Costa Rica - Day Five

Our fifth day on tour was largely a travel day - I guess kind of a low key way to start out 2008. After breakfast at our lodge, I set out with my camera to take some quick shots of the property - mostly birds and flowers. There were some beautiful ginger plants, as well as some orchid-related flowers whose name I've forgotten that I particularly wanted to get photos of. We then loaded up into the bigger boats to journey out of Tortuguero, going to Cano Blanco (the other of the two departure points). The boat ride was largely intended to be transportational, so we spent most of the time initially just speeding along. However, at one point we stopped off at a ranger station, where apparently our pilot's brother worked, and they told our guide that if we went upriver a bit, we'd see some crocodiles. This was an interesting area, because it was where the river fed out into the Caribbean, and you could see waves crashing at the mouth of the river in the distance. We didn't go all the way, but not that far from the station, we found three large crocodiles sunning themselves along the bank. These were fascinating, really huge and completely immobile, although their eyes looked to be open. Our guide told us to keep our voices down so we wouldn't arouse the crocodiles. We kept probably about 20 ft away (no nosing right up to the bank in front of them this time!) and had ample opportunity to snap photos, and stare at all three crocs. Rather amusingly, one of our tour members suddenly noticed a little green lizard crawling right on one of the crocodile's back - darting up its body and then just hanging out by the ridge along its back. Given how thick a crocodile's skin is, it probably never felt a thing, but it was interesting to see how bold the lizard was. Looking at my photos later, I actually notice at least one or two other lizards, also hanging out in the croc's vicinity.

Continuing on, we came to a marshy area that was apparently quite shallow - some of the time, boats couldn't even pass since they'd just ground themselves. We went through this area quite slowly, giving us a good chance at spotting a number of birds striding along the water's edge, like the black-necked stilt. At first we were quite excited to see the snowy egrets, which are white and elegant looking, but as we motored along, we discovered that there was a snowy egret standing at regular intervals along the bank for miles and miles, each staking out its spot to fish - far more common than we'd realized. We passed a clump of I think recently fallen tree (unless it was a tree growing from the middle of the river) on which perched a flock of cormorants, one of which chose to show itself off to us (or just felt threatened by us). The guide was rather excited to point out the roseate spoonbill, a bird with an oddly shaped bill that derives its pink color from the crustaceans/shrimp it eats. It was interesting watching its fishing techniques - the snowy egrets mostly seemed to just stare intently into the water until they spotted something, and then would quickly duck their heads in and snap at their prey. The spoonbill walked through the water, swinging its head from side to side in an effort to find its prey (according to the Lonely Planet, it's stirring up the bottom with its feet, and fishes by feel, snapping when it feels something on its bill). As we got closer to Cano Blanco, we started to see a number of large herds of cattle, grazing along the land at each side of the river, bound onto their land primarily by the water. It was quite a picturesque setting for cattle. We also saw a number of what were ubiquitous all around the countryside - cattle egret, white birds that hung out around cattle and horses. Apparently they feed on the insects the large animals disturb, so almost every cow or horse we saw had a number of egrets hanging out nearby, some even sitting on the cow.

Eventually, we reached Cano Blanco where Marcos and our bus were waiting for us. After the inevitable restroom stop, we all loaded back onto our bus (first A/C in days) and set off down the bumpy gravel road back to the highway. Did I mention that the roads from the highway to the ports for the Tortuguero region were all unpaved? As we went, we passed through banana plantations again, and at one point passed an empty processing facility - this one might have been for Dole, I don't quite remember. Sergio explained that usually, we'd get a tour of one of the banana plants, but since it was New Year's Day, the plant was not operational as all the workers got the day off. As we continued, he pointed out a little village of identical houses which he said was the provided housing for banana plantation workers and their families. The ride back to the highway took quite a while, but eventually, we were back on paved roads and headed for the same restaurant we'd had lunch at on the way in, for lunch on the way out. At this lunch, we had the opportunity to try the cassava root in its more natural form - just as a chunk of tuber - which wasn't nearly as tasty or as interesting as the fried in honey version we'd had the day before at Laguna Lodge. We also got some fried plantains, which we liked going into the trip, and were happy to get while on the trip.

Back into the bus for an hour until we stopped at the Selva Verde Rainforest Reserve, to check out a 300-ft suspension bridge. Our bus driver executed a very impressive feat, swinging around quickly and backing the huge bus into a very narrow space with utter confidence and no hesitation. We were all kind of impressed. However, the reserve proved to be a rather disappointing stop, as the bridge wasn't very high, and just went over a fairly small river. Plus, it was gated off on the other side since it was a protected research center, so we could only go onto the bridge and then turn around and come back. And we could only go on the bridge a dozen at a time, so we spent a lot of time waiting to go on this rather lame bridge. On the other hand, while we were waiting we did get to check out a green poison dart frog that one of the reserve workers had found for us and was holding in his hand to show us. Apparently poison dart frogs give off a toxin on their skin, but you're really only at risk if you have an open wound. I tried to make my most of my time on the bridge, 'cause I kind of enjoy suspension bridge, bouncing up and down a bit and taking a photo of the rushing water under the bridge. We ended up spending the remainder of our time in the gift shop, where I once again eyed a bunch of wood products before impulsively buying a $4 bracelet comprised of various types of wood that was really quite pretty. We reached the time we were supposed to leave while I was still trying to check out, and Sergio tried to hurry us out, but then my dad came to tell us that there was a toucan by the cafe, so of course we all had to rush over there. It turned out to be a collared aracari, a smaller species of toucan, sitting on a feeder, gulping down bananas. That was quite neat to see. Poor Sergio had a particularly hard time getting everyone moving - usually everyone was quite good about getting on the bus on time but this time people were just sitting around chatting (and not even with the toucan as an excuse) and it took him a while to get us moving.

