Caymans and Volcanos

Hello.

We arrived safe and sound in Costa Rica San Jose, what feels like ages ago now, but in actual fact was only Yesterday. It did however take us 3 plane rides to get here so no wonder it feels like a long time.

As promised I got some fantastci shots going over from Vancouver Island to the main land, hope you enjoy, I have no idea what islands they are but the mountains are the canada costal range, not the Rockies.

So, first impressions of Costa Rica were of San Jose at 11pm at night as we got a taxi from the sirport to our hostel - guesthouse, which wasnt too bad really. The place is spralling, lots of buildings for miles and miles but they all look to be one or two stories max, which is a real departure from London Georgian architecture that I am used too. The buildings were also very dilapidated, but it had a charm about it that is hard to put your finger on, maybe it is just un assuming if that makes sense, not pretensious.

So next morning we had a 5 hour bus ride to the Arenal area, La Fortuna to be precise. The journey turned out to be about 3.5 hours, as we were going at break neck speed, which seems to be the custom here. Hense why Grae and I saw a dog get run over which was very harrowing, and made me cry later that night, not sure if I should admit to that !.

That night we went to Baldi Hot springs, which is in a very plush resort, I recommend this to anyone that can get there, wow it was fantasic, obviously the pics wont do it justice but just imagine a massive smoking volcano behind you while you soak in 39 degree water at night with a G and T or beer in your hand, we were in paradise.

So I am now writing from Peru, we have not been able to upload any photos from any of the internet cafes we hae been in, they dont really like you putting your memory card in their computer, so I have not uploaded the blog as I fer it may be a little boring without any pics, but as we seem to have no choice I will carry on where I left off.

2nd day in Arenal in Costa Rica we were schedualed in to do the Cano Negro tour, which is bascially a boat ride down a river in the Cano Negro region of Costa Rica, this is in the very north of the country right next to Nicaragua.. not sure if I have spelt that right ! Anyway, it was very good, maybe a litle touristy but we saw - Caymans and lots of them, Iguanas which the Costa Ricans call the chicken of the tree and apparantly the Nicaraguans eat them - that is according to a costa Rican anyhow, there is a bit of an issue there with the whole poor neighbours thing. We also saw turtles, Howler Monkeys, White Faced Monkeys, Spider Monkeys and a sloth, which was about a mile away ! and lots of birds. The best bit for me was going to the Nicaraguan border in the boat, we actually crosed it. Then we got off the boat and walked to the border and I had one foot in Nicaragua and one in Costa Rica - How cool is that ! That was pretty much the end of the tour, so then we had lunch and drove back to the Arenal area.

Next day was Grae´s Birthday, thank you for the messages ! I had us booked into the Hanging Bridges tour, which was walking in a private residence which is a rain forest along bridges and paths. It was pretty lame really, we didn't see any wildlife at all until the end when a tour guide (no ours) pointed out a troup of howler Monkeys again, we were right under the tree they were in but could still barely see them, I got attacked by a really big ant... it was out to get me ! and the bridges were a litle high for my liking, two of them were 45 meters high. So as that was not a great day out we decided to treat Grae to an extra tour for his b day and we rented an ATV, or as the English say a quad bike. It was just me and Grae on one and our guide Minar on the other, it was a little scary at first but Grae soon got the hang of it and was impressing Minar with his up and down hill skills with me clinging on the back. At one point we went along the river bed in the water !. We had been on the bike for about 30 mins when we stopped next to the river for a drink, and Minar spotted a baby sloth in the tree just above us, it was so close I was very happy clicking away with my camera. Grae finally drgged me back to the bike for the last part of our tour which after a little rest Grae took with real vigor ! and then Minar pulled up and said you wanna see Crocs ? - as there are no crocs in Costa Rica I was a little perturbed- I thought he was pulling my leg, but no a friend of his has a farm of them so we were treated to a private tour, I was very impressed with the size of them, although the enclosures were a bit shabby ! Finally we finish the tour and get back to our hotel and have a few drinks and something to eat. One of the waiters tells us that if we take a taxi we can go see the lava come out of the volcano, the taxi will wait for 30 mins while we wait for a small trickle or explosion off in the distance, we can see it in the dark as it glows red. So in the spirit of Cerveza and G & T we decide why the hell not. After a very bumpy ride up the hill he pulls over next to what sounds like a river as it is totally pitch black and we cant see anything he guides us over to the river bank and we wait for some lava flow to glow red, it did, it wasn´t that impressive when we were there, but I´m glad we went for a look.

Next day we were doing the white water rafting on the Sarapique (I know I haven´t spelt that right !) river. This was excellent fun, the water was tepid and full of life. I fell in twice, Grae once, our raft completly capsized once, which our guide thought was really funny. Not much to tell really just a fun day out. We had lunch then drove back to Arenal. When we got back to Arenal there was a torrential storm with thunder and lightening just above us, it was very dramatic.

I shall sign off here, Grae is getting thirsty for a beer and my but is numb ! Missing you all x

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