sloths, Sloths, SLOTHS!

Or Costa Rica Part 3. And now that I have your attention, it will be a while till we get to sloths!

So now we are in the final week of vacation-going up to the mountains in the center of the country. After having such a great time the past two weeks, we couldn't help but wonder why we were leaving the Osa. Yes, Keith had a white water kayaking adventure planned, but that was only a day and half out of a week and we really didn't have anything else planned. And after 2 weeks of guides and tours and tourists (like we're not!), I just wanted some time to myself.

It took a little more time than we expected, but eventually, and in the dark we finally found the Airbnb that we booked in Aquiares, a little outside of Turriabla. Aquiares is an interesting place; this small town is essentially a big coffee farm with almost everyone in town connected to the coffee farm somehow.

We woke up to a beautiful view of the farm and Keith enjoyed sipping Aquiares coffee. Eventually I did have a cup of this coffee, but it wasted on me! As far as I'm concerned it smelled terrible and tasted even worse-just like all coffee.

We briefly said hello to our Airbnb hosts Bob and Helen, gingos from California. We told them we were just going to take a walk, but they called their friends who run the corner store and found out their family was going on a hike to the waterfall. We were going with them and they were waiting for us-OK!

So Keith and I met Arianni, a lovely 16 yearly girl, and her mom, Fernanda at the shop. Fernanda was staying to mind the shop and we took of with Arianni and her adorable dog Angus. She spoke a fair amount of English-that is, more English than I speak Spanish, and while I understood most of what was said, thankfully Keith can actually speak Spanish. We met up with her nieces, aunts and cousins on the walk down to the waterfall. The whole time I'm thinking, I REALLY need to learn Spanish!




The waterfall is beautiful and on this beautiful Sunday morning, it is full of families playing in the river. For me this was such a refreshing change from the preplanned, preset tours with guides, it was just a fun Sunday morning. While everyone else played in the pools at the base of the waterfall, Keith, Ari, Angus, and I climbed up to the top of the waterfall. This is clearly where the cool kids hang out, since it was just a bunch of boys smoking and drinking and playing in the natural waterslide above the cliff of the waterfall.




Keith did a day and half white water kayak trip on the Sarapiqui river, about 2 hours from where we were staying and while it turns out I could have gone and boated some of what he did in an inflatable kayak, I'm still glad I stayed in Aquiares. And hopefully we get pictures or video of the kayaking-while Keith had the waterproof camera, he did not take a single picture! But his guide had a GoPro, so hopefully!

I wasn't sure how I was going to fill up my time, but I did very easily. The Turrialba area is know for their cheese, so of course I found a dairy and cheese making tour! I booked the tour and Bob, one of our Airbnb hosts came with me, to both give me a ride and it was a tour they hadn't heard about in the area. It was a great tour-it's been years since I've milked a cow, but after years of milking goats and sheep, it was pretty easy. We also go to see how their cheese is made and make a little cheese to take home to!




I also spent part of the time hanging out with Fernanda and Arianni. I stopped by the shop just to say hi and ended up spending a lot of the day in the kitchen, making bread and chatting (I really need to learn Spanish!) with Fernanda, with Ari singing along to Adele and her other kids playing video games-it was such a fun day!



When Keith got back, Volcan Turrialba was smoking! We had to get up there! Since it is technically actively erupting, quite a bit is closed near the top of the volcano, but we got as close as we could. And it's not really smoking-the white coming from the volcano is steam and the grey is ash and no lava, just in case you were wondering!




After a couple more days in the mountains, it was time to drive back to San Jose and fly back home. But not before we stopped at the Toucan Rescue Ranch and met a bunch of sloths...and toucans!



The Toucan Rescue Ranch is in the suburbs of San Jose. They receive sloths, toucans, monkeys and loads of other animals that have been orphaned or injured, and they work to try to rehab them and return them to the wild.

This is a pile of baby two-toed sloths. They all hang out in these rocking chairs because it simulates the unsteadiness but relative safety of tree branches.



At the end of the tour, we met Bella, a little three-toed sloth. She is seriously the cutest animal I have ever seen! I couldn't believe how close they let us get!





By the end of the tour I was almost in tears, thinking about these animals with their mama's get killed by dogs or electrocuted by power lines. It was such an overwhelming last day of vacation, but I'm so glad we got to spend some time there!

Now we're home and I'm staring out at a grey day with some snow still on the ground and am so ready to go back! I guess I feel like this after just about every vacation, but this time it feels different. Like we should go back and seriously buy some property in the mountains different.

