Gliding through the Rain Forest

iguana a.k.a. "tree chicken

Donna relaxes outside our condo.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Day two in Costa Rica

Today we were able to relax in the morning as our tour van was not scheduled to pick us up until almost 11:00 am. We had another continental breakfast which we enjoyed very much. The fresh tropical fruit plate was excellent. Along with a slice of toast and coffee, we were ready to explore.

While waiting for our tour, we walked around the grounds of this lovely hotel as we had not had a chance to do so as of yet. We also walked on the beach and watched the surfers riding the big waves in front of our hotel.

Today Kari had scheduled us to visit the Rain Forest and it was very lush and lovely. The van trip was short and we arrived at the park where we were met by a park guide named Ronald. Not the typical Spanish name! We were the only two on this tour with the guide so it was very personal. First we boarded the aerial tram which travels over the top of the Rain Forest. Ronald explained about all of the plants and the few animals that we saw in the trees as we rose about the forest at the top of the mountain. It was interesting to learn about the foliage but we didn’t see many animals from the tram.

After the tram ride of about 45 minutes, Ronald took us on a walk through the grounds for about an hour. He took us to the serpentarium which had many varieties of snakes, all alive and all in glass cages thank goodness. At each stop, he explained which were venomous and which were not and told us about their native Costa Rican habitat. He also shared more information on the plant life as we wandered through the area. This was very educational for us.

We left the park and asked the van driver if he could drop us off in the town of Joca instead of our hotel. He did not speak English but we asked him in Spanish and were glad that he understood where we wanted to go. We walked around the town and found it to be no different than any other tacky, surfer, tourist town. Nothing changes in these beach towns regardless of the country we are in.

After lunch at a bar, we decided to walk back to our hotel. We checked our hiking GPS that we always take with us when we are traveling; and realized that the walk back was only about 1 ½ miles so that would be easy. We had been told that the best way to get around the area was via the beach as the highway is very busy with no walking area on the shoulder.

Just as we began our town and beach walk, the daily thunder storm began. There was lots of thunder and lightning again over the surrounding mountains but only a light rain this time, unlike yesterday’s downpour. We decided that it wouldn’t hurt to walk in the rain so we did that and enjoyed the beach in the rain.

We got back and showered and washed our wet and sticky, sandy clothes as there was a washer and dryer in our condo. It will be nice to start the cruise tomorrow with all clean clothes. We had purchased a bread at the local panaderia which we had as our our dinner in the condo. We had to smile as this was what we call a 'french bread' but in this bakery shop they listed it as 'American bread'.

Later the skies cleared and as the sun was setting, we heard the beautiful sounds of guitar music coming from the beach. We wandered down to enjoy the source of these melodic sounds coming from a wedding being held on our hotel beach. We watched the ceremony for about one hour and it reminded us of two beach weddings that are so close to our hearts. One was our daughter Kari and son-in-law Jim’s on the beach in Mexico and the other was our niece Catherine and her partner Sarah’s wedding on Cape Cod.

Lovely memories to end another lovely day together. Another day of Pura Vida in the paradise of Costa Rica.

enjoying the view from the tram