Costa Rica Trip

Costa Rica Trip — Monday, 2/21/05

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2/25

2/26-2/27

Monday, 2/21/05
Breakfast at 7am this morning and we're off to Lake Arenal, a man-made lake used to generate hydroelectric power, It provides enough power for Costa Rica, and also exports power to Nicaragua, Panama, and even the US! It's a huge long lake, bordered on the east by the Arenal volcano. The road around it is picturesque, but very full of potholes and washouts. We saw more howler monkeys in a set of trees.

Lake Arenal
Lake Arenal

German bakery
German bakery

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Lake Arenal, Costa Rica:

still Mon, 2/21/05
We stopped at another women's cooperative where they package coffee and macadamia nuts. The lady there, Magdalena, showed us how she makes macadamia brittle and packages it for the local market.

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, Costa Rica: Alejandro talks about the cooperative that grows macadamia nuts and makes a macadamia candy

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, Costa Rica: Alejandro Castro talks making macadamia brittle

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, Costa Rica: making macadamia brittle

Macadamia brittle making 1
Macadamia brittle making

Macadamia nuts
Macadamia nuts

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, Costa Rica:

Macadami brittle making 2
Macadami brittle making

Macadamia brittle making 3
Macadami brittle making

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, Costa Rica: Dora Rosenbach and Alice Harris watch the macadamia brittle spread out

Macadamia brittle making 4
Macadami brittle making

still Mon, 2/21/05
Up near Liberia, in the Guanacaste region, we stopped at an animal and bird sanctuary where they take care of injured and abandoned animals. We saw tons of birds, a lion, some leopards, and monkeys.

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, animal refuge: parrots

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, animal refuge: macaw

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, animal refuge: parrots

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, animal refuge: parrots

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, animal refuge: parrots

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, animal refuge: lion

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, animal refuge: leopard

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, animal refuge: leopard

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, animal refuge: leopard

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, animal refuge: white-faced monkey

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, animal refuge: white-faced monkey

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, animal refuge: white-faced monkey

monkey
monkey

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, animal refuge: parrot

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, animal refuge: parrot

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, animal refuge: keel-billed toucan

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, animal refuge: keel-billed toucan

Macaw
keel-billed toucan

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, animal refuge: parrot

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on the drive to the Guanacaste region, animal refuge: parrot

Froot Loops toucan
Froot Loops toucan

Coconuts
Coconuts

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Guanacaste region, Costa Rica: Howler monkeys

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Guanacaste region, Costa Rica: Howler monkeys

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Guanacaste region, Costa Rica: Howler monkeys

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Guanacaste region, Costa Rica: Howler monkeys

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Guanacaste region, Costa Rica: Arthur Luehrmann

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Guanacaste region, Costa Rica: Arthur Luehrmann

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Guanacaste region, Costa Rica: Leonard Trawick

still Mon, 2/21/05
We drove to our new hotel, the Buena Vista Lodge, in the Guanacaste Mountains. We had to drive up the Pan American Highway about 11 km north of Liberia, and then take off on a tiny road. About 4 km on we came to a tiny little town called Cañas Dulces, and then we went another 12 km up a winding dirt road to our hotel. Before dinner we went on a walk on the Caino trail up to Bar Mirador to watch the sun go down. Dinner at the hotel restaurant.