Some Costa Rica pictures

Brief overview of our trip to Costa Rica:
First stop, Arenal Nayara Hotel, close to Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica's most active. It stayed too cloudy and rainy to see much of the volcano (which would be just beyond the ridge pictured below), although we did take advantage of its proximity by basking in hot springs.

There was not much basking in the sun on this leg of the trip (first four days), mostly rest and relaxation (with one zipline excursion through the forest canopy).

Next it was off to the Osa Peninsula, on the southern Pacific Coast--we stayed at a hotel overlooking Drake Bay. There was more wildlife here.

Our first day at Aguila de Osa hotel, we had a run-in with a horde of capuchin monkeys near the beach (our paths overlapped too much for the monkeys), who switched from cute and clever to scary and devious quite quickly (they were herding us).

At the nearby national park we saw spider monkeys way up high, but I only got a picture of a spider monkey skull that someone left on the trail.

The birds were amazing on the peninsula, both in the park and on our front porch. For example, there were many scarlet macaws.

In a pretty serious case of false advertising, some Danes staying at our hotel told us that we could see "raccoons" in Corcovado Park. They actually meant coatis (aka coatimundis, which I guess means 'global coati'), which were fairly different than our homegrown raccoons, even if they are related.

I did not expect the howler monkeys to be the calmest and most serene of the monkeys, but this guy was hanging out calmly with the coati herd.

The three-toed sloth was definitely the hardest to see.

A Chestnut-mandibled Toucan serenaded us one morning.

Iguanas also hung out by our hotel.

A little boa constrictor was hanging out by the dining room/appetizer porch.

We also spent some time snorkeling, hanging out on the beach, and a lot of time eating.