And you thought the Jungle House was rustic?

This is our last house here in Costa Rica.  It is on the Osa Peninsula, which is on the southern corner of Costa Rica on the Pacific side.  For a long time the road getting here was so poor that most people flew in on small planes.  Just recently they have completed a nice big road, which made it possible for us to come here.  The area is still pretty undeveloped.  We don't have any neighbors in sight, although there are a handful of homes on our same road, owned by expats and retirees who live here most of the year.  National Geographic magazine called the Osa Peninsula "the most biologically diverse area on the planet".  Although we've only been here a week, the statement seems true so far.  Not only is the land full of animals and birds, in August the Gulfo Dulce is a chosen spot for whales to have their babies (named "Sweet Gulf" because so much fresh water enters from streams and rivers).  Throughout the year the waters are full of dolphins, and right now we have heard that there are a pair of Whale Sharks being spotted by divers and tour boats. 

Our house runs on Solar Power, you can see the solar panel on the roof. The water comes from a nearby well, and is always cold.  No funny shower head water heaters here. Just cold water in an outdoor shower.  And the first thing we all noticed, was that the house doesn't have any exterior doors.  The upstairs bedroom has a locking door, and there is a large metal trunk for all our electronics and valuables.  But really it is very open.  We have a little dual tub washing machine, which is awesome.  It is like a step between hand washing and machine washing, and doesn't use up much power.  We only use it in the morning so that the power can recharge all afternoon, and the laundry has time to dry on the clothesline.  

The kitchen is great.  I wish we had a freezer sometimes, but the fridge works well, and the stove / oven is newish. One night I was cooking dinner and a flock(?) of small beetles came through... probably hundreds of them.  I wished for windows and doors that night, but other times, it is really nice to have the house so open.  I can smell the ylang ylang flowers and hear the birds all day.

The bathroom has a pretty nice view of our giant Balsa Tree from the commode.  Sometimes you can see Red Macaws through the window.

Chad loves the outdoor shower. I'm not so enthusiastic.  But in the heat of the day, after we come up from the ocean, the water doesn't feel too cold.  

This is the upstairs bedroom where we all sleep.  We brought the two mattresses up from downstairs because we were worried about the kids getting nervous at night.  The bug netting doesn't work so great... Chad and I found a small bird in our bed this morning when we woke up.  He was quietly flying around, trying to get out, not causing much of a ruckus. 

The view is hard to beat....

Especially at sunrise!

This big spider lives outside one of the upstairs windows.  She is polite, and stays in her web, and we are grateful for fewer bugs flying around our beds.

Our tour of the house would not be complete without mentioning the Macaws.  We hear and see them all day long.  I probably have a thousand pictures of them already.  They are amazingly beautiful to see in person.  They seem like such a ridiculous explosion of color, perched in the green leaves that don't even begin to camouflage them.  And if their color spectacle didn't grab your attention, they seem happy to announce their presence with a loud "caw" so that you won't miss them. 

This is our beach. At low tide, you can walk out quite a way and see lots of fun animals. 

These rocks along the beach seem out of place to me.  They look like river stones or something you would find in the mountains.  When the tide is coming up, and the waves roll the rocks around together, it sounds like horses on cobblestones. 

Chad says the rocks are also comfortable.

Michael found this little puffer fish all inflated and agitated in the tide pools. We watched him for a while, and eventually he calmed down enough to swim away. 

I woke up one morning at sunrise, and looked out to see Michael running in from the beach.  He wanted to wake up Ella so she could see how beautiful the sunrise was.  It was 5:40 am. It was fun to see him so excited.  

And now, a heap of pictures of Macaws.

We have Green Parrots here too. 

And this little guy. He is probably about 5 inches tall. Parakeet seems like the wrong name for him.  Maybe he's just a small variety of parrot.

And who knows what these are, but they are pretty. 

We wanted to see what was down the road from us, so we set out for a drive. Eventually we knew we would end up close to the Corcovado National Park, but we had heard that you couldn't drive all the way there. On the way we found so many amazing animals!

A Roadside Hawk

Howlers.  We have heard them in the distance from our house, but not very loud, so they must be a little way off. 

Trees full of macaws.

White-faced Capuchins.  I think they were trying to play "Barrel full o Monkeys"

While we were stopped, looking at the Capuchins, we found a whole tree of Chestnut Mandibled Toucans. They were super funny the way they hopped around the tree singing.

Green Parrots

A Vulture

Woodpecker

I'm assuming this is a hawk of some kind.

At the end of the road, we found Luna's... an upscale Ecoresort with a nice restaurant and amazing views. We stayed long enough to try the nachos, and they were yummy. 

We decided to try our luck at finding a sea turtle along the beach at sunset.  We didn't find any turtles, but the sunset was beautiful.

The biggest surfing beach around here is Matapalo.  We have driven down there and found Spider Monkeys along the way. They are funny and cute and new to us, so they are fun to see.

Now that we are settled into the house, the kids have gotten back into their routine of doing school work each morning.  Violet drew a person for the first time ever... her cousin London, she says.

To get to church on Sunday morning, we had to catch the water taxi that goes from Puerto Jimenez to Golfito on the other side of the gulf.  It leaves at 6:00 am, so we had to be up by 5.  Once in Golfito, we ate breakfast near the beach, and then started our walk to the church.  It was a really hot morning and it took us over an hour to get there, and by the time we arrived, we were all dripping with sweat.  It was only 8:45 am.  

We washed our sweaty faces in the bathroom, and then went to look for the Chapel, hoping it was air conditioned, so we didn't melt into the seats. It turns out, they have Sacrament Meeting outside, on the porch behind the chapel. They did have fans though, and we survived.  All in all it made for a very long day at church, and we decided to treat ourselves to a taxi to get back to the boat.  I think maybe next week we will drive the car.  

I'm really happy that this is our last house in Costa Rica.  It is crazy and full of life and right on the beach and hot and sweaty and it should make us appreciate going home to Utah in a few weeks.  I wish I could transport a few friends and relatives down here for a week or so, so they could really see this place, and be amazed by it, like we are.