We left La Fortuna after breakfast and drove up, up, UP the mountains towards the Peace Lodge. We were touching clouds at a couple of points. Beautiful scenery the whole way. We stopped briefly at this neat waterfall on the way up, too. It was falling right by the road, and there was a little path that actually ran behind the waterfall that *I* got to go on before Jessie did. I can be adventurous too!
We arrived before check-in time, but we just left our stuff up by reception and decided to explore the ‘waterfall gardens’, which is this whole sprawling complex that is associated with the peace lodge. Lots to see and do. We got bracelets to allow access, but they were *special* bracelets that only people on their honeymoon get. That was neat because every time people saw it, they told us congratulations. Very nice.
Our first real big sight was the bird sanctuary. There were lots of avians (and army ants!) hanging around, all sorts of different types and colors. Very pretty. They had several toucans flying around, some in their own area, and one hanging out with one of the keepers so that you could see and pet him. They’ve got *huge* beaks. There were a bunch of parrots, too, from the bright and amazing to the drab but intelligent.
There were some marmosets (tiny primates) running around in the aviary, too, in their own cage. They were really curious and playful, a whole family of them. One of them even played a game with Jessie. She’d turn her head sideways, and he’d sit sideways on the bars, and then she’d keep twisting and they’d both end up spinning around and around. They got right up on the bars, too, so you could get a finger-full of fuzzy critter. We watched them run around for a long time.
After that, we saw the butterfly conservatory. The previous one was neat, but this was was VERY impressive. You could barely sit for all the butterflies lying around. There were older ones that were probably on their last legs, but those were nice to pick up and look at since they lacked the energy to dart away. There were flowers and fruit everywhere, with butterflies flapping all around and munching on everything. I was really impressed by the operation, we got to see where they hung the chrysalises. They had, literally, buckets of transforming caterpillars, and they hung them on long sticks and let them sit out where everyone could see them. You could see several of them emerging, and several more butterflies hanging and drying their wings. After that, we found a buffet lunch, with hot dogs!
We got to check into our room then, and WOW. The room was so nice. They had a sound system playing classical music throughout the whole area, a huge bed with fireplace, our own private Jacuzzi, and a hammock out on the balcony, overlooking the costa rican wilderness. The bathroom was even more impressive. It had a waterfall shower, a tub, and a waterfall that ran down the wall just for aesthetics, and a nice, wide sink area. Everything was decorated with hard woods and was very elegant. We soaked in the Jacuzzi for a while, then went out again to see more stuff. Oh yeah, there’s more.
Next up were the monkeys. The spider monkey family was my favorite. They just seemed to ‘move intelligently’. They used momentum, grabbed at handholds, and generally just looked elegant when they moved around. Well, elegant for monkeys. There were also some ‘white-face gibbons’. One of them would hang out near the window with food, and occasionally bring up a rock with him. He’d pound the rock against the window occasionally, and that got a rise out of the tourists. Heh.
There was a snake display after that, with a lot of really skinny critters hanging around. Then, hummingbirds! They had a series of feeders and flowering bushes that had loads of hummingbirds flying around, chasing after each other, and generally being very impressive. We got there at a special time where they closed off the feeders and gave us little hand-feeders, so the birds came right up and ate out of our hands. Definitely a highlight. Then we saw their newly-opened big-cat place. There were a lot of them, even though they were mostly sleepy and annoyed at the rain, but they were all very cute. There was even one that was smaller than Tigger. He tromped around his cage, all protective of his territory, and growled at us if we got to close, but it was an adorable growl. Best was when he was munching on his chicken and would growl. It ended up sounding like: “NOM Nom nom nom....NOM Nom nom...” So cute!
The restaurant at the hotel insisted that we make reservations, so we did, and we ended up getting there early. We sat and waited and while we were waiting, a cat came wandering by. Just a normal house cat. I sat next to him and he crawled onto my lap. I ended up just sitting there and petting him for about an hour or so while we waited. His name was Hunter. Remember him, he’ll show up again later. We went up to dinner, early for our reservations, but got seated anyway. Glad we got the reservations because...we were the only people there. Low season. The soup and appetizer were great, but the fist was TERRIBLE. And I don’t skip fish easily.
After dinner, we had signed up for a night tour of the frog house, frogs being more active at night. It was really neat, our guide showed us all the fogs in the house, grabbing them and letting us see them, even the very iconic ‘green leaf frog’. Very pretty critters. We got to see them up close with our lights. At one point, though, our guide got this, tiny, TINY red ant on her neck. Is there nothing in this country that won’t kill you if you touch it?
When we got back it was still raining, and hunter was waiting for us back where our tour dropped us off. He actually followed us the whole way back to our hotel room, so we invited him inside. It was a bit of a cold night, for costa rica, and he just curled up on our couch and fell asleep. We figure he probably does this to tourists all the time. Poor kitten. All he wants is to be lazy and get petted and sleep, and he happens to live in a country where even the hummingbirds are big enough to carry him off.
Good grief, that was a long one, and there's even *two movies* to accompany it!
-N
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