All good things must come to an end so that more good things can happen. We were situated five minutes from the ferry terminal in Paquero so it was not a long drive to get to the 9am ferry. We planned on the noon ferry but as we were ready to go, what the heck? Pulled up to the gate and were given a plastic chit of sorts and motioned to go inside and pay. We abandoned our car right there and headed in to pay the modest fee of $28 for a car and two passengers. With no apparent line to board, just empty cars in the boarding area we drove up to board figuring someone would tell us (no one yells in Costa Rica) if we were in the wrong.
We drove down the hatch and Laurie walked back up to get this picture. They did not like that but were very polite in telling her to get back down the ramp to the car!
We found our way up to one of the two passenger decks and took in the sights. The ride was about an hour so we got to relax a bit and take in the scenery.
They say most Costa Ricans are Catholic. We have not seen too many churches in our travels but, at least one in each small town. We guessed that if there is really only one major religion, there only needs to be one Catholic church per town. Above is a sign saying 'Jesuchristo es el Senor' meaning Jesus Christ is the Lord. The N has no tilde on it so senor means lord where the N with a tilde means 'mister'. These types of signs are not widely spread so far but folks do find places with a captive audience to place them.
Above is the scene that unfolded when we left port. A view of the area we kayaked the other day. Very serene indeed.
Our first 'tourist trap' visited in Costa Rica after 3 weeks. We were just a wee bit hungry after our ferry ride and drive to our new home that it just called out to us.
Turns out we revisited the restaurant Vista Mar, or Sea View in English, once more as the food and service was not only good but, genuinely Costa Rican. Prices were reasonable too.
After settling in to our new digs we found a nice 'Parque Nacional' right up the road. Parque Nacional Carara was different in that it allowed no food, even in packs, and no bottled water in single use containers. The food thing was because they said the wildlife would be tempted to heist it from us and we figure the single use water bottles thing was to prevent litter.
We named this iguana 'Ambassador Henry'. The Henry part was random but the Ambassador part was due to the fact that he was right outside the ticket booth and he remained there until we were done with our walk.
Nature is amazing as this vine tries to choke a tree and the tree would have nothing to do with it.
Speaking of nature, check out the base of this giant! As the ground does not allow the root system to grow vertically down very far, the tree has adapted and simply made its base very sturdy....according to the placard nearby.
These trees are amazing enough to warrant two pictures. Nature is very artistic too!
As trail builders and maintainer back home we found this water diversion tactic very interesting. Costa Ricans are very adept at finding ways to reuse almost anything.
We had to include this precious video of a small rodent like animal called an agouti. Its mother never taught it to chew quietly we guess.
A video of a cool looking and sounding woodpecker looking for lunch.
Not sure how old the park is but this 'bridge' has seen better days. No water under the bridge so to speak and the trail was rerouted right through the stream bed many years ago. Not sure if there is water in the stream during the rainy season.
Can you find Laurie in the 'bamboo jail'?
We found another Ambassador waiting for us as we exited. Boy can these iguanas move quickly...when they want to!
When looking at the forested mountains in Costa Rica you generally see green, green and more green but there always seems to be a 'splotch' of yellow here and there. We saw lots of little yellow flowers on the ground and looked up to find the source.
The view from our downstairs balcony shows some of the yellow 'splotches' as well as a faint rainbow in the distance. Rainbows appear quite frequently here for obvious reasons.
We have been eating quite a bit of papaya while staying here. Our yard had a papaya tree in it with a lone fruit hanging precariously.
This cute little black cat came in our place whenever it chose. We did not feed it but it seemed to enjoy our company just the same. It was a bit annoying as it howled quite a bit in the middle of the night.
Meow!!!!!❤️
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