I forgot to mention in my last post that my lodging with the host family included a not-so-comfortable bed. It was basically a plywood board covered by a thin foam pad with sheets and a blanket. I had a little trouble falling asleep because the bed was so hard but I eventually managed because I was so tired.

A rooster woke me up at about 5:30am. It made the very stereotypical cock-a-doodle-doo sound… over and over and over. I tried to sleep a little longer but the rooster was a fierce combatant and eventually won out. I got up and the family was already up and milling around. I was offered coffee, which I happily drank, and then I watched them cook breakfast. Ocksan helped cook this meal; he made the traditional beans and rice. Beatriz made the eggs. I was served a few minutes later and then a little while after that Chris showed up. I guess the food woke him. He was served the same thing I got and then the family started serving themselves.

Henry got up a little while later and joined us for breakfast. We hung out for a little while and then it was about time for us to leave (we had to catch a taxi at 8am to get up to the Eco-Lodge). Before we left I arranged the whole family for a photo.

Chris, Henry and I set out down the road after giving hugs and saying our good-byes to the family. The home stay was definitely an awesome experience, probably one of the best of the trip.

We walked down the road and when we reached the plaza we saw the taxi waiting on us. We all boarded and were greeted by everyone else in the group. The only people who hadn’t made it yet were Hudson and Jason. We waited and waited, and then realized at about 10 until eight that they must not have known about coming to the plaza to catch the taxi. Hunter volunteered to go and fetch them. The rest of us waited nervously while the cab driver kept checking his watch. At about 8:10 Hunter made it back with Jason and Hudson. We all gave them a little crap even though they didn’t know we had to meet the cab.

When we got back to the Eco-Lodge they were serving breakfast. I noticed that they had chocolate chip pancakes, so I helped myself. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I also had my last taste of the heavenly fruit they served at the Eco-Lodge… oh how I will miss it. After breakfast we all met Johnny, our driver from the beginning of the trip, and loaded up the van. Within minutes we were off and everyone waved good-bye to the Eco-Lodge.

Johnny took us on a really strange route back to the Pan American highway. Instead of going the way we came we went over the other side of Monte Verde through Santa Elena. The road on this side of the mountain was especially bumpy and made everyone motion sick. It was also a much longer route. After we got out of the mountains we got to a point where Jack was really upset because of his motion sickness. I am sure everyone felt bad for him and I know I definitely felt the same way. We stopped at a convenience store for air and some food and then we set off for the rest of the journey. It was pretty much uneventful; I just listened to my iPod and slept the rest of the way.

We got to the Rip-Jack hotel a little while after 2pm I think. As soon as we got our stuff into our rooms we all went upstairs to eat lunch. I had the shrimp po-boy and was VERY happy that I got a meal without rice and beans. I also had a mango smoothie, which was wonderful.

All we had on our agenda the rest of the day was playing at the beach, which I gladly did. I made sure I applied sunscreen liberally and then set off for the waves. I was in for a little bit of a surprise. I had never been in the Pacific Ocean before, and man it was different from the Atlantic. First off, the salinity was much higher. Second, the waves were really strong and there was a strong rip-tide to go along with it. I went out pretty far with Chris at one point, far enough that the water was up to my chest. Too bad that the waves were big enough that at their breaking point they were about 4-5 feet above my head. I dodged a few and then tried to body surf one, which instead tossed me around under the water and into the ground a few times before I was able to come get some air. At that time I decided that I was done with playing in the water and accompanied a few people over to a large rock that was on the other side of the beach.

The rock was cool, to say the least. There was a lot of Coral around it and in the places where there was standing water. Crabs were abundant as well. When I walked to the edge of the rock I saw about 200 crabs about the size of my hands scurry away. It was a neat sight to see. A native then educated Henry, Hunter, James, Caitlin and I about the rock and how to climb up. It was all in Spanish but everyone understood him well enough. Henry and Hunter climbed on top of the rock. I wish I had had my camera with me to take pictures.

