River crossing outside Ostional

So Crispy made peace with attack parrot, I think it knew she was leaving and took pity on her. So far the Bula Bula Lodge has been the most idylic place we have seen. However, the place we checked into today (www.gaiahr.com) if not as idylic, is certainly the spankiest. We are now the proud owners of a personal concierge, although neither one of us is sure if we get to keep him when we leave.

Olla Bert

The last few days have been packed with new things to do and see.

First off was our trip down the north west coast of the country. We may have only traveled a few dozen kilometers in three days but it involved driving down what on a map, and the GPS looks to be a pretty major road (say compare it to the road between Matamata and Tauranga on map) but turned out to be around 40Kms of gravel road and a handful of rivers with no bridges. Now of course our rental agreement clearly states that we MUST check the oil and water daily... and we MUST stay on sealed roads. Suffice it to say that checking the oil and water would be fairly simple but neither of us being particularly mechanically inclined, and the fact that Crispy's grasp of Spanish - even tho she is getting pretty good - does not extend to instructing our very freindly gas jockeys to check the dip stick. Staying to sealed roads is another matter all together. We have traveled a couple of longish stretches of the Pan-American highway and for the most part its pretty good. All other roads seem to randomly bounce between concrete with potholes, concrete and asphalt with or without potholes, gravel definitely with potholes, and pretty much no road altogether.

Its the pretty much no road altogether that is probably the most interesting and the most challenging. Driving south to a little place called Ostional, where the turtles come to lay eggs, was a very slow, but beautiful, drive down a 4*4 track where we first came across a river crossing. Having no idea what to do we parked up and looked at the river, then a map, then the GPS which assured us we were on a major highway ("Please continue on road 132 for 12 kilometres" says Jack in his best robotic Aussie accent), then the river, back to the map and then each other.

A lady across the river in a four wheel drive sung out in beautifully accented english, "go down ze river 50 meters and come back up. eeez OK". So we bravely turned the car down the river bank, ignored the wave of brown water coming over the bonnet, and kept the foot down on the gas (as instruced by the Loney Planet under "how to cross a river" to avoid the tail pipe filling with water and flooding the engine) and chugged across the river in first gear. Crawling up the other side and well chuffed with ourselves there were high fives all around, a celebratory sip of warm water and we were on our way.

River crossing outside Ostional

River crossing outside Ostional

River crossing outside Ostional

Farther down the road we came to a very small town called Ostional where we hunkered down in hill side hotel (10 rooms all to ourselves) and immediately proceeded to play in the pool for a couple of hours. Given the experience of the previous days we drowned all the bugs we could find, and were once again serenaded by the sounds of a troop of howler monkeys in the tree directly over my head. Apparently I make either the worst or the best howler monkey imitation on the entire planet as within minutes of my attempted hooting back at them they all moved to another tree farther away.

Also visiting were the ubiquitous vultures. These large (about 60cm high) ugly but fascinating birds have no fear and are everywhere. A couple came down to the pool we were in for a drink and were promptly chased away by Don Miguel Rodriguez Arroys, Crispy's very bestest and newest mate due to her flattering attempts and Spanish.

Don Miguel, Crispy and Anna-Cecilia

We booked into the 9pm turtle tour where Don Miguel assured us that we would have an English speaking guide who would give us a 60 minute video orientation on turtles then take us for a walk to see a couple. The turtles come up the beach simultaneously in 1,000's a couple of times a month but it is pretty near the full moon so there were only a few to be found at the moment.

We arrived own at the beach at the designated turtle jump off point at 9pm to be greeted by a lady with no English who took us around the corner to the tour guide. We promptly nicknamed him "Indiana Turtle" as he strode out of the house without acknowledging us one tiny bit and walked off to the beach as a brisk pace followed by four 17 year old American students who have paid there way to come to Costa Rica to do turtle protection duty for a couple of weeks.

The turtle eggs are still poached by locals who value them as aphrodisiacs and generally to make omelette's. As far as we know they are not used in baking but then we haven't really seen much in the way of cakes, cookies or biscuits.

The turtle tour turned out to be a 6km walk in total darkness as turtles are drawn to lights so none can be used on or near the beach while they are breeding. After walking for an hour our so, and with our eyes fairly well accustomed to the light we came across 'turtle tracks' which to the uninitiated look like a couple of kids have dragged sticks up the beach. We followed the tracks and found a green turtle (about 50cm long and 50 kilos) digging a hole in the sand and then laid 100 odd eggs, filled the hole and trundled back down the beach. Total time from starting the dig to back in the ocean probably 60-90 minutes. It was another very cool experience.

Green Turtle taken with infra-red as not light or flashes allowed

Since then the last couple of days have been pretty much a cross country jaunt down the coast from the north west to the south west of the country. Earlier today we crossed a bridge well known for the crocs that hang out below it. Largest one was probably >15 feet long but we were well up on a bridge so its pretty hard to tell.

white bird....

After the crocs it was a straight shot down the coast another 30kms (concrete with potholes, concrete and asphalt with or without potholes, gravel definitely with potholes, and pretty much no road altogether) to Quepos where Manuel Antonio park is. We have 'crashed' at a totally over the top small hotel for two nights and hope to see more monkeys, the odd anteater, a boa or two and lots more birds.

7 more sleeps and still lots to do!