Last week, we took a really fun trip up the Tamarindo River and got to see all kinds of wildlife. Our driver, Victor Hugo (seriously!) was fantastic and picked us up by our house, drove us to the river and escorted us to his boat. The trip was about three hours long. We saw all kinds of birds, big and small crocodiles, violin crabs, fish and of course, monkeys. Halfway through the trip we got out of the boat and hiked to find monkeys. Victor found them quickly and was able to “talk” with them and get them to howl. It was quite amusing. I had no idea that you could get the howler monkeys to talk back to you.

Victor wore no shoes in the jungle and within a few minutes of our start to the hike, Jake asked “Dad, can I take off my shoes too?” “Sure buddy” and within 2 seconds his sandals were in his hands as he was walking barefoot through the jungle while listening to Victor tell stories of pythons and monkeys and porcupines. We saw two big crocs in the water (eyes only) and then saw a few young crocs on the shore sunning themselves.

At one point Erin and I looked at each other on the trip and we both said at the same time, “This is like the Disney Jungle Cruise ride… but real!” It was totally cool. Right after that, a spider crab jumped in the boat and scared Erin to death 😉

Next week, we are taking the week off of school (Spring Break!?) and heading down to the volcano Arenal as well as the Cloud Forest Monte Verde. We are all excited to have a break from school and even more excited to see a little more of Costa Rica. It’s a 5 hour drive in both directions, so it could be interesting with the kids, but we think the results will be well worth it. We plan on doing a few “adventures” while we are there including a guided hiking tour of the volcano, a train ride, another guided tour on the sky bridges (huge hanging bridges in the cloud forest) and also canyoneering and repelling down a bunch of waterfalls. Should make for some great pix!

Not a whole lot else to report on this end. The waves have been EXTREMELY small this week, so we have not been surfing at all, but rumor has it that the swell will be back tomorrow for the first time in 8 days. We are very ready. Hopefully when we get back later next week, the waves will have grown even more.

Spanish is really starting to take over my brain, I’m having a hard time writing this entire post in English. I guess it’s starting to sink it for real now! We have absolutely loved school (even though it’s a LOT of work) and I am already looking forward to going back in a week or two.

Below are a few pix from the river cruise. Thanks for reading 🙂