Volcan Arenal & Volcan Poas - Week 15

18th to 20th Dec

After a bit of a panic in Monteverde, completly skinto, we managed to convince the jeep-boat-jeep people to let us pay in Fortuna. The JBJ was bit a bit extravagant, at $42 comapared to the $8 of the local bus, but the decision between 11hrs on a ancient bus on non-asphalt roads compared to 3hrs on JBJ was an easy one to make. It was even better when they dropped us off in Fortuna without asking for any money - result.

Fortuna isn't much of a place, it exists just to serve the tourist who want to see Volcan Arenal (Costa Rica's most active volcano) and for the thermal springs. We booked on ANOTHER tour, $23 this time, draining the year's funds too quickly again. After the obligatory walk through some rainforest first we arrived a the viewpoint all excited hoping to see this:

So when we saw this instead we were a tad disapointed!!

Nevermind, we have seen other cool volcanos, so off to the hot springs. They had around 20 different pools and jacuzzis ranging from 10C to 67C and TWO swim up bars!! James tried the hottest pool and burnt his foot, so went to bar to ease the pain.

BALDI cocktails - Katie found this very funny!!

...some hottie I chatted up at the bar...

The disapointment of the rubbish volcano view was soon forgotten with the relaxing waters of the springs. Next morning we were about to take the early bus back to San Jose when the hotel manager came up to us saying that the JBJ company had been around asking for their money - bugger - $42 less in the coffers!!

We arrived in San Jose about midday to wait for people we met in Monteverde to go on ANOTHER tour, this time white water rafting. James brought some Crocs after listening to Katie go on about hers. She has said things like "...oooh this is the first time they've been on a beach..." or "...this will be the first time they've been rock pooling...".

The rafting was delayed one day as one of the group left his passport in Monteverde and had to go back for it, so we decided to go to Volcan Poas. We got a bus to Alajuela and were horrfied to see that someone had stolen the A-Team van as some other dude (not B.A.) was driving it!! Then another bus and a very scenic drive to Poas.

When we got there, thick cloud = no view = pissed off James & Katie. We thought our Volcano luck had run out so we trudged off to walk through yet more rainforest.

Luckily the cloud lifted after a few hours and check this out!! The lagoon is turquoise due the dissolved sulphur and copper oxide.

Santa Elena & Monteverde - Week 14

14th to 17th Dec

From Santa Theresa on the Nicoya peninsula it took us 10 HOURS to get the buses up to Monteverde. Two buses, a ferry and another bus. It was completely worth it however, this is one of the best places we have stayed at yet!

The last hour of the final bus trip up into the cloud forests was absolutely amazing - tall mountains and deep valleys making up a stunning landscape.

Found a lovely place to stay in Santa Elena (which is the town just south of the Monteverde national park) called El Pueblo which was very cheap and homely.

There is so much to do around the Monteverde that we stayed for four nights (originally it was to be two). We spent he first day walking in the National Park which was beautiful and surprisingly absolutley deserted of tourists.

Lizard "thingy" eating a grasshopper - Cool!!

There was also a Hummingbird garden near the entrance which James became obsessed with and he spent over an hour in there trying to get a good shot of a hummingbird. Katie read her book (Spycatcher, which seemed far more exciting than an hour watching James swearing at hummingbirds).

These photos came out okay, the other 72 didn´t...

The next day, we did a Sky walk though Selvatura forest which was a series of ten suspension bridges hanging high through the forest. The longest bridge was 150m long and so James spent more time looking at the bridges than the forest canopy.

After that walk, we went to the cheese factory (this place just has it all - even a cheese factory!!!) where we could have taken a tour for $8 each but it looked a bit boring so we decided to spend our $16 buying cheese and we did!! (We haven't had a nice piece of cheese in three months so we were very excited...).

