Costa Rica

I think it's fair to say that both of us felt like our last day/night in Panama had been a bit of an anti-climax, and hoped that our first days in Costa Rica would bring us bigger, better things.

The border crossing was a "real" Latin American border crossing. We got our exit stamps from mask wearing officials (they're taking no chances over here with swine flu) in Panama, and then had to cross an old, rickety railway bridge, passing lots of other pedestrians and bikers along the way. It wasn't until we were nearly at the other side that we realised that vehicles actually use it still, and had to quickly move out of the centre to avoid a huge truck! We got our entry stamps just on the other side, and had to fill in declaration forms about how we felt, whether we had a cough or temperature, etc. More evidence of the swine flu panic spreading quicker than the virus itself.

The first stop on our whirlwind tour of the country was a small town on the Carribean coast called Cahuita. Hopping off the bus, we made our way up the quiet and dusty street into the centre. We were pleased that we were not greeted by the tourist greedy touts we'd found in Bocas, leaving us to search for our pre-selected hostel. We did bump into a really friendly bloke doing repairs outside his house, and who introduced himself as "Jimmy Cliff". After we had wandered around, scratching our heads about where the hostel was, Jimmy Cliff became our saviour and said, "you lookin' for Backpacker's Dream? It's right across the street here. Why didn't you ask before?" We rolled our eyes at our school boy error (why hadn't we asked him before?) and thanked him profusely.

Jimmy Cliff shouted for "Joe" as we went through the gate. From the darkened hallway a small, boney looking man with grey hair and a twinkle in his eye, came shuffling towards us. His English was spoken with a distinctive American twang, and his humour and warmth welcomed us from the start. With Joe (otherwise known as "the teacher" and self proclaimed "professor of love") you never really knew whether he was cracking a funny, or being straight down the line. He really was quite a character.

We escaped the madness and took a quick stroll down to the national park, which is where a narrow, white sandy beach meets the humid, green jungle. As we'd arrived so late in the day we were restricted to a quick walk across the beach, squishing the soft sand between our toes. It was so pretty that we resigned ourselves to returning the next morning, having a walk in the jungle followed by a stint on the beach.

The nightlife in Cahuita wasn't exactly electrifying, so we settled for a couple of beers in the busiest bar we could find, followed by a succulent fresh fish dinner by the sea.

Next morning we opted to take our breakfast down to the beach, and sit eating our cereal with the refreshing ocean breeze on our faces. We started our walk on the well marked trail through the jungle, which literally ran parallel to the beach. As soon we started we encountered huge nests overflowing with giant termites, the path awash with the sizable creatures as they marched to and from their abode.

James was on a bit of a mission. Ever since childhood he's had an obsession with sloths. The jungle at Cahuita is suppose to be the home of lots of these fuzzy animals, so every so often we would stop to look high up in the trees for any signs of life. The soundtrack to the forest were distant calls of howler monkeys, who although were deep into the forest, were certainly making their presence know.

As we continued down the path I managed to spot a large, prehistoric looking lizard in the bushes, which from the distance looked exactly like a huge leaf due to it's electric green colour. James picked his way carefully through the undergrowth to get a snap of this curious looking beast. We also found a smaller one further down the trail.

We had been walking for about an hour, getting deeper and deeper into the jungle, when I looked at James and realised that he had 3 mosquitoes feasting on him. I had applied a little repellent on my upper half, but my bare legs were an open invitation to all the hungry insects within a mile radius. We quickly dowsed ourselves in DEET, but feared that there were already many well-fed mozzies in the area.

Disheartened at our failed sloth spotting, we made our way back along the beach to the hostel for a spot of lunch. I was so overheated from our walk that I needed another shower, and was glad to be able to slip on my bikini and sarong in place of my clothes.


We spent the rest of the day on the sandy shores with tiny crabs flitting in and out of their holes all around us. We only managed to squeeze about an hour of sun before the clouds knitted overhead. It was still hot though, and we were able to enjoy several dips in the warm Carribean waters.

That night brought delicious local food, which was chicken with rice, beans and plantain. Whilst it was nothing that we hadn't tried before, this restaurant made all the food so fresh and tasty that we "ooh-ed" and "aaah-ed" our way through our plates. We washed this down with a couple of ice cold 2-4-1 cocktails at a quaint and busy bar across the street.

The next day we caught the bus out to San José. We resisted asking the bus driver if he knew the way (I'm sure he's never heard that before!), although we've been singing Dionne Warwick ever since our visit!

We stopped in really cool hostel called "Tranquilo", which translates into "quiet". I have to say that this was not a quiet hostel, but it did have a nice communal feel, with fast, free internet and cracking pancake breakfasts. The first afternoon we went to explore the city, which is pretty short on the wow-factor of other Latin American towns, but had a good local vibe.

Second day saw us catching a 3 hour bus on a day trip to Volcàn Poàs. This volcano has to be the most accessible, and therefore the most touristy, one that we've seen on our trip, with not an icepick or a crampon in sight. The entrance fee is quite steep at US$10, but worth it if you get decent weather. As it happened when we arrived we were met by drifting clouds and drizzle. The paths on the easy walk to the main crater was lined with huge-leaved foliage, which wouldn't have looked out of place on a Little Shop of Horrors stage.

When we reached the main crater we were disappointed to see that viability was down to about 10ft. Lonely Planet said that this was entirely possible due to the local climate, and that patience would reward us with a glimpse of volcanic activity. After about 10 mins we thought it best to walk around to the crater lake to see whether we could see anything there. We made our way uphill on the path, which had thick vegetation walling us either side. We were faced with even more dense cloud once reaching the other end, but amused ourselves by playing with an incredibly tame red squirrel.

