Uvita Fauna #3

Okay one more animal post I think. I'm losing access to our all important camera tomorrow as George absconds with it for the rest of the stay here. Yeah, going to see an increase in iPhone photos for the next couple weeks.

Found this guy in the shower stall by our pool one evening. We stared at its enormity for a minute or two before Nick made a grab for it. We almost got away, but Nick was able to nab him before he hopped into the bushes. We then brought him in for his photo debut.

One day George and I were working in the house when we heard a loud bang at the glass door. We peered over and there was this little bird, flopping around on the ground very disoriented indeed. He arduously get himself upright, but still didn't seem quite right. He moved about strangely, his head tilting backward at one point much further than we thought possible, though perhaps birds just have a very flexible spine? Then he just sort of looked around, though didn't seem at all interested in leaving.

We came out the door, and George started nudging him with a broom. For some reason the bird was not flying away. Finally after some tougher nudging we got him to fly, only to watch him hit the ceiling of the porch and then somewhat oddly perch sideways on one of the support beams.

Got some pictures before he flew off (hitting the inside of the porch ceiling again on the way out). George and I agreed that something was odd about that bird; my guess is he was blinded. At least temporarily. He did not flee when we were literally right in front of him, and he had a bad tendency to fly into non-glass objects and perch on odd locations.

There's a stone table underneath our house, and there one day we discovered this fellow lounging about. He was fairly long, maybe a couple feet. Nick of course wanted to get real close and take some pictures of it, better than the ones George was doing, but of course all the rest of us told him not to under any circumstances. We had no idea if it was poisonous or not. Thankfully he slithered away from the house before Nick's irrational impulses landed him in the hospital. That man has to be watched at all times. Chloe I hope you know what you're getting into.

And that wasn't the only snake we saw, or at least not the only one I saw. One night prior to the run in with the green one, I was walking into town shining my flashlight in front of me and at oncoming cars to make sure they knew I was there. On a particularly dark patch of road I saw a red and black striped coral snake lying there, right in my way. It was smallish, only about a foot long, and it was facing away from me. I got as close as I dared, and got a good look at its coils before it slithered off the road into the grass. I decided to be doubly careful walking on the way back, especially on the dirt road to the house.

Later that night I was talking with a local, and he informed me that it could have been one of two snakes, one being entirely harmless, the other being highly poisonous though treatable. The only way to have been able to tell would have been to look at its stomach, which I hadn't seen. He said they're all pests around here and I should have killed it then identified it. I'll consider doing that next time I see one AND I have a machete or some very thick boots.

He also mentioned to look out for light brown snakes with a diamond pattern on the back, those things are very very lethal and basically untreatable; you get bit by one and you die. I saw one of those on the way back home, though in a roadkill condition. Further reason to be careful when walking around in the grass and at night!

Lastly, it turns out this place has got a couple toucans nearby. One day while I was studying some Spanish on the porch, I spotted one then two toucans hanging out in a tree right next to our house. Nick and I watched them for a little while, flying from limb to limb and randomly tapping the branches with their big beaks. We commented about how we were really craving Fruit Loops and then returned to our work.

Then later on that day I started hearing some very familiar and very loud bird calls. I walked back outside and confirmed my suspicion that it was one of the toucans making the racket right outside our house. Aha! So that's what's been waking us up in the early morning hours, them and the cicadas. And now we know. Toucans are noisy and like to begin the day at dawn.

Post Arenal: It's Good to Know Alonzo

We spent the last two nights of our trip in Alajuela, a city not too far from San Jose and close to the airport. When we arrived we were not exactly sure where we would spend the night. George's parents had spent their first night in Costa Rica in a hostel run by local named Alonzo. They had messaged him asking if we all could stay over, but had gotten no response. We figured at worst we could just stay at one of the many perfectly good hostels around town. Pura vida!

