Dolphin and Animal Sanctuary Tour

When I had heard about the tour, I was told it was a “Dolphin Sanctuary Tour” and somehow I had some idea that it would be something like Marine World where we would kneel by the pool and touch dolphins.  Although that would have been a lot of fun as well, that was definitely not what the tour was like.   

We went into Puerto Jimenez and caught a boat at the pier.  Our guides took us around the Golfo Dulce and we found a school of spotted dolphins and followed them around for a while.  I think watching a school of dolphins jump through the water together is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.  It naturally just brings a smile to your face at seeing something so incredible.  And having dolphins swim all around your boat, underneath, behind.  Just amazing.  

Then we headed to the animal sanctuary which was run by a woman named Carol.  She’s doing a lot of great work with helping animals that have been wounded or need to be taken care of.  We got to see a lot of animals such as sloths, toucans, macaws, monkeys, and turkeys.  It was really inspiring to hear about how Carol didn’t give up on animals when veterinarians thought they had no hope and should be euthanized. 

Then the adventure really began when we went to back to our boat.  Everything was fine while we ate our packed lunches from the hotel, but then suddenly, the motors starts sputtering.  Our guides assured us everything was fine and we went on for a bit at a slower speed.  We found some bottled-nose dolphins at this point and followed them around as well.  Again, it was just so fun watching them swim all around us.  The guide told us that we would be headed back at slow pace just because our motors seemed to having some trouble.  Everything seemed okay until the motor suddenly gave out.  Uh-oh.  But no problem, our guides were completely professional and had another boat out to us in ten minutes.  We simply transferred boats and were on our way again.  We met a gust of rain and going at the fast we were, it felt like we were being pummeled even though it was only a shower, but it was a lot of fun and a great sense of adventure!  We finally got back to Puerto Jimenez and transferred back to Lapa Rios.

Overall, seeing the dolphins was a completely amazing experience.  Although I have seen dolphins in other parts of Costa Rica, there weren’t this many and it was so beautiful and graceful watching them jump out together. 

Surfing Lessons!

Learning to surf is one of the top three things I want to accomplish before I die, so I jumped at the chance to take surfing lessons.  We all gathered on the beach, approximately a ten minute walk from Lapa Rios, in the afternoon and our instructor, Pollo (yes, meaning chicken.  I’m not quite sure how he got that nickname, but I really want to know now) first showed us the steps of standing up on the board.  If you stand with your left foot forward, you’re a regular.  If you stand with your right foot forwards, you’re a goofy.  I was a regular.  We did a couple of practice rounds on a board on the sand.  It seemed easy enough…on the sand. 

Then it was time to do the real thing and we took our own surfboard into the water.  I now understand why surfers are all naturally in such great shape.  Paddling out into the water was so tiring on the arms.  It made kayaking yesterday seem like nothing!  But it was all worth it when I was able to stand on my first wave.  To be fair, the act of standing isn’t that hard considering how gentle the waves were and the fact that Pollo was telling us when to go, when to stand, and gave us a head start by giving us a push, but still, I was quite proud of myself.  When I did fall off my board, it slammed into my face in the water.  So, now I have a lovely bruise on my left cheek, but no matter, all I care about is that I stood up on most of my tries!  Pollo was very helpful and definitely none of us could have stood up without his help.  I asked him and he said that he’s been surfing for 20 years and been teaching for 8 years.  Wow!  Overall, I definitely want to take more lessons and learn to catch my own wave and stand and actually say I can surf, but this was definitely a good introduction and a lot of fun! 

Mangrove Kayaking Adventure

Teresa's experiences while kayaking...

Thinking I had experience kayaking in both rivers and oceans, I thought I would be an expert at this and was not worried about my skill level or sore arms when I got the chance to go on the mangrove kayaking tour here at Lapa Rios.  We started out with just some general guidelines and we were off!
We started off going upriver so it was definitely more tiring than I thought it would be, but probably more so because I’ve been so out of shape and haven’t gone to a gym in a while!  Our guide was very knowledgeable and we would stop occasionally (which my arms were definitely thankful for!) and she would point out different birds and even crocodiles to us. 

