camera set up anymore.

Being good geologists, we of course took some rock pictures . Tom made fun of me because I was actually carrying a scale bar in the camera case. There were some nicely formed pyroxene and plagioclase crystals. From there we headed back to the coast to Playa Samara. It was a nice relief after La Fortuna... a tranquil little town, but missing the bohemian feel of Montezuma. At least it wasn't commercialized - no Burger Kings in sight. We took a surf lesson at Jesse's Surf School and were actually up surfing and catching waves on our own an hour later... and spent the next two afternoons out on the water. The second day I was feeling a bit too battered and lacking arm strength to catch many waves, but Tom was doing awesome. By the end of it I had bruises on my hand, both elbows, both sides of my rib-cage, both hips, both knees, and random other spots. Totally fun though.

We spent part of the mornings harassing fish in the tide pools. Here's a puffer fish on a first encounter... and then below after it was feeling a bit irritated.

After 3 days in Samara we headed into Alajeula (a small city outside San Jose that we found out during the trip is actually closer to the airport). It's a packed and confusing city, especially since there are no road signs anywhere (pretty common for Central America). Unfortunately we flew back to a snowstorm in Toronto. It took us over 4 hours to drive home because the 401 was shut down for part of it, that got us re-routed to highway 2, which also had an accident on it. Still nice to see Kali and Mooks when we got back though. Huge thanks to all who helped out looking after them - Char, Josh, Kyle & Alicia for Mooks, and Kathy & Colin, Zen, and Kristina & Steve for Kali. The trip was way more enjoyable knowing the kids were in good hands.