REB

$1.75 for beer? Well you better give me 2 then...
Panama, Panama
So, we left Vancouver about 27 hours ago and should be landing in Costa Rica in about 40 mins. The upside is that we can now add Panama to the list of places we've been.
Flying into Costa Rica last night was thwarted by a thunder storm over the airport, we circled a couple of times but our brave pilots decided to forgo a heroic landing in Costa Rica and high tail it for Panama instead. After sitting on the runway for about 40 mins they decided to call it a night and put us up in the local airport hotel.
So score for the day:
3 Beers : 0 Animals of interest : 0 Worrying insect bites.
All in all not a bad way to start 3 weeks of wandering.
Oh... And why we came over here in the first place.
written by  REB on July 23, 2007 from Panama, Panama
from the travel blog: Welcome to the Jungle...

Crispy's Birthday!
Cahuita, Costa Rica
Left Panama about 11am and made it through Costa Rica airport and onto Hertz by midday. Crispy in charge of navigation; decided to "avoid main roads" which took us through a "lovely" part of the San Jose suburbs.
Started driving east and made it to the Caribbean coast by 6ish, just as it was getting dark. Now in a very small, very unairconditioned lodge. Its 7PM, very dark and 28 degrees with 10,000% humidity.
No good pics today as it was driving through clouds and torrential rain. Tomorrow is monkeys, and very large bugs.
Score for the day:
7 beers (so far); 0 animals of interest (unless you count geckos); and 2 mossie bites.
written by  REB on July 24, 2007 from Cahuita, Costa Rica
from the travel blog: Welcome to the Jungle...

Cacophany in the canopy
Cahuita, Costa Rica
Woken by howler monkeys at dawn, yelling at each other across the jungle next to our cabin - sound like a cross between lions and dementors, very spooky and very loud. Didn't stop Ralph sleeping through till past ten.
Meanwhile a sqzillion blue & yellow crabs popped up and down from their mud holes around the cabin (successfully foiling any efforts at portrait photography) & geckos cackled at me from the ceiling above the shower. Unusual shower design, some kind of electric heater attached below the shower head emits sparks & dims all the lights whilst operational, operational not implying any kind of heating functionality but who'd want a hot shower in this climate?
Once Ralph rolled out of bed at 11am, showered and put on fresh clean clothes (which are damp within 20 mins), we headed into town for coffee/breakfast/lunch. This consisted of Chris using pigden english to order coffee (and no they dont understand us any better if you say english words slowly and loudy while affecting a bad spanish accent - "kood I pleez ave a black couphie?"), the ordering of which resulted in a lovely smile followed by a shaking of the head and a 'no cophey' reply from our waitress. Things were simplified moments later when a couple of Spanish speaking american ladies also ordered coffee which arrived promptly allowing us to point at the mugs and say in our very very best Spanish, "Dos, por favor" while pointing with no visible sign of underlying homicidality. No negative feelings in a town apparently dedicated to the memory of Bob Barley (spell check did that) .
While enjoyed the local coffee we witnessed our second torrential downpour, followed by our second power outage (cut to last night speaking to our gracious German hosts "Ja, the power, she goes out for 10 mins or maybe 40 often, ja?". We could barely make out his shoulders shrugging while sitting in the dark).(It was around the same time that our hosts mentioned the recent choke-a-chest aerial mosquito sprayings in an attempt to control the local outreak of dengue fever - the spraying has been so successful that they've cancelled the upcoming carnival events.
We then jumped into our trusty stead, the silver Hyundai 4*4 and headed down country. The roads resemble swiss cheese with a watery gravey. The potholes often outnumbering the road. The coast though is beautiful. Exactly what you would imagine the Caribbean to look like. In Chris's mind the only thing that could have improved it was Johnny Depp, bare chested with or without full Pirate gear kidnapping her for a life of muskets and muscles.
There are a bunch of small towns down the coast and tomorrow morning we will leave the Alby Lodge (www.albylodge.com) and go 16Kms south to stay in a tree house for a couple of nights. Its all about eco-iguanas. It would be very easy to stay on this one bit of coast for three weeks and see nothing else of the county.