After that I decided to go back to the hotel to shower and get my camera so that I could catch the sunset. When I got back to the beach I was right on time to set up for the sunset. I got several cool pictures.



Then I arranged everyone for a group shot. It didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked because I didn’t have a studio light to illuminate everyone. But I did the best I could.

I got this last, and my favorite, picture of the sunset when there was a pink light cast on the clouds. I also like how someone is with Jack in the blurred foreground. I love the effect it adds to the picture.

After that we all went back to the hotel. Everyone else in the group showered and we all eventually met up outside in order to venture over to this restaurant/bar called Kike’s Place. We thought we were lost along the way so James and I asked for directions. When we finally found it we realized that it was free karaoke night, which made the restaurant all the more fun. We were all seated and ordered food and some drinks that we were able to drink in Costa Rica. Chris, Hunter and I decided to split a pizza. The pizza was a nice treat, especially because it was pretty good and relatively cheap. The whole group ended up hanging at Kike’s for a couple of hours. We all sang karaoke songs and had a merry time. After all of that fun we made our way back to the hotel. A few of us decided to go hang out at the beach for a while where we talked. Then we all went to bed.

Day 6: Galloping Tilapia

I just realized that this was Friday, go figure. Breakfast was the usual, again. I think I am noticing a theme here, but I’m not sure. Today was horse riding day. We had to split up into 3 groups since there were only 4 horses so some of us went at 9, some 10 and some went at 11. Those of us, including me, who weren’t in the 9 o’clock group sat in on the 3rd and final global warming lecture. All of them have been really interesting. Apparently we’re going to be the last generation with Polar Bears.

I was in the 2nd horse-riding group and figured out really quickly that I could not take my camera on the ride, which was sad. That is why there aren’t a lot of pictures in this post. My horse was named Chile and looked very displeased to have a 280lb man sitting on it’s back. I was a little nervous at first but quickly figured out how to balance and that I had to be assertive with the horse. We went on a long trail down to the San Luis River (which was beautiful). There was one stretch of trail that was somewhat flat and straight where the horses decided to take off and gallop. I figured out really quickly that I liked galloping better than trotting. Trotting hurt. My horse decided to be lazy along the way and would always go off on the side of the road and grab food as it walked. Chile also stopped in the river for a drink; I figured he must be thirsty from carrying me so I let him drink. We crossed the river on horseback and basically went back the way we came. I kind of like horse riding and would definitely do it again.

Doug told us last night that we had to pack today, before we went to our home stays, but since lunch wasn’t far away I decided I would wait until after lunch to pack. Oh, I forgot to mention that there were eggs with breakfast today. They were quite yummy. Lunch was nothing special. I went to pack afterward. We put all of our stuff in Doug and Linda’s room and Cameron took us off on the hour walk down to our home stays. An hour down hill sucks, I would almost rather go up hill because the downhill was hard on my knees.

Luckily, we got to go to our home stays in groups and I was in the group of three (Chris, Henry and I). I talked to Cameron a lot on the way there about all sorts of random stuff. He is a really nice guy; I wish I had gotten his email or something so that I could keep in touch with him.
On the way to our home stays I snapped this picture.

Chris, Henry and I were assigned to stay with Lelo and his family. Apparently Lelo and his brothers owned all of the land on this side of the mountain, which was pretty cool I guess. We got to the house and only the mother, daughter and cousin were there. I never found out what the mother’s name was, but the daughter was Natalia and the cousin was Emily. It was awkward at first but that quickly dissolved when we kind of figured out how to communicate. The mother told us that we were going to go to where they milk cows at four, when Lelo came home.

Eventually four rolled around, Lelo came home (he ended up being the same guy who took us on the horse ride), and we went to the area where they milked cows.

After we walked through the gate we saw the tilapia farm and everyone else in our group standing on a hill (well, except for Hudson and Jason).

The tilapia farm was a neat series of ponds.