The first part is going from shore to the “entrance” of the river, but the farther up we got, the skinnier it got and soon we were completely surrounded by black and red mangrove plants.  This part of the river was considered snake’s territories since there were so many there.  We spotted quite a few boa constrictors sleeping in the trees!  I was still doing okay in the open-water areas, but once we got to the really skinny parts of the river, we had to go through single-file and boy, I think I hit just about everybody on the tour’s kayak.  The water currents would be pushing you in one direction and then you had to try to avoid the log in the middle.  And then you would over compensate the paddling on one side and then have to hurry and switch sides…and all I can say is I swear that I’m a better driver than I am a kayaker!  Either way, it was still so beautiful kayaking through the mangroves.  I felt like I was living in a National Geographic pictures editorial. 

We turned around at one point in the river and went back down river.  It was definitely a lot easier on my arms coming down, but my steering definitely became even worse because the currents would keep pushing you right into the mangroves and bushes with no way of stopping.  You know when you have to choose between your foot or your face to stop yourself when you hit the bush, you’re in some trouble (especially considering I was in a kayak.  Who sticks their foot up to stop themselves when they’re in a kayak?!?)  But eventually we finally were back in the open-waters and I got my groove back.  We stopped on the side for some rest and walked to the beach.  Our guide cut up a pineapple and then showed us the traditional way to open a coconut!  We drank the coconut water and then she cut some pieces of the coconut for us as well.  Then she even squeezed some coconut milk out of the rest of the coconut and squeezed the juice out of the pineapple rinds and we had a fresh virgin pina colada!  Yummy!  Then, she took us for a short hike and showed us some of the edible plants in the area, just in case we were ever stuck in a Tom Hanks Castaway situation, we at least wouldn’t die of starvation!  Quite interesting.  And then it was back to kayaking to shore.  It was amazing to see how much the tide had receded in the couple of hours we were gone and we dragged our kayaks up the muddy shore.  Overall, it was a lot of fun even if I did have to use my foot as a blocker for my face from mangroves! 

Lapa Rios Night Walk Tour

Our intern decided to sign up for the Lapa Rios Night Hike and write about her experiences... 

Since it gets dark here so early, the nightwalk started pretty early for the “night” at 6:00 pm.  It was raining lightly when we started, but the guides told me to switch my Converse Chucks for a pair of rubber rain boots.  Thank goodness I did because it was pretty muddy by the time we reached the rain forest.

We started out with walking through the property for a bit, then we broke off onto a trail in the rain forest.  I was glad I took a walking stick as well because it wasn’t needed so much to stabilize yourself, but to test the depths and how muddy your next step was going to be.  And it got really muddy considering there has been rain almost every day for the last few days!  We saw quite a few frogs, spiders, scorpions, and a possum on our hike, but because it started raining very hard halfway through (I was completely soaked by the time the hike ended!) we didn’t spot any snakes like I heard they did a couple of nights ago.

Even though we ended up not seeing as many animals as I had hoped, it was still a lot of fun to get dripping wet and walk through the rain forest at night.  At some points when the flashlights were all pointed in one direction, you realize just how dark and in the middle of the rain forest you are!

Bungalows at Lapa Rios

Here is our intern's perspective on the bungalows at Lapa Rios...

I was a bit confused when I read online that they have “open-air” bungalows here.  What exactly does that mean?!?  Basically, all the bungalows have huge screened windows on three sides of the rooms.  There are heavy bamboo drapes you can roll down in case it starts raining or if you want some privacy from the monkeys!  This open-air design is great because the wind and air circulate freely through the room keeping it cool and refreshed.  That is why although there isn’t air-conditioning, it honestly isn’t necessary! 

