September 8th-12th
...Next, we headed into the cloud forest towns of Santa Elena and Monteverde, where we explored the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve (cloudy, wet, mossy ancient and beautiful) and the "Bosque Eterno de los Ninos", or "Children's Eternal Rainforest" - a huge area that was purchased with funds raised by schoolchildren all the world over (inspiring).
Other highlights included handling baby boa constrictors at the "Serpentarium" (fascinating but a bit creepy), orchid gardens full of some of the tiniest little flowers we've ever seen (including the world's smallest orchid), souvenir shopping in the pouring rain (glad we packed the rain jackets) and grabbing a bargain room with baño and shared kitchen (really great to cook seeing the restaurant prices here!).
Now we are in the nice town of Alajuela, our base for the last two days. It's closer to the airport than San Jose, and - we're told - much safer. It's internet/book/nap time now, after a 5.30am start and torrid bus ride (three hours, standing up, winding around and over potholes and quite scary precipices, and we hadn't managed to have our breakfast yet...unpleasant nausea-hunger-nausea cycle...). I don't generally like to whinge about bus rides - many are bad - but this definitely wasn't fun. Happy now, though, nice hotel, wireless internet and comfy bed (according to the snores from next to me).
Next plan is some wandering around, souvenir/touristey shopping if we can, and heading to the airport on Sunday. Looking forward to seeing all the folks at home!
Friday, September 12, 2008
Costa Rica Update
Hello everyone!
It's been a while since our last update...So what have we been up to?
After arriving in Jaco and catching up with Kelly for a few days, we headed south down the coast to the towns of Quepos, Dominical and Uvita...
Quepos was the jumping-off point for Parque Nacionale Manuel Antonio, combining rainforest, lagoon, and stunning beaches (although a bit murky thanks to the regular heavy overnight rain). It was here that we saw our first sloth - the start of what was to become a bit of a love affair with these bizarre and very cute creatures. The wildlife spotting was great - we got there early to beat the crowds, and managed to see capuchin monkeys, agoutis (kinda like giant guinea pigs), raccoons, araucari (like mini toucans), iguanas (cool) and a cayman (like a small freshwater croc). We also saw the common scarlet-speedoed frenchman, basking spangled italianas and the sweaty-backed puffing gringa.
From Quepos we headed south to the private reserve of Hacienda Baru, several hundred acres of pristine rainforest and rehabilitated farmland just outside the surfer town of Dominical. We stayed here on the grounds, did some hikes (managing to get soaked twice by the regular afternoon downpours) and camping overnight in the jungle as well. In an awesome turn of events, we even were able to join the local ranger in his night-time patrol of the beach to collect turtle eggs. It turns out that in Costa Rica, and much of Central America, sea-turtle eggs are a traditional (though illegal) delicacy (and reputedly also a cure for impotence), so to protect the eggs from poachers and predators, rangers dig them all up and incubate them where they can be kept safe. After about four or five hours of trudging along quite rocky beach, we had the privilege of finding two nests, and witnessing a Lora (Leatherback) Turtle laying her eggs - in what appeared to be an absolutely exhausting process. Amazing. Lucky we hadn't packed it in early!
In the Reserva Baru we continued our romance with the sloth, as well as meeting coatis, peccaries (wild pig), more capuchin monkeys and exquisite little green and black or red and blue poison dart frogs. There was also a cool zipline rainforest canopy tour called "Flight of the Toucan", from which we saw - you guessed it - some Chestnut-Mandibled Toucans. Several days of Fruit Loop cravings ensued.
After Baru, we stayed two nights in Uvita, home to humpback whales almost all year (but not when we were looking), before heading back up to Jaco.
Now reunited with Kelly, we aimed northwest, for the Nicoya Peninsula, and the towns of Malpais and Montezuma. Quite beautiful coastline, charming and small (at the moment) places, and close to another beautiful national park - Cabo Blanco ("White Cape"). Unfortunately, the elements were against us seeing much while we were there - three hurricanes in the region meant that it rained continuously for three days - so we headed back to Jaco. It was lots of fun though, and had some great cooking (including lovely snapper from Kelly's friend Samantha's fish shop in Malpais), so certainly not complaining!
In our last days in Jaco, we relaxed and wandered the beach, headed over to nearby Playa Hermosa to see where Ness used to live, and stoked up the barbie on our second-last night with Kelly, Randal and their neighbour Pico.
We were sad to leave Kelly and Jaco - it's been great to spend so much time with her, and have a home for a while. Next stop - the cloud forests of Monteverde and Santa Elena.
It's been a while since our last update...So what have we been up to?
After arriving in Jaco and catching up with Kelly for a few days, we headed south down the coast to the towns of Quepos, Dominical and Uvita...
Quepos was the jumping-off point for Parque Nacionale Manuel Antonio, combining rainforest, lagoon, and stunning beaches (although a bit murky thanks to the regular heavy overnight rain). It was here that we saw our first sloth - the start of what was to become a bit of a love affair with these bizarre and very cute creatures. The wildlife spotting was great - we got there early to beat the crowds, and managed to see capuchin monkeys, agoutis (kinda like giant guinea pigs), raccoons, araucari (like mini toucans), iguanas (cool) and a cayman (like a small freshwater croc). We also saw the common scarlet-speedoed frenchman, basking spangled italianas and the sweaty-backed puffing gringa.
From Quepos we headed south to the private reserve of Hacienda Baru, several hundred acres of pristine rainforest and rehabilitated farmland just outside the surfer town of Dominical. We stayed here on the grounds, did some hikes (managing to get soaked twice by the regular afternoon downpours) and camping overnight in the jungle as well. In an awesome turn of events, we even were able to join the local ranger in his night-time patrol of the beach to collect turtle eggs. It turns out that in Costa Rica, and much of Central America, sea-turtle eggs are a traditional (though illegal) delicacy (and reputedly also a cure for impotence), so to protect the eggs from poachers and predators, rangers dig them all up and incubate them where they can be kept safe. After about four or five hours of trudging along quite rocky beach, we had the privilege of finding two nests, and witnessing a Lora (Leatherback) Turtle laying her eggs - in what appeared to be an absolutely exhausting process. Amazing. Lucky we hadn't packed it in early!
In the Reserva Baru we continued our romance with the sloth, as well as meeting coatis, peccaries (wild pig), more capuchin monkeys and exquisite little green and black or red and blue poison dart frogs. There was also a cool zipline rainforest canopy tour called "Flight of the Toucan", from which we saw - you guessed it - some Chestnut-Mandibled Toucans. Several days of Fruit Loop cravings ensued.
After Baru, we stayed two nights in Uvita, home to humpback whales almost all year (but not when we were looking), before heading back up to Jaco.
Now reunited with Kelly, we aimed northwest, for the Nicoya Peninsula, and the towns of Malpais and Montezuma. Quite beautiful coastline, charming and small (at the moment) places, and close to another beautiful national park - Cabo Blanco ("White Cape"). Unfortunately, the elements were against us seeing much while we were there - three hurricanes in the region meant that it rained continuously for three days - so we headed back to Jaco. It was lots of fun though, and had some great cooking (including lovely snapper from Kelly's friend Samantha's fish shop in Malpais), so certainly not complaining!
In our last days in Jaco, we relaxed and wandered the beach, headed over to nearby Playa Hermosa to see where Ness used to live, and stoked up the barbie on our second-last night with Kelly, Randal and their neighbour Pico.
We were sad to leave Kelly and Jaco - it's been great to spend so much time with her, and have a home for a while. Next stop - the cloud forests of Monteverde and Santa Elena.
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