Costa Rica Day 14: Another day in paradise

Interesting news my friends.  Elsa and I have a little bit of a change of plans.  We will be staying here for a while in our newly purchased casita.  EJ is going to be a tour guide, and I will be a food critic who moonlights by spaying and neutering local street dogs :)

I better tell you I am kidding before my dad books his tickets to come and visit us.... it is tempting though.

Lunch with a view

Anyway, greeting again friends and family.  So you may be thinking to yourselves.... what more could this crazy couple possibly do?  I bet they are just going to chill until they get home. While the idea of chilling does seem quite enticing, it's not really in the cards.  Our lovely tour group has decided that we will spend our last 2 days in Costa Rica at the adult nature-buff's version of Disney World.  As I typically do though, I am getting ahead of myself.

We woke up late (for us) on our last morning at the beach, quickly dressed and prepared for some last minute souvenir shopping and beach exploring.  What we did not realize until we stepped out of our air conditioned room was that it was HOT.  Now I'm not talking comfortable tropical warmth good for basking in while your friends and neighbors freeze in the US.  I am talking about hot, muggy and sweat provoking stagnant air everywhere.  It did not take long until we were wilting away among the street-side souvenir stalls.  So instead of struggling not to become fried american eggs on the Manuel Antonio sidewalk, we chose to take a taxi up to a popular lunch spot known as Blue Water (tell me that did not sound good huh!).  After lunch we hiked back up to our hotel (in Costa Rica everything is up by the way ... more on this in a later entry).  After this, our transport van arrived to take us to our last destination La Paz.  It came .... one and a half hours early (Again, in a later article, I will discuss the flexibility of Costa Rican time and planning ;-) ).  Luckily, we were ready and more then happy to get out of the heat.

The ride took approximately four hours, three and a half of which Elsa slept through.  I tried to sleep for a little while, attempted to read (roads were too bumpy and winding), and chatted with the driver and guide.  All in all, it was not a bad trip and we ended in the considerably cooler (thank goodness) La Paz peace lodge.

Paulie's distant relative

Rope toy for the Jaguar?

Tomorrow, after a full day of exploring I will surely give you a more detailed account of this place.  However, for the time being, think of it as an amusement park built with consumers like us in mind.  Each room has a personal fireplace, canopy bed, two jacuzzis (one in the bathroom and one out on the deck), a hammock, and a specially designed bathroom with stained glass and ivy chandeliers.  Outside of the room, there is a monkey house, aviary, butterfly garden, hummingbird garden, wild cat area, serpentarium, and frog house.  Additionally, there are seven waterfalls, plenty of hiking trails, and a trout pond for fishing.  So, like kids in a candy store, we headed out to explore.  Given the late afternoon hour, we only had a little bit of daylight left.  Still, we gave the aviary, hummingbird garden, monkey house, and wildcat area cursory visits.  We also went on a night tour of the frog house which was so much better then our previous one in Monte Verde.  We were in open rooms with tree frogs and poison dart frogs.   The guide even let EJ hold the red-eyed tree frog ... well known as the Costa Rican mascot.  She actually went to kiss it.  Looking for a new Prince Charming after our two solid weeks together perhaps?

We ended the day with a fire lit dinner at the lodge restaurant.  Tomorrow is our last day in Costa Rica so we plan on packing as much in as possible.

See you all soon
Z