| Pura Vita Costa Rica Trip Days 5 - Visiting Mistico Hanging Bridges & the Drive to Jaco  Tanya's Daily Scoop CURRENTLY IN: COSTA RICA Happy Labor Day Everyone! I am actually back in the states and we must apologize that we pretty much fell off the wagon last week regarding our posting consistency. So very sorry about that. I ran into a few technical issues and then of course I was out and about doing all my adventuring in Costa Rica...It just kind of snow balled. But the good news is - here we are now and I have brought back so many stories and so much content that we are gonna fill you up on all of the Pura Vida that you could ever possibly want (without being there of course). Just to quickly catch you up, before bringing you back in time... We arrived back to SoCal on Thursday and upon our arrival back to LAX, Dave C. was also flying in and coming for a visit over the holiday weekend. We were flying in from FLL (Fort Lauderdale) and he was flying in from ORF (Norfolk, VA) it was a race in the skies as to who would land first! Luckily we landed first, because we had to go pick up a car and then zoom (as much as we could in traffic) to ONT (Ontario, CA). We've had a lovely weekend, filled with much family fun - which I will fill you in on later on. But for now, let's go back to my time in Costa Rica.... PURA VIDA TRIP - DAY 5 After a very exciting and activity filled Day 4, we woke up at the crack of dawn and got ready to head into the rainforests and the jungles once again. This time we were going to the Mistico Hanging Bridges and we were aiming to be the first ones there to have the place to ourselves for a while - turns out that we had the place to ourselves for the entire time - which was FANTASTIC!  Sunrise from our balcony (c)travelincousins.com  Driving to Mistico (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com WELCOME TO COSTA RICA!  (c)travelincousins.com WILD PECCARY TURN YOUR VOLUME UP - SOUNDS OF THE JUNGLE  Pacarina championi - a Cicada found in Mexico, Guatemala, and Costa Rica (c)travelincousins.com HOWLER MONKEYS GOING ACROSS THE FIRST BRIDGE VIEW FROM THE HANGING BRIDGE  Well hello there (c)travelincousins.com WOW - THIS IS AMAZING AM I ADVENTUROUS? I'M LISTENING  Vines made for Tarzan (c)travelincousins.com  Crazy looking mushroom (c)travelincousins.com  On one of the many bridges (c)travelincousins.com  Looking down (c)travelincousins.com  Mistico Waterfall (c)travelincousins.com  Suspended over the suspension bridge (c)travelincousins.com A LITTLE SHAKE THIS WAY AND THAT  Peek-a-boo (t)travelcousins.com  These plants make me look pretty tiny! (c)travelincousins.com After our lovely trek, it was time to head back to our hotel, finish packing our bags, enjoy some birdwatching breakfast time and then hit the road for our 120 mile - 4+ hour drive to the Pacific Coast!  Coffee and bird watching (c)travelincousins.com  Yellow Bellied Flycatcher (c)travelincousins.com  So many different types of hummingbirds (c)travelincousins.com  Montezuma oropendolas (c)travelincousins.com It was time to hit the road... SPOTTED ANOTHER COATI SIDE NOTE - WE ALMOST RAN OUT OF GAS!!! Dave was doing the driving and we both knew that our first stop was the gas station, so that we would start the drive on full. Knowing that our tank was rather low and that the service stations were fairly close by along the route in the La Fortuna area, it didn't bother me that when my eyes got heavy I had allowed them to close simply figuring that I would wake up upon our arrival at the gas station. However after what felt like my little nap was taking longer than what I was expecting, I opened my eyes to see that we were no longer anywhere near La Fortuna; instead on a curvy forested road and then when looked over at the fuel gauge... The low fuel light was on and it read that we only had 30km (18 miles) left in the tank! This is where I began to panic just a little bit. I mean sure, this might not be sooo terrible - like if we weren't in the middle of the "jungle nowhere" in a foreign country and perhaps we had more than little to no cell signal! I tried to remain calm - at least to appear that way, so not to freak out the driver - who btw don't you think should have either woke me up and alerted me of the issue or found a gas station by now?! So yes, I was just a tad upset! Once we found a safe place to pull over, we stopped in order to save what fuel was left remaining in the tank, especially being that we had no idea how far we might have to go to get gas and I really didn't want to get stuck out there. Luckily I finally captured enough signal to locate a gas station and we had to back track 12km to get there. And since I am not still stuck out there on the side of the road, the rest of the getting fuel plan had worked out. But can you imagine if I didn't happen to wake up when I did?! We certainly would've been more than 12km away from any fuel and the tank would have been far less than 30km until completely empty. FROM ARENAL TO HERMOSA BEACH  Yes, I did say that our 120 mile drive was going to take over 4+ hours!
