Costa Rica
The Selected Photos from Lindz
So it was a great trip. We traveled for 9 days, and saw rain forests, jungles, cloud forests, cities, beach towns, a volcano [hidden by clouds], a multiple shades of beaches. We all had cameras and they are all being put together in a single group, but I know as a group we have crested over 2000 photos, thank god for digital because it would cost an estimated 900 dollars to develop all of that. But here is collection of photos that my great friend Lindz took.
20090208 Costa Rica
The cab the drove us from San Jose to Monteverde. San Jose is a great little city -- very walkable. I don't have any photos of it, though, because the airline lost my luggage for a day.
The practical buildings in Costa Rica are a lot like this -- cement walls with tin roofs. Sturdy against earthquakes and hurricanes, and they keep out the rain. They also don't get moldy in the parts of the country that are humid.
Now we're out of the city and heading into the mountains toward the rainforest of Monteverde (Green Mountain).
Our wonderful youth hostel in Monteverde -- Hotel Santa Fe. If you ever go to Costa Rica, you've got to stay here if bunk beds are OK for you. Not only is it incredibly clean, the owner of the hostel is helpful beyond belief. When the details of our tour-to-tour transportation became irrevocably messed up, she made phone calls and saved the day. We left her a big tip.
Monteverde is very hilly. Steeply hilly. The houses were only three feet away from the road on a horizontal axis, but the grade of the hill was such that they were also 10 feet up.
Every now and again, we saw these cute little three-wheeled things like smart-cars.
For some reason, Monteverde has a a little snake zoo, a ferret zoo, etc. This type of entertainment is not unique to Monteverde. We didn't take advantage of it since we were on our way to find coffee.
Matt and Kathy walking along the path to get to our zipline tour. You'll notice the cement waffles -- this system prevents the walkways from turning into utter mud-traps and is great for long hikes. It probably reduces the impact of foot traffic on the rainforest, too.
I was a little nervous about the whole zipline thing.
It's not easy to make out the next several photos, but you get the idea. The gray cord off to the left is the cable that connects tree platform to tree platform, and they hooked our harnesses up to them via strong carrabeeners and sent us careening down to the next platform.
Me and Kathy after our first zipline of many. It was a rush, and it was also much more relaxing than I could have possibly conceived. Because of the relationship of your weight to the placement of the weight on the cable, you naturally slow down at the end because of physics (gravity, momentum, intertia, etc). So it's fast at first, and then you get to take a break and look at the beautiful rainforest canopy under you and the mountains off to each side. Nothing like it.
This is what happens if you break too hard and too early. They have to come out and rescue you due to aforementioned lack of momentum at the end of it.
Kathy having successfully completed one of the ziplines.
Have you noticed all the lush greenery around everywhere? This place was dripping with life. Our guides indicated that one tree can have up to 10,000 other plans growing on it!
Just a lovely garden at the main entrance to Selvatura Park, the particular place we went for our zipline tour in Monteverde.
After the zipline, we decided to hang around Selvatura Park until sunset to walk around on some suspension bridges.
Matt has an amazing camera. Kathy and I left him to take the REALLY great close-ups of birds and flowers and stuff.
A palm tree that has ferns and vines growing out of it. The funny thing is that most of the plants growing out of the trees are the same things that we take as houseplants. They just get MUCH BIGGER in the rainforest.
The underside of one of the suspension bridges.
View of the rainforest canopy in Selvatura Park from the vantage point of one of the higher suspension bridges.
The incredibly helpful hostel owner directed us to this "Israeli" restaurant. I think the owners were Israeli, but they decorated the place with Indian art, and the place was called "Shiva Moon" -- after a Hindu god. The food was amazing -- the best babaganouj I'd ever had, to be honest. I appreciated the Costa Rican twist on a cilantro dish that is typically served in India -- cilantro mixed with mint, yes -- but also with corriander and jalapeno! It was delicious. To further the cultural mish-mash was the presence of a singer who played American pop with a reggae beat.
Adding do the already adorable cultural mish-mash is the fact that the Hindu god Shiva on the wall is painted in a decidedly Mayan style.
OK, its too bad this photo came out so terribly, but I had to include it so you could get a sense of scale. This table is a slice of one tree -- you can see the rings. The bag that I put on the table is 17 inches across, and the bottles of water aren't the small ones -- they're 2 liter bottles. That's a big tree.
Birds of Paradise grew pretty much everywhere. The colorful part isn't actually a flower -- it's a leaf modification evolved to trap water.
The morning after ziplining, we went for a stroll through the Children's Rainforest -- a rainforest in Monteverde, Costa Rica that has been preserved entirely through the efforts of school-children's fundraising. It's a dry rainforest, so it felt much like deciduous forests in Maine. Incidentally, Monteverde in general is cool and dry. One side of the hill heats up in the afternoon sun while the rest of the place stays cool with the mountain winds. Either way, it's a nice dry climate.
OK, so it looks kinda like main, aside from the huge cacti and tropical plants.
This photo would be boring if it weren't for the green tropical bird in the tree.
