Pura Vida

Happy Father's Day!!  Breakfast at Hotel Grano de Oro

is a brilliant marketing slogan, Dana determined early on in our trip.  Something like Hawaii's "aloha," the phrase is used as a wish for good tidings (we were sent off on our first zipline above the cloud forest, with an emphatic "Pura Vida!"), as well as a ubiquitous t-shirt decoration.  As slogans go, let's face it, it's rather catchy!  So, after all of our exertion, hiking up steep trails and zip lining across the "longest cables in Latin America," I was more than ready to find the pura vida that exists at the bottom of a glass of jugo pina (my favorite, especially when mixed with mango - who knew?), in the pages of the latest book I'm reading (for me, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, for Daniel, Endangered, for Maddie, Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, and, for Dana, A Visit from the Good Squad), and in the cool water of the pool.

We did venture out long enough to visit Si Como No's butterfly garden, which is housed in a wildlife preserve they maintain just across the road from the resort.  This is one of the community projects that helped earn them such kudos for their environmental awareness.  As guests at the resort, we were entitled to visit for free, though there was not another soul in sight, so I'm certain we could have wandered in off the street and nobody would have been the wiser.  We took a brief trek to the butterfly enclosure, which is surrounded by all manner of other trails, which I'm sure would be interesting to explore if accompanied by a guide.

We followed our visit to the butterfly garden with lunch at a nearby restaurant, then headed off on the mangrove tour we had swapped for our white water adventure.   Daniel was understandably disappointed that he traded another exhilarating adventure for a "bird watching" tour, but they were some lovely birds! (and crocodiles, and bats, and iguanas), and the relaxing boat ride was just what Maddie, who is still dealing with an ill-timed cold, needed.

The largest heron around; he can stand in much deeper water than his brethren

A baby crocodile, first spotted by Maddie (though Daniel insists he saw it first!)

lots of birds in flight - quite lovely really

these are tiny bats on the trunk of the tree, though they're mighty hard to see

This iguana was hiding until we passed.  Love how he peeks over the branch to see if we're still there! :)

Maddie taking in all of those mangrove roots; we now know more about mangroves than we thought possible.

The tour ended to another tremendous rainstorm, which kept us room bound, playing a fun new game called "Heads Up."  Get the app - you won't regret it! :) Heads Up Review (made famous by Ellen)

Luckily, we woke to our final morning at Si Como No to more perfect weather.  We enjoyed one last morning poolside, then packed up for our trip back to San Jose, a return to Hotel Grano de Oro, and a trip into a wild downtown for a delicious pre-Father's Day dinner at a local haunt.  As I write this final post, we have just a couple of hours before our transportation will take us to the airport and we will begin our trip home.

Happy Father's Day, and, of course, Pura Vida!  Thank you for sharing our trip with us.

Views from our balcony.  I would return to Si Como No in a second!!!

and another view from the outdoor lobby

Si Como No

A view of Si Como No from the El Avion (the restaurant around the bend)

Is the name of our Manuel Antonio resort, and we fell in love with the idea of it long before we fell in love with the actual resort.  What a clever name for a resort located in the land of Pura Vida.  Owned by a man from California, Si Como No (roughly translated as "yes, why not?") was one of the first and most successful of the eco-lodges in Costa Rica.  These hotels earn special ratings for their sensitivity to the environment, which includes everything from their housekeeping practices to the way they "give back" to the community. 

Regardless, "Si como no" has definitely been our mantra this past week, as we embarked on difficult hikes, wild zip line rides and dining on comida tipica (the favorite saying here, though none of us quite "gets" why advertising your food as "typical" should make it seem particularly alluring).

We have been relaxing at the resort now for just about a day and a half.  I write this blog at 6:30 on Friday morning.  We took the long and bumpy ride from Monteverde to Manuel Antonio on Wednesday morning, arriving here at nearly 1:00, at which point we ate lunch overlooking the Pacific ocean, took a quick swim, then settled into our room as a massive rain storm came through that lasted the entire afternoon and night.  Since this is the third of our resorts without a television (something that is more wonderful in practice than I ever would have anticipated :), we all settled in with our books.  Maddie and I finished off The Art of Racing in the Rain, and we made our way (with the umbrellas they provide) to the on site seafood restaurant for dinner.  Since Maddie was developing a cold, and my stomach was off (from the bumpy drive or something else, I wasn't sure), we decided to exchange our early morning "difficult" white water rafting tour for a Friday afternoon "easy" mangrove boat tour.  What a great decision that was!