When we arrived, Alonzo informed us that unfortunately his place was full at the moment. He was already hosting other tourists, but he could hook us up with someone else who did have room at a place called the Hotel Villa Bonita, and for the same price. He put in the necessary phone calls and then we all talked for a bit on the street about our plans to see the Poás Volcano the following day. Alonzo was informing us of a great place to have lunch on the way back when his friend Aaron arrived to fetch us. We bid Alonzo goodbye and then followed Aaron to the new location.

After following a twisty path through the streets, we drove through a large white gate and parked in front of a grand building nestled into the side of a mountain. Villa Bonita was very nice indeed, with a spacious central area and a front porch which offered a grandiose view of the city of San Jose down below, which glittered and shone brightly in the night. Turned out we would be staying in a fairly posh hotel. And we were getting it for $15 per person per night. We enjoyed our good fortune, ate some dinner and went to sleep in our comfortable rooms.

We decided it was good to know Alonzo.

Pretty sweet place

In the morning after breakfast we had our excursion to the Poás Volcano National Park. At first it was underwhelming; the volcano was mostly covered in clouds as are pretty much all high things in Costa Rica it seems, and the ease of getting there by a flat paved road disappointed Nick and George who are always jonesing for a challenging hike.

The volcano's highly acidic and cloudy lake.

Meh

On our way back to the parking lot we decided to take another path that went into the forest. This we agreed was much more satisfying, as it was narrow, had a good amount of climbing, and the dark, thick forest itself had nice character. George said it reminded him of Middle Earth's Mirkwood, while Sherri was thinking more along the lines of the forest of Grimm fairy tales.

Which fantasy forest is this?

Satisfied with our find we headed back to our hotel. On the way back we stopped at the restaurant Alonzo had recommended. It was run entirely by a woman named Regina and she made us all sorts of great casados there (a popular dish in Costa Rica involving beans and rice). As promised, the food was terrific and we topped it off by buying a big cheap bag of strawberries nearby.

We decided to take it easy and relax at the hotel for the rest of the day, having had an eventful week. Nick, George and I set up our laptops on the porch outside, plugged in our internet sticks and did some much needed emailing for our business for a while.

Time to work!

In the evening Nick went to the airport to pick up Chloe who was visiting for a week. Nick had considered taking the bus or a taxi, but Aaron came in and offered to drive him there himself, and Nick accepted. On the way there, Nick tried to pay Aaron $40 for the ride, which was close to what he would have had to pay to a taxi, but Aaron wouldn't accept it, even to pay for the parking at the airport! Eventually Nick managed to convince him to accept the payment, but only on the condition that it would also cover Chloe's stay that evening. He's a hard bargainer.

The hotel kept doing this throughout our stay really, giving us ridiculous value for what we paid them. I was given coffee while I was working that afternoon, no extra cost. We got free tasty breakfasts each of the mornings we were there. The staff was great and very helpful. And the place itself just looked all around awesome. We spent a fair amount of time during our stay trying to figure out how in the world it could be profitable. It didn't make any sense, until we finally figured out the real price was about five times higher than we had paid; we had gotten a very special deal.

It's good to know Alonzo.

Arenal: Part 3

On the third day of our Arenal stay, Nick, Steve and I woke up early to do our final hike. George had had enough of hiking through the rainy rainforest, and Sherri was not interested in the intense climb that was promised. We three, though, were going precisely for that challenge, and we would not leave until we had it. As we drove out the sky was mostly clear for the first time, though of course Arenal was cloud covered still, its peak hidden from us as it had been throughout our stay. Never mind that volcano though, today we were climbing its truly dormant neighbor, Cerro Chato.

We drove up to the information center and headed in to buy our tickets. The man behind the desk had us give him emergency contact info, advised us that the end of the trail was 'very, very difficult', made sure we were bringing plenty of water and mentioned that we should be careful where we stepped, as snakes were sometimes on the trail. This was looking good.

