Miami, Costa Rica

We were told Tamarindo isn't the "real" Costa Rica - that's it's more like Miami. That isn't automatically a criticism, but this morning - after the unbelievable experiences and wonderful people here at Casitas Tenorio - it feels like we are losing something. 

We skipped the farm tour this morning in order to pack up the casita. Partway though, eagle-eyed Lauren called out from the front veranda "monkeys!" Now, keep in mind that Lauren is 4, so she has been telling us all trip about the monkeys she has "seen" from the car, or the whales, or when she climbed up in the trees and was swallowed by a snake (which...to be clear...didn't happen!). This time, though - true!

Howler monkeys coming to wish us farewell at the casita. What caused heart-stopping excitement a mere two days ago...now gets only passing attention from some...

On to breakfast (the pancakes veritably got more attention from Everest than the monkeys beforehand!) and yet another new visitor to the rancho - a Crested Guan.

(Merely "near threatened" so rather boring compared to last night's kinkajou!😂)

Followed by more brief-but-intense rain.

Before leaving - and in response to our inquiring - our hosts Nana and Jeff showed us a house on the property that includes a full kitchen - more suitable for longer stays. Perhaps that's next year's adventure?? (Last night Jeff saw tapirs just in front of this house. We missed them. So....decision made, right?)

Before leaving the little village, we stocked up on essentials for the trip, including some of the granadilla and mamoncillos were first tried yesterday, as well as hydration from Cafe Semilla.

We did NOT take the "logging pass" highway out of Bijagua de Upala - stuck to the primary highways - but we were still treated to awe-inspiring views as we began our journey west to the coast. 

There is a pronounced change in climate and ecosystem as one descends from the mountains and heads west. Lush and wet tropical rainforest is replaced by arid semi-desert - what reminds me of New Mexico in the U.S.A. As we were in an air-conditioned car, the dry heat really only hit as we stepped out for a bio-break! We also noticed that the valley was on fire. Truly. What first appeared to be controlled fires - small smouldering areas with people generally nearby seeming to monitor - was replaced by smokiness across the highway and multiple widespread areas where the ground was smouldering or actively alight. "Should we be turning back? Are we driving into a forest fire?" But nobody else on the highway seemed to give it a thought. There was a steady parade of cars heading in the same direction as us, and the cars coming in the opposite direction appeared in no hurry. Eventually we made it through the smoke-filled valley, and marveled in the evening as we looked out from the beach that we could still see fires burning in the faraway countryside.

Tamarindo!

A beach town that in some ways feels like beach towns all over the world, Tamarindo is a beautiful homage to sun, sand, and surfing. Plenty of action along the main strip - restaurants, shops, and loads of people meandering around in bathing suits and flip flops. 

We checked in to Tamarindo Village Hotel, a small, friendly hotel well off the beaten path. (It felt a little like we were leaving Tamarindo to get to our place here, though it's only a ~3 minute walk to the central part of town. Just...once you leave paved roads - and you don't know where you are going - it always feels a bit like leaving civilization.) The clean and well-appointed room did NOT feel away from civilization, and the hosts/owners were great!

Monkeys in their not-so-natural habitat...

...super impressive!

When you're new in town, the beach is actually a little hard to find, strangely! I mean, we knew exactly where it was - just behind that row of shops and restaurants - but it takes a moment to realize that these dirt/sand alleyways off the main (paved and finished) road between the shops are the intended route.

The beach!

The rainforest was a dream for me, but there is something so heart-wrenchingly stunning about an expansive beach at sunset. We took about a million photos, and were in good company with so many others doing the same!

The kids were having a blast and finding much-needed ways to burn off energy after the long drive!

Tomorrow is a full day of sun and sand!

Noah Has Got Nothing On This Place!

Casitas Tenorio B&B has a working farm aspect to it - cows for milk (eventually beef for the boy calf), chickens for eggs, and vegetable gardens. The rabbits, we were assured, were just pets. All 25 of them! Except, there aren't 25 anymore. There had been 25 rabbits, but Costa Rica has snakes and various other predators, and now Casitas Tenorio has two rabbits. In one incident, a boa slipped into the rabbit pen (thin snake easily fitting through the gaps in the wire) but then was stuck inside once it had swallowed a mother rabbit and five babies.

