Outside the Aerial Tram
Dec 302008
Jan 012009
I got up at 5:20 this morning to take a picture of the sun rising over the Caribbean Sea on the first day of the new year. Sunrises aren’t as dramatic as sunsets, especially when the sky is completely clouded over. Everything gradually got brighter, but there was no way to see that the sun came over the horizon at 5:50am.
Sunrise, New Year’s Morning
As I was setting up my camera, another gentleman walked out onto the beach. We smiled at each other and he headed down the beach. Then he stopped, turned around and walked up to me with a big smile and his hand outstretched. We shook hands and he said "I wish you a very happy new year," in a wonderful Northern European accent. I wished him the same, and he turned and walked down the beach.
There was something really moving about the encounter – it was so genuine and sincere on both our parts, standing on this remote beach, that was so different from the typical “Happy New Year” greetings we toss about.
Around 6:30 I got the rest of the family up so we could pack up to continue our journey. The boat left the dock at 8am, and we were looking forward to the hour long boat ride through the river and canals back to the bus. Unfortunately, the sky opened up again dumping enough rain to cause the captain to stop the boat and roll down the plastic window sides. If you’ve ever tried to look though the back window of a convertible you know the kind of view we now had. An hour of humming engine and the occasional banking turn, while blurry trees slide by outside the window.
Paul, our tour guide, on the boat leaving Tortuguero. It’s New Year’s day, he doesn’t normally look like this! (Sorry Paul!)
The rest of the day was primarily a day of travel to get halfway across Costa Rica to our next stop in Fortuna. The bus ride was broken up with two stops – one for lunch at the same place we ate a couple days ago (delicious! No problem having a repeat), and one at a 300 foot suspension bridge over a river. The second was kind of a novelty stop that was fun to do but mostly broke the trip into segments so we could stretch our legs.
Lunch
On the suspension bridge in the Selva Verde Rainforest Reserve.
Kevin and Eric on the far side of the bridge.
We arrived at the beautiful Lomas de Volcan hotel in Fortuna around 4pm. We traveled about 150 miles today by boat and bus, over about 5 hours of travel time.
Finally there!
The view out the back door of our cottage. We’re looking right at Arenal Volcano, which can’t be seen at the moment due to the clouds.
And here’s two shots of the volcano from right outside our room. These were actually taken the next day, but the flow works better if I put them here. These shots were taken about 20 minutes apart – the view of the cone was always changing. I wish I had set up a time-lapse series.
7:03am
7:24am
Jan 022009
We woke up to mostly clear skies this morning, with the volcano above us sporting a cloudy cap that changed every minute. While Sarah and most of the rest of the group headed out to a boat tour near the border of Nicaragua, Eric, Kevin and I headed out to do some zip lining.
The Arenal Mundo Aventura experience was recommended to us so we had booked three reservations the day before. They picked us up at the hotel at 7:30am, and after a couple of other stops to pick up four others we headed over to their park, just a few kilometers outside Fortuna.
This was a great zip line experience, the first for all of us. After a safety introduction they loaded us into something like a bus that was towed up a dirt road by a tractor to a cable platform. We got out there, put on our harnesses and hiked up the mountain for another 15 minutes on a dense trail that was mostly stairs. That took us to the first of ten zip lines that we would ride most of the way back down the mountain.
Kevin and Eric harnassed up and ready to go.
Getting psyched to zip over that waterfall.
A zip line is a cable strung between two points that you ride down alone, suspended from a pulley. In our case, the cables were stretched across deep rain forest canyons cut by a river, and included the dramatic La Fortuna Waterfall that was easily 100’ tall. Some of the cables spanned canyons hundreds of feet deep.
The first three cables were fairly short, and each was faster than the prior. This was to get you comfortable with the ride, with the proper position, and with controlling your speed for a gentler stop at the end.
Kevin, riding into the light.
Viewed from the end of a cable with Eric coming down.
Eric, making a soft two point landing on one of the platforms.
I came in a little faster on this one.
The next seven rides were much longer and faster. The longest ride was almost a kilometer, and on the fastest cable they said we traveled at about 35-40 mph. The views were incredible, at one point looking straight down at the pool below the waterfall, on another line looking out to the city of Fortuna, and on another zipping across a canyon then into a hole cut through the canopy to ride between the trees. In total we traveled about three kilometers of cable over a 45 minute period.
Another launch, this time on one of the longer cables. If you look and the larger version of this image (click to go to Flickr) you can just make out the landing platform next to the top of the waterfall.
Yes, it’s a long way down.
The longest cable, at 980 meters, goes over a waterfall and two canyons. That hole in the trees about 3/4s of the way up the image is the starting platform.
If you happen to slow down along the way, you might not make it to the end. In that case you get to haul yourself in, as demonstrated here by Kevin. Notice the concern expressed by our guide (left).
As a part of the adventure, after the zip lines you visit a re-creation of an indigenous Maleku village, then ride horses back down the dirt road to the main reception area.
In their re-creation of an indigenous Costa Rican Maleku village, this young man told us about their lifestyle and culture.
Only one of our two guides rode down with us, and he stayed in the rear to make sure there weren’t any stragglers. The horses knew the routine so well that you didn’t have to use your reins. In fact, the herd was lead down the trail by an unsaddled black horse and no guide. A couple of times the horses would break into a trot, but otherwise it was a gentle and fun ride down. Eric’s saddle was missing the right stirrup though, so the trotting wasn’t quite so comfortable for him.
I’m such a cowboy. Even more impressive is Kevin in the background. They didn’t tell us the horses’ names, so Kevin called his ‘Rodeo’.
Mine: a horse with no name.
See that black horse way out front? He was our guide down the mountain.
We were taken back to the hotel, where we joined up for lunch with a few other people from our tour who had decided not to take the morning trip. After a nap and some R&R, we called a cab and headed into town to meet up with Sarah and the rest of the group.
Jan 032009
Another 45 minutes of travel and we stopped at the Los Angeles Cloud Forest Reserve where we had a 45 walk with a naturalist through the cloud forest. More leaf cutter ants(!) and some beautiful birds were the most visible wildlife, plus we learned more about the flora of a cloud forest.
Oliver, our naturalist guide.
Cloud forest, and me.
More leaf cutter ants! The worker ant has cut the leaf and is carrying it back to the nest. The smaller ant you see on the leaf is a nurse – she’s cleaning the leaf and will help grow fungus on the leaves inside the nest.
This leaf cutter ant nest is over 10 years old. What you see here is about 8 feet in diameter, and very fragile. If you were to step on it it could collapse.
Built on the bottom of a giant leaf, this nest is home to either bees or wasps – I didn’t stick around to find out.
One of the many beautiful birds we saw in the cloud forest.
Twenty minutes of the drive to and from the cloud forest was along a twisty two way, one lane, road. Normally not that unique or interesting, unless you’re doing it in a tour bus with small trucks coming the other way. Marcos proved his skills.
A half an hour further down the road and we stopped for lunch, then on to Doubletree in Puntarenas for the next two nights.