A Trip to La Paz

While in the central valley, my dad arranged for a bus to come and take us all to the waterfall park, La Paz. Some of the trails were ruined in the earthquake they experienced about a year ago, but the animals are still there, and at least one trail is still open.

When we got there, we strapped Hunter in a backpack and walked down toward the birds to see them first. All of their birds are rescued from people who have owned them illegally, so they haven't captured anything from the wild.

Some beautiful macaws.

A cute tiny monkey they had near the bird area.

They have this room where you can hold toucans on your arm. That was really cool. My kids were too afraid to go in there, though. At least I did it, and my nieces enjoyed it, too.

From the birds, we ventured onward toward the butterfly observatory. I LOVE blue morpho butterflies, and they were flying everywhere. There were other varieties of butterflies, but these are probably my favorite.

They had rows of cocoons, with some of the butterflies still drying out their wings. I thought this was amazing to witness.

Here are two butterflies who have not yet flown. You can see that their wings are not ready, yet.

Here is Kristen with a friendly blue morpho.

After the butterflies, I wanted to take a break from carrying the heavy backpack I had strapped my back, so I paused at the hummingbird garden and took some pictures.

This was a gorgeous hummingbird with hints of purple and blue as well as aquamarine. The deep hues were much more visible when the bird was in flight, but it was also almost impossible to capture them with a camera.

We stopped for lunch after viewing the snakes, and then we ambled down to see the frogs and orchids. All of the leaf frogs were found underneath leaves in a building containing a man-made mini-rainforest. It was really easy to miss them if you did not know where to look. They also had some beautiful poison dart frogs on display.

We then ventured down to view the waterfalls. They were beautiful and well worth the numerous stairs it took to walk down (and then back up) to see them. Kristen did very well. She went with her cousins, and, with the help of a bribe from Edith, she made it up the endless stairs by herself. AJ was not so determined. Timothy ended up carrying AJ on his shoulders and Hunter in the backpack. He definitely got his exercise.

Once we got to the top of the stairs, there was a man who had a pair of oxen and a typical Costa Rican cart hooked up on the back of it. We asked if we could take a picture, and then he offered us a chance to ride in it. AJ was thrilled, and we all climbed in for a short journey up the hill.

After a brief trip back down to the frog house to prove to Erika that there were plenty of frogs in there (although she hates frogs, so I am not sure why she wanted to see them), we headed back to the gift shop for a little touristy shopping. After spending way too much for a few items, we clambered back in the mini-bus, and headed back to Santo Domingo.

That night (since we didn't get enough exercise at the waterfall park;) ), some of us walked to the local grocery store. Once again, I strapped Hunter in the backpack, and we headed out. I took everyone the long way to get there, but we at least walked the shorter way back. I bought plantain chips, Tronaditas, and Chiky Blak. Hunter fell asleep in the backpack, and he was a really good sport when he was awake. Timothy took the older kids swimming in the meanwhile.