The dinosaur-like spikes are not fungi -- they're actual future branches. Crazy, eh?
This tree is an example of a strangle-fig. Strangle-figs get their beginnings when birds drop figs into the tops of trees. The fig pit takes root in the tree-top, feeding parasitically from the host tree. Eventually, the fig's roots reach the ground, smothering the host tree between the fig root-branches. In some cases, you can see through strangle-figs where the host tree completely rotted underneath it.
An example of a strangle-fig that successfully killed its host. You can see from one side to the other through the strangle-fig. It's terribly violent and really cool at the same time.
Not the best photo, but I wanted a shot of a human being next to one of these huge plants. I think we have one of these things that Kathy is standing next to in our kitchen. Many of the plants that they have at IKEA grow in the Costa Rican rainforest. I felt like I was in "Honey, Shrunk the Kids!"
A lovely outlook from one mountain to the next between breaks in the trees.
One tree. Did I mention that I felt like I was in "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids"?
For you gardeners out there, the small, purple flower in the foreground is part of an enormous verbena plant.
Another tropical bird that Matt's camera got a much better shot of than mine did.
Scenic outlook en route from Children's Rainforest back to our youth hostel, Hotel Santa Fe.
Killing time waiting for our tour bus to arrive. They were all on Costa Rican time, which is usually half an hour late when they're really trying to be on time. Every now and again, though, they would inexplicably show up 15 minutes early and be indignant when we weren't ready yet.
Two things of noteworthiness: (1) the cows in the middle of the road; (2) the road. Most of the roads we were on in Costa Rica were extraordinarily bumpy, dirt roads. Imagine the worst road in Maine (or Canada, let's be honest -- their roads are awful) and make the hill grade about 80%, and deepen the potholes by about 70%. Then you've got the stereotypical Costa Rican road. They don't like it, but they make sure their vehicles can handle it. Needless to say, there are car part stores all over the place.
At this portion of our drive from Monteverde Rainforest to Volcano Arenal, our tour van stopped and dropped us off at Lake Arenal for the ferry ride across the lake. It's HUGE. I thought it would be 5 minutes or so, but it was about 20! Also, if you squinted, you could pretend it was Sennebec Lake in Union.
This was a little store where we could pay 20 colones to use the toilets unless you bought something to eat. That's the American equivalent of less than half a cent, so we all paid.
I just liked the color contrast of the wood in what I believe to be a type of bamboo. It was really that yellow!
On the ferry across Lake Arenal.
In the first school photo of me ever, this is the expression on my face. Some things never change.
That's as much of Volcano Arenal as we'd ever see. Even on the sunniest of the three days we spent at its feet, there was a cloud fixed to the volcano. I am told it's twice as high as that.
This was the chichi resort at Volcano Arenal called "Mountain Paradise" that activated my allergies like no place I'd ever been and broke my immune system's will. The landscaping was lovely, the beds comfortable, the service friendly, and the showers hot. It was the Disneyland of the trip. However, I'll just state my preference honestly: I prefer authenticity over touristy places.
You may recall my notes at the beginning about how practical Costa Rican buildings are made with tin roofs. This one had lovely spanish tiling with palm fronds thatched for insulation. You can't quite make it out here, but there were bits of moldy palm fronds peeking from between the boards (I did like the boards, though) and the overall humidity and pollen levels around Arenal converged to make lot of mold and mildew in these otherwise charming huts. After day three here, my sore throat wouldn't go away anymore and I caught Kathy's cold.
That being said, I'd recommend this place to anyone who likes resorts and is not allergic to mold or mildew. The breakfasts here were great.
View of the Volcano from the veranda in our hut. You simply have to believe there's a volcano over there, just like we did.
Matt and Kathy on one of the sturdy, comfortable beds.
Our other complaint about this place was the "mood lighting" -- we couldn't get it bright enough to dig through our luggage! That seemed to be unique to our room, though -- the suite that the other part of the group had was very well-lit. However, the gist of this photo is the bathroom. There was a waterfall shower in it as well as a stand-up shower of high caliber. The stand-up had five shower-heads, and they were all fabulous!.
This is the resort restaurant where we ate breakfast every morning during our stay at Arenal. Breakfast in Costa Rica consists of casados (typical plate served at every meal -- spicy black beans and rice, fried plantains, fried egg, and a meat or vegetable -- very satisfying), along with the most incredible fresh tropical fruit, usually watermelon, cantaloupe, bananas that were to die for, and mango and/or papaya. Vegetarians eat well there. Again, there is a volcano in the background.
By this point, Matt, Kathy, and I had joined up with the rest of their meet-up group who initiated this trip to begin with. They were entirely pleasant.
This entire day was a tour of the area around Volcano Arenal. That morning, we hiked around the national forest. Again, you just have to imagine there is a volcano in the background. This process was made significantly easier for us once the guide informed us that the "thunder" we were hearing in the background was actually the impact of house-sized volcanic rocks bouncing down the side of the volcano. Whoa!
