Costa Rica: Peace Lodge

Thursday morning, Mario picked us up at the resort and drove us to La Paz and the cloud forest. He showed us some old factories, and we stopped for a cute little animal (that was a lot cuter before Mario told us that it was in the raccoon family)

Then we stopped at the bottom of the La Paz waterfall and took some pictures from the bottom. We finally got a picture with Mario! 

After a brief pit stop for pictures, we headed up to the top to the Peace Lodge. My parents stayed here for a few days when they were down in June so they found a worker that they had met before. We talked to him for a little while and then he gave us bracelet passes so we could go see all the animals and go down to the waterfalls.

That's not fog. Those are all clouds.

First stop was the aviary. These kind of scare me sometimes. It reminds me of the Alfred Hitchcock movie with all those birds just free to fly around, but this one wasn't scary. It was a lot of fun. We got to hold the toucans- and it tried to eat my mom's shaw!

After the aviary, came the butterflies.

Then the hummingbirds. I caught a rare moment of a hummingbird sitting still. It only lasted for a split second but I was excited that I caught it on film.

Monkeys followed the hummingbirds, and you know that I love monkeys! This one looks just like Marcell and I caught it mid-jump! It was totally playing around and showing off for us!

 

After the monkeys, my mom left us and went back up to the top to enjoy the Peace Lodge. I think she found a rocking chair to sit in and enjoy the view with a good book. Mario, dad, and I continued to the herbatarium. My dad loves a good snake! Some were super playful. And we used to have a Boa Constrictor that looked just like the one there.

        

Red and black: friend of Jack.
Red and yellow: kill a fellow.

After the snakes, came the cats. They were mostly sleeping. We tried to pull on the play ropes to get them to wake up and play with us, but they wouldn't. The 4 jaguars all cuddled up sleeping together were adorable!

 

 

After the cats, we circled back around and saw the ox cart. We took lots of pictures and then the man took us on the slowest ride ever. No wonder it took so long to make it across the Oregon Trail!

 

We looked at an old replica of a house on a coffee plantation and tasted delicious, sweet tea. Then we took the path (of hundreds of steps) down to the waterfall. There were multiple waterfalls and different lookout points along the way. It was beautiful!

 

 

I could have stayed here forever! I also had a thought at one point that as much as I love getting dressed up and wearing heels, I could totally live off the grid- hiking and camping too! What can I say? I'm a jack-of-all-trades. After admiring the view, we started our trek back up. There were over 250 wet, slippery stairs to climb up. And that was just to get to the shuttle stop that would take us back up to the top of the mountain!

We met my mom back at the top of the mountain and ate lunch at the Peace Lodge. Then we did a little souvenir shopping before getting back on the road. The next picture isn't great, but on the side of this entire mountain were rows and rows of coffee plants. So cool!

Mario drove us back to San Jose and we spent our last night at a hotel near the airport since we had an early flight. The next morning, we woke up early and took the hotel shuttle to the airport. My mom worked her magic and got us bumped up to the exit row again. There was an empty exit row right in front of us, so I moved up to a seat by myself. It was great!

When we got into Houston for our layover, we had to go through customs. They had 2 separate lines for US citizens and for international travel. Apparently Canadians are just an afterthought. No surprise there...

And then we made it back home. The entire trip was fabulous! I truly fell in love with the country and I can't wait to go back again. Hopefully my dad will make a decision soon and I will have a permanent place to stay when I visit!