The trail was fairly steep from the very start. We began by climbing up farmland, up a well gardened path with open fields on either side, passing two workers with boisterous weed whackers tending the grass. As we climbed, we got some great views of the farmland and the city of La Fortuna below. We also craned our necks upward at the peak of Cerro Chato, which like its sibling Arenal was topped with clouds. We wondered if the cloudless sky foretold a clear sky over the mountain, but we knew this was unlikely. Nevermind, the climb is what we were there for.

We have only begun to climb

Then, very suddenly, the farmland turned into thick, dark, misty forest. We had entered the national park part of the dormant volcano, and it was a world of difference. Suddenly the path consisted mostly of climbing up tree roots and artificial wooden steps, with not a single flat or nearly flat length of trail. There was very little winding either; this trail was unabashedly straight up the volcano, no fooling around. We pulled ourselves up using the trunks of moss covered trees, pushing up on our knees and being careful not to lose our footing on the mud. We took comfort in the knowledge that no raucous ATV could possibly follow us up there.

A very steep climb. Go ahead ATVs, give it your best shot

While we did not find any deadly poisonous snakes on our way up, we did pick up a little reptilian hitchhiker. Nick with his eagle eye spotted a very well camouflaged lizard on a tree, and deftly picked it up for a picture or two. Having gotten a good number of shots of it with the camera, we placed it on Steve's shirt where it resided on his shoulder like an epaulette. We got him to stay with us until after a while he jumped off onto another tree, probably having gotten tired of the bumpy ride.

Oh hi lizard

After some very intense climbing the path abruptly went right back down, steeper than on the way up. We had reached the top of the volcano, and now it was time to check out the inside. Carefully making our way down we shortly reached the center of the crater, all lined with trees and containing a big lake in the middle. Nick and I stripped to our bathing suits and slowly walked into the freezing water, looking up for some sign of a warm sun but the clouds were still there for the most part. Nonetheless he and I (I after being egged on a bit by the other two) submerged ourselves into the water and swam around, feeling energized while Steve stayed on the shore and caught all the action on camera. A couple laps later, we swam to shore and put back our clothes on, shook ourselves a bit warmer, and started to climb back out of the volcano as it was time to head out.

Nick recalls what it's like to be cold

Getting back down was a whole lot faster. We rapidly made our way down the side of the volcano, jumping over the roots and sliding down the mud. We passed several tourists, who to our bemusement had only climbed up the volcano and were already heading back down, having not gone in to see the center! We were told they didn't have enough time, as they were part of a bus of German tourists and it would be leaving shortly. We felt sorry for them, since they missed out on getting to see the lake and clouds rolling above it, but such is the downside of relying on fixed tours.

Scaling volcanoes is hungry work

It was midday when we drove back into the hostel to pick up George and Sherri for the ride back to San Jose. We gathered our things, sorted our laundry and paid our outstanding debts. As we were packing up the car, we noticed a row of photographers on the lawn of the hostel. We looked up and finally saw the top of Arenal, the first time the clouds had parted above that volcano since we had arrived. We lined up with the other photographers and got our own pictures of the good view before we drove off, heading back south.

Finally!

Arenal: Part 2

Early on the second day of our trip, we took our car right back up that decrepit dirt road to the park with the ziplines. The weather didn't look great, but the place looked good enough to warrent some risk of getting soaked. George and Nick both wanted to take the ziplines, but George opted not to given the cloud cover over the views, the likelihood of rain, and the extra cost and instead went with his parents and me on the long trail around the park.

For those of you who haven't experienced ziplines, they look like this.

Looks like madness to me

So the four of us left Nick in the lodge awaiting his turn riding precariously on those thin cables high above the treeline. To his credit, he appeared more excited than nervous.

The trail turned out pretty well, all things considered. It was well kept, such that even with the heavy rain there were few puddles and almost no muddy parts. The heavy rain came though, in torrential downpours, thoroughly souring George's experience at least. He desperately held his backpack over his head, managing to keep himself just a little bit less wet than if he had just taken it completely. George hate hate hatse to be cold and wet.

