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Published: September 29th 2009
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Costa Rica
Well after an interesting shuttle bus ride to the airport, getting us there over an hour late with some not to pleased Americans and crap customer service... pretty much summed up NY but great experience! We flew into Costa Rica. Landed into the heat and tried to work out which bus to get into San Jose and onto our hostel. We finally arrived to the lovely hostel Bueko where we were met by friendly faces. Then spent the first day there walking a round the city, but were told is wasn´t to safe at night so didn’t venture out at night as we didn’t like to look of the jailed in houses anyway.
Not to impressed by the city we wanted to head out and see some wildlife so headed to tortuguero, what a journey that was getting there! First a taxi to the bus station, then a bus to Carrari where we nearly melted in the near 100% humidity but had a great lunch of roast chicken in local wrap things. We then got a local bus with ten other school kids and music pumping out on a very bumpy road. unsure whether were going the
right way we eventually arrived at the ferry boat to take up the river. What a ride this was with our bags at the front of the boat looking like they were going to fall off into the crocodile infested waters, yes we wanted wildlife and got plenty of it in tortuguero.
After settling into out very basic hostel we booked one of the best things we did there. An evening tour to see a huge green turtle drag itself onto a beach dig a whole and lay 100 plus eggs, popping them out like they were ping pong balls. Truly an amazing experience. We also hired a guide and did a canoe tour through the rivers, spotting Jesus Christ lizards, Iguana, spider monkeys carrying a baby, snake necked birds and red frogs.
After a few days here we headed back the same way we came via river boat and local bus taking a few hours featuring a boy with a chicken on a leash, the journey back was just as interesting and this is a daily routine for people of the village.
So next we headed to down the Caribbean coast via Limon, not the best
place to stop so we jumped on the nxt bus down to Puerta Viajo de Talamanca. After a full day travelling we found some nice accommodation with our own hammock and were woken up in the morning to the sound of the moneys in the jungle and playing in the trees right outside our window. Here we met many crabs of different colors and sizes but one the size of a squirrel came up to visit as we were sitting outside our room one evening.
We came here as the guide book said the snorkeling was good, but I think we have been spoilt by Cairnes and the Red sea in Egypt. The tide was strong so the visibility was poor. Jo had only been in the water about two minutes and felt a pain on her leg as she had be stung by a jelly fish, after an initial panic it was fine after a few hours. The mosquito bites Jo got gave her more trouble but I haven’t been bit by anything yet. Typically the one time she goes in the water without covering her whole body she gets stung!
We still had a lovely few
relaxing days here of reading, painting and snorkeling before getting back on an early bus to San Jose and then La Fourtuna, to see the Arenal Volcano. This was a great experience as we arrived on independence day and there were processesions in the street, with music, walking bands from the local schools and dancing in colorful costumes. All under the shadow of the volcano.
That afternoon we soaked our self in the local hot pools, really just a tropical river running through the forest that the locals use but with fantastic warm water. We then got picked up by Mr Lava Lava to do the evening tour of Mount Arenal. We were really lucky to have a clear evening and the volcano was very active. Seeing lava flowing down the side of an active volcano from up close was quite an experience.
The following day we caught the jeep, boat, jeep ride over to Monteverde with our last glimpse of the volcano over the lake. That afternoon we had planned on doing the zip lining, but Matt had sprained his wrist a couple of days before so we didn’t think it was the best idea, as he
did have to hang on! So we did the canopy walk instead. This was a bit of a let down, it was expensive and we didn’t see hardly any wildlife, shame as we were both looking forward to experiencing the cloud forest with all the wildlife around us. Still we cant get it all right.
Our time on Costa Rica was coming to an end and we got a scenic bus back from the highlands back to San Jose which Jo thought it was going to go over the edge for the duration of the journey. We headed back to our Hostel in San Jose, the following day we booked our student flights to Quito, Ecuador. It was a flight via Panama or a flight into Bogotá Columbia and then a 30 hour coach journey so we opted for the panama/Quito flight.
All in all a great trip after the hustle and bustle of New York. Some fantastic wildlife and we are still feeling a bit seedy from watching a turtle lay its eggs.
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