Getting back to Cahuita about 3, we headed down to the National Park (a walk of almost 150m) and went down through the jungle for a couple of hours. Our disappointment of not seeing monkeys in the first 50m of park was soon put to rest at 51km where we found more knowledgeable park walkers staring up into the trees at monkey families. Maximum zoom & much camera wobble - the sloth was an easier target.
So the animal score card gets a good hit today with about a dozen Howler Monkeys, some very big spiders, leaf cutter ants and a lone sloth making up the tally for a slow stroll through the jungle. Ralph doesn't think blue & yellow mud crabs are worth the mention, nor the geckos which laugh out loud.
Tomorrow we will TRY and get up before 11am as on the agenda is a possible wake-up call from the canopy Howlers, a dash down the coast to the Tree House and a 2 hour tour (no Max, not a 2 hour cruise) through the jungle with a guide. Sorry Ralph, you'll have to be up earlier than that, the iguana tour is at ten.
So stunningly good score for day 3 with:
4 beers : 7 animals of interest : 0 worrying insect bites (but good potential from leaf cutter ants and huge spiders) : and one power outage. We should also be counting thunderstorms, only two so far today.
written by  REB on July 25, 2007 from Cahuita, Costa Rica
from the travel blog: Welcome to the Jungle...

Killer Ants!
Cahuita, Costa Rica
Day 4 and its confirmed - Costa Rica is a stunning place...
The day started so well... Woken at 5am by the extraordinarily loud sounds of howler monkeys - on second thoughts, the dementor description still fits but nothing like lions - more prehistoric - maybe the underwater rantings of sea-monsters. This time we got up to try locate them - well up in the branches & wouldn't come down to play. The howlers live way up in the tree canopy so its pretty hard to get any good pics of them.
Having used up our two days at the Alby Lodge, we headed south along the coast to Iguanaverde where we had been assured yesterday that our lodging would be ready whenever we arrived. Not so as the room wasn't ready til noon, but not a problem. To fill time, Ralph thinking that a 60Km 4*4 tour of southern Costa Rica would be 'fun' set the GPS for a quick cross country jaunt only to find that the road we were supposed to be on was in fact a 400m driveway.
That thwarted, we headed down to the bottom of the Caribbean coast, a mere 12Kms away to Manzanillo, to check out the pitcureskew beaches and potential future accommodation. As the main highway dwindled into a sand road, we turned the corner and found that what was once a highway was now the running track for the local elementary school. Rudely interrupting the student's 40 yard dash, we boldly traveled the last 800m of the Caribbean coast highway, did a 180 and interrupted them again.
With nothing better to do we stopped for Cafe Negro, and some rice and beans (rice and beans being the extremely tasty local, and only specialty). Fully nourished we headed back to the Tree House, checked in, and drove down our private driveway to unpack and lounge in the private luxury that was to be ours for two nights.
Crossing the threshold, Chris let out a yelp of pain and dislodged a nastily big ant from her foot. This followed by similar squealing by Ralph - both ignored by our sanguine hostess. Great living room, open to the jungle on three sides (literally - including free access to the toilet to any marauding beasts of the night). Can't help be impressed that they provide a freezer with ice and a blender for the creation of Caribbean cocktails. The upstairs bedroom is accessible by shaky suspension bridge and the mosquito nets look kind of necessary given the free jungle airflow.
So then Ralph goes to get the bags out the car. Placed them carefully behind the car. and whilst hoiking the backpacks out of the back seat, somehow contrived to stand in an ant's nest. Much hopping & yelling and then a roaring of engine from a now shoeless Ralph. Much panic methinks. How big was the ants nest? Could they get in through the chassis (it's not the newest of 4wd's)? Whatever Hitchcock themes were going through his head? Must have been extravagantly creative in his fantasy world cos he then proceeded to reverse right over Chris's suitcase, skidding to a halt and then blasting forward only to drove over the suitcase a second time. Whatever genius at the airlines made us pack all those squishy tubes in one bag in one case? Chris's case. (RB editorial - the fricken ant's shoot formic acid into your flesh and it hurts! Who wouldn't attempt a Starsky and Hutch escape under such conditions???)
