Costa Rica is for the birds!

We are back from Costa Rica! Land of 860 bird species and two million million million mosquitoes.

It was a great trip, but it's nice to be home. We stayed in four different areas- Monteverde, Arenal, Tortuguero, and Quepos. The main focus for me was to see as many wild beasts as possible. It was a success. We visited five of the seven provinces and drove for many hours each day taking in the beautiful countryside. I started writing a trip journal to post, and the first sentence went something like this:

Day 1. I spilled a glass of iced ginger ale in my lap on the plane. Thank the airplane gods Ido was sleeping so he didn't see me do it. The only evidence of my little accident was the massive jeans rash on my a** after 6 hours of flying and 4.5 hours of sitting in the van on the way to Monteverde. I'm so happy to be on vacation!!!

I decided instead of posting the trip journal, I will give you the best trip summary I can offer, while respecting your patience. I note which photos are Ido's (as if.) Enjoy!

Monteverde Cloud Forest

Ido Photo

Morpho Butterfly Ido Photo

Ido Photo

This is a bug.



Arenal
The view from our room. We are so spoiled. Ido Photo

Arenal volcano- view from our room. Again, we are so spoiled.People come to this area just to see this volcano. If they are lucky they see lava. Some spend weeks and only see smoke rising from the top and heavy cloud cover. Ido Photo


Arenal volcano and wild beasts. Ido Photo


Ella and Audrey on the hanging bridges.
This bridge is 45meters high. Yipes.

Tortuguero

Caribbean town- school children playing soccer. Ido Photo

The flight to San Jose from Tortuguero.
The tracks in on the beach are green seaturtle tracks. We went late one night on a tour to see turtles lay eggs in the sand. It was incredible. The female comes from the water to the dry sand, digs a hole the depth of one of her front flippers, lays eggs, covers the hole with sand, then drags herself back to the ocean. The whole process takes about two hours. The female will lay 100 eggs each time she come to shore. Of those 100 eggs, only one turtle will survive to adult. We were not allowed cameras on the tour. Ido Photo

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a frog eating a ciceda!

Quepos

Three toed sloth only a few feet away. Ido Photo

Helmet Lizard- another rare find.

Poison green and black dart frog

Fungus

White-faced Capuchin

Iguana

Lightning storm from the hotel balcony. Ido Photo


The wild wild jungles of Woodinville
This is what happens when the parents go away for a few days...
Madame, my bantam hen, and two of her babies! We gave away Tranny Anny because he was making a rukkus and waking the neighbors. It looks as though he left a piece (or five) of himself behind. These chicks hatched last Thursday. They are tiny and adorable! I'm not sure if they will be bantam like their mother.