There is a national park that is close to Jacó Beach called Carara National Park. It is actually really close to where we saw the crocodiles, which as I write that it seems really scary. It was far enough away that there wasn't any real danger. But it isn't like they are gated off. Anyway, the national park was a rain forest. We arrived 10 minutes before the park opened only because we had the time wrong. We thought it opened at 7:00 when it really opened at 8:00. As we waited for them to open the gate there were tour guides trying to get some business. The first guy looked a little shady but the second guy that approached us inside the park seemed a lot more legit. We double checked with the park workers. The cost to get in was $2 for Costa Rican citizens and $10 for international tourists. That seems fair, right? All the kids were free though. The guide charged $10 per adults. It was a lot cheaper than the AirTram we wanted to go on that costs $60 per person! So before we even began the adventure we saw 2 Scarlet Macaws fly over. They are so beautiful and absolutely fascinating. How did I not know that Jaco was known for these Macaws? The tour started off by going off the path to see some white bats.
If we wouldn't have had a tour guide we never would have seen this caterpillar
There are thousands of different species of mushrooms in Costa Rica and only 3 are edible. This one is the most poisonous. He told us that one of these small mushrooms would have killed the entire group. They put this mushroom on the 10,000 colones bill so that Costa Ricans would know about this deadly mushroom. Rosa and Mami had no idea!
This is one of the creepiest spiders I have ever seen!!!
There were a ton of lizards posing for pictures!!
I can't imagine that banana trees would just grow randomly in the rain forest.
Costa Rica is known for their butterflies. They were everywhere and I was actually able to capture a few.
And to end the tour, we saw a White Face monkey and 2 Macaws. The monkey was not cooperating for pictures.
The Macaws, however, were acting as if they knew we were there taking pictures. Did you know that Macaws find a mate and stay with them their entire lives? Interesting!!
Anyone want to guess why they call it a rainforest??? Well, it rained and rained and rained a little more! The guide was worried about the rain because apparently that is when animals like to hunt! We were glad to find that out after the tour! We hiked for about 2 1/2 hours and headed back. About halfway back a cell phone rang. After passing it around the van and not finding an owner, we realized it was the guide's. He had put in in our pack to keep it dry. So we had to turn around and return it. We finally made it back to the condo, ate lunch and went to the pool.
Needless to say I have been on an emotional high since the hike in the rainforest! It was wonderful and I'm thrilled my kids got to experience it. They will realize one day how neat it was!!
