Costa Rica

Cahuita on the caribbean coast in Costa Rica was a great wee place. Only a one street town, but all the places to eat were really good, fresh fish all the way. Also it was just on the edge of a national park, with great beach and tons of wildlife. We went for a walk to the point, about halfway through the park, through rainforest all the way. Saw howler and capuchin monkeys which was exciting.

The Capuchins were coming down out of the trees to steal food from the tourists. One of them took an overly keen interest in the water that Jenny was carying. She had a brown trousers moment and ran for the sea. It was more interested in the group of fat american 'monkeys' with bananas in their bag! Monkey eventually got a banana off one of them after jumping up at them and kicking the bag. They have very sharp teeth so he wasn't arguing. The reserve was literally crawling with insects and crabs and lizards. The ground would russel about with every step which kept you on your toes, and then we would hear monkeys crashing about above us. Was great. There were also lots of massive spiders in the trees just above us and I had a few panick attacks involving furiously rubbing my hands through my hair after feeling like I'd walked through their webs. Was all good fun though. The insects in Costa Rica are all about 20 times the size of anything at home, and they have banana spiders running about the place. We got told that if you got bitten by one of them then you would have to get to the hospital within 10 minutes or that was that.....which was nice. Doing a lot of shaking of clothes still and searching about the toilets before using them.

When we were in cahuita we stayed in a hotel right on the edge of the forest and at night you could here the howler's grunting at each other. Was a bit disconcerting at first because I didn't know what it was. We spent a couple of days here and then moved on to Puerto Viejo, another caribbean town, just down the road from Cahuita.

Puerto Viejo was a bit bigger but nice as well. We stayed in a hotel run by an old german couple of hippies who had two dogs, one called Mr Nice aka Howard Marks. They also had three cats and some frogs. Was really nice. Basically spent our time at the beach whilst here. Met up with James and Sarah again and did a bit more drinking with them which was a laugh, may try and hook up with them in Australia.

There were lots and lots of big crabs scuttling about in Puerto Viejo, in the forest and sauntering about in the road. Was fun to watch them dodging in and out of, and under, traffic whilst having a drink. Puerto Viejo is the hotest place we've been yet. Absolutely unreal. Couldn't escape it. Had to get out of bed at about 8 or 9 because it became unbearably sweaty. We were drinking gallons and gallons of water and ron to keep cool.

After a few days here we headed accross the border into Panama, where we are just now. There was the usual carry on with everyone trying to rip us off. Once we had negotiated them we had to get a boat through the mangroves from Changuinola to Bocas Del Toro which was pretty smart. We arrived on an island called Isla Colon part of the Bocas Del toro archipeligo yesterday. Seems pretty nice although we were just told that it costs $20 to get to the beach, so sod that. Think we're going to go to a less touristy island tomorrow, Isla Bastamiento which is supposedly paradise, can't wait. Think I might buy a Panama hat whilst I'm out here to cover up the shocking hair cut that I got in Nicaragua. Got it cut buy an old man with a pair of children's scissors. It was a very scary experience involving a lot of spinning of the chair. He basically cut the front with a ruler so I was getting a slagging about it because I looked like a monk, so I tried to cut it myself with Jenny's nail scissors, which was probably a mistake. Look even more of a special case now.

Spent a few days up in the mountains and cloud forests of costa rica, at santa elena. Went on our night tour into the rainforest which was good. Didn't see quite as much as had hoped. Did see a tarantula which the guide poked with a stick to get it to attack which was interesting.

Saw fireflies and loads of insects and a raccoon. Not quite the jaguars, sloths and monkeys that we were hoping for. Did quite a bit of drinking with the couple that we were travelling with while we were there which was all good fun. Also attempted our own little night safari after several too many drinks. Didn't get very far though which is probably a blessing, given all the wildlife and costa ricans that own weapons.

I managed to pluck up the courage to do a canopy tour on zip lines in the rainforest, having initially chickened out of it because of the heights involved. One of the lines was 260ft over a valley which certainly focussed the mind, as did the tarzan swing. This was basically a platform that you had to jump off and drop about 50ft then swing out over the jungle. Had to do it because everyone else in the group that I was with did it, including an 8 year old girl. Was good fun.

Spent a few days in Santa elena before getting a 'jeep' - boat - 'jeep' tour to our next destination, la fortuna. Turned out the 'jeeps' were minibuses, surprise surprise. The reason for going to la Fortuna was essentially to see volcan arenal, a volcano overlooking the town. Unfortunately for almost the entire 3 days that we were there the volcano was covered in cloud. It is supposed to be very active and spews lava out the top. Didn't see any of that though. We did a trip to the hot springs which are heated by the volcano. It was pretty much a resort with different pools of varying temparatures. One of them was 45 degrees, and was quite entertaining watching people trying to get in it. Far too hot. We decided not to do any of the tours to the rainforests on the volcano on account that they seemed to be a bit of a con and we would be unlikely to see any wildlife. So we, along with Sarah and James, decided to chip in together and hire a cire and do our own wildlife tour. Couldn't afford a 4x4 but certainly got our moneys worth out of the car - a little gold hyundai - which me and james took turns at hammering about little rocky dirt tracks through the forest. Was great fun. Actually saw quite a bit of wildlife aswell, monkeys, vultures, and two different types of toucan. I'm not that fussed by birds, but the toucans were amazing.

Next day we travelled to San Jose, capital of costa rica, in order to catch another bus to the caribbean. Had to stay a night in san Jose which wasn't great. Not a lot to see and do, and felt a bit dangerous. We also stayed in quite a strange place with a weird night porter who liked to stare a lot, and a funny old man who crept about the place occasionally stopping and staring into space. Managed to survive the night though, and are now in Cahuita on the Caribbean. Very nice so far. Saw our first sloth, attached to one of the windows at our hotel here. Very very strange looking thing. Moved off up onto the roof after Jenny irritated it - as any good zoologist would - waking it up by blowing in its face. Moved off very very slowly and went to sleep again.

Going to spend a couple of days here then move south to the next beach resort, puerto viejo, then on to Panama.