Costa Rica Page 8

Friday June 30, 2006: We had the whole day in San Jose since we didn't have to be at the airport until 6pm or something for our flights and Charlene had found a brochure for this placed called La Paz Waterfall Garden that looked pretty, said it had 6 waterfalls and great grounds with a butterfly garden, a hummingbird "garden" and other finds like a reptile house and frog house. The brochure looked cool, but when I found out it was some crazy admission price like $35 which for Costa Rica is crazy I almost said the heck with it, but I actually spent very little and had plenty of money left over, so I just went with it. It was awesome that I did.

This place is unreal. It was so surreal with every tiny detail that was just amazing and magical that Charlene said it was just like Disneyland. It was amazing. Just the bathroom was amazing. It was monstrously huge- you pay to get in and it starts off on this walkway with all these poster boards with the different types of indigenous plants. Since John reads every word on every sign and is usually the very last person to leave, Charlene and I went on ahead to let John read and take his time we wanted to be sure to see the whole place. The first stop was the butterfly garden. It was immense. Huge. It felt like the size of a football stadium with netting over the top and just bursting with plants and butterflies EVERYWHERE. They were landing on Charlene's bright yellow hat, they were on the trees, they were on the bananas left out for them to eat, there were larvae and caterpillars and a zillion different species from glasswings to morphos in all stages of life and death. I've never, ever seen anything like it. Just the bathroom was so amazing I took a picture of the bathroom!

I guess you can't really see it, but the water comes out of the "stone" spouts over each pedestal bowl and you turn on the water by turning the "rock" on the right side of the bowl each has a butterfly or a frog on it, the whole place is supposed to feel like you're in a cave, it's all stone with that wooden countertop, wooden framed mirrors over each sink, it was amazing. I took so many pictures of just the butterflies that my camera DIED and I didn't get any of the absolutely magical place we had lunch, OR the waterfalls OR the hummingbirds OR the frog or reptile houses! I was relying on J&C giving me a CD with their pictures on it, but we never managed to get together for that to happen!! I'll try and pirate some from the web. This place even has a hotel which is wildly expensive, like Disneyland, but you stay in a suite "cave" with fireplaces, balconies, whirlpool tubs and are inside this magical place. There are several restaurants- Charlene and I had lunch at one of them that was on the deck of one of the most beautiful slate pools you've ever seen- with a view of the lush forest of the costa rican mountainside in the background. Magical. It was unreal. This is got to be honeymoon central. It would be very expensive, rooms are like $350 a night, but for a big splurge for a few days it would be awesome. I can only imagine.

We stayed in the butterfly house and saw their back room which was full of the different stages of life (Charlene used to breed butterflies as a hobby, so she's very into them) and had education about all the different kinds which were in the exhibit. They were everywhere. The butterfly on the bottom is a brilliant Blue Morpho, the symbol of CR. Believe it or not, the second Butterfly in on the top row of the display to the left is the OTHER side of the Morpho. You only see the brilliant blue when its wings are open. Next to it is the Owl butterfly which looks so much like the morpho with its wings closed.

Ooh, they had some great pictures on their website. Below is the "Peace Lodge" where you can stay.

This is the Trout Lake restaurant where you can actually fish for your lunch if you like, or swim up above and eat on the patio. Wow.

This is the reptile house on the left below, and some images of the waterfalls (there are 6 on a nice long hike throughout the park), then far right is the hummingbird area. Everything red is a little feeder- there are HUNDREDS of them hanging all over and you can just sit and watch the 24 species they have flying all over the place.

They had this super cool "facts about hummingbirds" poster that was so cool- it's on their website. I'll copy it here, these birds are so cool.

* Hummingbirds are the smallest birds in the world
* For their size, hummingbirds have the largest heart & brain of all animals
* Hummingbirds have no sense of smell
* Hummingbird wings beat around 60 times per second
* Hummingbird hearts beat from 500 to 1,200 times per minute
* Hummingbirds are only found in North, Central and South America
* Hummingbirds visit 2,000 to 5,000 flowers a day
* Hummingbirds can consume twice their weight daily
* Their color is produced by refraction of light, not by pigment
* Their average speed is 45 miles per hour
* Their tongues are twice the length of their bills
* In addition to nectar, hummingbirds eat insects for protein
* Hummingbirds cannot walk, only perch
* Hummingbirds fly only 20% of the time
Cool little brilliant birds they are. And territorial little punks know for playing games with cats in windows, coming and zooming around the heads of people. Love them. This place really was amazing. I was so glad we went. We ended up in the gift shop with no time to spare before the van picked us up to go to the airport, of course we had to find John and drag him out of there! This was an amazing way to end my CR trip. Overall, I left feeling like Shelby doesn't play well with others, and her placid sweetness is perhaps not so well suited to group travel. And this really was a long trip, almost 3 weeks. That aside, Costa Rica is pretty special place with just an incredible diversity of flora and fauna and if you're a natural history buff, birder, wildlife observer, photographer, or just love things natural this is the place for you. I applaud CR for its sense and its awareness of the preciousness of its natural resources and that it is taking steps to stem development and habitat destruction, almost 25% of the country is national parks, etc. I would love to go back. I love to remember the magicness of the lit up mountain lodge with a view of Lake Arenal, I loved the bustling super outdoorsy town of Nuevo Arenal. I'd love to go back and do the caves, paddle, climb, do some really crazy zip lines, and hang out again in the Monteverde Cloud Forest. I loved La Paz, of course, and I loved El Trogon with its rustic simplicity and that valley view and its gorgeous, secret grounds. It really is a cool country and I'm glad I went.

So we'll leave on a highlight. If anyone's up for going back with me, let me know. I'm in.

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