Costa Rica Bound!
For Cole's 14th birthday we surprised him with a solo trip to Costa Rica. It was a wonderful trip with lots of good Cole/Mom/Dad time, something that is pretty rare with his 4 younger siblings around. A once in a lifetime trip!
Cole was impressed by the 2L sodas at Walmart here. We sampled many candies and cookies only available in Latin America and found all sorts of new/different things. Shopping in another country is always fun.
Thermal Hot Springs - Part 1
For the first part of our trip we stayed at Borinquen Thermal Resort, which was in the middle of the dry tropical forest. There were lots of howler and capuchin monkeys for us to see (Cole learned how to speak howler monkey very well - they actually called back to him), and a natural thermal hot springs with natural mud at the resort for us to enjoy. Getting there in the dark on sketchy dirt roads in a rental car was nerve-racking to say the least. Much better in the daylight! We learned early on in the trip that google maps isn't reliable for telling us which roads are safe and which ones need major 4WD through mountain passes.
This Coati was like a Costa Rican racoon, getting into the garbage and scavenging for food. He was so loveable and cute though!
Eating out together at the resort was a fun experience. Cole had the same pasta all three nights we ate there, but at least he found something he liked to eat.
Rio Celeste Waterfall Hike
We traveled around quite a bit. This day we hiked through the rainforest and ended at Rio Celeste Waterfall. It was humid and beautiful!
A couple different times on our hike we came across this little snake. Someone told us it was dangerous but Dave insisted on getting closer for a picture. We later learned that it was a baby eyelash viper - one of the most poisonous snakes in the rain forest. Apparently the adults only release a controlled amount of venom when they bite, but the babies haven't learned that yet and release all of the venom in them when they bite. Glad Dave didn't get bit!
We saw all sorts of lizards along the way too.
Rainforest Animal Tour
Another day we visited a small sloth reserve and had a guided tour through a private part of the rainforest near Rio Celeste.
Can you find the tree frog in this picture?
Here is a baby sloth that was right next to the path we were on. It's illegal to touch them in Costa Rica, but the guide was able to use a stick to pull back his hand so we could see his face. They are just as cute in the wild!
We found a termite mound and Dave was brave enough to eat some of them. They are supposed to taste like licorice, but they really just tasted like his bug spray!
These are pink banana trees. The bananas are much smaller and have large black seeds, but otherwise taste and look the same on the inside.
We found another couple eyelash vipers!
This is a poison dart frog sitting on the leaf in front of Cole. They were much smaller than we realized!
We saw several different kinds of wild Toucans! They had large bunches of bananas hanging on the edge of their property to attract them so we could get a better look.
River Rafter Tour
Another day we did a safari float on the Corobici River. We saw monkeys, lots of iguanas and lizards, and even an alligator!
Our river alligator!
This is a Basilisk Lizard - the locals call him the "Jesus Lizard" because he walks on water. We actually saw him running across the water and it was amazing. He spread his toes out and ran really fast on only two feet to make it across without sinking. It was almost like watching a giant water-skipper.
The tiny puppy at the lunch restaurant afterwards was just as exciting to Cole as the exotic rainforest animals.
White-Water Tubing!
We took Cole white-water tubing down the Rio Colorado for one adventure - he did great! The ride in the back of the small pickup through town and down to the river was a new experience in and of itself. Not exactly kosher. Tubing a river with rapids was a first for all of us - it was so fun! We each had our own guide assigned to us, and they would pull us through the rough spots, set us up to go through things just the right way, and give us directions on what to do. There were several ropes strewn across the river at various points right before the big rapids. We would all hold on to the rope until the guides were ready for us and it was our turn to go down. Most of the guides were from other Central American Countries (mainly Honduras) who were there working during the tourist season and go back home for the other part of the year. I'm pretty sure our guide tips for the trip was their major source of income for the year. A little mind-blowing.
La Leona Canyoneering Hike
After tubing we went with another guide on a personal trip canyoneering to the La Leona waterfall. We hiked through the forest, crossed the river several times, and eventually swam pulling ourselves along a rope to get under the falls. We had to scale the side of the canyon walls on rebar handholds to get through the tightest spot. It was intense, but so cool, and Cole did amazing. He really surprised us with how adventurous he was. Our guide kept saying, "Pura Vida!", meaning something along the lines of you're living the good life!
King of the jungle swinging on a vine!
We were lucky enough to spot a baby howler monkey with his mama.
Capuchin monkeys are fast and hard to get a good picture of, but they are my favorite.
We ended the canyoneering with a little cliff jumping into the most beautiful turquois colored water I have ever seen.
We walked through a small banana farm to get to the river. Cole was shocked by what banana trees looked like.
Thermal Hot Springs II - Rio Perdido
We spent the second half of the trip at a different thermal hot springs resort a few hours away from the first one. It actually had the thermal river running through the property, and you could hike down along the river to several different small pools they had created with rocks (essentially natural little hot tubs in the river). The monkeys were always down there, and Cole became an expert monkey howler. He could spot them and get them to call back almost every time.
We told them it was Cole's birthday and they had a special birthday cake waiting in our room for him. We stayed in a separate little bungalow (all black, very modern and cool) tucked away in the forest. It was complete with an outdoor shower!
There was a howler monkey that liked to visit a tree right above the pool. Cole hollered back and forth for so long with this guy.
Night Hike!
The resort had this unbelievable zip lining course that crossed the river canyon several times and went all through the forest canopy. Dave and I loved it, but after trying one section of the course Cole decided he definitely did not like it "You're trying to kill me!!!!", on repeat for a long time before we could get him back across the river and up the canyon again to hike out.
Aubrey!
Cole!
Dave!
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