ANYWAYS... victory was Ralph's as Chris has little sympathy (Crispy editorial - untrue), although she did bring out the Hydrocortisone - fortunately not destroyed by the previous maneuvering, went to the loo and got bit by an ant on the place that shall not be named... After a further strategic application of Hydrocortisone we temporarily abandoned the luxury tree house and headed into town for supplies - 2 litres of juice, a couple of bags of chips, some drinks and a dozen beers coming to around $10.
At this point we agreed that ants are not our thing, and we may look for slightly less painful accommodation tomorrow.
The day ended well with a tour through the Iguana sanctuary. Lots of lizards, BIG bugs, butterflies and a private beach all spectacular. The Costa Rica iguanas dwindled to minimal numbers but here they were hopping & slithering & prowling & scooting in all directions on the ground & up the trees. Fast moving targets, how did they used to get so easily sling-shotted as highly prized 'tree chickens'?
We braved the pothole highway for dinner tonight, very yummy at the Shwandera or something like that. And then back to ant city - getting in & out of the car is a bit hoppy, but this is otherwise the coolest place. There's lighting (not enough to read by keeping a very jungle ambience), a hammock (of course) and a solar shower built into one of the trees that support the whole structure. All very eco-sensitive we're told; constructed from only fallen trees - why the plastic tarp roof though? Everywhere else is some kind of banana leaves. Ralph has opted for the downstairs bedroom (bet he gets bit) which has an air-conditioning unit ( thats a rarity here) and I'm going to brave the tree room despite the vast gaps in the mozzie netting & the possibility of BIG creepies up there. Separate bedrooms, how old are we?
The score for the day:
Squillions of animals of interest : Many, many worrying biting insects : 0 Power outages : and NO rain!
The temperature as we write this at 11pm s a balmy 26 degrees - Chris is cold!
written by  REB on July 26, 2007 from Cahuita, Costa Rica

BrAAAAWck - Polly Wanna Cracker
Arenal, Costa Rica
Left the Tree House of faded glory and did a dash north west to the Arenal Volcano. All the guides describe it as one of the most active volcanoes in the world. They also mention it is one of the cloudiest volcanoes in the world. We can certainly attest to the cloudiness, and have seen a few boulders come flying down the side of the mountain but no rivers of molten rock yet. We were able to see if for about 45 mins yesterday afternoon.
So right now we’re sitting on the veranda of the hotel looking out at the lushest of valleys, watching the buzzards fly above the rain forest. We’re booked in here for three nights so a chance to do some laundry, kick back, see lots of birds and butterflies and generally continue the pursuit of practically nothing!
The Tree House we stayed in a couple of nights ago is owned by an American couple with a thing for humming birds. Its pretty amazing to sit on the porch and watch a dozen of the little birds zoom around you fighting and feeding. We spent a couple of hours sitting and drinking coffee and just watching them. Taking pictures was much harder - they weren't hanging around for long enough to focus properly.
Also of note were the 4 bats that took up home in the rafters above our front door. We assumed if we didn’t bug them they wouldn’t bug us. This was a much nicer tree house than the first one - we'd recommend it to anyone - dry comfortable beds (the other one was like sleeping in a wet sponge) and it also has a lovely trail leading through some light (but sweaty) forest down past a waterfall to the river. But they only had space for us for one night so we moved on, checking out the places around the volcano.
Arenal Lodge, where we are now, is quite big but nice. Three multi-coloured macaws aren't bothered by the visitors at all, swooping around us and making faces all yesterday afternoon. We were given the last vacant room in the place which is right next to the bar\restaurant where there was a kid's birthday party on last night - the tree frogs competed successfully in volume with the waiter-turned-singer.
This morning we went into town forgetting that it is Sunday - everything but the chemists are closed. Instead we went up a dirt road to the butterfly farm and spent 90 mins being taken through a not for profit farm that is trying to re-establish rain forest back to areas that had been clear cut in the 70's. They had 4 large conservatories full of butterflies (which it turns out are as difficult to take pics of as monkeys and humming birds). They also have a bunch of tree frogs all taken from the local area. I would love to claim that we stumbled across the frogs while bravely hiking through the dense rain forest, but a fact is a fact and they were in the petting zoo!
