Costa Rica and a day in Panama

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We stayed in Santa Teresa for three nights. Santa Teresa is nothing more than a dirt road which jungle on one side and jungle, beach and sea on the other. Apparently they did pave it but it rained so bad last year it washed the road away! Either side of the road there are hostels, hotels, supermarkets and surfshops. I saw and heard loads of howler monkeys in the trees. There were also loads of big Iguana type lizards skulking about. Most people get about by quad bikes with surf board racks built onto them! The apartment was great and we were able to cook our meals which saved us money. We also had a TV so we watched films in the evening. Rich spent most of the time surfing, I just took the time to chill out, skype people and sunbathe a little although the weather wasn’t great. I think we had some rain every day. On the last day there wasn’t really any surf so we hired some bikes (cruisers again) and cycled along the coast.

The next day (30/10/11) we had organised for a shuttle to take us to Monteverde which is up in the highlands and is a cloud forest. It was $50 but we had such a bad time getting to Santa Teresa that we didn’t want to risk ending up in some dump again. It was also a Sunday and we were told the buses weren’t running as frequent. It told about 6 hours in total which compared to the 10 hours on chicken buses and maybe not even getting there was pretty good. It took 2 hours to get to the ferry, the ferry took an hour and then the other shuttle took about 2 hours then there was about 1 hour of waiting around. Met a nice German couple that live in Spain who were just finishing their 3 week holiday and an American guy whose job is to fly around in aeroplanes mapping the surface of the earth, interesting job hey?

Got to Monteverde at around 2.30 and stayed at a really cute place called Cabinas el Pueblo. It was great there as again they had a kitchen and there was a supermarket really close by. They also had hot showers which was really needed as it was really quite cold there. I had to put on trousers and a long sleeved top! Ione night I spent about 30min ain the shower as I hadn’t had a hot shower for 3 weeks, it was such a treat! The best thing about the Cabinas was that there was a sloth living in the tree outside! The roads to Monteverde were really bad, they weren’t paved at all, just mud and stones! There is a bit of road in the main town where it is actually paved, what a treat! The town itself is really small with just a a few shops and restaurants. We met an English couple who were staying in our place called James and Stacey from Torquay and they had booked a night hike so we joined them on that. We spent 2 hours walking around a nature reserve in the jungle. We saw loads of wildlife including 3 sloths, all having a good munch, an insect that looks exactly like a dead leaf, two massive stick insects, a praying mantis, some crazy spiders including a tarantula, some raccoon type animals running through a hollow tree and an owl. The woman didn’t even see the owl until it did a poo on her! It was really close and just sat on the branch whilst we were looking at it. It was really beautiful. The sloths didn’t even look real, they were moving so slowly they looked like Jim Henson puppets! I have now decided that sloths are my favourite animals.

The next day after a lot of thought from me we went ziplining with 100% Aventura. This included 12 ziplines through the canopy, a superman zipline and a 150ft tarzan swing. I had been debating whether to opt for this extreme activity or just go for something tamer that didn’t include the tarzan swing. In the end I decided to sod it, the main reason I had come t Monteverde was 1. To see a sloth (tick) and 2. To take a zipline tour so I decided to go extreme! It was great ziplining through the canopy. On some parts we were way above the tops of the trees especially when we did it superman style. To do this they put a harness on you front as well, turn around your other harness and then hang you so you are horizontal. It was really great but it was soooo high! At the end they have a break system set up although when you’re flying in it didn’t feel like you were going to stop at all! The tarzan swing was really nerve wracking. First of all you are just waiting there whilst the first few do it so you get even more nervous. Then when it is your turn you have to walk along a cable bridge which is really wobbly to the end. You then get hooked to two ropes on your harness. The instructors spent ages untwisting the ropes for me so I was stood at the end for what felt like an eternity just avoiding looking down. Then when you are hooked up they open the gate at the end of the bridge, give you a nudge and off you drop! It was really scary mainly the initial feeling of falling. When the rope tightens it doesn’t feel as bad but then you swing really high up on the other side. If you want to see me in action, have a look at the video of me that Rich put on facebook, and make sure the volumes up as I was screaming like a right wuss! Afterwards I did feel really good and glad that I had done it even if I was really shaking! The weather was really bad so that afternoon we just chilled out back at our place and spent hours trying to upload photos to the blog!



