Costa Rica vacation, part 1: The Blue Banyan Inn

6-week-old and 3-month-old baby marmoset monkeys
The Blue Banyan Inn
Quepos, Costa Rica
August 3, 2010

Mike and I just got home from a week on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. July 30th was our fifth anniversary, so we decided to take a vacation/babymoon to celebrate. We wanted to go someplace warm and tropical, and completely different from our normal daily routine. Mike wanted a beach, and I wanted monkeys. So Costa Rica it was!

We stayed at a miniature resort called the Blue Banyan Inn, near the town of Quepos and Manuel Antonio National Park. The Blue Banyan is a bed-and-breakfast owned by an American-Canadian couple named Jim and Barbara. The Inn has just four cottages, a pool, and a restaurant where they served a delicious breakfast each morning. It’s quite a bit out of town, nestled in the rolling hills of the rainforest. The only sounds were those of the birds, insects, and frogs. The peaceful tranquility was divine, especially during a rare break from my busiest time of year.

One of the greatest aspects of the Blue Banyan Inn is that is also the site of an animal sanctuary operated by a non-profit organization called Kids Saving the Rainforest. Barbara and Jim and the volunteers take care of 22 marmoset monkeys at the sanctuary, including these four orphaned babies. Every morning they would bring the four babies to the hotel, and let me keep an eye on them as they prepared breakfast. These baby monkeys were absolutely adorable, and one of my favorite parts of the whole trip.I’ll be posting our Costa Rica photos in four sets, starting with these photos of our hotel and the monkey sanctuary. Stay tuned for more!

The road to the hotel — it was located about 15 minutes outside of town, along a dirt road through a palm forest. At this particular moment, we were following Jim and Barbara and their dog, Darla.

Our beautiful cottage

Mike and me

The pool at the hotel. The building to the far left is our cottage — we had the one closest to the pool, with the best views of the rainforest. The building in the middle is the restaurant.

Our cottage. We loved sitting on the front porch during the late afternoon rain showers, watching the forest.

The Birds and Butterflies restaurant at the hotel, where we ate delicious banana pancakes for breakfast each morning. Almost all the restaurants in the area had no walls! Very cool.

The inside of the restaurant. Mike taught me how to play chess during our trip, and we’d sit there during the evenings and enjoy some relaxing chess slaughter (Mike’s way better than me… so far!)

Each morning, Barbara and Jim would bring the four orphaned monkeys to breakfast, and let us play with them. These two were the youngest, at only six weeks old.

Barbara and Goober. Because baby monkeys spend their first several months riding on their mothers’ backs, these little orphans loved to sit on Barbara’s head and cling to her hair. Goober was a total mama’s boy, and would cry for her until she placed him comfortably on her head.

Here she has a couple monkeys on her head.
One of the littlest babies crawled onto my shoulder and took a nap. CUTE.

This little guy was disappointed that my orange juice glass was empty.

Trying to steal Mike’s coffee.

Standing next to our cottage. The scenery behind me was the view from our front porch.

Tiki, the hotel’s bilingual macaw.

Tiki would greet us at breakfast each morning with a cheery “Hola!” When we left for the day, he’d call out “Bye!”

Can you tell that I loved the monkeys?

One morning, we tagged along with Barbara as she fed the monkeys at the sanctuary.

Some of the monkey enclosures, all built and designed by the kid volunteers.

Some of the marmosets in the enclosures, getting their breakfast.

The stereotype seems to be true… monkeys love them some bananas.

Here’s Barbara’s husband, Jim, the co-owner of the hotel.

Tiki in the blue banyan tree for which the hotel is named.

Mike with Maxime, one of the dogs who live at the hotel.

Maxime and Darla are best friends who kiss each other on the face all day. I’ve never seen two dogs so affectionate toward each other.

Happiness