Goodbye Costa Rica 2011...

Surfing the Pacific

Our last full day was spent on the left coast, learning to surf and just soaking in the last of those equatorial rays. Perhaps some of us (OK, virtually all of us) didn't take Eric's repeated advise seriously enough...there were some truly horrible shades of pink/red/magenta at dinner that last night! When we went to sleep we were serenaded(?) by lightning bolts, screaming howler monkeys, and scurrying spiny-tailed iguanas. We left the coast for San Jose the next day and returned to the same hotel we started the trip in. A 3:30am wake-up call was eventually followed by an 11:30pm arrival in Burlington. All is well, and everyone's going to be filled with stories!

signing off...

A softball-sized Marine Toad just chased a Gecko away from a AA-battery-sized Click Beetle that they were both hunting; Toad 1: Gecko 0. Time for me to hit the sack and get ready for surfing tomorrow!!
-Pedro

Enjoying the Pacific

Devin & Justine heading through Mangrooves to Playa

Devin & Eric, our guides-extrodinaire on hanging brige

Tim, Donna, and Josh checking out Humming Birds on Canopy tour

Arenal falls

The 100' Arenal Falls in the background feeds a lake that provides 30% of the electricity for the entire country.

Iguana in trees during road-trip to Monteverde

Wednesday & Thursday updates...

Well, we were out of EMail range yesterday, and in transport today....so I'll try to consolidate the last 48 hours with a brief description and a couple of pictures.
We left Arenal for Monteverde ('mountain green', green mountains, vermont...interesting, no?) on Tuesday, and the 14 miles took the better part of 4 hours to navigate, over dirt roads through the jungles and over the mountains. Our Monteverde digs included a wicked jacuzzi/pool combo overlooking the rainforest where we saw parrots fighting and agoutis frolicking.  Wednesday morning we left for a dawn-patrol hike, followed by a breakfast, and back to the cloud forest for a hanging-bridge canopy tour. Bird-enthusiasts from all over the world come to this refuge to see the elusive Quetzal, and it's the ultimate goal of any birder's life-list. We not only saw a Quetzal, but a Drum Bird, and an Ornate Hawk Eagle (which had Eric jumping up and down like a little kid with a new toy...it's been 4 years since he's seen one of these massive jungle raptors). The birding FAR exceeded Devin's hopes, and may have created a few more ornithologists to follow in Sam Barrocas' and Devin's footsteps. We then visited Devin's host family (who he stayed with during his Senior Project) for a lunch, which included tortilla-making lessons. We were joined by soon-to-be new VCS 9th-grader Sophie who left the lunch really excited to meet the rest of the Flying Turtles in August!
After lunch, we traveled back to the canopy for the (in)famous zip-line canopy tour. Everyone had a great time, zipping 300'+ above the canopy on lines that were more than 1/4 mile long! At one point, we were strapped in for the 'superman'...instead of sitting in a climbing harness like a chair, we were strapped in belly-to-the-ground...flying WAY above the canopy. Phineas was wearing a helmet-cam for some awesome video (which you'll have to wait for!). At the end of the zip came the big challenge...the tarzan swing. A hanging bridge ended more than 100' above the ground, and we had to walk the plank, one at a time, to be strapped in and dropped. After a 30' free-fall, the pendulum kicked in and we were swung over the canopy more than 300 feet (the length of a football field!). I'm telling you friends, your humble narrator will NEVER do something like that again! Back in town for dinner and some disco fun for the kids (Sarah does a mean salsa!) and a long night's sleep.
This morning we left for the pacific coast, and after braving some tortuous roads, we pulled into our mangroove-swamp hotel in the middle of the afternoon. After a bite to eat, everyone in the surf! Braving the 4-6' waves, we spent the next couple of hours body surfing. It's now just past sunset (see pictures below), and the howler monkeys are howling...time for dinner.
Check back soon for some pictures,
-Pedro

Tuesday Morning Hike

Good Morn - (gulp, slurp, mmmmmmmmmm) - ing :

(excuse me while I type and drink the best coffee in the world)....

Jennifer, Donna, Eric and I took a group of intrepid early-morning hikers through the Mt. Arenal cloud forest before breakfast. Justin, Phineas, Maggie, Tim, and Nate joined us as we worked our way down to a beautiful waterfall. (mmmmm, garrrrrr, best coffee ever......mommy)
Next, we're heading to Arenal Lake for a hike to the giant waterfall that feeds the volcanic lake. Here's a shot of Justin, Eric, Jennifer, and Donna with Arenal in the background...

For those of you old-timers, I ran into Noah Comen and his Dad in the buffet line! Noah, who spent his 7th & 8th grades with us is now a finance major at Bentley College...he says 'hey' to the juniors and seniors who overlapped with him.
Please just pour that crappy coffee you're drinking out, because it insults my coffee that you're reading this while I'm enjoying family-grown Costa Rican arabica....
-Pedro
mmmmmmmm, yarrrrrrr, javvvvvaaaaaa.....

Beech-bums on the Carribean

Monday

Today was a travel day - from our paradise in the canals, up to the volcano of Arenal.  On the way we stopped and saw dozens of huge iguanas in a small village, and sat in natural hot springs inside the jungle.  Also on the way, Tim left the bus to pick up a paper that a little school boy dropped on his way home.  He was a hero.  Right now everyone is in a beautiful pool in the dark.  Lots of laughter and fun on the bus - tomorrow we hike up the volcano.

Jennifer

Sunday afternoon

We're going back to the canals this afternoon for another aquatic safari.
Got to get back to my Costa Rican Arabica & Coconut Flan (mmmmmNomNomNOM!)
-Pedro
ps. please check out the link Laurie sent you from our most excellent guide Eric Gomez!

Epiphytes are critters too...

Jaffe face-to-snout with a caimen

A tiger-heron sunning itself

A young prehensile-tail porcupine having siesta

Sunday lunch

We just returned from our first trip through the canal system. We saw a ton of critters including;

• blue morpheus
• spider monkeys
• howler monkeys
• basilisk lizards
• Caimen
• Anhinga
• Green heron
• Tiger heron
• Iguana
• River otters
• Eyelash vipers
• Prehensile-tail porcupine

We'll have a lot of pictures, but here's a taste of some of what we've encountered!

oh those canadian girls....

Men, men, men, men, manly (?) men....

Elephant Beetle & Maggie

Tortugero arrival

After an early start, we left San Jose and made our way by bus through banana plantations (see the photo of raw coconut milk garnished with Elephant Beetle!) to the canals where we went by boat to our hotel in the forest. We're right next to the famous turtle-nesting beaches (largest in the western hemisphere for the Green Sea Turtle).
We're going to go hunting for poison-dart frogs tonight by flashlight (and doing our level best to avoid the 12' croc that lives under the boat dock!). All is well, and I'm going to try to attach some pictures below.
-Pedro

Arrival

We made it!


Devin and Eric picked us up at the San Jose airport, then a quick drive to the hotel, a quick dip in the pool, and a short walk for some pizza.
Everyone's psyched for an early start as we head into the plantations & canals tomorrow morning...should be some good pictures incoming!

-Pedro

Leaving Soon !!

Everyone needs to meet at BTV at noon on Friday!
Woohoo!!

-Pedro