Here I made a helpful little list about some reasons why it takes so long to drive around in Costa Rica:
 Thanks for the warning! (c)travelincousins.com CLOUDY DRIVING JUST A LITTLE FREAKED OUT! After recording the video (above) of me nearing having a heart attack. Honestly, these freakin' directions wanted to kill us. We were driving in a cloud. Couldn’t see a thing. I was a white knuckling passenger! Then what - oh sure...the pavement comes to an end. We were on the spine of the mountain and there were no guardrails! Then followed by a super tight sharp and narrow left hand turn. . I said "No no no no no" I then proceeded to get out of the car. There had to be another way! I was not going down that road! Just then a friendly local drove up and I think he asked in Spanish if we needed any help. Do you speak any English? Then he basically points us down the other path/road and says to make a left at the 3rd street. Thank God and Heaven there was another way, because I was about to grow some roots and make myself a resident of Costa Rica!  Road signs (c)travelincousins.com  That is the sharp right hand turn btw and I no longer want to be in the car! (c)travelincousins.com  This is much better (c)travelincousins.com NEXT STOP CROCODILE BRIDGE - Please jump over to Elisa's column for more information about this bridge.  Isn't every bridge around here Crocodile Bridge??? (c)travelincousins.com  YIKES (c)travelincousins.com  Hola (c)travelincousins.com  So lush (c)travelincousins.com What a day it was! Until next time. Pura Vida! Ciao 4 Now, -Travelin' Tanya | More About Mistico Hanging Bridges & Crocodile Bridge  Elisa's Daily Scoop CURRENTLY IN: LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK Hello and Happy Labor Day! First of all - how did we get to September so fast? AND - apologies for not posting in a number of days!  Both Tanya and I have been working hard to be sure that we both post together and with Tanya's BEYOND CRAZY BUSY schedule in Costa Rica last week, she has not been able to write and upload her amazing photos as timely as she would have liked. So this was one factor for the delay. The other reason for our tardiness was that last week was NUTS for me with getting both kids ready to start school this week. For Kelsey, there were all kinds of activities for in-coming Freshman and parents at her new college, so I was doing a great deal of driving back and forth, shopping for new clothes and reviewing her new schedule! What Else My Week Consisted of: I managed a consistent schedule of going to the gym this past week, which has left me feeling great!! It is truly amazing how good some regular exercise can make you feel! It was also a week of "cleaning" getting ready for the FALL and the new school year. Travel-wise - I made some dining reservations in Disney World for my upcoming trip with Mom and Tanya in October. Tanya and I did our best to stay in touch in spite of all the activities she was enjoying during her trip to Costa Rica. It is truly crazy how much there is for us to talk about from her trip! But we will do our best! Tanya did a great job detailing a few of her excursions which I hope you read in her column today! What we love to do and always try our best to do is to "tag team" our respective travel adventures. So, as you might have noticed, Tanya was bringing you "live and in-person" her on-site photos and videos and I complemented her adventures with some factual information from "home base" in my column of The "Almost" Daily Scoop. Without further ado, let me get to it when it comes to the Mistico Hanging Bridges & Crocodile Bridge, where Tanya had the joy of visiting on Day 5 of her Pura Vida Costa Rica Trip! MISTICO HANGING BRIDGES  (c)travelincousins.com I'm sure you have noticed just how lush and gorgeous the country of Costa Rica is from Tanya's photos and videos!! So much of the natural world to explore and Tanya certainly did her best not to miss anything!! This includes Arenal Hanging Bridges Park and venturing about the tropical rain forest of this lush nature preserve with hanging bridges & a scenic lake. This Park offers quite an array of adventures and appears to me from my research that it is a must-see when in the La Fortuna area. The entrance fee to the Hanging Bridges area is $32 for adults and visitors can meander around the area self-guided discovering hidden secrets in this forest including a wildlife sanctuary and trails filled with high density of biodiversity! The rainforest contains many different layers from treetops, to the forest floor and the diverse species that call this place home.  (c)travelincousins.com The nature walk through this park take about 2.5 to 3 hours and you can choose to have a guided or a self-guided tour. From what I can tell from Tanya's photos, these bridges are not only fun, but enable an incredible perspective of the rainforest!!  Just look at the wildlife photos that Tanya captured! I'm going to be honest - I saw the photo in her column of the Pacarina championi - a Cicada found in Mexico, Guatemala, and Costa Rica - had I seen this - I would have jumped and screamed and probably fell off the bridge!!! In any case, my dear cuz is WAY more adventurous than me and I commend her on taking this adventure trip! TARCOLES RIVER CROCODILE BRIDGE  From the Crocodile Bridge (c)travelincousins.com If you have a passion for crocodiles and want to get your fill of these formidable reptiles, then there is no better place to visit while in Costa Rica than Crocodile Bridge! Look at that bad boy in the photo above!! This bridge has giant crocodiles sunbathing and swimming below! What's more it's a great FREE activity! You can park right off the main highway and walk onto the bridge to get a glimpse of them. The Tarcoles River Crocodile Bridge crosses the Tarcoles River which flows all the way from the mountains in Costa Rica’s Central Valley before emptying into the Gulf of Nicoya/Pacific Ocean. Each side of the bridge offers a different view of the river. The crocodiles can reach up to 20 feet long and weigh up to 2,000 pounds! In general, most of the crocs are between 10-15 feet long. Well, I would say that is a great deal of excitement for one day!! We will more than likely be talking about Tanya's Pura Vida Costa Rica Trip for a while. That's it for now - see you next time!! -Travelin' Elisa |
