Cahuita
Trip Start
Nov 20, 2006
1
4
9
Trip End
Jan 22, 2007
12 days in,
Costa Rica
Thursday, December 14, 2006
The national park is quite isolated, so receives few tourists and has very basic amenities. There are different walks to do here, once of which is to reach the summit of the volcano. However, with Pete in his condition and it being a rainy, cloudy day, we decided to do the other two walking tours to the fumaroles, mud pools and waterfalls. The morning walk was quite nice, through dense jungle, across running rivers (no bridges) and up and down the landscape in order to see the fumaroles and boiling mud pools
01 Parque Nacional Rincon de La Vieja
. It was then another walk up and down slippery mud paths to see the pretty waterfall, where we enjoyed our packed lunch - stale bread and crushed biscuits! The waterfall was beautiful, although the water was very cold, so needless to say, Dee didn't go in. After complaining that we hadn't see very many animals, we saw a few white-faced monkeys swinging through the trees and then Pete almost stood on a giant snake lying in the middle of the path! It was a nice day out, but we were absolutely filthy when we arrived home - some clothes won't be making it back to Oz!
From Liberia, we caught the bus to Playa Tamarindo, which is a beach on the Pacific coast known for surfing. We had a nice time soaking up the sun, eating delicious nachos and watching the sun go down over the Pacific. We only stayed here one night, but the town had such a relaxed atmosphere that it felt like longer. After some more beach time the next morning, it was then onto a shuttle to the little town of Monteverde.
Monteverde sits up in the mountains and is surrounded by cloud forest. It is a very picturesque town with lots of log cabins, so we decided to spend 2 nights here. The next day we headed to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. We had a nice time walking around, admiring the flora and trying to spot some wildlife. You could hear the howler monkeys, but the best that we could see was a couple of birds and a centipede. The Hummingbird Gallery was next door, so we popped in for a quick look
02 Lovely waterfall
. It was amazing to see these birds up close as they are so small and yet their wings beat unbelievably fast. We also visited the Frog Pond and saw the multi-coloured frogs that Costa Rica is famous for. What we didn't expect was how small they were: some about the size of your thumbnail - it's no wonder we didn't see them whilst walking around the Reserve! It was quite amusing when the guide pointed to the glass display cabinet and introduced us to the cane toad - guess we'll have to get used to the sight of these creatures when we get back home! As it was our 2 year anniversary, we decided to head out for a nice meal, although it was early to bed again as it was another early start in the morning.We caught the bus to San Jose and upon arrival experienced a little bit of drama. As Pete was bending down to help Dee with the big bags, 2 guys sandwiched him and pretended that they were also unloading their bags (personal space is scarce here), whilst a third guy rummaged in Pete's pocket and grabbed the money belt (the clip had broken during the fall from the ladder, hence being in the pocket), containing both our passports and a small amount of cash. Pete realised what had happened and quickly ran after the man, before tripping over the guard rope at the bus terminal. When the criminal heard Pete after him, he quickly threw the money belt on the ground, which Dee quickly retrieved, whilst Pete still lumbered after the 'baddy', dropping his day pack as he went, again leaving Dee to collect the remains
03 Baby volcanoe with mud pool
. The security guard realised what had happened, came to help Pete and managed to clobber the man in the kidneys with the knight-stick. The man seemed to be surrounded, but then suddenly made a break for it, charging into Dee as he went. She tried to grab him around the neck, but whilst holding onto 2 daypacks, the tackle was ineffective. With Pete wheezing, beyond speech and in pain and Dee not knowing if the man still had any of our possessions, she dropped the bags, ordered Pete to stay guard and without a second thought sprinted after the man through the streets of San Jose, just before asking (in perfect Spanish!!) the security guard to help her. She chased the baddy down one street, around the corner, up another, round another corner, however always about half a block away but with pedestrians, taxi drivers and shop assistants yelling at her which way the man went. When she eventually caught up to him, the police already had him against the wall, so a kick to the bollocks would probably have seemed inappropriate! Dee was huffing and puffing whilst they patted down the man and tried to ask her if he was the correct guy and what had happened. Well, without actually knowing if he was the right guy, what had actually happened or where the hell she was, Dee tried to communicate in Spanish and English and lots of hand-gesturing as best she could.
