Costa Rica - Day Three

Day three of our adventure in Costa Rica.















Had to start off with this lovely iguana. Before we left Jaco, Todd and I took one last stroll along the beach and on our way to the beach we walked passed the hotel swimming pool. There weren't to many people at the pool early in the morning but there was an iguana. A nice BIG iguana, just sitting there, soaking up some rays.... hola iguana.... we'll miss you and Jaco beach.

So, back to our third day of Costa Rica. I thought day two was lots of driving but it was nothing compared to the driving on day three. Our destination was Buena Vista lodge, which is near Liberia in the Northern top part of Costa Rica. Take a look at the map at this link, http://www.costarica.com/Maps/, to get an idea of where we are headed. We are currently at Jaco on the Pacific Coast and headed to Buena Vista lodge, which is slightly above Liberia in northwest area of Costa Rica. The driving is really not fun at all. We're in a very nice tour bus with air conditioning, thank heavens, but for those of you who have been to Costa Rica and driven on the narrow winding roads of the country you know that a long drive in a BIG bus is not fun, especially if your prone to car sickness. Fun times... not.

Just outside of Jaco, we stopped at a little fishing village for a break; a very picturesque little village. When we took our pictures it was low tide and you can see how much the water rises when the tide comes in.






































These boats will be floating on water once the high tide comes in.















This is just outside a private residence. The owner of the house has made their own floating garden when the high tide is in. The statue is Jesus.

































After another couple hours of driving, we stopped for lunch at little place called Mimi's. It looks like a tiny little cafe, certainly not enough room to hold our group of 40, but it really is quite large. It opens up in the back to a beautiful outdoor eating place.















After eating, of course we all had to get a sample of the local icecream. Good stuff! The guy in the corner of the picture, on the phone, is our guide. His name is Paul and he was great; a very fun guy. He and Todd had fun giving each other a hard time about who plays soccer better. Or I guess I should say football. Football is very big in Costa Rica. After lunch, we again hopped in the bus and continued driving to our destination, Buena Vista Lodge. Check out the website to get an idea of what the lodge is like, http://www.buenavistalodgecr.com/. Along the way I was seriously thinking our bus was not going to make it across the many, many narrow bridges.
















This is a picture of the bridge that scared me the most. Below the bridge is a very deep chasm and a river. Do you see that sharp turn. Imagine having the back half of a very, large tour bus still on that narrow bridge as the driver is trying to negotiate that sharp turn. I thought for sure the back wheels would come off the road and we were going over! But, whew, obviously we survived.
















While this is a nice picturesque view, the purpose of the picture is to show you the narrow, old road we drove UP to Beuna Vista lodge. At this point we are out in the middle of nowhere. We haven't seen houses for miles. After many long hours of driving we arrive at the incredible Buena Vista lodge. Which is on the slopes of the Rincón de la Vieja volcano.

















Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of the main lodge and various restaurants, but here's a picture of the small rooms we stayed in. Very picturesque but very remote... no tv!! We were to stay here for three days with no tv! :-) At first it was a real shock for Todd (I confess, me also) but by the time we left we had enjoyed every minute. Instead of listening to the drone of yet another sitcom at night, we listened to the sounds of the jungle; frogs, birds, monkeys and I don't know what else.
































At the lodge, they had a soccer (oops, I mean football) field and Todd and the students got together to play some football. They really had fun. So much fun that Todd ended up walking away all bloody and banged up. While he was playing goalie, the goal post suddenly tipped over and landed on Todd's head. By the time I saw him, I had been off sight seeing, he had blood all over his head and dripping down his face. It looked like he had a terrible injury but it was really "just a flesh wound". We cleaned him up and put a bandaid on his bald nogin and he was good to go.
















What's this? This is one of the many creatures roaming around the Buena Vista lodge. I can't remember for the life of me what this creature is called but it's like a bristly, hairy pig. Called something that starts with a P... ummm... Pica... something... dang, I can't remember. Anyhoo, this creature just wandered around and up to our rooms and rubbed against our legs wanting to get a scratch and a pet. Obviously it was used to people. We called him Mr. Snuffles.

That's it for day three. We are now at Buena Vista lodge and have a lot of fun times planned ahead.

Costa Rica - second day

So, we were in Costa Rica for 8 full days. We arrived the evening of June 4, 2008 and left the morning of June 14, 2008, which means 8 full days of fun in the beautiful country. So, when you read the title of this post and realize I mean to do a post for each of those eight days please don't cringe and stop visiting and viewing. Our vacation was packed full of beautiful sights to see and fun activities, which I hope to share with you. Costa Rica is amazing. It's "Pura Vida" baby!

For our second day we spent a lot of time on the bus, which really wasn't fun, but along the way we stopped at the LDS temple in San Jose, built in the year 2000, then stopped at the Tárcoles river to look at the HUGE tárcoles (that's crocodile in Costa Rican), then last, but not least by any means, we stopped at Jaco beach. Beautiful beach.


















The beautiful LDS temple in San Jose, Costa Rica. Isn't this a gorgeous pic with the clouds in the background?















Had to get a picture with the beautiful flowers on the temple grounds.


















Todd trying to get the temple doors open. For some reason they wouldn't open for him... maybe some day. :-)



















Beautiful flowers on the temple grounds. Not a big flower expert so I don't know the names.


























