TateTales

Marika, Will and Dad headed by boat to the local snorkeling hotspot and we spent an hour or so spotting a rainbow sushi buffet of Pacific Ocean fish. Pufferfish were the coolest sporting iridescent blue spots and fish that looked like they may have been parrotfish and triggerfish. Nicaragua was just too close to ignore so we had a BIG 19 hour Nicaragua day Monday. Up at 4:30 and onto a small modern bus which took us to the town of Liberia for breakfast. We then had about an hour drive to the border and crossed without incident but saw dozens and may be 100—200 huge transport trucks idling their hot engines to keep their air conditioning going. Apparently they wait from two to four days to cross and boy is it hot there!!!! We visited ... read more

MayDay was a relatively low key transition day. We were met at Monteverde and driven a couple hours through mountainous backroads to the edge of Costa Rica’s largest lake, Lake Arenal, where we were met by a boat. The captain, who reminded me of my nephew Jordan must have picked up our vibe because indtead of taking us to meet our driver on the other shore, he first took us to an abandoned hundred and fifty year old cemetery that is in the process of being submerged in the lake. Then he drove the boat iinto series of thickly matted weeds lining part of the shore and we saw birds with astonishingly yellow underwings and looong toes that can walk on lily pads and caimans of differing ages and size. We then docked and were driven ... read more

Esteban, our guide, met us at the Lodge at 7 AM and we drove higher up the mountain to the Santa Elena cloud forest reserve. All funds raised through reserve entrance fees, etc go to the local Santa Elena high school. We had spectacular views of the rare three wattled bell bird and resplendent quetzal, and a host of other local Costa Rican birds. This cloud forest had a real jungle feel to it with moss-covered vines reaching from the canopy to the forest floor. Dung beetles and millipedes were the insects of the morning, about to be seriously upstaged by the insects of our amazing night hike. We headed out for about a kilometer hike to our meeting place for our night hike. In a gathering in the quickly darkening cloud forest, we started a ... read more

After dawn Will found a whole flock of keel-billed toucans and then we had a quick bite and just before we boarded the plane for Monteverde one of the local guides, Mauricio showed the kids how to give themselves jungle tatoos. He found a special fern that when pressed against skin, leaves a perfect replica of the fern in a white (spore?) powder. He said as kids they used to cover their bodies with them. We boated across the river to a tiny island just big enough for an airstrip and some nesting turtles. It was a tiny six seater so along with the pilot, co-pilot dad, Kim Will and Marika there was only one seat left in case we spotted a cloud-borne hitchiker en route. We lifted off from the mini-runway and had a smooth ... read more

Poison dart frogs? Howler monkeys? Three-toed sloth? If I am dreaming don't pinch me because I don't want to wake up! We arose this morning in the lovely Hotel Bougainvillea just outside of San Jose and Marika, Will and I grabbed our binocluars and headed out into the acres and acres of grounds. We saw motmots with long tails, cinnamon cuckoos, orchids and then a ginormous morpho butterfly lazily fluttered by in its resplendent blue glory. After breakfast Umberto (who shares hiis name with Will's best friend) and Arianna picked us up and drove us from our hotel to the Caribbean coast north of Limon. We had amazing adventures en route and took advantage of every second of our five hours together to learn about Costa Rica from our 25 year old guide, Arianna whose range ... read more