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Volcanogirl's Costa Rica Trip Report

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Volcanogirl's Costa Rica Trip Report

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Old Jul 16th, 2008, 07:30 AM
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cm, yep the birding was pretty cool there. It seemed like Quetzal mania! We had reservations at SkyTrek on our last trip to Arenal but got rained out and never got to try it. At the time, I was probably a little secretly relieved!

colibri, thanks for clarifying - sounds like a neat place. Have you done the Peace Lodge at all? They have a hummingbird garden with 23 or 24 different species of hummingbirds that zip around; they sound like little race cars when the zoom past. I love that spot, so I'm sure I would have loved the Hummingbird Gallery as well. My Spanish is basic, but doesn't your screen name mean hummingbird in Spanish?

Speaking of Tortuguero, we met so many people on this trip that had just gone there, and they all raved. I definitely have it on my to-do list; unfortunately that's a very long list!
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Old Jul 16th, 2008, 07:49 AM
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VG,

Si, colibri = hummingbird! I am a hummer nut, have them year round in south Louisiana, but none can compare to the beautiful ones in Costa Rica!

Yes, next trip we will spend a day at La Paz Waterfall Gardens, but aren't staying there. That, and BdC are unfortunately out of my budget...

Can't wait to see all the hummingbirds there, at Selva Verde and at Tortuguero.

Come on February!
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Old Jul 16th, 2008, 09:44 AM
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Your report is so fun to read. Love hearing all of the details about Monteverde. Were the temps cool there the whole day?

I love that even though you have been to CR more than once (how many times for you?), you still have such great enthusiasm for what you have seen and done.
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Old Jul 16th, 2008, 10:09 AM
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Hi jn, we've only been 3 times. I'm still a newbie compared to someone like shillmac who has 14 or 15 trips under her belt!

The MV temps were moderate at times and then pretty cool. We wore short-sleeves to zipline but one night it was so cold and windy and rainy that I wore a fleece jacket zipped all the way up. The Fonda Vela restaurant even built a fire in the fireplace that was in the dining room; it was awesome to sit by that and enjoy our dinner. Who would think it would be so cool in Costa Rica?

One thing about the ziplining - don't wear a top that you really love; all of us somehow got streaks of black grease on our clothes, no big deal for us since we were just in t-shirts. Also Fonda Vela served ice cream made by the Monteverde Creamery - that was fun to try; they served it with these crazy, bright green maraschino cherries! I liked it that the ice cream was so fresh and from just down the road.
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Old Jul 16th, 2008, 04:55 PM
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Well, we can all only hope to catch up with shillmac! Jeez, it is such a long haul for us (and expensive) that it would take us many years. I never thought we would be making our second trip so soon.

Cool about the local ice cream. All of those little things make a trip so special.
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Old Jul 16th, 2008, 07:04 PM
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Now on to the Peace Lodge! We hired a private driver to take us from MV to the Peace Lodge. He said it would take us 3 1/2 hours to drive it, and it ended up taking 5 hours! The roads were horrible - even more so than the road to Monteverde. We road on unpaved roads for about 2 hours and then encountered a lot of road construction, where the road was (hurrah!) being paved. It was raining too which didn't speed things up any. Basically had to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Our driver stopped at a little Doka coffee stand so we could get something to drink. I wanted to get back on the road, so we just grabbed our drinks and piled back in the van. Huge mistake. Within a minute, my hot coffee was slishing and sloshing ever closer to the top of the cup. I actually had to have the driver pull over so I could take a big gulp. I guess I'm used to I-10 where the road is smooth and you usually aren't moving!

At one point we encountered a bridge that was out, and our driver just took off down the bank and started driving through the river - a big river, with a current. My husband looked at me and said he was glad he wasn't driving!

We made it to the other side and at long last made it to the Peace Lodge. We had time to see several exhibits, including the aviary, the serpentarium, the cats (which were new since our last visit), and the ranarium. We had only seen the ranarium during our nocturnal frog tour last time, so I was surprised to see how tiny it was in the daylight. We met the same guide who gave us the frog tour last year, and she said you can no longer hold the frogs due to liability issues. Apparently someone had one jump on her face and got a rash and sent them all kinds of pictures, etc. that made people nervous. Bummer, we really loved holding the frogs and seeing them up close.

