Costa Rica: Country of Ridiculousness

Pura Vida! I have returned from my 2 week vacation in Costa Rica! I could easily fill an entire blog on all of my experiences, but I won't put you through that much geeking out in one sitting. Instead, I have decided to focus on just how ridiculous everything is in Costa Rica. Let's begin, shall we?

The People are Ridiculously Nice
Let's start with man here, named Hurben:

(Yes, I whited out his phone number so that all you ladies won't blow up his phone. 

Sorry gals, this ridiculously handsome man is taken.)

First of all, his name is Hurben and his mother named him after Ben Hur. How ridiculously awesome is that? He is also just about one of the nicest people you will ever meet. And he's a ridiculous bird geek. If it weren't for Hurben, my new bird count would have been more along the lines of 50 new species instead of the ridiculous 127 that I achieved. 

In general, Costa Ricans as a whole were ridiculously nice, especially if you were brave enough to try out your mediocre high school Spanish with them. There are so many people I could talk about, from the young boy on a goat farm who raised ridiculously adorable goats, to all the merchants, to the 12 year old student I met at a local school who was a ridiculously good merengue dancer.

Then, in an example of "if there are geeks, they will find each other," there's this woman holding a ridiculously large beetle, Bryna:

The woman's name is Bryna. I don't know the beetle's name.
(Update: The beetle's name is Harold. That's a ridiculous name for a beetle.)

She and her husband, David, are the owners of the Monteverde Butterfly Gardens. We met when the group Mr. Nature Geek and I were traveling with went on a tour there. Not only were Bryna and David ridiculously good interpreters, but they invited Mr. Nature Geek and I to go on a night hike on their property to look for awesome Costa Rica insects. Which brings me to my next point:

Costa Rica has Ridiculously Large Insects

Like Timmy, the giant blabberous cockroach:

 "TIM-MAH!"

And this carnivorous rhinoceros katydid, who wanted nothing more than to kill me:

And although not an insect, this millipede was pretty redonk as well...

...which made me ridiculously happy.

I also managed to see 4 legs of a tarantula in its borrow. And as we all know, tarantulas are ridiculously large spiders.

Costa Rica Bird Colors are Ridiculous

I mean, just look at these things:

 Macaws be all like "What? This is just how we roll in Costa Rica."

And then there's this guy with the most ridiculously red butt you've ever seen, the Cherrie's tanager:

These silver-throated and blue-gray tanagers:

This collared aracari is colorful and has a ridiculous beak.

And then Costa Rica just started showing off. "Hey, let's combine a blue jay with a magpie, give it a quail crest, and call it a white-throated magpie jay. Because Costa Rica."

"Now let's just make tourists' heads explode by making a resplendent quetzal."

BOOM.

Costa Rica has Ridiculous Scenery

Costa Rica says "Oh, you want a volcano towering over a lake? BAM. Arenal."

"Oceans? Caribbean or Pacific, take your pick, dude."

"Waterfalls? Please. Challenge me."

"Sunsets more of your thing? Every night, baby."

And then just when you think you've seen it all, there's a ridiculous rainforest that's in the clouds.

So yeah, Costa Rica is a pretty ridiculous country. And if you don't go and visit someday, that's perhaps the most ridiculous thing of all.