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The Greene Family's Holiday Adventure in Costa Rica
December 20th, 2005 - January 1st, 2006
My Sister says we are too old to travel with my
Parents, I disagree. I love our family adventures! They are some of
the funniest memories I have, why not have more. True, we are all very
different and we occasionally have "disagreements". But we do love
eachother and understand we are each our own distinct form of crazy.
I feel it is all part of the adventure and I
love my crazy family.
4 days diving in Playa Ocotal
1 day in San Jose
2 days in Arenal
2 days in Monte Verde Cloud Forest
2 days in Manuel Antonio
New Years' Eve in San Jose
So, off we went to Costa Rica for the
Holidays. I went early, by myself, to get a few days of scuba diving in
before I met my family on Christmas Eve. I stayed at the Ocotal resort
in the Guanacaste region on the Papagayo Bay (Northern Pacific coast). A
nice hotel perched on the cliffs overlooking the beach.
Ocotal Beach
I made a friend
The dive shop people were
great and I dove with some wonderful new friends. Dive sites I visited were
Tiburones, Punta Gorda, Palmares, Monkey Head and Catalinas Island. Water
temps varied from a cool 77 to 82 in the same dive and visibility was poor
at about 15-20 feet. But the creatures! Mantas, eagle rays, turtles, tons of
morrays, huge green morrays, jewel morrays and tiger snake eels. White tip
reef sharks, Spotted eagle rays, southern sting rays and round stingrays.
The biggest puffer fishes I have ever seen. Scorpion fish and huge schools
of all types of fish. We passed a pod of pilot whales one day and a humpback
whale on another. Of course, since I did not have my camera for the
first day of diving, we saw a whale shark. All my life I have waited
for that moment and I had no camera! She was a baby, an 18 foot long baby
that is! She was just off of Punta Gorda in the bay. We swam with her for
about 30 minutes while she circled and played with us. It was amazing!
However, I feel our two young dive masters were too aggressive with her.
They pursued her relentlessly, grabbing and pulling at her fins. It did not
seem like the right thing to do, let her be. We divers, who had long since
returned to the boat, were telling them to stop and leave her alone. They,
of course, would not listen and did not return to the boat until she swam
off into the depths. All the other dive masters were wonderful and
professional with a protective respect for the sea and her creatures.
Pod of pilot whales
Turtle Love
Turtle
Me!
White
Spotted Puffer Love
Porcupine fish
Surgeonfish
Southern
stingray
Round Stingray
Green Morray
Jewel Morray
White tip reef
shark
I love the big
graceful Mantas! They seemed to like us too!
On Friday eve December 23rd,
I went to a beach where the Leatherback Turtles were laying their eggs. The
turtle we visited was HUGE! it was very cool to see her dig the hole and lay
her eggs. No photos allowed and I was with a group of drunken fools but that
beach was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life! I
laid in the sand and stared up at the sky while the waves gently rolled
ashore. Shooting stars went by and I was having a truly beautiful Zen like
moment, then one of the drunken sons of the lead drunken fool came to see
what I was doing. And so the entire drunken family proceeded to plop
themselves down all around me and wrestle in the sand. Aw well, it was
beautiful while it lasted.
On Christmas Eve I met my Family in San Jose where we
rented a SUV to drive ourselves around the country. In retrospect this was a
bad idea as the roads are truly dangerous. I recommend any visitors to Costa
Rica take day trips or short flights from a central location. Nature Air
flies all over to the tiny airports and will save you so much time and
aggravation.
Road at night
A good
road
off the side
of the road
We first drove from San Jose
to Arenal where we stayed at a new hotel called Mirador. It is not yet
finished but the rooms are beautiful and it will be gorgeous when it's done.
