Off to See the Lizard

Pineapple fields 

This morning Kayla and I were up early and ready for breakfast by 7:00am. When we got to the hotel restaurant, we were surprised to find our friends from the beach, Tim and Wendy. Of all the places in Costa Rica, we arrived at the same river and same hotel. They had plans to do an early hike to through the national park, while Kayla and I had our day planned with our waiter.

At 8:15, we picked up our waiter/guide and were on our way to Cano Negra. As we drove, Gravin told Kayla and me about the local pueblos and fincas. Just a short 2 hours later, we arrived at our first destination; the locale of the Snapping Turtles, only to find out it was a restaurant that had them on site.

Kayla and I looked at each other skeptically before exiting the car. Our guide spoke with the owner and informed us that they no longer had the turtles. I glanced at Kayla nervously and wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. The owner must have noticed our confusion and disappointment because he promptly informed us that they had other turtles and a bunch of crocodiles on site.

So determined to make the best of the situation, we followed him into the restaurant and I was pleasantly surprised to the beautiful hand carved posts, chairs and bar tops. We wandered around before going out back to see the Crocodile pond.

The crocs were HUGE and there were at least 10!!! Kayla and I wandered around looking at each one. I found the animals had some of the most stunning green eyes. We enjoyed the restaurant for a little before our guide bought us some bocas of Garfish. I felt bad, but asked Kayla to do me a favor and eat as much as she could since I really don't like fish! This unfortunately this made Kayla feel unwell but fortunately, that gave us an out and we were able to finally head home. Tired and ready for a little siesta at the hotel, we all climbed back into the car without seeing Canas Negas.

Garfish and pataconas

When we got back to the hotel we got a second wind and decided to walk down to the river to see the amazing blue color. We walked through lush secondary forest down to the hotel's river-side Gazebo. The color was memorizing! Kayla and I climbed down the rocky path and sat by the water taking in our surroundings.

River-side gazebo equipped with towels and umbrellas

Hotel Restaurant.

While enjoying the undisturbed nature, Kayla found a chestnut mandabled toucan in the tree above the river. I became determined to take a good picture of the toucan, so I climbed on the tops of the rocks to the middle of the river. Of course when I got to a spot to see it, the bird moved. Disappointed and cold, we headed back to the room.

Toucan, if you look carefully

Hotel pool

By the time it was dinner time, Kayla and I had called our friend, Ever, who works at the national park for a tour to see animals and birds on our way to the waterfall. Ever came by the hotel and gave us advice on all sorts of things to do and places to see and also was able to book a tour with one of his friends at 6:00AM which is 2 hours before the park opened.

Kayla and I are once again exhausted before 10PM and have come to the conclusion that we are definitely not acting our age.

Gypsies in the Palace

Park entrance.

First glimpse of the Blue River

This morning we started our morning early with an American breakfast of coffee, eggs, bacon and toast before we headed out on our hike. Joe began our tour at the Blue River Estates' lots. We walked around a little getting our baring of the beautiful scenery, before heading down to the Blue River National Park.

The waterfall.

 Upon entering the park, we were met with the sounds of the jungle and a few critters. It was beautiful! We continued our tour towards the sound of the river. The river was an amazing blue color. The most incredible part of the river was where two waterfalls from either side of the river joined the main river at the exact same spot.

After we finished the tour, we did one more walk though the butterfly and hummingbird gardens. By noon, we were on the road towards a friends farm. We decided to save some time by taking the back road. Once again we only had one mishap, the original hotel we planed on using didn't receive our reservation. So we headed towards Rio Celeste.

It only took another 2 hours, but it was an adventure, like most things in Costa Rica, because we had no idea where we were going. We ended up finding a sign for the Rio Celeste Hideaway Hotel, which we navigated towards for over 40km.

Bridge with just 2 sturdy pieces of wood.
Lining tires up is a must!

Look its the female version of Ready,
but Ready was cuter!

We crossed so many rivers, including one without a bridge.
I held my breath in fear that I might be the 2nd person in my family to sink a  Costa Rican rental car.

We could see Nicaragua for most of our drive.

When we arrived to the town of Rio Celeste, we checked out two hotels before arriving at the Hideaway.  We pulled into a gated hotel and Kayla and I looked at each other with wide eyes, knowing we were way out of our price range. We had no intention of staying in fancy 4 star hotels for the whole trip, but luckily and against better judgment, we decided to check the price. We ended up hitting it off with the staff and they gave us an astounding deal that we couldn't pass up.

We were lead to our stunning room and right then we told the staff we would be staying a second night. Our room was equipped with 2 large beds, a balcony looking out into the jungle, a jacuzzi tub and an outdoor shower with HOT WATER!!!

