Nicholas and Oren took a surf lesson!



Ok, now you try it.




Yeah, baby...




Hang ten!!!



Ready for another lesson?

Our plan for the next four nights was to meet
my family in Samara. My sister Amy, her husband,
Andreas and their kids, Max and Nicholas
flew from New York. My mother flew from
Philadelphia with my brother, John and his wife,
Caitlin, and their kids, Jay, Ailey and Cole.


We drove from La Ensenada, on the Gulf of
Nicoya out to Samara. We stopped in the town of
Nicoya to have lunch (delicious pizza) and stock
up on things from the grocery store since our
accomodations in Samara included a kitchen.
The beach in Samara was wonderful. It had a shady
place to sit (above), gentle surf, clean water and it wasn't
very crowded.





It's a popular place to learn how to surf.




AH...Don't you wish you were there right now?



We stayed at a lovely place called Villa Kalimbas.
It was very small and quiet and just footsteps
from the beach. We had a small pool in the
courtyard where we spent time when we needed
to get out of the hot, hot sun on the beach.



On Christmas Eve a truck from a German Bakery
happened to be in the driveway of our hotel as we
came back from a walk. Each of the grandchildren,
above, picked something yummy! We bought
some cakes for Christmas dinner (which turned out
to be pizza).

La Ensenada was my favorite spot.
The pictures speak for themselves!



El arcoiris!

There were pelicans everywhere. They loved to
hang out around the fishing boats. Their
own fishing style was to dive straight down into the
water with a huge splash and usually come up with
a mouthful of fish.

There are three kinds of pelicans in this area. We saw
brown pelicans and American white pelicans.



The fisherman, below, was pulling up a net. He was
pulling in shrimp. The pelicans were hoping
for a treat.




While we stayed at La Ensenada we enjoyed
the warm weather and just relaxing by the pool.
We had had a lot of cold, rainy weather in the
mountains and the change was welcome.
One morning we took a four hour boat ride. We
explored some mangrove swamps and wetlands
near a park called Palo Verde.

La Ensenada

We stayed in a little cabin like these. No A/C
needed, just a cool breeze and a ceiling fan.



This is the view looking west, over the Gulf of
Nicoya, toward the Pacific Ocean.




The next place we stayed was magical.
It is called La Ensenada and it is my favorite
place that we have been so far. It's a
combination of old fashioned simplicity,
comfort and great scenery.

We arrived just around sunset and the light was
beautiful!

Our next stop was on the Gulf of Nicoya. As we drove out of the
mountains the scenery and weather changed completely.
It became, flat and arid really quickly.
Here are some photos of the drive.

While we were staying at La Carolina we went for a
very fun horse back riding trip. I used my waterproof
camera, which has since gone to camera heaven,
so no pictures at this point.
The next day we went on a hike. We were at a volcano
Called Tenorio. The weather was terrible and we never
saw the volcano. We hiked to the Rio Celeste which is
a river that is fed by water that is full of minerals.
It turns beautiful shades of blue!
We hiked up to a spot in the river where there is a
natural hot spring right in the river.

This is a big, green parrot. It makes A LOT
of noise!!!



Above, Collared Aracari.



This is a really cute little bird! I don't know what it's called.

oops, more animals in Cano Negro

Above, a great blue heron.



Great white Egret.




I loved that there is an iguana and a monkey in
the same tree.

This is a view of the front of the main building.



We took all of our meals at this communal table.
This is also where we sat to bird watch and play
games. We taught a family from Oregon how to
play Speed Scrabble and then we invented a version
of the game where you move around the table
every time you pick up new tiles!
It was super fun.



Zoe, Oren and Audrey making the most of a rainy
day.


