Costa Rica Part 1

Well the lying bus drivers dropped us off in the middle of nowhere. I think he began to develop a conscience when he realised that there really was no bus up to Monteverde from this junction and that we were in the middle of nowhere. I reckoned we had the town within 5km that was doable and hopefully we could luck into some transport, but then again if we died then it would all be his fault and I hope his conscience eats him up. After the taxi tried to charge us $45 between 7 we decided we would try and hitchhike it. We had one wanker stop and offer us a ride. While me and the Aussie girl worked out who should take it the fucker drove off again. Then we stumbled into an Armadillo though only Mika and I saw it before it scuttled off. Eventually after every driver had passed us (scared off by 7 tourists no doubt) one guy stopped in his pick up and took all 7 of us in the back up to Las Juntas. This village is not even really on many maps but it is a blisteringly pretty place. A random discovery like Port Gibson in Mississippi. I would have liked to stay the night and see the town, but the others had time constraints and we ended up getting a taxi for $42 up to Monteverde. It was barely worth the hike for less than 50 cents each. Myself and the Aussies leapt in the back, while the others took the cabin. It got dark and cold very fast as we ascended into the cloud forests, but the scenery was fucking amazing. This is an awesome country. Just jaw droppingly beautiful. Take your breath away scenery. This is why people come. This is why this country is so famous. We ascended through a cloud forest in the mist with a perfect Pacific sunrise over the Nicoya Peninsula and the Pacific laid out like a vista infront of us. The country is so green. The Aussies said that apparently if you look at a sunrise there is always a flash of green at the last second once the sun drops, but neither me nor them could see this. The cloud forest has the same misty wetness as England and it was getting cold on the back of this truck, but I would not have forsaken that view for anything. Awesome stuff. We eventually arrived in Santa Elena and stayed in Hostel Jireh. A great place. The owners were two young friends who had only just set it up and its down the back but I paid only $6 for a private room. You get the use of the kitchen etc and the dorms upstairs need candlelight which is cool. It feels like a student house and you can easily become friends with the owners. One of my favourite places I have stayed so I decided to stay on for 3 nights for the first time since I stayed with Ana. We got some vegetarian food in and I would not eat meat for 3 days, which I believe is a personal record of mine. We signed up for a zip line tour and I managed to speak to Ana in the evening which was cool and the first time we had spoken properly since I wrote the letter. Did not have enough time to finish what I wanted to say, but it was something.

In the morning the Finns went and did the zip lining tour that the other four of us were doing in the afternoon, while the Antipodeans headed off to Monteverde cloud forest for the morning. I did not want to pay the $12 entrance fee so I slept in and decided to climb the highest mountain in the area (Cerro de Amigos) on a free trail. Its not that high and the trail is not that long. It is howevere steep, the path is made of clay and it is always raining, so its a very tough slippery climb. It took me a while of two steps up, one step back down to make it to the top. It also passes the northern boundary of Monteverde, so I could look down into the cloud forests and I think you may even be able to enter there for free. I did not try it though. Was thinking of it on the way down. When I got to the top it was covered in cloud so I could not see anything off the side of the mountain and only got to find the radio masts and towers. On the way down I was passed by a quad biker who had been delivering supplies to the top. He offered me to hop on and I found out he was a national quad bike racer. We flew down the clay slippery mud path to the bottom of the mountain and it was awesome. Sliding, skidding, jumping and powering at full speed all the way down the mountain. Awesome adrenaline rush. Possibly one of the best things I have done for free and people would pày lots of money for that experience. It must be like when Yoana went down the Swiss Alps on the back of the Swiss national ski instructor. Like one of those space shuttle simulators only real. I was very lucky, fired up on adrenaline and back from the boredom of Nicaragua in one run. I was also covered in flecks of mud.

