Finale to Costa Rica

Agouti

As I sit here at my computer, writing the final blog about Costa Rica, I am enjoying fresh pineapple slices from a whole pineapple that came from Costa Rica.  Almost as good as the fresh pineapple that we had in Costa Rica.  In Costa Rica the pineapple we had came right out of the fields, while the one that I ate this morning had a travel up to the states and then into the supermarket where it was bought.

For a final full day in Costa Rica, waking up early, packing the bags and then going out and photographing before breakfast to capture the final images of Bosque De Paz.

Black Guan

Yellow-thighed Finch

Chestnut-naped Finch

The View in Front of the Dining Hall at Bosque De Paz

Waterfall at the Bridge

The Dining Hall, the white sheet is used at night to attract insects and moths

The Cloud Forest

Boarding the bus, we traveled to Greg's hometown of Zarcero where the St. Raphael  church is very beautiful and the park in front of it has many toparairy animals, which is great for photography.  Greg also has friends that produce organic coffee, but they were close today, however, the grocery store in the town did carry their coffee and I was able to pick up a couple of bags to bring home.

Toparairy Monkeys

The group in the park in front of St. Raphael church

St. Raphael church in the fog

Altar of St. Raphael's Church

Statue in St. Raphael's Church

We then traveled back to San Jose and the hotel.  Because our rooms were not quite ready.  I explored the gardens again and took more photographs.  After the rooms were ready, we all met for lunch.  During lunch, there was a very heavy severe thunderstorm for a good period of time.

The Garden

Prior to our final dinner, we were going to meet Greg and hopefully out in the garden be able to photograph some tree frogs.  I noticed a beautiful sunset and photographed it through the a window on the third floor of the hotel.  Meeting in the lobby we walked out with our flashlights and looking around the water areas for frogs.  We did find Costa Rican leopard frogs, a giant toad and a yellow eyed tree frog all available for photography.

Sunset over San Jose

Giant Toad, it will eat everything and was imported from Brazil

Costa Rican Species of Leopard Frog

Yellow Tree frog-eyed

Part of the enjoyment of this trip was the great camaraderie that everybody developed.  A number of times all five of us or six would sit around a table with a drink in hand and discuss trivial matters.  Such as what certain things are called in different places in the world and in the states such as what is Coke known as.  It could be soda, soda water, tonic soft drink and just plain Coke.  What made it interesting is we had two people from Scotland, one from Chicago, one from Washington state and me from Massachusetts.  In this way friendships were were made.

Everybody was sad and leaving Costa Rica and everybody also wanted to stay.  We were all planning on figuring out how to return in the coming year.

“Pura Vida"