A FIRST

On Sunday morning, I was driving to Automercado for my weekly grocery shopping.  Traffic was very light and I was the second car, waiting to turn left at "Panasonic".    The driver of the car in front of me got impatient, when all of the northbound traffic had turned and they still had the green light.  She put on her left turn signal and turned left on the red light.  After she turned and I was shaking my head in disbelief, I noticed a black "Police" pick up truck turning from the other side. As I proceeded down "Lindora",  I noticed that the lady was actually stopped by the police. 

Later in the day, everything was back to normal. Jim and I sitting in a line of 20 cars at "Panasonic" and watching dozens of cars zip down the right-hand lane, to turn left on both green and red lights (while cutting off all of us who have been patiently waiting our turn).  No police in sight.

Arenal Volcano National Park



Arenal volcano from La Fortuna taken in July -- Apparently this is a rare sight since some of our friends claim that there is no volcano hidden in the clouds.



Hiking in Arenal National Park in tall grass.

From the tall grass into the rain forest.



From the rainforest to the foot of the volcano, mostly hidden in the clouds.




A Chestnut Mandibled Toucan.




Looking back toward Lake Arenal (and Nancy).




Back into the rainforest, we slogged through the mud to visit the oldest tree in the park, a 100 year old Ceibo tree.  Brad is only 21 and quite apparently has much growing to do. 




Tim takes lessons on expanding his sphere of influence from the Ceibo tree.




A pair of dwarfs we came across.




The tree ascends 40 meters to the canopy.




Greg ponders how a tree this big could only be 100 years old.  OK, he's really pondering how to climb it.



Hiking Pico Blanco

From the day we moved into our house, Jim has looked at the mountain looming to our south and wanted to climb it. However, it was not until we saw a picture of our Bible Study host posed on a rock above San Jose that we even knew that the peak was called Pico Blanco. He invited us to join him when he led a team of volunteers from the states that wanted to go. So last Sunday a group of 18 of us climbed into 2 buses and headed to Escazu.

We started our hike at the very spot we had seen on the news months before (see the November 5 post) where a flash flood had washed away a house and cascaded down the mountain wreaking havoc. We began an immediate ascent up a steep meadow, complete with cud chewing vacas and crested a ridge, following a worn spot in the brush that involved a fair amount of climbing up boulders and trying to place our feet on solid ground between tufts of tall grass, smaller rocks, roots and mud. After pausing to enjoy the view from an outcropping know as the saddle, we crossed into a cloud forest where the pitch of the trail became more severe and the mud became much more slippery, to the extent that it became routine to grab roots, limbs and vines in order to haul ourselves up the trail.

As we have mentioned in other blog posts, the growth under the canopy in a cloud forest is quite thick. Consequently it became difficult to see or hear very far in one direction or another. Even with 18 of us hiking, at one point we found ourselves “on our own” somewhere in the midst of the group with just some smear marks in the mud as a guide. Nevertheless, we caught up with the rest of the group and worked our way to the highest point, where we could enjoy a view of clouds, trees and brush.

The climb down proved to be more of a challenge than the ascent, as we came down a different ridge that was like a series of mud slides interrupted abruptly with tree trunks and pointed rocks to land on.

When we were out of the clouds, we enjoyed great views of the valley, including a distant look at our neighborhood and the new national futbol stadium. Now, we may have mentioned this before, but the model for the Minnesota Vikings to fund their new stadium can be found right here in Costa Rica. It turns out that the Chinese are more than willing to provide not only the funding, but also the design, labor (imported Chinese construction workers who now intend to stay in Costa Rica) and materials. All Costa Rica had to do was turn their back on their long term ally Taiwan and refuse to recognize it as a sovereign nation any longer. And, like the Metrodome, the new stadium was built without any parking. Oops.





A view of Pico Blanco taken from our balcony,
at the beginning of June. 




The new stadium




A view looking back towards our house, towards the Poas mountain.




Close up of where we live. The long white building is Intel. The smaller long, tan building in front of Intel is the Costa Rica Marriot. The group of houses to the left of the Marriot is our development. 





A close up of the washed out area.





Climbing in the cloud forest.





Cano Isle pictures



Whales




2 whales, One on the left side blowing out






Picnic lunch on the beach. Notice the tablecloth with poinsettias on it. 



Boats waiting off shore to pick up their passengers.





Frolicking dolphin



The wonderful and weird side of nature

One of the last things that we saw in Corcovado NP was probably the most unusual and amusing sight that we have seen in Costa Rica.
At first glance, this tree appeared to have a brown mossy spot on it.  On further inspection, we noticed it was hundreds of caterpillars grouped together.  An army of caterpillars.  The funny part of this is that they would react to certain sounds.   Enjoy!

Parque Nacional Corcovado



Female Black-throated Trogan




Male Black-throated Trogan




Slaty-tailed Trogan




Plane landing on the airstrip at the Sirena Ranger Station




King Vulture




Caiman




Tapir (we woke him from his nap)




White-faced monkey




Hermit Crabs 
The beach was crawling with them.  We learned that if you blow on them they relax in their shells and you can pull them out.  The lower part of their body is soft and unprotected so they need the shells to live in.




Collared Peccary
It was very hard to get a good picture of him.  He was walking in the forest and his head ended up behind a tree in most of our pictures




My favorite bird, Blue-crowned Motmot
His tail would twitch back and forth like a pendulum.




Spider Monkey



Pictures from the flight to Drake Bay



Ready for take off.



Boston Scientific, Coyol from the air

Manuel Antonio/ Quepos area

Drake Bay

Mid stream

Drake Bay airport