Once we finally made it to Costa Rica (we were delayed 2 days due to weather in Atlanta) we headed to
La Fortuna where we hoped to see Volcano Arenal. Unfortunately for Jared (I'd seen it when I was in Costa Rica 3 years ago) it rained everyday we were there. It was still warm, we were still able to go hiking to the waterfall, enjoy the hot springs and eat the best food at the
Gingerbread House (thanks to Nick & Jenna's recommendation).
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| La Fortuna Waterfall |
Next, we went down to
Drake's Bay for the rest of the trip. We took a flight down from San Jose, which ended up being our own private flight - it was a little 12 seater. The airport down at Drake's Bay included one asphalt landing strip, one little "shack" with wooden benches, one counter for check-in and a restroom. It was awesome! We had some fun adventures in Drake's Bay......
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| The airport at Drake's Bay |
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| View from our cabin |
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| Horseback riding in the jungle |
Our horses looked rather emaciated, but they made it the whole way. Although Jared's horse dug in his heels on the trip back when we didn't take the road down to his home. He tried to brush Jared off against a fence and ended up dumping him off when the saddle slipped, which luckily didn't result in any serious injury.
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| Whip-tail "scorpion" on my face |
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| Same whip-tail "scorpion" |
We took a night tour with "the bug lady" (an American lady who studied biology/entemology and now gives tours at night). She LOVES insects and bug life - it was interesting and weird. Below is a video of a trap-door spider, which was really amusing to see. Oh, and the insects above aren't really scorpions, they are only called that because of the similar body shape (or something like that). So Mom, no worries - there was no risk of getting stung. Jared & I were a little nervous at the start of the tour because both tour guides lectured us for wearing chacos instead of rubber boots.... rubber boots weren't on my list for the beach. We were told that sandals are for sand - obviously they've never been hiking in Utah. We were also told that we needed to be extra careful and watch our step during the tour. Turns out we stayed on a cement path the entire time. Danger!
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| Beautiful beach where we ate lunch after snorkeling |
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| Humpback Whales |
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Humpback Whales
momma with a couple babies |
We saw humpback whales, dolphins and a school of tuna fish on our boat rides to the island for snorkeling and around the bay on our way to
Corcovado National Park. We got to see some cool wildlife at Corcovado; unfortunately there were no jaguar sitings.
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Costa Rican food
this was some of the best "tipico" we had |
