we're back!

so, we had an amazing trip to costa rica. we really did do everything, saw all, and just enjoyed! we spent the first week with a guide biking the northwest volcano region. we brought our own bikes with us - i don't think we could have biked that area had we not. rocky fire roads climbing up twisting switchbacks, descending knuckle-whitening steeps, singletrack through jungle parks with waterfalls....pretty cool to say the least. after that week we rented a mini-SUV and were on our own! first stop was the caribbean coast with gorgeous beach, monkeys, jungle, and a pet howler monkey at our jungle lodge. she broke her leg and the lodge owners rescued her. 3 days in the caribbean, then a white water raft trip on the pacuare river, which is class 5 in the rainy season, but, it was pretty low this time of year, but still gorgeous - we saw the "jesus lizard", he walks on water. also, there are indigenous tribes along the river that waved to us. costa rica doesn't have nearly the indigenous population that guatemala or peru does, it's more of a nature visit, so, it was cool to see that along the river. next we went to monteverde, the cloud forest. 20 miles of road took 3 hours due to it's rockyness - the hotels like it unpaved so that people will spend the night there. monteverde has the bridges over the jungle, so you can look down into the lushness. a highlight - we saw the infamous quetzal! pictures don't do justice....the bird is beautiful. we stayed at a wonderful family owned cabins (with a sweet little daughter) who sent us horseback riding with a friend down to a hot spring pool along an isolated river. talk about relaxing. 3 nights there, then on to the pacific coast. we drove down the coast, stopping at park manual antonio, seeing the sloth and squirrel monkeys. the squirrel monkeys jump and fly across the treetops - we were lucky to get a picture of one being semi-still! also, more white-faced capuchin monkeys (they're the social ones that will steal things from your bags) and the howler monkeys which make tons of noise. we ended on the osa peninsula where the park corcovado is. it's kind of like the denali of costa rica - it's so big you'd have to spend weeks to know it and see things. so, we spent the day - you access it from the beach, so, of course we biked it. upon returning we ran into a local bike race! they thought our bikes were pretty sweet to say the least. we were kind and let them ride them. we also saw the spider monkeys where we had parked our car! they look the most human as they stretch out their limbs and swing from tree to tree. we had our own private beach in puerto jimenez, on the golfo dulce (sweet gulf) off the pacific. the lodge dogs took a morning beach walk with me. it was a gorgeous way to end an amazing trip. we didn't want it to end......