UPDATED (02/13/18)

After a plane delay in San Jose, Costa Rica, we were on our way to the Lookout Inn in Carate, Osa Peninsula, Puntarenas.

The Inn is deep in the Rain Forest, but on the Pacific Ocean. We landed in Puerto Jiminiz airport. The runway is on the ocean with trees very close on both sides and a cemetery at the exit to the small “airport” building. Enough said. LOL. We then had to take a 4×4 jeep for approximately 1 1/2 hours on a dirt road crossing several rivers along the way. It was really cool and unique.

When we got to the Inn we were greeted by Terry (the owner) and a few of his staff. Our room is very nice. We have our own room with a double bed, a fan, a private bathroom, and shelves for clothing. But just so you don’t think we are too spoiled, we do not have warm water, or even cool water to shower. It is COLD.

Our duties here are to help serve the meals to guests, do odd jobs in the 10 bungalows (such as – put up or fix mosquito netting). We have already met some great people and have new contacts in Australia and Puerto Rico.

The work is not hard, just a little time consuming for now. There are 2 workawayers coming in tomorrow (12/20). They were here and then left for 2 weeks to go to Nicaragua. When they get back we will just be working the morning shift and will have more time to go out and explore the jungle.

We really don’t have to go very far to see the wildlife. Since we ARE in the jungle, many of the animals come to us. We have Scarlet Macaws (Bongo, Mrs. Bongo, Junior, and many others) …

the Chestnut-mandibled Toucan …

Coati’s (looks like and ant eater mixed with a raccoon)

Squirrel monkeys

They jump real far when you scare them away from the bananas we put out for the birds  LOL

White Face monkeys

Spider monkeys

Howler monkeys (so many monkeys)

Street hawk

Black and red head Vultures

Pelicans

Green Parrots

humming birds

Jesus Lizard

Other kinds of lizards and iguanas

check out the eyes on this small lizard

frogs

so many other beautiful birds

Crest guards (we call them turkey birds)

weird insects

  ,

A cool example of how creatures in nature defend themselves against those who wish to eat them.

This one was in our room. The camera scared him. We were not attempting to eat him.

 

tropical trees (including the elang elang tree – smells like chanel # 5)

and beautiful flowers

and the Agouti (large hippo / elephant like thing – approx 400lbs). This last one likes to sit in the pool, so Terry had to put large rocks on the steps leading to the pool so the Agouti could not get in. We never had that problem in Connecticut!

Most of the bungalows are open air with incredible views of the jungle and ocean. Guests do get visits from the monkeys at times, but it is an adventures of a life time. We fall asleep to the sound of the waves each night and wake up to the sounds of the dogs waiting to be untied.

Sunsets are spectacular…

 

even got a picture of a water spout

We have to tie the 3 dogs at night because it is not legal to let them run on the beach after dark. The sea turtles come up to lay there eggs at night and the dogs would frighten them or dig up the eggs.

Speaking of sea turtle… there is a huge conscious effort to preserve the turtles here. Just down the beach from us, workers and volunteers scan the beach at night in search of turtle nests. They dig up the eggs and keep them in a securied (from animals) area till they are ready to hatch. When they hatch they give the inn a call and let us know the time, so we can attend the baby turtle release. It was AMAZING. These little guys have a hard time getting into the surf and staying there, but eventually they all make it in. Did you know that if you just put the turtles in the water without letting them crawl along the beach, they will be lost forever. They will not know how to return to this beach to breed.

We got the call and attended a turtle release.  We even ended up seeing 2 mama turtles layer eggs and return to the sea.  AMAZING…

The beaches are beautiful, however the rip tides are way to dangerous to go much higher than your knees. So again, Mike and I have to suffer and just be content with walking the beaches during the day and watching the beautiful sunsets from the 3rd floor of the inn at night.

portuguese man of war Terry found on beach

 

Mike and I want to wish all our family and friends a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We will be here at the Inn for both (we leave for Baya Mexico on 1/23/18 – more on that next time). We just finished putting up the tree a few days ago.

Till next time…
It is not happy people that are thankful. It is thankful people that are happy.
Mike and I are happy and blessed!!

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UPDATED (02/18/18)

Now we were not at the end of the road but pretty close to it. There was another eco lodge a little ways down the road from us. If you stayed at this lodge you were beyond the end of the road and had to hike to it. You could drop off your suitcase with a local man who would put them in a cart and together with his horse, would travel down the beach to drop them off at the lodge. He was always smiling, relaxed, and genuinely happy.

We had a nice New Years Eve. We celebrated with guests from all over the world.

So a little more about the work we did.

We helped greet and check-in the guests, put up mosquito netting in all rooms, worked the morning, lunch, and/or dinner shift serving the guests and tending bar. Mike did a great deal of electrical and plumbing work in most of the rooms, and other odds and ends. (BTW, Mike never did any of this stuff back in CT. We always called a professional – LOL.)

I would get up every morning and go cut exotic flowers in the jungle to display at meal times. I got pretty good at it. Terry called me the flower lady and said I could arrange flowers for weddings if I wanted.
Terry looked for Mike alot, since he had a least 10 jobs lined up for Mike in his head and didn’t know which one Mike was on at any given moment. There was a running joke, that whenever you wanted to find Mike, you had to call for him like Terry did, “Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike”!!

Our biggest problem was our clothes (most were left in Costa Rica – just too dirty or smelly). The weather was VERY humid and it rained at least once most days. Since this is an eco lodge that only runs on solar power, this meant we couldn’t use the washer most of the time. Now I know you are saying, “So just wash the clothes by hand and hang them out”. Well that would be great except, remember I said it was VERY humid. If your clothes were not out in the direct sunlight, they just didn’t dry. Clouds and rain made it almost impossible for you to have clean dry clothes. This was such an issue that Terry had to loan Mike a shirt to wear one night.

Kinda reminds you of ‘two wild and crazy guys’ from Saturday night live, huh. HEHEHEHE

There were some nice hikes and walks to do. We went on the monkey trail with a few of the guests. It is very easy and relaxing, EXCEPT when some angry monkeys throw coconuts at you. That’s right, they threw a coconut at us and then proceeded to chew us out. Crazy ass monkey.

The trail ends at the beach and there is a refreshing bar just up the beach. It was a great walk in the jungle and then a beautiful walk back to the lodge via the beach. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon.

Another hike took us to a bamboo school (still in use), a small footbridge, wildlife, and some cool plant life.

We took a small adventure that required us to get up at 5:00 a.m., get a ride to a little stream about 1/2 mile away, walk a ways down the stream, get to a set of trees that had the lodges canoe and kayaks stored, drag the canoe to a magnificent lagoon very close by, and watch the sun rise up over the water. It was amazing!!! The wildlife is very active this time of the morning. We saw lots of birds and the local crocodile.


We would take walks to the mini mega mart to get some ice cream. It was a large metal shed that was attached to a hostel. It is the only “store” within 30 miles. It was a nice walk and most times you would see Spider or Howler monkeys along the way. You had to eat the ice cream fast or end up wearing it (and you now know all about the horrors of us having clean clothes).

Well that’s it for Costa Rica.  It was a great workaway.  Terry has been living in the jungle for 22 years and is a bit eccentric and at time difficult to understand, BUT he is a really good guy once you understand him.  He is very passionate about the happiness of his quests and the beautiful lodge he has created.  Thank you Terry for hosting us.