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Published: April 16th 2010
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Climbing out of the jungle
The guide after he'd been thrown off the platform trying to catch Celeste You know, North Shore and all...
But around the time I was being pushed deeper and deeper into the mangroves, by the giant Czech/Canadian behind me in our kayak, to get a "better" look at the Boa constrictor sleeping in the branch not much more than a metre from my face, I started to question this long-held belief. Turns out, there are things in this world to which I'd rather not get close enough to photograph.
But I'm jumping ahead of myself here...
After writing the last entry, we stayed in La Fortuna another night, giving us the afternoon to go zip-lining (which seems to be a Central American specialty - you basically slide along cables - in a harness - that are strung up through the rainforest, giving you a different view of the forest than you get from the ground). The most memorable part of this whole thing (not that the zip-lining itself wasn't lovely) was when our group got to the Tarzan Swing. For this attraction you jump off a platform and swing through the air (just list Tarzan did, though i think that was fiction). Beneath this swing is a platform that comes out
Snake trying to eat a lizard
He tried so many times to drag that lizard over that rock, never worked. from the rockface where the guides stand and catch you after you've swung a couple of times. To help expedite the process, the guides hit your feet every time you swing past so as to kill your momentum and slow you down, and then once you've slowed down enough, they grab your feet and release your harness from the swing. This seems flawless in theory, so when the first of our group (Celeste) reluctantly stepped up to do it, I was focussing more on her terrified screams than on the guys waiting to catch her down below, which proved a mistake when i heard yelling, a crash, a simultaneous intake of breath from everyone still waiting up top, and then roars of laughter... Apparently one of the "catchers" had misjudged the momentum with which Celeste was swinging, tried to catch her too early and had been dragged clear off the platform, falling about 5 metres to the jungle below!! I only caught on when I saw this guy sheepishly climbing back up to the platform, after which he spent the next 15 minutes picking twigs out of his clothes and hands!! classic.
The following morning we headed to the
hanging bridges (another Central America, or maybe costa rica, specialty - just another way to see the rainforest - a series of suspension bridges through the canopy), where we stumbled (almost literally) across a snake in the process of eating a lizard, which was proving difficult for him. Edgar, our hanging bridges guide, indentified the snake as a Northern cat-eye snake and therefore not poisonous (and besides, he had his work cut out for him with the lizard, without adding any of our toes to his menu). It was very thin, but really long (maybe the thickness of a pencil, but about a metre long) and watching him curl up on himself and around, trying to swallow the lizard which was about 4 times thicker than him occupied us for quite some time.
By the time we got back from the hanging bridges, the clouds had almost completely burned off to give us a fantastic view of Volcan Arenal (the volcano I mentioned at the end of the last blog entry, which is almost constantly shrouded in cloud), it was so clear we could see the steam rising out of the crater (and this, coupled with the rumble we
Volcan Arenal
on a rare clear day heard whilst walking around the hanging bridges, confirmed to us that this was, in fact, a very active volcano).
And this abnormally fine weather lasted right through our stay in Monteverde. Being situated near the top of the continental divide (the mountain range than runs from Canada down through South America), Monteverde was refreshingly cooler than anywhere else we'd been (or would be for the rest of the tour) and apparently, as the warm, moist winds from either coast (Caribbean and Pacific) meet each other at the top of this mountain range, the area is almost always covered in cloud. This means the trees in the forest around this this area to get their moisture from the semi-constant cloud rather than relying on rainfall (hence its called a cloudforest, rather than a rainforest), enabling the forest to be much more dense here than in low-lying areas. For this we had to take our guide's word, because as I mentioned, the weather was so good while we were there we barely saw a cloud, even in the "cloudforest" where we spent a good couple of hours.
After a few days respite from the heat, we headed out of Monteverde
Hummingbirds feeding
That tricksy little one never even sat down towards the pacific coast. En route we stopped at this bridge in the middle of nowhere cos the guide "wanted to show us something". Now I had had my headphones in for most of the ride so wasn't entirely sure what we were going to see here, so we just bundled out of the van (which promptly drove off, but as it turns out just to the other side of the bridge) and followed the guide along the narrow foot path on the side of the major highway bridge. Once we got to where the bridge went over water we understood what our guide had wanted to show us - there were about 15 massive crocodiles lying in the shallows!! They're sinister looking buggers and watching them very slowly swim around was quite unnerving. We were told that these crocs are mostly blind because they fight each other for the scarce food and lady-crocs in the area, and maybe this was a well-known fact amoungst the rest of the wild-life in the area because as we were watching this bird just waded right in there with them!! I was hoping to see some darwinian croc-action once they sensed the bird's
I have no idea what this bird's up to
maybe he lost a bet with his friends? presence, but no such luck.
From there we headed to Quepos, which is really just a holding town for cheap hotels, from where you can catch a bus over the hill to Manuel Antonio national park - the smallest, and most-visited national park in Costa Rica.
And it was here that I found myself amongst the mangroves with the boa constrictor mentioned at the start of this blog. To be fair, it MAY not have been big enough to pose any real threat, and it didn't move at all while I was looking at it, but still, I didn't want to be there when it woke up.
That evening having washed the fear and mangrove-mud off, we went for a drink and to watch the sun set (at least that was the intention, as it happened it was too cloudy) at a bar on the top of the hill between Quepos and Manuel Antonio. The bar was called El Avion, because for $3000, they had bought (and shipped to the top of this mountain) the sister-plane of the one that got shot down over Nicaragua in 1986, sparking the Iran-Contra affair (yeah, I had to google it
Cockpit
of one of the Iran-Contra affair planes too), that had been lying abandoned at San Jose airport ever since. The plane proved as successful a drinking establishment as it ever did in arms shipping (actually, I don't know that, maybe it shipped all sorts of arms in it's day, I don't think the CIA want to get into comparisons). Anyway, it was very cool to be able to climb into the cockpit and play with all the levers and stuff.
The following morning we headed into Manuel Antonio national park proper, where we managed to get almost assaulted by a gang of campuchen monkeys. These cheeky wee buggers have unfortunately got so used to humans they've taken to stealing their stuff and while we were sitting in the shade enjoying what brezze we could find, we watched some fools leave a cooler bag open and unattended, you'd almost think they did it on purpose. Next thing you know about three little monkeys are running off, peeling the wrapper off a chocolate cupcake! Aside from being quite entertaining, and got for photos, it made me really sad that they were so... almost domesticated.
After all the excitement it was time to head back to San Jose
for the end of our tour. It's always strange saying goodbye to people with whom you've spent such a concentrated and memorable time with, and who you'll probably never see again. But I spose that's the way it is with these tours.
Which seems like a good to time end this entry. Now that I'm travelling alone for a couple of weeks I might have more opportunity to update this blog, so perhaps the next one won't be so long... We can but hope.
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Nancy P
non-member comment
wonderful synopsis
what a wonderful delight to have read your blog. Your whimsical tales serve as a great reminder of the trip I shared with you. thanks. Cheryl and I will be following you.