The basic rule here is that if its small and colorful it's dangerous. The wee red frog is only about 1cm long, the stripy one is maybe 1.5. The coolest was the red eyed frogger with the sticky feet. It actually sleeps on the underside of large leaves.
A highlight of the butterfly tour was as we walked out of the farm area, a 'troop' of toucans flew overhead with their long colorful beaks. The range and abundance of wildlife in all its forms is humbling.
When we got back to the lodge, we had a wee bite of lunch and were accosted by a couple of Scarlet Macaws. They landed on the railing on the veranda just as Cripsy's fries were served. So lunch turned into an avian version of the crocodile hunter as we bravely kept the Macaws at bay using spoons and packets of salt. In the end the Macaws won, stealing a chip from Chris's plate and then flying into the restaurant. Turns out they aren't local birds but Brazilian and raised by the lodge owner who lets them fly free in the Jungle, and lets them steal food from the Lodge guests.
Again a great couple of days.
Lots of beautiful birds, no bugs, a beautiful lodge with wonderful people and a very shy volcano.
written by  REB on July 29, 2007 from Arenal, Costa Rica

The Volcano... look... the Volcano is exploding...
Tamarindo, Costa Rica
So after 2 days of sadness and despair, we now find our heroes jubilant, victorious and celebrating with an impromptu Volcano dance, or as we like to call it, "La Grande Fuego". (EdC; our costa-spanish is lacking but with a bit of creativity....)
That's right folks, we got fire, we got lava, we got thunderous rumbling, we got red hot rocks the size of a Buick rolling down the mountain. In the day it just looks like a mountain with some smoky looking landslides here and there - at night it really is a volcano... when there's a gap in the cloud.
We've used up our three days at the Arenal volcano and once again had a pretty great time. Lots of sitting and playing with the mawcaws, lots of trying to take pictures of elusive random colourful birds, plenty of time observing wild pigs (yes pigs folks, its quite surprising how interesting a pig can be when you're sitting on a deck in gorgeous weather, sipping a fruity drink, wondering why 32 degrees doesn't seem all that hot). We also did a tiny bit of exercise, walking a trail through the rain forest across multi swinging bridges about 50m above the rain forest.
And now we've driven to the Pacific coast, along some potholed dust roads and the odd very shaky looking bridge - Trying to find Playa Grande (Huge Beach) first we accidentally reached Tamarindo (the GPS gets radically confused, not us of course) which was an endless stretch of finished and half finished resorts of varying sizes, swarming with hardy looking surfers and more sophisticated bods - then to our intended destination, Playa Grande.
Which sounds like it ought to be McResort Central, but it isn't at all. Almost desolate in comparison, right on the edge of the national park so development is strictly restricted - ambient light would otherwise upset the nesting turtles.
Even though the turtles are currently absent and not expected till October, Ralph instantly declared we'd stay for the next three months. One big bar/restaurant open to paradise garden on three sides, about ten chalet bedrooms, tiny but decorated in deep organic parrot colours with original art works on the walls. The kind of place they provide sarongs as well as towels but you have to stumble to the back of a room to find a light switch.
Oh, might it make a difference Ralph, that there's a 50 horsepower ceiling fan as well as air conditioning?! And the Great Waltini, the owner I guess, has a reputation, endorsed by Ralph, as the ultimate chef.
Add to this, another checky parrot... oh so friendly til it takes a chunk out of your arm! (EdC: it didn't mean to be mean, macaws just use their beaks as a third hand) And finally a pool thats nearly warmer than body temperature.
There's also the most beautiful jays, stellar jays the owner told us, but not at all like the Stellar Jays in vancouver. The owner described them as rats, seagulls, thieves & most unwelcome!
written by  REB on July 31, 2007 from Tamarindo, Costa Rica

Crabs, Sand, and the Ferryman
Tamarindo, Costa Rica
Still at http://www.hotelbulabula.com and decided to stay a 3rd night.
So a very relaxing day... up at 9 (or 6 if you're Chris), a walk on the beach, a swim, drinks by the pool and dinner... not much else to report really. Ah... except that the weather is perfect, the ocean is hotter than my blood, dinner is magnificent, and everything else, well, perfect really.
