Donald J Ladolcetta (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} beefchunks) wrote,@ 2006-07-10 20:44:00 |
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Costa Rica Weather, animals and adventures
Adventures, animals and Costa Rica Weather.
When we got to Costa Rica is started to rain. It rained all day. It was OK because we had 9 more days of vacation. The next day we woke up and it rained. The day after that it rained. We were OK, cause tomorrow would be another day and when it came we ventured out and it rained. You see I didn’t think much when I read the guidebooks and they told me I was visiting a rain forest, in the rainy season. I just figured that like tropical Florida, the tropical weather would be an afternoon rain and then clear skies. That’s what we get here. In 9 whole days in Costa Rica I only saw a blue sky on the last 2 days and at that it was only for an hour.
A funny thing about the weather in Costa Rica, - It is 70 degrees every day all day and at night the temperature drops to 68 degrees all night. That is because we were up at a high mountainous elevation and that brought the nice weather. I mean nice too. Because even though it rained, the air was not humid. If you got soaked from rain all you had to do was step under an overhang out of the rain and in a few minutes you would dry up. The air had little or no humidity. The humidity was all in the rain coming down and the air was dry. The only time I wound up sweating was if I deserved it (you know working hard hiking up mountains or something) so in effect, even though it rained, I thought the weather was terrific. If you got wet, the rain was like 75 degrees, so you didn’t get cold. The whole thing was weird but great. And because we wanted to see the country we went out in the rain and did stuff in the rain and it was fun anyway. Visibility stunk because the clouds hung low over the mountains and you couldn’t see the mountaintops, and the roads were frequently buried in new rivers that washed across low points everywhere we went so travel was impeded. But in truth the weather was great.
So we ventured out in the rain and we did terrific things. Nature was everywhere. That is why you go to Costa Rica - For nature. All the adventures we took brought animal encounters. Another thing, I thought that since I was going to a tropical jungle, I was going to have problems with mosquitoes, biting bugs, ticks, giant cockroaches, scary shit that you read about in the encyclopedia. I was wrong again. I never saw any of that stuff and I was outside in jungle places all the time. In the whole week, the only thing I saw was butterflies and I will tell you about them in a minute.
On the first day Patty and I hung on the ground while Dave and Frank hooked themselves to quarter mile long pulley type clothes lines that spanned 2 small mountains with 500 foot valleys below. They would then jump off a cliff and ride the clothesline to the other side of the valley at speeds that looked like 60 miles an hour. The experience covered a distance of 2 miles and they called it a canopy ride.
On day 2, the 4 of us rented 4 wheel ATVs and raced for a wild 4 hour ride across the countryside, visiting waterfalls, butterfly gardens, swimming holes with rope swings. On the way we saw goats and cattle walking free on the roads and got close up to a rat the size of a small dog and the animal is considered a protected species there.
On day 3 we took a riverboat ride on The Cano Negro wildlife refuge and saw all kinds of birds, and lizards and bats. We saw a 3 toed sloth, Howler Monkeys, White Faced Monkeys, Spider Monkeys and capuchin Monkeys. The howlers were the best because they would be in a tree all stoned out from chewing coca leaves and we would make a monkey howl noise below and that would freak them out so they would howl back at us. On the river, we saw these huge lizards called Cayman’s (they look like alligators with short noses and are almost as big) Frank rescued a Cayman with our river guide. One of the animals had a huge fishhook and rope in its mouth and was going to die on the rivers edge. The river guide, a tourist, and Frank yanked this animal out of the water tried to free the hook but couldn’t so they locked the animal in the back of the boat so that later they could load it onto a bus and take it to a vet for first aid. Before putting it on the bus they had to tie it up with duct tape so they could load it in bus storage below the seats.
On day 4 we went horseback riding up to the top of the volcano. On the way (a very scary ride by the way) we encountered free range Brahman bulls, toucans, howler monkeys. You could hear the volcano going boom boom every time it spit out a rock.
On day 5 we went for a ride around Lake Arenal and walked on the hanging bridges. These are tourist places where suspension bridges made of very shaky cable hung hundreds of feet into the air and you walked on these saying things next to the tree tops. We saw more monkeys; we saw the most poisonous snake in the country from only 2 feet away. We saw poisonous frogs which will cause you to hallucinate if you lick them. None of us took a lick. The shaky bridge was a scary event for me who has a real problem with heights.
On day 7 we went to the waterfall gardens where we saw a butterfly garden that would amaze you with the thousands of many colored butterflies all over the place. The same place had a hummingbird garden where you could stand so close to the hummingbird feeders that you could hear the hundreds of birds hum as they flew past your ears. That part was so amazing that yesterday I went and bought my own hummingbird feeder for my own garden.
On day 8 we went to a dairy farm and watched hundreds of cows being milked. We also toured a coffee plantation where the coffee for starbucks is grown. We brought some coffee home.
It was a great trip. It was the best vacation I have ever been on. Better than a cruise and cheaper than one. And in my opinion the food was better too.
