Back with Fernando and Eva

So, right now we are in Santa Rosa National Park, got here yesterday, Dec. 10th. We drove from Puerto Viejo all the way up to Upala on Highway 4. It's a little highway, it's out of the way, but it turned out to be a good choice because we saw a lot of beautiful countryside and most importantly, we avoided the mess that the PanAmerican highway can be. We drove through Bijagua, hoping to see the signs to Las Heliconias Lodge so that we would know where to turn when we came back through here in a few days, but we never saw that sign. When we got to the PanAmerican, we turned left to go have lunch at the Rio Corobici again. Then we drove on to Liberia, where we were so excited to be picking up some last minute Christmas things for Fernando and Eva from the grocery store. We bought them some things that they would like to buy, but usually don't because those items are a little pricey. We bought some Cranberry Juice, some bottles of wine, and some Christmas bags and bows. Then we were so happy to finally be on our way to Santa Rosa.

When we got to Santa Rosa, we parked by the guest quarters but we didn't find our name on any door, so we had to go ask which room was ours. Our room was closest to the bathroom, which was nice. Inside our room were 4 bunkbeds, so eights beds in all, and Yay!, there are two fans in the room!! We both picked our beds and then set about bringing our stuff into the room and wondering when and how we would be meeting up with Fernando and Eva. We walked outside our room a little later and we were so happy to see Eva and Fernando coming down the road to meet us. They took us back to where they live and showed us around a little. Then we took a short hike to the casona. The casona was roped off, but we went up anyway and enjoyed the view and the wind blowing so nicely to cool us off.
That night, and it is pitch black here, no lights from ANYWHERE unless you turn on your own.  It was a VERY eventful night because Guillermo and I locked ourselves out of our room!!!!  It was my fault, because I assumed that the door automatically unlocked when you turned the knob to go out. But it doesn't. So, there we innocently walk over to the bathrooms to brush our teeth, not knowing what is about to happen to us.   We go back to our room when we're done, try the knob and were HORRIFIED to find that it was locked!!!  Guillermo only in his pajama bottoms, me in some dinky sandals, and just one small flashlight between us. We were truly panicked for several minutes because we knew we were on our own, the people with keys were gone, there was no one around to ask and we sure didn't want to walk all the way over to the researcher's quarters and bother Fernando. Ok, so we had visions of maybe sleeping in the car, but no, we couldn´t even do THAT because the keys to the car were locked in the room, too!! We were getting ready to admit defeat and were going to go to Fernando's room.  But before doing that,  Guillermo took the flashlight to the backside of our room and I followed him a few seconds later in the dark, in total disbelief of the position we were finding ourselves in.   How do we get ourselves out of this?!?!?!?   When I got around to the back side of our room I saw Guillermo sticking his arm inside one of the windows. I felt a slight glimmer of hope!! He had checked the window by the back door, and saw that the screen was torn there, so he reached in and he could just BARELY reach the door knob. He stretched his arm as hard as he could in sheer desperation and just using the tips of his fingers, he was able to turn the lock on the door. Oh My God!!! Whew!!!! We felt such incredible relief and seeing the inside of the room was like winning the lottery. So, evidently this exact same thing has happened to other people in the past, as evidenced by the torn screen right there closest to the doorknob.  What a few scary moments we had.

With the lights on in our room, a lot of insects were attracted. There were all kinds of little things on our sheets and on the floor and walls. Guillermo even saw a big spider crawl in under the door. So, we decided to stuff plastic grocery bags underneath the doors, and maybe that would keep SOME of the insects out. That night, I kept thinking something was going to crawl on me, but nothing ever did. The fan felt so good during the day, but during the night, it was actually quite cold with the fan going. And like during the day, all night the wind outside blew like a hurricane.
December 11th
It is so interesting here in Santa Rosa National Park. Fernando and Eva were spending the morning working, trying to find their group of monkeys, so they had hit the trail early. Guillermo and I drove back into Liberia to pick up a few more groceries, buy some blue Christmas lights for back home and get more money out of the ATM. It was a little strange to be in the little Christmas stores with the weather so hot!! We also tried to find a laundry to wash clothes but couldn't find one anywhere.
When we got back to the park, we met up with Fernando and Eva, who had no luck finding the monkeys that morning. We had lunch and after lunch, we geared up to join Fernando and Eva for the afternoon monkey search. We split from Eva, and the three of us went one way, and Eva went in another direction. We did quite a bit of walking that afternoon, starting at about 2:30 and ending at about 5:30. The walk was fairly easy except for the quebradas, which were quite steep to go up on, and we had to cross two of them. We never did find the monkeys and Eva didn't either. But along the way, we did see the Pale-Billed Woodpecker, a Tinamou and 3 Tyras chasing each other around. That was so exciting.
Back at our rooms, we showered and then went back to the researcher's place and helped Fernando and Eva fix dinner. We were actually going to have our Christmas dinner this evening! We hung up the Christmas lights we had bought around the dining table and they looked so pretty there that we wanted them to stay there. We had a nice dinner of pasta and beer and then we exchanged a few presents. And that was our Christmas with them!!! :-) We couldn't have enjoyed it more.

