la costa que es muy rica

our adventures in costa rica encompassed about 180,000 steps and nearly 400 miles. lots of hiking was had! prior to our arrival, we prepped ourselves for a horrendous border crossing, even going as far as to making a fake online travel itinerary (to "prove" we would be leaving costa rica) so we could avoid any potential border crossing problems. totally not necessary! although utterly confusing due to the lack of signs and the potential to just walk right through without getting a legit stamp (which would have been a bad thing ... requiring a return to the border after being found out by the tourist police), it took us all of 10 minutes to get through the craziness! nothing like the 2 hours we were being told by other travelers. well ... we made it to costa rica.

our first stop was liberia, the second-city of costa rica. not a whole lot going on so we left the next morning for what was to be our favorite destination as of yet: monteverde. and so the experience of "pura vida" begins ...

beautiful monteverde... up in the mountains, the weather was cooler - a nice break from the hot hot heat we have been experiencing.

one of the first things we did in monteverde - visit the cheese factory, of course! this whole area was settled by quakers from the united states, who wanted to escape our 'militaristic' country. when they arrived they didn't really have a plan, so they experimented with making cheese - it was successful, and the monteverde cheese factory is now the biggest in costa rica... tasty..

one of our favorite activities so far --> zipline canopy tour - 14 ziplines, 1 'tarzan swing', rappelling, and a 1km 'superman ride'! some serious fun. some of the lines, like this one, were so long you couldn't see the other end.

look how professional i look...

rappelling to the forest floor below...

here's lauren at the end of the superman - flying through the air like superman, a beautiful valley far below. since you couldn't see the zipline above you, it was easy to pretend it wasn't there - what a rush!

this one's for talluto... wolf blanket in our hostel...

so we're in the liquor store playing our new favorite game - 'what is the cheapest thing here with the highest alcohol percentage?' this time, the vino de nance was the winner, for about 2 bucks - nance is a small yellow fruit that we've seen alot around here. the wine had a simple label and was actually in a reused jose cuervo bottle. it tasted a bit 'fermenty', but it did the trick!

an agouti - small mammal that is a little bit like a rabbit. we saw this at the beginning of our 'night hike' - a two hour guided hike through the cloud forest with flashlights.

the canopy during the night hike, just as it was getting dark.

we saw some good wildlife, like this tarantula, but part of the fun was simply being in the middle of the forest when its dark! (a little creepy)

two butterflies 'doing the deed' - makes a really cool sight.

what is that thing!

some of the very cool fungi growing in many places in the cloud forest. fungus and moss really thrive in the wet climate of monteverde.

can you find joe in this picture? there he is!

to cross this dangerous gap, joe had to briefly morph into lauren to utilize her superior jumping abilities...

blue bug that we followed around for awhile. official name: tiger beetle.

some cool looking berries near the end of our waterfall trail

and our trip into the monteverde cloud forest reserve begins. one of the best parks we've ever been to. the trails were incredible and the forest was nothing like we'd ever seen before. get ready for some pictures of awesome flowers and sweet views.

suggested name: hot lips mcgee

purplies

the sky was blue and then a minute later, the fog snuck in. this cycle recurred over and over throughout the day. the clouds move sooo fast here! the fog made the forest look so amazing.

due to the immense amount of rain, it's impossible to gauge how old a tree is by its rings because there are none! everything grows way too fast.

on top of the continental divide

relaxing on the trail

the slate throated redstart

unknown, hairy caterpillar

leftovers from the monkeys feasting overhead. these fruit remains were scattered all over the trail from the monkeys throwing them down. seriously had to watch your head so you weren't splattered with fruit juice

suggested name: yellow flamer mcgee

a very cool part about the reserve is the hummingbird exhibit they had. basically just a bunch of feeders that attract about 50 birds at a time. just buzzing all over the place. these guys were just about to eat...

time to feast!

never has it been so easy to get a great picture of a hummingbird before. but, like i said, these guys were everywhere!

the incredible view of the monteverde valley, whilst on our way to the children's eternal forest. this forest delivered in terms of wildlife: we spotted a snake and tons of awesome birds including the really cool bell bird (aka bonk bird because of it's ridiculous sounding call) and a toucan.

sweet snake that we nearly walked over on the path! i've been waiting to get a good snake pic. and this guy delivered. to put in perspective, he was about 4 feet long.

watch out! it's the cocodrillo tree! aka the crocodile - although we don't see the resemblance :)

spatula, soaking up the views of the children's eternal forest in monteverde. he loves hikes.

the black guan bird. we saw this massive bird a couple times. the first time he scared the hell out of us, nearly crashing on top of us onto a branch above a trail. this guy, however, was just grooming himself and relaxing with his little one.

