Costa Rica - Christmas 2017/2018

Three weeks in Costa Rica - from December 17th 2017 to January 7th 2018. Casey, Hunter and Dorothy would be with us until December 30th, and then it would be just Sherry and I.

Lots of photos are here. Only a small collection are in this blog post.



The planned destinations were:

• San Jose - fly in and get the car
• Montezuma
• Monteverde
• Arenal
• Savegre/Manuel Antonio
• La Tigra/La Fortuna
• San Jose to fly home

The original plan was for all of us to fly into Ft Lauderdale and then fly together on the same flight to Costa Rica, arriving past midnight. However, our flight out of BWI was cancelled, so Casey and Dorothy arrived a day before us and stayed in San Jose waiting for us. Once we finally arrived and spent the night in San Jose we rented the car and then drove out to Montezuma down on the tip of the Nicoya peninsula.

We went out for a bioluminescent tour in one of the bays. After snorkling around and having some dinner, it got dark enough to dive in and be surrounded by little glowing creatures. Every motion of your hand would cause a riot of sparks. It was a lot of fun seeing other people swimming around, surrounded by glowing spots. This is us when it was still light out.

One day, the five of us rented two 200cc motorcycles and two 500cc ATV's and headed out under the direction of a guide. We rode on the beach for about 10k and rode through towns and into some pretty remote places. Some of the uphills were so steep that the rear wheels of the motorcycles were drifting and spinning out, and the downhills were super steep and full of loose dirt and gravel. There had been a hurricane a few months before and a lot of the dirt roads had been freshly re-bulldozed. Hunter rolled his ATV on top of himself at one point, but the ATV took most of the damage. 

Sherry "rode bitch" behind Casey, Dorothy and Mike at various points during the day. 

 Our Airbnb in Montezuma was so bad that we ended up getting a full refund for the $900+ we spent for the four nights. No water at all in the showers, no hot water anywhere, and a generally dilapidated state courtesy of neglect and a hurricane.

Mike, feeding the monkeys in Montezuma

The next stop was Monteverde where we stayed in this house

The owner of the house was also a guide in some of the Monteverde parks and was a 3rd generation resident of the area. His family farm was about 10 minutes away, so we went with him on a tour of the property. It used to be a dairy farm, but they are letting most of the farm go back to native species and more of a jungle. There were monkeys and birds everywhere.

The old hydroelectric plant for the farm. It was the only electricity for a number of years, and would get washed out every so often and need to be rebuilt. 

Sitting by their creek, watching some people build a new swimming hole. The hurricane washed out the old one.

Hunter's hands - there were biting flies and Hunter and Mike had strong reactions to their bites. 

The other resident of our rental house. He loved leftovers, and would do unspeakable things to an egg. 

 The owner of the house set us up with a guy who climbs trees to do research in the canopy. As a side business, he guides tourists up to the canopy using standard climbing gear. We found a big fig tree and started setting up the ropes.

The "Adventure Sherry" up in the tree. 

We also set up a top-rope on one side of the tree so we could free climb that side. Casey shows his moves on the north face. 

Mike getting ready to launch the weight attached to a thin line, aiming for a branch. This device is just a really big slingshot. 

Dorothy getting up into the canopy. 

Mike, Sherry and the guide. 

Selvatura park - close to Monteverde. It has canopy walks, hummingbirds, a reptile house, a spider house and various other Costa Rican wildlife exhibits.

Sherry with a hummingbird on her hand

Mike scores a triple header. They would rather sit on your fingers than hover over the feeding holes. 

Mike and Hunter on the canopy tour

Sherry of the Jungle on one of the walkways that goes above the canopy. 

Next stop: El Castillo - a small town in the shadow of the Arenal volcano. We stayed three nights in a funny place that was essentially a 4-room hotel but we had it all ourselves.  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/19324840

This was a good jumping off point to go to some butterfly preserves, to the hot springs in La Fortuna (Baldí was awesome) and to the Arenal park. I think that we mostly just relaxed for a few days, ate at the local "soda" and enjoyed the views.

This is a sleeping frog

The same frog, awake

One of the poisonous species. 

Sherry with a Blue Morpho

We don't have many pictures of Savegre or La Tigra.