Day 4 - After our boat adventure!

Part of our Safari Float boat adventure was a visit to a small Costa Rican ranch 6 miles down the river. At the end of our tour we pulled up to the river bank, climbed a small hill, and found ourselves being welcomed by a very nice family. The family had prepared for us some homemade cheese, fried plantains, a kind of crepe/pancake thing, fresh juice and coffee. They served it on their outside patio right at the edge of the river. We got a chance to visit with the owners and their little girl. We learned that the ranch has been in the family for many generations and that the grandparents still lived on the property. They have 3 daughters who all ride horses and one is the champion barrel racer for all of Costa Rica. The kids had a great time playing with the puppy, learning about the local plants, and most of all holding the little baby goat who was only 8 days old.

Here are the girls heading up the hill to have a snack.

On the way they found this little goat.

This was the highlight of Olivia's trip. She talked about the goat every day.

Jacob got to hold the goat too.

Here is the ranch where we had a snack before heading back to the hotel.

That is the river right outside the house.

The flowers around the house were beautiful.

After such a great experience visiting the ranch Daniel, our guide, took us back to the hotel. The kids were tired and not very hungry so they stayed with Michael at the room. I went into the town of La Fortuna with the Orlandos for some lunch and shopping. Later we met up again back at the pool where we spent the afternoon relaxing and swimming. Later that night we went back out for dinner and tried to see more lava at the spot we had gone the night before. Unfortunately we had no luck since the clouds covered the entire volcano. It was still an adventure and we were grateful for what we'd been able to see the night before.

Tough life our kids have hanging at the pool bar....

...and the jacuzzi.

The sky was beautiful on our walk to dinner. This was the room we stayed in.

Day 4 - The Beginning

On our fourth day in Costa Rica we were awakened by the loudest rainstorm we have ever heard. It started about an hour before we were due to wake up and lasted throughout breakfast. This wouldn't have bothered us except we were scheduled to take a boat tour down a river to see local wildlife. Starting to get nervous that we wouldn't be able to go we got a call from our guide. Daniel was checking in to see if we still wanted to give the trip a try despite the torential rains. Luckily we are the adventurous types because we said what the heck and told him to pick us up.

After about a 30 minute drive, it was still raining, we came to Rio Penas Blancas. Here we exited the van to see a small staircase leading down to the river and nobody else in sight. Daniel proceeded to pass out life vests and point us toward an inflatable raft. Here is where Amy and I looked nervously at each other and whispered that we were both expecting to see something along the lines of the "Jungle Boat Cruise" at Disneyland. The thought of 3 small children and 5 adults, in a blow up boat, on a river full of crocodiles was a little more adventurous than we expected. And to top it all off it was still raining!

Proving that once again our vacation was charmed and we were destined to have a fabulous time, the clouds parted and the sun peeked out. We couldn't back out now so down the stairs and into the boat we went, passing a poison arrow frog on the way!

I'd love to say the trip went smoothly and it did except for a few minor issues. One, kids don't like life vests. Especially when they are wearing waterproof rain gear and the jungle is now getting steamy. Two, once you remove a life vest from a child, in order to remove the hot and sticky rain gear, they don't want to put the vest back on. Three, telling children why they need a life vest and then pointing to the nearby crocodile does not settle them down, if anything it makes the problem worse because they now realize they are in a blow up boat on a river full of crocodiles! Chaos ensues, mom bribes all children with as many juice boxes and Oreos they want, youngest child falls asleep (yes our Olivia), and finally we can continue our cruise in peace. Of course Michael is now balancing the sleeping child on his lap while trying to remain in the boat and Jason is getting a permanent stiff arm from trying to shield the sleeping child with an umbrella. When all was said and done we saw so many amazing things that all the little issues were quickly forgotten!

More on day four later......it was a big day!

Jason and the kids ready for our big adventure. The foggy rain was just beginning to stop.

Not the best picture but the kids were excited to see a real poison arrow frog in the wild.

One last shot before heading off down the river.

This is a Jesus Christ Lizard....so called because it seems to walk or run on the top of the water.

This crocodile (cocodrilo in Spanish) wasn't fond of Livie's crying. We were a little nervous when he snapped his head around and dove into the water right by our boat.

This is a three toed sloth. The patch on its back means it's a male. You rarely see them moving so we were excited when this one started to go from one branch to another.

There were many cows on the river banks and they were all numbered except this one. His tag said Charlie. We hope Charlie's been told about the crocodiles.

We think this was called a Tiger Heron.

A howler monkey

Another howler monkey

There were tons of iguanas up in the trees.

These are bats that we found on the side of a tree. We saw nature at work when they all lifted their heads and started to move in unison. They were trying to make the appearance of being larger than we were by moving all at the same time.