One of my childhood dreams was sleeping under one of those princess nets, but my parents said no.  So, you bet I was excited to sleep under the white moth net that covered the bed here!  I remember my first morning when I woke up to the sun shining through the white net and in my confusion, everything just looking bright and white.  Very magical. 

One of my favorite types of showerheads is a rain showerhead, which they have in the bathrooms along with a regular shower.  If that wasn’t enough, there is also an outdoor shower.  Don’t worry, there is complete privacy for each bungalow, so nobody can see you, but I can’t say for certain that a monkey might not catch a glimpse!  But it’s amazing that you can be showering while looking out to the rain forest and the Pacific Ocean!  Along with the outdoor shower, there are also lounge chairs so you can relax there and drink your morning coffee or watch the sunrise from your deck area.

It definitely is a very authentic feeling in a bungalow!  At night, you feel like you’re sleeping in the middle of the rain forest with the sounds of the animals surrounding you.  And in the morning, the cries of monkeys will wake you up just in time to watch the sun rise!

The Story of the Sangrillo Colorado

It is no secret about the great biodiversity of the Osa Peninsula and Lapa Rios with National Geographic proclaiming it “the most biologically intense place on Earth.”  But a little known fact about the 1,000 acres of the Lapa Rios nature reserve is that 80% of the sangrillo colorado tree is found here.  The sangrillo colorado, or also known by its scientific name, Paramachaerium gruberi, is one of the 37 different species of trees that are currently in a critical state of extinction.  First reported in 1988 on the Lapa Rios reserve, the sangrillo colorado tree has an extension of 22.3 km² in Costa Rica and the available habitat has reduced by 10.76%. It can be found 50 to 350 meters above sea level and only along the Carbonera Ridge.

Due to its scarcity, Lapa Rios has been working to produce and grow as many sangrillo colorado trees as possible not only on its own nature reserve, but also around the Osa Peninsula.  Researchers are trying to discover if the Lapa Rios reserve is a special microclimate that is particularly conducive for growing the sangrillo colorado trees or if the other trees in the peninsula are simply gone due to logging in the past.  As the sangrillo colorado is a hardwood and great for making furniture, it was targeted in the 1960’s when loggers came to the Osa region.  A project spearheaded by Lapa Rios’s sustainability manager, Andres Soley, is working to spread the population of these trees in the Osa Peninsula by working with local schools.  Lapa Rios is distributing approximately 50 small trees out to different schools in the area and letting the children plant them around their community and approximately 1,000 trees to conservationists to plant around the peninsula in general. 

Andres hopes that this project will not only help the sangrillo colorado tree population, but also be a learning opportunity for the children.  When asked about why he decided to send the trees to the local schools, Andres replies, “What we do here at Lapa Rios is so much more than about sustainability and conservation; it is also about contributing and giving back to the local community that we’re a part of.”  This was shown when Lapa Rios led the campaign against Coca-Cola several years ago when Coca-Cola switched all beverage bottles from glass to plastic and aluminum.  Lapa Rios contacted all the local eco-lodges and businesses around the Osa and together they all boycotted Coca-Cola products and switched to Pepsi in protest against the bottle change.  They argued that the Osa Peninsula did not have the facilities and ability to recycle all of those bottles and that reusing glass bottles was much more sustainable.  In a David-versus-Goliath situation, Coca-Cola eventually conceded and switched back to glass bottles and as promised, all the eco-lodges switched back to Coca-Cola products.

Regardless of the findings of the researchers, Lapa Rios will continue to produce the sangrillo colorado trees as they are hoping that the trees will grow successfully around the Osa and eventually bring it out of endangerment of extinction.  With their mission statement being, “A forest left standing is more valuable than one cut down,” Lapa Rios will definitely be adding to the value of the Osa Peninsula by planting all these new trees and teaching the future generation about the value of conservation.

