Rio Celeste is NOT Always BLUE

Rio Celeste, Tenorio National Park, in Costa Rica is NOT always the BLUE color it is known for.
To be clear, the Rio Celeste (Tenorio National Park) area is B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L, but never more so than when the BLUE of the river and waterfall are poppin' and the sun is out acting as a natural contrast button on PhotoShop, intensifying the beauty 10 fold. It's stunning.

But the beauty of Rio Celeste is not what I'm talking about today. I'd like to tell you about the 'downside' that most travel books, travel agents and pushers of 'tours', don't like to tell you. Rio Marron could often be an appropriate name for Rio Celeste. *if you haven't figured it out, 'celeste' in Spanish means, 'sky blue' or 'light blue', 'marron' is brown.

In a nutshell- Depending on the amount of rain in the area, Rio Celeste is NOT always blue. Also, Rio Celeste is NOT a walk in the park, you should be somewhat in shape. Still intent on hiking Rio Celeste, when it rains a lot, it can be a nightmare to get around due to the mud- this is Costa Rica after all, trails are not normally as user friendly as you might be used to. We recommend a 4x4 to get there if you're going yourself, especially during periods of heavy rain.

Anyway, here's a video we did about the 'downside' of Rio Celeste.


And now here's some of the BEAUTY of Rio Celeste. ENjoY!


I have more INFO on Rio Celeste in this blog, such as how to get there, which should be easy to find.

TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!

Will Smith MOVIE in La Fortuna- kinda COOL

Will Smith, son Jaden Smith along with director M. Night Shyamalan are shooting a movie in La Fortuna Costa Rica.
The movie is called, 'After Earth' and it stars Will Smith, son Jaden Smith and is directed by M. Night Shyamalan. But the BIGGER, BETTER news is, much of the film is being shot in La Fortuna, as well as the Sarapaqui areas of Costa Rica.... So that's kinda COOL.

Will and Jaden Smith with the Arenal Volcano in the background. *I didn't take this pic, I think it came from Will Smith's FaceBook.
No, I haven't seen Will or Jaden... and no disrespect, but don't really care about shit like that although I do respect their acting abilities. But the production crew have been all over Fortuna, especially on Sundays... so I've gotten a chance to talk to many of them and they've all been super nice. Yes, they work with big stars but to them it's just another job and they're happy as clams just to be shooting in Costa Rica, as opposed to lets say, desert-like conditions in Mexico, which they told me are a nightmare. I enjoyed talking to the 2 women who work in 'costumes' and also had been involved in M. Night's previous movie, "The Last Avatar", explaining to me why they were worried about an upcoming scene in Sarapaqui- all's I know is they said, 'female lead', 'wedding dress', 'raging river', 'keeping it white' and 'we only have 2', all in the same sentence. To me, it's interesting.

Anyway, I gotta say, whoever SCOUTED locations for this movie got extremely L-U-C-K-Y, because if they hadn't been lucky (so far that is) they definitely would have been FIRED by now. Why lucky you ask??? Choosing to shoot a HIGH budget movie, where lost shooting days lose big BUCKS, in La Fortuna, in perhaps the RAINIEST months of the year was either just plain stupid or 'someone' did NOT do their homework I'm sure it's the latter. Typically, when it's the dry season most other places in Costa Rica, it's the rainy season here in Fortuna. But guess what? Lucky for dude, this January and first two weeks of February have been uncharacteristically, freakin' BEAUTIFUL and rain has been at a minimum. I know they had some serious issues caused by the rain 1 day/night last week, but normally, they could have multiplied that one problem times 100 if it were a normal January... when it rains here, we're talking landslides. *see pic above left Like I said, dude got lucky. Not sure they'll be so lucky in Sarapaqui, where the production is headed this Thursday, but for dudes' sake, I wish him continued LUCK because he's still going to need it. I do have my doubts, after all, this is Costa Rica and weather changes as much as I assume the costumes do in the movie. My advice to 'dude' if it starts raining with no signs of stopping- and some bigwig from the movie asks him WTF was he thinking booking these locations.... best 'dude' says what we all do when there's nothing else to say, "Pura Vida".... and just keep moving.

*Need a couple consultants when shooting a BIG ASS movie in Costa Rica--- We're available.

TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!

FCUKING up my RIBS Rappelling the VIDEO

Here it is, me getting hurt rappelling.
*Canyoning is a SAFE activity. I'm the exception. The RISK is minimal to everyone else, even for 1st timers.

I don't mind getting older, really I don't, but I am sick and tired of getting hurt while performing 'mundane-like' tasks. Back in the day, I got hurt because what I was doing came with built in risk factors- riding motorcycles, playing football or just out and out fighting and roughhousing on a day-to-day basis. So to me, breaking a rib or having a black eye just came with being me. But now, OMG! I can tear a ligament reaching across the table for the friggin' butter. My Fight Club days are O-V-E-R. Now, I'd be more apt to carry a whistle...

Ahhh, the memories-

At some point in the 1990's (I'll be damned if I can remember when) I had major surgery on my cheek and eye-socket area because I got in a fight at a club in Las Vegas. Now let me tell you, it's a good yarn even though I received the fat end of a Budweiser beer bottle and $25,000 dollars worth of surgery, but at least it's entertaining for the listener... much better than this:

"Hey Mike, what's with the cast on your arm?"

"Oh this, well, it was last Sunday at dinner when I was reaching for the butter...."

See the difference? And it's been going on like that for the last 8 years or so...every injury 'butter' related. How fuckin' LAME is that?

And that's how I feel about this one. So what, a little 'jar', a minor 'jerk' from stopping a little too fast... and now I can't even yawn without regretting it. I'd rather have fallen or collided with a boulder or something, anything a little more dramatic than a slight, 'jerk' on a rope. **My outside looks pretty good right? Who knew as of late my innards were being held together by twisty ties and Silly Putty?

And get this, on that tour, their were like 10 people who had approximately 10-15 years on me... AND it was their first time rappelling (on a personal note, this group was GREAT, so COOL to see older folks out trying new things and livin' life). Then there's me, who has experience, who is supposedly 'in shape', bruising my ribs- oh the humility. Obviously, I don't wish ill will on anyone but besides my rib issue, I bet you can't guess what the next worst thing was- that's right, out of 17 folks, 10 being older than myself, the next worst thing, which only happened to one person, was slight chafing on their left thigh from wet, harness rub.

My birthday is tomorrow and I've requested a cake without candles, you know, because it will pain me to much to BLOW... maybe I could get one of the old ladies from the canyoning tour to blow them out for me. geeeeeeez.

Happy Birthday to me.

TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!