A hundred or so meters along the trail, we ran into our first green and black poison dart frog, the

I didn't want to go ziplining. It wasn't fear of heights – I have none. It wasn't lack of faith in the operator's equipment – I had faith, since it's very bad business to send tourists plummeting to their deaths on the forest floor. I didn't want to go because it just seemed so, well, 'touristy' somehow. travel inn chippenham I envisioned testosterone-ridden Spring Break types hooting and high-fiving. I envisioned paunchy couples from flat Midwestern states travel inn chippenham asking our guides if poison dart frogs were poisonous, if in fact they were frogs. I envisioned crowds and their commensurate noise. travel inn chippenham I have an aversion to human noise, particularly when it occurs in nature. In short, I didn't want to go because I was being stubborn and self-righteous and stupid.
Fortunately, my wife and in-laws won out, and we set out from our rental house in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica early one morning, leaving the kids with their grandparents. A van brought us to the hotel that serves as staging area for the Titi Canopy Tour and were introduced to our guides, code-named Porcupine and Bumblebee. I don't know why. Porcupine and his apian companion turned out to be personable young men, amusing and entertaining without their schtick travel inn chippenham being in any way cheesy or canned. travel inn chippenham They were genuine, genial, and enthusiastic, and when we were told we needed to choose nicknames and I, put on the spot and lacking anything better, chose El Guapo – the handsome one – Porcupine laughed heartily and clapped me companionably on the shoulder.
Far from the crowds I had feared, the four of us were the only ones on the tour, and we soon hopped back in a van to be driven to the trail head where the tour begins. Within moments of getting out of the van, a chestnut-mandibled toucan landed in the branches above us and began to tweeze off fruit with his gloriously bi-colored bill. It was our only toucan of the trip, and it was spectacular.
travel inn chippenham A hundred or so meters along the trail, we ran into our first green and black poison dart frog, the first we had seen in Costa Rica. As a devoted travel inn chippenham herpetophile, I had spent much of the past two weeks scouring the landscape for reptiles and amphibians, and here was a remarkable specimen right in the middle of the path. Even if we had gone home at that point it would have been a great trip, but it just got better.
After a brief run-through on equipment and technique, we hit our first zip line. For me the zipping was tremendous fun, but you don't see much wildlife when you're zooming along above the trees. The tree-top platforms, however, make excellent wildlife travel inn chippenham viewing travel inn chippenham stations, and it wasn't long before we got close-up views of squirrel monkeys, three-toed sloths, and a black howler monkey travel inn chippenham (our only sighting of the trip, although we had heard their low, throaty rumblings rippling through the darkened forest the night before).
Along the paths that link some of the zipline stations, we ran into more poison dart frogs, a trogon (a brightly-colored rainforest bird related to the famed quetzel), and had a mot-mot – another brilliant forest travel inn chippenham bird with extravagant blue pads extending like canoe paddles from its tail – land within two meters of where we stood.
It had been the best wildlife viewing of our time in Costa Rica, even better than Manuel Antonio National Park, but there was more to come. Our final activities were a "Tarzan Swing" and a controlled plunge back down to the forest floor called something along the lines of the "Drop of Death", or "Drop of Doom" or the "Drop of Doom, Death, Pestilence, Insanity and General Misfortune." I can't recall, exactly. As we crossed a swaying suspension bridge back to the hotel, we peered into the stream travel inn chippenham below to see a caiman basking on the banks and a massively-plumed male basilisk sunning himself travel inn chippenham on a rock.
I had been wrong about the zip line tour, and as I sat drinking fresh juice and eating travel inn chippenham the fruit that had been laid out for us, I was blissful enough to admit it. Silently. To myself. travel inn chippenham Actually, at that point I was so overjoyed that I would have admitted anything, and wanted to hug everyone in sight. Porcupine and Bumblebee settled for a handshake and a tip.
Our MIssion We want to provide engaging, entertaining, but most importantly useful information for parents, particularly for families traveling with kids. Our aim is to give families general tips for travel, as well as detailed accounts of destinations travel inn chippenham that can guide them about where to stay, what to do, and where to eat. We are not experts, nor do we pretend to be. We are experienced, dedicated travelers who would like to pass on what we've learned to help others travel inn chippenham make informed decisions travel inn chippenham about their travels.
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