Sunday 12 September 2010

Costa Lotta

For me Costa Rica had a couple of problems. For me the most pressing was the cost of doing anything. Half day trips advertising "only $25 US" and the locals telling us this was cheap. Whilst you could find a dorm room for $5-6, eating and actually doing anything was rather more of a struggle. The second major problem was that nature just wasn't in the mood to perform.

We visited Monteverde cloud forest, a surreal experience that made me feel the atmosphere had been scripted by a second year media studies student. All around us were the peeps of birds, but the noises took on a spooky quality dampened in the swirling mists blotting out the tops of the trees so the source of the noise was rarely visible. We had headed there to try to spot the elusive Quetzal. It eluded us. We also planned on taking a night hike to spot sloths and tarantulas. I was rather more excited by the prospect of the former than the latter, but as it turned out the weather conspired against us and a torrential downpour dictated that a raucous game of pictionary replaced the night hike.

Our next stop was La Fortuna to spot lava flowing from the Arenal volcano, a very active volcano that apparently erupts nightly. After our guides distracted us with cuba libres we agreed to take their word for it and head by torchlight to a fast flowing natural hot river.

Giving up on the highlands we decided to head coast-wards into the jungles of Tortuguero National Park. The town of Tortuguero has no roads and is only accessible by lancha. We spent time bobbing around in the Caribbean, spotting sea-turtles nesting and I personally spent a rather frantic few minutes fending a dog off my ankle. Not my favourite experience of Costa Rica.

Deciding it was time to leave the drain on my bank balance we headed towards the border, finally arriving in Puerto Limon to find the next bus to the border was at 2pm, took 3 hours and the border closed at 5pm. Doing the maths and deciding spending a night in a border town was an experience we would rather not repeat, we headed to the pretty beach town of Cahuita where part of the national park is still free due to protests of the locals as national park entry fees are ridiculously high in Costa Rica, easily pricing the locals out. This results in a white sand beach, bordered by jungle and free of litter, an unheard of situation in Central America...

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