We decided to venture into the rain forest again today. This time we went in search of hanging bridges. The drive there was quite the adventure. We were on a small dirt road almost the entire time passing through small villages. Then up into the mountains on the steep windy roads. 

While we were hiking we came across a beautiful lizard. It had a yellow head and a bright blue tail. Halle looked it up later and found it was a whip tail lizard. So cool. 

The hanging bridges were fun—the boys like to bounce the whole was across. 

After we hiked around for awhile we decided to stop and take a break on some rocks near the riverbed. We were talking about how the only animal left on our bucket list was a Toucan in the wild. I told the kids I’d manifest one. So I imagined him flying above us and landing in the trees. Not 5 min later, what should appear? A Toucan! We loved watching him hop from branch to branch.  Can you spot him?

We are another traditional lunch, this time we a delicious juice that I’m going to try to find the name of. After lunch it was time to go swim the the natural pool below a little waterfall. The water was freezing and I’ve never felt anything better. We played around, jumping off the rocks and swimming in the water. It took Halle a few minutes to work up her courage and then she jumped while squealing, “I’m going to die!”

On our hike back it started to rain. This made the bridges very, very slippery. Halle’s feet got swept out from under her on her fist step on the bridge. But the boys though it was grand fun. They shuffle/slid all the way across. By the time we got the the car it was really coming down. On the way up Rusty had wondered what the dirt roads were like in the rain. He got his chance to find out. Water just pours down the roads leaving them a muddy mess in no time. It made our drive down the mountain extra adventurous. By the time we were back on pavement we all felt like we had our brain rattled right out of our skull. Good thing we had our favorite snack to give us courage

One of the things I like most about Costa Rica is how connected I feel to Mother Earth. We’ve seen kerosene trees, anise plants, eucalyptus trees, menthol, palm oil, to name just a few. There are beautiful plants and animals all around. One of our guides said, “The culture of Costa Rica is nature.” I couldn’t agree more.

Dinner this night was Wood fired pizza at El Wagon. It had a beautiful jungle vibe. I thought this deserved a solid ok. Nothing to write home about. We ordered the Nutella, banana, marshmallow pizza for dessert. Blake thought it was wonderful. The rest of us did not. The marshmallow were the flavored kind! 

During desert all of the sudden Josh shrieked “There’s a Lizard on my arm! There’s a lizard on my arm!”  He promptly name him “My Boy” and let him climb all over him. Josh decided he was going to try to sneak the lizard back to the USA inside his hair. 😂