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John Crane's Gallery

Hostel Tranquilo, San Jose, Costa Rica

Crazy stray cat attacking the blanket on our bed.

More crazy stray cat action

Tranquilo bumper sticker tastefully mounted on our bedroom wall

The on duty desk clerk reading a book and napping in a hammock

Funky hostel shower stall. Where do you purchase tile like this?

Hacia donde vamos? (Towards where do we go?)

Morazan Park in downtown San Jose, Costa Rica

Underside of the dome in Morazan Park

Nail Salon with $6 pedicures (560 colones to a US dollar)

Central Park, San Jose, Costa Rica

National Theater

Manolo's Churros

San Jose Post Office (Correos)

El Verduco, Where they're always slashing prices (siempre quebrando precios), with an axe.

More hostel graffitti

We had to walk through this barrio to get to the bus terminal. We lived.

Two tickets to paradise (or La Fortuna). 1955 colones ($4 per ticket, 4 hour bus ride)

San Jose bus terminal.

Bus company.

Picnic lunch on the bus. Arroz con Pollo (Rice with Chicken) on the right.

Despacio (Slow Down) for a bus shelter that could take nuclear warfare.

Land rover pulling some cows.

Pozuelo is an excellent cracker.

Corrugated steel roofing, prevalent in Costa Rica.

Average Costa Ricans

More average everyday Costa Ricans

Cows. Side note: 500 cows died to every human (45,000 to 80) in the 1967 eruption of the Arenal Volcano.

I ordered a Pina Colada, and I got more Pina (Pineapple) than I was expecting!

Arenal Shows itself to us for the first time.

Gallo Pinto, the Costa Rican breakfast of champions!

17km to the volcano

Taxi / bus that would take us to Arenal National Park

Street-view of Arenal Volcano from the center of La Fortuna.

A view of the older, inactive craters and newer, active craters of Arenal.

Arenal letting off some fumes. Nothing grows on this slope of the Volcano.

Impact crater created from a truck sized rock hitting the ground a mile from the Volcano. (1968 eruption).

This is a hiking trail.

Leafcutter Ants!

More Leafcutter Ants!!

We entered under our own risk.

Climbing up to the 1993 lava flow

Some blue-tailed lizard action.

Even more lava.

Volcan Arenal (iPhone version)

Hot Funnel-Web Spider action

A very, very large, Ceibo tree that survived the 68 eruption. A giant in a land of midgets.

Mayol Lodge pool action

Turkey Vultures

Turkey Vultures that stood there with wings spread for no apparent reason.

Dead cicada. The live ones in the forest were deafening.

Stray dog action.

Fly in the upper left coming in for a landing.

Mayol lodge room.

Mayol Lodge toilet.

Seafood salad course.

Grandma's chicken, banana leaf wrapped

Giant Crawfish and flounder plate.

Imperial, the beer of Costa Rica. Almost as available as bottled water, and about as cheap, and comparable in taste.

Cigars and a cuba libre, very enjoyable.

Hanging bridge at Arenal Observatory lodge

Seismograph, nothing much happened while we were here (thankfully)

Large bug on the window screen

Quaint walk to the Cerro Chato (Chato hill, which is really an extinct volcano) trail

Arenal Observatory Lodge property and forest, submit a payment for environmental services. Care of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE)

Lava / Pyroclastic gas on the side of Arenal.

It took 2 hours of climbing a trail like this to reach the top.

Elevation - 1800 feet. Destination - 3300 feet (more than the Sears Tower). Through a poorly kept, muddy, jungle trail, in 90 degree heat and 100% humidity.

Blue bodied and copper winged bug.

This is what the trail upwards looked like, it was near vertical at points.

It was hard to tell how high we were when we took rest breaks. The jungle was pretty thick.

Giant 4 inch beetle.

We've been hiking for 2-3 hours at this point. Headed to Rio Fortuna, another 4 hours???

Cerro Chato Lagoon, in the crater of a dormant volcano.

More Cerro Chato Lagoon.

Even more Cerro Chato Lagoon.

Even more Cerro Chato Lagoon than before.

Frogs soon to be humping

Crazy moss covered trees

Blurry photo of a 6 inch tall moth

Arenal from Chato.

Passing shot of Cerro Chato's Lagoon

(Trail towards the Lagoon)

La Fortuna in the distance

By the end, the shirt was so wet, it could be wringed out. No need to wear it.

Out of the jungle, but still nowhere near civilization.

Swallow tailed kite

Catarata Rio Fortuna (Fortuna river waterfall)

Waterfall action

A very strong and cold waterfall.

A pina colada and some hot springs make everything better

A blurry shot of eco-terminales hot springs in La Fortuna

Waiting for our taxi in awesome leather rocking chairs

A lot of backpacker's backpacks

Our last photo of Arenal. (Hold your applause)

An alternative to ”Jeep - Boat - Jeep” is ”Jeep - Horse - Jeep“.

