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Costa Rica
  • Journey to Kimba
  • Journey to Kimba

Costa Rica

Late winter trip to warm, eco-diverse, Pura Vida land. Read more
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  • Trip start
    February 27, 2025
    Journey to KimbaCosta RicaJourney to Kimba
    Immigration line in Costa Rica
    Immigration line in Costa RicaHigh Mountains almost touchableEco tourismNever that far away from homeWhere we stayed first night

    Travel Day Challenges.

    February 27, 2025 in Costa Rica ⛅ 77 °F

    You don’t want your travel day to be memorable. It was.
    - we got to te airport with almost 2 hour lead time. Something was wrong with Mom’s reservation with respect to her passport so we had to stand in the Special Services line. Turns out the reservation done by Road Scholar travel had entered her birthdate as 11/23/2021. Wtf. That got resolved with no time to spare.
    - the wheelchair person got us upstairs and mom said she didn’t have good tip money. I felt around for my waist pack. I had left it in the car. I called home and asked LC to run it back to the airport even tho boarding was about to start. We got thru security and to the gate with the doors open for special needs. I told the gate person, she asked if I was okay with mom going to Costa Rica without me. Not really, but yes. The wheelchair assistant ran back to the American departure door with a description of the car then ran back thru the airport to deliver my waist pack to me in time with 8 minutes before the boarding closed.
    - whew. Then in Miami, the gate changed before my appointment caught up. Luckily the red cap had the latest and delivered us to the right place with instructions for if they charge the gate again.
    - the fire or security alarm went off just over head for what seemed like 5 full minutes. I plugged one ear. Mom took her hearing aids out
    - on the plane to CR we sat next to a crying baby who eventually fell asleep
    - the red cap in CR got us thru immigration, eventually, and I had to throw out an apple (manzana) before customs, then I asked for a baño, but he said no, can’t go back. After a 3 hour flight. 😞
    - it took another hour to get thru car service confusion and awful traffic to get to our hotel
    - they double booked us into an already assigned room. Thank goodness the man inside was dressed and he turned out to be part of our group.

    The rest of the day, I don’t remember.    Read more

  • Journey to KimbaCosta RicaJourney to Kimba
    2We are tired1

    San Jose Costa Rica

    February 28, 2025 in Costa Rica ⛅ 79 °F

    Costa Ricans love their National Theater. Gold, statues, art. Kind of Versailles light.
    The indigenous crafts displayed in the Gold Museum are pretty incredible. Loved the shamanic tools.
    After the museums, we traveled through and under the mountains, kissed by highland cloud forests, and down through pouring rain to the Sarapiqius Rainforest Lodge.Read more

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    Black blobs are sleeping monkeysPeppercornsHazel pouring hot water over coffee in a cotton sockHazel's bird feederCacao podPink bananas

    Sarapiquis - Flora and Hazel

    March 1, 2025 in Costa Rica ☀️ 88 °F

    Got mostly caught up on sleep. Really enjoying the plant life, eating too much. Love the fresh pineapple juice.
    A real treat today was to go to Hazel’s house. She told us about how her family came to be here, earning ownership of land after working it for 3 years, how the community took care of its needs w/o govt involvement. We sat in her outdoor cooking and gathering area, el rancho, and participated in making queso fresco and arepas 🫓 bread. It was really lovely.
    Later, we got lots of great insider info about the culture of the indigenous people still living on Preserves.

    We found a few howler monkeys sleeping in trees.

    Bats come out at dusk and fly under the eaves of our palenque. I’d sit out and joy the night sounds, but the bats’ sonar doesn’t ping off me. Several close calls. Yikes.    Read more

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    Sarapiquis- river, palm, birds

    March 2, 2025 in Costa Rica ☁️ 72 °F

    We took a river boat trip to look for rainforest natives - mammals, birds, maybe reptiles. We were greeted by a good bit of howling by the monkeys. Looking up in the trees, you can see the open mouthed screechers, sporting white testicles to keep the sperm cool.
    We saw a bunch of different birds and the bird watchers in our group were thrilled to add new names to their lists.
    There’s a “Jesus Christ” iguana that walks or runs on top of the water. We got to observe the miracle by getting too close to one.
    There was a sleeping sloth curled up in a ball on a tree close to the water. So I can say I saw a sloth, but I didn’t see much.
    Then we went to Doña Maria’s place where she explained how to harvest hearts of palm and served us a meal made with quite a variety of palm dishes.
    Last stop was a bird watching place. Two toucans were feeding on bananas so close to us. Very cool. Lots more birds came to different feeding stations. Again we watched in awe. Hummingbird station was loaded with the little buzzers.
    Then back at the lodge, I was gifted with the sight of two rare red macaws squawking and flying overhead.    Read more

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    111Cat iguana1Orange means he's the alpha1

    Sarapiquis pineapple tour to Arenal Volc

    March 3, 2025 in Costa Rica 🌙 72 °F

    Leisurely start to the morning. And, on our slower pace walk to breakfast, a sloth was pointed out to us. His arms covered his face like a cat blocking out the sun. Then he moved! He climbed down the branch he was on, paused at the junction, then climbed up a different branch to a new clump of leaves. All the time moving at a sloth’s pace. 🙂 sorry I couldn’t get a photo on my phone.
    Then we went to an organic pineapple plantation. They put us on a rickety wagon tugged by a 50 year old tractor and pulled us into deeply rutted pineapple farms. Pineapple grows above ground, it is a bromeliad like orchid. In 4 years they harvest twice from the same plant and collect baby bromeliads to plant in the next planting. 50k pineapples harvested every week. And boy oh boy were those good. Yum.
    We stopped to see some iguanas, then landed at the base of the arenal volcano in a plush hotel park that feels a bit sacreligeous next to the holy mountain.    Read more

  • Journey to KimbaCosta RicaJourney to Kimba
    They named thus croc "Captain Hook" because he's missing some fingers

    Travel to Pacific coast

    March 6, 2025 in Costa Rica ☁️ 75 °F

    We took a long bus ride, crossing the continental divide, into the dry savanna along the coast. A treat was a boat ride to see birds and crocodiles.

    What I’ve learned from Costa Rica so far:
    - be patient on the hills. Sometimes things just don’t move along at the pace you want.
    - there’s a constant turnover of life. Amidst all the greenery, there’s lots of dead and dying — and things, critters, to do clean up.
    - sometimes a sloths pace is the most beautiful thing in the world.
    - continue to allow wonder
    - you need very little to have a full life
    - my laugh brings pleasure to others.    Read more

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    Cross country to San Jose

    March 8, 2025 in Costa Rica ☁️ 84 °F

    Saying adios to the Pacific and heading back to the Central Valley. We stopped at an Orchid farm and then a restaurant on the property formerly the tropical retreat for Christopher Reeve.

    Trip end
    March 9, 2025