Our 4th trip to Costa Rica was 26 days long. The first 5 days were spent in Samara along the Nicoya coast, from there we visited the Las Pumas rescue center hoping they had some jaguars and they did! Since I'll probably never see one in the wild, the big cats were fun to observe up close. We continued on to our destination, Volcano Arenal.

Stayed at a neat lodge (Arenal Observatory lodge) and had a great time. We finally got to see the damn thing after two visits and six days of nothing but clouds on previous trips. Arenal was visable for the entire 3 days and blew it's top during dinner the 2nd night. We all were a little startled as it was 10 times louder than any nautral sound I've ever heard! Lava flowed consistantly that night and allowed for some long exposures.

We continued on with our trip to the La Paz Waterfall Gardens. The area handled the earthquake from last year well and didn't show much sign of the 6.3 quake from last January. Only some road work and a few landslide areas provided any hint of the disaster. The lodge and grounds were in great shape, the trails for the waterfalls were still being repaired at the lower falls. Great accomodations and service, the food was pretty good also. Spent two nights here and also visited Poas volcano which is nearby.

After some conversations with locals, I decided to take the road to San Miguel even though it was technically closed. By doing so we saved 2 1/2 hours of driving and visited the Del Toro waterfall west of San Miguel. It was worth every minute we spent on the closed road! Not a tourist destination yet, so we had the place to ourselves. Breathtaking! And out of breath after the 365 steps back up from the base area.

Now we had to get to the caribbean coast before dark, didn't make it! Driving is much tougher in Costa Rica at night, between the potholes, and people walking or biking, it makes for some stressful moments.

We spent the next 15 nights at Villa Toucan in Punta Uva. An open air house with plenty of wildlife and thrills only an open air house can bring. The beaches along the caribbean are very nice and uncrowded. We had more rain in Punta Uva then on all the other trips combined, the people in the house prior to us had written in the "house journal" that they had like 12 inches of rain in February.

Another great trip to a place we have come to love, Costa Rica. Pura Vida :)