We mostly hung out, played with the kids and some of us watched Lelo tend to the cows. James, Caitlin and I went into the milking station where Lelo was feeding all of the calves. James made a friend.

Caitlin saw James petting the calf and she came over to join. The calf started sucking on her fingers.

A while later we had had enough of the calves, we went back outside where everyone in the group was playing with the kids.

Lelo decided that he was going to talk us on a little tour of everyone’s farm. We started walking and eventually ended up at a barn with a big ring in the middle and a bunch of roosters in cages on the side. Lelo was trying to explain something to James when it hit me; this ring was for cock fighting. Apparently Lelo and his brothers liked it a lot. I explained that to everyone else and we went on. The group stopped at a large tree where Lelo grabbed a big stick and started knocking fruit out of the tree. Apparently they were mangos, but they didn’t look or taste like any mangos I had ever eaten.


They tasted kind of like sour apples that were really crunchy. They were good, just different.
After that everyone parted ways and we went back to Lelo’s house. I got this picture of the sunset before we went inside.

Chris, Henry and I followed Lelo around as he showed his house and that he had his own network of tilapia ponds. His house and property were really beautiful. His son Ocksan came home (Chris insists that his names was Yocksan, but I stayed in his room and Ocksan was hanging on the wall) and we started fishing. Ocksan was a really stock, muscular guy, unlike his father who was tall and skinny. We started fishing for dinner and I caught one right off the bat. I pulled it in and Lelo handed it to me to take up to the house. The second Lelo let go the fish started fluttering around and I dropped it and we chased it as it flopped back into the pond. I told Lelo I was really sorry, he said it was no big deal and I went back to fishing. I didn’t catch another fish, but somehow we ended up with 3 fish. That wasn’t enough so Lelo broke out the net and caught a few more fish pretty easily.

Chris, Henry and I waited around a bit and then they started cooking. We could tell that the dinner was going to be awesome because all they were doing to the fish was gutting them, battering and then frying them. I was totally right. The fish were awesome.


After dinner we all just kind of hung out and talked. It was mostly Chris, Henry, Ocksan, Emily and the daughter Beatriz hanging out. The parents came in and out but they went to be pretty early. Natalia, as far as I can tell, went to bed right after dinner. Here is a picture of Chris posing with Ocksan.

Here is the family, except for Natalia because she was in bed.

A little later Chris and I discovered that Beatriz was a big fan of Ska, which is one of our (Chris and I) favorite genres of music. We all sat around and traded off Ska for a while.

Eventually the party died down. We were all tired and had to get up early, so we all went to bed.

Day 5: Mmmmm Coffee

Our day started with the usual breakfast of black beans, rice, and assorted fruit. By this time I was kind of getting tired of all the beans and rice. The fruit was still amazing; I’ll never get tired of that, but the rice and beans… After breakfast we had another lecture about Global Warming (I forgot to mention yesterdays). I forgot the name of the professor, but his lectures were amazing. He was really into what he was talking about and the lectures were even funny at times. I had no trouble staying awake.

After the lectures Geoff took us to Hilbert’s (a great name, I know) farm for a coffee tour. It was a short walk to his farm, but mostly up-hill, so that kind of sucked. When we arrived he had us all sit on these benches that formed a half circle around a small table that looked like it was carved out of a tree stump. Even before his initial talk about coffee started Chris made a friend.

Oh, let me give you a little back story on Hilbert. Apparently he is almost 60, the guy looks like he could be 35-40.

His favorite hobby is running and he can often been seen running past taxis up the mountain towards Santa Elena. I was told later that he also got 3rd place in a 10k out of everyone in Monte Verde a long with people all over the country, and from outside Costa Rica that came for the race. Ridiculous huh? He also runs marathons.

He gave us a talk about coffee all in Spanish. Geoff roughly translated all of it so it was understandable for us non-Spanish speakers. Hilbert went through the whole spiel about his coffee and showed us a lot of different beans.

