Costa Rica

  Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Province of Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Saturday, December 13, 2008

Week 6
Friday
Another week, another country, they are starting to go by pretty fast and my trip feels like it is passsing quickly, but no panic I still have 5 months left!! ;) The border crossing from Nicaragua to Costa Rica was the most confusing so far. Dumped by a taxi at a fence, with no obvious signs of what to do an where to go. My travel guidebook also warned of the multiple, confusing, ever changing procedures that exist on this border.

Step 1: Purchase "a local government donation" in an unmarked office to the left of the fence.
Step 2: Stand at the fence and put on a really sad face until the guard comes over and opens it for you.
Step 3: Wander around aimlessly for 10 minutes trying to decipher which window at which building step 6 should carried out at.
Step 4: Pick the only window that is marked but says immigrations (still on Nicaraguan side).
Step 5: Filled in the same generic immigration form Iīve filled in every other country so far.
Step 6: Approach the window and hope the official doesnīt tell me I have to go back to step 3.
Step 7: Wait 10 minutes while the official swipes your passport repeatedly, types randomly on the keyboard (Iīve seen Fraser do that so I know the signs) and tries to make you feel like a criminal by staring you in the eyes as suspicsiously as possible.
Step 8: Walk to Costa Rica where you are confronted by more random queueing.
Step 9: Surprisingly easy, pick the entrance that says "entrada", listen to some Americans complaining about discriminatory entry taxes and get you passport stamped for free.
Step 10: Does not seem to exist anymore or maybe just on that particular day.

Road to Monteverde

An hour later Iīm in Liberia, a not very impressive stopover on the way to Monteverde. It is needed because the journey to Montverde, a cloud forest in the mountains about halfway between the Atlantic and Pacific is notoriously cumbersome.

Just like home

The next morning is an eary start for the first of 3 bus journies, each journey gets more and more off the beaten track and alot slower. The final leg see us travel 40 km in about 3 and a half hours, not much quicker than it took me to run the same distance last year, stopping for chats along the way. The landscape is surprsisingly similar to Ireland and the climate too. Damp, windy and miserable. Is this really Costa Rica or have I been magically teleported to Cavan???

A sloth outside our hostal

Monteverde is famous for action adventure activities in the cloudforest and the rare, some of it unique to this part of the world, wildlife. You donīt have to even travel into the depths of the jungle as one day we spotted a sloth in the trees outside out hostal.

A spot of ziplining

He didnīt see to mind being photographed and even came right up towards us. He moved surprisingly quickly. The weather was so miserable and many activites so expensive we decided just to try some ziplining and treking through one of the reserves.

View to the Ocean

The ziplining facility was high up in the mountains and had amazing views over the cloud forest and out towards the pacific ocean some 60 miles away.The ziplines themselves were up to 900 meteres long and some 200 meters above the canopy. The scariest ride however was the tarzan swing a 10 meter vertically free fall before swinging out into the canopy. Many guys that morning Iīm sure will no longer be having children due to the pain experienced at the end of the free fall!


By Sunday I had had enough of my stomach issues and decided to seek out a doctor. A mile hike to the clinic I was greeted by a dead ringer for Dom Joly. He had no English and spoke like I would imagine Dom Joly would in a skit of a Latin American doctor. It was quite difficult to take him seriously. He concluded I had some stomach / intestine syndrome?? and I should take some drugs, not drink diary products and not eat fatty meat..didnīt mention anything about beer!!

Inside the cloudforest

Inside the cloudforest 2

 
Week 7 Monday we trekked through the Santa Elena reserve for a few hours. We heard many birds and animals scuttling around but did not manage to actually see anything other than some caterpillars and the odd spider.




Tuesday

Leaving Monteverde

and it was time to push on for San Jose, the capital of Costa rica and the last stop on Ollies trip. I think he was already in home mode and the mood was pretty sombre. It wasnīt helped by the fact that the expected two days lounging by the pool in 30 odd degrees heat didnīt materialise as the weather decided it wanīt going to play dice. San Jose is a step up from the other Central American capitals and offers a bit more in terms of shopping, reataurants and bars.

Beach in Puerto Viejo

Cracking up lunch in Puerto Viejo

The final stop on my Costa Rica leg on Thursday was to Puerto Viejo just inside the Panama border. A sleepy village on the Atlantic coast with some very nice beaches. It is rapidly being developed and will not be loing before it is another major tourist centre. I tried some snorkelling on Thursday afternoon but again the weather turned quite rough and visibility dropped. I was however treated to a lesson in how to crack coconuts and get the juices and coconut from them by one of the locals. 


Friday

Banana farm near the border

it was an early start for the border. The only notable about the journey there was that almost the entire landscape consists of Banana farms. From very small back garden setups to large industrial size farms with factories for processing the bananas. The bananas themselves all seem to grow in side blue plastic, the reason for this Iīm not sure. It certainly seemed to be the staple industry for that area.