For our last night in Arenal, it piss poured rain all night so none of us slept particularly well. It was still raining the next morning when we woke up, and Arenal volcano wasn't even visible with the fog. We had a quick breakfast before our driver Tony came to pick us up for 7:30am. I managed to run over to the pool to get a quick picture before we departed:
Our original itinerary had us visiting Poas Volcano and a Coffee plantation along the long route from Arenal to Manual Antonio, but Tony suggested that we skip the volcano considering we wouldn't be able to see it anyway. He suggested that a better destination would be the Peace Lodge Sanctuary, which was a privately owned animal sactuary. I was immediately excited, and far more interested in animals than another volcano, but the other girls weren't all as convinced as I was. Luckily we are a very diplomatic group, and once Sabina joined my 'hard yes' side, the other girls were convinced that they would come too.
The lodge was just beautiful, and you can actually stay there (which I definitely will if I ever go back to this area in Costa Rica). Even the bathrooms were spectacular.
The first pavilion we visited was their series bird rooms. All of them were very large and full of gardens and waterfalls. They were separated into areas, the first of which was for the smaller song birds. We were able to just stroll through the room with the birds free range around us. A little further into this room, there was a sectioned off area with toucans and some Lodge workers. I never realized how much I loved toucans before coming to Costa Rica and seeing them in real life. I was just as excited to see them as I was to see wild monkeys. The toucans were a collection of confiscated pets, un-rehabitable animals, and bred in captivity birds. In this area workers let us each hold one.  |
| Just a couple steps closer...and I'm gonna shit all down your arm... |
The rest of the bird area had a variety of parrots, a few Canadian-looking ducks, a random albino squirrel, and a variety of other birds that were beautiful but we were unfamiliar with. Then it was onto the hummingbirds. At this point in our trip, hummingbirds were beginning to get as unexciting as pigeons in Toronto, but they are always a good challenge to photograph, those zippy little buggers.
The butterfly enclosure was next, and despite the dusty framed collection of dead butterfly's that lined the foyer into the enclosure, inside it was significantly more beautiful and significantly less creepy. I'd been to the butterfly conservatory in Niagara Falls before, but it has nothing on this place. There were tons of butterfly's everywhere. One even landed on me for a little while! Think of all the brightest butterfly's you've ever seen in photos, and they were all there. The staff puts out slices of fruit out for the butterfly's to drink from, and since they're so accustomed to people, you can get close enough to them to check out their long spiraled tongues. There was another section where they had a board of pupa's pinned in groups according to species. There were a few butterfly's that had just emerged and were resting on their name plates while their wings straightened out.
The next pavilion were the snakes. Costa Rica has a lot of snakes, and most of them are terrifying. I'm not a squeamish person, and I've held plenty of snakes, but there is definitely something about their eyes that is unsettling...especially when the word "venomous" is printed on their name plates. What's more, these are all snakes that are roaming around Costa Rica, potentially plotting to kill us. The most interesting part of the snake exhibit was the sign mounted on the wall that debunks many commonly believed snake 'facts'. I wish I had taken a picture of it for prosperity, but the things that I remember are:
- Not all venomous snake bites are venomous. They might be 'dry' bites, meaning they've recently attacked something else and their supply hasn't replenished, or they just didn't inject you.
- The actual amount of snake bites each is remarkably low, and most of those are from bare-footed field workers who step on the snakes.
- More people die from the anti-venom than the actual bite. Anti-venom is made by injecting small amounts of venom into horses, and the horses antibodies are then removed. Those people allergic to horses (myself included) could go into anaphylactic shock from the remedy.
The frog rooms were short and sweet. The rooms were open with one attendant in each to answer questions and point out their frogs to you. The rooms were really warm and smelled like rotting fruit, thanks to the bananas kept on the ground to feel the bugs, which in turn feed the frogs. The first of two had a couple varieties of poison dart frogs. The mini red ones were all around the pond in the centre of the room, while the green and black camo frogs were around the perimeter of the rooms in the plants. We were told that another reason why you cannot touch the frogs -aside from their poison- is the our temperature is so high to them that they'll burn on contact! The second room contained lime green tree frogs. These are the guys that rain forests are known for, and it was quite difficult to find them all. The attendant in that room said she takes about an hour at the start of her shift to rummage around and find them all since they're so great at camouflage. 
