Rand African Art |
About Me - Photo Version |
Costa Rica |
Near the Pacuare river in Costa Rica (Pacuare River Lodge) The Pacuare River Lodge is an amazing place. The only access to it, that I know of, is by white water raft. I traveled to Costa Rica with 2 of my best friends. We rafted a half a day or so and arrived here and stayed for a couple of days. There is no electricity so everything is candle light and flash light. The river guides cook for you and the accommodations are nice. You can take hikes through the rain forest to visit some of the indigenous people who still live in the rain forest and live off of the land. You can also take canopy tours through the rain forest which was also pretty cool, especially since I'm not a big fan of heights. The photos above were taken the day before we left the resort. After we left, we rafted down river to the end of the rafting trip. Along the way we stopped to hike up to a waterfall and pool to go swimming in. I walked out of the rocks, lost my footing and slid about 30 feet down the rock and fell off of the side of the waterfall about 12-15 feet into a group of rocks. Lucky for me I was still wearing my rafting helmet and life vest or else I fear I would have probably died and wouldn't be sitting here writing this now! I managed to escape with a fractured bone in my hand, a big knot on my head and some bruised up ribs and a very sore sternum. It was hard to breathe after that and I was in a lot of pain for the rest of the rafting trip but I felt lucky to be alive and to be able to continue my adventures. |
Photos of the Pacuare River Lodge. On the left is the area where you can relax and eat and drink and the right shows the cabanas. It's an amazing little place in the middle of nowhere. |
Rafting the Pacuare River (before the accident) |
Hiking in the rain forest |
We hiked up to visit the small settlements of some of the indigenous people of Costa Rica in the rain forest. We brought food and supplies but only the dog was home. |
The photos don't really show it much, but we were pretty high up. This was the end of the canopy rope line tour of the rain forest. At the end you stop at a platform where you jump into this big canvas like contraption. They wet it down and you jump and go flying out into a big opening in the trees about 50 or more feet up and then they lower you down. |
After we left the Pacuare River area we headed to the Southwestern coast of Costa Rica to Bahia Drake to the La Paloma Lodge. At the time it was only accessible by plane. You fly into a nearby city and then take a boat down the river for an hour or so to the ocean to Bahia Drake. I think there is a road there now. The resort was amazing and it was a great place to spend the last half of my trip. I was still recovering from my fall, but I did manage to get one scuba diving trip in at Canyo Island. It probably wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done, but I didn't want to come to Costa Rica and not dive. The marine life wasn't that great here though, I did get to dive with a LOT of sharks though. Some day I would like to go back to Costa Rica and go diving in the Cocos Islands. |
The Bahia Drake "airport" |
Every room at La Paloma had an open balcony with a hammock. Every morning I'd eat, then lay in the hammock, then go down to the beach, it was awesome. |
La Paloma Lodge was located at one of the points on the Osa Peninsula up on a hill overlooking the ocean and Canyo Island. There weren't many people down this way and it was a great out of the way relaxing place you could go horseback riding, walk along the beach and see no one for a long time or go out to Canyo Island to dive and snorkle. |
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