Lush countryside. Horrible dirt roads.

Spanish equivalent of a School speed limit sign.

Coffee plantation. Shade grown (north side of slope, with shade trees).

Ninos en la via! (Children in the roadway)

Santa Elena town

Our room at the Pension Santa Elena

La Pension Santa Elena.

Chunches Bookstore and Cafe, great cheap breakfasts and laundry services

Hot burrito action

Artistic map of Santa Elena and Monteverde.

Hippies and Stray dogs.

Crazy mural at our hostel

Treehouse cafe. Literally.

Cute little skateboarder

More cute skateboarder.

Recycling, even in small town, Costa Rica.

Power nap, part 2. Damn you Cerro Chato

Hitting up the Children's eternal rainforest for a twilight walk

Wild banana tree

Our trail guide, Jesus, holding a rhinoceros beetle.

Can you see the Emerald Toucanet? It's in there somewhere, but we can't find it.

Strangler fig that killed one tree, had the dead tree rot away, it fell over and then started strangling another tree.

Crazy tour guide picking up a huge biting insect

Orange kneed tarantula

More orange kneed tarantula. Easily 5-6 inches long.

Crazy sized cricket and cockroach.

Orange bellied Trogon

Scorpion (3“ long)

Garlic crusted sea bass

Casado, a typical Costa Rican dinner. Meat with beans, rice and salad.

Santa Elena Twon??

Back to dirt roads...

Monteverde has established itself as an artists town. There were tons of galleries and studios.

Cat in Stella's Bakery

Stella's paintings

Stella's Bakery and Cafe. Very quaint, and very much for sale (all the artwork was priced)

Monteverde dairy. Cheese, yogurt, ice cream, etc. Their yogurt was some of the best we ever tasted.

Cheese being made in bulk.

Artist's Coop. Great outlet for artwork and other costa rican handicrafts.

More mural action.

Stray dog cooling off near a fruit stand.

Cafe Cabura, an argentinian chocolatier and cafe. Great food.

More of Stella's paintings.

Even more of Stella's paintings.

Even that much more paintings.

Chicken-Potato-Curry wrap.

Costa Rican swift

Death by brownie

Moth / Butterfly

Even more artwork

Bug bites on ankle. DEET don't sleep without it!

The Costa Rican police REALLY like kids

Native Costa Ricans

Kid playing on the hood of a car

We didn't head inside.

Costa Rican cemetary

We think because there isn't a lot of soil, they put people in these tile covered, above ground crypts

Inside of one of these crypts

Dont Litter & Animal Crossing sign

Stray dogs playing in a creek

The last of some very good ceviche

Money! 560 Colones = $1, this is about $32 US.

Surf & turf kabobs

Pollo a la Diabla (Spicy Chicken)

Kids off to school in Monteverde. They were singing Papa Roach songs and had fauxhawks

Monteverde Cloud Rainforest Biological Reserve

Sendero Nuboso (Cloud Trail)

A well kept trail, unlike Cerro Chato

Coati (similar to a Racoon)

More Rainforest

Crazy plant covered tree

Translucent butterfly

This is a dwarf forest because the wind is too strong and continuous for the trees to grow taller. The winds here can get up to 50-90 mph.

Mirador (Viewpoint)

Cloud rainforest

More cloud rainforest

Collared redstart

Black faced solitare (very high pitched call, almost like a rusty gate)

Purple/pink fruits

Male (tailfeathers) and Female Quetzal

Even more Quetzal

Giant Beetle (6“) flying away before I could take the picture

Wilford (Wolf) Guindon hanging bridge

Back end of another Quetzal

Even more fungi

Even more fungi than last time

Golden browed chlorophonia

More golden browed chlorophonia

Plants growing on a fairly barren rock

Butterfly (1“)

Even more fungi

Hot bug on bug on bug action

Plant (epiphyte) growing on tree

Twisted branches

La Foresta cafe. Lunch and relaxation in the Monteverde reserve

Moth (there are 10,000+ species in Costa Rica)

What was left of some very tasty fried chicken

Chuch in Santa Elena

When speaking with God, you don't need a cell phone. Turn it off please.

Moth, for size purposes (2-3“)

I own the zipline

Fuzzy Caterpillar (3“)

Stray Dog that hung out at Pension Santa Elena

Machete. When you hire Machete to kill the bad guy, make sure the bad guy isn't you!

Police getting the super chicken.

Drenched hostel worker driving away in his tricycle car thing.

Nicoya gulf in the distance

Coming out of the mountains on the way to Alajuela

Stray dogs playing

A very cute stray

More mountainside

Cloud meets volcano

More cloud vs. volcano

Another cemetary

Beautiful sunset

IT'S FORBIDDEN!!!!

This is the SHOWER. It shocked Susie.

Hostel #4 - Hotel Pacande

John Crane
photos

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