2007 proved to be the most challenging year for Manfred and myself so far. Having two kids under two has given us a new found respect for each other. In the toughest of times we always found ways to deal with the kids and not to mention each other ;-) There is much love and happiness in our family amongst the chaos and sleep deprivation as you can see from the photos.

As challenging as it has been, we never lost sight of our adventerous nature. This November our
adventure led us and the boys to Playa Guiones near
Nosara in “Pura vida” Costa Rica. It is famous among surfers as the beach with the most
consistent surf in the area. We chose Nosara for its reputation
having a more laid back and slow paced ambient.

We spent our month mainly going to the beach at least once a day to collect shells, make sand
pools for the boys to sit and swim in, boogie board and taking the boys out for a play/dip/swim
in the shore break.

Costa Rica, known for its ecofriendliness, greeted us with an abundance of wild life just outside
our rental home. There was no shortage of iguanas (Lukas calls them “dinosaur in jungle”),
coatis, other lizards of all shapes and sizes, howler monkeys, turkey vultures, humming birds,
toucans and not to mention all the blood suckers and creepy crawlies. Especially the hundreds of
centipedes that visited our holiday crashers nightly – our dear friend Dorothy, who joined us
for 12 days, and then my sister Huong for 5 days. “Thanks, girls, for keeping them downstairs.”

The highlight of our wild life experience was undoubtedly the arrivada of the Olive Ridley
turtles. The baby turtles were sooo adorable flip-flopping clumsily towards the water. The
arrival of thousands of female turtles to this small stretch of beach, Playa Ostional, for
nesting was a very touching scene. We felt that our visit there was an amazing experience, but
at the same time unnatural and had an impact on the nesting turtles.

Now that have been to Nosara we can really understand why this small paradise has not been
invaded more by tourists. The roads to get there as well as to get around in the area are
potholes galore. These vary in size to the width of the road and can be deep enough to flood a
car during the rainy season. We are sooo thankful for our Chariot CX double stroller –
the ultra terrain child carrier. The boys definitely travelled in comfort and style.

Costa Rican cuisine left us a bit disappointed. Considering the climate being comparable to
Vietnam and other sout east asian countries, the available variety of fruits and vegetables was
very limited. If your tastebuds love beans and rice, they will be in paradise in Costa Rica.
They are integral part of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Good thing I cooked at home regularly –
otherwise the ozone layer hole would be even bigger with our methane contribution ;-) One saving
grace for Costa Rica is their amazing coffee. You can not find bad coffee anywhere there.

Costa Rica was another great adventure and we look forward to having many more with our boys.

Winter arrived in Salzburg – so Babsi & I were in search for some warm sunshine. This time our destination was Costa Rica – due to the rivers and the amazing wildlife. During our 4 weeks we fell in love with that beautiful country and its people, the Ticos, who were just super friendly. Read on for some of our highlights:

Corcovado National Park: Living in the jungle

The
NP Corcovado, which is situated at the Peninsula de Osa, is the biggest remaining
rainforest in Costa Rica. You can do daytrips at the border of the National
Park, but we decided to walk 20km to the ranger station at Sirena. After 2 days
of recovery we hiked all the way back to our starting point. The Park itself
is maybe the best place to observe mammals (and of course birds, reptiles and
the tropical rainforest itself).

During our stay there we got a funny rhytm: at 5:30 am the howler monkeys started
to cry, at 6 am you could listen to the first people and at 6:30 it was time
for Gallo Pinto (Typical breakfast consisting of Rice’n'Beans). The rest of
the day was pure nature watching. Tamanduas, Squirrel – & Capuccinmonkeys,
Iguanas, Peccaries and lots of different birds like the Scarlet Macaws, Frigatebirds
and once we even saw a crocodile – quite scarry if you sit in a canoe and the
croc swims just 2-3m besides you …

Reserva Santa Elena & the Ranarium: quack quack

In
the Santa Elena region it was time for another rainforest typ – the Cloud Rainforest.
There it was rather tough to see animals but the forest seemed like an enchanted
place. Lots of ferns and mosses hang from the trees and you think you are in
the middle of a fairytale. But be warned: it’s a Cloud Rainforest – so take
your Poncho Emergencia or your Salzburger Schnürlregencape with you …

