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Published: February 23rd 2011
Well its been a while I know, but we have been busy on our holiday, so sorry to those of you who were waiting for an update! I´ll pick up where Jon left off....Samara. This is our favourite place. We ended up staying for 6 nights and I pretty much got into a nice routine here. In the morning after a nice healthy breakfast Jon would head off to the beach as he was learning to surf (another activity that I coudn´t participate in) whilst I went to the local cafe and had a morning coffee. This cafe was on the beach under some nice palm trees, just heaven!!
The place we were staying was like a fully self contained apartment. One night we had dinner at a restaurant on the beach that was renowned for its steaks. So we lashed out and had steak and red wine and I was really surprised at how tender our steak was. They had a big wood fire oven and baked potatoes in the jacket in foil (this sounds normal I know but is definitely not in Costa Rica!). One of our afternoons here we went kayaking over to Chora island, and we
Fresh Oysters on Isla Tortuga
They were opened in front of me and served with raw onion, lime juice and chilli sauce. YUM!!!were almost back to shore on our return when a freak wave hit us and tipped us over. Luckily we had the camera in a dry bag, and the stuff in my backpack survived ok, although I did lose my sunglasses in the surf when I was tipped out of the kayak. Both mum and baby ok. Another afternoon we walked to a beach called Corillo which was really nice, never thought I´d say this but I was hoping the clouds would arrive as it was soooo HOT!!! We even moved into the shade. A guy walked up to us on the beach with a restaurant menu, so we ordered lunch and were told it would be delivered to us on the beach in 20 mins. After 1 hour 10 mins it finally arrived cold, just in time for us to gobble it down and make a run for the bus! The concept was cool though.
We left Samara and headed for Mal Pais (actually Santa Theresa) which is a real surfie kinda place. And yet another bumpy bus ride along narrow unmade roads, that make our dirt roads look great in comparison. I swear this poor baby thinks
its living in a washing machine its been tossed about so much! Anyhow, we stayed for 2 nights, but in hindsight we maybe could have saved the detour as we really didn´t fit into this scene. The people in our hostel were only interested in surf and not much else, and apart from surf there really wasn´t anything to do except get dirty (as there are no made roads and dust is everwhere). On the plus side the ebach was really nice (see photo of me sitting under a palm tree) and we did meet Amanda and John from Vancouver and ended up travelling with them for the next 5 days. We left Santa Theresa and went to Montezuma and loved it there. Our first afternoon the four of us went for a walk to the local waterfall and spent the rest of the afternoon feeling clean in fresh water!
The following day Jon and I went to Isla Tortuga (translation..Turtle Island) on a snorkelling tour. On the way over to the first snorkelling sight we were lucky enough to see a whale with her calf frollicking about. The boat stayed quite close for about 20 mins giving us plenty of time to take photo´s and take it all in. I was thrilled!! The calf was especially playful the entire time tossing its flippers around and waving about. The snorkelling was excellent also with loads of brightly colour fish so we had an awesome day. In between 2 snorkel sessions we went onto the island and had sailfish casserole for lunch and we found a local fisherman who had fresh oysters in his boat. He was opening them and cutting them up adding onion and fresh lime juice for $1 so Jon tried one. Thats him eating one in the photo!
The following day Jon, Amanda, John (2) and I all took a boat across to Jaco, then a bus to Quepos...next stop Manuel Antonio National Park. On the way into Quepos we saw that the carnival had arrived in town which meant that the rodeo was on that night. Originally in Arenal we saw the same thing and thought it was bullfighting and didn´t go in, but we since found out that in Costa Rica they do not kill or harm the bulls. What happens is the ´professional´comes out riding the bucking bull and either gets thrown off or jumps off after 8 seconds, then guys from the general public run around and torment the bull in an effort to get close enough to touch it (we think) and win prizemoney. These guys are looney! The bull gets really agitated and runs around the ring chasing after the guys from the public while they run for the fenceline and leap up onto a rail where the bull can´t reach them. I saw a couple get cleaned up by the bull which made me laugh!
The next day we went to Manuel Antonio which is a big national park and we saw snakes, howler monkeys, capuchin (white faced) monkeys, frog, Lizards, racoons, sloths and various spiders and birds. Really nice place to visit and see heaps of different wildlife...god I love this place for its diversity!
P.S Baby is kicking every day now and I am getting quite big (so all the Costa Ricans say) they all ask if I´m having twins!!!!
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YOUR TRAVELS
HLO Joh/Leanne/soon to be I have done lots of travel as you both know but have to say your experiences so much different and most of the places I have never heard of. But only natural when I have not been to that part of the world. You guys are more outdoor then we are in that we into hotels/airconditioned coaches, but we certainly see plenty and travelling is all about doing the things you enjoy yourself. Continue to travel safe, enjoy the thrills and I look forward to further BLOGS as it is a learning experience just reading through it all. Cheers GP/Cheryl PS......you suit pregnancy Leanne xx