After he talked to us for a while he took us around and showed us his coffee plants. Some of them still had beans on them because they weren’t ripe yet.

He also said that since the plants were shade grown and 100% organic they got a lot of diseases (the plant itself did, the coffee was fine) so every year they had to cut down a lot of the unhealthy plants and plant new coffee. Hilbert showed us other parts of his farm and other crops he grew. He was big on biodiversity. Here are some of his amazing bananas he grew.

After a short walk he took us to his sugar cane grinding station where there was a big rock we all could sit on. While he and Geoff ground sugar cane for juice, Hilbert told us stories of his youth. My personal favorite was the one where Hilbert and his siblings (as young children) would sit on that very rock and drink the liquor made from sugar cane. They would all get drunk with their grandfather and have a grand old time. Hilbert said that he had a lot of fond memories of his youth on that farm, and that it really meant a lot to him when he drew that farm in the lottery the Quakers put on.

On a side note about the Quakers, apparently a long time ago they bought almost all of the land on Monte Verde and gave it to the Ticos with a few big stipulations. They had to farm the land, they never could sell it, and they had to keep the land in their families. That is how Hilbert got his farm.

After Geoff and Hilbert squeezed enough juice we all got to try some sugar cane. It was sooooo good. I could drink that stuff forever, but I bet my body would go into major sugar shock.

Everyone happily (or not so happily because some people didn’t like the juice) drank his or her sugar cane juice on the rock.

After we had all had some juice to drink Hilbert cut up the cane into slices for us all to try. Chris and I ate a lot of that; it was super yummy and crunchy.

We left the rock and made our way off of the farm. Eventually we made it back to where we started and Hilbert gave us all bananas. It was especially funny for me because when he handed me my first banana, looked at me again and then said “muy grande”. He then proceeded to give me another banana as he chuckled.

We headed off of the farm and back to the Eco Lodge for lunch. I finally remembered to take a picture of what we ate.

In the afternoon we had a lecture about plants, mostly given by Katie.

Our lecture ended and we were sent into the field to identify plants. It later dissolved into Plant Jeff giving us a tour of the property and showing us all of the cool plants. Tim, one of the other naturalists got a cool looking bug on his watch.

As we walked around James found a banana flower and started playing with it.

He then decided that he wanted to take it apart.

Jeff continued to show us plants. One of the plants that I especially liked was the sensitive plant. Basically, when you touched it the plant rolled up. It was really fun to play with.
After the walk around I took a neat picture of a sprinkler, I don't know why… I just like it.

Next on our agenda for the day was our cooking lesson with a local family. Geoff took us on that outing as well. The walk was pretty cool this time, but mostly because I finally saw a toucan.

Some of the scenery was cool too.


These cows posed well for me, well I should say cow and calf.


We finally got the cooking lesson and it turns out that we were going to make erapas (I think that is how it was spelled).

Erapas are a sort of sweet bread made with a lot of butter, flour and sugar. Boy were they tasty. They were pretty simple to make so when we were all done cooking the group decided to play soccer with the kids.


Here are some pictures Chris and one of the boys attempting trick kicks or shots.


We continued to hang out and play. I eventually looked up and saw a sunset through the clouds. It was gorgeous. I immediately got Geoff and pointed it out to him, both being photographers, we snapped away.

After a while we left the families and went back to the Eco Lodge for dinner. We ate the usual beans and rice with a salad and some meat. Geoff found a cane toad and showed it to us. It was pretty huge.

Some of us hung out for a while outside the Comedor and played taboo. Hudson and I dominated which was pretty fun. I am exhausted and off to bed now. Goodnight!