The next day we had booked this jeep boat jeep thing to take us to La Fortuna which saves about 4 hours of bus travel. The jeep wasn’t a jeep it was a Toyota shuttle van (but we already knew that). So we had about 1 ½ hours of serious;ly bumpy and muddy roads to get us to the boat, then the ferry which took no more than an hour then a shuttle on smooth roads to La Fortuna. The weather once again was pretty rainy so the views on the lake wasn’t great. We had booked a package deal so we got taken to Wally’s Cabinas which I think was actually a truckers stop, but clean and comfortable enough. We had some food at a local Soda (eateries are called Sodas in C.R) it was ok but quite bland a piece of fried chicken then rice, mashed potato, beans, pasta and plantain. At 3.00 we got picked up to wander around Volcan Arenal. The clouds parted for long enough for us to glimpse the top. The volcano is active so you are not allowed to climb to the top as people have been killed by rocks flying out. There is also sometimes lava running down one side but the guide said he had not seen lava on it for 10 months damn it! It was a nature hike as well and on the way over saw another sloth (this one with a lot of green algae on its back) they let algae grow so they camouflage in with the trees and a really brightly coloured toucan. On the hike the tour guide told us a lot about various plants but we didn’t see many other animals apart from a butterfly whose spots look like owl eyes. We did manage to see a really cool frog as well, can’t remember its name but it’s the most famous frog in Costa Rica! After this at 6.00pm (dark) we got taken to Baldi hot springs. They pipe the hot water from deep underground so when it comes out it is superhot and bacteria free. We ate first as had an all you can eat buffet included (yum yum) then hit the pools. There are 20 pools in total and they have different temperatures. One was so hot it scalded Rich’s foot! There was also three really good waterslides which we had fun sliding down although I declined going down the one that speeds you up to 45kph! It felt great landing in a pool of warm water! The best pool was the huge Jacuzzi one that also had big waterfalls in.

2/11/11

We got up really early and got the 6am bus to San Carlos where we got another bus to San Jose. The buses in C.R are a bit posher that elsewhere (C.R is the richest country in C.A) but there was even less leg room! This took 5 hours in total. From San Jose we had to get a taxi to another bus terminal, we were going to walk but got told it was dangerous. We then had to wait an hour (during which time we bumped into Dave and Suze an Aussie and a Kiwi who we had previously met in El Salvador. They were also heading to the same place as us)for the bus to take us to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca which is north-east of San Jose on the Caribbean coast. This bus took about 4 ½ hours. Rich has been constantly moaning about the fact that we weren’t going to Pavones where there is the longest LH break in C.A. It is really quite hard to get to and wasn’t on the way to where we needed to be heading as I wanted to also go to Bocas del Toro which are a group of islands in Panama on the Caribbean coast. When we got there we were greeted by people trying to get us to stay in their accommodation. James and Stacey were still with us so we managed to get some discount on two rooms in a place called Lunaticsa Cabanas. We managed to get the rooms for $20 a night which was a bargain considering they each had a private kitchenette. That night we met up with Dave and Suze and went out for some food and drinks to a restaurant called Flip Flop. Puerto Viejo has a real laid back Reggae feel to it and there are lots of bars and restaurants so it must get heaving in high season. You can also buy a lot of Bob Marley merchandise if that’s your thing!

3/11/11

We faffed around getting bits and bobs from the supermarket and finally hit the beach at about midday. The beach we went to is called Playa Cocles and has really nice light coloured sand, turquoise waters and is backed by jungle complete with howler monkeys. I lazed about on the beach for a few hours whilst Rich went snorkelling. That night we just chilled out at our place drinking wine and playing Yaniv with James and Stacey.

4/11/11

Today we hired some cruiser style bikes and rode them 13km to a place called Manzales. The ride was great through lots of jungle, we got to see howler monkeys and a toucan. It was a bit tricky getting up the hills with only one gear but we did it! Got stuck in the rain so had a coffee at a café then headed back. We stopped at another beach on the way back and Rich tried doing a bit of snorkelling. That evening just cooked some food and chilled at our apartment.



5/11/11

Went to Bocas Del Toro in Panama via bus, the border was a really dodgy bridge, Linz was scared when a massive coach went past halfway across! The bridge was so rusty it looked like it was going to fall apart any moment! We then got a shuttle to the town where we got a 30min ferry across to the islands. The Panamanians were celebrating their independence from Colombia so the hotels and hostels in town were pretty full but luckily Dave and Suze were already there and were staying at a place just out of town called Panama’s Paradise so we called them and they had space so we headed over there. Rich and James went for a bike ride around the island and Stacey and I just chilled whilst Suze cooked up a big spag bol for tea, yummy. I think we ended up playing more Yaniv!

Bocas Del Toro time continued on next blog!

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