My guess is no one was in a rush to get back on the bus because everyone knew that the only thing remaining on our schedule for the day was a couple more hours on the bus, before arriving at our next hotel in Fortuna by the Arenal Volcano. In fact, I think that's why we stopped at the suspension bridge - to break up the monotony of the drive, provide a restroom break, and give us some kind of activity on essentially a transit day that wouldn't take too long. We drove through a number of cities and towns of Costa Rica, though I can't recall which right now. Eventually we wound up in Fortuna, a popular tourist destination and a cute little town. We drove through the town and then up a gravel, unpaved road to our hotel, the Lomas Del Volcan. The hotel may have been a bit of a distance from the town, but it ended up being one of our favorite places to stay. It was comprised of a series of cute little bungalows dotting the hillside, each a 1 bed/1 bath little house (with two queen beds) with a front porch and a good-sized back porch facing the volcano. Each porch had a table, chairs, a little fridge, and a coffee maker. The views of the volcano would have been amazing - if the volcano was able to be seen. Arenal Volcano is an active volcano with a regular lava flow, periodic explosions, and ash columns. They claim that sometimes you can see red-hot rocks flying through the air and lava shooting up from time to time, and that the lava flows pretty regularly and is visible at night. Despite the fact that these eruptions occasionally do kill people, a whole tourist industry has sprung up around the Parque Nacional Volcan Arenal with hotels, towns, and various expeditions all profiting from their proximity to this stunning natural wonder. The only problem is, the Arenal Volcano is only visible about 30% of the time, due to cloud cover. It was just our luck that practically the entire time we were in the Arenal area, it was raining and cloudy, so we mostly saw a dense cloud that didn't even give a hint that there was something underneath in the direction of the volcano. Also, apparently the best views of the lava flow were actually on the other side of the volcano. On the positive side, the hotel grounds were beautiful, with lots of flowers and plants and beautiful landscaping between the bungalows.

After settling into our room, my bf and I went up to check out my family's bungalow, and we spent some time hanging out on their porch until one of the other couples on tour came to visit my parents. At that point, my sister, my bf and I kind of wandered away, back to our bungalow, where we broke out a new game - My Word - and started playing on the table on our porch. The game is essentially a deck of cards with single or double letters on them, and you have to try to construct words using at least three cards - as the cards get flipped out, people call out words and the first to call one gets to take the cards. At the end of the deck, you see who has the biggest pile. After a while, my bf wandered away from the game (my sister and I are readers, he's not), and my parents came by to visit and joined in the game. Eventually it was dinner time, so we walked down to the restaurant to eat. The food at Lomas Del Volcan ended up being some of the tastiest of the various hotel buffets. It was very simple - just about 6 bins of food, a small salad, and a chef who would cook up pasta or an omelet (depending on the meal) on a couple burners - but quite satisfying. The food would also prove to be fairly authentic Costa Rican food, and not just an Italian or Spanish imitation or whatever. I'll explain how we figured that out later. The restaurant was open so you could look out at the volcano.

One of my dilemmas for this day had been that I really wanted to try ziplining in Costa Rica, because I'd heard so much about it and it seemed Costa Rica was the place to do it. The trouble is, it seemed the famous ziplining places were either in Monteverde or the Arenal Volcano area. We were only going to be passing through Monteverde and barely stopping, while in Arenal, we'd gotten in too late to go ziplining this day, and the next day was fully booked with some fairly interesting sounding excursions. We weren't the only ones who wanted to zipline, and we weren't the only ones who realized that Arenal was one of our few opportunities to try it. A whole contingent of tour group members had already decided to skip the next day's expedition to Cano Negro to go ziplining, and we were debating whether or not to join them. The morning's expedition was a 4 hour roundtrip to a bird preserve that was supposed to be one of the very best places to go birding and see a great concentration of rare birds and animals, and involved another boat tour, which you know I love. However, after talking to Sergio, we were reassured that while it's a nice place, Cano Negro wouldn't offer much different wildlife than what we'd seen in Tortuguero, so we wouldn't necessarily be missing anything new. That, coupled with the really long bus ride to get there and back, decided us. However, instead of signing on for the ziplining tour offered by the hotel at a nearby location, we decided if we were going to do it, we wanted to do it right, and go to SkyTrek, a ziplining company I'd researched before leaving the US. SkyTrek offered a tram up to the ziplines, and then a series of the longest, highest ziplines out there. They also had a great record and got great reviews as a rather thrilling adventure.

I should clarify something, though - my bf and my sister are both scared of heights. In my bf's case, terror would probably be closer to the right description. They both had serious issues with the idea of ziplining, but somehow both decided to give it a try while all the time telling me I was crazy for wanting to do it. Ironically, it was my bf who insisted that if he was going to do such a crazy thing, he wanted to do it "right" and go to SkyTrek instead of something lamer and tamer. The fact that some of the older people on tour were doing the hotel one in particular decided him. The four of us (including another guy who'd started hanging out with us initially since his parents kept hanging out with my parents and eventually b/c we got along well) arranged for our own trip out to SkyTrek. It was going to be more expensive - $66/adult, $52/student, and $8/person for transportation - but they'd send a van out to get us in the morning, and it promised to be a cool trip. Because SkyTrek is very popular, we weren't able to get a reasonable mid-morning time and the late-morning times would make us miss our next activity, so we ended up booking a 7:30AM excursion with the van coming by to pick us up at 7AM. Time for bed!