Pura Vida!* Costa Rica: Thursday, Day 7

*Lots of pictures in this one, it's a doozy.

This week has really flown by! The boys got up early to surf this morning but it was crappy again today. BUT we've heard rumors that tomorrow should be awesome, so we're going to spend one more night here and try and get some good surfing in tomorrow before we had back to Dominical and then San Jose for our flight home on Saturday.We picked up Pieter and Ruth at 8:15 and went up to Tiskita Jungle Lodge for our tour. Our tour guide, Lisbeth, was awesome! Our hike was about 3 hours long and we saw toucans, humming birds, agoutis, squirrel monkeys, a white bat, frogs, lizards, and all kinds of plants. She pointed out rubber trees, mahogany trees and all kinds of crazy plant life. She and her husband operate an organic fruit farm of sorts and our hike included a culinary tour of their orchards. We had some kind of sour brazilian fruit that smelled like passion fruit, star fruits, some kind of cucumber pepper thing, and a type of cherry I had never heard of before.

We saw this toucan before we even got started on our hike. It was hanging out in a tree right by the parking area.

We saw these little brown spiky things everywhere and kind of wondered what they were. Turns out they're called Monkey Combs and monkeys use them to comb their fur.

This is the inside of the monkey comb. Those little seeds have some kind of poison that kills lice, so that's why monkeys love them so much!

You probably won't be able to find it on your own, but back between those 2 trees on the left is an agouti running away. Yup. We were definitely cut out for wildlife photography.

Gold star if you can find the toucan!

This little hummingbird was way back in a bush and Aaron just happened to spot him.

They had a bunch of really yummy looking pineapples, but unfortunately that wasn't one of the fruits she let us taste :(

Mmm...pineapple...

They had a couple of these little bridges on our hike...

They were pretty creative in their usage of bottle caps to make the surface less slippery.

Lisbeth cutting up a starfruit for our eating pleasure. She let us eat our fill of starfruit, which I had never had before. Really really tasty stuff.

Make sure you click on this picture to englarge it. This guy let us get in his face to take his picture with the macro setting on our camera.

Following our fearless leader into the jungle.

This is a rubber tree. Apparently, if you just score the surface of the wood it leaks sap, which is rubbery and all kinds of fun to play with. Lisbeth wouldn't let us try it.

Lisbeth shows us a mahogany tree seed. If you fall asleep under a mahogany tree and a seed falls on your head, you won't wake up. They are quite heavy and pointed at the end.

A "Jesus Christ" lizard. Walks on water!

The rainy season was just gearing up when we got there and so fungus was abundant.

A walking tree

This little guy was about the size of my thumbnail. We only saw him because he jumped right in front of Ruth.

Monkeys!

They were everywhere, but very difficult to get a good picture of

Inside what we think qualified as a banyan tree

This little guy lives under the eaves of one of their cabinas.

Her husband crossed a lime with a grapefruit and at the end of our hike we got to sit in the shade and enjoy a glass of juice made from the fruit of that cross (I have no idea what to call it..grapelime? Limefruit?). It tasted kind of like lemonade, but like the best lemonade ever.

Enjoying our juice and the view from the lodge

They also have some natural pools that we could swim in, but...they were kind of dark and scary looking. So we settled for taking pictures of them.



She also pointed us toward our very first CROCODILE (yaaaay)! Finally! They have a little pond at the entrance to the lodge and a small caiman took up residence a couple years ago. We stopped by the pond on our way out and after a little bit of searching Aaron finally found him.

Our first and only crocodile. Aaron has some seriously good eyes. I never would have found this guy.

After our hike we grabbed some lunch at the soda on the break and read and napped for a while. The boys went surfing and actually got some decent waves. Aaron and I swam in the bay for a bit while Jeremy surfed some more. It was an absolutely beautiful evening. Perfect temperature.

The bay at Pavones. On good days, all the breaks join together and wrap around that point and create a really really long ride (or so we've heard). If you look at the point on the left you can kind of see the restaurant we ate at most days.

After our sunset swim in the bay

After we showered, Jeremy noticed something outside our cabina. A real live honest to goodness flashing FIREFLY. I have always wanted to see one in real life but have never had the chance. I'm pretty sure I can die now. It kind of made the trip for me (sad, isn't it).

We had a late dinner at a little soda called Mar y Luz. It's run by a couple that cooks out of their house and has a few tables set up on their front porch.

I loved their little sign, I ran back and took a picture the next morning

The food was awesome. Ronal, the husband, came out and chatted with us while we ate. He has lived in Pavones all his life and, once upon a time, his father owned a lot of the land back toward the point. His wife, Marilu (get it? Mar y Luz? He named his restaurant after her) was also very sweet. It was such a different experience than we're used to at home. Sitting on their front porch, eating dinner by porch light, hanging out and talking to the proprietors. I love the laid back, relaxed way of life we have been enjoying this week.