mg.bigadventure

After a shaky start in Uvita and a lack of whales, we had a great day today and have decided that we do like the place after all! This morning we went to Playa Ventanas. We had to drive through a river to get there (luckily the car we've hired has 4WD!) but it's a lovely beach, with caves that you can walk into at low tide. We managed to time our visit right and could walk into the gloomy caves, see the waves coming in, tiny crabs and crustaceans like giant woodlice climbing the walls - very spectacular. There was also a river flowing into the sea, which was lovely to swim in after a dip in the Pacific, cool and got rid the sand in places you don't want sand! This afternoon, when the weather was a bit cooler, we went to the beach at National Park Marino Ballena, which has a sand spit in the shape of a whale's tail at low tide. We didn't time our visit here quite as well but did enjoy a long walk along the beach fringed with palm trees and dotted with plenty of tiny hermit crabs. This time, we had to walk through a river (happily only knee height) to get to the whale's tail bit! This evening we ate out at a local restaurant - more rice & beans, this time with fish. Costa Rica is more expensive than we were expecting - we are going over budget most days, so we've been staying in some places with cooking facilities and making our own food. Pasta & tuna is wearing a bit thin now though, so even the rice and beans was a welcome "change"! Here the currency is called Colones and the current exchange rate is about 680 to the GBP, so we're having to get better at large numbers in Spanish quickly.... Tomorrow we head North towards the capital city, San Jose - the road signs here are terrible, so I hope we know the way (cue the song!). We have nowhere sorted to stay for tomorrow night yet, so wish us luck....Leer más

A bit of a shaky start to the day as Laura was ill in the night with D+V. The first illness of our trip, although I'm sure it won't be our last.... We went on a guided walk and saw green and brown basilisk lizards (very beautiful, especially the green one), monkeys, some large spiders (including the "golden orb", with one of the strongest webs of any spider - see photo) and more lizards. We also saw a 3-toed sloth - she was high up in the tree canopy and difficult to see/photograph (hence the not so great picture!) but worth seeing, after 2 weeks of waiting to see a sloth. Oh, and plenty of ants - many different types and sizes, including the "bullet ant", around an inch long and apparently very painful when it bites. Some of the ants (luckily not bullet ants) decided to explore my trouser leg and they bit me several times, to the point that I had to remove and shake my trousers before replacing them! It brought a whole new meaning to the phrase "ants in your pants"... In the afternoon we explored the forest more, found a cocoa tree and also had a paddle in the Sarapiqui river. We enjoyed the buffet dinners in the lodge - a bit more variety made a welcome change to the ubiquitous beans & rice. In the evening we enjoyed a beer in the hammock again, watching the fireflies come out for the night.Leer más