Costa Rica

Location Description

Sub-locations

216 photos

After landing at Juan Santamaria International, I took a...
A bus similar to the one that took me from San Jose to...
That evening, I arrived in Quepos, met Joel and checked...
Cute tiling on the wall of the pool at our hostel. Also,...
Joel in Big Red (the dive master's truck) on our way to...
Joel suiting up before our first dive.
From left to right: Morgan who was in the first week of...
Joel, checking the rigging on his air tank before our first dive.
An island near our dive site.
Morgan and Joel on our first day of diving. Morgan only...
Some other divers were on the boat for recreational...
... Well, this is is it. I would say under the best of...
I think this is Joel, but I really can't be sure.
Here's Joel. The first day, we had three dives. On the...
Used to diving in the Caribbean and Aegean seas I was...
Self portrait. I am also very cold. I was given a...
Good old Jasper. This guy had a head cold and was...
Down deeper where it was almost black I had to use a...
Taking another portrait with a flash. Behind me is...
Oh, here we go. About 55 feet below the surface of the...
You know these silly little fan corals were about the...
I guess there's a fish in there somewhere. Darn backscatter.
Jasper, still hanging in there. This guy looked like a...
Well, that's definitely a fish, and also tons of brine...
Yep, I'm cold. At least I'm closer to the surface now....
Oh, right. This is when I got totally lost and separated...
Back aboard our dive boat. Joel and Morgan.
Joel, smiling for the camera. We must have been laughing...
Morgan, our crazy instructor Georgia (who thankfully...
John, self potrait, and Joel.
Sorting gear back on land.
Loading up Mighty Whitey, brother of Big Red.
Happy Costa Rican Independence Day (September 15)....
As part of our Advanced Open Water Diver certification...
After lunch we spent the rest of the afternoon walking...
Morgan, Jasper and Joel walking down a road outside Quepos.
A strange wagon in a relatively manicured garden outside Quepos.
Long-abandoned factory outside town.
Here is where Morgan is paying $10 / night to stay for...
An ant carrying a leaf weighing multiple times its body weight.
Joel laughing in the rain in Quepos.
Sitting around in the afternoon rain in Quepos, watching...
Best fish sighting I saw all day! I photographed this...
Hard to get a good photo of this guy. Water was so murky!
One more shot.
Joel in the rain.
Another fish!
I think this was around the time Jasper realized he had...
A crab!
That night we went to a restaurant and while we were...
Eating dinner at an overpriced Mexican restaurant with...
It rained so hard that while we were eating dinner the...
Slightly closer shot.
And then Jasper went and stood in it. He's probably...
Morgan is tempted to wade in the street as well. Joel...
Diving, day two. Jasper, Morgan and I head out to do...
A huge ray swims by our boat.
Getting ready to go diving! I am most likely testing out...
My underwater compass!
In the water and ready to go diving! I didn't even take...
Joel tests out his regulator.
Jasper, getting ready for dive number two. Sadly, Jasper...
Morgan, ready for diving.
Awesome visibility!
And then my lens started to fog up! I need to get...
It just got worse and worse! At this point Joel and I...
Starfish! Would have been way better if m lens weren't...
Back on the dive boat, between dives 2 and 3. I managed...
Joel, above me while we are diving.
Using the compass for underwater navigation.
And guess what! The lens fogged up again. How frustrating!
Nevertheless, here's Joel filling up a balloon with air...
Pretty clever! Rather than try to swim with a heavy...
So sad. these photos would have been great.
Back on the dive boat. Picture of the island near where...
Headed back to shore.
Almost back to the harbor.
Joel watching from the captain's bridge.
Looks like another afternoon of heavy rain!
Why does everyone spell my name this way in Spanish...
Lunch! Cost me 2000 colones, or around $4.
National hot sauce of Costa Rica.
After lunch we went walking on the beach. Looks like...
Hanging out on the beach. Diving means wake up early,...
Pretty section of coastline. My guidebook says the water...
Weird flowers or plants (I think) that were all over the beach.
Guy riding his bicycle rather impressively in wet sand.
Morgan walking on the beach.
At a certain point, it started raining. Not that this...
In fact, look, here are some more people coming to join...
Helicopter flew overhead at one point.
A brightly colored crab stuck in a fishing net. That's...
Walking through the village on the island.
Local travel agency. Pretty sweet deal. For about $30-40...
The Jose Carlos has run aground. We had to get across...
Chinese library and bazaar?
We came across a sign for our guide shop.