A thoroughly doused Saines family

We went on though, and got some amazing views regardless. There were several tall bridges along the way that looked over the forest and were suspended well above the trees and flowing rivers below. They bounced and rocked a bit as you walked across them, but even with my general dislike of heights I got used to them pretty quickly. As we walked we even got to see some people zip by us on the cables above our head, buzzing all the way. And when the rains came we sought shelter when we could, in a bathroom house halfway up the trail and at the end in a small butterfly garden (mariposario) filled with blue and red beauties.

Similarly awesome views as the ziplines, but without all that pesky going awesomely fast

When we returned to the lodge under another downpour, Nick was already waiting for us. He told us of his ziplining, which was as exciting and satisying as he could have wished for, incliment weather or no. We talked some more about our experiences at the park while we huddled around a table and ate our grocery food of breads, peanut butter, yogurt, cheese, fruits and cookies. Finally we packed up and headed for our next destination: the free hot springs of La Fortuna.

Now, there are lots of hot springs around the volcano, fueled by the activity in the earth, but most of them have big businesses built right on top of them selling their natural pools at $30 to $60 per day per person. This was completely unacceptable to us frugal travelers, but the night before we found a video online giving directions to a hot springs which had been partially developed before the company lost the rights to continue doing so in a court ruling. We knew this is where we had to go.

We followed the directions to an established hot springs location, parked, and walked down a little ways to a side road and found a nice steamy river running under a bridge, with already a half dozen people or so enjoying the warm water.

This river is powered by the Earth itself

We ended up staying for some time. It was just glorious. After getting all cold and wet from the hike that morning the hot springs was the perfect thing for it. We explored up and down, going as far as the people there would let us (too far down was dangerous, too far up was the business that had tried to build there previously). We chatted with the locals and the foreigners both, finding Ticos, Europeans, Americans and Canadians all enjoying the free, naturally hot river. We also raced down the underside of the bridge, the flat rock with hot flowing water over it making the perfect slide.

Satisfied with our day, we returned to the hostel, looking to the volcano still shrouded in clouds as we drove by it. We had ourselves a good pizza dinner in town and then returned, thoroughly exhausted, to our rooms. The next day looked like better weather, and we would have ourselves one more adventure in Arenal before we left.

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Photo creds:

http://www.adventuredrop.com/AdventureTypes-Zip-Lines.html
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Caribbean_and_Central_America/Costa_Rica/Provincia_de_Alajuela/Fortuna-1649998/Off_the_Beaten_Path-Fortuna-TG-C-1.html

Tsunami

I woke up this morning to an email from George's dad, Steve, suggesting we stick to the pool for the day and avoid the beach, seeing as Japan was struck with an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and we'd likely be seeing big waves up and down the west coast.

My first thought was to tell Nick and George when they woke up, since we were all planning to go to the beach that morning as it so happened. Then I wondered, would it really be a good idea to inform them?

My fears were confirmed when they both went wide eyed with glee, wanting to see immense waves coming crashing down on the beaches for themselves. George at least figured we should get at the top of our mountain and watch from there, but Nick I'm not sure where he would have wanted to go.

But Nick did some research while I made breakfast and it looks like based on prediction models, Mexico is basically sheltering the whole country and we're liable to not see much of anything here. George immediately became glum, having had the anticipation and excitement of seeing massive natural destructive force first hand taken away from him almost immediately upon receiving it. Don't worry George, you may yet live to see Yellowstone blow up.

So never worry parental types. None of us will be swimming at the beach today.

Cupcake Eating Competition

Since I had a bit of a lull during and before the Arenal trip, I figure now's a good time to do a bonus post to bring my average back up. More Arenal posts to come!

So way back in the beginning of January when we were still in the winter throes of Oberlin OH, Nick, George and I had a ridiculous cupcake eating competition for some reason. George has the full story and some pics here:

http://egreogsplace.blogspot.com/2011/01/cupcake-eating-competition.html

I finally got around to editing the video footage that was taken that fateful day, so here for all to see is the sound defeating George and I sustained.

