With my hand on my heart I pledge allegiance to the nuts of the Costa Rica Country I do love. To Pura Vida and all it stands for. One nation indivisible under trees… Variegated Squirrel, Sciurus variegatoides, Spanish – Ardilla variable
You can fix anything with duct tape…for a while anyway. These dugouts were abandoned but we also saw the occasional boat still in use with duct tape sealing leaks or holding cracks together. Love it!
Betcha can’t eat just one!
Look carefully just in front of the left rear leg and you can see a mosquito biting this frog. That’s animal kingdom audacity.
Uhhh…guys…isn’t that roof made of grass…??? The fronds of the Marsh Fern (Helecho Mangle, Acrostichum aureum) are quite fire resistant because they concentrate salts in their tissues. Early Americans recognized this quality and used them for thatching over cooking areas but this might be a bit of an extreme test…
Cool Frog
Of course Ceviche de Viagra is code for turtle eggs so please make sure when you order that they are certified sustainably harvested from one of the conservation projects. Used with permission from Sandra Shelton
Our mountain biking support vehicle
Is she getting blurry or is that just the beer
Serious shower requirements for the pool
Wet armpits? No problem.
…if found please return to…
Playa Dominical is totally nuts – souvenir figures made from seeds and nuts from the rainforest – by Alex
“Come on…lay down and take a break”… “no. no. no… hurry, stand up the farmer is coming back, I see him over there”
The tatoo fern – smack a leaf on your pant leg and it leaves a perfect imprint (no pun intended…I didn’t even see that until after I typed it)
I’m always telling people that they’ll need their sunscreen a lot more than their umbrella even in the rainy season…how about an umbrella as a sunshade?
I’m at the very top level of environmental consciousness…not only will I reuse my towel… please make the next guest use my dirty bedding and towels as well…
Manuel Antonio Monkey says “…so then I sat on a branch just out of reach and started emptying the backpack and throwing all the crap down on their heads…it was hilarious, they wanted the car keys and passports…they were begging but I just held onto those.”
Yum! fresh termites right out of the nest. Adventurous visitors to Costa Rica can easily sample this rainforest delecacy by finding a nest like the black blob in the thin tree to the left. Put your hand on the nest and they’ll swarm on it and you can try them for yourself. Tastes a little like popcorn.
Seriously, next time you forget to pack your travel pillow you’re just going to have to go without.
This horse was perfectly happy to munch watercress and other aquatic plants in his soggy pasture sharing with a pair of Jacana
Sue was bitten on the foot by a soilder ant that took a little chunk out
Alex applied cocain leaves to the soilder ant bite on Sue’s foot
Cocaine leaves soothed the sting of Sue’s soilder ant bite.
No playing in the rain…but it’s always raining in the rainforest…
Birdwatching can be exhausting
Here’s your sign…no camping inside the active volcano
There are several trails to viewpoints for the waterfall despite the big sign above the first entrance that proclaims “absolutely the only trail to the waterfall,” (a dead giveaway in Costa Rica that there are other ways). The price for entrance started out at $30 per person but ended up at a more reasonable $10 when we pointed out that we knew at least two more ways to gown down and if they were going to be ridiculous we’d just go to one of the others. As you can see from the painted out references in the photo to having a “ticket” with you at all times the lower entrance also had some trouble from the community since the waterfall itself has guaranteed public access. That said the lower trail winds down through pristine primary forest while the upper ones pass through shadeless pastures so it’s a good choice.
Steambath at the budget spa
Turtle’s eggs are not the solution to your problem – get yourself some viagra if you need an aphrodisiac
toxic pura vida gas mask – political commentary on “Green Washing” and Costa Rica’s fake environmental claims.
Leave valuables at your hotel or at the park entrance reception. I you take them with you, keep an eye on them at all times, (except money).
The last set of 4WD tracks we saw stopped abruptly about half way up and then started sliding slowly backwards. It doesn’t look like a really challenging road, but constant mist creates a super slick layer of mud that thwarts even the best tires. This driver was staying in the erosion channels to use the leaves and twigs that collected there to gain traction. The maintenance crews use snow chains to get to the top.
Seemingly overnight in early 2013 huge brand new fire trucks and stations appeared all over Costa Rica. The crews were very excited to use them. While driving down the Pan American highway near Canas we saw three or four units on scene, two more pumping water into tankers near the river and another couple more racing along the highway from as far away as Puntrenas in response to a grass fire. Last year the same fire would have been ignored and simply allowed to burn out.
Two of these things are not like the others…the kids got the football and basketball stuck in the coconut palm trying to knock down a pipa
Rum bottles from Edwin’s birthday pig roast.
And that’s just my carryon baggage… Actually on the little bush plane charter out of Carate airport carryon is the only kind of luggage there is since the plane doesn’t have a cargo hold and no it’s not really all mine – it’s parts of three trekker’s gear.
Does everything seem blurry to you? AFTER straddling a ravine using a boulder and chunk of concrete conduit, our driver stopped half way to Drake to pick up his glasses from his son who he notified by cell phone that he was driving a bunch of tourists around blindly
Airplane on the mountainside near Dominical being converted into a restaurant
Never smile at a crocodile
. No, you can’t get friendly with a crocodile.
Don’t be taken in by his welcome grin.
He’s imagining how well you’d fit within his skin” – Peter Pan
It’s really better if you simply stay off the roads around Nosara (and Santa Teresa/MalPais) unless you have a hermetically sealed a/c SUV. While ATVs and motorcycles look like they might be a fun way to get around they’re extremely dangerous (inherently and because you’re likely to be hit by a hermetically sealed SUV) and you’re nearly constantly enveloped in huge clouds of floury choking dust (polvo). The best bet is to just get to where you’re going ant then walk up and down the beach avoiding the roads altogether.
We don’t care if you did fly 3,000 miles and walk all the way up here just to see this…stare into the impenetrable fog for your allotted ten minutes and go the hell home – your viewing pleasure of the Poas crater is rationed – “Area for picture taking maximum staying 10 min.”
Mel checks out her Munchkin room at Cabinas Quetzales in San Gerardo de Dota…maybe if you push the beds together…
Herding tourists – The rangers at Irazu volcano drive their pickup out onto the rim every day at 3:15 and start herding the tourists back towards the exit so the park can close by 3:30
evidence just how stupid people can be…
Beach Front Titted Land..er umm titled land
Puerto Jimenez Yacht Club
Hugging a dinosaur
Even the newly remodeled SJO international airport has toilet paper waste baskets
The snapped axle on this rental car belies the quote from the 1947 travel film “the Roads of Costa Rica are among the best in the world and this little country boasts that it is one of the first to complete its portion of the great Pan American Highway.”
Himalaya Start – this was the first time I’d ever been in a whitewater kayak so Edwin and Suresh decided it would be a good idea if I jumped off a twelve foot drop to start my Eskimo roll lessons
Peligro Poste Adelante (Danger Post Ahead)…Don’t they mean “Danger, Post Here!..In the middle of the freekin’ road!”
Caution! Waiters Crossing
Permanent stalls are not allowed so this beach vendor made the most of his parking space
Okay, this one I get…toilet paper in the urinal is always a bad idea
This isn’t funny “ha-ha” more of a funny strange. What do you see at Punta Inda north of playa Ostional?