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Published: July 12th 2007
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Our time in Costa Rica was short and sweet, so we had to squeeze in as much as possible in the little time we had. After crossing into the boring, border town of Sixaola, we followed a couple of American gents to Puerto Viejo to kill a few hours waiting for the San Jose bus. It's a gorgeous beach town, and we sat and enjoyed some fresh fruit, the tranquil beach surroundings and laid back lifestyle, apparent throughout Costa Rica.
We got to San Jose that evening, and found a nice hostel to stay at. Border crossings are usually long and tiresome, so we were in bed pretty early. The next morning, after exploring the city a little, we realised we needed to move on quickly. The parks were really pretty, but apart from that, it's just another big, dirty capital city with nothing much to offer. We organised the next available bus to Monteverde.
Enduring the slow and bumpy road through the mountains, we were hit by a storm we thought would wash the bus away. But eventually the rain cleared. Once in Monteverde, we organised a canopy tour through our hotel.
We were picked up
in the morning and taken to Extremo Canopy tours head office, high in the cloud forest. We got our gear on, and the instructor demonstrated the safety precautions for the day, precautions all 3 guides failed to adhere to. The tour included 12 zip lines, one tarzan swing and some unnecessary rappling.
It was a perfect, clear morning, so the views from the zip lines were amazing. We could see the Pacific coastline and Lake Nicaragua. Fond of the occasional prank, our guides thought they were hilarious. Lia disagreed. She was the last person to jump off the tarzan swing, but just as she was stepping off, the two guides at the bottom urgently yelled, "No! No! No!." The instructor at the top gave her a push, and Lia was certain she was plunging to her death. She walked away unscathed from the cruel prank. Ryan, deciding it just wasn't scary enough, did the longest and highest zip line upside down.
We organised a twilight walk that night to see the tarantula's and sloths, but the rain struck again in the afternoon, as it always seems to do here, so we cancelled the tour. But while on the
internet that same night, we spotted a sloth right next to the hotel. One strange looking creature. Ryan ran to grab the camera, but came back and it was gone. Beaten by a sloth.
We moved on to La Fortuna, the closest town to active Volcan Arenal. We took the popular and more expensive Jeep-Boat-Jeep that everyone over here raves about. It was a nice cruise accross the lake and through the countryside. That afternoon we joined a tour of the park lands and volcano. We spotted another type of sloth, howler monkeys, spider monkeys and a tarantula. The scariest was the deadly eye lash viper, which looked like a tiny piece of dog's business and would go by unnoticed to most people.
The volcano was covered with cloud, but we still saw fluorescent volcanic rocks tumbling down the side of the volcano. To quote Kip Dynamite, "It was pretty cool I guess."
We finished the tour at Baldi Hot springs. There were around 25 thermal springs, all with different temperatures. We skipped on the water slide, when everyone seemed to get airborne half way, slam back onto the slide, spread-eagle into the water and come up
in pain, clutching some part of their body. We sat in hysterics, watching many innocent people fall victim to the slide. No one attempted it a second time.
After just one night, we woke up early and made a push for the border of Nicaragua. After 3 buses, we made it as far as Liberia and chose to stay the night. There wasn't a lot to do in the town, and we picked the wrong hostel to stay at. There were ants crawling all over our beds, and lizards scooting around the walls. They were the least of our worries. Some girl came into our 3 bed dorm as we were drifting off to sleep, which isn't unusual, but this girl was totally crazy. She woke up in the middle of the night yelling, "Are you there!" We sat in silence before Lia responded after the third outburst. Then she accused Lia of making too much noise, and keeping her awake. Lia put her in her place, and we slept with one eye open for the rest of the night.
We spent only 5 nights and lots of money in the expensive Costa Rica, and the next morning,
we caught a bus from Liberia to the border, and crossed easily into Nicaragua, making it country number 10!
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