After a gourmet cheese meal, we met up with Chris and Jenny (who we met on the bridges earlier in the day) and went to check out the rodeo up the hill. We had heard that there was a big party happening which only occurs twice a year and horseback riders from all over the region come to participate in a rodeo. We were told 4 o'clock and when we got there, everything was sure enough all set up and people had started drinking but typically Central American style, the rodeo didn't start till seven.

Do you recognize Chris? - he was Kat Slater´s boyfriend in a few episodes of Eastenders - and yes he said that Kat really is that orange in real life!!

Still, it was well worth waiting for. What a funny night! The rodeo was really exciting with cowboys being flung about all of the place and a great party with much rum, music and dancing afterwards (Katie danced with a real, live cowboy - fab!!).


The next day, with slightly sore heads, we booked onto a zip-line canopy tour which was fantastic. It was a series of 14 zip-lines strung across the valleys of the forest (the biggest one was 500 ft high and 1500 ft long!!). There was also a vertical rappel and a tarzan swing which was the highlight for Katie (did it twice - so hard!!). The sensation of whipping along a zip line 500 ft in the air at 20 mph with beautiful scenery all around was just undescribable.

It´s hard to see, but check out the terror on Katie´s face!!

That night we gate crashed Chris and Jenny's honey moon again (sorry guys! - lovely to meet you, keep in touch!) and went for a few beers. The evening had to end early, however, partly due to tiredness from the excesses at the rodeo the night before and partly due to the fact that we had all run out of cash as none of the cash points had been working all weekend. Next stop Fortuna to look at yet another volcano...

Books we read: The Von Igelfeld Trilogy, Alexander McCall-Smith

Montezuma & Santa Teresa - Week 13

9 - 13th Dec

We set off at 6am from Jaco and took a bus, a ferry and another two buses to Montezuma. After alighting the ferry, we got on the next bus that was waiting for us but James decided that he needed to check the bags were okay. So off he went but the next minute the bus was pulling away with no sign of James. Much embarrassment for Katie as she tried her best Spanish in the most pathetic pleading voice to get the bus driver to stop. After two long minutes hanging out the door shouting for James, he appeared, running across the port with two enormous ice-creams!

Montezuma is a lovely spot on the south east side of the Nicoya Peninsula on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. It is a tiny village set in a cove of the coast with beautiful beaches (surprise, surprise) all around.

Only problem was, the first night, Katie got a very dodgy tummy compaint and couldn't move out of sight of the nearest toilet. Luckily for James (and inconveniently for Katie) we were in a room with a shared bathroom down the corridor so he didn't have to listen to the, quite frankly, revolting noises Katie was creating. Anyway, enough detail there we think.


So, Katie spent the two days and three nights in the toilet and James ate the daily budget for the two of us. While Katie ate mashed potatoes and vegetables, James had mussels, prawns, octopus with chicken and mashed potato in a lovely creamy sauce - Mmmm!!

James passed the days doing lots of walking and going down to the beach. He saw loads of animals and birds. I think he thinks he's becoming a bit of a David Bailey...


We got the 10am bus on Tuesday morning out of Montezuma, further round the coast to Santa Teresa, another surfer beach place. The waves here were really big here, and the surfers were getting battered by waves time and time again. It´s hard to understand how they get back on there board again to paddle out for another battering...


Stayed in Gaviota, a nice place with a pool and aircon so Katie could catch up on 3 nights of missed sleep and eat her way to full recovery (!).

On the second day, we hired a boogie board which was absolutely exhausting. We must have looked like compete idiots next to all the serious surfers because we were truly rubbish!! In the evenings we did a bit of rockpooling and long walks down the beach.

Books we read: Brighton Rock, Graham Green - not as exciting as we hoped!

San Jose, Quepos & Jaco (Costa Rica) - Week 12

San Jose - 30th Nov to 3rd Dec

We left El Castillo at 6am to take the boat back down the river to San Carlos where we changed our remaining cordobas for Costa Rican colones and got onto the boat down the Rio Frio to Los Chiles. Long queue at the border crossing, delicious chocolate cake in Los Chiles and then straight on the bus to San Jose, changing at Quesada. The buses here are great - not a chicken bus in sight! Everything is way more expensive here though and we're paying more than double for accommodation than we were in Nicaragua. Still, we're compensating by doing more of our own cooking which is quite nice after a million restaurant meals of chicken, rice and beans!

