We mentioned the first impression we had of Costa Rica was its unending greenness. Our second impression followed soon after, and it was that Costa Rica is so expensive. Restaurants, excursions, groceries; the nature reserves were, for example, at cheapest $50USD for two. Because of a sneaky bus deal, we had had to buy tickets to exit Costa Rica before entering the country, and after those first four days in the north, we still had another week or so to lay low and not spend too much money. On the advice of a friendly traveling couple, we headed to slightly cheaper Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean Coast, enjoying the beautiful beaches, the summertime weather, and the Jaguar Reserve.

The Jaguar Reserve rehabilitates wild animals, always with the goal of being able to release them back into the wild. Each animal came with it a sad tale, but seeing their progress was encouraging.

These are the eggs of the red-eyed tree frog, Costa Rica’s poster-child frog, and these were the only animals in the reserve that come on their own. They lay their eggs under leaves situated over water so when the tadpoles are ready to come out, they drop straight into the water. To ensure a 100%-dropping-into-the-water rate, the reserve cuts leaves laden with eggs and hangs them over tanks where the tadpoles flourish. The eggs were moving with lots of life!

You can imagine the self-defense of this tree. A small and loud child on our tour scraped himself a bit and was sure to steer clear for the rest of the visit.

One of these owls lost an eye and could no longer hunt, while the other came in with a broken wing. They were fostered together, and, as fate would have it, it was love at half-sight and they had a baby (that by this point was the size of his parents)! The reserve had been very conscious that the offspring needed to be able to survive in the wild, and we were informed that he had successfully hunted mice that were released in their enclosure and was ready to be released and find a mate. Every day the owls’ cage is opened for them to fly about (there is a national park nearby), and when they are ready, they will live in the wild. Until then, they can (and have thus far) continue to come back to their home at the reserve. The owls reminded us of our kitten, Swanson.

Baby crocodiles; our guide said they thought we were going to feed them, thus their attentiveness.

Howler monkey baby!

The aptly named eyelash viper

Rainbow-billed toucan sticking out his tongue

Tourists were encouraged to stick their fingers out for the toucan to take a bite. I did not do so.

A small big cat

Sloth!

Baby sloths!

A pelican with an attitude

As we headed out, we spotted a baby howler, still in diapers. In the 10 seconds he was on my arm, he got a taste of my watch and inspected my sunglasses.

Chestnut-Eared Aracari

Bidding us farewell at the exit gate

We headed to the beach across the road and came across an army of leaf-cutter ants

The leaf-cutter trail is clearly visible

Madre Tierra, a favorite café to work; delicious drinks complete with a cooling sea breeze.

Fruit smoothies were taken seriously

Happy with street-food from our ancient street-food lady; meat-filled yucca and kebabs. Alas, even the street food was expensive, I realized, converting Colones to USD, it was $8 for two. Still by far the cheapest food around, and we were thankful for our street-food lady.

Puerto Viejo

Costa Rica also celebrated “Moviembre”

Morning light streaming in. The hostel was simple, but had appreciably new, hard, orthopedic beds as only a masseuse would order (the owner was a former masseuse)

There was a long stretch of highway east from Puerto Viejo from which about 10 beaches were accessible. A most common pastime is to rent bikes and visit the various beaches, and we very much enjoyed the clear waters of Punta Uva.

We said goodbye to Puerto Viejo after five days, and headed back to the capital, San José, to make the 18-hour bus journey to Panama City.

Click here for a video recap of our stay in Puerto Viejo.