Jim's view of La Paz

Monday we went to La Paz - a park north of San Jose. It was only about 60 kilometers, but took almost two hours to get there. The roads are not the best in good times. They were even worse due to the earthquake of a few months ago. But we got there and enjoyed the park. They have birds, flutterbys (butterflies), jungle cats, monkeys, frogs, snakes, insects and other types of wild life. Some are caged and some roam free, like the hummingbirds and flutterbys - not the cats. I got the impression from the reading at each display that they don't keep anything for life. They keep them for a while then release them to the wild and get other specimens of the same species.



They have a typical historic Tico house and a cart with oxen and ox driver. Not too much can be said about them, but they were very interesting. The ox carts were used to haul coffee beans from the mountains to the ports on the Pacific coast. They were decorated in bright colors and intricate patterns. They still make them today in Sarchi (we are going there today).

That's the Tico house in the background.

The waterfalls were the main attraction. There are four of them in series. The largest is 120 feet. They are beautiful and make a tremendous racket. The park is in the mountains and to have a waterfall you have to have a change in altitude - duh. So we had to walk down at least 2000 feet of walkways and stairs to get to the bottom. Signs kept telling us of a shuttle that would take visitors back to the entrance. We were hoping the shuttle was at the bottom, but it wasn't. We had to walk - say climb - up about 500 feet of stairs and walkways to get to the shuttle station. That's tough on an old fat man. I'm feeling it today.

Coming home was an adventure. There were road signs to La Paz, but no road signs to Jim and Kathy's Costa Rican home. We managed, but it took a bit longer coming home than it did going.

Monday evening we had dinner with Ray and Lynne Grant - friends we met when we were here in November. Great dinner and visit. They are taking us on a scenic trip Thursday. Looking forward to that.