After a quick three days on the road, we arrived at our house in the hills above Alajuela, Costa Rica. When we arrived, we noticed a few things right away. Salmon-colored cabinets and bath fixtures, an empty swimming pool (although the hot tub was full), and water dripping onto the bed in one of the bedrooms. Not a great start to a five week stay, but fortunately the owner, Frank, and manager, Mike, are very friendly and are going out of their way to get things sorted out.

Since before our trip began Jen and I have been following the adventures of Discover Share Inspire, a family of eight traveling in a veggie oil powered truck. They are living in Costa Rica, and we were finally able to meet them in person for a picnic in a park in San Jose.

A few of the kids from Discover, Share, Inspire

We had a few days on our own, then the first of three sets of friends arrived from the US. Brian and Lisa and their daughter Amy lived a few blocks from us in Denver.

After they spent a day relaxing from their red-eye flight, we visited the Poas Volcano, an active volcano 20km up the hill from our house. It was a little overcast, but cleared enough for us to get a view into the crater.

The sulfur smell from the volcano was strong on the hike up to the rim.

We had a great time hiking around the park.

At a nearby wildlife sanctuary.

Quinn the explorer documenting his adventures

Wouldn’t want this guy creeping around your bedroom at night!

The kids got a big kick out of the monkeys.

Quinn’s take on the experience:

Frank and Mike put on a barbeque for us at the house. This is us with Carlos, one of the maintenance staff, and his family.

On Friday we packed up and drove to a house that Brian and Lisa rented in Monte Verde, an area high in the cloud forest and known for eco-tours and wildlife. It was a rainy day, which made the drive a bit of an adventure.

It was raining too hard for a picnic outside, so all six of us crowded into the van for lunch on the way to Monte Verde.

Climbing into the cloud forest, we can see where it gets it’s name.

The last 30km or so into Monte Verde is only now in the process of being paved. On our way up, a very muddy looking car headed the other way flagged us down to ask if we had four wheel drive and warn us of mud ahead. Fortunately Brian and Lisa had rented an SUV, so after jumping out to lock the hubs we pressed on in the rain.

This wasn’t the worst of the mud; I didn’t want to get out there to take pictures.

There was only a short stretch where the road crews had scraped off all of the road base to create a nice mudhole. We didn’t have any problems, but it was a little scary when a car coming down the hill toward us started sliding around!

After a couple of hours on rough, windy roads, we were happy to arrive at our little house tucked into the forest.

The next day we went for a hike in a nearby forest reserve. We saw several birds and a Coati, which we decided looked like a cross between a raccoon and an anteater.

Photographer Brian and his creative director Amy

Whoa! Big tree!

What to do after a hike but catch up with your friends on Facebook. Look at me in Costa Rica!