La Paz Waterfall Gardens

The La Paz Waterfall Gardens have the most famous waterfalls in Costa Rica and an incredible wildlife preserve. 

It was absolutely beautiful and we took the wildlife preserve tour. It was nice because there was not a guide, so we were able to move at our own pace but they had staff at various points throughout the preserve to assist with the animals or answer questions. 

It reminded me a lot of the Jaguar Rescue Center in Puerto Viejo but it was way better. The waterfall garden was the coolest zoo I have ever seen. 

We were able to interact with the Toucans and the staff member placed the bird on my arm first, then my shoulder, and we eventually worked up to the top of my head.

I was not expecting it at all but it was awesome. It was a zoo within a giant rainforest, and we had to walk through the park to get to the waterfall. There was a designated area for all different species of animals. I saw jungle cats, butterflies, hummingbirds, monkeys, birds, frogs, snakes, and even cows. 

There are stairs that lead to the waterfall and you can look out from up above. You are then able to walk down lower and be under the fall. We were so close to the falls that we could feel the water coming down. There is a shuttle that will bring you back to the entrance of the preserve. 

This picture was taken from underneath the bridge, we climbed down the rocks so we were able to get close and under the waterfall.  I have never seen a place so beautiful and would recommend it to anyone that plans on visiting Costa Rica. They have a Peace Lodge as well where you can stay. It was another amazing experiene and this country gets omre beautiful with every trip I take. It was a great way to celebrate my graduation :)

Parque Nacional Volcán Poás

I graduated from college this past Saturday but was unable to attend the ceremony. Instead I was able to travel to the Poas Volcano with my cooperating teacher and her husband. They picked me up and we drove there which seemed like such a luxury because my main source of transportation is walking, bus or taxi. We drove through the mountains and high up in the jungle. It was very cloudy that day so there was very thick fog and it was misty. We were not able to get a clear view of the volcano because of the fog, you have to be really lucky to get a clear day. The wind would blow the clouds away to the side momentarily so we could catch a quick view. We looked over the side of the mountain, down to where the volcano is. It didn’t really matter to me that I did not get a clear view, I was so enchanted by being at a volcano and so high up in the mountains! I felt like I was in the middle of a Jurassic Park movie and was waiting for dinosaurs to appear.

I am hoping that I can also make the trip to the Irazu volcano and eventually I want to visit Arenal. If I don’t get around to it this time around, I will make sure to come back and check them off my list. After my travels here, I have accumulated several more things on my list of “Places I want to go and things I want to see”.

I also saw the biggest strawberries ever! In San Jose, the strawberries are minimal size at best and not very popular. But on the way to the volcano, we were in the city of Alajuela and they grow the strawberries right there in the fields. Since they are grown in Alajuela, they are of greater quality. There were several stops along the way that had people trying to sell their strawberries on the side of the road.  It is extremely common here for people to sell things in the streets; sometimes they are directly in the middle of the road where there is high traffic.

After the volcano, we went to the Lapaz Waterfall Gardens and I will post a new blog to explain about that amazingly beautiful adventure :)

Contemporary Dance Class

I went to a contemporary dance class the other week with my cooperating teacher. She does contemporary dance on a regular basis and is part of a company. She participates in burlesque dancing as well. Rebeca invited me along to one of her practices on a Wednesday night. Her cousin is the dance teacher and she runs the company with the help of her family. They offer multiple different types of dancing, including belly dancing and hip hop. The studio was actually an old house that they arranged and made into a dance studio. It was enormous and had everything needed to be an efficient dance studio.

I was able to participate and observe but I ended up doing more observing than participating. I was able to hold my own during the warm up and it was so fun to dance again…. it has been about ten years since I was in dance. It really made me miss it and I wished that I could still do the things I used to be able to do. They did the craziest things with their bodies and contorted them in all sorts of ways. It was so cool to see it in action. I think I even pulled a few muscles in my attempts. It was such a great experience and really made me consider taking up some form of dance again, even if just for a hobby. They rehearsed their routine over and over again and the endurance they all had was intense. I forgot how much work it really is and give them a lot of credit. It reminded me a lot of the lyrical work I use to do when I was part of Encore Dance Academy; those were some of the best days of my childhood. 

Manuel Antonio

I haven't blogged in a while because I have been extremely busy! This past week was very eventful :) Last weekend Lindsey and I went to Manuel Antonio for a mini vacation. Manuel Antonio is about 3 hours away from San Jose and we took a bus on Saturday morning. We actually made it in time for the 6am bus; which we had not been able to accomplish yet! There was a huge farmers market with every kind of fruit or vegtable you can imagine. We bought some really good carrot bread and whole wheat sweet bread for the bus ride.

We arrived in Manuel Antonio around 9am and found a hotel for the night. We didn't make any reservations so it was quite the adventure to find a hotel that had available rooms for a Saturday night. We had to visit 4 different hotels in order to find one that would work. My card was also getting declined for no reason at all and it was a very frustrating! Once we finally got our hotel room it was off to the beach for the day :)

The beach was so beautiful and filled with people. We spent the day lounging around and did some swimming in the ocean. The ride tides were very strong so our swimming adventure was exhausting and we had a few close under current calls! Thankfully we came out on top :)

On Sunday morning we got up really early and took off for the National Park. It was only $10 for admission and you can leave and re-enter if needed. We hiked for almost 3 hours through the national park before we reached the Mirador trail and were able to look out over the rainforest. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

After we hiked through the park, we went to the National Park Beach and set up in a small cove area for the rest of the day to relax and enjoy the ocean, wildlife and our other surroundings.

There was so much wildlife that we were able to see in the park. It was 100 times better than a zoo....and I LOVE the zoo. We saw both two and three toed sloths, squirrel monkeys, white-faced monkeys, iguanas, snakes, agouti, crabs, birds, butterflies, and even racoons. The white-faced monkeys were fighting over a bag of chips right along the treeline at the beach. They were so fun to watch!



I definitely plan on returning to Manuel Antonio! The National Park was so amazing and we didnt even cover 1/3 of it. The park has several other beaches than the one we went to and several trails as well. Next time I would consider getting a tour guide to help point out more wildlife. They bring a tripod that they set up so you can see the animals more closely. Luckily we were able to still spot and see a lot of them in the wild.

                                                                                I was so close to this Iguana I could 

                                                                           have touched it but I didn't want to take any chances!