We were a little disapointed that the angel Moroni isn't in this picture. Our picture taker should have adjusted the view just up a little. He kept insisting that he couldn't get Moroni in the picture. I guess maybe he thought the sidewalk was important to include in the pic.







































Our next stop was for lunch at this little cafe. We were all super excited because this cafe served hamburgers. Just a word of warning. There is a distinct difference between American hamburgers and Costa Rican hamburgers. Well, at least the burgers were better than another meal of rice and beans!



















A great fruit stand next to the cafe with all sorts of delicious fresh fruit. There were fruit and vegetable stands in every town.



















This is what I bought from the fruit stand. Did you know Costa Rica grows cashews? And not just cashews, but yummy, heavenly tasting cashews. I had to take a pictures of these gorgeous, tasty nuts because... well... they were tasty!
















Our next stop after the not so yummy hamburger lunch and YUMMY snack of cashews is Tárcoles river. Crossing this river is an unusual bridge, it's an actual two lane bridge, which as I mentioned in my last blog is a VERY unusual sight in Costa Rica. This bridge is popular for tourist because of the large number of tárcoles (crocodiles) that live in the river below. To cross the bridge on foot, you have to walk on a very narrow strip of sidewalk one way, on your return you have to cross the road and return on the opposite side.



















We found in the river below at least 15 huge crocodiles basking in the sun on the river banks and nearby in the water. The croc in this picture is about 10 feet long.



















There was a sudden, unexpected fight between these two very large crocodiles. We were lucky to capture this photo. It was amazing to see in action.



Enjoy the show!




















Now to the really good stuff!! We finally made it to Jaco beach and it was well worth the drive. It's absolutely beautiful. We couldn't have asked for a better day and the water was just amazing and warm. We couldn't wait to get our swimsuits on and had to visit the beach when we first arrived.



















Hot guy on the beach!


















aaaaah finally got the swimsuit on and ready to kick back and enjoy the day.

















Instead of relaxing Todd took the opportunity to rent a surfboard and surf the beaches of Costa Rica! Don't know about that smile of his... looks suspiciously like a courtesy smile. Do you think he was anxious to hit the waves and not sit and pose for the camera?

















Couldn't ever get a shot of Todd up and surfing, this is the best I could get with my little digital camera. He did get up and surf and was great at it... he's great at everything. :-)
















While Todd's out surfing this is what I did... enjoyed the gorgeous view of the beach. Isn't this just beautiful? Can you just hear the waves, feel the slight breeze and the sun shining, totally relaxed.... aaaahhhh.
















Another gorgeous view.
















After all the relaxing and surfing, Todd and I decided to take a nice stroll down the beach. Jaco beach is really growing and there was a lot of development going on but we walked past this small little bar that's really more of a large shack and thought it fit more with the scenery than the fancy new hotels.



Too bad I don't know how to use photo shop to make this picture look a little better because it definitely does not do justice to the beauty of the beach at this time. The sun is shining through the spray of water in the air and it's unbelievably beautiful.


Love this picture! It's the perfect picture to end our second day in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica - First Day

I have so many pictures to post from our trip to Costa Rica that it's taken me a little time to weed through them all and decide which ones to post. There's some great pictures taken and some not so great pictures and in the end I'm posting more that I probably should because of my lovely younger sisters. Since they lived there for a few years, I think I'll be posting more than originally planned to help them with their nostalgia for the country, and if I didn't say before, it's a beautiful country. So, sit back and enjoy the first of many blogs about our trip. This blog just happens to be our FIRST day. :-)

Ok, so this is a silly picture from our bus window of a street corner in Alejuela. I took this picture because the street sign is pointing to Pizza Hut, which reminds me of my visit to Costa Rica when my family lived there and their excitement to eat at Pizza Hut and of course reminds me of their yummy cheese.








Here's a view of the park in Alejuela from our bus window. Unfortunately, we didn't get to stop so had to get some pictures as we drove through the town.











Another view of the park in Alejuela.











Beautiful view of the Alejuela valley taken on our drive to the Poas volcano.












Cool pic of the Poas volcano crater, which is considered an active volcano.















Todd and I at the volcano. It was surprisingly cold at the volcano, a very high altitude.
















Another cool Poas volcano pic.
















Had to take this picture because I think somewhere in my vast archive of pictures I have Spencer standing in front of this sign when he was just a little kid.
















Very cool plants growing on the volcano called Umbrella plants, not to be confused with the scientific name for the plant which I have no idea what it is. They are called this for a reason, the leaves grow as large as an umbrella and bigger.














Beautiful flowers found on the Poas volcano hike.
















































At the base of the Poas volcano, there was a visitor center along with a art shop displaying some very cool carved pieces. This is an example of one of the pieces on display.















Here's the model used to create this piece of art. :-) My handsome husband Todd (just kidding on the model part... don't you agree there's a slight likeness?)
















Another awesome view from our bus window. This is on our drive down for the Poas volcano.















We stopped to view a gorgeous waterfall on our way down from the volcano.









































While viewing the waterfall, we had to take a picture of this newly built bridge. One thing we quickly discovered traveling through Costa Rica that all bridges were one lane bridges and we thought this was funny that it was a brand new bridge


















Last but not least, the fun wildlife in Costa Rica. Our guide found this little frog and held it for us all to see. It's very poisonous apparently, but very cute!


Another cool looking frog.



Well that's our first day in Costa Rica. Whew! So much fun and each day after was just as amazing.