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(This part of the Trip Log begins
when we arrived in the Arenal Volcano area, then drove on to the
Central Pacific Coast near Tarcoles and finally, the last day, drove
back to the outskirts of San Jose. The last 2 weeks were in Playa
Hermosa and will be posted as Part 3.
You can enlarge any picture in this narrative by
clicking on it - it
will open in a separate window and in many cases, show detail you can't
see in the smaller version. Many more pictures can be found here.)
Wednesday Jan 22   We
left off (in Part 1) after our visit to the pineapple farm and the
Organic
Paradise Tour in the morning. We stopped somewhere (that I forgot
to write down) for lunch and then arrived at the Arenal Manoa Resort
in
the afternoon. This is a lovely facility at the foot of the
Arenal Volcano. The accommodations are small, duplex cottages
with nice patios complete with rocking chairs and tables (left).
There
was a lot more here than we took advantage of but we did use the hot
spring pools (right) one afternoon. They provide shuttle vans to
anywhere
but we were centrally located so only used the van once in the pouring
rain! Thursday Jan 23   The whole resort is nicely landscaped and over the
next few days we saw a lot of birds, frogs (as we crossed a bridge over
the creek) and even a sloth. In the morning we walked up
to La Saca restaurant for breakfast. Their buffets were great but
the
evenings we ordered from the menu were not - they had a hard time with
a large group, keeping the orders right and getting them
delivered. Part
of the dining area is on a terrace and, when it's not raining, that's a
great spot for wildlife. At the right are two Green Kingfishers
who entertained us that first morning; we also saw some guans but got
better pictures elsewhere.   Today we started out at the Arenal 1968 park.
Originally the national park had been on our itinerary but due to
extraordinary rains in the past month, some of their trails were
unusable - so we went to the adjacent Arenal 1968 park. The
eruption in 1968 was a total surprise, as nobody (apparently) even
realized that it was a volcano! It buried 3 villages and killed
almost 90 people. The volcano remained restless until 2010 but
has been quiet since then, though still considered "active." We
had good views of Arenal Lake that is now the largest lake in the
country - it started as a natural lake but was expanded by the
construction of the Presa
Sangregado Dam and is now a major recreation area as well as power
generator. Along our hike we also saw the shrine erected in
memory of those lost in the 1968 eruption, a replica of a traditional
cart (one of the national symbols of Costa Rica) and a white-nosed
coatimundi near the snack area, eager for a handout!        After lunch those who were interested had a short
nature walk in the area - we went across a hanging bridge and met a
pink banana plant, among other interesting sights! When we got back to the resort, we had a free afternoon and spent some of it in the hot springs pool. It wasn't really hot (there were 3 in that area and none would qualify as a "hot tub") but it was rather lukewarm and pleasant to cool off. Since we are in a rain forest, we have to expect downpours at any time and yes, one came while we were in the pool! Of course, we were already wet but our hats and "cover ups" on nearby chairs got quite soaked. (Not a particular problem, just part of the local environment.) Before I move on to Friday I want to share some volcano pictures. The one on the left is the most common sight from our patio. But sometimes, as in the center picture, you'd never know there was even a volcano there! While we did not catch sight of the top while we were there, our next door neighbor, Ruth, caught it around 7:30 one morning. She said it was only about 30 seconds before the fog/clouds blew back over it - but she did share her picture at the right!      This
morning we visited a local farm and, I confess, this was the only
portion of the whole tour I was somewhat disappointed in. I had
been hoping we would learn more about their organic methods but they
focussed only on some of the crops and what they were used for rather
than the actual growing process. Before we got to the
demonstration area, I did get catch a view of a 3-toed sloth hanging on
a nearby tree! That was fun. One of the crops they raise is
sugar cane and we had a demonstration of what it is like to manually
process the large sugar cane stalks (at the right). We had
