Here's the post covering the second half of my mom's visit 😊
We took Jeep Boat Jeep to get from the Arenal area to UGA. It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like: you take a van to get to Lake Arenal, where you hop on a boat that takes you across, and then a van takes you the rest of the way. In the past, you needed to take an actual jeep to traverse the land portions of the trip because it was so bumpy, which explains the name.
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| Boats waiting for us when we got to the lake |
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| We're on a boat! |
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| No pictures captured the beauty of the lake surrounded by mountains (even on a cloudy day) |
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| In the van after getting off the boat |
We arrived on campus just in time for lunch. After lunch, I showed my mom around campus. In our first few hours here in Monteverde, we saw more animals than we'd seen in our first few days in country: a white-faced capuchin monkey in a tree above the road while driving in, an agouti crossing the path in front of us on campus, and a coati chowing down on some cuadrados (banana-like plant) next to us.
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| Coati eating some cuadrados |
The next morning we visited the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. It's only about 25 min away, but it's also about 300 meters higher so you enter a completely different ecosystem. We spent the morning exploring there and saw the highlights: a hanging bridge and the continental divide (though it was covered in fog).
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| Every time I see the vines and trees like this, I'm reminded of Disney's Tarzan (even though I know it's the wrong continent) |
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| View from the hanging bridge |
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| The bridge itself |
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| The continental divide (covered in fog) |
After exploring, we took a break with some pb&j outside the gift shop, where we had some close encounters with the locals...
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| A coati got a little too close for comfort while checking out my jacket and begging for my sandwich. |
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| The family |
We also checked out the colibri (hummingbird) cafe, which has some hummingbird feeders set up outside. There are so many different species of hummingbirds here in Costa Rica, so we got to see many different colors up close.
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| Another coati was very interested in the hummingbird feeder but couldn't quite reach it |
PSA: Do NOT feed wild animals! When you do so, they start to associate people with food and their natural hesitation to approach us fades away. This is really cute and funny until the animal doesn't understand why you're just sitting there taking its picture and not feeding it and starts to be aggressive. This can lead to you and/or the animal getting hurt. In addition, your food is almost definitely not the best nutrition for the animal so you're not helping its health either. Just don't do it, please! The best course of action is just to appreciate getting to see the animal and take pictures/videos...if the animal approaches you (like the coati did with my jacket), just walk away (which I did seconds after taking the photo).
We went into town after our hike and continued to explore. We ate at Monteverde Beer House, which has plenty of beer options but also delicious Mediterranean inspired food and drinks. The wildlife there also came super close: a group of white-faced capuchin monkeys appeared in the tree right next to our table. After eating, we did some shopping and then made our way back to campus for the rest of the day.
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| Really cool graffiti in Santa Elena town |
The next day, July 24th, the local elementary school celebrated Guanacaste Day (actually on the 25th) and we got to go see the celebrations! Guanacaste Day is a Costa Rican holiday celebrating Costa Rica's annexation of the Guanacaste province in 1824. It was really cool to see what was the same and what was different here vs. in elementary schools at home. Little kids in Costa Rica still run to their parents after they perform on stage, they get stage fright and stumble over their words, and they get help from their parents for science fair projects (which may or may not have included mentos in a bottle of coke). Among the things that were different: the dancing that accompanied the celebrations, the different types of food that were presented that my mom got to taste and, obviously, the language.
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| During the national and provincial anthems |
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| Each child came up and recited a "bomba." It was kind of like a limerick or a haiku that each one said in front of us. It's been described to me as a "Costa Rican rap battle," often between boys and girls. |
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| The kids also presented some type of typical food that their mothers had prepared. They told us what it was, its ingredients and how to prepare it. In this photo, the little boy in front is the younger sibling of one of the kids at the school and he kept going right up to the food and staring at it while it was presented. |
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| There was a break partway through the morning, and my mom got to try the different foods that had been prepared. I got to have some watermelon, which I could be confident was vegan 🍉 |
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| ...Disney is everywhere 😆 |
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| Science fair presentations came next, after the food break |
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| As promised, coke with mentos! |
It was awesome to be able to see the celebrations for this holiday, especially getting to see them with my mom. Afterward, we made our way back to campus and spent the afternoon there.
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| The sky was blue on the way back! So much of my mom's visit was very wet, we learned to celebrate the small things🌞 |
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| So happy to take her on a hike through our trails |
Our final morning at UGA was pretty chill. We slept in a bit and then just enjoyed the porch for a while.
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| The view from our room on our last morning |
That afternoon, we started the trek to get my mom to the airport: an afternoon taxi into town followed by a roughly 4 hour bus ride. And then a short taxi ride to our hotel by the airport.
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| We got smoothies in town before boarding the bus! Mango pineapple and mango passionfruit 🍍🍑 |
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| On the road! |
There's a mall near the airport,
City Mall, that we decided to visit for dinner. It was huge. I think we saw at least four different floors and a bajillion different stores. There were many familiar stores and restaurants mixed with some that we'd never seen.
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| KFC, Taco Bell, McDonald's and Pizza Hut all had the longest lines in the food court |
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| One of the lower floors had a bunch of different clinic-y places for various medical needs |
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| We got dinner at La Oliva Verde, a Costa Rican chain that had delicious wraps |
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| Interesting proportions on this mannequin |
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| I thought the signage at different places was interesting in its use of Spanglish: this obviously has "Fresh n' Shake" in English, but it's followed by "Especialistas in Bebidas" in Spanish, which means specialists in drinks |
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| He's everywhere 🐭💓 |
The hotel that night had some American TV channels, and it was actually really nice to have that on in the background. The next morning we got up, had breakfast and then each got onto our own shuttle: mine back to UGA and Mom's back to the airport.
Overall, a lovely trip. Like I've said several times, it was so nice to be able to show my mom my space here 😊 As usual, it's not goodbye but see ya real soon, Mom! Hasta muy pronto!
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| Bonus photo: we did a bit of a photo shoot on the porch 💕 |