Day 4: Zip Lines

What a day. I woke up apprehensive about the zip-lines. Well, apprehensive is an understatement. I was anxious and a little bit scared, but I knew it would only get worse when we got there. We packed out lunches after breakfast in the morning. I made two sandwiches. Each had mustard, two slices of fresh cheese, two slices of tomato and lettuce. I didn’t feel like eating the cold cuts that were provided. I also packed some cookies and two orange juice boxes. To tell you the truth, I was kind of excited about that lunch. Our taxis arrived while we were packing lunches and we all hurriedly finished and ran to the taxis. Doug, James, Henry, Chris and I were all in the same taxi on the trip up the mountain. We talked about various things but Chris was really the only person I talked to because he was sitting right next to me. I was a little concerned through the trip because my seat was loose and I was bouncing around a lot, but I seemed to manage.

The trip up was pretty uneventful, although there were once again some incredible views. The taxi driver got really close to the edge of the road a lot of times, I could have reached out of my window and touched the wall of the cliff. After a while to Chris’s and my surprise, we hit paved road. It was such a weird sensation and both Chris and I exclaimed “WHAT! It’s paved!” It turns out that the community got together and paved that portion of the road by hand so that it would not wash out during the rainy season. If it washed out, the people would be stranded up on the mountain and not even the kids would be able to get to school.

The town of Santa Elena was pretty touristy. There were a lot of nice looking hotels and restaurants, as well as a lot of tourists wandering around. Eventually we got to Sky Trek, the place where the zip-lines were. It was a pretty nice, very professional looking place. We walked in and that is when the nerves really hit me. If I was going to chicken out, this would be my chance. Long story short, I didn’t chicken out. There was a tough mental battle but I decided that this would probably be my only chance to do the zip-lines. So I might as well.

We were all huddled into a room where we were told that we could put some of our stuff in lockers. I chose to put my backpack and 70-200mm lens in the locker to drop a little weight. I stuffed the key into my wallet and then put my wallet in my camera bag where I wouldn’t lose it. We then all got fitted into our gear, which consisted of very elaborate harnesses, helmets, and gloves. The whole group looked pretty official.

Our guide for the trip was named Donald, and he spoke English, which was pretty cool. He was a really nice guy and I could tell that he would take care of us. We all loaded up into vans and went to the sky lift thing. Apparently, you used to have to hike a long way up the mountain to get to the first zip line. I guess we got lucky because the sky lift went into service a few days before we got there and we didn’t have to walk at all.

My nerves really started to get to me as we went up in the lift. I was able, however, to snap a few pictures. Here is one of the first views I saw.

I also took a picture of Noreen, Kaitlin and Heather. Caitlin was sitting beside me, so she wasn’t in the picture.

The rest of the guys in the lift ahead of us decided to turn around and I took that opportunity to take a picture of them. Apparently Chris was being lazy and didn’t want to stand up.

Here is the 2nd view I got.

We eventually got up to the top and I cleverly figured out how to strap my camera bag to my belt so it wouldn’t bounce around or be in any danger of falling. Donald asked me if I wanted to take pictures, I acquiesced nervously because I didn't like the idea of standing at the top of the tower. Donald clipped my carabiner to the railing and I proceeded to take pictures. Chris was the first person up and I snapped a couple shots of him gliding off to the next tower.

I then turned around and realized what a gorgeous view there was. If you look closely at the picture you can see the Pacific Ocean off in the distance.

The next person I got a good picture of was Jason. He was all relaxed and laid back as usual. I wish I could have been like that.

It finally came to be my turn to go down the zip-line. I was really nervous, but after seeing everyone else do it I had calmed down a little. Donald strapped me in and made sure my camera was secure. Then we heard “Alpha Alpha”, Donald gave e a push and away I went. What an experience. It definitely wasn’t nearly as scary as I thought it was. I was going really fast too. The only part where it made me a little nervous was when the wind blew me sideways and I had to grind the handle on the cable the opposite direction to straighten myself out. It was an incredible experience and I had 10 more lines to go.

