Our First Week in Costa Rica !

HI!
After picking up Todd and Julia in Toronto late Friday,December 15th and driving to Buffalo we took a flight early the next morning and arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica about 2:30 pm on Saturday. Our first big event was Happy Hour (free drinks) at our hotel followed by the Festival of Lights parade through the centre of the city. Over a million people lined the streets to watch gigantic floats, bands and gymnastics displays. The costumes were exotic. The highschool cheerleading teams did some fantastic flips in the air much like the U.S. teams.

Our first tour was to a coffee plantation where we had a traditional breakfast
of black beans and rice, fruit and, of course, coffee. After a brief tour of the plantation we drove to Poas volcanoe at an elevation of 7 500 feet. We hiked to the top where you could look down into the crater. Unfortunately it was too cloudy to see all the way into the crater lake so we are planning on returning another day. We then headed to the La Paz Waterfall before having lunch at a lodge at Selva Verde where we got to cross the river on a lengthy swinging suspension bridge. There were lots of colourful birds and iguanas in the area. The highlight of the day´s tour was the river cruise where we saw giant gold iguanas, a huge caymen resting on the shore, colouful toucans and a great variety of other birds.

We got back to the hotel on time for Happy Hour once more. (Is there a theme developing?) After dinner we spent some time in the adjoining casino. We haven´t paid for our trip yet but we´ll keep trying!

Monday morning we left for Monteverde Cloud Forest where we stayed in a fabulous lodge perched high on the mountainside with wonderful views of the Pacific Ocean. The roads up to Monteverde are extremely rough and rocky but we got to see a lot of local settlements. After exploring we delivered our collection of books to the Cloud Forest Public School where the principal gladly receved them. Unfortunately the children are on school break until mid February so we didn´t have an opportunity to work with them. In the afternoon we all went horseback riding for two hours. It was different from our North American experiences because we went through the cloud forest as well as galloping wildly through fields. Julia´s camera bounced out during one of the quick rides. We retraced part of the ride and fortunately our guide spotted it.

Tuesday morning we were off for a tour of the cloud forest. We had an excellent guide who carried a high quality telescope with him. We were lucky to see the rarely sighted ¨resplendent quetzal¨ three times. It is about a metre long including it´s beautiful long emerald green tail and has a brilliant red breast and a crown of feathers. We saw numerous other different birds.

The afternoon was very exciting as we all climbed the tower to the first station to begin our zip line canopy tour. The first section included five long wire cables to platforms in the trees. At first some of us were a little nervous being suspended a hundred feet above the forest floor but after a while we relaxed and enjoyed the magnificent views and the thrill of the ride. The second section had only two cables but they were higher and longer. A great time was had by all. In the evening we walked into the little town of Santa Elena Where Julia and Todd bought a few things in the local grocery store.

Wednesday morning we went by van and boat to La Fortuna to see the famous Arenal Volcano which has erupted daily since 1968. Our accomodation turned out to be an amazing resort at the base of the volcano with a pool with the fastest slide any of us had ever been on as well as a hot spring pool with a swim-up bar. There were beautiful gardens filled with colourful tropical plants and an alligator pool. They had horseback tours up the mountain to view the volcano. We rode up through river streams and steep rocky paths as well as through fields. From the viewing platform you could see molten rocks being hurled out of the volcano and rolling down the side. During the day they appeared like puffs of smoke as the rocks broke up but at 3 am you could see brilliant red sparks and spurts of molten lava. It was an amazing sight!

Thursday morning we left for Jaco on the Pacific coast. We arrived to temperatures over 30 degrees, hot sand beaches and palm trees - quite a contrast to the mountain temperatures of about 15 to 20 degrees. The town itself is a typical collection of tourist shops and restaurants. Todd and Julia enjoyed swimming in the ocean and we all enjoyed the pool. On Friday morning we had a tour of Corcovado National Reserve. Our guide was able to spot a two-toed sloth sleeping in a tree. Although we had seen a couple of other sloths sleeping in trees this one was sitting up so we got the best view of it. Apparently they feed off a tree whose leaves are a narcotic and scientist think that is part of the reason they are only awake for a few hours each day and move so slowly. We also saw another variety of exotic birds and lizards.

That afternoon we returned to San Jose just in time for ...you guessed it...Happy Hour! We all enjoyed the Casino and hot tub at the hotel knowing Todd and Julia were leaving the next day. We did manage to fit in a trip to the central market the next moring before we said our good-byes and they left for the airport.

Saturday we moved to a hotel in the central area of San Jose. We spent the evening strolling through the streets with thousands of locals who were celebrating Christmas by throwing white confetti on anyone and everyone. We were covered. Maybe the idea is white confetti instead of snow!

It´s December 24th and we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!