Costa Rica: December 27, 2009

Awesome rainstorm last night.  Our first night in the jungle was fantastic.  After coffee and a quick breakfast, we went on a 3 hour nature hike to a waterfall.  Nice group and an another excellent guide.  The guides here are all very well educated locals, and it's very clear they love their backyard.

(the lodge provides the boots!)

After the hike, we had some idle time...which was weird.  I kept reminding myself to enjoy every second of not having something to do.

Costa Rica: December 26, 2009

We checked out of the Mariott and had an uneventful early morning cab ride to Pavas regional airport.  A quick breakfast, and we're boarded on a 20 seat Nature Air prop plane headed south to Puerto Jimenez on the Peninsula de Osa -- our destination was adjacent to Corcovado National Park.

Fun, but cramped plane ride.  I should have taken the aisle seat, but I would have missed some good shots..

When we landed we were met by the staff of Lapa Rios, which is a generator-powered eco-nature-wilderness-lodge 40 miles from no where in the middle of the rain forest.  After a quick wifi sign-off and a young coconut welcome drink, we were ushered to the back of a 4x4 for a bumpy ride to the lodge.

Our Cabin (#4) was incredible.  Perched about 800 feet overlooking the pacific ocean.  We had our own private sun-filled deck with a hammock for relaxing. No glass on the windows -- just a rough mesh to keep out the large insects at night.  And thankfully no air conditioning.

This was the view of our deck

We signed up for a night hike, settled in the room, had a delicious lunch (tres gallos for me), took a quick dip in the pool (salt water), then a hike to check out the beach.  En route we spotted some spider monkeys in the trees.  Beach was nice, but a little rocky.  Soon it was off to the night hike, which was fantastic.  Our naturalist guide, Danilo, was a botanist with 22 years experience in the rain forest.  We saw a vine snake, a giant toad, bullfrogs, scorpions, geckos, fresh water shrimp, iguana, giant spiders and even larger cockroaches.

The rain forest is awesome.

Another delicious meal at the lodge with two glasses very chilled Merlot -- I thought that was amusing, but it was 80 deg at 9:45 at night, so it was perfect.  The sound of the jungle was all around and the crash of the surf added to the soundtrack.  I remember thinking to myself that I didn't want to sleep so as to soak up every drop, but I couldn't wait to fall asleep to the sound of nature.  I heard no machines.  Danielle said that Lapa Rios, "under promises and over delivers" and I think that's pretty accurate.

Costa Rica: December 25, 2009

We arrived in the capital of Costa Rica (San Jose) via Miami on Christmas eve. Taxi ride to Marriott outside of the city, then straight to bed.  Early on Christmas morning, I slept in and Danielle booked an ariel tram tour departing at 10 am. We ordered a quick quick Tico breakfast of rice and beans and eggs and bacon for me (also Lizano salsa for me -- as common as tobasco sauce) and we were off.  The tram was fantastic, and was followed by a delicious lunch and a cheesy nature walk. Leaf cutter ants were everywhere. 

Dense primary forest outside of San Jose

Massive trees.  Looked like broccoli

a bug

On the bus ride back, it was interesting to see the town of San Jose.  While there's a lot of Americans in Costa Rica, they haven't brought a lot of Americana with them, so no sprawling strip malls and fast food restaurants.  I did see the golden arches, but it was right next to the airport.  Most stores are just concrete cubes with roll-up garage doors.  Also interesting to learn was that they mostly don't have street names...just the major intersections have names.  Addresses in Costa Rica are descriptive, even for large international hotels, and can read like:  "400 meters north west from the intersection of X and Y, fourth building on the right."  We debated back and forth, but I'm glad we opted for not renting a car. 

Christmas dinner (expensive) back at hotel.  

Smiles, wine and wifi.