We decided to save money and have dinner at the Trout Bar. This was one of our favorite spots last time, but it was a little hit or miss this trip. I got nachos and an Imperial. The nachos were cold with that fake-o cheese on them. I asked if they could heat them up, and they said the plate wouldn't fit in their microwave. The plate was huge! The Imperial, however, was excellent as always! My husband had a chicken sandwich and fries - both pretty good. We hit the in-room jacuzzi and decided to turn in for the evening since we had an early trip to Poas the next day. I was excited to go to Poas since we missed it last trip. Hoping and praying that we'd see it before the mist set in.
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Old Jul 16th, 2008, 08:07 PM
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Hey guys, leaving in the a.m.! Can't believe it's been a year. Yes, we've been a lot since 2001, but you have to remember that most of those trips were back in the day when you could book a $169 round trip week long trip through Worry Free Vacations, or American offered fare for anywhere from $239 to $400. We went every time we thought we could eek out some time. And then started spending more time in the summer, a month or longer. We haven't seen it all yet (getting close) and still get so excited. Our friends think we're nuts not to be visiting other places, any maybe so. But as long as we're enjoying ourselves, well, why not keep going back?! It's still a fairly inexpenive destination. We try to offset our time at places like Bosque del Cabo with a few nights somewhere for $50--seems to work!

Great report, volcanogirl! I'll be out of touch for awhile--will check in when I can, but it may be the end of the month before I am somewhere with computer access. See you guys in the funny pages!
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Old Jul 17th, 2008, 01:36 AM
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volcanogirl - I'm really enjoying your trip report! We leave in just over a week so this is really getting my enthusiasm ready to go!

Monteverde sounds really nice, it has sounded like a place I'd really enjoy, so different from the other areas of Costa Rica! I hope you're able to post some pictures!

At Peace Lodge - did you only walk through the Frog area during the day or do the night frog tour again? I wasn't sure reading your post....we hope to do the night tour with the kids this time, but it's too bad you can't touch the frogs! My kids were really looking forward to that!! I emailed them the other day to try to reserve it in advance since we'll only be there the one night, but as expected haven't heard back yet!!

I'm looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip!
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Old Jul 17th, 2008, 03:30 AM
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Hi VG, great report! I love long detailed reports.

We saw new birds to add to our list at BdC.
Spectacled Owl,Black throated Trogon, King Vulture (roosting and soaring), they are new sightings at BdC.
Plus tons of toucans (honest) and Fiery Billed Aracaris. Plus we too saw an Ornate Crested Hawk Eagle right in front of Casa Blanca. And yes, they are uncommon! We were so excited. Aren't they magnificent?

I also use smugmug and Picasa. I posted the link to my pics,(includes the hawk eagle and others) with my final report.

We are like you, we get so excited to see any wildlife and try to identify it. We are always amazed that others are so blah or are like yeah, we see it, lets move on and hit the bar or whatever! hahaha

I have copied your report to help us plan our next trip. You had some great sightings and sounds like good guides. How did you book the various guides and drivers ahead?

VG, wonderful! Thanks so much. And we do need pics you know! Toni
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Old Jul 17th, 2008, 05:14 AM
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shillmac, have a wonderful trip! At this rate, I will NEVER catch up to you!!

Shell, we did not do the frog tour again since we had done it on the last trip, but they do still offer it. You can book it when you get there; I believe the cost is $10 per adult and may be less for children. We loved it when we did it. Seems like CR is getting as litigious as the US - no iguanas, no froggies, and you should have seen the disclaimer form we had to sign to go ziplining. I think your family would still enjoy the tour though!