Our fancy room

Our outdoor shower.

During dinner we went with the When in Rome philosophy  and decided to go big and eat in the hotel which ended up being a great decision. Our waiter has the day off tomorrow and offered to take us to see snapping turtles. We finished out luxury night with a trip to the hot tub and borrowed the movie Midnight in Paris from the front desk.

Hot Water

Today we had to say goodbye to Costa de Oro and begin our adventure. At 5:15 AM Alvaro came and picked up Kayla and took her to Hotel Laguna Mar. I was still trying to put the last things in order when Alvaro returned to get me.  When we arrived to the hotel,  Drew was waiting for us with some much needed coffee.

Bill and Audrey, pulled up to the hotel fifteen past six and we loaded the car up. We went for a quick drive to Liberia, with just one stop at the Do-It Center. After Bill and Audrey got all sorts of things for the house, we were dropped off at the car rental place. We thanked Bill and Audrey  for the ride and went to get our car.

As in everything in Costa Rica, the car rental took a little longer than expected and we even had to switch car companies because the first tried to rent us a Sedan by saying "there are no bad roads in Costa Rica." We finally ended up in a mini SUV which we know will better fit our needs.

One of our beautiful views along the drive.

Our first glimpse at the Blue River.

Thanks to Drew, we had our first hotel planned in Blue River, which was a place I had never seen. So after only one wrong turn and an hour and a half later of beautiful driving we crossed the Blue River. Of course, we stopped at it to take some photos. While taking the pictures, I stepped back into river and was surprised to find it was hot! We admired the beauty of the river and its unique color then once again, we climbed into the car. 

Only 100 meters past the river, we found the turn in for the resort. When we got there they gave us a map of the place which included a butterfly farm, hummingbird garden, sauna, hot springs, and a mud bath. Kayla and I decided there was no time to waste because we had so much to do, but first we needed to unpack the car.

Our room's private porch.

Huge bathroom!

And our really comfy beds...

When we arrived in the room, we couldn't believe how big it was. There was a great hammock on the front porch and two queen beds. When we turned the corner for the bathroom, the shower was almost the same size of my room I had been living in in Costa de Oro. Once we had thoroughly investigated our room, we quickly changed into our suits in search of the mud bath.

Our search begin at the spa, where we saw the special $1/ minute for massage. With this we were torn… Massage or mud bath first. We went with the mud bath since it was so warm outside, we felt the mud would feel best. The way one takes a mud bath is to first soak in the sauna for 20 minutes and then lather up in mud. Once the mud is dry then rinse in cold water. Only Kayla and I learned we are far too impatient for the full treatment and after only 5 minutes we were over the sauna and moved on to putting mud on. The mud was cool, but we quickly covered ourselves with the volcanic mud. We rinsed just as quickly, finding the water not to be cold, but the same temperature that we had grown accustomed to in Costa de Oro.

We made a run for the hot tub only to find we took a wrong turn in the garden and ended up in the butterfly enclosure. As we entered the tent we were memorized by the number of blue morpho butterflies. Forgetting how cold, we wandered the gardens watching the butterflies. After we couldn't stand the cold any longer, we made our way to the hotsprings. While sitting there, Kayla and I decided we needed at least a ten minute massage since our life on the beach for the last 5 months was so stressful.

Hotel Restaurant.

After a nice massage, hot shower and quick nap, we made our way to restaurant for a quick dinner before calling it an early night. Tomorrow we have an early day a head of us because we are going on a tour of Blue River, Blue River Estates and the waterfall.

Mele Kalikimaka

After almost 6 months in Costa Rica, 4 of which were spent living with the amazing community of Costa de Oro, it is time to wrap up the project.  We began by waking up early and exhuming all the nests that had hatched. During our 7 exhumations, we removed just over 300 live baby turtles that we released this evening.

The 300 plus turtles from the exhumations this morning.

Every turtle represents a nest that was in the hatchery this year.

Once all the exhumations were complete, we said good bye to Michelina and began packing up the house. Surprisingly enough we met our goal and the house was ready by 4PM.Of course the children showed up on time for our last activity of the year. Celebrating Christmas by making a snowman, our in our case a tropical sandman! We then released the 300 turtles with the help of the town and said our goodbyes. It was really hard to say good bye to such an amazing community even though I will be back in just over a month.

Last sunset in Costa de Oro

After the sun had set, we headed up to Laguna Mar for an amazing meal of homemade shrimp ravioli and a drink. I was surprised to see a couple of my friends had come by the bar just to wish us safe travels. Well I better get back to my last night in paradise and my pina colada! Keep posted for  Kayla and my travels around Costa Rica this coming week.

This awesome video made by one of the volunteers,

Michelina, which sums up the last month on the project!