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Published: March 23rd 2009
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Costa Rica - a real culture shock after Colombia - full of Americans !!
The pictures probably tell the tale better than I can but here is a brief summary of what we have been up to since we arrived.
We arrived and sailed through the arrivals procedure. A driver was waiting to collect us and the only difficulty we had was
getting the baggage to him through the over officious 'trolley guards'.We drove through rush hour with a magnificent sunset
showing us the way. We had one night in a hostel (although we would return here after the tour) on the edge of town and
a wonderful dinner in an Argentine restaurant a few blocks away. Next morning we had an early start for our flight to
Tortuguera on the Caribbean coast. (We thought we were going by car and boat but this worked out better in the end and quicker.) There were only 6 of us on the flight and, despite the rain, it was a pleasant flight. The new runway is across the river from the Tortuga Lodge where we were staying so, 15 mins after landing we were having our second breakfast of the day. We chilled
for the rest of the day, reading and dodging the rain in between meals. Next day we set off early with 3 other guests for our trip down the river into the Tortuguera National Park. We had a good tour and saw a huge array of birds including
4 types of kingfisher, toucan, tiger necked and blue herons plus caiman, turtles, cappuchin and howler monkeys. There was
torrential rain later so we were fortunate to stay dry during our trip.
We flew back to San Jose early next morning - this time only four of us - and the plane taxied all the way to our waiting
transfer. On Saturday we ventured into the city centre and we were not impressed. It is a rather tatty city unlike the other
capital cities we had visited. We arranged to leave luggage at the Gran Hotel where we will be staying before we fly home
and found a tourist office to enquire about buses. The next day we took public buses to Orosi via Cartago. The town is south
west of the capital, nestled in a beautiful valley and has an old church with a small museum worth visiting. We stopped
at
Cartago on the way back. This used to be the capital city until 1823 when the government was moved to San Jose. Most of
the older buildings were destroyed by the 1910 earthquake but the Lady Of The Angels church is beautiful with decorated
wood columns, stain glass windows and a colourful tiled floor. On Monday we had a day off with a lie in and a visit to a local shopping mall to watch 'Benjamin Button'.We are on holiday after all and sometimes our batteries need a re-charge!
Next day off to the Osa peninsula in the south west of the country. We flew down, just the two of us in a twelve seater new
Cessna plane and the views were stunning. We had to wait for another plane to arrive before we took the taxi and then boat
transfer to the Corcovado Tent Camp. There was a communal dining tent plus shared toilet and (cold) showers. The tent
was close to all facilities but fairly basic with just 2 beds, a wooden cabinet and no electricity. It did have table and chairs on
the deck with a great view out to sea. We got acquainted with
Toucan
No sign of a bottle of Guinness though our new surroundings and fell asleep listening to the waves
crashing onto the rocks. Meals were announced by a conch shell and breakfast was 6.30am - ouch !! There were humming
birds flitting around in front of the tent when we got up which was a welcome distraction from the time. We had a trek to
the Corcovado National Park planned and Roy our guide was very good. There were only 7 of us on the tour and we saw 2
and 3 toed sloths, spider, howler and white faced cappuchin monkeys, a poison dart frog, a golden orb spider, coatis and a
magnificent scarlet macaw. It was a great day marred only by Steph's teva sandals giving up the ghost.
The next day we walked to Rio Claro which is a beach to the west of the tent camp.The path took us through the edge of the rainforest and sometimes onto the beach. At Rio Claro we were able to hire a canoe and paddle a little way up the river. We wandered back in time for lunch and it was a pleasant way to spend a morning. The following day we had a full day whale and
dolphin tour with Lenin, a Venezuelan marine biologist. We had an amazing day as we not only saw 2 pods of spotted dolphins and some bottlenosed dolphins but also a female humpback whale and a calf . We also saw a sea snake and some Olive Ridley turtles so all-in-all a really great day.
We were due to stay another 4 days in Drake Bay but our plans changed....................to find out why and where we ended up................tune in next time.
Looking forward to seeing you soon
Coral and Steph
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