School Dining Hall Update

We are almost there!  The rains have finally let down a bit so we have been able to paint the school that is receiving the funds from our Lapathon event.  Electric installation is almost complete.  The children of the Amapola school are sure to enjoy their new dining hall when school starts again in February.

Also, in this post you can see a video about Lapa Rios´s staff and one of our guests (his name is Loris, he is from Italy) painting the dining hall of the La Amapola School.

Watch the video here.

On Friday, November 4th the Specialist Committee of the Zeitz Foundation met and discussed the Lapa Rios Ecolodge and the decision was made to award GER (Global Ecosphere Retreats) certification based on the commitments made in the Lapa Rios plan to achieve sustainability through a holistic balance of the 4C's (Conservation, Community, Culture and Commerce). The Zeitz Foundation commented that Lapa Rios has "obviously put in a great deal of time, effort and thoughtful planning to ensure that the Ecolodge becomes a global leader in sustainable development practices".

We are proud to have been awarded this certification and to be partnering with the Zeitz Foundation to create a better, more sustainable world!

Food Blog Wrap Up!

Some of you may be thinking, “She’s already written about everything she’s eaten in the past week, what else is there to say?”  Well, just a bit more! 

First off, one of the cool aspects of being sustainable means Lapa Rios only sources a major order of food once a week to keep the distance the food travels down.  This means that your dinner order is actually taken at breakfast, so that any last-minute ingredients can be bought in town.  It’s quite interesting to be picking your dinner selection out at breakfast, but personally, I like it.  If I knew I had ordered the pork tenderloin for dinner, I would pick something less “meaty” during lunch to keep things lighter.

Another great aspect I like about Lapa Rios is the different types of juices they had.  No, no, they don’t just serve your normal orange or apple juice, but fruits like blackberry, passion fruit, guava, mango, and soursop.  I didn’t even know what soursop was, but I tried it and it was good!  (I definitely Googled it later and found it was a spiky looking green fruit.)

And another one of my favorites was the daily chip served at lunch.  It could be plantains, yucca, tisquisque, or some other kind of chip, but they were definitely all good!  There would always be a chip plate with really good dips that you could help yourself to in the dining lodge at lunch time and it also came with the soup or your sandwich. 

Lastly, the bread at dinner changes every night.  I honestly couldn’t pick a favorite, but it ranges from dinner rolls with caramelized onion, corn bread, braided bread, corn muffin with sweet peppers, and many others.  Eating the bread and butter always made me very hungry while I waited for my appetizer or if I had soup, I would sometimes save it to put in my soup.  Either way, it was always good!

Lapa Rios Food Blog - Day 7

Last day of this crazy amount of eating at Lapa Rios!  As much fun as this has been, my stomach definitely needs a good break.  I started off my last day with a Gringo Special – scrambled eggs, ham, and toast.  I really like their turrialba cheese as it is kind of similar to halloumi with a high melting rate, so I asked for some fried cheese as well.  I stacked everything between the slices of toast and made myself a breakfast sandwich! 

Then I had a craving for some pasta at lunch today.  Sometimes a girl just needs her carbs!  I added some fish to it and of course topped it off with lots and lots of cheese.  It was a simple pasta, the best kind, just some tossed with sun dried tomatoes, basil, and garlic.  The fish added some needed protein and of course the parmesan cheese was necessary!  Then I decided to switch back to the caramel flan for my last day since I had the chocolate brownie the previous day.  I’m going to miss all these desserts! 

I started dinner off with the tropical fish cakes, which I think were one of my favorite appetizers yet.  It was lightly fried and served with lemongrass-chili sauce which was what really made this dish so superb.  It had a slightly tangy taste, but just a little bit spicy to give it an extra kick.  So delicious!  Then I was feeling pretty full from lunch, so I just asked for a half portion of the gnocchi with pumpkin and macadamia.  I think I was in a pasta mood the whole day!  The potato gnocchi was just the right consistency, not too chewy, but not too hard and the pumpkin puree that came with it was really smooth.  To finish off the whole week of eating was an interesting dessert of basil crème brulee.  There’s nothing quite as fun as cracking the top of a crème brulee and the basil gave it an interesting flavor.  I definitely wouldn’t have thought to pair the two together, but it worked! 

