Costa Rica 2012 Aug 14-19 La Fortuna

Came across this little waterfall Llanos de Cortes on our way to La Fortuna. Barely in the tour book. And the best one that we saw.

Laguna de Arenal. Man made by the electricity company. Some cities were destroyed in the making of it. From the wind off of it, it produces a lot of electricity. First glimpse of Arenal Volcano, in the back on the right.

View from our hotel.

Arenal Volcano. One of the top 10 most active volcano's in the world. It used to spout lava and red rocks. We're told it was spectacular at night. But about a year ago it went mysteriously (guides words, not ours) quiet. Now on a clear day you can see the smoke coming from the still active side.

Up close shot

The view changed rapidly. One minute it would look like this and the next it would be clear. And vice versa. We were told we were extremely fortunate to get the clear views we did. Many have spent a week here and left saying "sure there's a volcano" You can see how thick the clouds can get. Thank you El Nino.

The pools of our hotel were warm to hot.

Hummingbirds every morning at breakfast. Whats amazing is that in the Rain forest and Cloud forest other plants just naturally start growing on trees. Orchids were everywhere. Just growing on a tree. So why in the world can't mine survive at home?! Uh, Grandma? I forgot to ask you to water our plants...snap. They're dead.

Went on a hike. Saw another waterfall. Catarata de la Fortuna. (It's like this country has a lot of water or something) It's gorgeous. But a serious vertical climb out. We're talking stairmaster here.

Catarata de la Fortuna

Some of the leaves from these trees are incredibly huge.

Our tour guides. We spent a good part of the day witnessing to them.

We went to an Organic farm. Finca Educativa Don Juan. Easy to see how everything will work in the New System.

Beets with lava rock for soil. Its soft and retains moisture.

A form of taro root. But poisonous. Just a little bit on your tongue can paralyze it. "Make Husbands Happy" our guide said. Got a laugh out of Jason.

Tumeric before its a spice.

Oh yeah. Cocoa beans.

Achiote. Colors food orangy.

Noni

This guy ruled the roost

and Jason got in on the action. Fresh eggs

Passion fruit. Also called here Passion of Jesus. You open it and it has a crown that they liken to the crown of JC. Then there are 12 petals that they liken to the 12 apostles. Interesting.

My new friend

trying to keep dry out of the rain

I got to pull Yucca out of the ground. Fun. Taught us that the thin white membrane on the root is poisonous. Like cyanide or something.

Passing this sugar cane root through this machine produced THE best...

...Sugar water/juice ever tasted.

It also makes a delicious liquor. A great way to end our trip to the Organic farm.

Took a guided hike through the Rain Forest below Arenal. Saw this awesome white hawk.

Saw so many cool plants living off of each other.

These little guys are huge. This is a soldier ant. He is blind. And makes his way only by scent. Strangely he protects the colony or whatever ant groups are called. If we were to touch one of the other ants he would kill it. Not because it posed a threat, but because it would have taken on our scent. And the little guy being blind doesn't recognize it anymore as a fellow worker ant. Crazy huh?

One of the best things we did on the whole trip was visit this place. Proyecto Asis. It's a rehabilitation center for animals. When we called we found out we'd missed all the tours and they were closed on Sundays. When we told them we were leaving the next day, Sunday we were told to call back in 10mins. Turns out we were speaking to the Owner/Head Care taker. He arranged a private tour for us. He is second generation taking care of these animals.

Perla the White Lipped Pecary. Small unknown fact. Pecary's have a small hole on the top of their back towards the back of their rump. It shoots the most foul smelling white liquid. It's a defense mechanism. But you can get them to squirt it just by squeezing the area around it. Again. Foul smelling. But this little cutie was just like a dog. Got onto her side to have her belly scratched.

Bambi, a White Tailed Deer. Wanna guess why it was named Bambi? Includes how it lost one of its legs. Most of the animals they try to fix and reintroduce back into nature. But if the animal will become an easy target, like Bambi here, they live out the rest of their lives being taken care of. She came right up to the fence and nibbled on my fingers.

Felipe the Racoon. We had just watched a show the night before about seemingly "harmless" but wild animals in captivity that one day just snap. As we got into the cage with this guy I thought "we're as stupid as the people we watched get mauled to death last night. If not stupider. We know not to trust them."

But then, they go and do this. And now you see where stupidity comes in. Right alongside an emotion of awe and love.

Hercules the Spyder Monkey. Just wanted his hand to be held.

Not sure why this guy didn't get a name. We'll call him Sam. He is a Keel-Billed Toucan. Just incredibly beautiful.

Loved my camera lens.

Beautiful Scarlet Macaws. We got to see these guys in their natural habitat. Just amazing against all the green around them.

The best part. We were allowed in the cage with this fun and rambunctious group. I wont go into how many times the male monkeys tried to look down my shirt. The first time he hopped on me I wasn't expecting it. I screamed and jerked away. It screamed and hopped right back off. It didn't last long.

This guy crawled into my arms and never let go. Kept showing us where he wanted us to scratch him. The guide had to pry him off when it was time to leave. In the meantime something amazing was happening...

The Monkey's were going ape (haha) all over me. By the time I left my hair was standing up right from all the pulling, picking and jumping on and off.

This was a whole nother experience for J. Think about it. What other animal out in creation is bald? After sniffing me out and pulling my hair, this little guy jumped on J. He sniffed his head. He then rubbed it. Then he licked his palm to see what it tasted like. This is him then tentatively licking Jason's head. From here I figure he must have thought it was a coconut because he proceeded to try and bite it with the side of his mouth. He soon got bored and J was pretty much left alone after that. To one day live in peace with these guys with no cage. And for J, hair for them to tug at.