Wow - What a great start to this adventure! We arrived in Costa Rica in early January and spent our first week volunteering at the Costa Rica Animal Rescue Center in Alajuela, about 30 minutes outside of San Jose. The center takes in all kinds of animals that have been rescued for a variety of reasons, many from the exotic pet trade, and many others that were either found injured or abandoned in the wild. There are parrots & parakeets, macaws, toucans, sloths (so many sloths!), monkeys, deer, coati, racoons, owls, pecari, marmoset, turtles, and certainly more I'm forgetting.

Much of our days were spent preparing and bringing food for the animals, cleaning their cages, refilling water bowls, etc. We also had some great down time spent in hammocks, reading, and taking a few afternoon naps :). The kids were amazing. Whether we were up at 6am chopping fruits and vegetables for the birds, or cleaning the kitchen, they never griped or batted an eye. They were very taken with the animals. In particular, Carter made a connection with a Fiery-Billed Aracani (toucan) named Eddie, and Miles spent much of his free-time hanging out with the deer (one recent mama, Penelope, was particularly affectionate and loved to lick us even more than our dog Whitney, back in Colorado). 

At the end of the week, the center received nearly 300 tourists from two different cruise ships, and we were asked to lead some of the tours. Nicole paired up with Carter and I paired up with Miles (which was great, because they both knew WAY more than we did), and people from all over the world came up to us consistently afterwards to pay compliments. It was a proud parent moment, for sure. 

Here are a few of the animal rescue stories that help build an understanding of the rescue center. There’s a sweet deer there named Penelope. She had two speckled fawns with her and a tongue that always hangs outside of her mouth. She came to the rescue center after she was the victim of a hit and run. Most of her deer roomies were shot, but not killed, by hunters. Many of their monkeys had been used in the drug industry, so their vet worked hard to wean them off of everything from cocaine to bad habits like dragging heavy chains around. One of their coatis was there because he had been the pet of a homeless man. His owner loved him deeply, but all he could afford to feed him was junk food, so the coati had developed such severe diabetes that he was now blind. The homeless man brought him to the rescue center to care for him.  

The owners are known around their area as having a special ability for saving baby sloths.  Most of their sloths came to them as infants after their mothers were found dead (usually because they bite electrical wires and occasionally because of car accidents).  The owner’s bedroom has a bed crammed between nurseries for baby sloths and monkeys, and they wake up every few hours to feed them.  Once they’re big enough, they move out to the tree enclosures until they’re safe to be released in the wild. In their decades of service to these animals, they’ve cared for more baby sloths than they can remember.

Then, there was Alpha, a white faced capuchin monkey who was traveling through with his buddies and decided to stay. He is free to roam and hang out around the  monkey cages; he demands attention all the time and was super adorable.  

Other highlights from the week included building a play area for the coati, complete with hammock and tire swing, feeding the raccoons (I've never been terribly fond of racoons, coming from the U.S., but they were SO sweet and playful!), and helping nurse a baby sloth. We also watched the entire Arcane series (two seasons), which was beyond amazing (and Nicole and Miles are engaged in a literary analysis of the show). 

After our week of volunteering at the Animal Rescue Center, we drove north to the Rincon de la Vieja National Park for a couple of days of relaxation and down-time. Rincon de la Vieja is an active volcano in northern Costa Rica (Guanacaste), and we stayed in the park at the Hotel Hacienda Guachipelin nearly 6 years ago during another trip to CR. The kids were pretty small and didn't remember much of the trip, and we had fond memories, so decided to return. We swam beneath a waterfall (there are seemingly waterfalls EVERYWHERE in Costa Rica, for those who haven't been), slathered ourselves in the mineral-rich mud and then bathed in the thermal hot springs at Rio Negro, and went for an amazing hike at the volcano where we watched thermal pools bubbling at 140+ degrees, saw more capuchin monkeys, some cool birds, a huge boa, and ventured to yet another massive waterfall. We also sat by the pool, ate some amazing food, and enjoyed the AC at the Hacienda :). 