The manager - Nana - suspects that their cat was eaten by an ocelot, and she expects one day that their adorable 3-month old puppy (Lauren's favourite part of Casitas Tenorio, hands down), may simply not return from the jungle. However, "this is beautiful" as she puts it, because it is nature. 

Our pre-breakfast farm tour this morning wasn't all gloom about animals, however! We tasted spinach off the plant (more would be served sauteed at breakfast), as well as their "coyote culantro" (like cilantro...but not).

We were especially nice to this cow, knowing that it will be someone's dinner one day.

Everest and Lauren even had the chance to milk a cow! (A chance that Lauren didn't take.)

The cow's back legs are tied during the milking process for safety whether or not amateurs are at that stool as she stomped on her first calf when it was nursing. She was getting so many good things to eat that she didn't seem to mind.

Did you know that pineapples, naturally, take two years to grow and produce one fruit per plant? (Apparently modern farming can increase that productivity...if you don't mind a side of chemicals.)

Was breakfast tastier because we were so close to the production? I don't know...I tried the milk for coffee knowing where it had come from! (I don't enjoy cow's milk under any circumstances, so this more about the experience. It...tasted like milk!) In any case, breakfast was delicious and powered us for a day in the heat exploring this region.

We drove through Tenorio Volcano National Park to enjoy the majestic landscapes and incredible views. There is a beautiful waterfall to see in the park...but it's a 3km hike each way and it was hot. Not sure how Everest would handle an aggressive ("moderate difficulty" according to the guidebooks) trek in the heat, and there's only so far that I can carry Lauren! Maybe next time!

The kids had plenty of energy for the hyacinth labyrinth! (Laberinto Río Celeste)

...until, actually, they didn't. Everest and I tackled (and solved!) the second rectangular labyrinth after we cheated to find the centre of the more challenging round one, but by then Lauren was cooking in the heat so Mindy took her into the car to cool off!

From there, a proper cool-off in the turquoise waters of the Rio Celeste - the colour resulting from the mixing of minerals and compounds in the water.

True to expectations, we were briefly caught in a rainstorm in this tropical rainforest! Not too bad when we were already in bathing suits...

Back to the village of Bijagua de Upala for a late lunch and cafecito at Cafe la Semilla (recommended by Nana at Casitas Tenorio) and then back to the casitas. A full day and time to relax, right? We did not expect what greeted us upon our return - howler monkeys!

A mature grey sloth high up in a tree!

Toucans (not captured) and - I am told - parrots that flew high overhead but didn't stop here. Wow!!

Jeff, one of the staff here at Casita Tenorio, introduced us to granadillas 

and mamoncillos 

- tropical fruits that were popular when he was young but aren't commercially viable and so have largely been replaced by the more popular mangoes, watermelon, pineapples (conventionally grown!) and papayas that accompany every breakfast here. Both are delicious, and I wish these were available back home!

We spent much of the evening in the rancho, enjoying the jungle sounds around us, the good company of our hosts and fellow travellers, making crafts... 

(This collection is largely Lauren's handiwork, including "painted" paper towels when she made paint out of markers and water, using Q-tips as paintbrushes - clever girl!)

...and learning en masse with Duolingo!

Our last treat of the evening was the seldom seen kinkajou, or "honey bear", what looks sort of like a cat with an exceptionally long tongue.

What's Better Than Paradise?

I am sitting alone in the open jungle in the middle of the night as I write, while my family is locked in the room. That....seems weird to write, obviously, but it's true. Our stunning suite at Casitas Tenorio doesn't have Wi-Fi (none of them do) and the lock on the front door is key-controlled from both the inside and out. We only have one key. There is Wi-Fi in the common space of the central "rancho" which has a roof but no walls. 

This is strange.

However, this is a different part of Costa Rica - more remote than La Fortuna or the area around Mount Arenal - and so we need to manage our expectations, I suppose. We came here in pursuit of a different experience, after all!

