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Costa Rica 2009 – From the Beaches to the Volcanos.

So off I went to my yearly visit to Costa Rica. Back to the Caribbean but this time a few days in the Arenal Volcano area. June 30th to July 8th! My longest vacation ever! June 30th to July 5th in Puerto Viejo and July 5th to July 8th in the Arenal area. It was an amazing time!

The Caribbean from the house

Right off the plane, it’s off to the Caribbean for some sun and fun in the clean warm waters of Puerto Viejo. Instead of staying in the hotel, I found a great house right on the beach called Casa Fiesta. This is the back yard of the house with the very private ocean in back and as I always do, the first thing is to jump in. Wonderful house and AMAZING beach. Nice to hang out after a long day.

Sloth Rescue Center

Sloth Rescue

Buttercup

One of the first places I went to was the Sloth Rescue. New since I’ve been there last and it is such a wonderful place! They have many orphans and adults for rehabilitation. In the pictures about is Buttercup, the center’s first rescue and mascot. I learned a LOT about sloths while there. And learned they are VERY loving and social animals. They just reach out to you and try to get you to pick them up. VERY slowly. This is a MUST SEE in Costa Rica.

Jungle Canoe

Banana with seeds

After the tour of the rescue, there’s a HUGE area behind where you can take a canoe cruise. The guide and paddler was very friendly and showed all kinds of things, including a species of bananas that has black seeds. He grabbed one from the tree to let me taste. It was DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELISH! But the seeds were pretty annoying.

Roberto

On to Cahuita, my favorite little town. I hooked up with Roberto who runs Roberto Tours and set up a snorkeling tour and guided hike through Cahuita National Park. Roberto does everything. Set up tours, does fishing trips, and is even a cook at his restaurant. Dunno how he does it.

Cahuita National Park

Didn’t have an underwater cam to take snorkling pics but this is where they dropped us off for a pineapple snack and the hike back to the town. The snorkling was nice and saw some great tropical fish and wonderful coral formations.

Cahuita National Park Bridge

I’ve hiked Cahuita National Park many times before but this was the first time I took a guided hike back from the snorkling area. Towards the end, the guide pointed out sloths and monkeys and inguana’s that I would have never spotted myself. Those suckers take a trained eye to spot.

Fruit Brains

Upon returning to Roberto’s pace, he had lunch of Shrimp with these fruit brains that he grows with there on his property. This are little fruits that has this brain-like meat inside. WEIRD looking but it was YUMMY!

Bocas de Toro

On of the days was spent in Bocas de Toro in Panama. I’ve heard a LOT about this place and finally went to visit. About an hour from the boarder to the boat landing for $10 per person and another 45 minutes by boat to the islands for $4 per person. I didn’t spend much time here, just a few hours, but I can tell that it would be a great place to spend several days exploring so that will be in the future. On the way back, I got to the boarder at a few minutes before 6, and the boarder closes to everyone but Ticos and Panamanians at 6. I talked the Panamanian guard to fill out an exit visa but when I got to the Costa Rican side, they already closed. But no one was looking so I snuck in anyways. So the last part of my trip, I was an illegal alien in Costa Rica… YIKES!

Cosmic Crab

The Cosmic Crab was recommended by a local. It’s located on the next island over so it was a $1 water taxi trip over. Unfortunately, the Cosmic Crab didn’t have any crabs at all! But their crabs cakes were AWESOME!

Arenal Lodge

On to Arenal. I’ve only been to this area once before and boy has it changed! There has been a toursit explosion in the area in the last several years. Arenal Lodgemay have been here but I never noticed before and LOVE LOVE LOVE the Chateus with the MOST AMAZING views of the Volcano and the lake.

Me and Parrot

A really cool thing at the Arenal Lodge was that there were a couple of parrots that seemed to love being with humans. This parrot fly into the restaurant and loved to perch on arms and share drinks and everything! The staff tried to get him back outside but he just kept coming back. I think it was because it was raining. Hmmmmm….

Arenal Volcano

This is the view from my room. You can’s see it but the lake is visible to the right. I really can’t imagine a palce with a more spectacular view. And within 10 minutes of looking out, there was a flyover of a couple of Parrots that seems to stick around. It was breathtaking.

Butterfly Path

On the property at Arenal Lodge, theyhave an AWESOME jungle trail that criss-crosses many many acres of primary forest. They even include a really nice butterly garden that has some amazing species. I can spend a whole day just on these trails.

Baldi Hot Springs

And finaly, I went to the Baldi Hot Springs. This new hot springs is one of the best things I’ve done in Costa Rica. BEAUTIFUL! For the cost of $25 (if purchased in advance from a tourist desk), you can spend the day at the springs and have a wonderful buffet dinner. In the picture are the TOTALLY fun water slide. The slideon the left is a long looping slidebut the middle and right slides are SUPER FAST! Here in the states, when you hit the water you make a nice splash. But withthese speed slides, you hit the water with such force, you go tumbling over the water head over heels! wooHOO! There’s also a nice hotel right there. Next time I may just have to pass up Arenal Lodge and stay here for a day or two.

As always, I’ve had the time of my life in Costa Rica. I haven’t even mentioned the white water rafting trip I made on the Rio Balsa. Done many new things and most of them I’ll want to do the NEXT time I go visit.

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