We arrived in Costa Rica early in the morning about 1:00 AM and made our way through an empty airport to the Car rental counters which all but one was empty.
Luckily this guy was able to call the counter agent from Economy rental and about 15 minutes later we were on our way to pick up our car. The guys at the rental agency were very nice and helpful….however we had failed to read any details about insurance in Costa Rica before we left….
Insurance in Costa Rica is a monopoly run by the Govt. and it is not cheap…we were wondering why the rates were cheap…because the insurance is not… however once you get out on the road you will understand why 🙂 more to come..
We had a reservation to stay at the hostel in downtown Alleluia (pronounced “All a we la”) for the night but after driving our mini-SUV downtown at 1:30 AM we noticed two things. 1) There were bars/fences/gates/razor wire in front of everything and 2) there was no where to park. Sara ran into the hostel and they suggested that we take out rental back, get a cab back to the hostel and pick up the car in the morning.
This was not happening after traveling all day and the fact that we had to get going early tomorrow morning!
So we drove back to the car rental place and noticed there was a Denny’s and Hampton Inn right next door with lighted parking lots and parking lot guards….
We parked at Denny’s, cranked back our chairs and slept in the car…no too bad, not too good.
Lets talk about irony…we woke up on Easter Sunday in Alleluia 🙂 ..did I mention that the sun comes up really early in Costa Rica (about 5:15 AM)
So we went in, got cleaned up, ate breakfast, and got on our way
Our first stop was the Poas volcano. Because of our early start we got there when it opened and was kinda knew we were in trouble because the rain and the clouds were already happening.
We went in and checked out the visitors center, the lookout and did a hike through the woods, however we were not able to see the volcano or the lake….
but luckily Sara’s sister and family were there the day before and so we have these great shots..
Poas Volcano
and the lake right next to in another crater – Poas Lake
While driving down from Poas we wanted to stop at the La Paz Waterfall Gardens because they were suppose to have some beautiful waterfalls and rescued animals from all over Costa Rica. After getting off the main road we thought it would be a relatively short drive…but as we will find again and again here the roads won’t be as nice or easy or close.
As we drove down the road we also learned another truth about the roads…there are very few to any road signs..which causes you to always second guess that you are going the right way… who knew we were so dependent on them from the states.
We arrived at the La Paz Gardens and after walking through the front door realized this was a top notch place…
You register and walk onto the beautifully manicured grounds with area’s to view…
Check out this “Poor Man’s Unbrella” that Sara is standing under – really the largest leafs I have ever seen…
Butterfly’s
You walk into a huge screened in area where literally thousands of butterflies are flying, landing and feeding everywhere around you.
The butterflies are tended for by the staff in this place. Here you can see a new butterfly that has just emerged from its cocoon and is hanging upside down waiting for gravity to fill its wings with blood so they are ready to use..
These two landed on my hat – their wings are brown on the outside and beautiful blue when opened.
Birds
The number of species and colors that the birds offer in Costa Rica are amazing. We were able to go into an area and actually get close up with Toucan’s
and later saw these green Parrots..
and red Macaw’s with the richest colors I have ever seen..
Frogs
Ok so normally I am not very impressed with frogs, ours are pretty run of the mill, but these frogs in the rainforest have this cameflage down and watch out for the poisonous ones…
Look at this guys covering his yellow and blending in while on a leaf and sleeping
the poisonous frogs do not have poison naturally running in their veins.. they eat poisonous plants and then have poison on their backs or skin that hurt animals who mess with them.
This Green and Black Poison frog was handing out on a leaf motionless…
This Strawberry Poison frog was hard to see at first..he is tiny but packs a wallop…
Snakes
My interest was peaked withe the snakes we say because they were just so different…
Check out this yellow Viper..so unlike anything I have seen before
Next there was this Green Vine Snake – check out the shape of his head and the way he looks like another vine in the tree…
& Jungle Cats
This guy was hanging out when we arrived and looked just like a cat at your friends house.. check out the video below to see him in action..
Check out this Video of the Animals…
The Waterfalls were beautiful and powerfull…
You start by hiking into the forest and then come out in an area were there are several waterfalls.
The first was really beautiful with a nice backdrop in the forest..
The next one was big and powerful we could hear it as we walked up toward it…
Check out this video of the main waterfall..
After all of this adventure we had to drive down from Poas and find our way to Puntuneras (Punta re nous) where we were staying at the same timeshare as Sara’s sister Charlene and her family. Without very many signs on the road this took way longer than we expected… we got very accustomed to stopping and asking for directions multiple times.
We are staying at the Double Tree by Hilton right on the beach…an very glad to be here…this is the first day right – Ha!
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