Day 12 ... almost A's B-day

Today we took it easy and celebrated Alex's B-day.  We went to the nearby beach, had A's favorite meal of mac and cheese and cake.

Day 11 ... zip lining and back to the beach

Today we checked out of the cabinas to begin the 4 hour drive home but first we had one last adventure in Monteverde.  We headed to Selventura for our first zip lining experience.  It was neat to zip above the trees.  The highlight for me was the first platform where Drew spotted some monkeys playing in the trees above us.  Molly zipped with a guide most of the way (also a highlight for me as I knew she was perfectly safe).  The boys were pros with no fear from the beginning.  Unlike the rappelling place, these guys started with easy zips first and we all did them all!  

monkeys in the tree above

molly riding tandem with the guide

the traffic jam

After our zipping, we started our trek down the mountains.  We wanted to start by lunchtime or before because the heavy rains come in the afternoon and we wanted to be off the twisty dirt roads before them.  Its a good thing we did … After about an hour in which we went about 18k, we came upon a traffic incident.  At first we thought it was a rock slide.  There was this big pile of rocks, an ambulance stopped on one side sort of off the road, a pickup truck on the other side coming the other way.  I am smart, immediately I am questioning the rock slide theory.  First of all the sides are not like a steep cliff, second they are covered with vegetation that seems undisturbed, third they are a GA red clay color and the rock pile is more brown-grey.  So its not a rick slide but something even more strange (to me).  They put the rocks here on purpose … And left … Was someone supposed to come back later and spread them out to improve the road?  We never saw that person.  What we did see was the ambulance drivers, the pick up driver and others moving rocks from the pile to under the ambulance (which got stuck in the side ditch trying to get around the rocks).  We helped and eventually, the ambulance gets pulled out by the pickup, the passengers (!!!!) get back in and it is able to drive away.  20 minutes later we are able to carefully drive around and away too.  As far as I know, the rock pile is still there.  We passed a tour bus parked on the other side, there is no possible way it will be able to turn around or get around those piles (in our opinion) - poor tourists.

Day 10 ... busy day in Monteverde

After a good nights sleep in our little cabina, today started bright and early with a wake up call from a bird about the size of a quail with a greyish body and red head (who are you bird?).  We then ate some breakfast and set off for a morning guided hike in Monteverde cloud forest.  The forest

wasn't cloudy at all as it was a bright sunny morning.  We set off with our guide Elbert for a 2.5 hour walk through the beautiful trees. We first attempted to see quetzal, a famous and rare bird in costa

rica that all touristas want to see.  There weren't any at a common feeding spot but we did see a green toucanet and a guara (wild turkey), we moved on to spot several other birds and insects including a humming bird and we crossed a big hanging bridge ... Finally as we were almost back at the entrance we saw a beautiful female quetzal.  After a short break, our guide took us to a small hummingbird garden with dozens of hummingbirds flying around. Very cool.  Our next stop was the cheese factory which was on the way home.  It was a traditional dairy with lots of cheese and ice cream. We got ice cream for our morning snack.  It was raining so we decided our next stop would be the bat jungle.  It's an indoor bat exhibit. After a lecture about bats from the guide,  we went into a dark room

with the bats.  Luckily, the bats were on the other side of the glass.  The guide showed us some different kinds of bats with his flashlight and then fixed them a snack and we got to watch them eat.

They were all fruit and nectar eaters.  After that we went to a cafe and ate (not fruit).  After a quick stop to pick up sweatshirts, it's chilly here, we went to our last tour of the day.  It was a tour of a coffee and

sugar cane farm.  This was great!  Our guide was extremely nice and focused on making the tour informative and fun.  We saw coffee plants growing, saw how the beans are dried, hulled, sorted and roasted.  We rode on an oxen drawn cart.  We ate (chewed on) raw sugar cane, saw how it is squeezed and boiled and then made our own candy with the caramelized sugar.  We also got to taste moonshine made from the sugar cane! Whew, it was strong!  After making candy we were treated to a

snack of fresh lemonade made with the brown sugar from the farm, coffee and tortillas with arraneche which is a root vegetable grown here - yum!

ready for our 7:30 am hike

The turkey - pic taken through the eye of the guide's scope

a ficus tree

Manda and Molly on the trail

A cool butterfly with see through wings

the quetzal - also through the scope

one of the many hummingbirds at the garden

a bat eating fruit - cute?

our oxen drawn carriage (cart)

Day 9 ... heading to Monteverde

We left our ocean home today for a trip to Monteverde.   This area contains a cloud forest ecosystem which is very similar to a rain forest but is higher in elevation and close to the continental divide.  The drive here took about 4 hours with the second half of the trip being about 45k of twisting dirt, steep roads and of course no guard rails.  

