Kappy & Cohen Travel Costa Rica

 This morning we slept in a bit and boarded our bus at 8:30 to visit a local organic farm. When we arrived there we were treated to a stroll through the garden and the opportunity to sample many of its fruits, vegetable and herbs. Most of the herbs were used in Costa Rica as medicines in the past and continue to serve that purpose. Here’s the boys tasting one, just moments before they grimaced and spit the leaves out.  We sampled other fruits of the garden  And avoided others that were toxic This one here is a relative of the tomato plant. Not sure what its name is but doesn’t it look like Picacho? After our tour we were treated to a exposition of folkloric dance by these beautiful women: Following the dancing, in which we all participated, we had a wonderful organic lunch at the farm, boarded the buss and headed back to the hotel. On the way we stopped n La Fortuna for a scaveger hunt. Cohen and I were assigned 2 things:  Get a selfie with a sloth And: find some Pal...

 You may notice that I don’t have any pictures of hanging bridges😳. That’s because I was never gonna let go of the handrails to get a snapshot. I could barely look anywhere but at my feet😩 But don’t let me get ahead of myself. After breakfast we boarded the bus and broke trail for the Macaw farm. Here we were able to feed and interact with Macaws. These birds were all rescued from places they shouldn’t have been in the first place: cages in someone’s house😢. Consequently they cannot be returned to the wild. Here they enjoy a humane life amongst others of their kind.  We were also treated to a ride on the “Buffalo.” And, forced into labor pressing juice from the sugar cane.  YUM! Onto lunch at a wonderful local restaurant in Fortuna.This community definitely caters to a tourist clientele and we saw many cafes, restaurants and “sodas” (what the Ticos call a smaller restaurant or snack bar). After lunch we went to Mistic Park and took a hike which included 7 hanging bridg...

 Can you say BUSY? No time to get in trouble, or read my book.  This morning we boarded our bus, piloted by Diego, and headed to the Sarapiqui River for a journey by boat. Our boat Captain Jose and leader Lenny dazzled us as they pointed out all kinds of critters. Here are a few: The black blob is a howler monkey! You should hear him howl. Sounds like a jet airplane!!! After a 2 hour tour (Gilligan’s) we boarded our bus and drove to an outdoor kitchen where we participated alongside native cocineras in preparing lunch. Our group made banana salad! Everything is pretty much the same as potato salad, just substituting the bananas for potatoes. I suspect it is impossible to grow the potato here.  Looks good, huh? Other groups made a green salad, plantain chips and arroz con pollo! Afterwards we were all able to enjoy the fruits of our labor! Back to our hotel for a quick swim then a walk in the Rainforest. This time Eddie was our leader and he pointed out many other creature...

 Sorry I missed yesterday. I’ll try to catch you up but it’s been so busy…… So Saturday we started out with an educational trip to a local chocolate processing plant. We learned how the cocos bean is harvested and split. The seeds are then roasted and turned into chocolate. The fellow who owns the plant put on quite a show. Involved the audience  And gave us all a delicious taste of the end product Following the demo we were allowed to purchase some of the artisanal products in the gift shop! After a short lunch we headed to the Sarapaqui River for an invigorating and wild river raft trip!!  Fortunately no one from our raft ended up being thrown as Ralph our pilot skillfully maneuvered our raft down the river.  Back to the hotel afterwards for dinner and a night romp through the rainforest where we say cool stuff like tarantulas, tree frogs, leaf carrying ants and other cool stuff. Kinda dark for pictures tho. Gotta go to sleep. Catch you up on today (Sunday) tomorro...

What a trip. Left on Wednesday (7/9) at 11:59 pm. Got to Dallas at 5:00 am (couple time zones over). Spent 5 hours in the American Lounge 😞. Flew to San Jose, Costa Rica (4 hour flight) and arrived at 1:10 pm (1 hour ahead of PST). NO sleep.  We were greeted by the Road Scholar folks and taken to our hotel the Raddison where we were lectured and fed. Crashed, and I mean CRASHED! Up and out for breakfast Friday (today) at 7 am. Afterwards we were treated to a biodiversity lecture at the hotel. We learned how far we have come from measuring our surrounding by hand count to today’s modern practices of drone counting.  Afterwards we boarded our bus and headed to the La Paz waterfall and animal reserve. Here we viewed many animals, birds and butterflies all in one place.  After a wonderful buffet lunch at the facility, we walked down (and up I might add) to the La Paz waterfall. This waterfall runs all year and is entirely fed by the clouds! Really amazing.    ...

 This long anticipated trip is finally upon us! My Grandson Cohen: And I board a flight tonight at 11:59pm to head off on a Road Scholar tour to Costa Rica! I have waited a couple of years to undertake this trip and can’t wait to get started!! Made it to the airport. Bags checked!! Have an hour to kill soooo how about some chicken tenders and a Pinot Grigio?  Check back in later