Leave me in Costa Rica! Part dos

After a week of kayaking, monkey watching, and sea turtle releasing in Drake Bay we were off to the eco lodge Lapa Rios . We were still on the Osa Peninsula, but on the Gulfo Dulce side, where we had been on the Pacific side in Drake Bay.

Lapa Rios is unlike anywhere we had ever stayed. It is a private nature reserve of over 1000 acres, 80% of it as primary forest, the other 20% of the jungle is secondary forest. It was previously a cattle ranch that was replanted with native trees almost 25 years ago.

Even the drive to Lapa Rios was impressive, besides that during the drive was the only air conditioning we had the whole trip! We chatted with Frank our driver, who spoke excellent English, and found out that before working for the resort, he worked on his father's palm oil plantation. There are palm oil plantations all over the place and we had driven past so many that it was interesting to learn a little about it. It is very dangerous work as both the palm pods and palm fronds are covered with large spikes and are dropping about 40 feet to the ground once their cut. On the way were stopped at Frank's father's plantation and it was pretty impressive. I'm guessing driving a couple of gringos around is a lot easier!



Once we arrived to Lapa Rios, and were greeted with a delicious passionfruit lemonade and cool towel, we jumped right in the explore every this place had to offer. Every day there are different tours and hikes available and that first day we did both the Matapalo tour and the Night Tour. The Matapalo tour was great to get a sense of where we were and the kinds of animals around. On that short walk we saw a sloth, loads of spider monkeys, macaws and tons of other birds-this place is amazing!



Before dinner and with the same guide, Danilo, it was just Keith and I on yet another night walk looking for snakes, spiders and all. And we found them. I almost stepped on a scorpion and spotted a giant wolf spider. Of course there were also snakes and poisonous frogs...I'm never peeing in the jungle at night, ever!



My favorite hike was the Rainforest Ridge Walk. I lucked out and was the only person on the hike! Keith was taking a surfing lesson that morning, so it was just me and the guide, Edwin, in the jungle. The howler monkeys were going crazy that morning and their screams were roaring through the jungle, so we did a little off trail hiking to try to find what were probably only 2 or 3 male howler monkeys making all that noise. And while we did find them, I didn't get any great pictures-the jungle was so thick at the point all we could really see were tails and and trees swaying.

Oh well! One thing I hadn't seen yet was a poison dart frog and I really wanted to. There are 2 in the Osa Peninsula, the not very cleverly named black and green poison dart frog and the Gulfo Dulce poison dart frog and we saw them both! Actually we saw a few green and black ones and the only Golfo Dulce one jumped up the guides arm! Apparently you have to lick them for the frogs to be poisonous, so no worries!



After his surfing lesson, Keith just wanted to surf more, so he did. I had a loungey beach day while Keith surfed surprisingly well! Just look how crowded this beach is!



One of the last tours we did focused on the sustainability that Lapa Rios strives for. They have a few pigs that most of the food scrapes are feed too. They also collect the pig poo and it is used to create biogas that is used in the staff kitchens. We have loads of animal poo at home-I wonder if we can do something like this!


While we were on this tour, we hear a rustling the brush and found a very hungry anteater! We actually ended up seeing 3 anteaters while we were in Costa Rica. I don't know why, but anteaters don't really care if people are around and we got surprising close to this one! It was on a mission to chow, and chow he did!

Hungry anteater! from Ellen De Young on Vimeo.


I don't feel like I've done a very good job describing how amazing this place is! Taking an outside shower, looking out at the ocean and having spider monkeys playing in the tree above you or seeing a sloth at the top of a tree just off your balcony is just not something that happens everyday! The hikes were great because the guides we so knowledgeable. And of course the food was great-banana cashew pancakes were my favorite! This was a much more posh place than we usually go and while we'll probably never go to this eco lodge again, it was a great experience and I hope we do go to the Osa Peninsula again!


Fair warning, the next post is almost all sloths!!

Leave me in Costa Rica! part 1

Oh, Costa Rica! How I love you! The wildlife, the beaches, the rivers, the mountains, the volcanos....ok, maybe there are a few too many poisonous snakes, though.

Since Keith and I were there 12 years ago, we have always talked about moving to Costa Rica. Now, that we've finally been back, I vividly remember why. This place is amazing.

After a few delays, we finally made it to San Jose, CR but we still had a bit of traveling to do. To get to Drake Bay for the first week of our vacation, we still had a flight, taxi, and hour long boat ride to get there. The flight had maybe 8 seats, 4 of which were occupied. We had amazing views of the mountains and coast of Costa Rica, including whale tail beach-we had been there 12 years ago!