Part of the road to Monteverde

Our little cabina

Picking herbs and veggies in the greenhouses

We checked into our cute cabinas and sent the men out for snack and breakfast provisions while the women and children went on a short hike around the property.  We had our first experience of being in the clouds when one rolled in as we were standing at the look out point.  It was pretty cool to see the open landscape slowly covered with white cloud.  We also went "shopping" at the property's greenhouses where guests can pick whatever they want to eat.  We got tomatoes, basil, parsley and strawberries.  Just like home except my strawberries never grew!  At 5:00 we got picked up for a night hike at the children's eternal rain forest.  This is a beautiful area purchased by a foundation started 20 years ago by Swedish school children who raised money to buy what was then farmland here to restore it to rain forest land and preserve that ecosystem.  Since then, the movement has been taken up by people all over the world and the organization has purchased a huge amount of land in this area.  Our night hike was a huge success.  We saw:  a turquoise browed motmot sleeping in a tree, a white something sparrow, grackles, a big hairy Orange kneed tarantula (which the guide lured out of its hole in the ground), a baby white tarantula, daddy longlegs, a walking stick bug, a small praying mantis, a big scorpion, crickets, spiders, a big ladybug, a spitbug and its spit, two green pit vipers hanging in the trees, a green vine snake hanging in a tree,  an Olingo jumping from tree to tree, a porcupine.  On the way home in the van, the driver pulled over so we could see a Sloth hanging from the telephone wires! Of course i have no proof (pictures) because it was night ...

Day 8 ... Lola's and Avellanas Beach

"Markie" previously known as "Marcus" until we learned it was a girl lizard.  She lives in this driftwood by our pool.  Her body is about 10 inches long (not including tail).  She eats a vegetarian diet so no worries.

Lola's

Today we relaxed at home until low tide so we could explore the tide pools.  We discovered some new creatures in there ... sea slugs, tiny crabs and one bigger crab the we saw for a second before it hid.  After lunch we went to Avellanas beach which is claimed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the area and has a famous outdoor restaurant, Lola's ... it was a perfect afternoon for boogie boarding and eating french fries, nachos, smoothies, pizza at our outdoor table while drinking smoothies, beer and marguaritias.  Lola's is also the home of a "famous" pig, Lolita.

Molly and Lolita the pig

Alex, ready to boogie board

relaxing at Lola's

Manda and Molly, heading back out to the surf

The best boogie boarder - probably because she is so light!

Day 7 - Rest Day

Today was a rest day.  The kids played some on their iPods (we have no tv) and we went down to the rocks in back of our house at low tide to look for shells.  We found lots of shells, hermit crabs and some fish and sea urchins. It's rocky by us but at low tide, there is a wide pool about 1.5 feet deep that was fun for wading and so clear.  After shell collecting, we walked a little way south along the beach to a small hotel (Hotel Playa Negra) with a restaurant/bar (open air of course) that was yummy. A stray dog followed us all the way home attracted to the take out box but it went back to the hotel when we went in and didn't feed it.

After lunch, more relaxing was on the schedule.  We read books, played games and played ping pong until Amanda and Jake got in from New York.  We were so happy to see them and they were happy to get here after crazy roads and a few rainstorms (here it was perfect all day until 4:30).  Since they live in New York, they were especially unprepared to drive on these roads!

Chilled out at the house and then to the pizzeria for dinner ...

looking for shells.  my job is to hold the bucket ...

alex the explorer

Day 6 ... Tamorindo and ocean voyage

kids hunting shells as seen from our balcony

Today is the Weiss grandparents last full day so we thought an easy morning and a fun boat ride in the afternoon.  We hung out at the house in the morning, at low tide the kids went out to the beach to hunt for shells.

