Saturday, November 26th, we arrived from Oklahoma to Costa Rica
on a surprisingly short flight. As the plane taxied in, it jolted to almost a stop to let a huge iguana cross our path on the tarmac. What a great way to start our Costa Rican adventure, pura vida (which translates to pure life)!
We bused to our super nice hacienda in our first town, Canas, ate a traditional Costa Rican dinner (beans and rice, plantain, choice of meat, homemade bread), took an evening dip in the pool, and saw one of our favorite sights... leaf-cutter ants!
The morning we enjoyed our complimentary breakfast, saw a glimpse of our first howler monkey,
and basked in a 4-hour self tour of the Puma Rescue Center (Centro de Rescate Las Pumas). There we met Simon, a long-time volunteer at the place, who told us all about the animals and why some animals are lifers at the place (they either have physical or mental illnesses that cannot be cured). Like the Oslot with cataracts (cat-a racks, get it?), or the cross-eyed puma, or the Oslot with back legs that don't work well, or the Chaputan monkeys that were once kept as pets but chained by their neck to a tree and tortured by kids. Brutus, a big handsome puma, was raised as a pet, and is now just too darn nice to be let out, in fear he will pounce on a human to lick and play with him, and be shot out of fear.
My favorite was this weasel, Grison. He would jump up and play-bite your hand, and bound and roll and frolic... he was so cuuuute!
We bought a calendar and left feeling so grateful to have met Simon and been able to stay as long as we did (long enough to see the deer and boar snuggling, and for the employees to feed the big cats!).
My favorite was this weasel, Grison. He would jump up and play-bite your hand, and bound and roll and frolic... he was so cuuuute!
The next morning we bused, then taxied, then bused again to La Fortuna. The next day, we went to Los Canones, where we zip lined! 13 lines, over and under and around the vast treetops. It was so much more fun than I expected! We followed that up with an afternoon of water-sliding and hot pools, and viewing crocs, butterfly's, and ant exhibits at Los Lagos.
The next day we took 3 buses that took us 12 hours to get to the rainy little beachfront town of Cahuita.
The night erupted with wicked thunderstorm.Thankfully the morning we were greeted by this lil' pooch, Sweet Pea.
While there we went on many walks, including through the Cahuita National Park, where we saw monkeys, lizards, aguati, a baby raccoon, and hermit crabs (they are so funny!). We took a 30 second canoe ride from Francis, the nice boat boy who Wren juggled for as a thank you, and on our way back, Wren helped a lady across a log over a stream, and ended up saving her from falling in!
Between our appreciative juggling, and heroism, we enjoyed the warm, warm water of La Playa Negro.
At our hostel, Wren got to bask in one of his favorite activities:
being shirtless while reading in a hammock.
While I basked in one of mine.
The evenings were warm and beautiful.
One of the days we hiked down to the Sparkling waterfalls...
where Wren was eager to get in and under the falls.
While I just sat and watched the water fall.
The next day we traveled to Puerto Viejo...
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