Chilling and slothing in the land of Pura Vida

We made it!  Getting a warm welcome at 
San Jose airport

 You can pack in a lot of relaxation into a short space of time if you work really hard at it.  We've only been here in Costa Rica for two full days and it already feels as if we've been here a week!  I'm writing this on Monday evening, directly after an extremely good massage, so I am feeling super chill indeed - despite, as ManpanionTM pointed out, our resort being very "in tents" (groan....we are staying at the Nayara Luxury Tented Resort, so full marks for a good pun).

Apologies in advance if this blog post turns into a National Geographic magazine - fair warning in that there will be tons of pictures of sloths.  But they are stupidly cute looking - but as we learned, they absolutely will look better than they will smell.  More on that later.

We are only here for a week, splitting our time between two destinations - the first, here around the Arenal volcano, about a 3hr drive from the capital San Jose where we landed.  We're doing this trip courtesy of our fancy travel agent, so there are plenty of private tours and transfers included, as well as the VIP meet and greets at the airport.  We may even have (ahem) a private charter flight arranged to take us to our second location on the Osa peninsula.  Probably sounds fancier than it actually will be in reality - I'm sure it will be more of the style of our Alaskan puddle jumper than luxe Lear Jet, but we'll see!  It certainly beats a 7hr drive at any rate!

Our private infinity hot tub spa pool out the back of
our tented villa - with Arenal Volcano just
peeking out of the clouds

Back to the Arenal region.  Its dominated by a huge conical volcano that is covered by green verdant slopes and, for much of the day, a thick swath of cloud that cloaks the top third.  When the cloud does lift (sometimes in the morning or after heavy rains) you can see the full spectacle - including the innocuous looking trail of steam that continually rises from the very top.  While it looks sleepy, it is still an active volcano - although the last time it spewed forth any lava stuff was back in 2010, after which it is said to have entered its "indeterminate resting phase".  Sounds like ManpanionTM straight after lunch.  It even has its own website: https://www.arenal.net/

 As a result of the volcanic activity, there are a plethora of hot springs around here - as well as thermal spas that cater to both locals and tourists alike, seeking a dunk in the waters.  (we did identify a gap in the thermal spa market though - no-one yet seems to have opened a resort called "Hot Springs Eternal" - clearly a miss).  And, as a glorious result, we have our very own infinity pool on the back deck of our tented villa, which is fed naturally by the hot springs, refreshing itself constantly.  Its nice and toasty (you can adjust the temperature by turning the jets on or off - the jets will cool it down) and its been the perfect place to hang out and watch the ABUNDANT wildlife doing its thang in the rainforest that surrounds our villa.  We've seen so many different birds - including numerous hummingbirds that are visiting the Bird of Paradise blooms that are right next to the pool, less than a couple feet away!  Loopy - I tried to get you a picture, but they are tricky buggers to photograph.

Fancy tent!  It will be a very different picture at the
end of this month for me.....

A very happy ManpanionTM chillaxing in the tub

Decadent breakfast served on our terrace
to start the day right....

Yesterday was our first full day here.  We'd ordered breakfast to be delivered to our villa (we'd had room service the day before, arrival day, cos we were too knackered to make it out to one of the multiple restaurants in the resort - plus it was raining HARD!), and the guy who delivered it set it up on the dining table on the patio.  Breakfast was traditional Costa Rican style - rice & beans, eggs, plantains, along with delicious local coffee and some toast and pastries.  Very yummy indeed.  

