Pictures from our trip

Megan & Daniel's pictures on snapfish

Karyn & Matt's pictures on snapfish

Si Como No: "Yes, Why Not"

We are on the final leg of our journey through Costa Rica - staying near Manuel Antonio National Park (town of Quepos) on the Central Pacific Coast. The hotel we are staying at is called "Si Como No" which translated to English means "Yes, why not!" The place is a beautiful "green hotel" or eco resort. They use solar energy, recycle water to create a type of "sustainable" hotel, or something like that. Yesterday, we went on a Catamaran sail around the Manuel Antonio area, which was a lot of fun. We saw dolphins, did some snorkeling, and swimming in the ocean. At the hotel, the adult pool has been the highlight. Megan, Daniel, Karyn and I just lounge around the pool, never straying far from the swim-up bar. We are all battling sunburn.

The beaches at the National Park have been a little disappointing. They are crowded and the water is not so clear. However, we saw lots of cool wildlife - including monkeys and a family of sloths right on the beach.

Monteverde

On Tuesday morning we left the wonderful paradise near the Arenal Volcano for a new adventure - the cloudforest of Monteverde. Only problem was that it was a four hour drive through treacherous and unpaved roads. It seems the original settlers of Monteverde (Quakers) did not want to share their land, so the friends made sure that no one paved the roads. The drive was arduous, but we made it thanks to Megan's pothole avoidance skills. On Tuesday afternoon, we stopped at Pizza de Johnny's for a bite and then checked in to the Montana Monteverde hotel. That night it rained and rained (I guess that's why they call it the rainforest). We dined at "Moon Shiva" - a cool Mediterranean place with live music. When we got back to our room, we found a small scorpion so Karyn and I slept under a mosquito net. It rained and thunderstorms lit the room with lightening every 10 seconds or so. On Wednesday, we visited Selvatura park. The rain subsided in the morning and we went on a canopy tour (pics and videos above!). We went swinging through the jungle on zip lines including a real life Tarzan swing (see my video). The canopy tour was much better than the one we did in Arenal - one of the cables was 500m long and I was going so fast that I felt the wind ripple the skin on my face. After the zip lines, we visited a butterfly garden, a hummingbird area, the insect museum and a reptile exhibit. Dan, Megan and Karyn went on a wet hike on the hanging bridges, while I chilled out and slept in the gift shop. We also met Charlie - a peccary, which is a boar-like creature (Click on the link to see what Charlie looked like). Coincidentally, Karyn sells peccary gloves!

Where gross people go to bathe themselves

So far, we have done lots of cool stuff in Costa Rica. In Tenorio Volcano park (near Arenal), we hiked to Rio Celeste, which is a beautiful River colored a light blue shade from the natural mineral deposits that wash away pumous stones at the river source.












Rio Celeste River: the source of the color is pumous stone (only about 6 feet wide) and colors the river several miles downstream. The native people believe that the waters have healing powers.





Rio Celeste Waterfall: There is an 8-10m high waterfall in the jungles around Rio Celeste. We did the difficult hike around a cliff to see the waterfall.









We also hiked to La Fortuna waterfalls, an 80 meter waterfall closer to Arenal Volcano. We swam at the base with the fish! We stayed at the beautiful and rustic Silencio del Campo "hotel" (really a bunch of cabins) that is set among the farms at the base of majestic Arenal Volcano. We have seen many beautiful and wonderful natural places in Costa Rica. But the place we had been looking forward to most, Tabacon Hot Springs was like no other.





We discovered that Tabacon is where gross people go to bathe themselves. The natural hot springs are set among tropical plants, but there is something that they don't tell you before you visit. There are lots of gross people in the hot springs that give the water a slimy feeling and the smell of urine. We stayed for a couple of hours (despite the fact that there are hardly any chairs). The chairs we found were made of wood (hard as rocks) and they did not recline. But, the worst part about Tabacon was the people. One woman sat in a pool and we all watched as she cleaned herself just like a monkey would. She picked her feet. She picked her scalp. She picked her nose and then flung it in the pool. That is when we decided to leave Tabacon.