Costa Rica

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Rainforest

We decided to spend three days in the Corcovado national park on the Osa peninsula - time for some trekking - been a bit lazy recently. We took the 6am colectivo (giant truck) to arrive at the park just after 8. According the the guidebook and the national park office it should take 5 to 6 hours to reach La Sirena - the park lodge in the centre of the park from which you can do lots of shorter circular trails around the park. Being fully laden with camping equipment and three days worth of food, we reckoned on 6 hours........evil laugh time again..........woooooohahahaha. Nine hours - it was going dark by the time we arrived; we didn't rest that much - only enough to prevent collapse in the extreme humidity. Are we really that unfit?

The path through the rainforest was parallel to the shore and at times went on to the sand; quite hard on the old legs. The two river crossings had to be done at low tide; we were well within the time for low tide but the second river crossing was a total disaster. Russ managed to cross, waist-deep, barely keeping his rucksack dry. The current was pretty strong so he came back for my rucksack, which was just as well as I was completely swept under - just managed to keep my shoes and camera above the water. It was only once we'd arrived that we discovered we'd crossed in completely the wrong place. We also compared notes with others on how long the trek had taken - everyone reported 8-9 hours, so we're not completely useless. Phew.

You can't imagine how happy I was to discover that the rustic lodge had showers (cold of course, but I really didn't care), and a raised covered platform to sleep on, so no need to erect the tent, just the mozzie net. Brilliant (though a little annoying to have carried the tent for nothing). The rainforest here seemed quite different to the Amazon - more colourful - still green, obviously, but lots of very pretty heliconias - bright red and orange tropical-looking flowers. We saw loads of red macaws in the trees along the shore, anteaters busily hoovering up the ants (very cute) and monkeys in the trees around the lodge. There was a close encounter with a pack of peccaries at dusk on the second day, crossing the path we'd walked along about a minute earlier. Peccaries are wild pigs which, so I am told, can attack you if you're unlucky enough to get yourself surrounded by them. It was all pretty hazardous really. If you stood too long in a trail of ants they'd start running up your legs (though not the cute leaf-cutter ants). At one point I stopped about 10cm short of a huge spider that had spun its web across the path. Very traumatic. From that moment, my trekking pole doubled up as a spider web detection device. On the third day, the walk back to the colectivo took 8 and a half hours. Sight improvement. We did meet one guy who'd done it in 6 hours but he clearly had superhuman capabilities.

We headed to a place called Puerto Viejo on the Carribean coast; felt we needed a rest from moving around and this was the perfect chilled out place. Our stay at Rocking Js happened to coincide with an all-you-can-drink toga party. Freshers week flashbacks. Eventually found the energy to move on to Tortuguero - a small town further up the Carribean coast, only accessible by boat and where a huge number of turtles come to nest between June and October each year.

Turtles

The females only come to shore to nest once it has gone completely dark. Night visits to the beach must be with a guide who finds the turtles first to miminise disturbance, and we observed them under very dim red torchlight. First mum digs a hole with her flippers then she'll lay 100 or so eggs in the hole. She uses her back flippers to fill in the hole, scoop the sand back on top in a big heap then continue to pile the sand on top in a small mound, all the while digging herself into a hole as she pushes the sand out from under her. The dexterity of her back flippers was amazing as she scooped the sand behind, almost like two hands rolling a snowball. And if you crouched down too low, you got an eye-full of sand!

The eggs take about two months to hatch. So what happens next? The little babies have to scramble out of the big hill which mum has buried them under, then find their way along the beach 20 or 30m to the sea, and they're off! They tend to surface early morning or late evening when it's a little cooler, so next morning we set off in search of baby turtles. We walked awhile then eventually saw one desperately struggling to get out of the big hole. He didn't look like he'd make it, so we eventually decided to give him a little push with a stick. No success. After a little moral debate, we decided to pick him up out of the hole and put him on the sand, while nobody was looking (the beach was pretty deserted anyway). It took him nearly an hour to get to the sea. Each little bump in the sand was like a little mountain for him, and you could see him stopping every few minutes to catch his breath. He got himself stuck in another hole, but there were a couple of others watching with us, and it felt a bit naughty to give him another helping hand.....at least until someone else suggested it! It was so heartwarming when he finally reached the sea, although I think he got a bit of a shock when that first wave hit him. I felt so proud - I hope he makes it out there in the big wide ocean. Sniff.

Walking further down the beach, still feeling a little bit guilty about giving him a helping hand, I saw a little boy in the distance running towards me. As he neared, I saw he was holding another baby turtle, plucked straight from its nest. He handed it to me, and the little thing was so feisty I almost dropped him. Once on the ground he was a total speed demon compared to the first one; it took him about a minute to reach the sea. I then realised that we'd probably helped one of the not so fittest survive. Bless him.

Lovely hotel

We had to stop in San Jose because within one week of having his new camera and nintendo, Russell had managed to lose both chargers, so needed new ones. I wouldn't mention it (well, I probably would...) except that we stayed in the worst hotel (liberal use of the word) I have ever encountered. Putrid green mold and chewing-gum covered walls, sagging beds, holes in the sheets, and the bathroom? Well, I didn't have to shower, and I didn't have to sit on the toilet seat. We decided to 'upgrade' to a room with a private bathroom - slight improvement on the bathroom, and white rather than green walls. Why didn't we just change hotel? Well, we'd just walked for 45 minutes in the rain (don't ask), it was now dark, and San Jose doesn't have the safest reputation in the world, so it seemed best just to grin and bare it, and use our own sheets and towels. Besides, the cockroach might have been lonely if we'd left.

Cloud Forest

The next stop was the cloud forests of Santa Elena and Monteverde, where there are canopy walks in the forest, a hummingbird garden, orchid gardens and reptile gardens, and where we tried our hand at zip-lining. Not sure if that is the correct technical term, but you're suspended from a wire strung between two trees, by a harness around your waist, and you glide along the wires from tree to tree. A little scary at first, and the length of the wires got longer until the last one which was 700m, suspended above the highest trees in that part of the forest. The views were absolutely incredible. We also did a Tarzan swing - a giant swing attached to the same waist harness whilst you cling to the rope. The first couple of seconds of the swing are free fall which I am told is similar to a bungee jump, except you're not upside down. Not sure I'd have done it if I'd known in advance. The thing is, with bungees, I think they make a point of the huge build-up beforehand; with the swing there was no time to mull things over - harness attached "I feel a bit scared"......."yeah whatever"........and you're pushed off before you've chance to say "I think I've changed my mind". I screamed my head off. Great fun though.

The final stop in Costa Rica was to see the red flowing lava of the still active Volcan Arenal. We were quite a distance from it but it looked quite spectacular at night to see the lava exploding from the top and pouring down the sides. We then spend a slightly indulgent but very relaxing day at a nearby thermal pool complex before heading to Nicaragua.

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Photos

Anteater
Look at that cute little face!

Big scary spider
I almost walked into this, stopped about 10cm away from it, then had a minor heart attack

Heliconia
one of the tropical flowers in the Corcovado national park

Sunset at Corcovado national park
Just before we saw the man-eating peccaries

Camping in the Corcovado national park
cooking up a feast (ha ha) after a hard day's trekking

Crossing the river
we found the shallow part on the way back

Baby palm trees
growing out of the coconuts

The end of 3 days' trekking
if only there was a nice cold beer

Viper, at Tortuguero
Pretty, but deadly. It was quite small and just looked like a flower on the tree until you got up close

The baby turtle
look how little he is!

A basilisk, at Santa Elena
Though not the sort whose fangs can destroy a horcrux