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| Hiking at Carolina Lodge |
I would have posted this blog a month ago but the internet here this month is so slow that uploading ONE photo takes about 5 minutes on a good day, so it has taken me awhile to have the patience to do this. There are about 20 photos on here, you do the math. :)
Amara and Graham convinced Rah Rah and Nana to come down to hot Costa Rica one more time before we leave. They finally gave in to the sad faces and agreed to come here for a week in the mountains. Graham's birthday request was to go to Carolina Lodge with Rah Rah and Nana, so we went back there for a few days.
On the way to Carolina Lodge, we stopped and stayed at Finca Verde for a night, and what an awesome time we had! We were very, very lucky and saw this adorable baby sloth come down to the ground for his weekly poop. Once a week, they come out of the trees to poop, which is really very thoughtful. The monkeys you have to watch out for!
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| Baby Sloth! |
We spent 4 days up at Carolina Lodge - one of my favorite places in Costa Rica. So peaceful and tranquil here, but there is enough to do that you don't need to leave for anything - which is good, because we bottomed out in our full car on the way here.
We went for hikes, went fishing, horseback riding, cow milking, and boating on their lake nearby. Graham was reunited with his buddy Rocky the dog and we took him for walks with us, so I think Rocky had as much fun as Graham. The staff at Carolina Lodge feeds you 3 enormous meals a day, and they even baked a cake for Graham's birthday! His face lit up like the candles on his cake, he was so surprised and happy!
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| Paso Fino cabin at Carolina Lodge |
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| Birthday fish! |
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| Blue Jeans Poison Dart Frog |
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| Kingfisher |
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| Rah Rah, Nana and G-Kids at the Carolina Lodge lake |
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| Laughing Falcon |
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| Daddy and his laughing boy |
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Birthday boy horseback ride, photo taken minutes before a downpour!
Graham had an absolutely awesome birthday, he was so happy that Rah Rah and Nana flew thousands of miles to spend it with him! The day after Graham's birthday is his daddy's birthday. Geoff wanted to surf on his birthday, but the rest of us weren't ready to come down out of the cool mountains just yet so Geoff headed off on a bus back to Nosara so he could get in a sunset surf. So they both got their birthday wishes!
We headed to La Fortuna, right at the base of Volcan Arenal. It is a touristy little town with a cute town square and a good chocolate shop for Rah Rah. We stayed only one night in town, and then headed up toward Arenal National Park to spend a couple of nights with a view of the mountain and the lake. The most awesome part of staying up here on the mountain was watching the storms from our hotel!
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| Graham in La Fortuna |
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| Tree Frog, spied on a night walk behind our hotel. It took us awhile to find the first one but after we figured out where they hide we saw 12 more! |
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| My beauty, inside and out. |
We went for a hike on a HOT HOT day in Arenal, to see the old lava flows. Even though it is rainy season, we had many views of Arenal, which is unusual and we felt very blessed. Amara wasn't feeling so blessed, and was melting on this hot day but she still managed a beautiful smile for me.
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| My happy happy boy! |
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| Great Pootoo |
We saw a lot of wildlife on our hike, which was a surprise because we were told that a lot of people only see ants if they don't hire a guide! We saw this beautiful night bird, and this deadly snake, plus 3 more snakes. Snakes seem to like me. I feel fine about this, as long as they don't bite!
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| Eyelash Viper, Arenal. The only snake we saw that didn't slither off right away. Probably because it knows it's deadly and we won't be messing with it! |
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| Volcan Arenal, Linda Vista Hotel |
We are so happy that Rah Rah and Nana came back to Costa Rica to see us. We know it wasn't their first choice of places to go, but we sure had fun!
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| Lake Arenal at sunset |
