Day 11 - Waterfalls, Anteater, White Faced Monkey, Jesus Lizards

Day 11
2-13-14

We went hiking today to a beautiful waterfall and saw some great wildlife. Lots of photos! It was a bit of a drive, and somewhat hard to find because it was recommended by locals and directions were vague, but we found it. As soon as we parked our car at the trailhead and got out, we saw an ant eater. It was the coolest thing! I freaked out at first because I thought it was something that might hurt Elly - don't ask me why I was worried about Elly and not the rest of us!! We did not have the camera ready yet, but Kyle dug it out of the bag and snapped a few photos...not Ryan quality, but you can still see it is an anteater.

It was a pretty short hike to the falls. Georgeous!! We were all in the water swimming within minutes.

After swimming and a yet another bean involved meal/snack (black bean dip and chips), we hiked further to the top of the falls. It was not fenced off at the top and there were not warning signs every few feet, like at home. It was very primative and a little scary looking down over the falls. It is just amazing that the water falls with such powerful force from the extremely calm pool at the top.

Ryan and Tristan did great - I was so proud of their good attitudes when the hiking got steep, rocky or jungly!

Kyle and Tristan hiked a little further and they saw "jesus lizards" - lizards that run across the top of the water. No photos of our own... but this is what they look like.

And no, Kyle did not make up that name.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_basilisk

On the hike back we saw a white faced monkey. I fell in love!! He was so adoreable. It was as though he knew I liked him. He kept coming closer and closer to where I was and I was talking to him and he was making noises back. We stood for a good half hour enjoying his company - and I believe he was enjoying ours too. Ryan took lots of great photos - here are two.

We finished up our hike talking about how incredible the day was and how we were glad we started early because there were so few people there when we arrived. We are thinking we may not have seen so much wildlife if it had been later in the day.

We stopped at some stores near the airport to get things we can't get near our house. Again -- expensive! I was so disappointed in the quality of the bed sheets when we got home. But then I remembered the tin shacks we passed today. Lots of local ticos live in houses made from currogated tin. I wondered if they have mattresses - let alone bed sheets. I decided I would count my blessings instead of worry about the quality of my bed sheets.

So how are we doing?

Kyle is in his element. What can I say? Look out fish, look out hammock, look out Costa Rica!

Tristan surprises me every day. He has such a good attitude and is so calm. He is not struggling with anxiety like he did at home. I think it is a combination of the home schooling/online school and the easy pace here. It is also that he is so active, he tires his mind and body out every day. He also loves the family time. Of course, he gets his computer gaming and skype time with his friends and cousins in PA, which is a critical element! It is also a big plus that his friend Ben is coming to visit in a few weeks, and he has that to look forward to.

Ryan misses her friends, alot. She especially misses her best friend Alex. She is a social person and we haven't made the steps to get the kids mixing with other kids yet. I started looking into that today. Ryan actually asked me to find out if there is an art club she could go to. I'm on it! Both kids say they don't want to make new friends, but Ryan is definitely struggling without that piece in her daily life. She has fun when we are active and doing things as a family, and is good while doing school work, but in between those times she is blue. She doesn't complain about it, but I know she isn't crazy about having to share a room with her brother either. She is missing her private time. So we are thinking about ways to address that.

I'm mixed, but that is how I always am. I am loving the family time and I'm loving our adventures. It is so nice to have the time to run almost every day and to take care of myself. As our adventuring slows down a little bit, I need to decide what I want to do with the time I will have on my hands. There are so many things I imagined doing...so now I need to pick something and get started. It is hard to see Ryan struggling, that definitely affects how I'm feeling about things. But it has only been 11 days! Overall, I'm good.