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Published: March 20th 2009
We have been in Costa Rica for 13 days now and each day brings new reasons to be amazed by this country. The climate, for one, is excellent. We have found that going to bed early and waking up early is the best way to make the most of our days here as the sun rises at around 5am and sets at around 6pm.
The sunsets here have been another reason to be amazed by the country as watching it set whilst sitting on the warm beaches of Manuel Antonio you can clearly see as it sinks into the sea. It seemed to take about 3 minutes before the sun was completely gone, leaving the sky red at the horizon.
The people here are also wonderful, although the occasional sponger does leave a sour reminder that so many people seem to want something for nothing - a good example of this was when a guy asked us for some food at Quepos bus stop and when we offered him some bread promptly sat down and asked "bread with what?" and after looking into our meagre food bag said "and chips!" meaning crisps. However, almost all the people we have met here have been friendly, welcoming, and very patient with our terribly limtiated Spanish vocabulary.
We have found the hostel owners to be constantly helpful in arranging tours, and booking our next nights sleep. In Santa Elena, Monteverde, we met the nicest family run hostel called Sleepers Sleep Cheaper. They had two little boys, Daniel and Jeremy, who spent about 20 minutes taking photos of everything with our digital cameras. Although they seemed amazed by them, they still posed whenever the camera was pointed at them - even Jeremy who must have only been about 1!
We are currently in a little tourist town called La Fortuna staying at Hostel Dorothy. The town is situated at the base of an impressive, cone shaped volcano named Arenal. Since 1968 it has been constantly erupting and is in the top ten most active volcanoes in the world. Yesterday we walked to the observatory there and witnessed large boulders being thrown out of the top crater and cascading down the steep slopes. We ended up walking about 15 miles that day, up a 4500foot volcano named Carro Chetto through thick jungle and steep winding paths. It was a brilliant walk in the end, and we managed to hitchhike with a friendly french couple from the base of the volcano back to La Fortuna, saving us a two hour slog in the dark.
This has been my longest blog by some way, but I felt like writing a long one so there we go.
We are off to Torugero tomorrow, land of the turtles... only accesibly by boat and plane. Should be amazing.
Over and out amigos.
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Dominic Scott
non-member comment
Your trip's sounding pretty awesome Christopher, where are you getting the internet, in the hostel? I'm leaving for France in about half an hour so I'm afraid this might be the last entry in my mini-non-holiday-comment blog (unless i can find a computer to use in the resort). I'm sure you'll miss hearing about my days. Today I packed that is all so far. This has been my longest comment by some way, but I felt like writing a long one so there we go. I'm off to France tonight, land of the French... only accesibly by boat and plane and channel tunnel. Should be amazing. Over and out mon amis.