Day 7: Travel with me to Punta Leona - Precious Baker

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I can’t believe that today is the 7th day in Costa Rica. The past week has been full of firsts for me, and today was no different. For breakfast, my mamatica, Yesenia, made tortillas with lettuce, cheese, and chicken. These were very delicious and definitely prepared me for the long day ahead. After finishing breakfast, my papatica, Antonio, drove Daisha and I to the bus stop so that we could begin our journey to Punta Leona.

On the way to our hotel, we made several stops along the way. Our first stop was El Jardin Restaurante and Souvenirs where we stopped to pick up souvenirs. There were so many different items to choose from; however, I ended up picking up a wooden bookmark with a blue jean frog on it, bucket hat with a sloth on it, Costa Rica magnet, a chicken-shaped whistle, and bracelets.

Our next stop was Marea Baja. This restaurant was buffet style, so we were able to fill up on chicken, beef, rice, beans, pasta, fried fish, desserts, fruits, and vegetables, plantains, tamales, potatoes, salad bar, and much more. After we ate, we were able to make a stop at Rio Grande de Tarcoles to see Croclandia and the American Crocodile Sanctuary.

We got out of the bus and started our walk across the bridge above the river. We were able to see at least ten American Crocodiles in the sandbar as well as two Scarlet Macaws and a few herons. This was such an amazing experience because this was my first time seeing wild crocodiles and macaws. Riley let me use his binoculars, so I was able to get a very close look at the skin of the crocodiles as well as some birds that were passing through. I also learned from Daisha that crocodiles are able to stay still for up to 24 hours. As we finished our walk across the bridge, it was very nice to take in the entire view of the river, the trees, and the mountains in the background.

After the crocodile bridge, we headed over to Parque Nacional Carara, one of 37 national parks in Costa Rica, where we hiked through the rainforest, looking out for any animals that we could find. We were able to see green and black poison dart frogs, jacamars, wood peckers, black and green iguanas, sugar bees, a white tailed deer, and a white whiskered puffbird. For most of these animals, this was my first time seeing them in nature or in general, which was super cool. I also learned about how some plants will wrap around a fully grown tree to be able to reach the sunlight better, and then once they have enough power, they will slowly start to kill the tree in order to take its nutrients.

When leaving the park, Angie and Cho surprised us with a visit to a viewpoint of Jaco. Here, we were able to take photos and look at the South Pacific ocean. This was actually my first time ever seeing the ocean, so I am so grateful for this experience.

Our last stop of the day was our bunaglow style hotel in Punta Leona; however, our group wasn't done for the day. We changed into swim suits and hurried to Playa Blanca where we spent the evening swimming, looking for trinkets in the water, and hanging out. For dinner, we went over to Restaurante Carabelas which was also a buffet style restaurant that served various Costa Rican cuisines.

I spent the night playing Call of Duty with Daisha and reading Maid by Stephanie Land before going to bed.

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Precious Baker

May 13th, 2023