Falling asleep while looking at the glow of an active volcano is pretty
cool. We hiked down to the waterfall at La Fortuna. The "path" was too
steep and rough for my Mom so she turned back. I had a hard time myself but
my gym loving little Sister breezed right through. We also spent a day at
the Tabicon hot springs and spa. We all had spa treatments. I went for the
volcanic mud wrap and massage and loved it. The water at the hot springs is
naturally warmed by the volcano and they have all sorts of pools and
waterfalls, it was beautiful. In the afternoon a coral snake, yes a coral
snake, swam into the main pool and had to be fished out. No one was
bitten and it was interesting to see one of the deadliest snakes in person.
My Mom was pretty freaked out by it though.
My Parents and
Sister
The "path"
down to the waterfall
La Fortuna
waterfall
My Sister Jen
(I
love this photo)
Next we drove from Arenal to
Monteverde. On the way we picked wild orchids and passed a troop of Coati on
the road. They are a relative of the raccoon and remind me of ring tail
lemurs. I just love them, especially those tails. In Monte Verde we did a
night hike of the cloud forest where we saw lots of nocturnal creatures. My
favorites were the Kinkajou and frogs (I love frogs). I raced through the
treetops the next morning on a zipline. My family would not do it but I had
to. It was so much fun, you go so fast! Later my Family and I walked
the series of bridges they have placed in the treetops and visited the "Frog
Pond" to see those hard to spot little froggies.
Coati on the road
so cute!
Me
Me on the zip
line
My Parents
Next we drove from MonteVerde
to Manuel Antonio with a lunch stop in Jaco. That was a long drive, 6 hours
or so I think. We passed through huge palm oil plantations with filthy
looking processing plants and over horrible rickety little bridges.
Cows in the
road
My Sister
drinks alot of water
I love floppy
eared cows
Rickety bridge
We stayed at Makanda by the
Sea in Manuel Antonio, a pricey but beautiful Hotel. Our rooms were ideally
suited for a honeymoon couple. My Sister and I shared Villa 1 which is open
air. As in, it does not close, you sleep essentially outside under a wooden
roof. I thought this was very cool, as did my Sister until I pointed out the
wildlife all over our walls and ceiling. She shrieked like a madwoman when I
showed her two lizards fighting over our heads (Does it make me a sadist to
have enjoyed that so much?). My favorite was the huge beautiful tree frog in
the rafters. I wish I could have seen him better but he was pretending to be
invisible. At sunset, while I took the photos
below, a
laughing falcon perched itself in the highest tree outside our room and
screamed the sun away. He was beautiful and oh so loud.
Our room
Tree frog in
the rafters
Our view
So beautiful!
Dad in the
pool
Jen and I
Me again
In Manuel Antonio I went for
two more dives to the sites Aquarium and La Largo. Horrible visibility, some
surge, we were all separated a few times. I saw tons of fishes, lots of
lobsters, more eels, a huge turtle and the funkiest shrimps I have ever
seen. They were quite a pair of characters, waving their arms around as if
to say "Hey Lady, over here, take our picture". The photos came out
surprisingly good for me. I am told they are rare
Harlequin
shrimp. Having seen them, the earlier Mantas and a
Whale Shark, what more could a diver ask for? (except maybe a photo of the
whale shark, actually)
Harlequin
Shrimp at La Largo
Turtle
Tiger Snake
Eel
Lobsters
I went on a wonderful
morning hike through the Manuel Antonio National Park where I saw lots of
creatures. One of the rare daytime sightings was an anteater curled up and
sleeping in a palm tree. Lots of bats, sloths and monkeys as well. A huge
iguana watched us carefully and a pair of raccoons tried to get into
someone's lunch.
Anteater
Common Tent
bats
bats
Sloth
Hermit Crab
The beach at
Manuel Antonio
Sloth
Huge Iguana
Capuchin
Monkey
Male Howler
monkey
(yes,
definitely a male)
sloth
Dad smelling
the Vanilla beans
Vanilla
Plantation puppies
After the hike and a stop at
a Vanilla plantation we drove back to San Jose and spent New Years' Eve at
the Marriott San Jose where they had a huge party. We were all exhausted and
asleep before midnight. It was a wonderful trip
and I had so much fun. I have got to go back!
