Cataratas de La Paz: Take two

My parents arrived safely last night. They flew from Monterrey to Los Angeles on Friday and then from LAX to SJO yesterday. Jill and I take for granted that Costa Rica is an easy flight from Texas, being just 3 1/2 hours from Houston to SJO. Getting here from California is a real hike. It’s a full six hours from LAX. We appreciate the commitment that Non and D showed to getting here. And they arrived bearing a gift!

When they arrived in Los Angeles they read the post about us needing an InstantPot and they Uber-ed all over Hell’s half acre to procure us one. And then they went through the nightmare of checking it as luggage, including needing to find an additional box to pack the retail box in because the airline required that. Needless to say Jill and I are delighted!

As a bonus, Non and D re-supplied us with Duty Free gin on their way through the San Jose airport. It’s feeling a little like Christmas in Costa Rica!

Airport ingress and egress went without a hitch (Jill and I are feeling like professionals in that area) and we were back at headquarters with InstantPot and parents by 9:15PM. We gave Non and D a tour of our shanty and then retired to the salon and broke out a plate of our coveted Ritz Crackers and sharp cheddar cheese plus a box of La Coope’s fines Chilean Cabernet. We spent about an hour catching up and then everyone retired for the evening.

Everyone was up early this morning and we had coffee and cheese omelettes to get the day started.

Today’s destination was the La Paz Waterfall Gardens, which we’d previously enjoyed with Jill’s parents when they were here. This was our second time making the drive and it was not nearly as nerve-wracking because Jill and I knew what to expect. We are really hitting our stride as a driver-navigator team.

La Paz did not disappoint and continues to be one of our favorite day trips.

Once we arrived at La Paz we rushed straight for the colibri (hummingbird) garden because there are only two times during the day when they let you feed the hummingbirds by hand. We arrived as the curator of the hummingbirds was packing away the little vials you hold in your hand to feed the hummingbirds. Like all but one other person we’ve encountered in Costa Rica (yeah I’m talking about you, Adobe Rent-A-Car guy), the nice man went out of his way to accommodate us. He gave Jill, Non, and D each a vial of nectar and stood patiently by while they made like giant flowers.

The last time we went to the La Paz Waterfall Gardens it was cloudy and misting rain, which meant the butterflies in the butterfly garden were pretty listless. Today was a bright sunny day and the butterflies were out in force.

After the butterflies we went to see the rescued two-toed sloths, which happened to be very active this morning.

Then it was on to the tucanes (toucans)!

Then we were off to the headline attraction, the cataratas (waterfalls)!

Here’s something you don’t often see: D on a bridge high above a rocky river gorge.

After the waterfalls we had all worked up and appetite so we popped into the restaurant for lunch. Jill and I became fans of chifrijo on our last trip to La Paz so we talked Non and D into getting chifrijo as well. Everyone LOVED their lunch.

After a nice lunch we went back to the hummingbird garden one more time and then saddled up for the ride home.

The La Paz area is known for its berry farms so we stopped on the return journey and bought a caja de fresas (box of strawberries). We did taste them until we got home. If we had we would have known to buy 10 boxes. Holy cow, these strawberries are life changing!

Everyone but me is now napping. Non and D are still on Pacific time and Jill had a stressful day of navigating us to and from the Cataratas de La Paz. I suspect as soon as they wake up we will begin discussing dinner options. I need to make a list of the ingredients I need for Chicken Adobo 🙂

Today’s bonus photo: