Costa Rica II

It's time to update my Costa Rica trip again.

Ok, what happened after Savegre?
Another long drive from Savegre to Hotel Villa Lapas. Savegre as I mentioned before, was located in the mountain area, and now, we are going down the mountain to a beach. It is gonna be hot. The ride was rough though. I got mild car sick during the drive.

On our way to Villa Lapas, we stopped to watch crocodiles under the bridge. It was quite boring to me because it is nothing special to me. Crocodiles? So? I saw it so many times in Langkawi. So bored and hot!
This is the butt view of the group, except me. They would kill me if they see this picture. Muahahahaha...
CL took a picture of me taking picture of the crocodiles.
Then we continue our journey to Hotel Villa Lapas.

Hotel Villa Lapas (2 nights)
The first thing everyone did after arrive to Hotel Villa Lapas was jumping into the pool. Here is a picture of happy Cheryll in the pool.
After everyone get ready, we went to the beach. Before that, Jim told us that the beach is very beautiful and so on. So, I expected to see white, soft sands and nice blue ocean. However, when we arrived there, I was shocked to see the so called "beautiful" beach.
The sand was brown and the water was dark green. It was, horrible. I decided not to go into that water. It was just too scary. You never know what skin disease you are gonna get by getting into this water. The sun was hot and some gals was trying to get tan. We were having fun though, even though the water was nasty.

SHARKS!! SHARKS!! Cheryll was running for her life! Kekeke..Just kidding.

Three musketeers, Nat, CL and me. Everyone just kept taking picture of us. So weird. Felt like a star but....
Anyway, we saw a very pretty bird again! Scarlet Macaw! I can't take a close picture of them becuase they kept flying passed without telling me (I don't understand bird language). However, I saw this bird again in the Reptile garden when I went to South Dakota. Here's the picture..
Aren't they pretty?

Here is my prince on the brown horse riding into the sunset.
Ok, the sun wasn't set yet. But, soon.
I wasn't a great photographer, so, the picture wasn't that pretty.
The dinner in that hotel was great. It was a buffet with ice cream, espresso machine and all other great stuff. They have an open bar. We were all so excited and Jim had to warn us not to get drunk. The bartender and workers there were actually glad cause most people that came are couples or old people. They are desperate to meet some young female species. We were having a lot of fun. I played the first foosball game in my life. Of course, I lost.
The next day, we went to visit palm production plant. It was very hot. We have to wear this worker hat in order to get into the plant.
Don't I look like teletubbies? Hahaha.. It was fun being stupid.
Here is the group picture taken after the visit. The guy beside Cheryll was the plant manager who showed us the plantation.
After we visited the plantation, we went for a canopy hike. It was the worst hike ever because we have to hike on the road. We were not hiking in the forest, so, there were no trees blocking the sun. I was so exhausted and dehydrated. I almost wanted to stop some car and asked them to bring me back to the hotel. It was horrible. Jim told us that the canopy walk was very great and everything.
CL took the picture of me walking on the canopy walk. It was quite boring, actually. I went to Taman Negara in Malaysia before and their Canopy walk was way way way better! It was higher and much more interesting.
I was so tired. When we get down from the Canopy walk, our professors were still way behind. We have to end up stopping a car and asked for direction. The driver (cute guy) actually offered us a drive but we declined. Kathryn, Laurel and Jesse put up a sign for Jim so that they know which way to go.
This cute couple! You can imagine how crazy the trip was with this kind of professor as the trip leader.
At night, we have a group discussion again and Jim was doing crazy stuff again. He held up these two plants and told us that only people who are holding the plant can talk. God! This 60 something guy is just as playful as we are!

We left the next day to Arenal, a volcano area.
On our way, we stopped by a souvenior store.
Our dear Jim is doing some funny stunt again.
We also stopped by a garden to look at all those tree sculpture (or art). It was a very interesting place. They make the trees into dinosaur, arches, puppet and etc.
Many students were hanging out in that garden when we were there. They look like high school kids.
CL with two don't-know-what tree sculpture.
We stopped for lunch somewhere.
This is how Costa Rican brew their coffee. It was gooooood! I bought a tiny set of this back from Costa Rica.
Then we went to visit Tico Frut. It was a company that process fruit juices. They sell some of their fruit juice to Coca-cola company to make MinuteMaid, I think. We weren't allow to take pictures except when we were out of the plant.
We then continue our journey to Arenal.

Arenal Observatory Lodge (2 nights)
Arenal is an active volcano. It has some red hot lava coming out almost every hour. It was fun watching it. We were 160km (sea line/horizontally) away from the Volcano. We really had an up-close and personal look at the volcano. It was really a very special experience.
Volcano puffing! (That's how I described it).
The beautiful sunset.
Everyone ran to the pool again after we arrived at the hotel. They even have a hot tub in that hotel. We were really really spoiled!
The dinner was a sit down dinner. It was included in the hotel. We can order whatever we want from the appertizer to the dessert. It was very very fun. It was also Trisha's 21st birthday. From the dining room, we have a nice view of the volcano. We can see the red lava flowing down the volcano occasionally. It was very very romantic and special. It was the best dinner I ever had thus far. The food was not the best but the atmosphere was really great.
The dining room was really dark.
Trish with her Tres-leche dessert. The waiter brought out a guitar and sang a birthday song for her. Nat requested that since she speaks Spanish fluently. It was really fun.
Food in my mouth again.

We went for a hike the next day.
We took a picture with the sign before going in. It wrote something about hike at your own risk. Sounds danger..
CL was trying to cross the river. Heheh...I crossed by stepping on stones so that I didn't get my feet wet. :P
Here is the picture of the volcano when it was not covered by the cloud. I took this picture when we were hiking up the hill to get closer to the volcano. The volcano was usually covered with cloud and Jim told us that some people waited the whole day and still couldn't see the volcano due to the cloud. We were lucky!
The hiking was easy though. It was hot, but not as bad as the one in Savegre.
The three crazy gal with the Volcano.
The view from the volcano was magnificent. I felt like I was in a story book.
I tried taking pictures but, again, I am bad.
Pretend to be cute. HOT! (I don't mean me, I mean the weather!)
Hiking down again.
We have a free time for the afternoon. Of course, all of us went hanging out near the pool again.
Those crazy gals doing synchronize swimming.
CL and I sat outside waiting for the lave and of course, for the perfect picture. We didn't succeed though. :(
Group picture again before we left.
We were on the bus again going to Palo Verde.
The view was really breathtaking!

Palo Verde (1 night)
We arrived Palo Verde Biological Station around 2.30pm. Franklin, our dear bus driver cum tour guide left us for an interview.
We have this new bus driver who didn't try to look for special creature while he was driving. So, we didn't get any emergency breaks and binocular searching moments with him, which would happen when Franklin is driving. However, Cindy spotted two Motmot on our way there. It was a pretty little bird.
The drive was rough because the road was not fixed. It was not a tarred road. It took us a long time to reach there.
We all freaked out when we saw our hotel. They have a double decker loft but only the bottom level was ready for us. Mosquito net was set on top of our bed. It was so creepy. Spiders, lizards, iguana are everywhere. We saw huge bugs flying and crawling around. Frogs were jumping everywhere. I got sicked in my stomach when it was time for bed that night.
We went for a hike right away after we arrived. That mountain was filled with moquitoessss. I felt like I was walking into a mosquito's heaven. We sprayed bug spray all over ourselve but yet, the mosquito was still trying to attack us. It was crazy.
The dining room was crazy too. There are ants everywhere. Katie called them power ant because they are invincible. We tried to kill them but we failed. They stand up again, and crawled around again. We gave up.
We were so scared to go back to our room so we hang out in the dining room after the dinner waiting for the night hike.
Katie, Nat and I was trying to show our scared face.
We went for the night hike. Even though the weather was hot, we all wore long sleeve shirt. No one wanted to do charity. No food for the crazy mosquitoesss.
No one showered that night. We all went to bed as late as we could cause it was too scary.
Me in my little mosquito net. It was broken, which freaked me out even more. It was hot but I still covered myself up with blanket. I am worried that spider or cockroaches might climb on me. It was very freaky. I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep for an hour. There are several other people who couldn't sleep and they went to the computer room to use the internet for the rest of the night.
The next day, most of us are wearing the same cloth as last night. No one showered. We all covered ourselve with bug spray before we went to bed. We sprayed it again the next morning.
We went for bird watching, then hike again.
Our dear tourguide, Carlos.

On top of the hill. It was nice up there. You have the full view of the...paddy field, and also mountains. I am glad we are leaving that place. We all quickly hiked down and go back to the station. We managed to shower before we leave. I left the pants, shoes and shirts in Palo Verde. I am not gonna take those things home.
The view of dry paddy field and mountains. Wish I can go back there again..

Yohoooo!! On our way to San Jose, which means, going home. We are all so ready to go home now.
The traffice in San Jose reminds me of Kuala Lumpur. So crowded and packed. Annoying.
We stayed in Hotel Don Carlos. The hotel is very pretty and the facilities are great. Unfortunately, we have to leave before 6am, so, we didn't get to try their complimentary breakfast.
CL, Me and Nat was taking stupid pictures in the hotel room.
Me, Trish and Nicole.
CL, with one of the sculptures in the hotel.
Me, with the same sculpture. Hehehe..told you, it is fun to be stupid!
Our lovely dinner. Cheryll bought the dinner. It was fun. Last dinner in Costa Rica.
Franklin managed to come back and drove us to the airport. The last group picture outside Hotel Don Carlos. We are gonna miss him. He is already part of the group.
San Jose airport.
Burger King breakfast in Costa Rica.
Dallas airport. Doing stupid thing again. :P

--The end--