Best just let the pics speak for themselves.
written by  REB on August 1, 2007 from Tamarindo, Costa Rica

A Three Hour Tour... A Three Hour Tour
Tamarindo, Costa Rica
6:45 - Wake-up in order to meet the local boat guide at 7am
7:00 - Sipping coffee waiting for boat guy
7:02 - Sipping coffee waiting for boat guy
7:04 - Sipping coffee waiting for boat guy
7:04:30 - Sipping coffee waiting for boat guy; thinking about my bed
7:05 - Sipping coffee waiting for boat guy; slap at mossie on my arm - miss...
7:06 - Sipping coffee waiting for boat guy; shift feet and look downstream
7:10 - Refill coffee
7:11 - Yawn
7:14 - Standing in a stupor thinking nothing, doing nothing
7:14:20 - Jerked to consciousness by sound of 2 stroke engine - weedeater...
7:20 - BOAT GUY!
7:20-9:45 - a TWO hour tour through the local estuary
10:30-11:27 - Splashing in pool
11:27:13 - Attempt to rescue bug that is drowning in pool
11:27:14 - Get stung by same bug
11:27:14 - 12:45 - Systematically attack and kill every bug that falls into swimming
pool - no mercy, no quarter
12:46-15:00 - Exhausted from bug annihilation have snooze
15:01 - Wake-up peckish
15:06 - Order club sandwich and beer. Club sandwich is bigger than my head
15:40 - Feed Costa Rica map to local attack Parrot
15:41 - Exhausted from lunch return to nap
18:13 - Write-up achievements for the day - feeling quite satisfied as have
accomplished much more than I had planned.
Herman the "very not attack" iguana
World's largest BLT
Bert the Attack Parrot
written by  REB on August 2, 2007 from Tamarindo, Costa Rica

Crocs and Cocktails
Quepos, Costa Rica
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.
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!
written by  REB on August 5, 2007 from Quepos, Costa Rica

Its sooo hot... and itchy...
Quepos, Costa Rica
41 degrees in the shade doing my best pommie on tour impression
So we've now confirmed that we don't get to take home the personal concierge. Chris is OK with this, but is a little disappointed that the little waiting boys also aren't a permanent part of the package.
This is a fourth night at Gaia (www.gaiahr.com) and it is also confirmed that this is one of the best hotels I have ever stayed in and thats saying alot when I am spending my own cash!
We started off in a 'Studio' - which was a beautiful room. Everything in the hotel is white, white, white... and having only been built 18 months ago has none of the tropical faded glory that most of the buildings get here after a few years of heat and humidity.
After a couple of nights in the studio (and we had originally planned to stay here only two nights) we decided it was just too nice to leave and went to see reception if we could extend a couple more nights - we justified this on the basis that we came to this town to go to Manuel Antonio National Park, which is open from 7am to 4pm. As we arrived on Sun afternoon it was too late to visit the park, and unbeknown to us the park is closed on a Monday. Therefore it only seemed right to carry on the the lap of luxury a couple more nights.
Anyways, our kind receptionist informed us that our studio room was already let out, but that we could upgrade to a suite for one more night, and that sadly the hotel was fully booked with the exception of the 'Gaia Suite' for the fourth night. He did a little sad puppy dog stare and waited for us to say "What the heck, we'll stump up the $600 for the room". At this point the hotel owner happened by and introduced himself and asked if we were enjoying our stay. Crispy as she so elegantly does, said "We love it here. Its so sad that you don't have a room for us for one more night - we'd love to extend our stay". Slightly baffled, the owner asked the reception guys something in Spanish and then said to us, "hang on a second let me go talk to central reservations", well bless his little cotton socks if he didn't come back and say "Hey, if you guys don't mind changing rooms you can have the Gaia suite for your fourth night at no extra charge". Well my mother and father didn't raise no fool so I was very prompt with the "You betcha".
The last part of this happy tail has a slight twist.
Sometime in the last couple or three days Chris developed an allergic reaction to something, we know not what. Could be the heat (it hit 41 degrees at the time of the very flattering picture above), could be the new and tasty fruits - Guanabana, which when mixed with rum makes a oh so tasty Daquiri, could be the vast consumption of hot and spicy mixed nuts, or more likely the doses of anti-malarial medication.