The next part of the Lodge was what we were really here to see...monkeys and jaguars! The capuchin monkeys were very cute, but the spider monkeys wouldn't cooperate for a photograph. They were too high up in their tree house and just not interested in coming to see us. Their information board told us that their disappearance from the wild is staggering, having gone down 76% in the last decade. I guess that's why there's not too interested in pleasing the tourists.
The Ocelots were very cute. They were all cuddled up together in a high hollowed out
trunk. They first groomed each other, then purred for a while, then randomly fought for for a minute. They were bigger than house cats obviously, but not as big as I had thought they would be. Still a very huggable size though, if not for the 4" of plexiglass between us. There were two cougars in a really big cage, complete with waterfall. They were a bit too far back from the glass for us to get a good picture of them, but it was great to see what a beautiful house they had.
There were also some Margays, which are very similar to the Ocelots, though they primarily live higher in the trees, have slightly different markings and body proportions, but seemed just as huggable. They were sleeping in the same type of tree house that the Ocelots were in. They were fast asleep, but when I circled around back of their cage afterward I noticed they had emerged, so I ran back to get a proper photo. They also had a kitten that was separated, and this one was the size of a house cat. I tried desperately to coax him awake, but he just slept there with his head upside down all adorable-like.
The Jaguar was not huggable. Not even a little. He was downright terrifying. His head was a big square cinderblock and the sign next to him said he could crush our skulls with one chomp. Because he knew he was the boss, he was chilling out on a stump very close to the glass keeping one eye on us at all times. It was getting pretty close to his feeding time, so I bet he was sizing us up, daydreaming about which one of us he'd eat first. They were in the midst of building a new pen right next to his, and I imagine the fumes of paint were affecting him. Nothing more scary than a huge, hungry, and high jungle cat.
Our last stop along the path there was a typical Costa Rican cabana that you could go inside to check out. They had a pair of decorated oxen out front and a regular house cat inside. That was good, because after all the fuzzy cuteness I had just experienced I really needed to pet something.
After we had been through all the animal exhibits we made our way to the waterfalls. They have a series of 4 or 5 great big water falls with paths and bridges to observe them from. A sign informed us that they built all these paths and bridges without removing a single tree, plant or vine! They hand carried all supplies and equipment down the hill to as not to hurt or disturb the nature environment. That is a crazy impressive feat considering how steep and slippery the area is. I cannot even comprehend how they even began that project, but I find it highly respectable.
Back in the car, we drove to another small town on our route and stopped for lunch at a really nice ranch style restaurant. Because we were off the tourist path now, the prices were about half of what we had experienced so far, and the portions were very generous. The manager came out and made a big fuss of us and practiced his flirting skills while we waited for our meals. The restaurant had a sizable bakery and pastry counter that we introduced ourselves to as well.
Back on the road, we hit up the coffee plantation just a bit too late for their last tour of the day. The agents at the booth agreed to let us in for a smaller cost, and we piddled around a bit in the fields where we saw the coffee plants and I tasted a coffee berry. I just took a guess and assumed that it was safe to eat. It was actually pretty tasty! The bean inside the berry was white and I assume what is roasted for coffee. There was no one around to confirm our assumptions. They had a little museum onsite where we saw the antique machinery they used to use to make coffee, with an explanation of how they operated and who's job it was to do what (ie men vs women). We managed to catch up to the tour in the roasting room; their second last stop. The room smelt fantastic, and we were able to see them roast and hand-package the beans. We learned that they ship some of their beans to Germany where they process them become decaf. This is a free transaction for them because the Germans then sell the caffeine to cola and energy drink companies.
Back in the car we drove again for another 4 hours, stopping once at a restaurant where Tony's sister works. It would have been nice to have gotten there before sundown because apparently the river below the road is full of crocodiles. Unfortunately for us, and probably unfortunately for the crocodiles as well, it was too dark to go down there to check them out.
We finally got to Manual Antonio, and arrived at the bed and breakfast we'd be staying at for the next couple days. It was called "Coyoba Tropical" and coincidentally is owned by a couple from Toronto! Mike met us at the door with his three dogs, Shadow, Rica, and Ginger, and showed us to our rooms. We were pretty wiped by this point, and so called it a day.
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