Awesome birthday cake. Sadly Joel did not get it for me. :(
Then it started to pour again. Only tourists wear rain...
Joel buys coffee flavored cereal.
Rum and cola premixed and bottled. Bernard DeVoto would...
Tablecloth at a restaurant about a block from our hostel.
Dinner for $4. I really had no problem getting...
Chicken bros!
On Friday we went to a national park. Despite the $10...
Pretty awesome mating centipedes or something like that....
Interesting looking mushroom.
Joel of the Jungle.
Crossing a river. Basically all the rivers in this...
Bird of paradise flowers?
Pretty looking waterfall.
Very strange looking mushroom or fungus. Looks like a...
Even weirder looking fungus! The jungle is filled with...
Monkeys in the trees! These were actually fairly easy to...
Spider monkey, walking on a power line. This was not the...
Look at him go!
Then he came down to the ground to check us out.
Kind of shy, but pretty cute.
A sloth, being slothful. They sleep this way.
I think this sloth was actually interested enough to...
Ant - I think he was actually carrying this leaf until I...
Those jaws look sharp.
Hermit crab, on the beach.
Joel and Morgan, on the beach.
John and his sweet new shades that he bought for $1.50...
Morgan, Joel and John, with the Pacific Ocean in the background.
A coati, or coatimundi if you want to be fancy about it....
Coati on the move.
Rooting around for grubs.
Morgan found a really weird leaf.
Butterfly that blends in well.
Bridge picture for Catherine. This ravine was actually...
Starting to get glimpses of the coast on our hike.
At the final viewing station. A lot of sections of...
I think this was a really endangered type of monkey....
Bandit raccoons had completely overrun the lunch area.
They ate everything from the uncovered garbage cans unchallenged.
A mother teaches her kits to "hunt".
Mmm... plastic bag food.
Are you food?
Lunch!
Oooh, I see something.
Hahahaha. Yeah, they were sleeping and the raccoons...
So then they came toward our lunch spot and so I got a...
When that didn't work I took a block of wood and threw...
Sleeping sloth in the tree that we picnicked under.
Cute wooden carved and painted sign.
Morgan wandering through the jungle
Lizard and hermit crab.
Monkey, directly above my head. Probably 70-100 feet up.
Neat looking island. I think this might have been an...
Sign next to a really big tree.
Still wandering through the jungle. Joel decided to go...
Still hiking along.
Joel, demonstrating well the level of humidity and heat...
Morgan, sporting Five Finger shoes.
View of the beach where we ate lunch.
Fairly priceless facial expression.
I don't know if that counts as being a biped. She was...
Not a happy monkey.
Now an angry monkey!
Baby monkey face still funny.
Eerily human-like.
Same monkeys, now up in a tree.
I think dad showed up as well.
A whole monkey family.
Neat looking lizard.
Joel trying to balance a hermit crab on his hand.
Joel and Morgan wash their feet in a conveniently placed...
Oh hello Mr. Iguana!
Posing for a photo.
Catching some afternoon rays.
Keeping an eye on me.
Don't eat the fruit!
Scary things in the jungle that can kill you.
Interesting looking island that connects to the mainland...
I sort of wanted to check it out, so we walked down to it.
Wandering around on the chert or whatever it was.
Watching the waves come in. There were little crabs everywhere!
More islands farther out to sea.
Morgan, on our little island.
Next Joel decided he could get to the next island...
Haha.
Still not deterred.
Ok, where to go next?
Looking a little unsteady.
D'oh!
Another iguana.
Posing for the camera.
Close up shot.
And from the side.
Beautiful coloring. These guys were so exotic looking...
Just lounging about.
Off he goes...
Just outside the park near the bus stop, an old man sold...
On the way back to Quepos we decided to stop off at this...
Papyrus! At least their caipirinas were good.
Joel, after a long day hiking.
I can't even remember what this was, but it was very...
Then the restaurant was overwhelmed by a marauding band...
Howler monkeys were everywhere!
These ones actually swung by their tails. Neato.
Using a tail for balance.
A little bit of history on the model of plane used to...
Joel drinking something with midori in it. I think it...
That is a tropical looking drink.
Morgan at El Avion.
We noticed there was a sloth sleeping in a tree just a...
Somehow we managed to arrive at this bar at the start of...
And then it got really dark. So, since it was almost...
The bar (plane) as seen from the street at night.
Slightly better lighting.
Ancient Costa Rican weather stone. Its not clear exactly...
Passing miles and miles of palm plantations on my way...
More and more trees lined up in widely spaced rows.
Note the writing on the truck in the background. We are...