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Costa Rica - Rainforest and Beaches \ Photos

Friendly face to greet us outside of customs! She gave us stickers and directed us to the airport exit.
Outside the airport exit, our guide Jorge, and driver Johnny, met us to take us to the hotel.
Johnny showed us how to make pictures with our colon, and Jorge spoke about the history of San Jose. This included telling us about the first McDonalds opened up outside the US!
Rincon de Valle greeted us with delicious and refreshing goodies.
Scarlett and Caro, our amazing coworkers from our local office! They make the magic happen
Beautiful view from Magmatica.
I loved all of the dogs in Costa Rica!
Magmatica!
We were led through an educational and informative tour.
The lunch following the tour was one of my favorites!
These drinks were delicious!
Mmmmm coffee!
Great first day.
The gardens inside the ruins were gorgeous.
Fruit, squeaky cheese, and coffee for breakfast. Yum!
Interbus was a fantastic way to get from one point to the next.
Our first views of our jungle cabin at Selva Bananito - hammocks!
Comfy beds, and netting to protect us from the critters
So beautiful.
A beautiful swan on my Mom's bed!
Lovely tile bathroom - clean and big!
These hibiscus flowers were everywhere
Pretty sure this was our friendly guy who entertained my mom on her napkin before every dinner.
First lunch - absolutely delicious
Jurgen called this "Bananito Hot". The sauce was spicy, a carrot was more spicy, and the pepper knocked your socks off!
Lovely architecture on the office window at the lodge
My first glimpse of a colorful poison dart frog
Mom meeting Gotas and Carmilla before our afternoon ride
My happy place
Fording a river soon on my sure-footed steed
Beautiful breakfast with my mountain of fruit, some cheese, eggs, and toast
Artistic spider
Another tiny frog!
Handsome dude
Mom rappelling the waterfall
We made it!
If you look closely, you can see the golden strand of a spider's web wrapped around my index finger. Amazing!
This was my Mom's favorite part of our walk and broke out into singing "How Great Thou Art"
After rappelling the second wall next to this beauty
Beauty in all the cracks and crevices.
Misty morning on our last day!
It was nice to see the rain forest get some rain.
Grabbing some coffee in the dining area before birdwatching
Fresh Guava straight from a tree. Not quite ripe, but deeeeeelicious.
Fun trick, put your smart phone camera up to the scope and you can take a picture of the birds!
Selva has left a smile on my selfie-face. I don't want to leave.
Picture of a young gelding. He was a cutie.
Carbon-filtered water in our cabin. Fresh and safe to drink!
First sloth we spotted on our trip
Aaah, Shawanda!
And blended drinks!
Mom relaxing on the front porch
That hammock had my name on it.
Yummmmy fruit. Shawanda had a great included breakfast.
Francisco - our scuba instructor!
Friendly sloth with a baby on her belly (sorry you can't see it well) right outside of the dive shop.
Our room at Shawandha. Comfy beds and high lofted ceilings.
Screened windows to keep out the bugs! But, I should probably close the door, eh?
Our beach walk
The coast had lots of coral, but sandy spots to swim, too. The water was so pleasantly warm!
So happy to travel with my sweet Momma.
A storm was brewing, so we said goodbye to the beach.
Ice cream from Alice's Ice Cream Shop
Fun flavors! Each had a great story and origin.
Baby sloth bum!
Beautiful waters of the Caribbean.
Our captain! He brought us safely to each spot to snorkel.
Monkey on our walk through Cahuita National Park. He was a little punk and tried to steal someone's backpack!
Francisco - our scuba instructor - was in the water by day and made sushi (and delivered!) by night.
Yum, sushi, yum.
San Jose on our second to last day. We were lucky to get such a gorgeous day.
The doors in San Jose were so gorgeous.
Some street art.
Such a beautiful day in San Jose! And this is supposed to be "rainy" season.
Last day! Here we go.
Coffeeee!
We enjoyed a nice breakfast before our tour began.
Yummmm
Hernan showing us the process of making coffee.
Bags 'o' beans
Beans for days!
Walking to the crater
Poas Volcano - beautiful! And a bit smelly. That little lake is full of sulfur-smelling goop.
Our view while eating lunch at the La Paz Waterfall Gardens
Toucan!
Toucan on my arm! Eee! His beak scared me.
Pretty smaller toucan
Morpho Butterfly - my favorite.
My mom is sweet.
I loved these gardens!
We saw these fluttering around at Selva Bananito. It was good to get a close-up.
This guy was huge!
This lovely snake looks almost fake. But so beautiful.
And we come to the cats!
Happy Puma
These frogs are normally sleeping, but one of the handlers woke him up for a second so we could see all of his 8 colors. He was my favorite.
Path to the falls
Tired, but happy.
The falls!
Lower falls.
And some more yummy sushi for our last day before we headed home.

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