wildlife – Adams Adventures

For Part 2 of our Costa Rican honeymoon, Scott and I travelled inland to visit the cities of Arenal and La Fortuna. We drove quite a distance from Tamarindo to get to our hotel in Arenal. We stopped at a Costa Rican Walmart and tried a ton of local snacks: chocolate covered pineapples and bananas, yuca chips, and palomitas (popcorn). We also enjoyed a scenic drive around the entire perimeter of Lake Arenal which is a manmade lake at the base of an epic volcano.

For this portion of our trip, we stayed at the Arenal Manoa Hotel. This is one of the many hotels in the area with a STUNNING view of the Arenal Volcano and in-house hot springs. We were greeted with a blackberry drink and taken to a villa with a view.

IMG_20170909_145046 — Humid volcano selfie!

After we got settled in, we went down to the pool and swim up bar where we had a few too many mango daiquiris and margaritas. The pool was busy and had a party atmosphere so we enjoyed people watching. Then we got changed for dinner and went to the hotel restaurant, La Saca. We had SUPER rich mushroom risotto and pesto gnocchi and went back to the villa to go into a sugary drink and rich food coma.

The next day we woke early, had a 10 minute breakfast stop at La Saca, and went to catch a shuttle for an all day tour. We were going to tour two major destinations: The hanging bridges at Mystico National Park and La Fortuna Waterfall. These two hikes were very different, but equally incredible.

At the hanging bridges, we saw unique plants, vipers, tarantula, countless birds, loud and fascinating cicadas, howler monkeys, and the most rare sighting of day: peccaries! Upon entering the park, we saw a deadly, baby viper right away. Then we looked back towards where we walked in and saw a small herd of peccaries! The deeper into the forest we went, the louder the buzzing sounds throughout the air became. We learned that these were cicadas and they became the soundtrack for this entire trip. They provide a constant humming melody that differs depending on region. These massive insects live only one day, but certainly make their presence known during their short lives. We had wonderful tour guides who spotted camouflaged animals that we would have never seen. My recommendation after this trip is always to do wildlife tours with a guide!

At the entrance for Mystico National Park

A juvenile viper (could kill a human with one bite)

DSC_0354 (1) — Peccaries looking for food

DSC_0397 (1) — A cicada next to his old skin

Our shuttle picked us up from the hanging bridges and took us to our next stop: La Fortuna Waterfall. This was one of my favorite parts of this trip! We had to hike down about 500 steps (which meant we eventually had to hike back up them) and arrived at a gorgeous waterfall and crystal clear pools. We were able to swim in the pools amongst tons of not-so-small fish and mossy cliffside.

DSC_0414 (1) — The hundreds of steps to the pools

IMG_20170910_105710 — Staring at the powerful waterfall in awe

IMG_20170910_110032 — Sitting on a rock and channeling my inner Little Mermaid

After a long day of touring, we all enjoyed lunch together. This was our first experience with a Costa Rican cuisine staple: Casado. Casado consists of meat, tortillas, beans, rice, a fried plantain, salad, cheese and sometimes eggs and sautéed onions.

It was a long day of hiking, so we spent the rest of the afternoon watching American football in Spanish and napping. For dinner we drove slightly outside of the hotel to a delicious pizza place called !Que Rico! which means “How Delicious!”.

The next day we had another tour planned. This time we drove two hours in a shuttle to do the Rio Celeste (translates to Light Blue River) hike. This was one of the most fascinating sights and the photos truly don’t do it justice. The Rio Celeste is full of minerals that create the optical illusion of a light blue color. The water is in fact clear, but the reflection of the light off of the white mineral particles makes the water looks like an opaque, bright blue. We saw many more animals on this hike including frogs, different kinds of insects, spiders, monkeys, snakes, and coati (a raccoon-like mammal). We also saw hallucinogenic leaves the size of a car tire and one of the largest and oldest trees in the country.