The weather took a turn for the worse, and the heavens opened. Luckily we were under a shelter on site, so escaped most of it. We sat it out for about an hour, and noticed that the cloud had started to lift a little on the lake. We made a quick dash round to the main crater, and for the first five minutes there we were treated to a clear-ish view of the molten, acidic lake, spewing out sulphuric fumes in a billowing white plume of smoke. It was surrounded by blackened lava tubes and multi-layers of ash - it really was quite thrilling to see. We later found out that some of the people who had come on the bus with us hadn't been as fortunate, and the weather had hampered their efforts to see anything exciting. Thank goodness for our lucky timing!

Next place on our agenda was Monteverde. There is pretty much one reason to come here, and that's for ziplining through and above the canopy of the cloud forest. After hunting around to find the best company, we went with one called Extremo, which, as you can guess, had the highest (between 225ft and 450ft), longest (2250 ft) and fastest ziplines.

As we made our way in the minibus I did begin to think to myself, "what have I done?" but then realised that if height-phobic James can do it, then so can I. We were given all the safety equipment and a briefing on correct procedures for an accident free 3 hours.

Climbing to my first platform I felt remarkably calm, and when the time came we were both so excited that fear soon drained away. The first one was short and not very high, but by the third one we were whizzing across a long line, the valley floor giving way below us at a tremendous rate.

We did around 12 lines of various speeds and lengths, and as if that wasn't exhilarating enough, we followed this with a 90ft rappel, which is a line which drops vertically to the ground. It was here where apprehensive beads of sweat began to form on James' face, as he clamped both white-knuckled hands on the railings either side of him and started repeating to me, "I can't do it, I just can't do it". I tried to talk him into it as the instructor was hooking him up, but when he was told to sit down into the harness he repeated to the guide, "I can't do it". If it hadn't been for the instructor replying, "Aw, come on man" which translated into, "Stop being such a whimp" then I don't think that James would have gone over the edge. Then it was my turn. I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be, but it's the initial going over the edge which is the most difficult thing.

After the rappel we did the hysterical Tarzan swing. This was where each of us were hooked onto the longest tree swing I have ever seen, and took a leap off a very high platform. We all watched with a mixture of horror and fascination as each victim took the plunge. For some this was accompanied by a lot of screaming, for others the air was turned very much blue. One guy actually got stuck on the swing as he didn't follow instructions allowing him to be caught. He was dangling over a massive drop until the crew eventually managed to rescue him to safety. Not what you want to see just before your turn.

James went before me, and took to it with an ease which surprised me. He let out a manly yelp as he dropped over the edge, and I was pleased to see an over-sized smile when he swung back in my direction. As for me, I bent my knees and tipped myself over the edge. The free fall for the first couple of seconds was the most hair-raising experience of the day, and the cord eventually jolts taut, catching your weight and sending you sailing through the air. I think I made the most noise of the group, with a high pitched squeal of delight followed by a shout of, "THAT WAS AMAAAAAAZING!!!".

We had three more ziplines there after, but these were very adrenaline fueled as well, being very long and high. The second to last one James and I were paired together, so we set off with me in front and his legs tightly wrapped around mine, as we soared high above the fields and cows in the valley below.

The last one was by far the best. It ran across the widest part of the valley, and gathered that much speed that it carried you over to the other side through sheer momentum. I went before James on this one, and flung myself into the line with force. It was incredible just how quickly my speed picked up, with the wind whipping my face and twisting my body around. As I approached the other side I felt myself slowing down and started to panic a little. It seemed as if I was quite a way from the landing pad, and by this point the wire was going up, reducing my speed even further. I crawled into land safely, and awaited James. We were both on such a high, and were glad that we'd blown two days' budget on the trip.

There are a couple of entrances into the cloud forest, and we chose to visit the Monteverde reserve the next day. James resumed his hunt for the ever elusive sloth, as we squidged our way around the very wet and inevitably muddy circuit for 4 hours. Although we both got soaked, and James didn't find his sloth, we had a great time walking through the mystical looking forest. We only managed to spot a couple of birds, but were treated to the most amazing songs from them, which echoed everywhere that we walked. We saw countless stripy caterpillars along the path, and also saw the tail end of a wild boar running down the path in front of us. Whilst the beast was nowhere to be found when we got near to the spot we'd spied him, we could hear his heavy breathing and grunting in the undergrowth. We could see him, but we were sure that he had his beady eyes firmly fixed upon us until we left.

All that remained of Costa Rica was to make our way closer to the Nicaraguan border. We traveled to a small city called Liberia, where we decided to break up the journey and stop the night. There wasn't a huge amount to keep us entertained here, but at least we were able to catch up with the blog!

We went to bed early, hoping to catch the first bus out of the town in the morning. Arising at 4am was pretty painful, especially as it had been hot work trying to get to sleep that night. We gathered our stuff together and tried to get out, only to realise that we were locked into the hostel. In vain we knocked on doors to find someone in charge, and so I ended up leaving a note in my dodgy Spanish explaining that we needed to get out of the hostel as soon as possible, and asking that they would come and get us once they got up and unlocked the front door.

As it happened this was a bit of a blessing in disguise, as when we awoke for a second time James' eyelid was red and swollen. Once the door was open, we waited for the pharmacy to open so we could get him some treatment, before eventually walking to the bus station in the already searing heat.

The bus journey itself was pretty uneventful, but the border crossing was a bit of a farce. Costa Rica were pretty well organised, although the queue was long and they didn't give us the papers we needed to complete until after we'd arrived at the desk. It was the Nicaraguan side which was total chaos, with a whirlpool of bodies surrounding different desks, people wandering round handing out official forms and then asking for tips, and the longest, drawn out process of entry stamping ever! We were both fed up and hot when we crossed the border, and were hoping that we didn't have to go through a process like that with the other border controls that were yet to come.