Sunday, May 7, 2017

#137 See the Rainforest

When I was first asked to go to Costa Rica, the one thing I knew I had to do was see the rain forest. There were other bucket list adventures I wanted to do too but the big one was seeing the rain forest. This was harder said than done. Because of various circumstances and conflicts, I had to venture to the rain forest by myself or risk not being able to see it at all. I booked a 3 in 1 Rain Forest Adventure through Costa Rica Guides, the tour company the hotel recommended and I used to go to the tour last weekend with MT.

The first part of our journey took us to Braulio Carrillo National Park. Here we had the option of taking the aerial tram or zip-lining. Something about zip-linign freaks me out so I opted, along with jsut about everyone in our group, to take the aerial tram. The tram takes you through the three layers of the rain forest. You are a few meters to 50 meters off the ground.



We saw plenty of plants, trees, and some butterflies. We heard a toucan calling it's mate but was unable to find it. As the tram pulled into the turnaround station, a hummingbird was spotted but took off before we were able to get any pictures.









After the tram ride, we had a chance to visit the butterfly garden. The butterflies were beautiful and very friendly. I had 2 land on me without any help. I also was able to hold a butterfly. Before leaving the park, we had a chance to see a couple Strawberry Poisonous Dart Frogs.









Image may contain: plant, outdoor and nature

Image may contain: plant and outdoor


From Braulio Carillo, our guide took us to Sarapigui River where a boat was waiting to take us on a trip down the river. Before we boarded the boat, we had a snack of pineapple and coffee. I never had pineapple that fresh or sweet before. That's probably because en-route to the river, we passed several pineapple plantations and it looked to be harvesting season.



Not long after we left the dock, we spotted a sloth and a family of monkeys both moving about in the trees. My trip was now complete,.. I saw a sloth. As we made our way down the river, we saw a couple of crocodiles, a few species of birds, some bats, an iguana, and another sloth. Because of the rain, there was not a lot of animals out. I heard sloths were hard to spot but we saw 2 of them and ther were both active for a sloth.

The highlight of the trip.. a sloth

Monkeys




Can you see the iguana?


more monkeys

After another quick snack of fresh bananas, we headed to Selva Verde Eco Lodge for lunch and what was supposed to be hiking. Our lunch was another typical Costa Rican meal of chicken rice, beef, refried beans, plantian chips, vegetables, and salad. For dessert we had flan. This flan was much better than the flan we had at La Esquina de Buenos Aries.

Image may contain: food

Image may contain: food


We were supposed to go hiking which would have been right up my alley but it was so humid we settled for a quick nature walk. I would have loved to go hiking in the rain forest but I guess hiking wasn't meant to be. First our guide caught a poisonous frog and let us hold him if we wanted. As long as we don't eat him or touch his back we are fine. Don't worry, we all washed our hands after.



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Then we continued down the trail trying to spot more animals but since it was so humid most were hiding in the shade.. can't say I blame them. We did see an Amazon Kingfisher and more butterflies.

I spy a Lizard


I spy an Amazon Kingfisher




On the way back to San Jose we drove through Braulio Carillo National Park again. This time I enjoyed the scenery as we drove the windy, curvy, hilly roads back to San Jose. At one point, you can't couldn't see the valley because of the fog. It was very cool to drive through the rain forest in the fog and rain.

Overall it was a good tour. I would have liked to do more hiking and if it wasn't the rainy season, we probably would have. One day I will be back and will hike in the rain forest. I do think this was the way to go to see the rain forest though. I got to experience the rain forest from all levels -- top, middle, and bottom. The tour was definitely worth the price.

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