Tour Day 5: Los Chiles (and Nicaragua!)

7/12/13

This morning we set off for a wildlife boat tour on a river along the Nicaraguan border called Rio Frio, which translates to "Cold River."

On the bus ride to the river, we passed a restaurant with a lizard theme. Rolando informed us that people recreationally eat lizards in Costa Rica, and even that some restaurants will serve it in the place of chicken to unsuspecting people. I made a mental note to switch to beef for my next month here.

(Above: there were seemingly hundreds of lizards on a bridge outside of the lizard restaurant)

The boat tour was amazing! We saw monkeys, "Jesus Christ" lizards (I've heard two explanations as to why they are nicknamed Jesus Christ: one idea is because they can walk on water, and the other is that, when they walk on water, you yell "Jesus Christ!"), cows, birds, ducks, and more. We lucked out to have beautiful blue skies instead of the standard lightning storm, which was an added bonus, and perhaps even allowed us to see more wildlife. We were also fortunate enough to see "Blondie," a mutant yellow monkey. We were told that she is the only blonde monkey to exist-- however, to be honest, they could pretty much tell us anything and we'd believe it!

                 (Above: a Costa Rican bird)

               (Above: Blondie and her son)

             (Above: a crocodile of some sort)

We then headed off to Nicaragua! Our tour company has some sort of deal set up with the border patrol, so we were allowed to be temporary illegal immigrants for a few minutes. While our group was taking tourist pictures with the Nicaraguan border sign, Rolando enjoyed carrying around a giant black grasshopper of some sort and parading it around.

        (Above: my mom and me in Nicaragua!)

                                      (Above: crossing the border)

  (Above: Rolando carrying around the giant grasshopper)

Afterwards we were off to a hotel with a wide variety of hot springs for an afternoon of swimming. We enjoyed the warm water, with springs ranging up to 130 degrees! I think the consensus was that our favorite part was riding the fast and furious water slides. My dad and I went on the fastest slide, and I think we're partially concussed from smashing our heads so many times against the slide. I'm skeptical of the safety regulations required here in Costa Rica.

One benefit from today's events that I can take away is that now I can officially cross being an illegal immigrant off my bucket list. Pura vida!