Blogs from Limón, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 8

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Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Limón November 26th 2013

PUERTO LIMON, COSTA RICA--Tuesday, November 26, 2013 We were up by 5:00 this morning as our tour left at 6:45 and we needed to meet at 6:30 am in the lounge. We were off with a very personable and knowledgeable guide to visit the Tortuguero Canals, a part of the river system that runs many miles through the rainforest parallel to the coastline. Our guide explained that the “piles” of coral/rock that could be seen along the shore were caused by the strong 1991 earthquake that lifted up the ground leaving these mounds. There was also evidence of hotels and other buildings devastated by the ‘quake. After a bus ride along the coast north of the town, we came to a small boat dock with waiting pontoon boats. We quickly boarded the boats and took off ... read more
1311-179 The coast north of Limon--mostly coral
1311-180 Coral and earth mounds that arose after last earthquake
1311-181 An old luxury hotel destroyed by an eartquake in the last decade

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Limón » Manzanillo November 11th 2013

We traveled from Manuel Antonio to San Jose and spent a couple of nights in the capital. The highlight was the pre-columbian gold museum. The exhibition was huge and displayed in a purpose built bank basements safe, so it was interesting just walking through the giant doors (imagining we were in the Thomas Crown Affair or Oceans 11 or 12). The gold was so intricate in its design from tiny pieces to huge ornaments and all produced from pouring molten gold into molds. They had examples of jewellery, ornaments, ceremonial pieces and an explanation of how they melted the gold with just wood for fuel. We enjoyed our short stay in the capital, it doesn't have the beautiful old buildings or character of some of the other places we have visited, but it is fairly easy ... read more
Manzanillo
Manzanillo
Manzanillo


We were carrying our various backpacks, my charango that I bought in Bolivia last year and a map of the wine regions of the world which we had recently purchased at a winery in Mendoza, Argentina. We also had a couple of bottles of water in a vain attempt to replenish what was being lost in sweat in these tropical climes. The air was in competition with my forehead to see which could create the densest water. I was winning due to the salt content. Our eyes were firmly affixed to the pieces of rotted timber we were walking upon, some having completely vanished in sections, simply leaving a lonely bolt rusting in the support structure. Standing upon these was like stepping on the back of a skateboard, with the front lifting off the ground, not ... read more
Caroline's painting of Rainbow Polar Bears
Delicious organic breakfast of scrambled eggs with veggies, fresh juice and toast with surprisingly tasty pineapple & papaya jam!
Relaxing at Walaba Hostel


It is an impressive sight seeing a large Caribbean Green Turtle lay over a hundred eggs to the point of exhaustion, and then expending whatever remaining energy on faultlessly covering in the nest. We were privileged to witness this on our one night in Tortuguero, near the border with Nicaragua on the Caribbean coast. She was a big creature, well over 1m in length and the eggs were the size of ping pong balls, strategically placed in the deep nest like one of the clown machines that you always seem to lose money on at a local fare. Unfortunately we did not get to see her haul herself out of, or back into the ocean, as the whole process takes a very long time, but what a surreal experience, standing in the middle of nowhere watching ... read more
Canoeing through Tortuguero National Park
Crocodile
Green Heron


It's been a long while since my last travels and an even longer time since I shared my adventures on this site. Today however I thought I would 'kick-off' my count down to my next adventure - Costa Rica! Official start date of my internship with GVI (www.gvi.co.uk/programs/conservation-internship-costa-rica if you'd like more details) is 11 January 2014 (in bold and underlined no less) so I have 12 weeks of work and 98 sleeps to go...not that I am counting. For those that don't know I am hoping to gain experience in the rainforests of Costa Rica so I can start a conservation-based career. The plan is to work and live alongside their research team who will hopefully train me up on a range of skills which will include data processing, biological surveys, camera trapping, species identification ... read more

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Limón » Cahuita September 30th 2013

After an easy border crossing, we found ourselves in Costa Rica. The original intention was to go Puerto Viejo, but instead we have stumbled across a great, sleepy little town called Cahuita, about 30 minutes north, which borders a beautiful coastline national park. We have scored well here too, finding really cheap accommodation in a private cabin next to the beach. The cabin is rustic, but to have our own little private space, including a kitchen, is gold. For one week we will not have to time our cooking as to when there is a hot plate or bench space available. We even have our own fridge, it may not sound like much, but after 7 months of trying to find some space in a common, and usually bacteria infected fridge, it is a nice home ... read more
Dragonfly in Cahuita National Park
Sloth in Cahuita National Park
This little guy eats almonds while we eat breakfast


We left Cahuita early to catch the bus to Limon (1 hour), then took a short taxi to the port of Moin to take our 4 hour boat to Tortuguero. The boat ride was wonderful, more like an excursion than just transport as the waterways through the jungle were really pretty and we saw lots of wildlife along the way. Tortuguero is even hotter than Cahuita with the same level of humidity, I'm not sure I could ever acclimatize to this. The village itself is within the national park of the same name and is completely cut off from the rest of Costa Rica by the many waterways through the jungle, so no cars here which is wonderful and the only way to get in and out is by small boat. The village (population 1200) is ... read more
That´s a paddling
Caiman
River Swallow (on the branch)

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Limón » Cahuita August 12th 2013

From Arequipa we took a 16 hour night bus to Lima where we checked into our "hostel", which turned out to be a private house where the owner was illegally renting out her spare room! The nicest host you could wish to meet, and she provided the best breakfast to date. We spent a day looking around downtown Lima and went to the Cathedral with its accesible catacombs and two attached museums which was very worthwhile, not a bad way to spend time waiting for our flight to Costa Rica. We arrived in the San Jose airport which is actually in Alajuela and got picked up by the owner of the Hostel that we had booked. We stayed in the small town of Grecia, a half hour drive from the airport and a bit more tranquil ... read more
Poison Dart Frog
Sloth
Why would we be up at 5.30am?


Costa Rica 2013: Day 4: Tortuguero Day 3: 5am comes pretty early! We were at the lodge's docks by 5:15am. While we waited for our guide to arrive, the lodge staff offered to bring us plates of fresh fruit for an impromptu breakfast, so we ate some great fresh pineapple, melon, and watermelon while we waited. Pretty great considering they don't serve breakfast until 7am. They even asked us if we would be wanting breakfast a bit late. We told them we'd have lunch in the village, but we'd definitely be here for dinner tonight. Just as we were starting to wonder about our tour, a launch from the lodge left for the village to pick up some staff just as the guide came into sight.... having rowed all the way across from the village! We ... read more
Beautful Flower
"Football" Tree
Green Heron


Cosat Rica 2013: Day 3:Tortuguero Day 2: After our late night of unsuccessfully looking for turtles, we woke up a bit later than usual... at 7:30am. Today is our 39th wedding anniversary, so we plan on doing and eating whatever we want to. We'd already told the lodge staff we wouldn't be eating dinner in the lodge. Around 8:30 or so, one of the lodge staff knocked on our door and asked if we would be eating breakfast today, I assume because it was nearing the end of the breakfast service. We told him thank you, but no, we don't usually eat breakfast. I should mention that the room includes breakfast. Oh well. We had a water taxi pick us up around 9am to go into the village for the day, and evening. Tortuguero village is ... read more
Black Sand Beach
Tortuguero Path
Tunnel View




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