March 6 – Up
early (as usual, not loving my alarm!) to take in a hike in the Santa Elena
cloud forest – saw a huge tarantula, hiked on the continental divide, then on
to Salvaterra hanging bridges (8 bridges, longest at 560 ft) high above the
canopy. We also toured the beautiful butterfly garden, hot, humid & full of
colorful butterflies flying around.
 |
| amazing huge trees, covered in bromeliads |
 |
| lots of creepy bugs in the cloud forest |
 |
| everything just oozes water |
 |
| the cloud forest |
 |
| hanging bridges thru the cloud forest |
 |
| in the butterfly garden, a dish of fruit |
 |
| a "pet" in the butterfly garden |
 |
| chrysalis hatching |
Our evening
included a night walk (complete with head lamp) to spot an olingo small furry animal, lots of insects & a scorpion that glows under a black light. Much creepier walking around in the noisy, very dark jungle than a night boat ride!
 |
| scorpion under black light |
 |
| same scorpion |
 |
| today's steps, 17,000, 63 flights of stairs! |
We ended the
day up on a lookout, enjoying the scenery & the sunset; then out for a
delicious dinner at an Italian restaurant.
 |
| just outside our room! |
 |
| view from our room |
March 7 –
after a huge buffet breakfast (all breakfasts included) we headed to the
Monteverde Institute for some volunteering (part of the tour). The Institute
works to grow native trees from seed & provide them to farmers & locals
to reforest the area. The hope is to connect the cloud forest with the Pacific
coast mangroves to provide a corridor for animals to travel & restore
forests to preserve water. Robin joined
the group filling bags with soil for tree planting; I enjoyed my time weeding
small trees in the bags. Hot again, in the 30C’s!
 |
| breakfast buffet |
 |
| filling bags with soil |
 |
| tree seedlings that we weeded |
 |
| another typical meal, more rice & beans |
 |
| Blue-crowned Motmot |
March 8 –
another travel day - passing road side stands selling huge avocados &
fruits; the shipping port of Caldera; large plantations of palms for palm oil;
a stop at the Tarcoles River to watch crocodiles before arriving in Quepos on
the coast.
 |
| avocado stand |
 |
| taking milk or cream to the cheese factory |
 |
| palms for palm oil |
 |
| Tarcoles River, known for it's crocodiles |
 |
| the ever present souvenir shops |
 |
| Costa Rica takes recycling seriuosly! |
Our hotel,
Villa Lirios was charming, lovely landscaped gardens, a pool & restaurant.
We spent the afternoon at the public beach, of course filling my pockets with
seashells & seaglass & Robin working on his sunburn!
 |
| our hotel pool, our room was overlooking it |
 |
| public beach at Quepos |
March 9 –
after an early breakfast we drove to the nearby famed Manuel Antonio National
Park – incredible place – we had a local guide who spotted capuchin monkeys, a
snake, red eyed tree frogs, bats, racoons, basilisk lizards & iguanas. All
this before we got to the beach! No umbrellas or lounge chairs (popular at the
public beach, for a fee), just sun & sand, iguanas jumping at folks for
their ice cream & sandwiches &
monkeys that can open back pack zippers looking for goodies! (They got
handwipes from our pack while we walked the beach). The rules were “no food
anywhere near the beach” & now we know why!
 |
| white faced capuchin monkey |
 |
| racoon |
 |
| iguana |
 |
| hermit crab |
 |
| red eyed tree frog under a leaf |
 |
| beige colored baby two toed sloth |
 |
| sloth |
 |
| green snake |
I dragged my
snorkel gear this far so despite being told that the water was too murky to see
anything I ventured out from the shore – and couldn’t see a thing!
 |
| Manuel Antonio National Park |
Out for
supper with new friends & finally got my whole fried red snapper,
excellent!
March 10 – A
small group of us went on a kayaking trip in the mangroves, led by William, a
marine biologist who calls the mangroves beside his home his “office”. Lucky
guy! The locals have used a mold of an ocean kayak & made it from
fiberglass with no holes, so no wet butt & now reparable. We enjoyed a slow
paddle down a canal, treed with huge mangrove trees, got up close with a group
of white-faced capuchin monkeys & returned to a wonderful lunch prepared by
William’s wife (the best casado in Costa Rica)!
 |
| green parrot |
 |
| typical cattle in Costa Rica |
 |
| tiger heron |
 |
| Gray-necked Wood-rail |
 |
| kingfisher |
We ended the
day with a group dinner at Ronny’s Place with spectacular sunset views over the
ocean & another group photo.
March 11 –
one last trip to the beach, looking for scarlet macaws before we said good-bye
to some of our group that were lucky enough to stay a few more days. By this
point we had become “family” so this was difficult. We all created a What’sapp
group to share photos, comment & to keep in touch, so they are not lost to
us.
Not long
into our trip back to San Jose the driver spotted a flock of scarlet macaws,
excellent as they had eluded us till now. Lots of photos & videos taken.
 |
| part of my collection |
We committed
a great big mistake – Dorian our guide got a call from the hotel that we had
left an hour before, asking who was in room 308? They had found a folder with
passports in the safe – ours of course! Crap!! After much time on the phone by
Dorian, turning around twice, us volunteering to be kicked off at the next town
to return for the passports – a solution was found! Our driver had the
brilliant idea to send the folder on the public bus to San Jose - the hotel
clerk packaged it up, put our guide’s name on it (safer than a tourist name)
& dropped it at the bus station in Quepos. It would/should arrive in the
morning (the day we flew home) & be picked up by Dorian. Fingers crossed,
we said to go ahead.
Long trip
back to San Jose, busy roads, lots of toll booths with multiple lanes merging
back in to 2 lanes, thankfully roads in great shape (way more potholes back
home). Back to the Radisson for our last night – we still had not turned on a
TV during our trip. Anxious night, worried about the passports.
 |
| crazy traffic! |
 |
| colorful painted ox carts |
March 12 –
Hurrah – Dorian arrived at 7:25, passports in hand!! Then we could relax &
enjoy our last breakfast buffet.
 |
| a visitor at our last breakfast at the hotel |
On to the
airport for our 1:50 flight, ready to go home to our own bed & home cooking
but so thankful that we had been lucky enough to travel around Costa Rica with
a wonderful group of people on a great tour!
Covid precautions starting to lift back home
but masks still worn everywhere indoors in Costa Rica & an emphasis on
handwashing in new sinks outside of most places vs hand sanitizer. Our bus
mates made the decision to opt out of masks while on the bus but needed
everywhere else.
Our flight
left us with a 12 hour layover in Toronto, we had booked a hotel but with the
change to Daylight Savings time & waiting for food, our actual lay down
time was about 5 hours. Returning to Toronto airport was a painful experience –
in a line-up to get thru customs that stretched the length of the space &
took over 1 hour, just making our flight to Edmonton. Arrived home to -5C.
 |
| Toronto airport, nasty long lines |
All in all a
wonderful trip, a tick off the “bucket list” & we are now fans of guided
small group travel! Definitely still “Living the Dream”!
