Dos lagos, aricari and a tick story

Yesterday we introduced Gram to both Lago Arenal and Lago Cote, up close.  Madeleine and Henry were off school due to teacher meetings, so we had Madeleine’s friends Kelly and Tatiana over to our house, with the intent to help them study English for a test on Monday.  We had to cut the session short to go pick up Sullivan from school at 10:30, after which we all drove to the nearby park on Lake Arenal to check out the scene and explore a bit.  I got my first 4x4 action in our mighty Montero, for a short stretch anyway.

Madeleine with Tatiana and Kelly at Lago Arenal

Gram and the boys take in the scene

After returning Kelly and Tatiana home and getting ourselves some lunch, the kids took Gram on a tour of the jungle trail in our neighborhood, Las Flores.  Upon their return, we all drove up toward Lago Cote, the much smaller lake to the north of Arenal.  We stopped first at the currently closed EcoLodge to watch a bunch of Oropendolas flying in and out, building their giant hanging nests in some palm trees.  We may have heard the sounds of Oropendola babies too, but we can’t be sure.  We drove on along the rocky road to view Lake Cote and lucked out to find the entrance to some lakefront lots open.  We drove down toward the lake as far as we could and went the rest of the way on foot.  The kids were thrilled to have found a way to get down to the lake!  Tree climbing, lake wading, sand digging and exploring all ensued.   We had a little excitement when we found the entrance to the lots closed when we tried to return to the road.  Fortunately it was not locked and just required opening and then closing back a wood/ barbed wire gate.  It looks like we can't count on Lago Cote remaining accessible, at least at this spot.

Henry rejoices upon finding a way down to Lake Cote

Madeleine finds a tree with a view

Sully and Gram

Posing with the Costa Rican flag, planted on one of the lots for some unknown reason.

This morning after taking Sullivan to school, the rest of us went to La Rana, the German-owned hotel and restaurant near our house, for some morning birdwatching.  We had heard that the toucan viewing was good around 9am.   We saw a great variety of birds, most of which we have seen from our own patio too.  No toucans, but their cousins the aricari arrived late, worth the wait.  It was fun watching them unpeel bits of banana with their unwieldy beaks and tilt up their heads to swallow the goodies.

Bird watching over coffee and cocoa

Collared aricaris enjoy the buffet

Finally, Henry has his scorpion story from October, and now Sullivan has a tick story… The low point of our day!  We have not been too concerned about ticks up to this point, but today Sully found one on a most private and tender part.  ("Mom, that spot is not a sore; it has legs!")  He was not too freaked out about it until I tried to remove it with tweezers, which hurt!  It took a lot of bribery, chocolate, Tylenol, topical pain relieving antibiotic and very persistent tugging with the tweezers to get that sucker off.  Yikes!  We have now all been initiated in Costa Rican ticks and will be diligent about looking for the tiny young ones before they turn into the tenacious brutes like the one I had to pull off of poor Sully.  He was rewarded with ice cream for his bravery and does not seem at all traumatized by the ordeal.   Hopefully one scorpion story and one tick story will be enough for this family.