In any event, for the very first time in her life she was hot and itchy, and ironically our air con went out late last night. The poor lumpy, itchy girl tried to ice her sore paws, tried a shower, tried various medications from the three toilet bags a doctor always travels with - but at the end we called the front desk and asked them to come take a look. The local version of the cable guy arrived at our door and after 30 minutes of fluffing about admitted the system was poked and called the front desk for us. The (again) nice man at the front desk told us that the air con was poked (doh...) and could not be fixed and would we mind terribly, and if it was not a major inconvenience, if we could more into the Gaia suite early. Well my mother and father didn't raise no dummy so we replied with a quick "You betcha" and walked across the path to our new, enormous, many bathroomed, private swimming pooled, very own piece of heaven.
So in order to celebrate our new diggs, today we did... nothing. It just seemed a darn shame to have such a nice big pad and not lollygag around in it all day.
So thats the story of how we (very undeservedly) snagged the presidential suite - and enjoyed it immensely.
So back to our regularly scheduled program.
We got up early on Monday and took a tour of the private reserve with the hotel's guide. This is a pretty big chunk of land that the hotel has committed to keep in its natural state. As with everywhere in Costa Rica, you never know what you will see but your are pretty much guaranteed it will be stunning. The highlight was getting to understand more about some of the little things we have seen but not understood. For example, we have seen a truckload of these big spiders with colorful, golden bodies. Turns out they are called golden orb web spiders (http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/inverts/nephila.htm). We had been looking at the females who like all good spiders eat the males as a tasty snack immediately after mating. The female then goes on to build a rather large web make out of iridescent greeny-golden silk. This is also apparently ridiculously strong to the point where it can be woven into fishing line and, as with all good things in nature, the US military is looking at it to make weapons of mass destruction. Anyways, your truly got to hold the beast of a thing as apparently they wont bite unless provoked and they will only kill you if you are allergic (and you only really find out if you're allergic after the biting). At the end of the tour, and alot of chatting the guide offered to take us over to his ranch to see the real Costa Rica but we declined, as at that point we hadn't figured out how long we were staying and wanted to see other parts of the local area. We did ask him if he would guide us around the park the next day as its become pretty obvious that unless you really know what to look for, you can miss almost everything in the parks.
Golden orb spider - BIG
Going back up the hotel driveway one of the staff pointed out a sloth sleeping in tree about 3 metres off the driveway and a hummingbird (How you zey in englich? ah hooming-birt?) nesting in a palm frond right beside the drive.
"Hooming-birt" nest on hotel driveway
The rest of the day was spent nosing around town and the hotel, swimming, reading and sampling the many fruity delights of the daiquiri.
View from the top of the Hotel reserve
View of the Gaia hotel from the top of the reserve
Quepos marina
Pelicans in the estuary by the marina
Tues morning came and our guide came back at 9am to take us to the park and mentioned that he had seen a Jaguar and cub on his property the previous day and it was a shame we hadn't come along. No Kidding! He told us he has been a guide for 15 odd years and its only the second time he has seen one himself...
The tour through Manuel Antonio was superb. Its a very small park that you can get through in a couple of hours, but is incredibly dense in its animal population. now you need to know that this is a very popular place, with Disneyland type lines to get into it, people without guides can wait and hour or more just to get into the place.
So over the course of a two hour walk we had pointed out to us numerous birds, dozens of bats, a caimen, crocodiles, many sloths, white faced monkeys, a coati (think part racoon, part possum, part rat), a basilisk lizard (also known as the Jesus lizard for its ability to run on water), nests of angry wasps (used in Columbia as weapons between warring drug lords. Take one hive of angry wasps. Carefully put angry wasps into glass jars. Throw glass jars at your enemies. Trust the angry wasps to sting faces). And many, many, many more generic lizard things.
6 inch long grasshopper
Coati
Bats, about a dozen of them
"White faced" Capuchin monkey
Three Toed Sloth
Green Basilisk lizard
Caimen
YAI (yet another Iguana)
Miscellaneous small bug
White moth on white wall... local version or polar bear in smow storm
YAI
They day ended with the required fruity daiquiris and the most stunning sunset I have ever seen - Yes I know that everyone claims to have seen the most stunning sunset but this one actually was.