spatula taking a break on the massive fig tree on our way out of the children's forest - really livin the life, spatula...

goodbye monteverde! we loved this area for much we stayed twice as long as planned. and seriously contemplated spending the rest of our travels funds on a for-sale hostel :) well... that didn't happen!

so... another bus ride day! to san jose then onto copey...

our curried lentils feast with becca! becca, a friend of a friend doing some peace corp work in copey, costa rica, was welcoming enough to open her doors to us for a couple days in her cute little mountain town. we're looking forward to seeing her again in vermont, where she and our other friend, lynn, will be supplying baked goodies for our future B&B :)

who ever said that cows and birds cant just hang out and be friends?

whatchu looking at cow?

dodging the rain for at least one good mountainside picture :)

the area surrounding copey is full of coffee farms. we checked out the local coffee coop, coopedota and took a tour around the facility and smelled the amazing smells of roasting and grinding coffee :) not too usual to see coffee roasting here because over 90% is exported pre-roasted to the u.s. and europe. surprise surprise.

onto beach territory and the cool, beachy, surfy town of dominical (although we LOVED the mountains!). the beach here was great - complete with labs that loved to play fetch with us :) - and the atmosphere was extremely laid back and slow-going, our kind of place.

more beachiness

while in dominical, aliza and eric (joe's brother and sister-in-law) had baby gus! born august 9th :) YAY! welcome to the world our sweet little nephew! man, is he a looker!

these guys were hanging around all over the place at our hostel. they would walk around, climb trees, fall out of trees, etc... this guy was nice enough to pose for us.

"not very nice" man under the stairs: another couple who was staying at the same hostel told us of their experience the day before. they started the day, as most people do, by taking some kind of hallucinogenic drug that we had never heard of. their day consisted of hanging around the hostel, tripping like crazy. they even bravely ventured into town at one point before becoming scared and running back to the safety of their hostel room. they told us of their conversations with the 'man under the stairs'. apparently he was not very nice to talk to - 'a jerk'. they warned us not to talk to him. we took their advice, not because we were scared that he would be mean, but simply because he is an inanimate object...

after a few days in dominical, we went north to check out manuel antonio park ... aka "way too many people, understaffed, and poorly maintained trails" park. wow. most tourists we've seen in one place in quite awhile. definitely takes it toll on the park. however, touristy for a reason: so beautiful and the amount of visible wildlife was remarkable.

the fur-de-lance snake coiled up under a log. after talking with the couple we were hanging out with at our hostel (hey heather and eric!) amongst others, we developed a theory that the park planted this fake snake here since our photos showed the snake in the exact same position hours apart from each other. we didn't test this theory though - the fur-de-lance is the 2nd most poisonous snake in costa rica.

a colorful grasshopper looking creature

un perezoso con dos dedos! aka, a sloth. literal translation: two-toed lazy :) we saw him slowly making his way from branch to branch

do not touch!

mushy mush...

it all started with one monkey. he must have eyed the awesome fruit tree about 10 feet away from our beachin' spot. soon ... the whole monkey clan followed in search of fruit. and the collection of monkey shots begins...

i am an angry monkey - don't mess with me or i will pee on you...

chompin' away!

that is some serious eyebrow action!

contemplating the jump up to the tree with a baby on board. the next minute she took a clumsy leap up to the branch :)

mr. lizard enjoying some leftovers from the monkey fruit fest

an ode to a wonderful picture of lauren's brother, paul. "thou shall not pass!"

in addition, a beautiful waterfall behind :) - near the small town of uvita, costa rica - a few hours southeast of manuel antonio craziness, away from the crowds.

bamboo forest surrounding the waterfall

joe suckin' up some waterfall goodness

this ant marches to the tune of a different drummer. while most of his ant-friends carry pieces of leaf or grass, he's got a nice little flower. maybe he's going to san fransisco, with a flower in his hair...

a little bit of a morose last picture, but we've been meaning to post a picture of a central american cemetery for quite awhile now. anyhoo ... they're strange. mostly above ground tiled tomb-like structures. this one is unusually white. most cemeteries have an array of colors - making it seem more like a collection of colorful children's playhouses.

well... costa rica was incredible. people were incredibly friendly (although we've heard that a lot of this "friendliness" is often just good manners vs. genuine affection), the climate was wonderful, and the scenery gorgeous. definitely a country where we see ourselves coming back to in the future.

at the moment we're enjoying another "cooler" (totally relative) climate in boquete, panama after our last central american border crossing into panama a couple days ago (again, MUCH easier than expected!). tomorrow we'll be heading to the big city, and, before we know it, we'll be in america del sur :)

tallyho!

lauren and joe