Arenal: Part 1

For the last few days of George's parents' stay, we all took a car trip to the northern part of the country in search of some serious hiking and adventure. We opted to go see Arenal, an active volcano, surrounded by other mountains, sunny skies, cities, ziplines and oodles of challenging trails all around. Or so we imagined! As is usual during travel, reality did not quite match up with expectations, but in the end we had more than our fair share of satisfying adventures.

Our first realization was that the dry season in Arenal is not really very dry. We drove in through raging downpours and super thick fog. Add in the winding roads of the mountains, the plethora of freight bearing trucks and the rather hectic driving of the locals, and we had a bit of a harrowing drive. Driving in Costa Rica is not for the faint of heart. And the inclement weather would dog us for the rest of our stay, but really what could we expect, being in the rainforest? The cloud forest, no less.

In the mid-afternoon we pulled into the Cabanas Josipek for our first night, settling into a cozy wooden cabin with two bedrooms and a small kitchen. Grocery store food and guidebooks in hand, we dined and plotted out the next day as the rain came down heavily outside.

The official greeter at Cabanas Josipek

The first day was spent exploring the area in the car, searching for the best things to do. We checked out La Fortuna, the town at the base of Arenal. We drove over to and around the volcano and up the dirt road to where all the interesting stuff appeared to be. Going up that road was intense, though. George sensibly implored his father to go slower and avoid the massive number of potholes, while Nick and I childishly and eagerly urged him to see what our four wheel rental vehicle could do. Steve went as fast as his parental druthers allowed.

Wanting to get some hiking in that day, we pulled off the dirt road into the Arenal National Park, where we were immediately accosted at the entrance by a native with some seriously rapid patter. Steve stared out the window of the car trying to absorb as much of the information as he could while the rest of us just kind of gave each other bemused looks, asking aloud what he was saying and shaking our heads, unable to comprehend. We eventually realized he was trying to sell us guided services, but we were having none of it. We paid the entrance fee (kind of grudgingly, being used to free American trails) and set out to see the volcano.

Cloud forest indeed

It didn't take us long to get to the end of the trail, to our chagrin. We were greeted with a sign warning of an active volcanic area ahead, but we also learned that the volcano had been entirely dormant for the last four months and was unlikely to show us any fireworks during our stay. We stared up at volcano Arenal before us, or at least as much as we could see. Clouds were pretty much settled permanently on the upper half of the volcano, shielding it from view from every angle. We considered striking out on our own into the trees, climbing up as far as we could so we could quench our thirst for adventure, but in the end decided to try and come at the volcano from another angle through another trail. Defeated, we retreated back to our car, taking a muddy alternative route back and had some lunch at the car in the state park parking lot and getting rained upon along the way.

Nick did get to climb this sweet tree on the way out though

We did some more driving around after that, browsing the other activities available in the area up that dirt road. We talked with a guy at the entrance of another trail, who explained to us that there hadn't really been a dry season for some time around Arenal, and this kind of foggy, rainy weather was pretty typical even for February or March. Given our experience with the national park and its muddy, short and unchallenging trails, this did not bode well for our hiking plans.

We returned to town and settled into the Arenal Backpacker's Hostel, having decided to try a cheaper option for the remainder of our stay. After some dinner and ice cream in La Fortuna we got together in Steve and Sherri's room to deliberate some more over weather reports, guidebooks and Google searches trying to figure out what to do. Were there better trails than the National Park? How muddy and rainy would they be? The weather looked like it would clear up later in the week, but would the trails dry up by then? And how much were we willing to spend on all this, given that everything seemed to have a cost? We pondered these questions and considered going elsewhere in Costa Rica for our fun, but in the end decided there was enough promise to give it at least another full day. And so we retired for the night, going to our dorms and bedrooms and hoping for some sun the next day.