Walking to the Casona

 Up at the Casona.  You can tell just how windy it was by our hair!

But that wind really felt good with how hot the weather was.

Getting ready to go on the trails to look for monkeys.

The researcher's quarters

Fernando and Eva's room is behind those thin bushes.

Looking towards the dining area

Eva getting ready to string up the blue Christmas lights.

Fernando starting on the pasta

Fixing Christmas dinner together

Taking a break

Can't remember what we were talking about there...

Eva getting our dishes for the meal

Ok, time for Christmas Dinner!

It was a very merry Christmas!

For December 8th and 9th

December 8th.
Breakfast this morning was exciting, because the lodge puts up bananas outside and this draws lots of toucans, parrots, aracaris and other birds. It was beautiful to be able to watch them feed, and we spent a lot of time taking pictures and marveling at everything with binoculars.

Blue-Black Grasquit

Toucans

Chestnut Mandibled Toucan and Brown-headed Parrots

Keelbilled Toucan

 Isn't he just beautiful!

Black Cheeked Woodpecker

 Montezuma Oropendola

An Aracari

Brown-headed Parrots

 Breakfast was also way too much food, but very good. We sat at the beetle table, because it really is in the best spot on the whole deck, but it´s best to sit there during the day, when there are no lights on to attract insects.
After breakfast, we got ready to go on a boat ride down the Rio San Carlos. We had great weather and we saw many birds and quite a few crocodiles. It was so peaceful on the river and the surrounding land was just beautiful. The boat took us to the Rio San Juan, which is actually the border to Nicaragua. So, since our boat went into the center of the San Juan, technically we entered Nicaragua illegally. We don´t know why, but Nicaragua claims to have their border up to the edge of the river on the Costa Rican side.

After the little slip into Nicaraguan water space, our guide docked the boat at a little town called Boca de San Carlos.  This little town was amazing.  It is just a row of little houses (maybe 9 in all) along a sidewalk close to the water's edge.  There is a school there, and a covered meeting area where it is possible to get something to drink.  The guide explained to us how this town just got electricity in 2006.  As we passed some of the homes, (and here in Costa Rica hardly any homes have closed doors since the weather is so pleasant), we could see the people inside watching their TVs.  Most homes are set up the same inside - the couch is by the door, so the people sitting on the couch can see both the TV and to the outside.  After walking down that "main street", we sat in the covered area, drinking a coke, watching the kids at play and the other people going about their lives.  It was very interesting to get a glimpse into the life of this little town.
Back at Laguna del Lagarto, we had lunch on the deck again, and decided against taking a guided-walk down the trail system.  It was a good thing, too, because the walk would have started at 2.  At 2, we were safely inside our room when it began to rain very hard.  It rained hard for almost an hour.  We would have been absolutely drenched on the walk, and when it rains that hard, it's impossible to see anything anyway.  Instead, we rested comfortably on our beds, enjoying the sound of the rain in our nice dry position.
At around 3:30 or so, we got up and decided to walk one of the trails ourselves.  We picked out some rain boots from the selection there in a storeroom, then started out on a trail that the map showed going around the top sections of the lagoons.  We had a good walk, (although it was very muddy), up until about the middle of the two lagoons, and then the trail seemed to disappear into nothing.  And right at about that point, we had just passed a part of the trail that was a challenge because we had to jump across the mud onto a little ledge.  It required precision, or landing in the mud.  Well, we had no choice but to decide to turn around.  We had no idea where the trail was so that we could continue forward, it was starting to get a little dark, and we had left our flashlights in the room.  This was supposed to be a short easy hike!!!!  So, we turn around.  Guillermo gets to that challenging section of the trail, makes his jump, and ALMOST fell into the mud.  I felt a small twinge of alarm at that point.  This trail was challenging, hard to see it clearly and it's getting dark.  The last thing we needed was one of us to get hurt.  So, Guillermo helps me across the jump and we took the slippery, muddy trail very gingerly back.  The best part about this little hike, though, were all the little red frogs that we saw.  We saw LOTS of them, and it was always exciting to discover one.
When we got back to the lodge, we hiked almost immediately to a hill across from the lodge where we hoped to see the macaws fly in.  Yesterday, we were by the lagoon when they flew in to the trees on the that hill.  Maybe they were aware we were there, but nowhere near as many macaws flew by this time.  And they didn't fly into the trees we were closest to.  So, we saw them from the same distance today as we saw them yesterday.  We did discover a nice little bird blind afterwards, that if we had known about it, may have been the best place from which to observe the macaws flying by.
Dinner was absolutely delicious.  It was served buffet style -  barbecued chicken, yucca, tomatoes, beans and rice.  We finished off our bottle of wine with this meal, making the meal just splendid.
Immediately after dinner, we were all invited to a caiman show.  We sure didn't know what to make of this.  On the one hand, it was funny and interesting, but on the other hand, it was kind of silly.  The show was done down by the lagoon, and it consisted of this man callling out the caimans and feeding them raw chicken.  It was just LITTLE  scary when we all turned around at one point, and there was a caiman there in the dark right behind us.  We probably would have preferred to just take a little boat out on the lagoon, and tried to see if we could see their eyes in the water.

