Costa Rica: The last few pictures

We have a few more pictures to share from our trip, but they are a bit random. 

This is the view directly out of our room from our balcony. We had a lovely hammock and would spend most of the latter part of the afternoons out here. 

Looking off to the right

This is what the entire coast looks like - wall of forest that is pure green and lush, a little sand but mostly rocks on the short beach, then pure blue waters

A nice waterfall at the end of a hike

This is a cool bird. He has a bright blue crown on the top of his head

Some more cool birds! These are NOT through a scope, so we got to get a good look at these brightly colored scarlet macaws. 

I made this picture bigger so that (perhaps) you can see the birds in this one. This is a view from our balcony and you can see some green parrots in the tree on the left and 3 or 4 scarlet macaws in the tree toward the center/right. These birds are beautiful, but they make such a racket! You don't want to try and sleep without earplugs if you plan on sleeping anytime past dawn. 

Last day attempt to catch some waves... as you can see they weren't too successful. I stayed on the shore and read my book.

Maybe... maybe... I don't think this wave did anything interesting. I guess Drake Bay isn't the best place for surfing (especially around new moon) but it is awesome for everything else! Pura vida! 

Cost Rica: Night hikes with all the creepy crawlies

We went out on a night hike with a local guide from Drake Bay who walked with us for a couple hours on his property. His family has lived in the area for 40 years and he knows his land well! We saw all sorts of small creatures that only really come out at night. Some were super cute, and others.... not so much. Enjoy trying to find the camouflaged critters hidden in the pictures below (it was kinda like walking through a giant scavenger hunt - looking for these creatures when they are doing everything to remain hidden - LOVED it! - I think I am my father's daughter on this one). 

This one... not so hidden. Called the wolf spider. He is kinda dangerous because he is venomous. 

Can you see the stick bug?

So the camera did a little funky coloring on this one, but this is a glass frog because you can see through his skin. He is about the size of a dime.

Another frog - this one a máscara 

I think this guy was called a gladiator frog

One of the many fisherman spiders that we saw - he is about the size of my hand. Eventually we stopped taking pictures of this type because we saw so many of them

Glass frogs are so cute! 

Scorpion! 

This picture makes him look SO much creepier

Whip scorpion - I remember that people had to eat these one time on Fear Factor. It was disgusting. 

We saw a bunch of this cute little guy - about the size of a quarter. 

This is a basilisk. I thought it would look more like the creature from Harry Potter, but it definitely didn't. Rowling got that one a little off. 

Just the night sky from the beach. The small lights are little cabins on the hill. 

This is a poison dart frog that is native to the Osa Peninsula. It has a beautiful song and some crazy stripes down its back. The native people used to rub thorns along its back and use them for hunting to that the venom would kill their prey.

Daytime picture of a leaf frog. He is smaller than a dime. Can you see him?

Some more daytime pictures of the cute red frog. He kept jumping away and I had to take a bunch of pictures to try and capture him in a good shot. 

Back to night time again. Can you see the frog? 

Ending on a glass frog again. There is a kind of glass frog (not this one) that if you flip it over, you can see inside of its chest cavity to see its beating heart. Craziness! We left all the frogs alone though, so I'm not actually positive if this is one of those or not...

Costa Rica: A Hike along the coast

On Christmas Day, Jeremy and I did a hike along the coast. The path winds through rainforest and visits over 20 different beaches. It was a beautiful day.

It begins! We had to cross a couple suspension bridges to start it off.

"Steps" - always interesting how people build steps using what is there already

One of the many beautiful beaches we walked through 

Lush rain forest

Crazy roots!

So this is where palm trees come from...

Thankfully we didn't have to cross many rivers this way, its a bit slippery and the rocks aren't smooth so they hurt your feet, but we had to keep going!

Toucan!

These are growing in a spiral! So cool! 

We arrived at our beach destination in the late morning and we spent the rest of our time there snorkeling and snoozing in the sun. Lovely Christmas day!