Next, we ventured down to La Fortuna, on the southeast side of Arenal, another active volcano (probably Costa Rica's best known volcano). We had stayed on the other side of Lake Arenal two years ago while visiting  Rancho Margot, a really cool sustainable & regenerative farm and eco-lodge at the base of the Children's Eternal Rain Forest, but we had never been La Fortuna before (which is suprising, considering this is our 4th or 5th time to Costa Rica). We had an amazing experience rappelling down waterfalls, and had planned to spend about five days in La Fortuna, doing some other adventuring and catching up on studies, work and life-maintenance, but, despite being "dry season," it was forecasted to rain fairly consistently on and off all of the days. In addition to the rain, our initial lodging was moldy and pretty run-down, so we decided to pivot and headed to San Jose for our few remaining days before our next volunteer experience.

San Jose was a great reprieve from the rain. We stayed in an Air B&B on the outskirts of the city and were able to focus in on homework and the like. We had also never spent any real time in San Jose and it was a pretty cool city overall, as far as cities go. Even in the city, Miles was able to document some new birds for his life list and Career Passage (a project at school through which students explore a potential career, and Miles is looking into becoming an ornithologist). 

We spent our third week volunteering at Reserva Playa Tortuga, outside of Ojachal (just south of Uvita) on the southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica. It has been unbelievably HOT (and humid, and there are lots of bugs), but wow, we had some amazing experiences at the reserva! 

The reserve is a non-profit that specializes in turtle rescue and releases, but also has 70 acres of land that was donated by a U.S. orthopeodic surgeon to help them do their work. The area is rich with all kinds of wildlife that they track and study. Here are some highlights so far: 

• We have been able to help them maintain their butterfly garden, preparing foods, monitoring and moving crysalis as they develop, washing the leaves, and releasing newly hatched butterflies into the garden. 

• We have been on some amazing birding hikes (no great pics from these) and have seen Small Blue Heron, Snowy White Egrets, King Fishers, Hawks, Kiskadees, parrots, macaws, and many, many more.

• We went on a hike to find and document "tent-making bats" during the daytime (they also do night). These bats chew portions of large leaves, making them collapse into "tents" where they can safely sleep. 

• Miles and I went on a crocodile hunt, where we looked for crocodiles, caymans, and other reptiles of the night. This was AMAZING! We trudged through the jungle, crossing and wading through rivers and muck in search of the creatures. Early on in the hike, we found a very young cayman which Miles was able to hold. He was super cute, even though they can be pretty aggressive at this young age. Then, after another hour of sloshing through the mud and water, we found a rather large adult cayman. The reserve staff caught her and we helped measure, weigh, and mark it, documenting all of the data along the way. Before we re-released it into the river, I was able to hold it, which was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience. In addition and along the way, we also saw some pretty cool turtles, lots of bullfrogs, spiders, and some cool nocturnal birds (the pitoo, or "ghost bird," and the boat-billed heron among them). 

• We are right at the tail end of the turtle hatching season, so we weren't sure we'd even get a chance to be a part of that experience here at the reserve. Turtles of all kinds are endangered here in Costa Rica. Not only do they suffer against amazing odds in the natural world, but poachers often steel turtle eggs to sell as they are considered a "delicacy" when they are fresh, garnering around $2/ egg. With up to 100+ eggs each laying, that's quick cash for a savvy poacher. The reserve works hard throughought the laying season, patrolling several beaches in the area and collecting eggs to bring back to their hatchery (which has to be securely locked because poachers have even come and stolen eggs out of the hatchery). When we arrived, there were only six clutches in the hatchery (they often have upwards of 20 at a time), and they made no promises that they would mature for a release because it is so late in the season. Volunteers check the hatchery every hour for any developments and fortune was with us, as we began to see the area around one of the clutches collapsing, a sign that there is movement beneath. Then, early one morning, we saw one baby turtle at the top of the hole. Four hours later, there were several visible and they told us it was time. We helped exhume 77 baby turtles from the hole, weighing, measuring, and counting them, and then drove a couple of miles up the road to release them at Ventanas beach. It was a powerful and emotional experience and another I don't think any of us will ever forget. Then, over the next 48 hours, our luck continued as baby turtles appeared at the top of two more nests! In sum, we helped release over 200 baby turtles into the Pacific Ocean.

When we weren't on an adventure or checking the turtle hatchery, we read, played games, did homework, and engaged in some serious puzzling. 

We are so grateful for the staff and program at Reserva Playa Tortuga. It is an amazing program with incredibly dedicated people helping to make it work. We met lovely people from all over the world, and had experiences that we will never forget.

Next up, Guatemala!