This past week, our family took one last vacation here in Costa Rica... a trip to the Pacific Coast. The trip was planned to help us see yet another province (we've all been studying the seven provinces in 3rd grade Social Studies) and also to visit Carara National Park (the subject of Gracie's first trabajo extra-clase - also for Social Studies). What we didn't realize until we were on our way back to Turrialba was that the trip also helped us complete a full tour of the country - having gone from the Panama border in the south all the way to the Nicaragua border in the north, and from the Caribbean coast on the east to the Pacific coast in the west.
When I've planned vacations before, there has always been a certain amount of anticipation and excitement. There is the waiting - wanting the time of adventure, or rest and relaxation, to arrive as quickly as possible. And there was definitely excitement and waiting involved with this vacation. But perhaps more impressive than the waiting, was the wading. Webster defines wading as moving or proceeding with difficulty or labor - and I would say that we had to wade through each and every leg of our journey - and we have the pictures to prove it!
We started out on Sunday morning driving (in our wonderful rental car - no buses this time!) through fog as thick as pea soup, up and over the highest mountain range in the country. We tried not to cringe as we passed the Cerro de la Muerte (Death Peak) - and even got out of the car for a family picture at the top.
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| Freezing at the top of Cerro de la Muerte |
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The temperature difference from the top of the pass to the bottom was a whopping 20 degrees Celsius! We reached the coast, then turned south and headed down to the area near Parque Nacional Marino Ballena. Our hope had been to see whales during their annual migration, but we were off by about 2 months. There was still plenty to see and do though, so we made our way to the beach at the National Park. We may not have seen real whales, but there is an amazing spit of land shaped like a whale tale sticking out into the ocean that we were able to reach by slogging our way through the competing currents. And frankly, playing on the beach in the late afternoon is still one of the best activities ever.
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| Wading out to the Whale Tale |
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The next day we spent the early morning wandering through the trails of the private forest on the hotel grounds. Then we headed about 5k up the road to a fabulous waterfall. We trekked across the river on slippery rocks to reach the crystal clear pools where we spent several hours playing and relaxing. A delicious lunch and delightful conversation with the owners of the little restaurant at the top of the falls was a great way to end the adventure.
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| Crossing the river to get to the waterfall |
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Day three we checked out of hotel number one and drove up the coast to hotel number two - near Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio. In all honesty, Greg and I were dreading this part of the trip. We had heard some really unfortunate things about the park and the area - lots of crime, lots of tourists, high prices, no animals, and out of control development of a naturally beautiful paradise. What we discovered was far less horrible than we had anticipated. In fact, we found most of it charming. The park itself, for example, is still undeveloped - so undeveloped that the entrance is unmarked and hidden down an alleyway (unless, of course, you choose to enter the back way by wading through the estuary - which we did on exiting). Undeveloped does not mean uncrowded, though, and we did have to share the beach with many other tourists - but people seemed so happy to be enjoying the waves and the monkeys stealing crackers from towels on the beach that we could hardly complain. We even managed to see an Aracari (a small relative of the toucan), a mother monkey carrying a baby that couldn't have been more than a few days old, and a three-toed sloth.
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| The beach at Manuel Antonio |
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| Crossing the estuary to exit Manuel Antonio |
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The other thing we found was that the service we received was fantastic. Our hotel (Mono Azul - the Blue Monkey) is a typical little hotel with pools, a restaurant, and a reception desk. But it also hosts the Kids Saving the Rainforest gift shop - and consequently many youth groups who come on service trips. The teens added a really fun energy to the place, and the staff were obviously enjoying their work. One staff member set up a tour for us to go see Carara National Park with a local guide on day four. We drove an hour and a half to the park entrance, then stopped to change into knee high rubber boots because the park rangers said things were a bit wet.
It is nearly impossible to describe this experience without it sounding like a scene from a movie or novel. But really - it was a genuine jungle trek (oh yeah, with three small kids). The trail was muddy from the first step, and partway through we were literally wading in water up to the edge of our boots (trying not to gag on the smell of rotting dates). Within 100 yards of the entrance we were unable to stand still without being mobbed by mosquitoes, yet we had to stand still time and again to stop and see the amazing wildlife. At one point we watched a capuchin monkey (one of a large troop in the treetops) throwing dates down at the head of a coati who was calmly eating the seeds on the ground.
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| Wading through the muck at Carara National Park |
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| The mischievous monkey throwing dates |
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| The coati on the ground - mischievous monkey's target |
Later on we had to stop James from accidentally stepping on one of the many black iguanas littering the trail. We heard the ugly cry and then witnessed the soaring majesty of the scarlet macaws - and then heard the beautiful song of the plain little gray-collared robin. We saw a blob of tree frog eggs hanging off the tip of a leaf over a puddle filled with tadpoles and delicious bugs. And we saw a crocodile hanging out in a lagoon that only two weeks ago was just some grassy land. We also saw poison caterpillars and the incredibly elusive orange-collared manakin (that even made the guide giddy!). When we got back to the car we were filthy, bug-bitten, blistered, hot and exhausted... but extremely happy. All Social Studies projects should come with such a cool field-work component!
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| The iguana James almost stepped on |
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| The magnificent scarlet macaw |
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| Glass Frog eggs |
As if all that weren't enough - we then drove down the highway about 2 kilometers to the infamous Crocodile Bridge and watched about twelve 15-20 foot long crocodiles swimming around in the Tarcoles River. The combination of high speed traffic zipping by, being on a tall bridge, and looking over to see giant man-eating reptiles was more than we could take for very long - and we happily climbed back in the car for the 90 minute drive back to the hotel.
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| A crocodile on the bank of the Rio Tarcoles |
Day five was supposed to be an uneventful drive back down the coast and over the mountain pass. Naturally, car-sickness overpowered the dramamine and required a stop on the side of the road - at which point we accidentally slammed Maggie's fingers in the car door. Luckily, we were stopped right in front of a house - and the lovely family provided us with a plastic bag, a bowl of ice, and plenty of smiles and good wishes as we wearily got back into the car to continue the drive. It took far longer than we'd hoped, and made us all more queasy than we'd hoped, but thankfully there was no lasting damage (even to Maggie's fingers!) and we made it back to Turrialba safe and sound.
We didn't realize as we were planning this vacation that it would be quite so exhausting and complicated - or rewarding. We were waiting for some regular old rest and relaxation. But the effort of wading through each leg of the journey produced yet another chapter in our border to border and coast to coast adventure.