Toni, I remember seeing your pictures. I knew I had read about the Ornate Hawk-Eagle on the boards, and it must have been from you. That was so neat to see! We booked all our drivers through our hotels before we left on our trip. For guides, I always use Sunset Tours in Arenal just because we've had good luck with them. In Monteverde, Fonda Vela had a guide they recommended. I think a good guide makes all the difference. Have a great time on your next trip!
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Old Jul 17th, 2008, 09:57 AM
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Looking forward to your Poas visit, VG. I hope you got to see it! We lucked out there last December and got some great photos.

Have a terrific trip, Jill! You too, ShellD!
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Old Jul 17th, 2008, 10:18 AM
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Shell, I think you can't touch the frogs because you may hurt them. We've actually always been able to get an exemption for our daughter as long as she swears she's not wearing insect repellent (toxic to them) and gets her hands wet first. We held frogs at Bosque del Cabo and the serpetarium in El Castillo as well as Mawamba on an earlier trip.
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Old Jul 17th, 2008, 07:10 PM
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Well, since we missed Poas on the last trip, we decided to give it a whirl this time. The Peace Lodge would only book a trip that was combined with a coffee plantation, so that's what we did. Neither of us is a big coffee drinker, so weren't sure if we'd enjoy that part or not.

We left the Peace Lodge with our guide and were joined by a nice family. My husband was pretty happy because the dad was a sports nut like he is, and they chatted sports the entire drive up. The tour left at 8:15, and I was worried that we'd already be too late to see the crater. By the way, it was cold, very cold - had to pull out the fleece jacket again, and it was quite windy. The poor family that was with us thought CR was always warm, and they were dressed in shorts! It was 55 degrees at the Peace Lodge when we left and seemed even cooler and windier here.

When we arrived and peered down into the crater, it was nothing but thick fog - could not see a thing! There was a huge crowd gathered, and someone said it might pass, so we lingered around taking pictures. All of a sudden the mist just started blowing away, and we got a good view of the crater! The crowd erupted with applause! It was really cool, reminded me of the sunset in Mallory Square in Key West. Go Mother Nature!

We took a lot of pictures and then hiked over to Botos Lake - it was nice enough but honestly I could have skipped this part, looked like any other lake to me.

After that, we hiked back down to see the Poas museum. I was surprised that the entire thing was in Spanish, and we couldn't read or understand much of anything, but our guide translated a few things for us. We hit the gift shop and then decided to head to the Doka plantation. We loved seeing Poas, and I would recommend it.

We arrived at the coffee tour and began by sampling all the varieties of coffees. It reminded me of the wine tastings we've done - sipping, sniffing, enjoying all the flavors. This part was pretty fun!

Then we walked out to the grounds and got a lesson in how the beans are grown and then harvested. The grounds were gorgeous, really lush and green. The beans or "cherries" as they call them were still green, but our guide said in several months they would turn red and be ready for harvesting. All the beans at the Doka plantation are picked by hand. We got to see where the beans would be dried, and then we went to the roasting room. An employee was carefully weighing the beans and packaging them by hand. It smelled so good in there; I don't know why, but it seems to me that it always smells better than it tastes. At the end, we toured the gift shop and bought a few bags of coffee beans as a souvenir. The man working at the gift shop said that if we bought 4 bags of coffee, wed' get a nice little burlap tote sack for free, but we really only needed 3 bags. He smiled and said he'd go ahead and give us the bag anyway - there's that wonderful tico spirit and generosity. We ended up loving the tour and learned a lot. We piled back in the van to head back to the Peace Lodge - I was really looking forward to the 4:00 hummingbird feeding since we had missed that on our last trip!
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Old Jul 18th, 2008, 03:07 AM
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When we got back to the Peace Lodge at 2:15, we stopped at the front desk and the man there asked if we were on our honeymoon. Apparently they have special bracelets for honeymooners that identify you now! We told him we weren't, but he decided he wanted to give us the bracelets anyway to remember the Peace Lodge by. Again so thoughtful and nice.