More congos in the trees on the way from Monteverde to Manuel Antonio

This was a playful and aggressive group; here one is about to launch a surprise attack

 

Their sounds were particularly fascinating :)

 

 

(Daniel feeds the iguana a banana)

We woke yesterday morning to a glorious sunny day, and we were actually able to enjoy it from lounge chairs and hot tubs!!  We even got to interact with wild life, as a HUGE iguana decided to park himself right next to our lounge chairs.  We only ventured out at 2:00 to take the shuttle to the Manuel Antonio park, where we enjoyed (for too short a time, as the park closes at 4:00!) a secluded beach and witnessed a sloth in action (well, "action" might be overstating it, but he moved enough for us to see him as something other than a giant ball in the tree, which is the usual sloth sighting).  The shuttle driver dropped us off at El Avion, a restaurant recommended by our good friend, Brian (who, you'll remember, we met on our zip lining excursion), where we enjoyed good food and a glorious sunset - and a view of Si Como No, just up the road/coast.

Daniel performing a magic trick in front of our "villa"

 

 

Enjoying "diez minutos mas" at la playa at Manuel Antonio National Park

The sloth making his move in the tree above

The kids in front of el avion that earns the restaurant its name

All in all - a perfect day.

Unexpected Pleasures

While we knew Monday would be a driving day, and we had read that roads in Costa Rica could be "rough," we certainly weren't expecting the trip from Arenal to Monteverde.   Within the first five minutes of being picked up by Miner (or Minor? should have asked for him to spell it! ;), we had pulled over to see a Toucan atop a tree alongside the side of the road. 

Not 30 minutes later, he pulled over again, asking if I'd like to photograph some Congo (as he called them) monkeys in the trees.  Umm... YEAH!!!  As Maddie pointed out, we had seen only a tarantula and leaf cutter ants in the rainforest, but here we had seen a toucan and a half dozen howler monkeys on our drive from one place to another.  This was starting out as one spectacular drive!

Upside down grabbing for fruit

Finally saying hello to me :)

Relaxing as his monkey friends scurried about

Once we had gone over the mountain and started heading into Monteverde, I spotted another six monkeys in various trees (as I decided to become an expert monkey spotter!) and then we passed one finca after another (with names such as Finca de cielo), saw dozens of birds of paradise lining the street, had to stop for a herd of cattle crossing the way, and, ultimately, hit the infamous "bad" road - a rocky, unpaved nightmare that is about 40 miles long but takes about 1 1/2 hours to drive.  Our driver recommended that we enjoy the "free massage," and we actually did start getting used to it after about 30 minutes.

The scenery, dotted with cows and horses, for much of our drive.

We arrived to our wonderful Monteverde Lodge and Gardens at approximately 1:00, with just enough time to eat lunch before we were to be picked up and taken on our zip lining tour.  By the time we arrived (after driving another 20 minutes on those rocky, unpaved roads!) at Aventura 100% Adventure tours to be suited up and given our instructions for a safe adventure, it started raining.  Hard.  The guides assured us that they would cancel the tour if the lightning was too close (as you don't want to be zipping along a metal cable when lightning strikes) but the cables would be even slicker (and quicker!) if it were just raining.  Luckily, they also gave us the opportunity to opt to reschedule, which we (along with the other four members of our party) did.  We returned to our lovely lodge, where we enjoyed the hot tub (housed in a solarium), the dining room (where they have these cool candles, that have been melting approximately one year and eight months) and practiced our Spanish, talking with some incredibly friendly people.

This morning, we met up with Josh and Brian, our new friends from the previous rained out afternoon, and headed off for a couple of hours flying through the air.  While we each had different favorite experiences, we all loved the day.  It's always fun to cross an item off your bucket list you never knew was there.

While we all zip lined and did the Superman position (which I found particularly horrifying, as you have NO CONTROL of your speed or your "landing"), Brian and I opted to take photos and video while our more intrepid family members did the Tarzan swing.  As you can hear in these videos,I was more than a little astonished at how calm Maddie and Daniel were as they plunged off the high platform, as first you must free fall before you may Tarzan swing.  Dana more than made up for their quiet calm reactions, when he jumped just minutes later (though my memory card filled just as Daniel jumped :( so Maddie had to capture Dana's leap on her iPhone)

While we waited for our transportation to take us back to Santa Ana, the little town in Monteverde, we exchanged Facebook information with our new pals, and watched a dozen beautiful hummingbirds float around the deck where we were waiting.

Once in town, we had lunch in a restaurant in a treehouse (named The Treehouse) and hopped on a 2 hour coffee and chocolate tour of the Don Juan grounds.  While touring the grounds, we got to witness each stage of the process, slathering on cocoa butter oil, grounding coffee beans (old school), and tasting chocolate in its various forms.  We even got to meet Don Juan, 75 and the patriarch of a huge family, which includes six great grandchildren!

"Home" to our lovely lodge, the boys once again hit the hot tub, while Maddie and I read our books and relaxed.  We just finished dinner at the lovely Trio, and are now packing up for our final trip over the bumpy roads surrounding Monteverde.  Our next - and last - stop is Manuel Antonio, and we're all eager for some time relaxing on the beach after three days of hiking (albeit with some thrilling rides and sights in between each hike).

Still, I have to say that the promises posted all over the country of the "true Costa Rica" seem to be most fully realized right here, in this wonderful, incredibly difficult to reach cloud forest.  Pura Vida, indeed.

