Costa Rica – HurricaneMaine

Rescate wildlife rescue center, San Jose, Costa Rica and New Year’s Eve

After relaxing in a thermal spa for an hour, I started traveling to San Jose from La fortuna. The plan was to make a stop at the Bosque Nubosa el Cocora but the rain was heavy at the time. Instead I stopped at this rescue center for wild and domesticated animals in San Jose. These animals cannot be released back to the wild. Sometimes I am not sure about rescue centers but this was very nice and like the rest of Costa Rica everyone is friendly and helpful.

I don’t mind the entrance price for a rescue center as some animals cannot be released because of their injuries.

Tufted ear marmoset, the smallest primate

After lunch at the rescue center ( I had casado again, amazing to see the regional differences), it was a short drive to the hotel. Villa San Ignacio has a pool, not heated, but still swimmable especially in the sun. It is a beautiful place with small hiking trails on the property, traditional decor, and beautiful rooms. It is only 20 minutes from the rental car place and close to the airport.

It is New Year’s Eve and here is to another great year. I originally was going to find a place to go out but not the best idea the day before I leave as I would have to drive a few kilometers. Instead I had a few drinks at the bar and talked to a few new people I met.

There were fireworks staring before midnight and I could see some off them from the balcony outside my room.

New years day was gorgeous. The view from my breakfast table.

I had also intended to drive around San Jose but most places were closed and I enjoyed doing laps in the pool instead of walking around. A relaxing and recovering way to start the new year. Now to return to Quito….

I thoroughly enjoyed the laid back, relaxing life here (still a contender for retirement) and especially driving some off of the fun roads! I still need to go to the Caribbean side next….. Costa Rica, I’ll be back…..pura vida!

Caño Negro from La Fortuna

The next morning I woke up early to go on an excursion to the Caño Negro Reserve. It is in the north of Costa Rica along the Nicaragua border. It is the 3td most important wetland in the world. It is one of the first refuges to have managed a delicate balance between ecotourism and management of resources and is an area of extreme biological importance.

It took about 90 minutes to arrive and I was glad to see that it was not a paved road to get there. We boarded a boat to vote areas along the river.

Caiman. Did you know that when their mouth is open, they are actually making vitamin D?

Snake bird that drives to catch prey in the water

Emerald basilisk also known as the Jesus Christ lizard as it walks (runs) on water.

After the boat ride, we had a lovely meal of casado

We then had a tiny explanation of cacao and coffee and also how they extract the juice from sugar cane. We smoked raw cacao beans and then ground into a powder and mixed to make chocolate. They also shared moonshine made from sugar cane juice. To chase the shot, you suck on the sugar cane and bite the juice from it. We also sampled coffee.

Causa, a Peruvian dish made from potatoes

I went to the hot springs again after the tour and one more time before leaving La Fortuna.

Monteverde

I drove from Manuel Antonio to Monteverde. Originally I was to spend three days there but decided that much of what I could hike would not be good for my knee. I changed my hotel which unfortunately was cancelled by the owner. The next day, I found another.

The roads were not as bad as I thought. Along the way there was a place to stop at Crocodile Bridge to see the crocodiles underneath.

I had a snack which was a walking ceviche taco.

The mountain roads reminded me of some of the Backcountry Western PA roads but there were some rougher areas and larger potholes. The views were amazing but not many places to pull off and take a picture.

Eventually I arrived in Santa Elena which is below Monteverde. Unfortunately, the hostel I booked was full with workers from the area and the poor manager did not know it had been advertised in the app I booked it from. She was so sweet and I had a great opportunity to practice my Spanish. She offered to find me an Airbnb but I found another hotel instead. I was lucky as there were few accommodations left, let alone for that night.

This restaurant I almost passed by but looked at their reviews online. They were great so I stopped.

I ordered casada which is a typical Costa Rican dish. I ordered the pescada (fish) but they had many options.

I felt like a snack and picked up treats made in the country. I had tried the coconut cookies before.

The next morning I took a tour to Selvadura park near the montaverde cloud forest. They have a great system of 8 hanging bridges that overlook much of the canopy of the forest.

This looks at the Continental divide here in Costa Rica. You can equally see sunrise and sunset at this point (depending which way you are facing).

After the tour of the bridges, I took the sloth sanctuary tour. There are only females here and they were unable to be returned to the wild and will spend the rest of their lives here.

This one was asleep.
What better place to wait for food?

Some sloth facts:

There are two toed and three toed sloths. There three toed are down south on Costa Rica and the two toed in the mountains.

Two-toed sloths primarily eat leaves, fruits, and shoots. Their diet is low in energy, leading to their slow metabolism and slow movement.

Despite the name “two-toed,” they actually have three toes on their hind limbs. They do, however, have only two fingers on their front limbs.

Two-toed sloths are slow-moving and spend the majority of their time hanging upside down from tree branches. Their slow movement helps them conserve energy.

They are mainly nocturnal, being more active during the night. This behavior helps them avoid predators and cope with the heat of the day.

They have a slow metabolism and 4 chambered stomachs, that extract nutrients from their low-energy diet.

After the tour I drove to La Fortuna. It is on the other side of the mountain and across the Arenal volcano area. Not many kilometers but it took time to go around all of the mountains. A beautiful drive. Along the way I saw this animal. It is a coatimundi.

I tried to get a good picture but first wanted to make sure it crossed the road completely.

One shot of the countryside with windmills.

It was a beautiful drive through the mountains and around the Arenal lake. There were no places to pull over to get a good picture.

After arriving in La Fortuna and checking into my hotel, I went to a nice thermal pool resort to relax!

Night tour, Manuel Antonio

The night tour was pretty fun, looking for things that want to hide and even some that are poisonous if disturbed.

Cats eye snake. Not poisonous and waiting for a pretty to cross his path.

This is really how small he is. He is at the junction of three Middle Branch with the trunk.

This is a tailless whip scorpion, an arachnid and his fourth pair of legs is actually antennae.

A tropical crab that monkeys love to find for food.

Indigenous people would dip the end in the secretion from the poisonous dart frog to poison prey by shooting the darts through bamboo straws.

A scorpion that fluoresces under our flashlights.

This Fer DeLance snake is poisonous. He really did not want anything to do with us but was alert in case he needed to protect himself. Most notes from this snake are accidental when someone stepped near him.

This spider is poisonous and many bites are accidental. It is known as a banana or a type of wandering spider.

A smooth helmeted iguana which is a mock chameleon. So tiny.

I loved the night tour. I have been wanting to do it for some time in different places. Of course it is better with a guide as they see things that we can’t. They also know what to look for. Other than a tarantula, nothing was on the path we were walking but often it is the poisonous snake that is there!

Manuel Antonio Patk

This park is near the southern part of Costa Rica and has extraordinary biodiversity and is along the Pacific Ocean. The tour took us to find wildlife and then have some time to spend on the beach.

The white faced monkeys were pretty photogenic but some were not happy we were there.

Grasshopper. This is a juvenile and will be twice this size when full grown.

The beach at Manuel Antonio

Pura Vida

After spending a good part of Christmas morning in the airport (Ryan’s flight left 4 hours before mine) and a flight to Costa Rica and drive from San Jose to Quepos, I could relax! The drive was beautiful in Costa Rica.

I am staying in Quepos for a few days to hike Manuel Antonio to find sloths and other wildlife. For the first day, the park is closed so I walked around Quepos and planned other tours for my visit.

Snorkeling

I booked a snorkeling tour that started just before lunchtime. It was decent snorkeling in the first spot but the great barrier reef and summer other places I have been had more fish. Of course it was low tide which could make a difference.