Welcome to the Jungle (Eric)

We left Manuel Antonio yesterday and headed out to our next location in Uvita which I will get to a little later, but first I wanted to mention a side trip to Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary. This was well worth the trip up a rather sketchy mountain road. The sanctuary specializes in rehabilitating local wildlife that have either been injured or kept as pets (this is illegal in Costa Rica). I had a profound respect for their mission to not only attempt to return all of their animals to the wild but also educate people about what we can do to protect the Costa Rican wildlife. Unfortunately some of the animals are unable to make it in the wild due to a variety of reasons, but this allowed us to have some closer interactions with some of the animals we have been seeing in the wild. I highly recommend the experience. 

After the drive down the sketchy mountain road we continued to Uvita and drove up another sketchy mountain road to arrive at Oxygen Jungle Villa - our home for the next few days. This place was the one I was the most excited about before coming here. I am literally typing this on a couch in the middle of the jungle (see photo below). Our room is a glass hut surrounded on all sides by lush rain forest. Our “television” is the jungle flora and fauna. It is surreal. We have seen toucans, parrots, hummingbirds, blue morpho butterflies, various lizards and other birds. The numerous jungle sounds create an absolute cacophony - including howler monkeys and toucan calls (which we have learned to recognize). We spent all day sitting on our couch watching “television” with a brief break to swim in the infinity pool overlooking the ocean. It’s a rough life.