Arenal, Palo Verde, and a visit from Grandpa T and Jan Jan

So we didn't have internet for over 2 months - which is why this blog is so late.  These are events from May, and hopefully I'll get around to June soon enough.

Right after Rah Rah and Nana left, Grandpa and Jan Jan came to visit us.  We had a great time while they were here, although it was still REALLY HOT in May - it had not yet started raining and people have started to worry about drought here on the Guanacaste Peninsula.  Apparently April has been the hottest on record - even locals were melting (so poor Rah Rah was here in the WORST month possible - sorry dad!!).

We took a trip to Arenal to get up out of the heat - it was cool and lovely!  We saw toucans every morning from our porch, and it rained!!  Beautiful cool refreshing rain!  I loved the view of Lake Arenal from our hotel - it was quiet and peaceful and full of birds every morning.  I could've stayed there for weeks.  Volcan Arenal was shrouded in clouds until the last day, when we were able to actually see the whole cone-shaped mountain.  The volcano spends most of the time shrouded in clouds, so we felt very lucky.

We also went to an animal wildlife rescue near Arenal where the kids were able to feed the monkeys, macaws, and parrots.  We learned a lot there, and would like to pass on that you should NEVER EVER buy exotic pets from PetSmart, or any pet store.  Chances are that the beautiful parrot you bought was smuggled out of Costa Rica, and that the birds' family probably died in transport and the one you have is the only one that made it alive.  Please don't buy exotic birds, or any exotic animal at all - including fish.  It is very bad for wild animals to be trapped and caged.

We also took Grandpa and Jan Jan to the Rio Tempesque in Palo Verde National Park.  We took a boat tour where we saw beautiful birds and lots and lots of crocodiles.  We were even "lucky" and saw an ENORMOUS crocodile eating another crocodile.  This is apparently unusual to see...yikes.

Amara has also been asking for months to go on a horseback riding tour, so we all went along with her - I hadn't been on a horse in about 20 years but it went well.   It was Jan Jan's first time on a horse, and she did great!!  Everyone had a blast!

Volcan Arenal

Snake of undetermined variety

Grandpa T & Amara

Futbol 5

Rio Tempesque - American Crocodile

Toucan - Arenal 

Geoff rescuing a turtle from the road

Oropendula - Arenal

Baby Armadillo!  Its' mama is nearby hiding.

G & a Boa

A & a Boa

sweet baby monkey Isabella

Arenal

hiking in Arenal National Park

another gorgeous Nosara sunset

Volcan Arenal

Rah Rah and Nana come to visit! Rincon, Nosara, Monteverde

Quetzal in Monteverde

Hola!  I have been very busy recently with fun travels around Costa Rica!  Also, the internet is out most of the time because it started to rain a bit so the power goes off a lot which causes the wifi router to need resetting.  Right now I'm tethered to my iPhone and using a very slow connection.  It will probably take a few hours to upload one or two pictures...

The upside to rain, however, is that there are fireflies lighting up the night!  and the dust is settling and the trees are budding!  So grateful for all of these things.  Plus, it is slightly less hot.

My parents came to visit us - we picked them up at the airport and the kids were SO HAPPY to see them.  We took them straight to Rincon de La Vieja after they had been up all night on a redeye flight.  We drove to our cabins so they could rest a bit before we went and cooled off in some pools in a nearby river.  Everyone had a great time jumping into the cold, clear water (quite in contrast to Nosara's warm and murky rivers).  We then treated them to one of the two local restaurants near Rincon - in which the only vegetarian option consisted of rice, beans and "salad" -literally a piece of lettuce and one slice of tomato.  Yum.

We spent the next day at Rincon and took a walk past boiling water, bubbling mud, and lots of strangler fig trees for the kids to climb.  I finally saw my first Blue Morpho butterfly!  They are iridescent!  I saw this as a good omen.

We drove back to Nosara the following day, after visiting a gorgeous waterfall just outside of Liberia.  Highly recommended (Llanos de Cortes Cataratas).   This was a nice reprieve from the heat!  Unfortunately for my parents, we unwittingly chose the hottest and dustiest time of year for them to visit Nosara.  Rah Rah was not amused.  We did manage to have some fun snorkeling, kayaking the Nosara River, and playing "futbol" with Graham.  After spending a few ridiculously hot days in Nosara, we were all ready for the cool mountains.  We travelled to Monteverde to explore and meet up with more friends and family.

Monteverde is absolutely beautiful.  The air is so cool that pine trees can grow!  We stayed at Los Pinos cabanas - a perfect place for families.  They have a garden where you can harvest fresh salad for dinner, hiking trails, and a playground for the kids.  It was cool enough that chocolate didn't instantly melt so the kids were able to do a belated chocolate easter egg hunt.

People come from all over the world to see birds in Monteverde, and Nana hired the best bird guide around.  With Danilo's help, we saw some of the coolest birds in the world at the Cure Cancha reserve.   He uses his scope and our iPhones to take close up pictures of all the beautiful birds.  He found for us the famous Quetzals, one of which was spotted long after our tour was suppose to end.  He was so passionate about his job that he took us back out into the jungle to find the bird.  We also saw toucans, hummingbirds, a woodpecker, and so much more.   We saw so many Blue Morpho butterflies that I lost count.  I still never did get a good picture of one though, so I'll have to keep traveling to the cool mountains in search of them.

