Rancho Tulipan Los Chiles

... social meeting place that has definitely felt some pains due to recent events.  All the river tours no longer operated and tourism had grinded to a halt. It was a little dreary and sad so we just stayed one night, got some sleep, did some laundry and hit the road again.

Refreshed from our night's sleep we drove through the hills taking in the farms and scenery.  Once we arrived in La Fortuna we walked around town and did a little grocery shopping.  We decided we should start ...

... en ze gingen heul hard....gewoon zweven over het water....gaaf! Het vier gangen buffet was goed.
Vanmorgen stond de wekker vroeg om snel te ontbijten en vervolgens werden we opgepikt voor een tocht naar Los Chiles. Hij vertelde onderweg allerlei dingen over Costa Rica....we passeerden de enorme ananas plantages.....en zagen enorm veel fruit.
Na een kleine 2 uur toeren kwamen we aan bij het water en stapten ...

... off so food and accommodation is expensive and their business is tourism (and coffee) so there is a well set up travel infrastructure. This means scheduled buses, hotels, restaurants, national parks, resorts and not feeling like you are going to be mugged or killed all the time. We were looking forward to it. Well, Paul wasn´t looking forward to upping the budget, but hey.

Ended up in a place with air-con and TV. How exciting, it ...

... but there is just not enough time in the day. We have been packing in a lot of activites. Tomorrow won't be any different, but having the Wifi in the hotel room should help me catch up. I have the best of the photos loaded at least. Some stories were added, but were lost when the web page crashed. The pictures still tell the stories well though. Love to all.

... I am in complete awe of these two and their inherent bravado. About ¾ way into our journey up the lush green mountain ranges that flirt with the Gulf of Nicoya, our journey became rather exciting. After driving for miles up the lush mountain slopes, the pavement ended and we came across a particularly steep muddy ravine. The bus stalled as its wheels spun, and as it became stuck a 4x4 truck came along while trying to pass and diagonally slid into us. So at ...

... and comparing our horoscopes in different newspapers.

The next morning we checked out of the country at the border post, and waited around for the boat. We sat there drinking coconut milk, kindly donated by a guy up a tree with a machete. We chatted to Jenny and Maribel, two Nicaraguan girls working in Costa Rica. They'd come up to the border to get Jenny's dad out of jail. He'd come over to visit his daughter and see his baby grandson but had got ...

... hour to cover only a distance of 500m, as Maribel and David stopped at every marvel they see, . As the fatigue set in, the enthousiasm slowly diminish and we began walking slightly faster. During the 5-hour hike, we didn´t spot any quetzal, but we did find a Great Curassow and its baby chick at 1 metre away from us!Unfortunately, I couldn´t get any pictures being the last in the line and everyone else had no battery left in their camera. Outside the park, while ...

... Halfway through, you stop to do a Tarzan Swing. You climb to the top of a platform, probably 30 feet in the air or so, and then leap off on a swing that swings you probably 40 or so feet into the air on the other side. Jumping from the platform was the best part...you basically freefall before the swing catches you near the bottom.....my stomach was definitely in my throat! After all the adventure, it's on to the Pacific Coast!

... said "Let no more thieves exist in the world" and then threw his coin in the fountain, and what was so amazing is that the coin floated on top of the water! I was witness to a miracle, so the fountain has been renamed Our Fountain of the Sacred Gringo. Anyway, on a more serious note, I was so moved by the tenderness of this young boy. How many American children would "waste" a wish on something selfless and instead wish for ...

... look. Why can't we find the house? Her daughter offers to walk us there. On the way, she says that the house USED to be yellow, but was recently painted pink. Good to know... Turns out, it was the same pink house. The daughter magically opened the lock. Sunday (It's tiring writing like that.) We went to the beach and the path was covered in mud! One huge, gigantic mud puddle. We gingerly picked our way across and made it without falling or getting too dirty. But ...