Our main activity for the day was the Sky Walk and Sky Tram in one of the parks surrounding the Arenal Volcano. As the name suggests, this was a hike that would include a number of hanging bridges that would take you up high in the Cloud Forest, so you could see up close the flora and fauna.  It was a low-impact substitute to Ziplining - off the table for ManpanionTM as he'd only just recovered from shoulder surgery a few months prior, so we didn't want to take any chances.  The hike itself was very easy - about 2hrs in total - led by a naturalist guide who was fantastic in spotting all manner of wildlife!  As we came to appreciate, their ability to spot stuff that otherwise you would completely miss was really impressive!  While the hike itself was pretty easy, the hanging bridges were actually way more bouncy than I expected!  And I defy ANYONE to go over one of those bridges and NOT imagine themselves as Indiana Jones - especially that rope bridge scene in the Temple of Doom!!  Wildlife-wise, we saw a fair number of Eyelash Viper snakes - very common and very venomous - and that can appear in a number of different color variations.  The ones we saw were younger - as they get older, apparently they nest higher up in the trees.  Our guide spotted an incredibly well camouflaged insect called a moss katydid -  don't ask me how!!!  We also saw spiders, leaf cutter ants, the bottom half of a spectacle owl hiding under a big bromeliad leaf, tons of orchids and what our guide called "house plants" - basically the tropical plants you can buy from Home Depot's garden center.  So we saw a lot - but alas, no monkeys.  We had seen a sloth very briefly earlier in the morning, as we zipped along in our golf cart at the hotel, transferring from our room to the meeting point for our tour.  

Eyelash pit viper - light green version

We made it!!!

Beautiful orchids

In front of the talllllll umbrella tree

ManpanionTM being birthed by the tree.
Hollow inside -but still alive.  If very moist.

Dreadlock tree!

Very curious inchworm

Can you spot it?!!

From one of the viewing platforms along the 
Sky Walk

Our fabulous guide showing us a picture 
of the owl that was hiding up in the trees

Another pit viper - brown edition

And another one!  Good job I'm not
scared of snakes!

Fuckers.  Hate spiders.

Green bird that was beating the crap out of
this giant locust it had caught for its lunch!

The hollow inside of the fascinating
umbrella tree.  Very important habitat for 
many forest species.

The industrious leafcutter ants who can carry up to 
400x their own body weight!

After the tour, there was enough time for lunch, sitting out the back of the grill restaurant, with a terrific view of the forest and volcano.  After lunch, we rode the Sky Tram gondola to the highest point of the park reserve, where there was a wide viewing platform (including a large hand for some reason - which we made best use of) where you could watch people zipline themselves off into the canopy, squealing their heads off as they go!  There was a little 800m loop that you could hike, so we did that - and we saw monkeys!!  Spider monkeys, to be specific - there were at least 3 or 4, crashing around in the treetops above us.  It was very cool to see them - another one checked off our Costa Rica bingo card!  And then, as we descended back down to our starting point, we spotted a couple of toucans (not sure the type) and heard some howler monkeys!  So it was a good day for wildlife spotting!!

Not a bad view for lunch.

You can make out the sky bridge we 
had crossed earlier that morning.  Quite
high up, really.

Wait for it.....

Surprise!!!

He said YES!  (again)

That evening, we managed to lug our asses out of our room and head down to the main restaurant for dinner.  The food was Mediterranean style and was pretty good - I had a sea bass fillet and ManpanionTM had deliciously juicy and tasty chicken skewer, served from a sword!   It wasn't terribly busy (we're not in high season anymore) but there was a good guitar player to listen to, so it was a lovely chilled evening.

Action sloth!

Today, we had an early start as it was time for our highly anticipated sloth tour!!  We'd gotten an early start on our sloth-spotting on Day 1, but this was going to be a solid 2hrs of sloth sleuthing, tracking down the 2 species of sloths that are here in Costa Rica - Hoffman's Two-Toed Sloth and the Brown Throated (3-toed) sloth.  Apparently there are 5 million sloths in Costa Rica, so its no wonder that they are such a tourist draw to the country - you are pretty much guaranteed to see one!  Fortunately, its also a highly regulated activity as it is illegal to touch, pet or hold a sloth in Costa Rica.  Not that you would really want to get anywhere close to one, once you learn a bit more about their lifestyle and lifecycle.  To put it bluntly, they would smell nasty!  You can see from the pictures they have dense shaggy coats - what you might not realize is that that green color - yep, that's from fungus.  Their coats host all manner of bacteria, parasites, viruses, insects, fungus, mushrooms (yes, really) and poop chunks.   They are known reservoirs of the protozoan that causes leishmaniasis in humans so its really in everyone's interests to keep a healthy distance!  Apparently this very active ecosystem that lives on & within the sloth is a symbiotic relationship - the green fungus helps the sloth blend in with the trees and the bacteria strengthen it's immune system so help prevent it getting sick. 

