Small town Costa Rica

Leaving San Jose made me a bit nervous as I was still not feeling wonderful and seemed to be developing a rash, on top of everything else. We had decided to take it slowly to see how I got on so we only had a 3 hour bus journey to the largest (!) town in the south of Costa Rica - San Isidro del General. This is really a small town that has quite a few facilities because it is on the Panamericana but is not very exciting in itself. It is surrounded by hills (the road to it from San Jose goes over 3,000m) and we were hoping to get out to see some of the surrounding area the following day but searching through the town produced no real clues as to how to visit some of the small reserves which we had read about.

Eventually through the hotel we arranged a taxi to one which is owned by a guy who runs birdwatching tours. However, when we arrived, there was nobody at the lodge, despite the fact they have rooms as well, and so we called the number written up. We were told that a guide would come to take us around but this in fact turned out to be the gardener who just showed us where the walking trails were. By mid-morning it was already extremely hot and I was not feeling on top form. We ended up sitting by the river for a while watching a few birds and then moved to a sheltered area by the swimming pool - the peace only disturbed by the gardener's machinery! Still we did see a number of birds we hadn't seen before but I was a bit depressed to find that I was still so weak and we returned to town so that I could have a sleep.

From San Isidro we had intended to go to the Osa Peninsula in the south west where there are supposed to be some excellent national parks. However, it is also hot, humid and buggy and when the girl at the bus company told us that the 6 hour bus journey would not be comfortable we decided that I really wasn't up to it. I was very disappointed as there is supposed to be excellent wildlife watching there but it made no sense to put me through the bus journey if I wasn't up to it.

So, more small town Costa Rica, as we moved onto a town called Ciudad Neily the next day. This is only 17km from the Panamanian border and really only exists as a stopover. We arrived on a Sunday so there was even less happening than usual and it was slightly disconcerting when we got off the bus and were told by the police to be careful walking the couple of hundred yards to our hotel! The hotel seemed rather out of place - large and painted white with rather grand Grecian columns. The rooms weren't quite as fancy but were more than acceptable. And I was feeling a little better so things were looking up!

Love to all

S + H xx

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