Another long hike down to a waterfall, but this one was a no-swim-zone.

DSC_0446 (1) — The water bubbles like it’s boiling here and smells STRONGLY of sulfur.

A very rickety bridge that you had to cross one-at-a-time.

Where the minerals enter the stream and change the water from clear to bright blue.

A female spider who eats her tiny, brown mates

IMG_20170911_081354 — A giant and ancient tree

IMG_20170911_090546 — A poison dart frog

IMG_20170911_090908 — A very well camouflaged cricket

IMG_20170911_105749 — Scott on another rickety bridge.

We finished this day with a delicious meal of arroz con pollo (chicken and rice) and a dip in the Termales (Hot Springs). These hot springs were at our hotel and were actually rerouted from a naturally hot river that’s heated by the volcanoes. Of course, the hot springs also had a swim up bar and we had to take advantage on our last night in Arenal.

The following day was the day we were supposed to travel to the capital, San José, but we couldn’t resist squeezing in one more activity while we were here: A Coffee Tour. If you’re ever in Costa Rica, do a coffee plantation tour! I have alway been an avid coffee drinker and this tour completely changed the way I buy and drink coffee. Scott has even been drinking more java after this experience. During the tour we planted, harvested, roasted, and ground beans to see every step of the process. We also made our own chocolate and sugar cane juice which was amazing! We may have gotten bitten by some ants in the process, but it was totally worth it.

IMG_20170912_095145 — Harvesting coffee beans the old-fashioned way

IMG_20170912_103718 — Juicing sugar cane

The coffee tour marked the end of our time in Arenal and the beginning of our journey to San José and the Pacuare River. Another treacherous drive that ended in some horrific traffic began and a whole new scene awaited. Part 3 will outline our time in these Eastward destinations!

FINALLY I’m getting around to writing about our Honeymoon! Scott and I chose Costa Rica for our 10 day honeymoon because it offers adventure, romance and relaxation all in one. We started this adventure September 5th which is actually during Costa Rica’s rainy season. We took a risk going during the low tourism season, but it paid off! Not a single activity was interrupted by weather and we felt as if we had beaches, bars and restaurants all to ourselves! We chose three distinct regions of this gorgeous country and each was so full of unique experiences that they warrant their own posts. Our first stop was the Pacific Coast, specifically the Guanacaste province.

We flew United airlines without incident from Seattle to San Francisco to a hurricane ravaged Houston and finally to Liberia, Costa Rica. After picking up our rental car, it was about an hour long drive to our hotel in Tamarindo. The drive was AMAZING and we knew right away that we would love our time here. There were tropical farms, colorful houses, and crowded neighborhoods to view along the sides of the highway. We had to stop for sheep in the road and dodge crazy Costa Rican drivers.

For our time in Guanacaste province, we stayed at Cala Luna Boutique Hotel in Tamarindo. We were greeted with a hot towel and some of the most delicious lemonade I’ve ever had. While our room was prepared, Scott and I took our exhausted butts to one of the hotel restaurants to enjoy tropical drinks and some ceviche.

Of course, we were beyond tired from a full day of travel, so once our villa was ready, we took a long and well deserved nap. One of the best things about our hotel was that they offered free sunset cocktails on their stretch of beach. We couldn’t miss the opportunity to see our first Costa Rican sunset so we headed to the sand. On our way we had our first of many wildlife sightings: a tiny tropical skunk.

Since Costa Rica is so close to the equator, the sun sets at around 6PM every day regardless of season which was hard to get used to coming from a Seattle summer. However, we loved seeing the beach at twilight. There were heavy clouds, massive volcanic rock formations, crabs and seashells. The most interesting part to me was how the beach backed right up to a dense jungle. Definitely not what I’m used to from the beaches in the United States or even Europe.

After sunset cocktails, we took a night swim at the pool and I saw my first lightning bugs all throughout the night sky. They were followed by actual lightning warning of the storm to come.