samples of several other kinds of vegetables and products made with
them.  Then we moved into the dining room where we were each
given a ball of tortilla dough to flatten out. While the staff
cooked them on the wood fire to go with the buffet luncheon, we were
treated to a traditional folk dance performance by some local
teens. They have a dance group that goes to competitions all over
the country. It was fun to watch and then they kept the music
going and made us all  get up and follow their motions. At least we
didn't have the huge skirts to try to keep track of! After lunch we headed back to the resort, stopping for a short visit in La Fortuna. On the left is a sample of the local street art. There is a nice "city square" in the center of town (pictures of it can be found in the larger photos only section). We used our 20 minutes to visit Chocolate Fusion, one of the shops on the side of the city park - that was a good stop! I had ice cream and John had a "real" hot chocolate with whipped cream.  Saturday
Jan 25Today we had a long drive over to the Pacific Coast near Caldera. We stopped at a rest area part way where there was a large souvenir shop. We've been asking the girls (our group leaders) where they get their t-shirts. Liz says this is a good place for that because the clothing and most of the other items for sale are made in Costa Rica (not China)! I did buy a souvenir t-shirt but there was also a nice garden area (left) with a butterfly sanctuary so we had to go visit that, too. Below are a Tiger Leafwing and a Malachite butterfly. The two that are just emerging in the "nursery" picture are apparently Blue Morphos. I would not have guessed that from their color, but the markings are exactly right and the bright blue is on the inside so we don't see that until they finish drying and fly off!     The next stop on our trip was the Jungle
Crocodile Safari
where we had a nice lunch, had yet another opportunity to shop in their
gift store and then enjoyed the safari trip on the river
T rcoles. Liz took this picture - we're in the front, left.
Although this was billed as a "crocodile" safari - and we did see
several crocs - we also saw many birds! We saw some of the same
birds
we had seen on the Sarapiqu , but many were different. Here is a
sample: in the top row a Little Blue Heron, a Snowy Egret and a
Bare Throated Tiger Heron (no, I had no idea what that was - our boat
captain ID's him for us!) In the bottom row a large gathering of
brown pelicans, a very old (they estimate over 100 years) crocodile
they've named Osama (or maybe "old Samma"?) and an osprey. Among
those we saw but are not pictured were more young crocodiles, white
ibis and roseate spoonbills. I was very excited to get the
spoonbills but they were up in a tree and it's not a great picture - it
IS in the Photos collection if you want to see it anyway!       After that outing, we continued on to our new lodging - The Villa Lapas Jungle Village in Puntarenas Province. It is an older property though some parts have been upgraded and it is perfectly adequate. Nice people, good food, pleasant room and very convenient to the river trip, beaches and the Carara national park. After settling in that afternoon, we had a session with a conservationist who told us about the efforts to protect the Scarlet Macaws (left picture from the national park). We had seen loads of them on the Osa Peninsula 5 years ago so I was interested in why they needed protection! Apparently we were seeing the results of the program as it started around 2015. The birds were being killed off because their bright feathers brought a big price. Interestingly, one of the main educational programs involved kids - they used stories and coloring books to convince THEM that the Macaws should be left free, and they put pressure on their parents who regularly were hunting them! Fascinating. Anyway, he was passionate about his work and interesting to talk with. After our buffet dinner, we went to bed early to be ready for the outrigger outing tomorrow morning! Sunday, Jan 26   We
bussed to Playa Agujas this morning to meet the outrigger providers -
Kayak Jaco.
This was a fun experience - we were in an extra-long
canoe type boat that had "wings" on each side for stabilization.
See the picture at the right. We each had a paddle but we just
followed orders about what side to paddle on, when to stop, and so
on. We didn't go too far - around a point to another beach that
wasn't crowded. On the left you can see where we were headed.
