We did find a slice of paradise here in Costa Rica, it just turned out that it wasn't in Nosara...Welcome to Carolina Lodge!

It turns out that I'm definitely a mountain girl. I love the beach, but prefer cool mountain peaks.  The beaches of Nosara are gorgeous and special because they were protected from development by some forward-thinking people years ago.  But still, its HOT and no one wants to be on beach except around sunrise or sunset.

So, we went to visit the cool mountains near Rio Celeste again, this time with our friends Tom and Tracy.  We were so happy to have some friends come visit us!!  We immensely appreciate that they made the effort to come all the way from Alaska.  We loved showing them around our town, but we wanted to get out and show them the real tropical jungles.  Here in Nosara, it is hot and dry right now and we've had some crazy winds this week that knocked out all the power and water (no pumps without electricity) while we were gone in the mountains. There was also a fire down the road at the dump, about 1/2 mile from our houses.  Everyone in our neighborhood had a knock on the door at 3:00am warning them to get ready to get out!  The firefighters luckily put out the fire, but no one slept for the rest of the night.  Luckily for us, we were not home, and there is no cell reception at Carolina Lodge, so no worrying for us!

We stayed at La Carolina Lodge, which is one incredibly special place.  We saw a plethora of tropical birds, and the tranquility of the surroundings makes you forget all the worries you needlessly pile upon yourself.  The owners of this place, Bill & Catharina, are really what make this place awesome. They are wonderful hosts, so passionate about their farm, and so fun to sit and talk with around the fireplace.  Yes, a fireplace!  In Costa Rica!  We had to wear LONG SLEEVES and PANTS!  It was awesome.  The lodge is on a working farm, so there are cows to milk (we "helped" out with this task), horses to ride, wood to chop, treehouses to build (Tom helped with this), and food to grow and gather.  

Amara loves horses, and she is taking lessons here in Nosara.  So, she went twice on the farm - the first time was slow because we all went and Geoff and Graham were on the same horse so they couldn't really go fast.  The second time she rode it was just three of them - Geoff, Amara and Graham - and this time Graham had his own horse.  So Geoff started running his horse and Amara immediately tried to keep up and also took off running.  She was so happy she looked like she was on a roller coaster ride.  She is so comfortable on a horse, I love watching her ride.

As always, Graham found a dog to play with at the lodge.  They have a 3 month old boxer puppy - and he played with it all day.  Everywhere we stay he makes new dog friends.

On the farm they also feed you three enormous meals a day.  They try to grow and raise most everything they need for the delicious meals, from the vegetables, fruits, and grains to the milk, cheese, and meat.  For nights and rainy days there is a hot tub too, heated by firewood.

 So for any of you planning on travelling to Costa Rica, you must stop here.  Tom and Tracy are already talking about coming back to spend more time there.  Truly a magical time was had by all of us.  

Black Mandibled Toucan

The farm, where cows and horses roam free

Montezuma Oropendola

Tom and Tracy

Rays of the sunset on the farm

Milking cows!  Look, we're wearing jackets!

Passerini's Tanager pair

Collared Aracari

Graham horseback riding by himself for the first time

Our expert horse girl took off cantering across the fields chasing her daddy

Walking through the jungle

Black cheeked woodpecker

My beautiful daughter on the beach 

Tom and Tracy - we REALLY APPRECIATE that they made the effort to visit, from Alaska!!  We love them.

Enormous spider.  No idea what kind, but it eats butterflies.

Handsome boys

Manuel Antonio

We spent Thanksgiving weekend at Manuel Antonio National Park, which was beautiful but a little sad for me too because I felt disconnected from home.  Thanksgiving is an American holiday and we are obviously far from the USA!  We had a great dinner though, at a restaurant owned by a Polish-American-Costa Rican.  We have plenty to be grateful for, and its hard to feel too sorry for yourself with the experiences we are having, and the beautiful places we've seen down here.  Manuel Antonio is very busy and touristy but the beach and the animals make it worth it.  We saw 3 kinds of monkeys, a deer, turtles, birds, raccoons. 