Some more suspension bridges. This particular rainforest, due to its proximity to the volcanic soil and the humid climate, was especially "rainforesty" in its vegetation and size.
The top of this tree was approximately 30 feet below us.
This is a palm tree's way of shooting roots into the ground when it gets too high. Palm trees don't necessarily anticipate growing that tall, so they don't bother growing a wide, supportive root system until they need it.
I think I have one of these in my kitchen, too.
Matt and Kathy hike a lot, so they have a Camelpack -- a backpack with a water system in it. Its flexible straw reaches into your mouth, and you bite on it to release the water so it doesn't leak all over you all day. Matt is wearing it under his raincoat because it rained on and off all day.
Just to give you an idea of how high up we would eventually be, I took this photo from one suspension bridge of the next highest one up. So cool.
Too bad this came out so blurry, because it's an otherwise nice photo. Ah well.
Again, too bad about the blurriness. This was our guide, Gustavo (In Costa Rica, they pronounce their v's as b's, so it sounded like "Gustabo."). He told us all the good information I've provided here. He was so cute and helpful and had the best accent. It was a really long day, and he was a real champ about it. If you every travel with Anywhere Costa Rica, please request him.
You might be getting an idea of how foggy and rainy it was that day. Gustavo told us that people say there is a rainy season and a dry season in Costa Rica, but that in actuality, there is a rainy season and a less rainy season. It is, after all, a rainforest! Kinda like how Maine has winter and less winter.
A shot from our highest suspension bridge to one of the lower ones. You can see the river flowing even significantly below that one.
This is called a monkey's ladder because monkeys climb them like ladders. We did see a couple of monkeys that day! They were too far away to warrant attempts at photos.
This tree is a palm that produces heart of palm, a delicacy seen on menus in Central America. This particular species takes 60 years to grow one heart of palm, so the government illegalized its harvest and mandated the growth of a species that produces the same product in 5-6 years rather than 50-60.
Onto the next portion of our trip: we are now at La Fortuna Waterfall. It was quite a hike down the hill and back up again, and Kathy and I did it two days in a row! The town and waterfall were renamed such in 1968 because they're on the side of Volcano Arenal that did NOT get blown out.
I swam next to that.
The "watering hole" next to the waterfall where non-locals go swimming. Costa Ricans thought we were crazy because it's too cold for them, but for us Mainers, it was practically bathwater!
Note the current. It turns out I'm a better swimmer than I thought I am.
As soon as the swimmers were out of the water, the fish came back.
We broke for lunch in the town of La Fortuna. Just a few shots of the town here.
This building seemed oddly modern and out of place in comparison to the rest of the buildings, but I liked it.
Sugarcane. After lunch same day, this time hiking on the active side of the volcano.
A crater left from the activity.
Still feel like I'm in "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids."
A raccoon relative.
I happen to love this photo of me. Also, I have to point out that this raincoat of mine bears striking resemblance to the one currently in the JPeterman Catalogue. Click this link, and be just as surprised as I was when flipping through it the day it came in the mail: http://jpeterman.com/product~cat~110207~sku~WOW+2321.asp
Out in the open air at the foot of the active side of the volcano. The rocks are so black!
Does this lake look familiar? It's the one we ferried across the day before.
Back at the hotel, they made us cute little elephants out of towels to make up for all the mold and mildew.
The next day when the rest of the group went canyoning, Kathy and I set out for a three hour horseback ride. We didn't expect it to be so rigorous! They had us cantor and gallop and everything! Needless to say, the part of me that hit the saddle were sore for a few days.
We even got to ride through a cow pasture! Yeah! It was a lot of fun.
After galloping through some mud-pits, those pants were not so white.
A couple of shots from the tour van en route from Arenal Volcano to Ocotal Beach. The landscape we passed through was the Guanacaste region, known for its agriculture. It's a much drier climate, but surrounded by water on all sides, so the irrigation allows otherwise arid land to be arrable.
The next few photos contrive a panorama of the beachfront that lay in front of our hotel room's back door. While Ocotal Resort looks dirty because of the black sand, it's very clean and fine.
Shortly after this photo was taken, I fell fast asleep. The dude asleep in the background has high tide come wake him up.
After I woke up, I was happy and surprised to find most of the rest of the group had joined me and Kathy in our reading/napping on the beach mode.
There is something so soothing about watching and listening to waves.
The next few photos attempts to grasp just how black some of the sand was. Due to the lack of sunlight, they fail, but you get the idea.
YAY! The next morning (my last morning in Costa Rica) the sun came back out, and suddenly the place looked nice. However, a note about Ocotal Resort: though it was less allergen ridden than the Mountain Paradise resort, the service was notably worse. Terrible, in fact. Don't stay there.
They made beautiful cappuccinos, though!
The walkway leading to our room. Reception and the restaurant (breakfast) were at the top of the cliff while our room was down at the bottom on the beach.
OK, this is the AIRPORT. Liberia Airport in Costa Rica is open-air, even after security. Sure, they have fences. But it was nice not to be breathing recycled air for the three hours they want you to wait for international flights.
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