Day 5 & 6

Hi - I am Nick.

While we are in Costa Rica we are all going to write about a day. Aparently today is my day! Welcome to Costa Rica with Nick! Woot! (Applause Clap Cheer) I am a few days late on this due to no computer.

I am loving our new hotel, we have been finding some cool animals. This morning we found some lizards:

It is hard to see on that picture because of how green it is.

And we found this bird that wouldn´t move. Hard to believe that it´s not a statue.

We ate breakfeast and started gertting ready to go to the La Fortuna Waterfall, As soon as we got there we hiked down, it was kind of creepy because how steep and long the steps were, but we finally got there. It was an amazing sight.

We didn´t swim in the pool closest to the waterfall right away first we went down to the other pool. The water was pretty cold, But it was worth going underwater because of the fish.:D

After swimming in that pool for awhile we decided to go up to the waterfall pool. But we had to meditate before we started.

We got up to the waterfall and Josh and I tried swimming to it. That was a lot harder than I thought.

Then dad joined:

 We finally decided to go back. The hike up was very tiring and long. we finally reached the car and drove to a butterfly conservatory, On the trail we could have seen monkeys and other awesome animals. We turned out to find.

The lonely Cow.

A big tree. It used to be a part of the rainforest that was here.

We finally reached the butterfly conservatory:

After that we went to the Frog Sanctuary.

I was really excited to see the Poisonous Dart Frogs

           When we were done we hiked up to a good view at the volcano and the lake.

This is a cool plant we saw on the way up.

We tried climbing a vine, It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I guess I wasn't Tarzan. :[

We were acting like tarzan ninja people while we were up there.

On the way down we took a diffrent trail, so it was much shorter. We decided to drive to the Hot Springs yet.We got there and ran down to it. It was very hot. Hotter than I thought it would be. We climbed up and found a tunnel that the water was rushing through hard enough to pull us, so we ran to the end and laid on our backs. The water carried us all the way through the tunnel, it was very fun. But when we got home we noticed how sore our backs were:

We went to bed after the long day. Today was the funnest day in Costa Rica I had yet.

The next day we slept in, we weren´t doing much today. We decided to get out of bed finally and go look around in the gardens. The first thing we saw was a frog. I have no idea how Zach spotted it.

 We took some pictures then went and tried to find more animals. Josh and I went together and Micah, Zach, And mom went together. As we were walking Josh spotted a small red frog. We looked closer and noticed it had blue on it's legs. It was a Poisonous Dart Frog. After that we started finding more and more. There were about 6 that we saw.

 My mom and brothers scared an iguana up a tree. I wish I would have seen it. We couldn't find anything else so we went back to our house On the way Josh and I saw that green lizard again.

 

Micah and I found a pool table and started playing.

We went swimming and found a big toad in the pool with us.

Zach then found a frog in the baby pool.

 We got some other cool pictures of us in the pool.

We decided to go to the Hot Springs again, because of how cold it was outside. We finally arrived and ran in. This time we made sure to slide on our stomaches not our backs. :)

We went to eat at Soda La Porada.Then left back home watched some TV then went to bed. It was very hard to sleep since we couldn't sleep on our back or stomachs.

Day 4 - and the interim

Howdy doody!

Life has been great here in CR... but our laptop started acting up, putting a damper on our blogging activities. Remedies have been slow to implement due to the slower connection speeds at our current hotel, but hopefully I can get it fixed today before we take off.

Day 4 was relatively un-eventful... if you can consider San Jose traffic un-eventful (which is isn't); and if you can overlook 'forgetting a bunch of important stuff at the hotel' and trying to find the nearest McDonalds (which we almost can). But everything turned out ok. And after getting out of San Jose driving here can be a pleasant experience.

A word or two about McDonalds. If I were to venture a guess, I would say that CR is not known for its cuisine. Rice and beans. Rice and chicken. E mas arroz con frijoles. E mas gallo pinto. Rice and beans for breakfast. Rice and beans for lunch. Rice and beans for supper. Mind you - 2 weeks ago, I would of never guessed that I would wake up some morning and want rice and beans for breakfast. As it turns out, after the first day's breakfast, and a good night's sleep, I did. They are very good, perhaps the best rice and beans anywhere. But a guy can only take so much rice and beans. I think I have met my quota for the rest of the trip.

The palate needed a break, so - off we went to McDonalds. It was one of our cheapest and tastiest meals here so far. You know the food choices are limited when the most palatable and varietal menu is found at McDonalds - or Burger King (as is the case here in La Fortuna).

A word or two about driving in Costa Rica. Watching the traffic down here for the first day or two was intimidating. But the drivers here are very patient, and with a GPS it simply becomes a matter of going with the flow... and keeping a very sharp eye out for motorcycles -  which as Ken Miller kindly explained, have their own set of driving courtesies and rules. They are everywhere and can go anywhere at any time. I would venture to say that everyone watching for the motorcycle/moped craziness makes for safer driving all the way around. Things look chaotic, but everyone drives slow and the traffic has its rhythm.

We have done a lot here in La Fortuna, but I will let Nick bring everyone up to date on this part of the trip (if I can get the laptop and pictures option up and running). We are headed to MonteVerde today for some more rain forest and plan on being there for 2 nights.

Appreciate the prayers and thoughts.

Day 3

Hello I am Josh, the oldest son in the Oxley Family, The one with the blue hat :P, and today I am supposed to post what we did today, well I don't know where to start, we went to a volcano and went to an awesome restaurant. At the volcano we were in clouds and driving up to look around, it was supposed to be a 30 minute drive but it felt more like an 2 hour drive dues to traffic.

 

But I was entertained thanks to my little brothers.

When we finally got there it was awesome!

This volcano is called Irazu. if you ever go to Coast a Rica I highly recommend you go there.

Although.. Micah seemed a little dehydrated

 

But he seemed fine once we splashed him with water.

The highlight of the whole trip so far was seeing these awesome animals.

They're called Coatis the look like a mix between lemurs and anteaters.

We were worn out, so we stopped at a village where they grow coffee, I got this drink that is like bubble tea but is called Chan that was so good!

Then we headed home to get some sleep and relax.