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Once in Drake Bay, we settled in to Casa Hoizontes, a small family run guest house that was our home base for a few days of kayaking around Drake Bay. Galiano Kayaks is based in British Columbia but in the winter they guide tours in Costa Rica. Genius! Our guide was Zach and for the rest of the week it was pretty much just the three of us kayaking around the rivers, coast, and beaches of Drake Bay.




If you've heard anything about Costa Rica, it might have been about crocodiles. Rivers full of them...why are we kayaking and swimming in rivers? According to Zach, yes, most rivers probably do have crocodiles, especially where they flow into the ocean, but they are small and won't bother anyone. The rivers with the big crocs, people know about them and avoid them. So we took his word for it and still have all our fingers and toes!

We had a lot of amazing experiences in Drake Bay, but there was one day that was my favorite: We get up early and kayak to a beautiful beach. From there, all Keith and I know that we are going to do a bit of a hike and maybe do a canoe ride up another river-Ok, sounds good.



So we hike through the jungle to another beautiful beach, this one with the ocean on one side and a river on the other. The ocean side has pretty big waves and is one of the prime surfing spots in Drake, so we jump into the river to cool off and swim a little.



There is a little hut by the river that Zach said was where we could maybe get a canoe ride up Rio Claro (one of about 100 Rio Claro's in CR). There was a two hour tour just taking off in a few minutes and we were just in time-great! Richardo, the owner, was very clear about what we all should be wearing and what we should bring: No hats or sunglasses. Only wear swimsuits....um why? What are we doing? I'll tell you what we're doing-jumping off a cliff into the river before we ever get in the boats, that's what!



The canoe ride is beautiful and short. Finally I realize the point isn't the canoe ride, but playing in the river. We get to a point in the river where we all get out, jump off boulders, and float down the river.





Eventually we float down to a spot where we start climbing up a waterfall and the whole place is pretty magical!



Wow, Ellen! That sounds like such a fun day! I know, right! But it gets even better!

After the boat ride, we have a little lunch and coffee, then go for a short hike to, yup, another beautiful beach. BUT on the way there we are surrounded by a troupe of capuchin monkeys! They are hilarious and they are everywhere!

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Capuchin Monkeys! from Ellen De Young on Vimeo.



So we go to the beautiful beach and I promptly fall asleep for a bit. I'm woken up right in time for us rush back to the beach where we took off for the canoe trip. We had to get there in time to release the tiny sea turtles that had just hatched that day into the ocean. I couldn't believe that we actually got to hold tiny, incredibly strong sea turtles! Go, baby sea turtles! I hope you survive!
Releasing sea turtles from Ellen De Young on Vimeo.





From there it's a kayak back to Casa Hoizontes for some beers on the patio and a delicious dinner, but we couldn't stay up too late! We had to be on a boat at 6am the next morning to get to Corcovado National Park. Finally time to see some sloths!

The day at Corcovoda was amazing and we didn't only see sloths! We are all four species of monkey that are native to Costa Rica: squirrel monkeys, capuchin monkeys, spider monkeys and howler monkeys. Here is one of the spider monkeys we saw...or me getting busted by Keith for eating the whole bag of chips!


Hanging out with monkeys in Corcovado National Park from Ellen De Young on Vimeo.


Squirrel monkeys are pretty much impossible to take a picture of since they never stop moving, this video is pretty crappy too! Oh, well! They're still adorable!
squirrel monkeys! from Ellen De Young on Vimeo.

We also saw tapirs. One sleeping and and mom and baby drinking in a creek. The tapirs are so much bigger than I expected and such odd creatures. They look kind of like pigs but are somehow related to both the horse and rhinoceros.




And yes, we saw sloths! This one was a mama and her baby. Only her baby moved. For barely a second I could see the cutest little baby sloth face, then it was time to nap again! Not the greatest picture, but there will be so many more sloth pics to come!



This doesn't even come close to everything we did in Drake Bay. One other interesting experience we had was the Night Tour with Tracy. It was creepy and scary and full of spiders and snakes (spiders I'm fine with-but snakes-NO!). And the tour was amazing. We meet Trap Door Spiders and scorpions and poisonous frogs and yes, snakes (not poisonous!) and I would absolutely hight recommend it to anyone, even if you're sacred of spiders.




Well, I can't believe 2 things. One, how long this is already and two, that I actually thought I could write about 3 weeks in Costa Rica in one post! I barely made it through just one week! So sorry! There will be more!

There are a ton more pics and video in Flickr, and I'm just now noticing that the link to Flickr on the blog is broken-I'll fix that!

Time to go feed the very pregnant sheep and goats and meet Keith for a beer after a hard week of not being on vacation. More to come!