We left Cano Negro early since it was raining and we drove
to Upala for lunch. After we waited for the Internet Cafe to
open (closed from 12-1 pm) we checked email quickly
(in Costa Rican terms) and then hit the road.
While we waited for the Cafe to open I bought a nice pair of
REI hiking pants at a "Ropa Americana" which is the name
for a used clothing store here.
It was raining when we got to La Carolina Lodge which was
too bad. We were pretty deep in the forest and it was pretty
cold. We were planning to stay here for 2 nights, with no
electricity and all of our meals cooked over a wood stove.
We were going to be roughing it, big time.
One plus was a very cool (or actually hot) wood fired outdoor
hot tub. It was a large pool made out of local rocks. It was
fed by river water that was diverted and then heated as it went
through a coiled pipe around a huge cauldron of water heated
by a huge wood fire.

And now for something completely different!

On our afternoon boat trip we saw so many animals!
The male iguana, above, has transformed himself into
babe magnet, or so he hopes. This time of year the
males are competing to attract mates. Good Luck, dude!
They slowly change back to more subtle colors after
the mating season is over.
It was sort of Christmasy, all red and green...



Above, a Jesus Christ lizard. Don't ask me how he
got that name.



This is the coolest bird! It's a
Night Heron. He's got RED eyes.



We came upon a few caimans sunning themselves
along the shore. They looked so harmless and
peaceful. Maybe they had just eaten.

Above, Cattle Egret and cow.



Above, 3 Spoonbills, in the pouring rain.
You can just see the edge of a calf on the left.



Above, an Ahinga. This is also known as a
snakebird. It swims in the water with its long skinny
neck sticking out.



In the afternoon it was so beautiful!



So, off we went to Cano Negro. We left La Fortuna and
drove north. The sky was clear, the sun was out and we enjoyed a really
long, straight, flat road. Most of the scenery was agricultural:
pineapples, bananas, mangoes, and other unidentifiable things (At least
they were unidentifiable going 60mph). We drove for a while until we
arrived in the border town of Los Chiles. It was a pretty sad kinda place.
It was also our first blast of super hot weather. We ran into a small
air conditioned restaurant and enjoyed some yummy local food.
We had a short drive from there to our next destination, Cano Negro.
This is a totally amazing and really different kind of ecosystem from
the one we live in. It's a huge wetland area that is full or water this time
of year (after the heavy rains). It goes from super high water down to
almost nothing.
We stayed at one of the only places in area called Cano Negro Natural
Lodge. It is "full service" (included meals...) because it is so remote.
We took two boat rides, one in the morning, pour rain and then we went out
again in the afternoon around 4 and had much better luck spotting birds
and other animals.
We had our first introduction to fresh water fowl, plus a large number of
mammals and amphibians.

I wanted to add this link to a little video that
was made awhile ago about the artist, Freddy.
It's pretty cute!
Enjoy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieu-q5A5CTA

As we were leaving Arenal we stopped at a roadside
artist's home. He was selling beautiful, hand carved
wooden folk art.
The boys each picked out a beautiful bird.

arenal

Although we had been to Arenal before it's a beloved spot.
The volcano itself is awesome and the whole family loves
to visit the hot springs at Eco Termales, a natural, very
low key spot.
We stayed a hotel called Linda Vista del Norte which had a
beautiful view of the volcano. The last time we stayed on the
La Fortuna side of the volcano and this was much more
enjoyable although it was far from town.

mucho tiempo, no escribo

You can just see the volcano in this photo,
to the right of the center!







Well,
We're back home in Monteverde after a very long and enjoyable time
traveling. First, around Costa Rica including meeting my family
at the beach in Samara. Second, our needed Visa vacation to
Panama.
I'll try to update the blog and keep it simple. I've got a lot of miles
to cover!
Starting with our departure on December 15, we headed to Arenal.
As the crow (or quetzal) flies, it's only a few miles. As luck has it,
it's a challenging and beautiful drive around Lake Arenal. The road
is paved a little bit more each year and now it's actually black
hardtop from Arenal all the way to Tilaran. That still leaves a nice
1 1/2 to 2 hour trip on the beloved dirt road. We had a beautiful day
and killer views of the landscape, lake and volcano.