Costa Rica

[Melalvai]

My daughter's bike wreck left her with a fracture in her left pinkie finger (proximal phalanx). They took the cast off and taped 2 fingers together. She's not to play clarinet or swim. I didn't think to ask about zip-lining! It'll be 2 1/2 weeks after her wreck, when we are in Costa Rica. Thoughts?

[tangentgirl]

Costa Rica Rocks!

Mel, for ziplining, your daughter will need to hold onto the front of the harness with one hand, and steady the line lightly with her back hand. The pictures on this site seem to show it: http://www.monteverdeextremo.com/can...per_cable.html

Not sure if this will hurt or reinjure her fingers.

[Cataboo]

My daughter's bike wreck left her with a fracture in her left pinkie finger (proximal phalanx). They took the cast off and taped 2 fingers together. She's not to play clarinet or swim. I didn't think to ask about zip-lining! It'll be 2 1/2 weeks after her wreck, when we are in Costa Rica. Thoughts?

If she holds on the front of her harness with her bad hand and brakes with her good hand, I think she'll be fine. Truthfully, you don't have to hold your harness at all - but generally it makes you feel a little bit more secure. If she's right handed, she's probably going to naturally brake with her right hand anyways.

[kjay]

Hi, Melalvai, [Edit update: I thought you meant the Limon/La Cahuita area, but I now see that the Osa Peninsula is down south and west—Sorry.]

I'm so excited about your going to the Cahuita region, and I have just the place for you to visit! You won't be sorry one bit! In Spanish it's Refugio Aviarios del Caribe and it's a sloth sanctuary, the only one I know of in the world. The sloth is the most incredible animal, and this sanctuary has both the two-toed and three-toed sloth. Buttercup was the very first sloth rescued, and she is still there and is now quite famous. When I was there a few years ago, I was able to hold her, a moment in my life I'll never forget.

Here is the web site, and I hope you'll browse around here, as it's just the most fascinating place ever. By the way, it's also a small boutique-type hotel and a stone's throw to La Cahuita. :-)

http://www.slothrescue.org/index.html

[Melalvai]

Sorry, kjay, we ended up not selecting Cahuita, but went with a place near Liberia. The area might be a bit more touristy but I felt with only 7 days, and really that's only 5 days because of travel, that we'd be better off with a place that is easy to get to.

Cataboo had found one place, Vista Villa Mar, that she wished she could spend several days in. That seemed perfect for us. Not too much sight-seeing, just lie around and enjoy the beach & howler monkeys!

The sloths sound really interesting and it was something I looked into when we were planning this. Sloths are such unique creatures!

[Melalvai]

I'm listening to the howler monkeys and the tide right now sitting on the balcony in front of our apartment at Villa Vista Mar. They remember you, Catrin*. The view sure is easy on the eyes.

Forecast back home this week, the HIGH will be right at freezing. Right here in the coolest time of the day I'm barely shivering in my shorts & tshirt.

I could get used to it!

*Edit: The owners of the Villa, not the howler monkeys.

[Melalvai]

I'm listening to the howler monkeys and the tide right now sitting on the balcony in front of our apartment at Villa Vista Mar. They remember you, Catrin*. The view sure is easy on the eyes.

Er, that should have been Cataboo of course. Sorry, this Spanish is hard on my brain and I have trouble remember English and names! (At least that's my excuse, next week I'll have to think of a new excuse.)

[Catrin]

Er, that should have been Cataboo of course. Sorry, this Spanish is hard on my brain and I have trouble remember English and names! (At least that's my excuse, next week I'll have to think of a new excuse.)

I figured that was who you meant, wasn't going to mention it I am certainly looking forward to hearing more about your trip!

[Cataboo]

I'm listening to the howler monkeys and the tide right now sitting on the balcony in front of our apartment at Villa Vista Mar. They remember you, Catrin*. The view sure is easy on the eyes.