Stayed in San Jose for four nights, not because it was particularly charming or beautiful but we had lots of admin to sort (still admin to do on a year-long holiday - not good!) and the hostel (Costa Rica Backpackers) was nice:

Highlight for Katie was buying some red 'croc' shoes that she'd had her eye on for ages:



Quepos and Manuel Antonio National Park - 4th to 6th December

From San Jose we took the afternoon bus down to the Pacific coast to Quepos. It was a boiling hot day and we were absolutely roasting in the coach and what should happen but a bloody puncture! We had to wait in the searing heat on the side of the road for 45 mins while the bus driver and a couple of helpful locals wrangled with the spare wheel. The remainder of the journey was pretty uneventful apart from a couple of horrendous bridges (James was not at all convinced by the rusty flanges and had a good deal to say re possible improvements) and we arrived in Quepos four hours later. Luckily, the hostel we stayed at (The Wide Mouthed Frog) was lovely with pool and nice rooms so we relaxed in straight away!



After a day relaxing by the pool it was time to get active so we took the half hour bus up to Manuel Antonio National Park. As the bus pulled up to the entrance we were a bit concerned as the whole place was swarming with rich americans and the main street was packed with hotels and restaurants. Once we got into the park itself, however, it was absolutely beautiful and even better once we had steamed past all the fat americans who all stopped at the first beach!

There are several trails in the park which are lovely for walking and you can reach lovely secluded beaches and see lots of wildlife:



We spent a lovely day wandering, exploring and swimming.

Jaco - 7th & 8th Dec

The day after the national park we left Quepos for Jaco, a beach resort along the coast. The beach at Jaco is okay but nothing special so we are just staying for two nights on the way down to Montezuma. It's quite 'party party' here and last night we found a bar with ladies night. Katie managed to pass as a lady and drank free vodka and cokes all night - dangerous!

Books we read: Grave Secrets, Kathy Reichs - not bad crime book set in Guatemala (might have made it more exciting than it actually was...)

Rio San Juan & El Castillo - Week 11

28th - 29th Nov

We were supposed to leave Omnetepe for Costa Rica on 28th but were enjoying Nicaragua (and it's prices!) a lot so decided to join Michael on a trip down to Rio San Juan on the Nicaraguan side of the border. I think we were drawn by the rumour of huge river shrimps...

It was a 10 hour ferry from Omnetepe across the lake to San Carlos so we stopped in Moyogalpa first so that Katie could use her best spanish to get some sea sickness pills from the remote little hospital (it worked - still amazed!). The ferry crossing was actually very smooth and we were pleasantly surprised. We got out the sleeping bags and even had a bit of sleep.

Not much in San Carlos, it was a very poor little shack town (although Michael, the most enthusiastic man in the world, loved it on arrival and went back to stay for a night after we left him!) but we had time for a nice cheap breakfast of gallo pinto (the staple beans and rice dish of Nicaragua) before the 3 hour boat up the river left for El Castillo.

View upstream at El Castillo

History lesson time!! Rio San Juan and El Castillo have important parts in British history. Long before the Panama Canal was built the easiest route from New York to San Francisco was down the Atlantic, into the Carribean, along the Rio San Juan into Lake Nicaragua, across a few miles of land by mule to the Pacific to catch a steamer upto San Francisco. This meant that Granada became a important (and rich) city and very tempting to pirates and the British. Many pirates managed to get to Granada past the spanish and plunder Granada, so the spanish decided to build forts along the banks of the Rio San Juan to defend Granada. El Castillo is one such place, where there are shallow rapids making easy targets of attacking ships. A young Nelson (captain at the time) attacked the fort here with 50 ships and 2000 men and was one of the few people successful in taking the fort and defeating the spanish here...