Molly with her cocktail

We started the trek to "nearby" Tamorindo.  I think it was about 15-20k away and it took about 40 minutes on dirt roads to get there!  Also, the GPS has no idea how to navigate the roads around here so we had to stop listening to her ... Tamorindo appeared to be something like the Panama City of Costa Rica (not as many high rise hotels but give it time).  Tons of souvenir shops and bars.  Still it wasn't bad ... La Fortuna (where the volcano was) was also a touristy town and kind of seemed misplaced in the beautiful mountains (I had no desire to shop or explore the town) ... Tamorindo wasn't like that, it was like any other beach town with a million shops selling sarongs and bracelets and ice cream and a pretty beach alongside.  We took a little motorboat out to a catamaran for the sunset cruise.  It was fun, a little rainy but not so much that you minded being without an umbrella since you were getting a little wet from the ocean spray anyway.  Molly made friends with a little girl whose dad worked on the boat.  She spoke English as well as we do.  After about an hour of sailing along the coast we stopped for a swim break.  They had snorkel equipment and we were able to jump off the boat and swim to a snorkeling area.  Its acknowledged that snorkeling isn't the best on the pacific side of costa rica but we were able to see some fish and it was a nice first snorkel for the kids who all did great with their masks and equipment.  Molly and Also even swam without flippers which made for a long swim back to the boat I am sure but they didn't complain.  After the swim, it was snack time and a return to shore.  We saw the sunset but it was pretty cloudy and then hopped the first motorboat shuttle to shore (and got soaked by some sneaky waves on the way!).  The drive home was fun(?) in the dark on the dirt roads but no incidents ...

the little boat that took us to a bigger boat

Alex relaxing

Drew diving off the boat - i'd give that a 4.5

Andy with the blue noodle near center, drew with the orange next to him, alex to the right with neon snorkel gear and me above him with a yellow noodle

Day 5 ... More volcano

The hotel had a big breakfast waiting for us early since we were leaving to go waterfall rappelling.  Driving up the mountains wasn't enough for us. We wanted to hang from ropes and bounce off the side!  John and Joan opted for a milder activity. They went shopping.
   Repelling around the volcano started with a ride in a 4x4 through the mountains and rainforest. The guides gave some brief instructions, then off we went to the top of a long waterfall. Andy and Molly initially opted out of this one, but the guides were so great, they got Molly to try again and she did it!  Andy joined Molly, Di, Drew, and Alex for the last two rappels.  We all loved rapelling down the waterfalls.  Drew took pride in being the bravest one - he had no fear or reservations and trusted the ropes completely.  Alex says he jumped off from the top of one, he hit a rock, bounced off a few times until he could get turned around to face the rock wall, and he thought it was just great (he is not injured at all). Molly loved getting soaking wet when she rappelled into the waterfall spray. I loved looking back up at the waterfall as she rappelled down.  Andy's only regret is that he missed the first few - instead he got a backstage tour with the guides who pracitcally run down trails to meet the group at the bottom of each section (some guides are at the top and some at the bottom but the ones left on top have to run down and around to catch up after the group goes).  We don't have any pictures because we gave the camera to the grandparents for their morning ... also it would've gotten soaked!



After rappelling, we had a little time in the hot springs and headed "Home."

Molly feeling the hot water at the hot springs

the hot spring pool at our hotel

oxen pulling a cart on the road

a cow walking down the road

   The trip home was second-nature by now ... not too eventful except slowing down until it was safe to pass the oxen pulling the wagon. You'd think that was the craziest thing, but the school kids on their skateboards jumping off the balcony of a building and landing in the street stopped traffic too. We stopped in Liberia for a little ice cream and a coco frío. We had supper at the local "McDonald's." No, not really. Trust me, there's no McDonald's here. It's really called Restaurante Latino. It's just owned by someone named MacDonald.  Andy found a delicious, new appetizer --patacones. It's neat hearing Drew, Alex and Molly ordering their food in Spanish. It's almost second-nature for them to come out with Buenos Días or Gracias. They're picking up bits little by little.

Day 4 ... Arenal Volcano trip

Arenal volcano - very lucky to see it without clouds, some of the "cloud" you see is steam from the volcano itself.

  We left very early Wednesday morning to start the 5 hour trip to the central part of Costa Rica to see the Arenal Volcano.  It was 142 miles away ... so you can imagine the speed at which we were driving.  No road here is more than 2 lanes.  The highway is different only in that the two lanes are crowded with trucks instead of as many people, cows, bikes, chickens (there are still people and bikes just not as many!).  We travel with a map, written directions and a GPS and still get lost! We stopped to have a little break after a couple of hours.  It was then John noticed they had a flat tire.  We found a mechanic nearby and Joan negotiated the big transaction to get the tire repaired  -- where can you get that done for $8.00?  Andy says, the guy is just like at Goodyear at home.  You say "we have a flat", he says "yes, there is a screw in your tire."  Difference is there are also chickens running around ... Refreshed, tires renewed, we started out again.  The countryside took on a whole new look.  We left the 'sabanero' country (cowboy country -- in Guanacaste where the house is you see them everywhere -- riding their horses to work, to herd the cattle, to restaurants).  Now the rolling hills became mountains, the foliage was more lush, lots more flowers. The roads were paved, but that didn't necessarily mean smooth riding. The last three hours had us winding around and around the Emerald Mountains toward Arenal.  I mean around and around and up and up.

