Paradise Lost

The sun is shining on beautiful palm fringed beaches here in Montezuma. Its gorgeous. Unfortunately I managed to get robbed last night. First my travelling mate, Rich, had his backpack stolen with my camera still in it from our hike yesterday. Then I realised my boardshorts were gone from the drying line. Sucks. I am now travelling even lighter!

Its such a pity to leave this place with a bad taste in the mouth. The town is tiny and is perched on the southern end of the Nicoya peninsula. The beaches are white sand and there are hammocks between the palm trees. I took my refurbished (slightly shorter) flyrod out yesterday and caught tons of the smallest fish I´ve ever caught.

Rich and I met a couple of Canadian girls a few days back and they joined us over here. We took a hike up to an amazing series of waterfalls up in the hills. The adrelanin from the cliff jumping kept me going for hours!

Rich has now deserted me for Nosara and left me at the mercy of the harmonica playing hippies that dominate this town. I´ll head back to San Jose tomorrow to replace my camera before heading across to the Caribbean coast for a bit of reggae and english speakers.

Sorry about the lack of pictures...

Update

Aah! Thanks Lauren. A month late but here are some pics:



Sunset from the beach in Jaco the night before taking the boat across to the Nicoya peninsula.


The tribe in a bar in Montezuma.

Some cliff jumping at the falls above Montezuma.

Heading north (slowly!)

It seems I'm in Jaco till tomorrow! Rich and I left Manuel Antonio early this morning with the aim of taking a bus up here to Jaco and then catching a water taxi across the Gulf of Nicoya to Montezuma. But it seems the schedules have changed and there is now only a 7.30am boat and we missed that by miles. The 62km bus trip this morning took 3 hours! Anyway, this place looks like a pretty cool surfer town so I'll have to go check out the beach shortly.

We left Bahia Drake early Friday morning by boat back to Sierpe with the intention of getting a bus up to Manuel Antonio (though we weren't quite sure if that was even possible). As it turned out, a family from Quebec was also headed in that direction so we shared a taxi for the hour up the Pacific coast to Dominical instead of fighting with buses. From there we got a seriously dusty bus up to Quepos, 7km from Manuel Antonio.

We had some fortune in checking into lodging in Manuel Antonio. On arriving at our chosen spot it seemed they had a room for us only to find a double booking for a bunch of U.S. students meant they had to take the last room instead. It was pouring with rain so we persuaded the manageress to put a spare mattress in a single room (meaning we got half price) which was great as MA is very expensive! The added bonus is that the students were part of a large group and through meeting them we had two huge nights of partying. I'm now licking the wounds of my hangover and feeling thoroughly broke!

MA is a beach town situated at the gates to the National Park. The park I felt was very overrated, with hundreds of American tourists in socks and slops, but I did enjoy the beaches in town, they are very picturesque.

I can't seem to get any pictures to upload in the usual size so please excuse the small ones (click to enlarge). Now it seems I can't load any more at all so its just the one this time!

I'll write again from sunny Montezuma if we ever get there!

Bahia Drake

I´ve just discovered a place with internet here in Bahia Drake (pronounced Baha Drackay) after 4 wonderful days here. We arrived on Monday after a bus from San Jose to Palmar Norte ($7), a taxi to Sierpe ($15 shared), and an hour on a speed boat down the Sierpe river and then out to sea around to Drake ($15 each).

The boat ride to Bahia Drake

(Excuse me if I put in detail about costs and travel arrangements, many fellow backpackers have asked us to check it out for them).

All the guide books suggest this place is very expensive but we found a cute spot for $15 a night and there are many little sodas (shebeen type places) that serve great cheap food and beer. We´ve thus extended our stay to 5 days and will only leave tomorrow.

So far we´ve taken a boat along the coast to the Corcovado National Park. Its very remote and beautiful. We spotted spider and howler monkeys, a camen and many beautiful macaws. The little beach at the park entrance was also fantastic, with hundreds of pelicans diving into the waves all around.


Pelicans at Playa de Corcovado


A break in the Corcovado

Yesterday we headed out to Isla de Cano, about 45 minutes out to sea for some snorkelling. Swam with some dolphins and saw my first shark (a small white tip). I really can`t do justice to the beautiful scenery around here.



The boat trip back from Canos

Today we hired kayaks to explore some of the more remote beaches along the coast. Had another stellar day. Managed to catch some more fish before snapping my rod in twain! Nothing a bit of super glue and the multiple skills of an accountant can´t fix... I already had to glue my sunglasses back together after sitting on them yesterday!

Its been great to chill out on the beaches and do some flyfishing (with some success I might add!).

Inside! From the beach right on our doorstep



Okay.. so it wasn´t very big!