There was a big ship just off the coast - as we got closer I was able
to take a picture and enlarge it to see what it was. It's a
French (Ponant Company) 180 passenger "luxury expedition yacht." On the left below, we arrived at the destination beach and had help getting it beached and getting out. They provided snacks (pineapple) and plenty of water. Some people, including John, went into the ocean to cool off and refresh. I wandered around on the beach, finding assorted rocks, snails and little fishes (center picture). The mangrove crab on the right was dead and dried out, but a good specimen!     fewer of us in the park group - some folks did get too
worn out in the morning or had had enough nature walks and chose to
stay
back at the village property.  We started out on the paved trail
but then pushed further on one of the spurs off of that one. Right at the beginning, while Liz was paying our entry fees, we saw an iguana hanging around the parking lot (left) - it wasn't a green one! Later, I looked it up and learned it is a black, spiny-tailed iguana, which was new to us, but a very descriptive name. We saw lots of nature and Liz was a wonderful leader - she knew so much about everything! A few highlights inluded our first view of a white-faced capuchin monkey (right, above) - it  was quite different from the black howlers that are far
more prevalent. The picture isn't very clear but you can see its
dark tail off on the left wrapped around a branch and the white face
(sort of) facing down on the right. Its arms and legs are partly
black but much of its fur is light.  We also ran into a large parade of leaf-cutter ants
hurrying across the trail with their harvest (left). You probably
have to enlarge that to discern the little ants carrying their large
crop. They cut off pieces of leaves larger than their bodies and
haul them back to their nest where they use the leaves to grow fungus
that they eat. We saw a colony of them in La Fortuna, too, in
front of the church, but these are better pictures so I waited until
here to talk about them! Finally, before we headed back for
supper, we gathered at the park sign for a souvenir picture! (I'm
half hidden by the Costa Rican flag.) We had one more outing this evening. Wilson (our
bus driver) took us down to a nearby beach for the sunset. It's
hard to believe we've been on vacation for 10 days and don't have any
sunset pictures yet!  We
just haven't been around the coast until these last couple of days -
but we'll make up for it at Playa Hermosa next week. So we sat
around on nicely spaced large tires waiting for the "moment." Liz
made good use of the waiting time taking pictures of each of us, then
one more group picture (in the Photos section) before we went off to
eat supper at Steven Lisa's restaurant in T rcoles.  Monday January 27- The last day of our Road Scholar tour! Liz and Rebeca had promised an ice cream stop so we did find a good ice cream shop (but not Pop's which I am told is the "best") at 9:30 am! A little early but that's when it was convenient. Our last field trip together was at Jard n de Orqu deas, a Botanical Orchid Garden just outside of San Jos . The owner, Claudio Salas, met with us and talked about his passion for orchids and how he started this business almost 50 years ago. Then he let us wander the trails and look around; of course, there was also a gift shop. A few pictures to give you the idea of what we saw - a small greenhouse area, a Vanda Sanderiana and a Moth Orchid. As usual, many more pictures of his orchids, bamboo and palms are in the photos collection.     For lunch today we went
to Palo Santo Bar and Restaurant.
It had great food and service, but also has a bit of a story - it used
to be owned by Christopher Reeves and served as a vacation home (they
call it a "rest home") for him and his family. There were some
Superman artifacts on display. In the backyard there is a big
tree that is said to be "magic." It makes things better, brings
feelings of peace and rest to those who need it. So we all had to
look around the yard (it is a very large property) and Liz told us
stories about the tree before we went on the final hotel - Wyndham San Jos Herradura Hotel and Convention Center.
This one clearly was chosen because they gave us a good group rate and
is very close to the San Jos airport. It's a 5-star facility
that has way more than we could use just for overnight! But it
was fun to walk through it - there are several pools, a casino,
restaurants, gym and on and on. We had a buffet supper there and
breakfast in the morning. Most of the group had to leave to catch
planes before breakfast but we are on our own for the next 2 weeks,
heading to Playa Hermosa in Guanacaste province, and asked our driver
to pick us up at 9 am. So we had plenty of time to sleep in, have
breakfast and be down in the lobby to meet him. Part 3 begins Tuesday morning with the long drive to Liberia then Playa Hermosa. Click here to see the first part of our Trip: San Jos and Sarapiqu Click here to see the final part of our Trip: Playa Hermosa Click here to
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