Another full day of touring today! First, breakfast together at 7:00am. Waking up was a little easier today compared to our first morning yesterday.
Our first excursion was a visit to Posada de Belén. This is a complex built for teenage mothers that provides help with caring for their children, classes to continue their education, and courses to learn a trade in order to prepare themselves for a future after leaving the home once they turn 18. Photos weren't allowed in the building, but it was a rather humbling experience. And it was fun playing with the little children.
After the visit to Posada de Belén, we drove west for an hour or so to La Paz Waterfall Gardens. Here, Christián is showing us what we were about to visit in the nature park.
We started at the top of the hillside, walked through several areas that house local wildlife, and ended up down by the river where we saw 4 beautiful waterfalls. This was definitely our best opportunity so far for some wonderful photos.
Here are Maeve and Libby taking a selfie with a toucan.
Here, we're walking through a butterfly sactuary. You can see some butterflies on the wall to the left, and some were as big as our hands!
The hummingbird complex. The entrance to the nature park is in the upper right-hand corner way up the hill.
Nicole, Crystal, and Grace near a waterfall in the hummingbird complex.
The frog & toad room. Some of the frogs were as small as a fingernail.
All of us in front of a typical Costa Rican oxcart. More on these tomorrow...
Lunch together at the nature park. Crystal mentioned that this was like eating at Rainforest Café, only more authentic. We all agree. :)
Then the oxen came around carrying some tico children.
Here we are in front of waterfall #1 of 5: Templo Falls
More descending. And yes, going down the mountain was much easier than hiking back up.
Here's the website of La Paz Nature Park if you're interested. Pretty cool place.
After several hours in the nature park, we boarded our van to return to our hotel. Half-way through the 1.5 hour drive, we stopped at a fruit stand to try some strawberries (it's strawberry season in CR right now) and mamón chino, a new fruit for us all.
Mamón chino:
Finally, we ended up back at our hotel for dinner together.
On tomorrow's agenda is a visit to the Doka coffee plantation in the morning, then a cooking class/demonstration in the afternoon.
¡Pura vida!
Update -
Here are some photos of our day in Posada de Belén taken by Cristián:
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