Early tomorrow we´re heading back to Palmar and then are hoping to be able to get ourselves up the Pacific coast to the Manuel Antonio National Park. Its supposed to have wonderful beaches and wildlife. From there we´ll head up to Montezuma on the Nicoya Peninsula.

Whistling through

Its going to start to look like I'm spending all my time online rather than travelling as this is my third post in as many days! But tomorrow Rich and I catch the 5am bus down south to Palmar. From there we're going to try to get to Bahia Drake in order to visit the Corcovado so we won't be in touch for about 4 days. We've just arrived back at the backpackers in San Jose after the bus ride from hell down from Monteverde. Should have been 3 hours but instead took 6 and a half! The seats all get sold and then the bus driver just keeps on taking passengers for his own pocket...

We had a brief but highly enjoyable time in Monteverde. This morning we went on a coffee tour and visited an Orchid farm (I got the pictures for you gran!). I'll post some more photos when I've recharged my ipod. It was giving me some serious uphill today but it looks like running the battery flat has made it reboot properly.

I look forward to checking in again after my next little adventure!

Quetzal donde es?

Its only 8pm and I´m buggered! Rich and I left La Fortuna early this morning after a wonderful stay there. Though cloud cover did stop us seeing any eruptions from the volcano unfortunately. Our trip today took us by bus to the Lago Arenal, by boat across the lake, and then combi bus over rough but very scenic roads to Monteverde.

Lago Arenal with the clouded volcano behind

This town is up in the mountains overlooking the Pacific ocean in the distance. The cloud cover generated by the slopes has created fantastic cloud forests and its become quite a popular destination. We dumped our bags in an even cheaper pension and headed straight out to the Monteverde Reserve. We were hoping to spot the elusive Quetzal but failed. Nevertheless, the scenery was spectacular. The forests are just teaming with air plants.

One interesting point in the park was the crossing of the intercontinental divide. Thats the line at which water flows either to the Atlantic or to the Pacific. One minute we were in bright sunshine and the next it was misty and raining! Guess which side this picture is referring to...

The intercontinental divide (towards the Atlantic!)

We´ve just had dinner in town and discussed our next move over a few beers. It looks like we´ll head back to San Jose tomorrow and then down to the far south to see the Corcovado National Park. That area is pretty remote but is supposed to be amazing. We´ve decided to try to do it independently on the cheap so it could well be a complete disaster... But here´s to an adventure!

Mr Lava Lava

I´m sitting in a little town called La Fortuna about 100km northwest of San Jose. I met up with a Canadian guy in San Jose, Richard, who is also travelling alone in Costa Rica for 3 weeks and decided to catch a bus up here. The 100km took 5 hours! La Fortuna is famous for its very active Volcano Arenal. Thats Rich in the picture.

We arrived yesterday afternoon, checked into a very nice backpackers called Las Palmas ($6 for double bed en-suite) and headed up to the hot springs. That place was awesome. We smuggled in some booze, like a bunch of varsity students, as beers there were $3 each! The springs are directed off the volcano into 12 different pools of varying temperatures and we had one hell of a party there with people from all over the world - even some Swedish chicks!! I´m pretty bummed as none of the photos with me in them came out properly...

Hanna and Sarah with Rich in a hot spring

This morning we took our hangovers for a hike up to the La Fortuna waterfall. Was beautiful up there, with crystal clear water and tons of birds. I´m yet to see a toucan though...

We´re now about to head up the mountain for a night walk to see some lava eruptions. Holding thumbs as the peak is almost always in cloud. In two days I´ve seen it clear for 5 minutes. Tomorrow Rich and I are taking a jeep-boat-jeep trip to Monteverde to see the cloudforests and hopefully my first Quetzal.

I´m having an absolute blast, and I´m sorry I have to be so brief - but fireworks await me tonight!

Hola Costa Rica!

I've just arrived at my backpackers in Costa Rica today. The flights were long but shorter than they should have been. My ticket was supposed to go via Peru and Colombia but when I landed in Peru they told me I'd been shifted onto a direct flight to Costa Rica. Shweet!

Feeling seriously jet lagged but needed to stay awake a bit longer so hooked up with a couple of other people who've just arrived in CR and headed out for a dinner. The local chow is very much like meat combined with samp and beans. Solid stuff. Decent beer too. Its now 8:30pm here and I'm absolutely stuffed. My body clock is still on JHB time (that makes it 4:30am!) so no wonder.

I plan to go check out some tour shops tomorrow and find a trip or two I feel like taking. Thinking of heading east for some river rafting followed by a bit of tarpon fishing further north.

I got to see a bit of the city yesterday when I stubbornly hiked from the airport bus stop to the backpackers to avoid taking a taxi - turned out to be about 5kms!