Flora and Fauna Delights

Limon, Costa Rica. What an ecologically amazing country. I believe that Costa Rica has the largest collection of Flora and Fauna in all the world and it most definitely shows. There is rain forest and jungle everywhere. Sloths and monkeys roam the city streets, tidal flats are covered in purple eels, and the white water rapids are out of this world. 

The first day took me to the National park. I was on a hunt to find a sloth and take in all the beauty that my eyes could perceive. It was gorgeous! A sense of my relation to this world clouded over my brain and I realized how small and unknown I am in our ginormous world. I realized how far from a natural state society had come and I slowed down to take a minute and breathe in my surroundings because if the sloth didn't need to hurry then why did I? Of course, the silence didn't last long and I ran straight into a spider web that coated the entire upper half of my body.... Yuck! An hour later my friends and I were still wiping the remains of the web off of me. I eventually found the sloth that I was looking for and watched it as it slowly moved across the tree branch. Ironically, there were many sloths that could be found just outside the dock and so I learned that I should probably keep my eyes on the trees more often. The coolest sight, however, was the raccoons that would dance for food. In Vancouver I am always taught to be weary of raccoons but in Costa Rica they gently take food straight from a human’s hand. Cool, eh? 

The next day was white water rapids on Costa Rica's longest river. There hadn't been much rainfall in the past week and so I was only able to experience class four rapids but they too were extraordinary. Our guide had me laughing until I could paddle no more and every time "get down" was commanded I whipped my paddle out of the water and hit the hull hard. I spent five hours on the river admiring the views and taking in the surrounding ecology. If national geographic were to visit the location of these rapids, I am sure that a photo might make their front page. The worn bridges and textured rock cliffs took my breath away. 

On the final day in Limon, I toured to Playa Bonita and explored the tidal flats. I observed that the waves came in patterns and every fifteen minutes the entire area would be flooded with water. To my dismay, a rogue wave hit and I was sent flying by the 12 feet of solid water. When I got back on foot again some fifty electric purple eels surrounded me. My heart began to beat a mile a minute and my head spun from one place to another trying to find an escape route. I was terrified of either being washed out to sea or dying of electric shock via eel. I think I may have made a mountain out of a mole hill when I look back on what happened. Eventually I came to terms with my current state and realized that this is AWESOME!