Ok I am probably boring you all with all this vacation talk. I think tomorrow I will return to my life story and discuss Junior Year of High School. You will be interested to read that one MK.
Adventures, animals and Costa Rica Weather.
When we got to Costa Rica is started to rain. It rained all day. It was OK because we had 9 more days of vacation. The next day we woke up and it rained. The day after that it rained. We were OK, cause tomorrow would be another day and when it came we ventured out and it rained. You see I didn’t think much when I read the guidebooks and they told me I was visiting a rain forest, in the rainy season. I just figured that like tropical Florida, the tropical weather would be an afternoon rain and then clear skies. That’s what we get here. In 9 whole days in Costa Rica I only saw a blue sky on the last 2 days and at that it was only for an hour.
A funny thing about the weather in Costa Rica, - It is 70 degrees every day all day and at night the temperature drops to 68 degrees all night. That is because we were up at a high mountainous elevation and that brought the nice weather. I mean nice too. Because even though it rained, the air was not humid. If you got soaked from rain all you had to do was step under an overhang out of the rain and in a few minutes you would dry up. The air had little or no humidity. The humidity was all in the rain coming down and the air was dry. The only time I wound up sweating was if I deserved it (you know working hard hiking up mountains or something) so in effect, even though it rained, I thought the weather was terrific. If you got wet, the rain was like 75 degrees, so you didn’t get cold. The whole thing was weird but great. And because we wanted to see the country we went out in the rain and did stuff in the rain and it was fun anyway. Visibility stunk because the clouds hung low over the mountains and you couldn’t see the mountaintops, and the roads were frequently buried in new rivers that washed across low points everywhere we went so travel was impeded. But in truth the weather was great.
So we ventured out in the rain and we did terrific things. Nature was everywhere. That is why you go to Costa Rica - For nature. All the adventures we took brought animal encounters. Another thing, I thought that since I was going to a tropical jungle, I was going to have problems with mosquitoes, biting bugs, ticks, giant cockroaches, scary shit that you read about in the encyclopedia. I was wrong again. I never saw any of that stuff and I was outside in jungle places all the time. In the whole week, the only thing I saw was butterflies and I will tell you about them in a minute.
On the first day Patty and I hung on the ground while Dave and Frank hooked themselves to quarter mile long pulley type clothes lines that spanned 2 small mountains with 500 foot valleys below. They would then jump off a cliff and ride the clothesline to the other side of the valley at speeds that looked like 60 miles an hour. The experience covered a distance of 2 miles and they called it a canopy ride.
On day 2, the 4 of us rented 4 wheel ATVs and raced for a wild 4 hour ride across the countryside, visiting waterfalls, butterfly gardens, swimming holes with rope swings. On the way we saw goats and cattle walking free on the roads and got close up to a rat the size of a small dog and the animal is considered a protected species there.
On day 3 we took a riverboat ride on The Cano Negro wildlife refuge and saw all kinds of birds, and lizards and bats. We saw a 3 toed sloth, Howler Monkeys, White Faced Monkeys, Spider Monkeys and capuchin Monkeys. The howlers were the best because they would be in a tree all stoned out from chewing coca leaves and we would make a monkey howl noise below and that would freak them out so they would howl back at us. On the river, we saw these huge lizards called Cayman’s (they look like alligators with short noses and are almost as big) Frank rescued a Cayman with our river guide. One of the animals had a huge fishhook and rope in its mouth and was going to die on the rivers edge. The river guide, a tourist, and Frank yanked this animal out of the water tried to free the hook but couldn’t so they locked the animal in the back of the boat so that later they could load it onto a bus and take it to a vet for first aid. Before putting it on the bus they had to tie it up with duct tape so they could load it in bus storage below the seats.
On day 4 we went horseback riding up to the top of the volcano. On the way (a very scary ride by the way) we encountered free range Brahman bulls, toucans, howler monkeys. You could hear the volcano going boom boom every time it spit out a rock.
On day 5 we went for a ride around Lake Arenal and walked on the hanging bridges. These are tourist places where suspension bridges made of very shaky cable hung hundreds of feet into the air and you walked on these saying things next to the tree tops. We saw more monkeys; we saw the most poisonous snake in the country from only 2 feet away. We saw poisonous frogs which will cause you to hallucinate if you lick them. None of us took a lick. The shaky bridge was a scary event for me who has a real problem with heights.
On day 7 we went to the waterfall gardens where we saw a butterfly garden that would amaze you with the thousands of many colored butterflies all over the place. The same place had a hummingbird garden where you could stand so close to the hummingbird feeders that you could hear the hundreds of birds hum as they flew past your ears. That part was so amazing that yesterday I went and bought my own hummingbird feeder for my own garden.
On day 8 we went to a dairy farm and watched hundreds of cows being milked. We also toured a coffee plantation where the coffee for starbucks is grown. We brought some coffee home.
It was a great trip. It was the best vacation I have ever been on. Better than a cruise and cheaper than one. And in my opinion the food was better too.
Ok I am probably boring you all with all this vacation talk. I think tomorrow I will return to my life story and discuss Junior Year of High School. You will be interested to read that one MK.