Our first sighting of the day - three toed sloth AND 
a howler monkey!!

Our guide was a sloth expert, having been guiding tours for over 20 years and he certainly shared some attributes with his animal of choice as he was very laid back in his delivery of Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sloths.  He certainly knew his stuff and the spots to go looking for them, so it was slothapalooza!  We ended up seeing both species, with total of 6 animals spotted.  We really lucked out a couple of times - including seeing a howler monkey in the same tree as the sloth, as well as seeing a sloth moving and eating a leaf! (the height of excitement when it comes to sloth watching!).  We also spotted a toucan and a tiny poisonous orange frog.  So it was a great start to the day - and we were back to the hotel in plenty of time to enjoy a delicious breakfast! (with yet more yummy local coffee!)

Note the greenish tinge to the fur - sooo gross!!!

Two toed sloth

Giant murder chicken that almost made off with
ManpanionTM

We had a couple of hours to rest and soak in the hot pool before our next activity - a tortilla and hot sauce ("chilera") cooking class.  This activity was held in the private home and rustic kitchen of Dona Mara, a 30min drive from the hotel, just outside of the town of La Fortuna.  She was a lovely, twinkly lady who has been doing this for over 20 yrs and it certainly was a very authentic location - a big open space with a corrugated tin roof, no windows, just cooled by the breeze and a wood-fired stove in the kitchen, with the perfect flat iron grill top on which to bake our corn tortillas!  To be honest, there wasn't really a ton of cooking so it was a bit of a stretch to call it a cooking class - and the hot sauce was different to what I was expecting.  Not the Cholula or Tabasco style hot sauce we get back home, but instead a spicy hot salsa verde which basically involved quartering a tomato, a green squash and some wild cilantro and then chucking it into a blender along with some garlic, ginger, S&P and chili spices.  We paired that with corn tortillas that we also made - simply grind up cooked corn, mix with grated home-made cheese, mix it up by squishing between your fingers - then shape into a ball, flatten and splat onto the cooktop until done.  

Both sauce and tortilla were delicious - the kind of thing that you would think "yeah... no problem... I can totally do this at home" but would then never taste as good!!  We were also fed a traditional style lunch "gallada de picadillos" - so more rice& beans, chicken, salad, plantains (yum!) and squash.  Very tasty indeed.  Dessert was a slightly weird ball made of butter, milk and coconut ( I had a nibble to be polite) - our chocolate dessert at the restaurant the night before had been much better! (along with coffee, tourism and technology, chocolate is another key product of Costa Rica).

After lunch, it was time to head back to the hotel for - yes - yet another nap, before heading down to the spa at 4pm for our romantic massage (don't get too excited - basically just means you have a massage in the same room together).  This was a gift from our fancy travel agent - and it was wonderful.  My therapist really knew where to place her elbows and knuckles - I'm sure it felt to her like she was kneading a bag of marbles.   As the treatment room was outside, I'm sure I was a mosquito buffet for 60 mins (I'll find out tomorrow, I guess) but overall it was excellent and ManpanionTM also enjoyed his treatment too.  We had a complimentary glass of prosecco and a chocolate truffle afterwards (yum) and then took a golf cart back to our room (its not that much distance wise, but there are some aggressive slopes to navigate - think Mill Lane - but steeper!!).

And so that is where you find me now.  At the end of Day 2 and very relaxed.  Everyone here is so friendly and smiley - and there is a saying here that you see and hear everywhere - "Pura Vida".  Literal translation is Pure Life - but it is used as a greeting, a thank you, a "you're welcome" or to express that something is awesome.  Its a way of expressing peace between each other and gratitude for living in such an amazing, tiny country of only 5 million people (Chicago has 8 million!).  It sums up the way the Costa Rican people choose to live and their outlook on life - moving things forward and simply enjoying life.  We're digging it.

Pura Vida, bitches!