Forecast back home this week, the HIGH will be right at freezing. Right here in the coolest time of the day I'm barely shivering in my shorts & tshirt.

I could get used to it!

*Edit: The owners of the Villa, not the howler monkeys.

Hey Melavai,

I finally just saw this - I was actually close by when you were posting this. I was in Costa Rica for a day on the 29th. We just went around Puntaranes for the day. It was brutal getting back to the US and the cold after 2 weeks at 90 degrees.

I'm actually really surprised that Lorrie & Ed remembered me, I only stayed 1 night, but really should have stayed more! They really were super sweet and nice people when we stayed there. I'm glad they took care of you as 'travel agents'

How was your trip? I was worried that maybe I had you stay somewhere too remote (we had a rental car when we were there). Did your daughter manage to zip line? We want details!

[Melalvai]

Hey Melavai,

I finally just saw this - I was actually close by when you were posting this. I was in Costa Rica for a day on the 29th. We just went around Puntaranes for the day. It was brutal getting back to the US and the cold after 2 weeks at 90 degrees.

I'm actually really surprised that Lorrie & Ed remembered me, I only stayed 1 night, but really should have stayed more! They really were super sweet and nice people when we stayed there. I'm glad they took care of you as 'travel agents'

How was your trip? I was worried that maybe I had you stay somewhere too remote (we had a rental car when we were there). Did your daughter manage to zip line? We want details!

Yes, she zip lined, so did I. She loved it! I am glad to have done it once, and I don't really need to do it again ever.


We were going to get a car and drive to Rincon de la Vieja, but that didn't work out. However Ed & Lorrie were able to hook us up with a driver who was very affordable. He isn't really a tour guide but he was happy to accompany us on the trail, and tell us what he could about the volcano. A few days later we hired him again to take us to the Congo Canopy Tour for ziplining. I thought "Congo" was a funny name for something in Costa Rica, then I learned that is the name of the howler monkeys.

SO many monkeys! We heard howler monkeys every morning and evening. I went for a lot of walks, and I saw a family of them one morning. Another morning I saw a family of quiet spider monkeys, which surprised Ed & Lorrie. They've only seen howlers & white-faced monkeys.

A family of white-faced monkeys put on a show for us at Rincon de la Vieja. At the Congo Canopy Tour, they have a butterfly house, where we finally got some pictures of the blue morpho. We kept trying to get pictures of blue morpho at Rincon but it was elusive. They also had a monkey refuge, and we could walk into the cage! The monkeys climbed all over us and pulled my hair out!



Rincon de la Vieja is a volcano. It had fumaroles (smokers) and boiling mud pits. The waterfall was my husband's favorite part of Costa Rica. My daughter's favorite was ziplining, and my favorite was the monkeys.

We loved eating in open air restaurants. The villa apartments each have a kitchen with dishes, so we cooked several meals and only ate out once a day or less. Our driver took us to a little place in Liberia for lunch, which seemed the most genuine food we ate, the places in Coco being geared toward tourists.

In fact we didn't really need to speak much Spanish, and my daughter's translating skills didn't get put to the test much. I bought a couple t-shirts at the grocery store and then discovered they were sized too small. Since I got them at the grocery store, we were able to exchange them, and I had her handle the exchange. She did a wonderful job! I was SO proud of her.

We walked down to the ocean nearly every day. Playa Azul and Playa Ocotal are both black sand beaches. I loved and hated the ocean. The tide pools and rocks were really cool. The rocks are volcanic, black and pink. The Pacific was pretty cool but I had a bad panic attack at high tide and I really was never comfortable in it. (I swam in the Atlantic a couple times years and years ago, otherwise I've never even seen the ocean.) Kind of ruined the ocean for me.

More pictures at http://gallery.ruhlendavis.org/main.php?g2_itemId=29, and more details at http://www.kemenel.org/melalvai/ (start at Dec 16 and work backwards).