In February we flew to San Jose, Costa Rica. We were supposed to tour Poas Volcano but had to go to Irazu instead. Poas was active and closed by the government.

Our bus climbed to 11,000 feet and we walked out to the main crater which is 900 feet deep and almost a mile around. There is a turquoise pond at the bottom.

We visited Doka coffee estate, where we learned about the process of growing, picking and roasting coffee beans. The type of coffee is Arabica which is only grown in Costa Rica. The mill is 120 years old.

We enjoyed the beautiful orchids at Villa la Catalina. There are 450 species of orchid. The botanical garden has won many international awards.

From San Jose we drove to La Fortuna over the continental divide. We were surprised to see several white faced coatimundis along the road. One day we walked through a rain forest, visited a school and had lunch at a local farm. We learned how they make sugar cane moonshine.

We loved all the birds in Costa Rica. We saw toucans, thrushes, tanagers, egrets, herons and jacana to name a few. We also had a beautiful view of the Arenal Volcano.

The hanging bridges at Mistico were fun to walk on and we had some awesome views of the tree canopy. We had lunch at Tobogan that day and a surprise anniversary cake to celebrate our 51st anniversary.

We had to ride in a bus for four hours to get to Monte Verde. We had lunch at Morphos, named for the beautiful blue butterfly in Costa Rica. On the drive we saw a young male howler monkey climbing down a tree. We drove around a lake and over to the Pacific side of Costa Rica. We enjoyed watching the colorful hummingbirds and also the bats. We learned that bats are closely related to primates. They have one baby a year. Depending on the type of bat, they eat meat, fruit, fish and nectar. Bats are important because they eat insects and help pollinate plants. One interesting and bizarre fact is that mascara is made with sterilized bat guano!

We liked our hike through the cloud forest near Monte Verde. The butterfly house in Monte Verde was fun also. We also had an interesting and humorous talk about insects.

At Guanacaste, we did some bird watching, took a boat ride on the Tempisque River and had fun on a zip line (no photos). We enjoyed the hotel which was right on the beach.

Go to Tortuguero for trip description and link to video.