(UPDATE: We later discovered that our casita has another exit that was accessible to Mindy and the kids. More importantly, they didn't need an emergency exit!)

Wait, what is that noise? I look with my flashlight to see what animal is bouncing along underneath the roof just above me - I can hear it's wings. A small bat? That's a hummingbird! Wow! Oh....that's NOT a hummingbird. That's an enormous bug of some sort with a big, fleshy body! (I did not get a photo.) Less "ick" factor - the gecko on the underneath of the roof above me. 

While I may be sitting alone in the dark here, the Wi-Fi restriction - only in the main rancho - is intentional. Casita Tenorio is cultivating inclusion and connection among their guests by drawing them (us) out of their (our) casitas. (Over the next few days as we stayed here, we had the absolute pleasure of interacting with other families here, including "travel friends" for Everest and Lauren who were close enough they warranted hugs when our paths diverged.)

Here is the rancho in daylight:

...and here is the mosquito suppression equipment! (Bats roosting under the roof - that returned to this spot each day.)

We are here for tapirs. I mean, we'll "accept" more views of monkeys and other incredible Costa Rican wildlife, but the northern, more remote area that we are in now is home to this elusive cross between a pig and an ant-eater (not really). They are rare and hard to spot, so....fingers crossed!

Whether or not we see tapirs, I was ready for a change from La Mansion and La Fortuna region, generally. Beautiful vistas, lovely people, toucans and oropendolas(!!) but....Mindy and I travel aggressively, and two nights in one place is about our limit. Good bye, La Mansion, hello adventure! (Quick games of pool and chess before leaving La Mansion. It was raining, but we were more drawn to indoor activities than the pools, so - again! - the persistent rain here has had no real limiting impact on our activities.)

In her extensive research for this trip, Mindy found Cafe con Amour and put it on our agenda for today. Slight problem - it was closed when we arrived. On a Saturday morning. Ookaay...seems like a questionable business plan, that. Let's check out the highly-advertised German Bakery across the street.

This has been a landmark of the area for many years (though is now reportedly for sale). Honestly? Mindy and I were underwhelmed. It was...fine. The pastries were sweet and satisfied hunger. Next stop, impromptu, the Costa Rican version of Healthy Planet!

Wait, what is this being advertised in the store??? Tempting! According to AI, it would cost about $50K per year for a family of four to live in Costa Rica with our own wells, fruit trees, etc.

 

And finally the coffee that we intended to get from Cafe con Amour, now from the highly advertised (and very touristy) Cafe & Macadamia. Great views and sustenance to make for a happy family.

There's a saying in Costa Rica that the shortest distance between two points is rarely a straight line. We learned that as we turned off the primary highway for the "direct route" toward Bijagua de Upala.

(Don't take the 927 if you want easy driving!)

Started off being a little bumpy. Fine, we got a 4WD for that reason. Steep gullies and no shoulder. (Glad I'm not driving!) At least the rain was spotty and light - in a bad storm one could slide right off the road! Pot holes big enough to swallow a car. Well...um....ok, this is not what we expected! There is no way for me to really convey the lurching and rocking of the car as we drove over head-sized boulders and dipped into 8-inch potholes! I've been on safari in Africa in a 6-wheel ATV and the conditions we drove over there were no worse than what we're tackling in a car here.

We later read that the 927 route we took is a known "trap" for tourists who rely on Google Maps for directions; it is the most direct route, after all. HOWEVER, that same article noted that the breathtaking views from that route are unavailable elsewhere, and - as we weren't trapped in a storm, waylaid by a landslide, or stuck in a ditch - worth every moment of the white-knuckle drive! (Says the one who wasn't driving.)

The photos do NOT do it justice.

Next time we'll take the longer, less direct route. One flat tire or a sudden tropical storm and our takeaway from that drive would have been very different. 

Back on well-maintained highways, we finally found ourselves in Bijagua de Upala and to Casitas Tenorio. A stunning luxurious hideaway in rural Costa Rica. I thought Eden was my new home, but maybe I judged too soon?