Sadly we didn’t see any poison dart-frog at all, so we decided to visit the
Ranarium – the Frog Pond. There we saw and photographed many different ones
like the tiny Blue Jeans Frog (just 2cm) or the typical Costa Rican frog – the
Red-eyed Greenfrog …

Manuel Antonio: seakayaking in a National Park

Manuel
Antonio offered us the opportunity to go for a seakayaking trip. We started
on the Playa Espadrillio and explored the coastline and the beaches of the National
Park (which was closed on that day) for 3 hours. Just amazing!

On the next day we returned to the Nation Park Manuel Antonio – but this time
on foot. There we saw an endless amount of iguanas, the funny rabbit-rat-mixture
called Aguati and an endless amount of Squirrel and White faced Cappucin monkeys.
Additionally I went for three snorkelling trips on all the beaches in the Park.
The best one was at the gravelbeach in the southern end of the park (swim to
the left side for big, tropical fish). Ah, and there we saw the three-toed sloth
for the first time – what a relaxed creature …

The rivers of Costa Rica: warm & funny

I
don’t know why, but when I travel with Babsi it rains cats’n'dogs. New Zealand,
Canada and now the Carribean slope of Costa Rica. Due to 4 days of heavy rainfall,
we couldn’t paddle the Pacuare. But before we spend for brilliant days on different
rivers …

• Lower Rio Sarapiqui in flood: this turned out to be a funride
  similar to the Isel in Eastern tyrol. Nice warm-up.
• Rio Torro: this was an amazing river-experience – a WW
  3(4) gorge in a tropical rainforest… and the yellow water (sulfanat from
  the volcan) has 15-20°C
• Upper Rio Sarapiqui – Volcan put in: another superb river
  - Eddyline hopping a bouldergarden in green, warm water
• Rio Torro Amarillo: if you think of a riverbed full of
  boulders that are up to 2m, lots of yellow water (another volcan) and warm,
  tropical rainfall then you know what we enjoyed :)

Important: There are plans to dam the Pacuare – one of the
worlds finest gorges. Support
the locals to stop the dam!

Tamarindo: let’s go surfin’

After
the heavy rainfalls on the Carribean slope we fled to the sunny Pacific. In
Tamarindo on the Peninsula de Nicoya we found a perfect spot for our last days:

• a beautiful beach with nice waves for surfing and nice views ;)
• a snorkelling trip at the Isla Capitan with some corals, a huge fish-crowd,
  a moraine and colorful fish
• the Leatherback turtles in the night (which ment no sleep between 23:00
  and 3:30 for two nights – we didn’t see them in the first night. But in the
  2nd night we saw a turtle and they are one of the most amazing creatures I
  have ever seen)
• the Mangrove for another nature exploration trip
• and of course Batidos con leche and Pina Colladas on the beach

Overall it was an amazing trip and I just want to say “Muchas gracias”
to the Ticos for sharing their beautiful country with Babsi and me.

And now enjoy the photos (hopefully)

Costa Rica is a really beautiful country and beside the friendly people and the amazing nature we also fell in love with the Batidos – Costa Ricas shakes.

They are either made with water or milk and an added flavour – if you want to order one just ask for (pineapple in that case)

• Batido con agua y piña – watershake with pineapple
• Batido con leche y piña – milkshake with pineapple

Making them is quite simple, if you follow these simple steps:

1. Get your mixer ready
2. Put some icecubes in the mixer and crush them
3. Continue if fruits otherwise go to 4:
   Add the fruitpieces to the crushed ice and mix until it is a rather thick pulp. Depending on the fruit you may want to add a little bit of brown sugar
4. Add water or milk and mix until the Batido is really foamy (can take a few minutes).
   Good tip from Gerald: add 1-2 icecubes now and mix again – it get’s foamier

Now to the flavours we found in Costa Rica. Water/Milk tells you just what we drank them with …