I had a pretty good landing at the next platform. The way the stopped you was pretty cool and a lot more simple than I had imagined. They had a big thick rope tied to the cable and when you came sliding in they held the rope and it slowed you down.
The next zip line I opted to go first so that I could get pictures of everyone coming in. That was how comfortable I was with it. After the first time I realized that it wasn’t scary at all and started having a blast. Anyway, I went first on the next one and a few more zip lines after that. I got some pretty cool shots. I would love to put them all up but there are quite a few.
Here is one of Caitlin coming in, she had to go tandem with one of the guides because she is so small. She would have gotten stuck by herself I guess.

On this next one Chris didn’t make it far enough and had to turn around and pull him self to the end. It was kind of funny and I got a picture of it.

Heather seemed to be having a lot of fun and I got a decent panning shot of her coming in. I think it shows her movement pretty well.

One of the times I went first Chris and Hudson came after me, but then a different group of people ended up coming down. I guess since they were a smaller group the put them ahead so that we wouldn’t hold them up. Anyway, one of the people in the group was an old lady and she made the most hilarious face when she came in on the zip line. Here is Chris’s impression. I don’t even know how Chris made this face; to me it is pretty much once in a lifetime.

We did several more zip lines and after I felt like I got enough pictures I put my camera away. On the last couple of zip lines I had to go tandem with Donald because the lines were super long and everyone had to go tandem. I taught Donald a Japanese phrase. いくぜ or ikuze. It means, “let’s go!” I got him to shout it with me as we went down, it was kind of fun.
After we finished all of the zip lines Doug met back up with us and we went to the hummingbird garden to eat our lunches. I had been pretty excited about this all day because I discovered that I love taking pictures of hummingbirds. We all sat down to eat lunch and I got to eat my lettuce, tomato and cheese sandwiches. They were wonderful. Then I busted out my camera and zoom lens. Much to my surprise, the first animal we saw was another Coati! This time I got some pretty cool pictures of it.

After that I focused on the hummingbirds. I took about 50-60 pictures and this one was by far my favorite. It is so awesome.

Next on the agenda was the canopy walk on suspension bridges. I didn’t like this idea because I don’t like to be on unsteady surfaces suspended a few hundred feet off of the jungle floor. The experience ended up being pretty cool. The forest we were in was a primary forest, so basically it had not been destroyed and re-grown, and this was all original growth. It was totally different from what we had seen before and the vegetation was really thick.

We kept walking through and Hunter found this really cool tree with vines hanging off of it, which he was inclined to play with.


I took a picture of this really huge fern. It was gigantic, larger than a car even.

James on one of the suspension bridges.

This was the longest bridge we crossed; it was divided into two huge sections.

An hour or so later we finally made it through all 10 suspension bridges and I got to take a picture of this orchid. It was really pretty. Notice the leaves, I thought they were really cool.

After our sky trek adventure we went to the creamery for some home made ice cream. I opted for an orange pineapple milkshake. It wasn’t as good as I expected but it was still good. There were pieces of fruit in it, which were yummy. The whole thing tasted very creamy and thick, but wasn’t as sweet or fruity as I had wanted. Chris got some sour sop sherbet that he let me try. It was amazing; I wish I had gotten some of that.

We finished at the creamery and went to the women’s cooperative to buy stuff. Doug said we had an hour and he took a taxi back to the eco lodge. Our taxis were to come pick us up later. I shopped and eventually found a hammock, a Imperial t-shirt, and a really cool hand-made bottle thing for my brother Matt. James bought some fruit that was really weird. It looked like it had an egg sack inside it but it was actually very juicy and tasty.

The taxi ride back was pretty nice. Our driver stopped at a look out and I got to take some pictures of the incredible view.

And look Mom and Dad; I let someone else take a picture of me. Gasp!

I then proceeded to take a picture of Chris trying to look like a model. I think it turned out pretty well.

I took one final picture of the scenery and then we had to leave. That view was amazing.

Dinner was pretty uneventful and we didn't have any activities after dinner. I just relaxed, worked on pictures and this journal. Now I am going to go to bed. Good night!