Graham was our lucky charm, he was so excited to see the Quetzals that I think they may have showed up just for him.  He loves birds, frogs, snakes, spiders.  Maybe he will be a wildlife biologist one day.  Nearby at the Childrens Forest we also saw a Bell bird, which makes the most lovely clear bell sound!  Graham was our lucky charm here too had helped us find it.

While in Monteverde we also took the kids and my 71 year old aunt Lois zip lining!!  Lois has such a great spirit and "can be talked into anything", including zipping through the treetops even though she has a fear of heights.  She is awesome.  Amara of course was in heaven.  She was the first in line for the "tarzan swing" - which is basically a free fall with ropes attached.  She LOVED this tour.  Other people kept looking at her and saying "well, if she can do, I shouldn't be so scared!".    We loved Monteverde so much we didn't want to leave.  It was so nice to be cold enough to wear pants, and to have to use a blanket at night.

We left Nana and Rah Rah and the rest of the crew at Monteverde - from which they drove south to take a 5 day kayak trip and planned to meet up with us after.  When the kids and I stepped out of the car back in Nosara, one of the first things we noticed was that it had rained, and there were fireflies everywhere!  Absolutely amazing transformation.  2 days of rain and the fireflies return and the trees start to bud out.


After everyone returned from kayaking, we spent a few more days exploring Nosara before they had to return to the US.  This time Amara was the lucky charm, and she found us her favorite bird of Costa Rica, the Roseate Spoonbill.   Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me at the time, but they were beautiful, and apparently somewhat rare because the policemen driving by stopped to take pictures of them.

It was so wonderful to have family come visit us!  Thank you Rah Rah, Nana, Linda, Bob, Lois and friends Michelle and Collete.  Thank you for the good chocolate, the Beechers cheese, the chokecherry syrup, almonds, books and
the movies!  We were all very sad when everyone left.  The kids especially loved sharing their jungle experiences and when we see something new they are sad you are not here to see it too!

Mi hijo guapo

Nana and her sis

Playa Pelada

Rah Rah and Graham playing futbol

Nana and G at Futbol 5.

Nesting Mot Mot right outside our house.  We see them everyday!

Coati in Monteverde.

Bell Bird in flight.

Bell Bird - these birds make a beautiful pure bell sound.  One of my favorite birds!

Nana and Amara on a jungle walk.

Violet Sabrewing Hummingbird - Monteverde - Cure Cancha.

Parakeet outside of our house in Nosara.

Orioles in our yard.

Nosara sunset

Happy Graham swinging in Rincon de la Vieja.

Amara in Rincon.

Pale billed Woodpecker - Monteverde, Cure Cancha Reserve.

Toucan - Monteverde - Cure Cancha.

Hummingbird - Monteverde.

Quetzal - Monteverde - Cure Cancha.

Rah Rah, Collete, Michelle, Geoff on the zip line in Monteverde.

G & A zip lining!

Tired and sick boy taking a rest with Rah Rah.

Aunt Lois

lunchtime.

Happy family!

Swimming in the refreshing cool waters near Rincon de la Vieja.

swimming in the river near Rincon de la Vieja National Park

Steam vents in Rincon de la Vieja

Mi hija muy bella

Strangler fig 

Happy birthday to me!

Quetzal - Monteverde - Cure Cancha

Nicaragua!

So we took a run to the Nicaraguan border last weekend.  I was pretty nervous about the border crossing, because I've heard some crazy stories.  When we arrived at the border, we first had to find a spot to park our car because it is really difficult to take a car into Nicaragua.  You need many photocopies and many stamps and they fumigate your car too.  A friend of mine told me it took her 6 hours to cross the border with a car, plus a $50 bribe.  So, instead we parked and walked across the border.  The border is kind of a crazy disorganized place that would be really hard to navigate without lots of prior research and an understanding of at least intermediate Spanish.  There are multiple pieces of paper you need and places to show your passport.  Plus you walk about 400 meters through "no mans land" between the two countries.  However, if you have done your research, know some Spanish, and are kind and patient, the crossing (for us anyway) can be fairly smooth (although long).  After a couple of hours at the border, we grabbed a taxi and headed up to Granada.  Granada is an awesome colonial city on the shore of Lake Nicaragua.  We LOVED it.  We walked around the city the first night, and ate a super tasty dinner near the town square.

The kids loved being in a city.  They spent a lot of time in the hotel pool, and at a playground playing with the local kids.  Graham walked up to people at the park and asked if he could play soccer with them, so he didn't want to ever leave.  We also took a tour of a local volcano, and spent a lot of time just wandering around the colonial streets.

When the kids got tired of walking, we took a horse carriage ride, which was fun for the kids.  They were able to see more of Granada, and we learned about the history of the city.  Later that evening, however, they noticed that the horses were STILL working and walking people around the city.  They felt really bad for the horses then, and also noticed that some of them were really skinny.  They also noticed a lot of homeless people, which made them ask a lot of questions about why these people are homeless, and Graham wanted to give them all money.  Geoff helped him hand out oranges instead - it was a good life experience for the kids to help them understand how lucky they are and how much people can suffer.

Overall though, our experience in Granada was great and the kids decided that they like cities where there are streetlights to walk at night, lots of restaurants to chose from and parks with lots of other kids to play with.  It was also cooler than Nosara, which at this time of year was really nice.  Nicaragua was such a fun trip it had us wondering if we have chosen wisely!  It is MUCH MUCH cheaper than Costa Rica and the roads are better too!

On the shore of Lake Nicaragua

My happy daughter

Yummy pizza and greek food!!  Pizzaiol!