Blogs from Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 6

What a relaxing day today! Except for the fact that a neighborhood dog woke us up frequently and we were unable to sleep after 5:30, this was an extremely comfortable bed with very soft sheets. and we woke up refreshed, just not long enough. Oh well. David was happy to do some birding in the am, and said buenos dias a few times to a man who was bicycling. The man eventually stopped and chatted – I could hear from a distance and was so very proud of David! I heard the word toucan and as they walked slightly further down the road I assumed the man knew where to show David a toucan. No, he was inviting David to see his garden (growing pineapples, cacao, and guanabana – that’s soursop) and even the inside of ... read more

It was a busy day again today, which is why I didn’t get around to posting until the morning. We were eating breakfast at the very earliest hour of 6:30 am yesterday, but sure weren’t the only ones. Folks get up early here because the sun does too! We were picked up by van to go to the cloud forest walk. And what did we learn? That a cloud forest is different from a rainforest – because it’s where the weather from the Atlantic and Pacific crash into each other. The cloud forest is filled with epiphytes – air plants. We saw some amazing and huge ficus trees where the epiphytes had completely encased the original tree. It’s also full of avocado trees – which are mini fruit types in the wild – and loved by ... read more

Given that I couldn't be in Panama longer than 30 days, I had decided to cross back into Costa Rica to do two places I had missed earlier - La Fortuna and Tamarindo and then cross over to Nicaragua. I left from Boquete to David by the chicken bus, it was so slow that I almost missed my connection for going into Costa Rica. These are old school buses converted into local buses and hence sometimes have speed limits. Panama to Costa Rica was my first land border crossing in Central America and it went off smoothly. I traveled that day to San Jose, rested the night and headed to La Fortuna the next day. It was the Semana Santa week (Easter), so I knew there will be lot of tourists including locals, so to avoid ... read more

We got to sleep in until later this morning, but the HOWLER MONKEYS right outside the house woke up many of us. We left the house at 7:30 in order to get the kids to their surfing lesson, but then we couldn’t find the location, and the company did not answer their mobile, so we just spent the morning enjoying the beach in the national park called “Parque nacionale Bellena” – the whales tail. One of the photos will show you the whales tail from our house before it is visible at low tide. Then the center and the tail show up. The center is completely fine brown sand, and the tail flukes are rocks. David and Jean brought their goggles and snorkels (no fins) and tried to snorkel, which was supposed to be on the ... read more

Sunday the 29th We were awake VERY early – it’s 2 hours “behind” – and we were able to get in over an hour’s worth of birding before a lovely Costa Rican breakfast of “gallo pinto,” namely the spotted rooster: eggs, black beans mixed in rich, with a flour tortilla. And really good coffee. The driver Gerardo picked us up at 9:30 and we bid goodbye to Villa San Ignacio for a 4+ hour drive s.w. to the Pacific Coast. We learned that there are barely any roads except for single, and lots of hills, and scary driving, and yet we saw lots of bikers!! We stopped at a super muddy river where crocodiles abound, Tarcoles River, got to visit el bano, and bought some snacks. We are finding the various plantain snacks very tasty, esp ... read more