December 9th
Breakfast was exciting again, with all the birds coming to eat.   After breakfast, Guillermo and I decided to hike the trail that the guide would have taken us on yesterday.  We knew that there'd be plenty of light to be in the forest this time, and there would probably be no rain until the afternoon.  This time I took a walking stick with me and that proved to be so useful - surely would have made the walk yesterday a whole lot easier.  The stick made it so easy to balance myself whenever I would start to slip in the mud.  We walked the entire length of the trail, and the last part of the trail comes out onto a road.  It was probably about 11am at that point, but the sun was already hot.  It made us want to go back into the forest and go back on the same trail, but we stayed out on the road, just because it was different.

Back at our room, we packed everything up and then started the 30 kilometers again on that dirt road.  We got a little turned around again in Pital (no signs anywhere!), but finally we were on our way to Puerto Viejo.

Passing the pineapple fields again

We stopped at a nice little soda outside of Aguas Zarcas and had lunch.  Then we stopped in Chilamate to use the internet for a little while.  When we got to Puerto Viejo, we pulled into the Andrea Cristina Lodge, checked in, marveled at our cute room and then got back in the car to get gas.  Guillermo drove out of town a little so that I could see where the road was to get to Rara Avis, but we never found it.  So, we turned around, went back to our room and walked around the grounds a little.  We even walked through a little neighborhood of homes and that was enjoyable, too.
That evening, we drove into the town, parked along the street and spent a little time in an internet cafe before we went to a restaurant at a hotel.  Very nice restaurant, open air, and we enjoyed seeing their Christmas tree.  Actually, this was the very same restaurant that Guillermo and Fernando had eaten at several years earlier when they went to Rara Avis.
Well, the Andrea Cristina is a lovely place, but unfortunately, it's also the exact spot where big trucks apply their brakes, so it was very noisy.  The noise lessened during the night though, which was good.

Where we had breakfast at the Andrea Cristina Lodge

It was a cute place and we enjoyed sitting on our porch and looking at our field guides.

With the macaws, toucans and parrots

These past two days we have been really isolated, so no TV, no phone, no internet, nothing but rain forest.
We drove from Fortuna to Pital, which was a really nice drive. Nice, I say, because the road was paved. It is also so interesting to see the many different kinds of homes along the way. Some of them are so pretty, it would be nice to have such a home in such a beautiful area. And it´s nice being here at Christmas time, because everyone is starting to decorate their homes. Here in Costa Rica, people put up their Christmas trees outside, on their porches. Some people have porches so huge they are almost like another house in itself.

