Pacuare to Selva Bananito (bye bye beach!)

Rained most of the night, keeping us up. We said our goodbyes this morning -- some folks stayed after breakfast to talk with us and we took a group picture. A few people there had been to Selva Bananito and were telling us how cool it was. I really wish everyone there lots of luck. They're doing a great job I was impressed.

We hopped on the boat again back to the dock to meet our taxi. Kate came with us to say goodbye. I believe she was staying another week. The taxi was on-time, just perfect. The driver was the owner of the taxi company but came in his own personal car because the taxi was having mechanical problems. Very nice car! Since it had rained the last night, we drove through some pretty deep water on the way out. We stopped for root beer and cookies at a convenience store in Matina. The 'chicky' cookies are seriously tasty! The store didn't want to take us dollars and we didn't have any colon, but James worked it out.

We drove east on HWY 32, then turned off past Puerto Limon, driving along the beach and the airport, then turned inland toward Bananito Sur. There we met Carlos! who would guide us the next few days. Our taxi went partway into the grounds, then Carlos drove us the rest of the way in a truck. We went through several small and one pretty good sized river with a guy hanging on in the bed of the truck! The kids though that was great.

Selva Bananito is just gorgeous. See the pictures out the back of our lodge and on their web site. The kids spent all their free time on the two hammocks on the back porch, reading and singing. The bathroom is really nice, with tile floors and walls and a big shower.

About an hour after we arrived, Carlos stopped by to arrange our adventure package activities for the three night stay. We were pretty tired from the last night of little sleep (because of the rain), that we opted to just relax our first day there. We got cleaned up, walked around the grounds, played in one of the rivers, and tracked the leaf cutter ants back to their home. Those are some hard-working creatures. They were James's favorite of all the new creatures we saw. As we were walking around, Carlos spotted us and pointed out a family of toucans all living in this skinny tree. He got out his telescope so we could see them better. There were at least 9 we counted all going into the trunk through a small hole! Another bird's nest looked like a leftover burlap sack of potatoes hanging from a tree. The bird would just fly straight down into the nest. Again, see pictures.

We had a good meal (meat for the first time in days); and got warm and dry. Enjoyed our welcome drink of coconut milk (served in the coconut with pretty flower on top). The adults contained an extra ingredient -- rum! Put me right to sleep.

It really is like we'd read the “Most Beautiful Bedroom in the Rainforest”. We all slept well, perfect temperature, gentle breeze, with the sounds of the jungle around us