Imagine 2000 men attacking this little fort...

Now it is just a remote little village made up of shacks with blokes fishing in the river.

Its not called a rainforest for nothing...

On the first evening we were wandering down the street and saw a lot of locals (we were the only gringos for about 100km) grouped together. We went to investigate and a little alligator had made it's way up the dock and was just hanging around!

That night we found the famous river shrimps and, wowzers, they were HUGE and delicious!


Afterwards, we invited ourselves to a big party at the hotel in the village. We thought it looked like fun and that anyone could join in but it was actually a graduation party for all the 18 year olds that had just finished school! Got drunk then Michael dressed up as a pirate... Don't ask.

Perhaps it was the local rum made from little horses? (70p for 350 ml)

Isla Omnetepe - Week 11

22nd - 27th Nov

We left perhaps the worst night´s sleep of our trip so far in Maderas and headed back to Rivas and San Jorge for the ferry to Isla Ometepe. A really bumpy taxi ride along a really crap dusty road - the bags looked liked they left in the Sahara for a week. Next the ferry, which was more like an hour long rollercoaster ride. Isla Ometepe is in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake island in the world, and so the wind gets a good go at whipping up the water into big waves. We really thought the crappy little boat was going to sink a couple of times as water was pouring onto our deck, all the while people around us were puking - see its not all fun!!

We stayed in Charco Verde in the south of the island for a night to recooperate after Crazy Dave's. We went for a walk next morning around the green lagoon with cool views of Volcan Conception, easily the coolest looking volcano yet being a perfect cone shape.

Next we headed over to the second half of the island around Volcan Maderas to stay at Finca Magdelena, a beautiful organic farm with lovely food and coffee. $4 a night too so we were very happy. We were told before we got to Omnetepe that it takes ages to get anywhere on the island and they weren't wrong! The roads are absolutely 4WD territory and this is how we got round:

It took 2 hours to do 8km!!!

We met some funny Canadians on the bus ride and went on a petrogyph walk through the forest next to the finca with them. We only managed to find one petrogylph, but saw lots of howler monkeys and butterflies.

To celebrate we ended up having way too many beers with the Candians afterwards. Well, it was only 45p a pint. Jody, Dan and Cheryl - see you in Bocas for new year??

Next morning was the climb up Volcan Maderas, about a 1300m vertical climb through spectacular cloud forest.

After about 2km of the 5km James´s hangover really kicked in and he had to turn back after being sick (!) but tough northern bird Katie made it all the way to the mirador (viewpoint) and to the crater lake at the top as the picture shows.

It was on that trip where we met the funniest bloke of the trip so far, Michael from Germany. Next day we walked to Finca Zopolote with Michael and Cady which is another organic farm which makes delicious organic chocolate. It is so good you just can't describe it - pure cocoa ground down and mixed with fresh orange, chillis or peanuts. Katie ate soooo much...

Cady, Michael and Katie, Finca Zopilote

Michael had us in stitches most of the day (not necessarily always on purpose!). It's hard to describe why he's so funny, he's completely nuts but the nicest bloke at the same time. He was crying with laughter as his favourite english word: tracksuit bottoms??!!

The next day, with Katie's legs and bum still aching from the 7 hour volcano round-trip, she made perhaps her worst decision of the trip so far - agreeing to go on a 'little' bike ride around the island. As you can see from the pictures the road wasn't exactly smooth, and bikes were made when A-Team was still being shown on television. The whole route is 35km which James thought would take about a steady 4hrs. After about 6hrs Katie was close to tears and James had to push both bikes up the hills. 30mins later we finished the lap barely able to stand - don't think James will be convincing Katie back onto a bike for the rest of the trip!!

The next day we were back up to Moyagalpa ready to catch the ferry to Rio San Juan.

A typical stray Nicaraguan dog

8 year old kids are better at riding a bike than Katie...

Books we read: Crap Dean Koontz, can't remember name...