Hotel Ilan-Ilan Tortuguero

... ride. <br><br>We arrived at Pachira Lodge, which is a great hotel located in the jungle just on the opposite bank of Tortuguero village. There is plantation everywhere, and you walk either on elevated wooden path ways or on concrete pathways, both of which are absolutely necessary because the ground it so moist. After our lunch we had an excursion to Tortuguero village, and then it really started raining &#8211; and typically I had only brought my umbrella and not ...

... and the subsequent sound of the water smacking the shore in response to these same boats. Tortuguero is only accessible by boat or small plane, so it is understandable that there would be boats transporting people and supplies throughout the day. I guess I realized that I enjoyed the view of the river more than the sounds.<br><br>The first night we had a great meal at a mainly Italian restaurant, Budda Cafe. The portions were huge and ...

... penne pesto with chicken! so good! (all that plus a piña colada for $20!!!)  The concert was a lot of fun-the venue was Vertigo-a super trendy club so there was dancing/music before the show even started.  We didn't get home until at least 1:45 so I showered quickly and went to bed.<br><br>Saturday<br><br>Woke up at 5:20 because I met Steffie and Nick at the school at 5:45 to take a taxi downtown to Grand Hotel Costa Rica where we were picked up for the tour to ...

... stayed for a long time twisting and turning on a branch to reach its food. A really beautiful bird with its large black bill coloured yellow and red on top to match its plumage. <br><br>The rainforest is full of lizards and that morning we saw one of the most startling looking, the Emerald Basilisk Lizard. These lizards have incredible sail like crests on their back, head and tail. They actually have the ability to walk on water and because of this they are also known as the ...

... preferring to take the better jobs. Many of the houses we passed on the plantations seemed very poor, just small corrugated iron shacks.<br><br>We travelled through small villages each with a very obvious graveyard filled with large white tombs. Apparently, the dead are buried above the ground as the many earthquakes experienced in the country meant that bodies could move about if buried below the ground. I suppose it was to make sure the bodies were ...

... best welcome when we first got to Costa Rica, too. After refreshing ourselves with some strong coffee and delicious melon we finally started our journey, and our first destination was called Puerto Viejo, where we got after an eight hour bus ride! The busses are all pretty much old school busses from the States, that are most likely to fall apart one day, but somehow they still manage to bring us anywhere we want :) The bus ride itself was amazing, coming from the cordilleras ...

... niggling feeling before taking it, but i'm in the frame of mind that lessons are good to learn...not in this case...but practice certainly is). $40 down the drain for ****-all return.<br><br>My *****ing and moaning (above) aside, i really enjoyed Bocas. Cool place, hostel and people. I met 2 Czech girls on the was there, and a Czech guy in the hostel...who also turned out to be a fellow finance peep (and not the only one either, we're all avoiding the depressing real ...

Today we have set of for the small village of Coco, about 8 kms outside of Siquirres. The owners of the coach builders have a small farm here and have invited us to stay for a couple of days to have a break. The only problem we have is that the entrance gate is too small to get through; the neighbours knew we were coming and have tried to get us parked in a nearby field. Unfortunately there is a ...

... though; this morning, on the jungle walk I skipped, I hear a wasp got into her hair. It was a non-stinging variety, and the guide told her so, but she was still pretty freaked out. Apparently he remarked that "it is said they only attack people with bad thoughts." I'm a little sorry I missed that. I decided to skip the walk because I was exhausted after getting up at five a.m. the last two mornings (Sunday was the drive up to Tortuguero, and this morning ...

... wildlife. We went down a 10 mile strip of river, called Rio Reventazon and the section was called Florida, its only a Class III rapids, but was fun as a first experiance! Now I want to try IV and V rapids! Believe it or not, we are in the front of the water splash photo, somewhere in there!! Tommorow we will be arriving in Colon, Panama, home of the Panama Canel, we will be doing the Panama City tour, which is an all day event starting at 7:30am.. Damn thats early!