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Part 5: Costa Rica —Tropical Flowers, A Strangler Fig, & a G
(by Patti Day-Miller - March 18, 2008)
Leaving Fortuna, we soon drove by the Children’s Eternal Rain Forest, part of the Monteverde cloud forest region. Donations from school children around the world purchased this land to be preserved forever.
Next our bus driver navigated treacherous roads to take us to a cloud forest reserve where most of our group enjoyed a guided walk, complete with a bamboo walking stick. Along the hike, we saw many species of hummingbirds and tropical flowers (including orchids) and walked through the remains of a huge, strangler fig tree. Just outside the little snack bar there, a local man spotted and retrieved a small, beautifully colored coral snake, much to the delight of many.
We drove along some very curvy roads that day before arriving for another great lunch. After lunch it was a drive southeast to Puntarenas, which we learned was once the leading port to Europe for coffee exports, which arrived to the coast via carretas (oxcarts) from the highlands. We found our Double Tree Resort situated on the Dona Ana Beach on the Pacific Ocean. A nice surprise was that it was “all inclusive” meaning that all drinks and snacks were complimentary from the many food and drink venues. It was a large facility with 204 rooms, several pools, tennis courts, bars, and even live entertainment.
Upon checking-in there mid-late afternoon, some walked along the beach searching for shells and rocks. Others headed for a pool. Others checked out the casino there. The only thing we needed to do before dinner was to trade in our towel tickets for large, dark blue towels, which we could use at the pool or beach there, or could take to Manuel Antonio National Park the next morning.
Dinner was a very extensive buffet, where I’m quite sure everyone had their fill. Some took in the entertainment that night. Most retired early, though, because we had a 6:30 a.m. bus departure for our 2-1/2 hour drive to Manuel Antonio National Park, unless we wanted to spend the day at the resort.
My son Doug and grandson Tyler opted to stay at the resort because Allison had major stomach upsets the previous day, was still ailing, and they wanted to be nearby, in case she needed them. But Dave and I boarded the bus at 6:30 a.m. and headed south to the smallest, but one of Costa Rica’s most diverse and most visited parks. By arriving before 9:30 a.m., we wouldn’t have to wait in long lines to enter the park. (We saw those when we left there that day. Due to environmental impact, they limit the number of visitors in the park at a given time.)
En route to the park, we drove over a bridge with many crocodiles seen on both sides, but I was anxious to get my first view of the scarlet macaws, which I knew were in Manuel Antonio. On the drive there, we passed the Carara Biological Reserve, one of the world’s few nesting places for that bird. The bus slowed at one point, and pulled off the road with Rolando announcing, “There are scarlet macaws on the right in the tree that has no leaves. Please be quiet, when getting off the bus.” There were six macaws, if I recall correctly, but with our large number of humans walking toward “their” tree, they quickly flew to a nearby one with many leaves, but we still managed some photos of that most colorful bird.
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