Costa Rica Nature Adventure

We stopped by the Rio Celeste river at the Tenorio Volcano National Park on our way to Monteverde to see the absolutely gorgeous Rio Celeste turquoise waterfall. The pictures below have not been altered in any way .... that's actually the color of the river and waterfall!   Legend has it that the river got its magnificent color because the gods painted the sky blue and used the river to wash their paintbrushes, but in reality it's just an optical illusion. The Rio Celeste river looks blue beyond the point where the Rio Buena Vista (‘Good View River’) and the Quebrada Agria (‘Sour Creek’) converge because the water of the Rio Buena Vista river contains aluminosilicate and the water from the Quebada Agria is abnormally acidic.  When the water from the two rivers meet, there is a reaction that makes the suspended aluminosilicate look blue to our eyes. It's particularly interesting to see where the two rivers converge because they go from being normal / transparent to being ins

Costa Rica is a positive example of a country that has successfully reversed a century of deforestation, with 52% of its land mass now covered in forests -- up from just 40% in 1986. The country limited the destruction of forest areas and illegal timber farming / cattle ranching through the use of a National Forestry Financing Fund (financed by tourism), which expands its 1986 Forest Law and a 1998 Biodiversity Law that together promote the protection and "rational use" of the country's natural resources. These laws are (uniquely?) possible in Costa Rica due to the rapid growth of its (eco)tourism industry, which accounts for ~30% of the country's GDP and which relies on vibrant forests to attract visitors. While noting those successes, it is clear that sustainable development will remain a challenge for Costa Rica over the long run given that so much of its land area is perfect for agriculture, farming or additional development.  Roughly 20% of Costa Rica's orig

I went repelling from waterfalls. One of them was 170 feet of repelling!!!!  My favorite one was the first one because it was the longest.  There was one called the Monkey Drop. It was like a zipline and you got dumped into a waterfall. There is a video below... My brother got bit by a bullet ant. It hurt a lot. The bullet ant has the most painful sting in all of Costa Rica. He had to go to the doctor's office to get medicine and ice. There is also a picture below. But we didn't take it. Link to Bullet Ant Information

We are naturally frugal people. In general, we prefer to bag our own groceries and to carry our own bags at a hotel. When we're looking at a nature hike, we've typically balked at paying a guide to take us on a well-marked trail because, hey... we can do it ourselves! Now that we've been in Costa Rica for a week, it's clear that the guides absolutely earn their pay (and then some!). On the hikes where we've hired a guide, we've seen dozens of rare Costa Rican wildlife, including eyelash pitvipers, ornate hawk eagles, golden orb spiders, orange kneed tarantulas, rainbow toucans, two-toed sloths, blue morpho butterflies, coati and a multitude of toads. On the hikes where we did not have an official guide, we've seen.... well.... a lot of plants. The guides also typically have binoculars and an uncanny ability to help frame great iPhone shots through their lenses.  Bottom line: Hire a guide! They have experience and resources that random Californian's can&#