We checked out the buffets for lunch and decided just to go with the Trout Bar again. This was the first day I had even seen anyone swim in the Trout Lake! For those of you who haven't been there, PL has a lake full of trout where you can fish and catch your own dinner! We were entertained by this exuberant woman in the lake while we ate. I had a burger, and it was good. Also sneaked in one more Imperial!

At 4:00 we headed over to the Hummingbird Garden to feed the 23 or 24 different species of hummers they have there. This is really an amazing spot. A woman gave us each a little tube full of nectar we could hold - looked just like a hummingbird feeder with a little flower on the end, and a hummingbird came and perched on my hand to start sipping out of the tube! Wow, it was pretty amazing! My husband really liked it too. I always thought they just sipped nectar with their bills, but they have really, really long tongues that they flick in and out. We had green ones, blue ones, brilliant purple ones, all flying around us. They even get a little fierce with each other and will dive bomb another bird that's sipping the nectar. Very cool experience! They do it at 9:00 and 4:00 each day. I think kids would love having this experience. It had turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day and we were really enjoying it.

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Old Jul 18th, 2008, 06:00 AM
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I'm really, really enjoying the details of your report! You can tell how much you and your husband enjoyed your trip by the enthusiam and details in your writing! I also like that you've broken it up into mini sections so I can keep checking back in for more!

12 days until we arrive there!!
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Old Jul 18th, 2008, 06:50 AM
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So glad you got a good look at Poas, VG. We also did the Doka tour (on the spur of the moment...) and found it to be quite fascinating.

I fear your report is winding to an end.
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Old Jul 18th, 2008, 07:06 AM
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Yay, you got to see Poas!

Funny that you don't drink coffee, yet are in a country which IMO has the BEST coffee ever! Glad you enjoyed the tour, anyway.

I am sad, too, that your report is coming to an end.
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Old Jul 18th, 2008, 08:07 AM
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Thanks, guys - yes things are winding up. Maybe I should start making a few things up. Then a giant puma lept out of the bushes...? No, nothing that exciting but I would have loved to have seen it!

I thought I should mention that all of the places we stayed had hair dryers, so you don't need to pack one. Each also had a frig, which I love for keeping chilled water available. At Fonda Vela, our frig didn't work, so we called the front desk, and he said he would call the repair guy. The repair guy told him that it works, but it stops working for 2 or 3 days every month, and it just happened to coincide with our stay - hmmmm.... I got a kick out of that one!
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Old Jul 18th, 2008, 06:18 PM
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After feeding the hummingbirds, we made a dash through the butterfly house and got to see some blue morphos - so pretty. Then we headed back to our room to relax on the balcony. Within 5 minutes, we were completely enclosed in fog and then it started to pour! It was raining so hard that we were tempted to have room service for dinner, but we decided to brave it and try out the Vista Poas restaurant that's on site.

Wow, this was a nice place! The were offering a four-course meal for $35 per person. Since we'd been pretty frugal on meals and had skipped breakfast most days, we decided to splurge and try it. I had heard the food wasn't so good here, but we ended up loving it! I had a delicious sweet corn chowder that was perfect for a cool rainy night. Then I had a wonderful fresh salad with a Dijon vinaigrette, and I ordered the Surf and Turf for dinner. By this time, I was already stuffed, but I took a few nibbles, and it was great - beef tenderloin with big shrimp in a delicious sauce, all served with baby zucchini, carrots and squash. I asked the waiter if he would box it up for me since I hated for it to go to waste. And he did the same with dessert - 2 walnut brownies with Bailey's sauce; I had my eye on that for breakfast the next day! As we were walking out, we heard the table next to us ask to have their food packed up too since they were too full to finish! The waiter was great, very nice service, and he packed everything really well and included silverware for us. We just popped everything in the frig and called it a night so we could get up early the next morning and hike the waterfalls. It poured rain all night long, but it was cozy being in our little room with the fireplace.
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Old Jul 18th, 2008, 06:43 PM
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VG: Those hummingbird tongues were pretty amazing. I never realized it until we did the feeding. Not sure who told us, but the bird's tongue is supposedly 3X longer than its beak.

Your report has been great.

MY
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