"Hell and Gone from Cartagena"

and other favorite quotes from Romancing the Stone have been playing through my mind these past two days, as we've driven and hiked into some of the most lush forests I've ever seen.  Much like "ze Joan Wilder," I sometimes feel ill equipped for the journey ahead.  Wrong shoes and wrong clothes (well, not wrong exactly, but not the most comfortable), we headed into the rain forest yesterday morning for a trek through and on the famed "hanging bridges" of Costa Rica.

A truly brilliant idea was born when the government became far more protective of its natural resources and no longer allowed logging or building in some of these amazing parts of the country.  Since the owner of the land still wanted to turn a profit, he turned to eco-tourism.   What if we built suspension bridges throughout the rain forest that would allow people to walk up among the tree tops rather than only giving them access to the bottom of the forest, someone wondered.  And, as Field of Dreams taught us so many years ago, "if you build it, they will come."  Tourists from all over the world have done just that.

Of course, it should be rather obvious that in order to cross bridges at that height, you must first hike up the trails to arrive at each bridge.  Our first hike of the day lasted about two hours, and while we didn't see monkeys (though we heard them; a howler monkey's howl can be heard from 3 miles away), we did see poison dart frogs, leaf cutter ants preserving their colony, and a tarantula (my skin crawls just typing that word).  The rain forest was beautiful, and our guide, who would stay with us all day, was wonderful.  He took English in school but has learned to communicate so effectively primarily by working with tourists like us.

Looking up at the start of one of the suspension bridges

This tree has one of two types of root systems present in the rain forest

The poison red dart frog; we were assured that the poison in the Costa Rican variety can only make a human being very sick, but it will not kill us :)  Same for the tarantula.  So comforting!

The "leaf cutters" (look like fire ants to me!) busily at work

The bridges would sway as we walked over them; another Romancing the Stone moment for me!

Looking down (Maddie's feet :)

A look up at one of the oldest trees in the rain forest

Our view from the highest of the suspension bridges

Maddie and Daniel take it all in

A wild parrot just hanging out in the parking lot as we got ready to leave.

Next stop on our "4 in 1" adventure (which seemed like a capital idea as we sat in our dining room in Hollywood, but we quickly realized we had taken on more than we had anticipated!) was a trip to the Fortuna waterfall.  Everyone else on our first tour was returned to their hotels, and off we went to the waterfall.  When we realized we would have little more than an hour to hike to the pool at the bottom and then hike back UP, with no time to actually swim in it, Maddie and I wisely decided to enjoy the view from the convenient viewing area.  The intrepid boys, however, decided to make the trek.  When they returned just about an hour later, Dana was cursing the decision (though he did take a couple of lovely photos of some of the bathing beauties at the base of the waterfall :) as well as one of his exhausted but proud son, which I will share below.

The Fortuna waterfall - my view

The Fortuna waterfall - Dana's view

 Next was lunch in Fortuna, where frothy fruit drinks were brought to our table, and we were able to rest up for the next big hike ahead.  The third item on our day's agenda was a hike up to a ridge created by the lava that destroyed most of the area on the other side of the volcano (not so "fortuna" were they, thus the town on the OTHER side of the volcano earned its name).  Even though no new lava has spewed out of the volcano since 2011, this is still the closest anyone is permitted to get lest she gets testy again.  Unlike a volcano in Hawaii, where the "river" of lava flows, this volcano blows volcanic rocks into the air, many of which can be seen all over the area surrounding the volcano. 

For this part of the trek, we were joined by a family from Brooklyn and a young couple (whose hiking boots and pants I envied!), and we were urged to choose walking sticks as they would make the hike down easier.  As challenging as it sometimes was to hike up the steep mountain, I was far more concerned about not losing my footing on the way down, so I was thrilled to have a walking stick.

The start of our trek

The last few "steps" to go (check out those volcanic rocks!)

A view from one of our perches 

and we made it! :)

Our final stop for the evening was a visit to the area's famed thermal hot springs.  The resort that claims them is Tabacon, but anyone can pay the fee and enjoy the facilities.  And what facilities!  Just what we needed after a day hiking through such wonders was an evening in this setting.  After an hour and a half of enjoying the various hot, warm, and cool springs (Tabacon Hot Springs - if you want to learn more :), we enjoyed a Costa Rican buffet (though we're still not sure what is distinctly Costa Rican food, as the buffet had items such as flan and arroz con pollo, which certainly cannot be claimed by Costa Rica, can they?!)  We were back at our hotel, hopping into the shower and collapsing into bed by 10:00.  This morning we head to the Monteverde Cloud Forest (one of Costa Rica's other claims to fame is that there are so many distinct ecosystems here), where we will head out on.. get ready for this... a zip lining and Tarzan swing tour.  God help me! :)

Until tomorrow...

Relaxing at the hot springs after a long and full day :)