So the second day at Turtle Beach Lodge (TBL), we got up early for a morning tour which was in an open top boat. Our guide Marvin was amazingly knowledgeable about the flora and fauna of the region. Why does Canada have a research station on the tropics; the world may never know. We then had a breakfast which included the typical Tico (Costa Rican) beans and rice (arroz con frijoles). Apparently, Costa Rica has bees without stingers. This took awhile to get used to and they seemed to always be around our table at breakfast. Might have something to do with my kids getting pancakes every morning with fake maple syrup. Adirondack maple syrup snobs they are. Also Michael discovered guava jam/jelly and it is a thing.
In midmorning we went on a jungle walk again led by Marvin. The highlight for my kids was the red poison dart frog. But we also saw fleetingly a wild turkey and a good deal of other wildlife. That evening we went for a night tour. One of the highlights was seeing a boa up close. Those of us who wanted to were able to get up and be about 8 feet from it. It was not a boa constrictor but a regular Caribbean Annulated Tree boa (Sorry no good pictures). As a note on pictures, I'm combining pictures here from the whole troop.
On our third day we got a new guide and also took at late morning tour. Saw more birds. When we were not touring around, we were trying to stay dry --- there were downpours regularly. When not trying to stay dry we were swimming in the pool, playing volleyball with some folks from France, napping or playing pool. There were spider monkeys on the grounds of the TBL and they were fun to watch. In the afternoon that day we all got in canoes and paddled over to Laguna Cuatro; kids in one canoe, parents and grandparents in the other.
Fourth day was up early; ate breakfast and had took the boat back to La Pavona. Our next stop was Volcan Arenal. Pam and Paul had a ride pick them up at La Pavona. And the rest of us, well some idiot, me, forgot to turn the lights off and so we had a dead, dead battery. (Our second in a week, no less.) Gab hitched a ride with the grandparents --- these tourist buses have wifi --- and the rest of us waited for Alamo to arrive to jump the battery. We talked a nice group of French kids into trying to give us a jump but after 15 minutes it was not turning, so they au revoir-ed and we waited. Only took an hour so we hung out at La Pavona. From there we started our journey to the town of La Fortuna, near the Arenal Volcano.
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