At our hotel, we had a breath-taking view of the volcano from our individual casitas. As pretty as the place was, we didn't stay put.  Off we went to the hanging bridges.

This is a little park with a 2 mile trail that winds up and down and trough the rain forest.  The trail included many bridges, some almost 100 meters in the air, others were low and just over a little creek.  The high bridges would wobble and shake as we crossed ("stop wiggling kids!").  The 7 of us were totally on our own. Molly led the pack and with more energy than any normal human could have after a seriously long car trip, she'd read the signs before every bridge, then run back and tell us what was coming up. There were 16 bridges in all and the hike lasted 2 hours. We could hear different sounds of the forest, the waterfalls, birds, insects and some heavy breathing (must get back to karate, i am so out of shape!).  There was one beautiful waterfall that was an additional steep hike down.  As we stood there admiring, we looked up up up and there was a bridge high high above us ... we couldn't believe how high we were going to be!  When we got there, Alex laid down on the bridge looking down through the grates trying the see that waterfall far below, we could barely glimpse it.  Alex, molly and Drew were fearless.  Molly was also in a rush to run through the entire thing ...

I keep hoping to see monkeys in every tree but that wasn't to be.  However, Drew spotted the leaf-cutter ants, marching in a long line from a tree to their home in the ground. Each ant was carrying a little leaf (except one carrying a berry. There's one in every crowd.).  They don't eat the leaf; they eat the fungus on the leaf.   We didn't see anything else for most of the hike until near the end (about 4:30-5:00 so close to dusk here).  Molly was in front and first saw a bird (yes, exciting), then we saw a little group of animals we'd never seen before. These raccoon-looking animals with long snouts and long  tails came near foraging for food.  We looked them up later and believe they were coati. We also saw some birds that looked like turkeys that flew up into the trees.

Alex and John on one of the bridges

See the faint line in the center?  This is looking up at the highest bridge from below.

Kids on one of the bridges

The coati - they seem to have amazing camera blurring ability - every pic of them is blurry!!!

The turkey?  Was about the size of a turkey anyway and has a waddle

A cool flower growing on a tree

A 'choza' is a country house and we went to one for dinner in La Fortuna, the town below Arenal.  Well not exactly, I guess it was the toursist version of a choza.  It had big, country-style meals served by the staff in native dress.  Like all the restaurants we've been to, we sat in the open air (almost no restaurant has walls or windows for the seating area although the kitchens are enclosed). 

Back at the hotel, after a long day, John, and Drew and I went to the hot springs, which were on the hotel grounds.  There were lit walks lined with all the beautiful flowers and plants in the area. In the morning we could see everything on the grounds waking up too --  parrots, hummingbirds, and butterflies.

Day 3 ... palo verde national park

We left early this morning for an hour and half hour drive to meet a guide to take us on a boat down the Tempisque River.  We were in a national park (Palo Verde) and Luis, our guide, rode with us to get to the dock (another half hour away). He was enthusiastic and told us about things on the way, so that was sort of a bonus -- the guanacaste tree, the sugar cane fields, this incredibly beautiful árbol terciopelo (velvet tree) where we took some pictures. Once we got on the boat, we saw big iguanas, neat looking birds (there are over 900 species in Costa Rica), crocodiles, howler monkeys and white-faced monkeys who seemed to like to play to the crowd. We really enjoyed the whole ride. Luis then took  us to lunch at this great (of course) restaurant that served local foods. We ate family style. They brought out platter after platter -- want to hear more about it? Big platter of grilled steak and chicken and tostitos, casados (rice and beans), squash marinated in something tasty, fresh salad, corn tortillas, then the best orange ice cream ever. I think the restaurant people must have been related to Luis, and they cooked as well as he guided!

When we got back, John and Drew were embroiled in some serious ping pong.  John brought his own paddle from home. Little known fact about John: he brought that paddle into our marriage 42 years ago! Guess he loves that paddle. Molly and Alex also played and they went swimming too.

Joan gave the kids a quick lesson on how to make guacamole (yum!) and we snacked on that and chips and salsa. 

an iguana on the river bank - his cousin lives in our yard - luckily vegetarian!

tiny 2-3 inch bats sleep lined up on a tree

one of the many crocs we saw

a night heron ... we saw many water birds

white-faced monkey playing with his buddies on a branch by the river

the whole group by the velvet tree