Costa Rican Food-Burger Face

Cayla loves her hamburguesas!

Costa Rican Food-Black Beans and Rice

Typical dishes in Costa Rica

Costa Rican Food-Fresh Fish

Tuna and salmon carpaccio, fried salmon skin and avocado sushi, and fresh fish tacos with cilantro, pico de gallo and lemons.  I think my Costa Rica trip turned me into a pescetarian!

Costa Rican Food-Breakfast

Gallo pinto, fried or scrambled eggs, tortillas, Costa Rican coffee and fruit.  Definitely the best way to start your day.  It's so popular, you can even order it at Burger King!

Costa Rican Food-Fruit

Fruit is absolutely delicious in Costa Rica because they don't believe in picking before the fruit is perfectly ripe.  Every Tican knows how terrible American fruit is because it's usually exported from somewhere else.  And unfortunately, they pick the exported fruit while they're hard as a rock so they don't incur any bumps and bruises along the way.  Now if we Americans could only tolerate a ragged looking piece of fruit for the sake of deliciousness, we could maybe have a slice of Costa Rica at home.

Sisters

It's pure nepotism I'm sure, but I have the cutest nieces on EARTH!

Leaves of Interest

Just a simple tour around my hotel grounds piqued my interest in botany.  So many different shapes, colors, characteristics and species, all within one square mile.  Makes one believe that potentially all of our cures are hidden somewhere deep in the jungle.

Colorful Costa Rica

"Earth laughs in flowers."  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The three-toed sloth

A month long digestive process, low metabolic rates and low body temperatures due to an arboreal lifestyle with a diet of only leaves makes this mammal one of the slowest of its kind.  They only move when necessary as they expend a lot of energy to do so.  A sloth's claws are its only natural defense, besides moving slowly as to not attract attention.  The sloth is very vulnerable to predators during its infrequent visit to ground level, however the sloth takes a risk once a week to come down from the trees to defecate.  Scientists are still puzzled by this behavior.  Some say it's for mating purposes, others say defecating from trees would attract too much predatory attention.  Either way I guess we stumbled upon this guy right as he was sauntering to the restroom.

No Alimentar A Los Monos

Monkeys on power lines, trees, picnic benches, balconies and roofs...they are ubiquitous in Costa Rica!  But no matter where you find them, definitely do not feed them.  They are used to bananas in the wild, so if you feed them pesticide laced human bananas, they will kill their babies and potentially an entire generation.  (sad face).  No alimentar a los monos!  Don't feed the monkeys!