Snow Geese in Costa Rica!

In good  Piekema style, we are submitting this article about our awesome trip to Costa Rica about a year late.  It is time to tell our story of adventure in the warm, beautiful climate of Costa Rica with our JFW friends Connie and Ingo.  

Benjamin Nitsche,  Jordan and Treva Piekema were privileged to accompany Chief Warden of Alberta, Terry Garrett on a JFW Costa Rican adventure with Connie and Ingo.  We arrived in Costa Rica on March 24th, 2017 to a balmy 34o on the tarmac.   Ingo was our tour guide for the next 10 days.

We first explored  Las Pumas rescue center for wild Costa Rican animals, we saw many  species of wildcats, monkeys plus, macaws, toucans and parrots. These animals are rehabilitated and released to the wild if possible.  Vista Golfo (View of the Gulf) Adventure Park was our next stop, comfortable stay, beautiful views and home of the incredible zip-line tour;  23 zip-lines and 2 rappels taking us through the natural terrain of river and gorge to a secluded freshwater oasis. We even got to do the Superman zip!!!

              

On to Los Lagos under the Arenal  Volcano. Lots of hot spring time playing in the Tobacon Hot Spring pools along the Arenal  River. We wondered if we would see the volcano, as it was hidden behind cloud except for a quick glimpse.  On our last day at Los Lagos, we awoke to a clear sky and incredible view of the volcano and the tell tale wisp of steam coming from its crater.

 

Ingo was able to scout out a route he had never taken before.  We dedicated this trek into unchartered territory to our beloved friend,  Larry Nelson. With 5 river crossings, winding roads and amazing views. Larry would have loved this adventure!

Santa Elena, Monteverde and the amazing Salvatura Cloud Forest  was our next adventure. Our guide, Juan Carlos as able to mimic the bird life of the cloud forest and pointed out many species we would have walked right by, some being tiny nesting hummingbirds, the beautiful Resplendent quetzal and  the echoing Bell bird. On our side adventures we were able to spot opossum, sloth and coati.

Our next destination brought us to Connie at Totobe Resort.  Here we visited Butterfly Mike and his butterfly garden and we even got to extract 2 years worth of Cat Bee honey, very yummy! Ingo and Happy the dog took us on a paddling adventure into the Mangrove.  The amazing cleansing mangrove trees and the abundant wildlife made this adventure a memorable one. Ask Treva about her dip into the mangrove, it may not have been planned! For our last few days in Costa Rica we enjoyed sand, surf and sun at our secluded Totobe beach.  The wave schedule allowed surfing once a day and sometimes twice. Connie and Ingo took all of us surfing. Yes... Mrs Garrett went surfing too, but she had to leave us early to get back to her mild mannered life as a librarian! The rest of us remained at our beach oasis for another 4 days to fly home along with Connie and Ingo.  This was our wonderful JFW style Costa Rican holiday.