Vance Vagabonds: Costa Rica

Every year there is a reward trip through one of our suppliers, Chief Industries, if we qualify. This year the trip was to Costa Rica and Kelly, I, Benji and Kyla all went. It was quite an experience. First of all, our first flight out of Boise was cancelled. That changed the whole schedule, instead of getting down there Friday evening we didn't arrive until Saturday noon. Kyla and Benji were already there as they had headed down early for a few extra days to themselves. We were quite exhausted after travelling all night, so Saturday was shot. We had a wonderful day Sunday with morning meeting in Liberia with a few friends, workers and other visitors. They wanted us to stay for lunch which we did.

The first critter we saw was a Coatis....raccoon like creature.

They are "cute" but can be rather vicious.

They roamed quite freely around the resort.

Front yard of Claudio and Tina's house.

Benji and Kyla and some of the other visitors.

Tina, in foreground, Brenda Lang, left, and her companion Eldi, on the right.

Mario making a volcano.

Mario's audience.

Getting ready to eat.

Kelly and Claudio

Claudio and Tina

The kids.

Plus dogs.

Us four.

Claudio, Tina, Mario & Malidia (9 yr old twins), Claudio Jr. and the workers.

All of us.

Sunday afternoon on the way back to the resort, it was prime monkey time....5 o'clock to sunset.

We saw some monkeys in the trees so we stopped and Kelly called them.
They are Howler Monkeys and he can really get them going!

Typical landscape in this area.

They are so agile and fun to watch.

Our resort area right before sunset.

The view from our room.

Monday we went on a River Tour to see some more wild life.

The bus ride to get to the river.

Sugar cane field.

Iguana

The bus stopped at an old estate for snacks on the way.

An old bull fighting ring on the estate.

Cute couple.

Old couple.

Getting on the boat for the ride down the river.

First crocodile we saw.

They are good at lurking!!

No desire to take a swim in this river!!

Every log started looking like crocodiles.

This was our test for spotting wildlife.

Bats on the tree trunk.

And an iguana in the crook at the top.

First white faced monkey that we saw.

Then we saw a whole troupe.

Storks.

Storks' nest.

We stopped at the estate again for lunch.....and a nap???

Big old iguana in the field.

On the drive back we drove by this sugar cane processing plant.

Sugar cane waiting to be unloaded.

These are cashews....the nut grows
on the bottom of the fruit.

After we got back from the tour we hopped in the car and headed to Tamarindo and the beach. Of course, on the way we saw monkeys....our car STOPPED for monkeys!!! We got so that we watched for monkey crossing trees. Where the trees meet over the top of the road is where the monkeys cross and that is typically about 5:30 am and 5:30pm.

They like to eat the blossoms on the trees.

The babies are adorable.

Mom and baby

This is three monkeys all huddled up together.

Monkey callers and picture takers.

The beach at Tamarindo.

Tuesday we took our little 4 wheel drive and headed to a beach.

A quick shot of the resort.

Kyla and Benji on their deck.

Oh....another monkey.

On the way to the beach we actually drove along several other beaches to get there...notice the catch of the day.

Set up at the beach selling their wares.

This was actually the beach in front of our resort that we drove along to get to the other "better" beach.

This was the tricky section....deep, fine sand....you didn't want to stop or you wouldn't get going again.

The guys right before they got in the water and Benji lost his sunglasses!

Hunting for Benji's sunglasses......Kyla found them!!

Papa being silly for his kids.

Benji joining in.

Let's try for feet pictures now!!

Interesting Costa Rican house.

Back to the beach in front of our resort.

The next beach down....basically you drove on the beach to the next one....only way to get there.

Shops in town.

And then my dear husband decides to creep up on the Coatis and scare them
....it was rather hilarious...fortunately they didn't go into attack mode they just ran scared.