El Silencio

Our last stop was in the cloud forest, mountain region. We stayed at this beautiful lodge called El Silencio. It was perfect, away from anything touristy, surrounded by hiking trails. There was no TV in the rooms and only Wi-Fi in the main building, so it was a great chance to focus on reading and "restorative sleep" as they called it. All the meals were delicious and included fish, eggs, veggies and herbs from the garden on the property.

Gorgeous waterfalls

Handsome hubby

 

Epiphytes

We did do a small adventure of horseback riding. It was the perfect place to go.

 

Adventures

We did do a lot of relaxing and looking at beautiful scenery like this.

 

 But we also did stuff like zip-lining. It was fun and exciting!

Yes, I really am that high up and close to the edge. But yes, I am harnessed to a tree.

 

 

 

 

 

More Wildlife

Two-toed sloth

Howler Monkey

Caiman

Squirrel Monkey

This was a pit stop on the trip between two of our hotels called Crocodile Bridge. There were 19 huge crocodiles below. We were way above on an overpass, but it was still disconcerting to be that close to uncaged, HUGE animals. Apparently this is where a freshwater source meets a saltwater source, so it's a hot spot for crocodiles (and tourists).

 

Millipede

Caterpillar feast

Yellow Cara-Cara (like a hawk) that hung out at one of our hotels

Butterflies (at a farm near our zip lining)

Slow down for people, wolves, sloths and monkeys

And the most fearsome and wild of all the creatures we saw...Seriously, they did try to steal our dinner one night. Turns out raccoons are the same here as they are in a America. 

 Basilisk Lizard, also known as the "Jesus Lizard" because it can scoot on top of water on its hind legs

Eyelash viper. No glass between us and that one, folks.

Costa Rica - Manuel Antonio

Manuel Antonio Park is a small rainforest near the coast with lots of great wildlife. 

This sloth was hanging out, literally, outside our hotel room door.

 

 

This is an agouti. We didn't think that much of it at first, but apparently they're really timid and hard to find. We saw a momma and a baby.

Outside our room.

A blue morphos butterfly. It's blue on the inside, but it moves so fast I couldn't get a shot of it opened!

 

There we were walking to the beach, and we ran into a group of Capuchin monkeys.

They have these special ropes to allow monkeys to cross the street without killing themselves on the electrical wires.

As he was crossing, these birds kept attacking him, Kamakazi style. It was crazy. 

 

 

Scarlet Ibis

Howler Monkey. The noise they make is haunting.

Capuchins are not timid around people. They've been know to come snatch a camera or snack.