Today was an adventure like no other! Our customized jeeps - we needed two - picked us up at the villa at 8:00 am for a rain forest and waterfall tour. OMG - what an experience! Our guides were great - they stopped along the jeep trail and pointed out a lot of interesting local flora and fauna. We saw, tasted and smelled: cinnamon bark; allspice leaves; a plant that smelled like licorice and one that smelled like root beer; vanilla beans; African palm oil trees; Brahma cattle that can tolerate the heat here and gorgeous views of lush green mountains.
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| Typical terrain in Costa Rica |
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| A "rainbow" eculyptus |
Louis, our guide, took special fern leaves and pressed them into the girls forearms and made white tattoos. He picked me a flower with a gardenia type fragrance. We saw "Jesus" lizards that walk on water and industrious leaf cutter ants that are "farmers." They cut hunks of leaves that are three times their body size and carrying them back home where other ants chew the leaves into a mucous that grows mushrooms that they eat!
Louis and Dopper, our other guide, also told us about living in Costa Rica - taxes, buying property, the school system, medical care and all the American investors!
There are waterfalls and rushing rivers scattered all through the forest and we went swimming in pools at the bottom of two of the largest falls! This is how we got to one of them:
At the end of the tour, we feasted on slow smoked pork, chicken, roasted plantains, yucca, rice and beans. The sauces were spicy and delicious. The yucca is similar to a baked potato. A wonderful typical Costa Rican meal!
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