San Jose to La Fortuna!

Buenos Dias Chicas and Señoirs!

Well, I joined my group in a really posh hotel in San Jose last week. Everyone seems really cool, there are 15 of us. There are 3 Scots, 2 Londonish, 3 Californians, 2 Canadians, an Aussi, a Dutch, a guy from Liverpool and a guy from Birmingham. Everyone seems to be getting on really well, apart from one really annoying guy called Peter (one of the Canadians, so from now on I shall call him Canada.) I want to scream at him sometimes, and everyone else does too! Anyway. We left the shit hole that is San Jose in high spirits, excited about the onward journey to a teeny Caribbean town called Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. The bus ride was about 4 hours long and it took us through the mountains that run down the middle of Costa Rica. I felt so freakin sick the whole journey, I nearly puked!! We all played Who am I? which was my idea :) and eventully we rolled up to this one street town, hot sweaty and and tired. As soon as I got off the bus all I could hear was reggae and the crash of the waves on the shore. We walked to our "hotel" which was basically 20 odd little huts set in beautiful gardens. They were simple but so so pretty. I spent that day riding around on a cruiser I hired from a friendly American man. I cycled about 9K up the coast to a beach which was spose to have an amazing swell, but when I got there the weather turned and the waves were pretty messy. I did have a little gander on a boogie board, however the current was crazy strong and everytime I caught a wave my bikini bottoms came down! I cycled some more with some of the guys up the coast until we got bored, so we headed back. That evening we went for a meal and listened to the tru riddims that were pumping from every hotel/bar/house. It was super fuerte! The next day me and some other people from the group got a bus to another little village called Manzanillo, and spent the day hiking through the jungle there. Our guide was a massive Rasta called Ricky. He grew up in puerto Viejo and knows everything about everything in the jungle - he made a splint and a sling out of a banana plant! I saw various animals, including a fucking massive jumping spider. I didnt like that. That evening we headed out to a local bar after din dins, which was essentially what I imagined the whole trip to be like. The bar was a little wooden shack with a garden around it. There lots of tables and chairs, a mish mash of wood and metal and pretty covers. The bar was run by 2 Costa Rican ladies and they made the BEST mojitos ever. We sat around and listened to more reggae and drank and it was so so awesome. The next day we headed to a crazy village community called Tortuguero, which is further up the Caribbean coast. Just before we were about to leave for Tortuguero, I heard a massive THWACK. I looked at my window and noticed some feathers. I followed the trail of feathers and noticed on the ground a tiny little bird, who has obviously just flown full pelt into my window! I was a little spooked, but I thought I should check to see if it was ok. I got right up in its grill and it did nothing and then I noticed its spazzy leg. It looked all bent and misplaced, so I picked up the bird and found the bus driver. The bus driver, who was also a local, checked its wings and what not then blew on its beak! The bird tweeted and the bus driver man threw the bird in the air and it flew away! Apparently it was just shocked from flying into a window, and not broken. I am still proud that I pretty much saved the birds life - ha!!! So we left Puerto Viejo, to make our way to Tortuguero - the only way to get there is by a 3 hour boat ride. During the boat ride, we saw the most amazing animals - Caiman, Spider Monkeys, White Faced Monkeys, Howler Monkeys (which, incidentally are the scariest things to wake up to in the middle of the night!) dragonflies, pink spoonbills, Vultures amongst others. We arrived at our destination and were presented with a crazy little peninsula - one side was te Caribbean sea and the other side was a massive river. The width of this place was about a quater of a mile, maybe even less. The locals took us to our beds for the night which was in a "hotel" near the end of the community, which consited of this massive hut building thing. The rooms were super hot and there were on fans or anything and I spent the night sleeping in my own sweat. It was the worst night of sleep ever! We left there the next morning to our next destination which is a jungle called Rara Avis. It took us 3 hours to get there, on a massive all terrain tractor which pulled us up on a cart behind it up a boulder and rock covered track. My boobs suffered that day. We got to the top (I got off the tractor and hiked the last leg of the journey through the jungle, in the pouring rain, lightning and it was amazing!) fully soaked! We stayed in a massive wooden cabin house which had no electricity, but we all had kerocine lamps which was our only source of light. The rooms were like treehouse rooms, there were hidden beds in the ceiling and stuff - it was cool. The next day I woke up to the noise of the birds in the jungle, which was incredible. We had breakfast of Gallo Pinto (rice and beans) pineapple (the pineapple here is the tastiest pineapple ever in the entire world ever) toast and fresh Costa Rican coffee ( which is also the mother of all coffees!) We headed out into the jungle for about 4 hours to find some animals and stuff which was fun, although our guide was a fat American twat called Josh who was gross. In the afternoon we hung out because it was raining so much, and drank beer and stuff, and I saw a Toucan - It was incredible!!!! That evening though, was the best evening I have had since I have been here. They had a dancehall (of all places, on top of a mountain in a protected jungle!!) so we headed over there and I learnt to Salsa dance - which is definately harder than it looks! Also got down to a bit of reggaeton which was fun and drank waaaaay to much beer. The tractor ride back down the next day was horrendous. We made our way to La Fortuna/Arenal after that and that is where I have been chilling up until now. We spent the evening last night, in the local hot springs which was heavenly! Tomorrow I am spending a day white water rafting, which is going to be ace!

Anyhoo, after that massively long blog post, I will leave you all to get on with your lives. I am about to leave to hike around the base of a volcano! Yeeeeeeeeeh!

Peas! xxx

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