Today marks the one week point of our trip! This week has flown by, but it also seems like ages ago that we were driving to the airport in the frigid midwest weather.
Today was a big travel day. We got an early start so that we could enjoy some beach time when we got to the Manuel Antonio area. We loaded suitcases on the bus at 6:45, ate breakfast, and then left Arenal. From there we started heading up the mountains towards the Pacific side of Costa Rica. Very near the continental divide we stopped at the Monteverde cloud forest. We hiked a little bit, which was interesting because of the differences between the cloud forest and the rain forests we’ve grown accustomed to. Plants and trees in the cloud forest are almost completely covered with mosses and epiphytes because of the almost constant moisture in the air. There are also some unique flowers in the cloud forest that are perfectly suited to “catching” water and providing a drinking spot for birds and other animals.
There was also a great butterfly garden there. We saw many clear-winged “glass” butterflies and blue morpho butterflies, among many others.
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| The clear-winged butterfly |
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| The blue morpho butterfly |
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| A butterfly coming out of its chrysalis |
There was also a hummingbird garden. Hummingbirds, of “colibríes” en español, play an important role in the cloud forest because they pollinate so many different plants. They normally don’t have the hummingbird feeders out because they want them to get their nectar from the plants they’re pollinating and not get used to having an “easy” source, but when groups are coming in the guide calls ahead and they put out the feeders so we’re guaranteed to see them. It’s amazing how quick those little guys are! Their colors are beautiful.
Then it was back to the bus to head to the Pacific. Once we passed the Continental Divide, the sky cleared and there was beautiful blue skies ahead! This is typical of Costa Rica - the Caribbean side is very wet with frequent rain, while the Pacific side is much drier with lots of sun. Once we got to the coastal highway it was very exciting to see the ocean. We even saw two scarlet macaws from the bus. When we got to our hotel everyone quickly put on their swimsuits and got ready to head to the beach. Tonight we went to the public beach. There are many fun activities you can do there. Our guide, Rocío, called ahead and reserved chairs for us, which was great. Rocío has all the connections - not only did she reserve the chairs, but she lined up her “surf guy” as she called him (his name is Dante and he has quite the staff of surf instructors), to greet us as we got off the bus and tell us about the surfing lessons, and she also paid for two boogie boards for our group to rent from Dante. Rocío’s pretty awesome! We got in the water right away, which was a beautiful 90 degrees! (That’s what our surf instructor, Ariel, told us.) It felt great! Jennifer W. and I decided to take surfing lessons. Ariel was our instructor, and he was great! First he explained the basics with one of their boards on the beach. Then he took us into the water and we got to try it. He watched the waves for us and told us when to start paddling and when to get up. I think that Jennifer and I did pretty awesome. It was great fun! Because we got there later in the afternoon he wasn’t able to finish our lesson, so he’ll finish it tomorrow. He told us that he had to go meet his wife and baby daughter for supper in town and she’d be really angry if he was late. :)
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| Watching the sunset at the beach - hard to beat! |
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| Our awesome guide, Rocío! |
Around 5:30 or so we headed back to the hotel and almost all of us headed for the pool. It felt great to get the walt water off of us, and the water temperature was great, also. We ordered pizza from a local pizzería and ate it by the pool tonight, which worked out great after our busy day.
Tomorrow we go to Manuel Antonio National Park. There we will hike along their trails and will hopefully see lots of wildlife. Then we’ll swim at the Manuel Antonio beach, which is much more laid back and relaxed than the public beach. Our plan is to be there until early afternoon, then we’ll eat lunch and go back to the public beach for some more fun in the sun.
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