Two days after our wedding, Ben and I got on a plane at 6am to fly to San Jose, Costa Rica. We had one lay-over in Miami and then made our way to San Jose, arriving around 4:30pm their time. We knew we had a drive to get to our final destination, Punta Uva on the southeast side of Coast Rica, near the Panama border. What we didn't know was that it was a four and a half hour car ride! That four and a half hour car ride turned into a 6 hour ride between the bad traffic and car accident we got into within the first five minutes of getting in our driver's car. The van had been rear-ended and he stopped in the middle of a rushing highway for almost an hour waiting for the police to arrive, take the report, and allow the owner of the van agency to come out and fill out the paperwork.
Huge grasshopper!
Finally, we got back on the road and and the rain began pouring down as we drove on a windy highway through the mountains. I will admit, I was a bit nervous driving through the pitch black pouring rain in a foreign country. Thoughts ran through my head a few times like, what if this guy is taking us out to the middle of no where? We were in his control and even if he did have bad intentions we wouldn't know till we arrived. Thankfully, my fears were over-paranoid. We stopped once for some dinner, ate some platanos and drank a beer, and then continued on to the Tree House Lodge. After hours of driving, we finally arrived at around 10:30 to the Tree House Lodge, totally exhausted and ready for bed. We were quite amazed at how unique (and big!) the tree house was and we explored it for another couple hours before going to bed.
Iguana on a flower!
Sloth!! Cutest animal ever :)
The next morning we began our adventure right away, taking the Iguana Conservation Tour and then later going on a hiking a ziplining canopy tour. It was hot and humid but we still had a good time, especially since Ben had never ziplined before. I had once before in Kauai. I will admit that the weather is a little better in Hawaii than in Costa Rica, at least in the month of June (I was in Hawaii in July).
The following days were filled with more adventures including going to the Jaguar Animal Rescue Center where I had monkeys crawl on me! We also went on a real jungle tour with Boogey Boggey, our guide who showed us (up close and personal!) vipers (poisonous snakes), bullet ants, rare plants, a caiman (mini-croc), giant spiders, centipedes and a variety of other creatures.
On our last day we drove half way back to San Jose and went white water rafting...that was the most crazy of our adventures. When we got into the van that picked us up, we were told that we would be picking up six more people...we were the first to be picked up. Two more couples were picked up followed by two young women in their early twenties. One took forever to get out to the van and our drivers were talking about leaving since she was being "rude" and inconsiderate of our time schedule. A few moments later she got to the van, looking not so hot. We thought she was just grumpy and sleepy but after driving for only about five minutes she began barfing into a bag. Everyone in the van became silent but the driver and guide didn't seem to notice. Finally, one did notice and he offered to have her sit in the front for the rest of the trip. She asked to go back but they said they didn't have time since she took too long to get to the van (rafts were leaving promptly at 8:30am).
Bullet Ants! If you get seven bites it's equivalent to a poisonous snake bite!
Trees that move!!
So we had the "barfer" in our van for two hours! I think we were probably all worried about getting violently ill by the end of the drive. Fortunately, we all made it there on time in one piece, had our breakfast, and began our adventure. We were told that we would be rafting through class one through class four rapids. It was fun going through the class one and two rapids but the three's and four's were so intense they were actually quite frightening. During one set of class four rapids Ben and two other members of our raft actually fell out! Me and one other girl hung on and another guy was able to climb back in. We finally picked Ben up downstream...after that we were pretty ready to be done with our 18 mile rafting trip...but overall it was still a lot of fun and we both agreed that we were glad we did it.
Viper in the wild!! Yikes
Grasshoppers that camoflauge with the white tree!
After the rafting trip, we drove back to San Jose, stayed the night and went to the airport the next morning to fly to St. Louis, Missouri.
One of the neat parts of our trip was some of our dining experiences. The little town we stayed in was quiet and peaceful with not too many people. Restaurants and shops were all outside...nothing was inside or air conditioned. One restaurant in particular stood out for Ben and me. This great little place was owned by a woman and her boyfriend who appeared to be in their thirties and most likely they were Spanish. There were several Spanish and American immigrants in Punto Uva. The food there was delicious. Every day the meal changed according to the meat and fish they could get fresh that day. I had the most fresh shrimp and salad with the most pungent herbs. Ben had a delicious beef tenderloin...we also had sushi there one other night, and we discovered a new favorite drink--caiprinika, an alcoholic drink made with rum, tons of crushed lime, and sugar cane. Not sure if we'll find that in the U.S. but it's such an easy drink to make that we can probably make it ourselves if we like!
I hope you enjoy the pictures and stories...stay tuned for our adventures in St. Louis!