From Pital, we drove 30 kilometers on a rough gravel road, which could have been a lot worse, but it was very slow going anyway. We passed tons of pineapple fields and several fields of yucca plants. It took us almost 2 and a half hours to get to the Laguna del Lagarto Lodge. This lodge is so far away from any town of any size and it´s not easy to get to. For some reason there are no signs on the roads here, not even on some of the big highways. We had to stop several times to make sure we were going the right way or to ask which way to go, or even to double-check the name of the town we were in. But once we got to Laguna del Lagarto, it´s worth all the uncertainty of the drive there because it's like being in paradise here. It is definitely worth the effort to get to this lodge.

It was very hot when we got to the lodge, and we were kind of beat after that long hard drive, so the first thing we did was rest in our room for over 2 hours!! A nice rain fell while we rested and it just felt so peaceful.
After we got up, we walked to a bench they had facing a lagoon, and from this bench we watched at least 20 Scarlet Macaws coming in to roost on the nearby trees. We also saw parrots fly over periodically, but never saw them too well.

Supper is served here at 6:30, so at around 6 we made our way to a table on their nice deck. As we sat there reading our bird and Costa Rica guide books, we noticed the table behind us was becoming covered with shiny black beetles. Slowly but surely more and more beetles kept falling on that table. We dubbed that table the "beetle table". We eventually moved from the table we had picked to eat at because some were starting to fall on our table, too. Then, while sitting at our NEW table, Guillermo gets up and comes over to me and quietly brushes a beetle that had been on my blouse and I wasn´t even aware it was there!!! It must have fallen on me when we were at our old table.
We had a good dinner, and no bugs at our table. The food was good, the wine was good, but their food portions were way too huge for us! They had served us a huge lunch, and now this huge dinner, so we had to let them know that we don't eat that much. Fortunately, the next few nights, food was served buffet style, so that made it easier to take as much or as little as we wanted.
At night, from our room, we could see click beetles shining their lights on and off in the trees. Our room was nice, because one whole wall, facing the forest, was nothing but screened window, so we had a really good view to the outside.

Saying goodbye to our new friends

It wasn´t hard staying in bed this morning, because the howler monkeys were active! I just love their call! It is one of the most haunting sounds I know. And of course, their sound reminds me of the day we were going into the forest with Fernando and Rebeca in Lomas Barbudal back in 2003.  On that day, it was still dark and as we started on the trail to the capuchin monkey sleeping site, the howler monkeys made the loudest, most incredible noise I have ever heard. We couldn´t see them, but we knew they were in the trees above us. The whole thing rivaled any haunted house situation you could think of. So, anyway, this morning, they were making that sound, and it was great hearing them.
Guillermo and I decided to walk a trail on the hotel property before breakfast and it was lovely. We passed through forest, and by a river and then we walking on some rolling hills. We got to the farthest point we could go, and from there we could see the ocean and hear the waves breaking. We also saw lots of parrots while doing this little walk.

 This was the view from our hotel room before heading out on the walk.

Looking back at our room while on our walk.

A parrot up on top of the tree.

Back at the hotel, we had a most incredible breakfast again, this time they offered crepes and boy they were delicious!! After breakfast, we packed up our stuff and drove back to Paquera where we would catch the ferry back to Puntarenas.

We passed this nice beach as we headed back.

We wondered if Christoph and Estevan were there yet, and sure enough, we saw their car ahead in the line. We got in line ourselves and after a few minutes, they came over to us, and we passed the waiting time together. We walked down to buy the ferry tickets and then we just hung around the car until we felt it was almost time to board.  We were so touched when the two of them presented a little gift they had bought for us!
This ferry today was much nicer than the one we took getting to Paquera. Estevan and Christoph said they´d be up on top, so when I got on, I looked for Estevan and finally found him.

What I saw as I walked the plank up to the ferry.

 We waited for Guillermo and Christoph to show up, after parking their cars down below. We all enjoyed the ferry ride back to Puntarenas very much, and it seemed to go much quicker than last time.

What we saw as the ferry was pulling away from land.

And now some scenes along the ferry ride to Puntarenas.

 We decided to say our goodbyes to Christoph and Estevan while still on the ferry, to avoid the mass confusion that happens when disembarking. We told them again how much we appreciated their help, and they told us also how they don´t know what they would have done if we hadn´t been following them. It was sad to see them go, they were both so very nice.

Right now, I am writing this in an internet cafe in Fortuna, with a view of the Arenal Volcano right outside. We are staying in another hotel Christoph recommended and it is wonderful here. We are looking forward to another good dinner tonight.