We also visited the Rainmaker Park, which is a private park nearby Manuel Antonio.  It is truly a hidden jem!  We were one of few people there on a busy weekend, almost like having the whole jungle to ourselves.  They have many hanging bridges up next to the tops of the trees, such a cool feeling to be high in the canopy. 

We were cooling off in a waterfall in the park when it started to rain.  They are not joking around about the name of this park!  While we were walking back to the lodge, it started raining so hard that I thought to myself, "there is NO WAY more water can possible come out of the sky".  Then it would rain a little harder.  and harder.  It was like standing inside a high pressure shower.  We started to get worried about the camera (even under a rain jacket inside a case) and also the amount of water coming down the "stream"!!  It turned into a raging brown river in minutes!  Also very fascinating were the very cute black and green frogs that came out everywhere in the rain!  I couldn't get a picture of them obviously, but they were fun to see.  

Manuel Antonio Beach

White faced monkey

Squirrel Monkey

Enormous beach Iguana!

Raccoons are a bit of a nuisance in Manuel Antonio!  We saw one steal someone's food right off their blanket.

Rainmaker Park - which is no joke. 

Rio Tarcoles - Don't fall in here!

View from a restaurant at Manuel Antonio town.

These are so hard to catch on film! Blue Morph Butterfly.

My goofy girl

Too much time has passed by! Car wheels, surf, turtles and farms

Arribada in Ostional

We arrived back in Costa Rica in September after going home for a little over a month.  Re-entry was rough.  The first week we were back both the computer and the car stopped working.  Our Macbook was apparently fried by frequent power surges (yes, we have a surge protector) and the wheel of the Honda fell off after we had a "mechanic" "fix" the car for us.  It turns out that not only did he not fix it, but made it much much worse.  Instead of just a loud clunking noise coming from my rear wheel, the rear wheel just fell off.  The "mechanic" forgot to put one of the bolts back on.  Geoff also noticed that one of the parts that we paid him for was cracked and old and obviously had NOT been replaced.  So the first few weeks were a bit challenging, but then we also have been able to have some really great experiences too.  

We were able to see our first arribada - this is when thousands of Olive Ridley turtles return from the ocean to lay their eggs on Ostional beach.  It is absolutely amazing.  There were so many turtles on the beach that we had a hard time staying out of their way as they made their way up to the high tide line in the sand.  The kids loved it - and they spent much of the time being kind citizens of the world by chasing the vultures away from the newly laid eggs.  The turtles are fascinating.  Our guide told us that the temperature of the sand determines the sex of the turtle, and that the female turtles return every few months to lay more eggs.  The female turtles also have a reservoir in their bodies to hold sperm for up to two years just in case they don't find any appropriate suitors!    

G watching a turtle drop her eggs.  

Olive Ridley turtles arribada

Returning to the sea.  She gets sand in her eyes which makes her cry.

Geoff was able to come down here for a full 6 weeks this time around, and spent most of the mornings doing this:

Surfing Playa Guiones

yikes

Horse girl

 Amara has spent a lot of her free time recently learning how to ride horses.  She LOVES it.  All girls seem to love horses.  I didn't realize when I was little how lucky I was that I had two best friends who owned horses.

So many beautiful sunsets here

Turquoise Mot Mot

Happy on the beach

"Nana" Jay - my mom loved this bird so we named it after her.

Chow time

Fun on the Alfaro farm!
We were invited to spend the weekend on a local farm near Nicoya recently with our dear neighbor Maria to celebrate her daughters birthday.  We had the best time!  Her parents are wonderful, kind & generous people.  They treated us like family and fed us wonderful food and let us stay on their beautiful farm - so tranquil.  The kids had so much fun they didn't want to leave.  They played in the pool and ran around and rode horses all afternoon.  I stayed up late (10:00pm is late for me in Costa Rica!) trying to understand complicated conversations in Spanish - it was awesome.

Beautiful Maria & her wonderful mama and papa Luis & Ana Alfaro

Happy birthday Alana!

Alfaro farmland

storm over the farm

I will try to write more often - but life happens and months pass!  We were home for 6 weeks and had an awesome time in Washington.  Maybe I'll get around to posting about that too, at least in photos.

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