Lapa Rios Food Blog - Day 6

I can’t believe the week of culinary delights at Lapa Rios is almost over!  I started the day off with the French Toast which is made with the whole wheat toast so I didn’t order it on the side.  I also added a fruit platter in an effort to be healthy considering everything I’ve eaten this week!  It came again with the same three syrups as the pancakes from two days ago: coconut-orange, maple, and guava.  Again, I just stuck with the more traditional maple since it was my favorite last time. 

Lunch was started off with the squash soup I liked a couple of days ago followed by a half salad – half sandwich with a half Volcano Salad with fish and a half Portobello mushroom sandwich.  Instead of the usual white Costa Rican turrialba cheese, the sandwich was filled with mozzarella cheese.  Yummy!  Also, there were sautéed onions and peppers, one of my favorite things, in there.  To top it all off, I had a chocolate brownie as well, of course!

Dinner was tuna tartar, raw tuna in soy sauce and sesame oil on top of avocado and fruit.  The sesame oil is what really makes this dish as it makes it much more aromatic.  The avocado and fruit give it some good contrast.  I though the sweetness from the fruit might be a bit weird, but it actually worked out really well.  This was followed by a grilled pork tenderloin that came some yucca cubes and peppers filled with cheese.  I’m usually not a huge fan of pork, but the tenderloin was really tender and went well with the sauce.  I finished the meal with an upside-down pineapple cake.  The caramel sauce it came with was just enough to make it perfect! 

Lapa Rios Food Blog - Day 5

After being completely stuffed at breakfast yesterday and being unable to finish my pancakes and my toast, I didn’t order a side of the wheat toast for the first time.  I got the Central America Corn Cakes which were small cakes that were about the size of a normal pancake that was filled with whole corn kernels, peppers, and onions.  This was topped with a chili yogurt sauce that wasn’t what I expected, but was good nonetheless since I like spicy food.  There were also scrambled eggs and pico de gallo on the side.  I topped it all with two very common sauces here in Costa Rica, Salsa Lizano and Chilero.  These two sauces are on the table and are quite tasty!  I’m not quite sure what’s in Salsa Lizano, but it has a sort of curry and tangy taste that’s really good.  Chilero is what you’d probably think more of a chunky chili hot sauce.  I’ve honestly really started liking both of these sauces and will definitely be buying a couple of bottles home!

For lunch, I decided to try and be healthy (-er) and started with a Lapa Rios favorite, the Volcano Salad with fish since I liked it a lot on the first day.  Following that, I had the three gallos.  Gallos are small soft tacos and each of them had a different meat inside – beef, chicken, and fish.  I must have been in a fish-mood since the fish gallos was my favorite as well although it was definitely hard to pick just one.  But then again, just some simple grilled fish with some lemon on top is one of my favorite foods!  And going back to one of my favorite desserts while I was here, I decided to go with the caramel flan since I had the chocolate brownie yesterday. 

Dinner was started off with a tomato cream soup that was very good.  I put little pieces of my dinner roll into it and it was just what I needed since it was raining hard outside!  Nothing quite like soup to warm you up.  Then I had the shrimp curry that came with jasmine rice.  I love all types of curry – Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Malaysian, etc. – so I enjoyed this.  It wasn’t quite like any curry I’ve had before as there was a tropical twist with some fruits inside.  Since I didn’t order the chocolate brownie at lunch, I decided to go with the chocolate cake with roasted macadamia nuts for dinner and it was simply divine.  Seriously, what isn’t good when there’s chocolate involved?!?