Costa Rica

Dave and I just got back from the vacation of a life time. Jana and David Badger suggested we go to Costa Rica for some canopy tours and hikes in the tundra. Since Jana and David are never wrong, we took their advice and went to La Fortuna and Monte Verde.

Before we left I felt impressed to purchase a couple of backpacks the night before. Dave felt impressed to call the bus that was picking us up at 3:00 "from the restaurant across the street from the airport." Well the backpacks were exactly what we needed as the transportation system would have been difficult at best with our traditional suitcases. The restaurant across the street, on the other hand, turned out to be a 15min taxi ride. Needless to say, we missed the bus in pouring down rain and had to make taxi arrangements to La Fortuna. Eric, Jana and John can appreciate this picture: Their language inept mother trying to explain our plight and get help making those arrangements under a tin roof in a down-pour.

After arriving in Tabacon Springs we wanted to kiss the ground. Our driver was a 26yo with way way too much bravado or maybe a former Indy 500 race car champion. Either would be fine on US roads but imagine only 2-way highways with a steep canyon on one side and random lanes that had been washed away by a former land slide.

Our first morning began with a fishing trip on Lake Aernal at 5:30 am.

As you can see I won the tournament. Dave didn't want to take pictures of my other catches. That smoking mountain you see is a real live volcano which we will feature later on this blog when we got a spectacular two thumbs up view of it on the other side at night.

So.... on to the canopy tour after the fishing trip. This was a process of a hike, then a zip across a huge gorge through the trees, towards a water fall and then more hiking and more zip lines (10 lines all together). At the end we rode skinny horses back to the stables. Take note of Dave's extra harness they put on him for spinning out of control. Also notice the hard stop where my knee swung up and hit the cable....not funny... still have the bruise...but lots of fun...would do it again.

We decided to sleep in til 7:00am catch a quick breakfast and transportation to the river for some white water rafting. This was the absolute coolest adventure we have ever experienced. Our guide had it in for Dave for the whole trip. He yelled FORWARD which meant put your whole body and sole into the stroke. You will see by the pictures that the timing was perfect for the next rapid to wash Dave over. We almost lost him twice. The guide apologetically said "sorry I didn't see that rock, Dave". Our team was so good that we did donuts and bounced our raft off trees while others just survived the trip going forward. I'm the special one with the blue helmet.

The night after rafting we decided to take a trip around the other side of the volcano to view all the action. Since EVERYONE had made a big deal about seeing the top of it the whole time we were there. We got a few shots but like this one best.

Our last day in La Fortuna was spent enjoying the hot springs produced by that volcano.

Wow Jana, you were right about the fireworks!

The next afternoon we caught the jeep boat jeep to Monte Verde which turned out to be van, boat, van, another van. We met some really neat people whom we bonded with out of shear terror. There were 2 dentists, 1 vet, a teacher and her husband who did AC jobs in Canada and us cramped up with all our back packs in a small minivan. The driver spoke only Spanish. After crossing Lake Arenal, the road to Monte Verde was treacherous at best. David Badger mentioned how he hated it. While telling Dave about this, one of the dentists turned around in his seat and said"You mean you know someone who did this road?" When I explained my association to Jana and David, the vet behind us said "I guess your daughter and son-in-law are the benefactors of your life insurance?" Shortly after this conversation we started back sliding on the gravel-dirt road backwards while smelling this hot acrid smell. The driver was persistent in flooring the gas pedal while everyone was pleading to stop and let us out in any desperate form of Spanish they knew. We jumped from the van all the while he protested. Soon after, it stalled never to start again. The sun was setting and we grabbed our packs and began listing our supplies for food and shelter. The vet said she would work on capturing a small animal for diner since she was up to date on her rabies vaccine. About an hour and a half later, another van rescued us.

Arising the next morning at Monte Verde we decided to take the hanging bridges tour. We were disappointed that we didn't see more critters with our guide, but appreciated his expertise on plants and pointing out a sleeping owl, a lizard, and his sharing information on the ficus trees which you will see us climbing up the middle of.

We just knew that if we went to the Monte Verde Cloud Forest Reserve we would see the birds and the animals we missed on the hanging bridges tour. So we ate lunch and set out for another hike. Thinking that we would go on a night hike the next night we decided to save a little money by not hiring a tour guide. I think the park ranger didn't approve so to get revenge, he pulled up an older map and quickly drew a yellow line indicating a 2 hr tour that would allow just enough time to call a taxi at closing. About an hr. into the hike we came across a trail closure so we took the only trail that was accessible which put us on broken bridges covered with chicken wire that some poor hiker before us stepped through. As the sun was setting we pushed on through steep and muddy "GUCK"(as Dave calls it) that went on for miles. We laughed joking about the search and rescue team that never cared about our absence. With mud between our toes and fingers we called it a day.....but oh! Lets walk over there and see the humming birds before the taxi comes!

Exhausted we finished off the day with a sunset from our room. Our travel to Corpus Christi the next day was no small feat. The plan was to do the jeep, boat, jeep in reverse, catch a taxi to the La Fortuna air strip, fly a King Air to the air strip in San Jose, pick up a taxi to the international airport, get through customs and security to board our flight to Houston then to Corpus. Imagine our surprise when the same driver that broke down is inviting us to get in for our first leg of the jeep-boat-jeep trip!

The ground is so fertile in Costa Rica that you can see that when they plant stumps for fence posts, they grow! Also take note of the small volcano we flew over on our way home.

Sure hope you enjoyed the sights as much as we did! Patti