Gaia Restaurant
One strawberry, one guanabana
Surely an award winning sunset...
Tomorrow we leave heaven and drive up to the central plateau to an old cattle ranch were there is another active volcano, and other interesting stuff.
As some of you have asked, here are some random facts about Costa Rica
- Costra Ricans are called Ticas, Nicaraguans are called Nicas
- There is tension between Costa Rica and Nicaragua as Costa Rica's economy has boomed relative to Nicaragua in the last 20 years - mainly due to Noriega's spending on military.
- Now, many Nicas make it illegally into Costa Rica and take jobs
- North west Costa Rica was the setting for Ollie North's ill-fated weapon running into Nicaragua.
- Over the last 100 years, Nicaragua has 'invaded' Costa Rica a number of times, once in 1856 by an American named William Walker who attempted to put together a united Central America, and more recently in 1955 by some Nicaraguans in a couple of tanks.
- Both invasions apparently lasted less then a few hours.
- The average wage of a white collar office worker is $300USD a month. A laborer makes around $1.50USD per hour.
- A suburban house in a tourist town like Quepos is worth around $70K. Think Tauranga with less paved roads and only a few 1000 people.
- The government is democratic and currently very bio and culture aware. Recent laws have been passed that all restaurants need to have a certain percentage of indigenous dishes on the menu, that hotels must protect land and meet pretty strict recycling and eco friendly operating rules.
- The country is very very clean. There is almost no litter and very little in the way of pollution on the beaches.
- The general state of cleanliness and hygiene is very high. At least in hotels and restaurants there is little fear in drinking the water, or eating fruits and salads. We have yet to meet anyone complaining of illness due to poor hygiene.
- The weather is typically tropical. Hot and sunny in the morning. Highest we have seen is 41 degrees, but typically around 32. It reains pretty much every afternoon starting at 4 and the temperature drops to around 25 degreed at night. It must be humid with the heat and rain but doesn't feel oppressive like I have experienced in Hawaii or Asia.
written by  REB on August 8, 2007 from Quepos, Costa Rica

You take the high road... and we'll take the slow road... actually, you broke it... better get a new one
San Jose, Costa Rica
So after four days of indulgent comfort (well for me anyways... Chris of course being a large dermal scratch zone), we left Quepos to go to the high country to track down the most beautiful bird in the world (marketers eat your heart out) - the "Resplendent Quetzel". Now the Quetzel is the national bird of Costa Rica, and much like the national animal of Canada, the beaver, or the national bird of New Zealand, the Kiwi, no one has actually ever seen one.
Apparently it is iridescent green with a fuzzy head, and red breast (think Billy Idol with a wig and bright t-shirt) and a couple of very long tail feathers.
At the time of typing this entry, we are staying at the Turriabla Volcano Lodge, accessible only to four wheel drive vehicles. Its situated at 2600 metres. Its cold. At night its 11 degrees. Now, gentle readers you need to appreciate that this is about 1/4 of the high temperature we had the day before we arrived here... For those that didn't hear me the first time... it's COLD (NB: KJ and Karen if you are reading this we are well prepared for skiing).
This is a very lovely place. In the high season they have a total of 28 simple rooms that they manage to rent out pretty much every night. In the 'green season' - which is a sneaky way to say 'rains everyday' - they still expect to rent out the majority of the rooms. However, due to the lodge being situated 3Km from the Volane Turriabla, and the fact the Volcan Turriabla has been showing mucho activity that indicates and real and present danger (aka very nice firework like explosion), the actual number of guests staying in the lodge is 4. Max, not to worry, Don Antonio, who runs the place, has lived in the shadow of Volcan Turriabla for 50 years and has yet to be hot by flying red hot boulders.