Pete meanwhile, was back at the bus terminal, with the bags safely locked in the office, when somebody told him that the man had been caught
04 Boiling mud pools
. Unfortunately, Pete couldn't determine the whereabouts of his girlfriend, so was a little worried! With police escorts, Dee navigated her way back to the bus terminal to be reunited with Pete, where we decided to go to the police station in order to go through the paperwork needed to charge the baddy. This obviously took a long time, before we were herded into the boss's private car to pick up our bags and file the charge with the judge at the Judicial Court. Some funny moments occurred with the two policemen trying to carry our big bags and then listening to 'Funky Colmadina', whilst hooning through the streets of San Jose.Well, after our excitement for the day, two very nervous tourists headed off to a different bus terminal in order to head to the Caribbean coast and the little town of Cahuita. After our drama, we thought it was time to stay put for a little bit and ended up staying three nights here. The first day, we organised a snorkelling trip to see the coral reef. Unfortunately, an earthquake destroyed the majority reef 15 years ago, so there wasn't a lot of live coral to see. We did however see a cuttlefish, lots of huge fish and a gigantic puffer fish. Our guide then took us to the edge of the National Park, where we saw lots of cheeky white-faced monkeys and a fluorescent yellow, poisonous snake. One of monkeys jumped into the boat and ran off with a plastic bag belonging to our guide, who then had to chase him. Luckily the 'thieves' were uninterested in our bag! We then spent the afternoon relaxing and soaking up the sun
05 More bubbling mud
. The next day, we rented a scooter and headed south to visit some other beaches. We went to the beautiful beach of Manzanillo, where we were the only tourists lying in the sun before heading to the more popular, surfing beach near Puerto Viejo.The next day, we had organised a tour to take us to the northern end of the Cost Rican coast to visit Tortuguero. From the little town of Moin, we took 4 hour boat-ride through the canals, stopping to see some of the many species of birds, lizards, monkeys and crocodiles along the way. We arrived at the very small village of Tortuguero and went for an afternoon stroll along the beach to try and find some baby turtles making their way from the nest to the water. Unfortunately we were about 15 minutes too late to see ten baby turtles making the journey. However, we were lucky in that one poor little green turtle was a little disorientated and swam out of the ocean, back to the beach, ran around in circles a couple of times before heading back to the water - somehow I don't think he's got a long life-expectancy! It was great to see the one tiny turtle, about the size of your palm, frantically moving his flippers about, but after our many failed attempts in different countries, I think we are going to have to try and get our turtle-nesting/hatching experience back in Australia.
We had a lovely seafood dinner of giant freshwater shrimps that night before our canoe ride through the National Park the next morning. Our guide was very good and managed to show us lots of birds, including a toucan from afar, a lazy sloth, lots of birds, crocodiles, otters and 2 different types of monkeys
06 Eerie volcanic pools
. It was then a very long journey to get back to San Jose, via a 'banana boat' and then 2 more buses.We were definitely on our guard this time and managed to reach the hostel with no dramas. For our final day, we decided to book a tour to see Volcan Poas. The volcano is still active, however as the crater is filled with water it helps to keep the eruptions at bay. You can still see the steam rising though the water and there is evidence of acid rain on the leaves of the plants. We then went on a short walk to see the extinct crater lake, which was a beautiful blue colour, surrounded by forest and was supposedly the scene for a James Bond movie.
It was then back to San Jose to organise our bags and go our separate ways. Dee is flying home for Christmas and Pete is making his way towards Belize, Mexico, Cuba and Panama, meeting up with some friends along the way. All in all, it's been an absolutely fabulous trip and we will be taking home a lifetime of memories home to Aus with us!!
