Bookworm Press

After another leisurely and scrumptious breakfast of tropical fruit, eggs, fried plantains, delicious coffee and … and … we went on a tour of the Hanging Bridges across the jungle in the cloud forest of Monteverde. In spite of the fact that the bridges swayed a little, they felt quite safe and granted us a gorgeous view of the huge trees, luscious foliage, beautiful flowers as well as of the many different types of birds and a bunch of creepy crawlers. Like all our guides on these tours, this young lady was an absolute expert on hundreds of names of birds, plants, and animals. To be honest, most of the names went in one ear and out the other, but that was okay. The visual experience was very impressive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the leisurely and informative walk across the bridges, we were off to the adventure of the day–Zip-lining over the jungle. When I first realized what we got ourselves into, I thought of an old German saying: “Alter schützt vor Torheit nicht.” Roughly translated it means: “Old age does not protect you from foolishness.” After a few moments of rapid heartbeat, however, we started to enjoy that thrilling adventure!

 

 

The photo above was taken after we got a good look at what was going to happen, but before we tried it out. Do you see our forced smiles? But here we go! Pura Vida!

 

 

 

 

 

Above is the map of the seven cables we rode. What a thrilling adventure it was.

Yes, we survived. Pura Vida!

 

After relaxing for a while in our beautiful hotel, we had another adventure planned. We went to visit a bat sanctuary, where we could admire those amazing animals that are so important for our own survival. Without them, we’d be eaten alive by mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects. Bats are valuable for many reasons. The sanctuary was inside and fairly dark–bats are of course nocturnal animals–and there was no flash allowed. We didn’t want to disturb them, so we didn’t take any photos. But here is a chart that shows the wide variety of bats as well as a picture of two bats that we saw on one of the tours we took later.

 

 

 

Below, another look at this gorgeous and peaceful environment of Monteverde.

 

 

 

 

The following day we left Monteverde and were driven to our last stop, the town of Manuel Antonio at the Pacific Coast,  Stay tune for more of Pura Vida.

Hello dear Blog Followers, Friends, and Family!

My friend Diane and I went on a nine-day-long tour through Costa Rica. It was our first time in this country that everybody we knew, who had been there, raved about. They were right; it is a truly magical place. Interesting exotic animals–sloths, monkeys, bats, just to name a few–friendly warm people, excellent food, gorgeous landscape, jungle, beaches, cloud forests. It was an intense time and I’m still trying to absorb the many impressions.

Let’s start with some pictures. Since my flight from Los Angeles and Diane’s from Cincinnati arrived several hours apart, we were met at the airport separately by a representative of the travel agency and driven to our first hotel in the Arenal area that was three hours away. Passing through customs was a breeze with the help of our “welcome person” who taught us three words we needed to remember during our vacation. Sadly, I forgot two of them but the most important one stuck with me: Pura Vida, which is used everywhere and means something like “Life is good.”

On the way to our hotel, Mountain Paradise (and a paradise it was, indeed!) next to the town of Fortuna in the Arenal area, I had my first cup of the famous Costa Rican coffee at this little coffee shop/gift store.

Our hotel in Fortuna was a real gem, situated on a hill overlooking the gorgeous landscape and the Arenal volcano in the background. We had our own casita. There was a swimming pool with wet bar and a waterfall on the property. In fact, our bathroom had both a normal shower and a waterfall shower, which was more fun than practical, but we truly enjoyed it.

 

Our Casita

 

 

The day we arrived we spent relaxing and enjoying a delicious dinner outside with a wonderful view of the Arenal volcano.

The next morning after enjoying a scrumptious buffet breakfast, we were picked up by our personal guide who accompanied us on our tour through the Arenal National Park. It was a warm day, interrupted by a few cloud bursts–May is the end of the dry season, but rain showers are frequent albeit short already during this month. It was a wonderful hike, during which we discovered tiny but poisonous snakes on trees (I can do without snakes, thank you very much, but fortunately our guide knew how to spot them). Other animals that we enjoyed more are the many different kinds of birds, some sloths hanging from the trees, and so-called holler monkeys (they really do holler!). In addition, there was a enormous variety of exotic plants and colorful flowers.

 

This plant above is called “Blood of Christ.” The population of Costa Rica is mainly Catholic, including a variety of other Christian groups, so Christian names abound.

More pictures of plants animals and the ever-present Arenal Volcano (which once destroyed several villages but hasn’t been active for many years). The hike brought us to a place with a wonderful view of the volcano as well as Lake Arenal (a man-made lake we’ll be visiting the following day).

That fur ball above is one of the Holler Monkeys. He was quite far away and therefore somewhat out of focus.

Our friendly guide on the right who knew the names of thousands of plants and animals. It was his first tour after college and he was really great!

Lake Arenal

This is at the bottom of the volcano with Lake Arenal in the background. I just took off my yellow rain poncho after one of the short downpours that are so typical of this area. Now, we need sunglasses again.

On the way back, we enjoyed scenes of the always green, fertile landscape of this area. It reminded me of Switzerland. In fact, as someone told me, Costa Rica is sometimes called “the Switzerland of Central America,” because it’s so green.

The next day, we went on a Kayaking tour on Lake Arenal. But before that we had a close encounter with a sloth by the name of Sammy. Stay tuned for more!