After our swim, we got cleaned up for dinner and had some more tropical drinks and tropical seafood. We watched two resident cats politely beg for scraps and saw lizards scurrying over the walls. Half way through our meal we experienced a total power outage and we knew we were in for a pretty decent storm. Later, as we snuggled up and watched People of Earth on our iPad, we heard the most insane thunderstorm of our life! We tried to capture video of the massive rolling thunder and super bright lightning, but it was a challenge. In the end we really only have a selfie to show for it.

IMG_20170906_201313 — Nighttime thunderstorm selfie!

The next day we had our first planned activity: paddle boarding! After breakfast at the hotel (with amazing tropical fruits and Costa Rican French press coffee), we went to Playa Tamarindo and picked up our paddle boards from Kelly’s Surf Shop. We found out that the locals call this area “Tama-Gringo” because it has some of the best surfing in the world which draws thousands of tourists during peak season. Being September, we were some of the only “Gringos” around. After a super nice Costa Rican man who sells coconuts helped me carry my paddle board to the surf and Scott lost his sunglasses to the waves, we were finally out in the bay and able to see a whole new side of the beach.

After a couple of hours of paddling around the bay, we returned our boards and walked along the beach. We found tons of pristine sea shells and some crazy blue crab claws. Then we bought a coconut from the man who helped me (DELICIOUS) and had some beers at Volcano Brewing Co. I recommend the Tropical Golden Ale, it was sublime.

The towns of Costa Rica were so quiet, it was hard to use our usual method for choosing a place to eat: go wherever there are the most people. So, we had to use a new technique: our noses. While walking around Tamarindo we smelled Longboard BBQ and ended up getting some mojitos, ribs and smoked fish tacos there before heading back to the beach and body surfing until we were reading to go back to the hotel. When we returned to our hotel we saw monkeys swinging through the treetops surrounding our villa (the jury is still out on whether they were spider or howler monkeys).

If possible, the sunset the second night was even more breathtaking. Unfortunately, sunsets are one of those things that a camera just can’t do justice to, but Scott sure tried!

The next day was our last full day in this region and we took full advantage of it. Rather than take the surf lessons we had planned, we ate breakfast at our hotel and then began an hour and half long drive inland to Diamante Eco Adventure Park. The roads were washed out, steep, winding and super dangerous. We even drove straight through two rushing rivers. When we safely made it to the park, we were relieved to have a shuttle pick us up in the parking lot.

We then did a multi-stage zipline that included a free fall and a super long, face first portion with views of the coast line and jungle.

IMG_20170908_103133 — Waiting for my first ride (pretty good GoPro pic)

Diamante Photos-3950 — Suited and booted!

The zipline adventure was followed by a tour through the animal sanctuary. We arrived JUST in time for feeding-time for Lucy the sloth, got a private tour of the jungle cats (jaguars, margays, pumas and ocelots), and spent some time in a massive butterfly enclosure.

IMG_20170908_111537 — My new bestie, Lucy

IMG_20170908_113148 — Blue morpho butterfly (these were EVERYWHERE)

IMG_20170908_114201 — A napping female jaguar.

The park served us an amazing lunch (arroz con pollo, yummmmm) and we started the scary drive back to Tamarindo. Once back on the coast, we explored the town stopping at juice stands, shops, restaurants and bars and ended our last day with dessert at our hotel. I had some incredible passionfruit mousse while Scott had caramelized bananas with caramel ice cream.

The next morning we had insanely good coffee at Nordico Cafe in Tamarindo and started another long drive to our next destination! Writing about this reaffirms my convictions that this was not our last trip to Costa Rica. The people, coffee, and activities were all wonderful and I can’t wait to return.

Adams Adventures

Tag: wildlife

Costa Rican Honeymoon: Volcanoes and Jungles

Honeymooning in Costa Rica: Pacific Coast