Ed Chris: Hmm, Don Antonio is also not scared by mountain lions and relies on a couple of cuddly longhaired puppies (Pyrenees Mountain dogs) and a mule to protect his ranch: not phased by losing six horses to said lions last year - one of which, at least, was later to be found in a tree. Coool kind of dude, as are all the caballeros round here: wellington boots and yellow ponchos being Pret-a-Porter. Most disappointed we didn't wanna take the hosses for a spin - they really nice characters I'm sure but not so robust looking really. Note that this would have been a three hour horse ride to see the inside of a dormant volcano or a 12 min drive to the same place. It's cute to note that when you do drive to the top of the volcano the park ranger requires you to park in a position so you can make a speedy escape if in fact Volcan Turriabla decides to get snitty.
However, lets get back to the journey from Quepos, the town of everything luxuriant, to Turriabla, the town of the most beautiful bird in the world.
We left Quepos around noon a few days ago and decided to take the low road. On the map this looked like a peaceful 20km drive south down the coast and then a 200km drive through the central mountains to Turriabla. The 20kms down the coast was a dirt road about 40 metres wide which is used as the main artery for large trucks carrying African Palm fruit processed into palm oil. Each fruit weighs some 10kg and produces around 8kg of oil. The processing plants stink.
This bridge is a coastal classic. We must have gone across a dozen of these old one lane, iron beasts. They have steel planks that jump up and down as you drive across them. Some of them make the river fords of a week ago seem safe.
At the end of the southern dirt coast road we stopped to take a look and a walk on the last Costa Rican beach we will see before we leave. This was a fantastic rustic, wild surf beach. A great last coastal stop before the climb inland.
The drive drive inland and north was on a pretty standard two lane Costa Rican road. To interpret this, I mean that it is narrow and steep. The 200km took about 6 hours but is through amazing cloud forests up to 3500 metres high.
Arriving in Turriabla we were assured that the lodge was very well marked, and so it was. Following the signs, we arrived at a fork in the road which stated - left 17kms to hotel, and right 24kms to hotel. Well my folks didn't raise no dummy so we took the shorter of the two roads. Now this was 4pm and the sun sets (very fast) at 6pm so we had lots of time. We knew that access to the Lodge was only 4*4 so we weren't worried when the road went vertical and the rocks got bigger. As our progress slowed to 10kph and then 3kph we realised we were in for a lengthly drive. The Hyundai did us proud and we arrived at the lodge at dusk, the last 15Kms taking about 90 mins (quick update on the Hyundai... We broke it! Started making a very suspicious noise about 25km from our destination so we crawled to the nearest Hertz and made the international sign for broken car. The Hertz mechanic jumped in and took the car around the block and responded with the international sign for "you're screwed". A few signatures and a replacement car and we were in our way).
The last couple of days here have been great. The temperature during the day is about 20 degrees at the lodge and 11 degrees at night. In town, 2100m lower and a 45 min drive, the temperature is up in the high 20's and the jungle is completely different. Odd combination up here, swarms of humming birds in front of the ranch, and wood burning stoves in each little bedroom. The volcano rears its cloudy head the other side of the valley. We understand we're supposed to hear the rumblings. We haven't. But can see some steam when the clouds clear. Could be smoke, hard to tell. Its a working farm, an ox cart carries off the muckings out from the cow-shed early in the morning (Ralph hasn't seen that yet, must just be looking in the wrong direction). And I think the oxen also pull a plough way down in the valley below.
Yesterday we visited Costa Rica's main archaeological site. A 900 year old village that used to house a few hundred. One of three tribes of indians that used to live in this valley. The road that you can see in the pictures is around 150m long and rises from the river to the chiefs lodge. It used to be bordered by thick thorn bushes, Apocalypto type guards and shrunken heads. 'Nuf said.
Today we visited a Hacienda that grows sugar cane, macadamias and coffee. We watched the processes of each, had quite a bit of raw and slightly processed sugar cane, learned the difference between premuim and second grade coffee and had a handful of fresh macadamia nuts - all good. The gent that owned the Hacienda in the old days as also the presidente of the bank of Costa Rica and got his mug on the 50 colone note. Now replaced by a coin as its only worth about 10 cents.
Tomorrow we leave here for our last night outside the capital city of San Jose. It will be very sad to leave this place. So much to see, so much variety, so many very nice people.
written by  REB on August 12, 2007 from San Jose, Costa Rica

Quepos marina