Rent A Horse, Buy Some Cheese

We saw some pix from the Tenorio Rain Forest recently. The last outpost on the way in is the little town or Rio Naranjo, Orange River. You can stop by Hertz Rent-A-Horse and get a vehicle to cruise the surrounding savannah. There are a lot of dairy farms made possible by the higher altitude and the locals sell their home-made cheese while Jesus supervises.

The paved road ends at Rio Naranjo. From there to the forest you must travel the proverbial five miles of bad road. The section below was the part in the very best condition. 

On our way back to Tamarindo we went by the extensive renovations of the Pan American Highway, which runs from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Usuhaia, Argentina (we've been to both ends). We've driven some of the old road - okay by Costa Rican standards but no place to zip through fast. It is being rebuilt into a four lane, high-speed divided road - with tolls, of course (the first in CR). That's all the concrete in the bottom photo with a look northeast to the line of volcanoes.                          

In The Rain Forest

Long day trip yesterday with the superb 3 Monkies tour company, the best in Guanacaste Province. We have used them on all of our trips to Tamarindo. This time the itinerary was the rain forest on the Pacific side of the Tenorio volcano (lots of those here) and the Llanas de Cortez waterfall.

We drove from the provincial capital of Liberia down the Panamerican Highway, up a secondary road to the town of Rio Naranjo (Orange River), then up five miles - at least - of really bad road to the Heliconias Lodge in the rain forest. It's dry season here but the woodland is still lush. Our guide took us on a strenuous walk up and down the mountainside, through the canopy and over four suspension foot bridges.

Along the trail our guide spotted this brilliant millipede. These are after-and-before pictures. It was wandering down the trail, happy as can be, but quite vulnerable to predatory birds. Our guide explained that some birds can suck them down like a piece of spaghetti. The sound of our feet made it curl up into a pinwheel, too wide for a bird's throat.

Mrs. C wonders if millipedes were the inspiration for the Slinky.