I got back and read a bit before the others got back. They had not seen much so I think my morning was better. We headed off for the zipline tour. This is a canopy zip line tour and consists of lost of long wires strung out over canyons and gaps over which you slide on a pulley system. The longest on this tour was 1km over the valleys and we had at least 4 that were 700m plus. You can get up some serious speed on these things and it was great fun doing about 20 runs, although the quad biking was honestly more thrilling anf slightly more dangerous. It was a really enjoyable 3 hours though and well worth the money to be zipping through Costa Rica's amazing scenery. Everywhere you turn in this country is phenomenal natural scenery and so much wildlife that we even had a sloth living in the tree right outside of out hotel. On top of the zipping along there was also a stage where we rappelled down a steep drop. That bit concerned me because my vertigo flared a little, but once I realised the instructors were in charge of the rappel it became fairly easy. After that we did a tarzan swing. We were harnessed up and leapt of a gap to swing many metres across and up into the canopies. Was awesome even if the drop was a little daunting. Once you come back after 3 swings the guys catch you and reel you in. This they did for everyone and it looked fine. Then came my turn. I flung myself and sailed high into the trees due to my weight. On the third one they said legs down, but I had to jump to miss the net and then they failed to catch me on the way down and just winged me to take away all my speed. Crap. I failed to get back to the platform and the guy with vertigo was left hanging in the middle of the air out in the forest in just a harness. Strangely I was not too worried about this as it was quite pherapeutic out there. They had to put into action a back up plan and fling a hook rope out to me. This I had to hook onto my harness at the second attempt and they hauled me in. Then came the scary part. They had to starp me to one strap while taking off all my harnesses. I had to lean way back and could not touch the platform. I relied on only one bit of strap to save my life but luckily it held and they reeled me in. At the end they even ended up playing the video of the event, but because I was hanging out there so long I had 8 photos to everyone elses 2. Quite funny. I'd met two Yankees out on the trail. One guy was saying why would anyone stop doing what I was doing if they could and I agreed with that. Another girl from Florida invited me out for drinks that night but we never caught up with her. Once we got back the others went out on a night tour for $22 and this seemed better value for money. They got tarantulas, sloths, coatapis and a porcupine that took a shit off the tree in front of them. I finished off 'The Scarlet Letter' while the others were out. Its an awesome book and so much better than what I was expecting. I thought it was a love story, but its much better than that and he's a very good writer. Might have to try some more of his stuff. Wish I had read it before I had visited Salem as I skipped his house out there when I went in 2004. Me and Simon headed out to the bar after some vegetarian food, but it was pretty dead and we only stayed for one.

In the morning the Antipodeans left and the Finns headed out to the butterfly farm nearby. Grabbed some more leftover vegetarian food for breakfast. They all cooked such good stuff I did not actually miss meat as much as normal. I decided to do some more free things (I was naively at this stage thinking that it was possible to stick to my measly budget in Costa Rica. I have since given up) and hiked 8km out to the town of San Luis for a waterfall. It was a really pretty walk uphill and then a very steep 3km descent to the town. This passed a lookout point where you can see all the way to the Nicoya peninsula and I lay on a table for a while just enjoying the spectacular views. I think as it is all downhill it would be amazing to hike down from Santa Elena all the way to the Interamericana when you leave town. The clouds kept rolling in and moved so fast, but you could always descent just a little more and get under them for a great view again. I asked some thumbless road worker where the waterfall was and he sent me off on a trek. UGA have their own campus down here in San Luis for the biology students and it must be a great place to study. I had to ford rivers and streams (my shoes are actually legitimately waterproof. Nice to know) and walk past beautiful scenery and flowers of all blooms. Even the trees are like a painters palette of colours. Every imaginable colour you could possibly associate with vitality and life was on display like God's own masterpiece. I got to see the famous huge blue butterflies, whose name escapes me now. The waterfall had an $8 entrance charge so I skipped it and caught some Yankees with binoculars on the way back. They had just seen some Capuchin monkeys and I could see two of them on either side of the pathway. This place is like a living breathing zoo. So cool. I took the free looped trail called the Sendero Camino Real in front of the UGA campus and it loops up and down over 4km past the cascading river and through amazing foliage full of plants and leaf cutter ants. On the way back, after the evil incredibly steep climb, I bumped into an old couple from Washington State and we chatted for a long time. They gave me some small bananas (I love Americans from the cool states) and I got back home to eat some biscuits for dinner. The Finns and I discussed going rafting and they wanted to climb Mount Chirippo, so we decided to join forces for a while for weight in numbers. I started up reading Huck Finn again by Mark Twain and I had forgotten how good he is as a writer. I will need to pick up some new books in Panama City and hope I dont regret not picking up some classics in San Jose by Twain. So we retired and in the morning at 6am would get a bus to San Jose and leave behind this spectacular part of the country. I was reinvigorated and I can't emphasise how much Costa Rica kicks the arse of the rest of Central America. I definitely want to come back here again. So much to see, you need at least a month I reckon, though 3 weeks might be enough if you motor.