Our accomodation – La Villa Atitlan– was lovely. 2 bedrooms, a pool and lawns leading to the edge of the lake. A perfect spot to chill for a few days and rest our weary legs. First stop was the laundry and then a supermarket to stock up on brekkie and booze. The nearest supermarket was a bit of hike up the hill – not ideal after walking 47kms – but we got to explore the village of San Pedro. As soon as we arrived it started bucketing down (you can set your clock to the timing of it every day) so we huddled under a canopy of a street stall and had the best fresh tacos ever. A$6 for 3 each. I then grabbed some hot chips – she held up fingers saying they were 2, 3 or 5. I thought she meant 20Q etc. No, she meant 2Q – 40c. That night we enjoyed the luxury of going to bed early tucked between nice clean sheets with it bucketing down outside.
The next day we did very little. I caught up with the blog while Deryn explored the town visiting the local market and wandering around the many little laneways. We were both still tired from the trek so enjoyed just lazing around on the hammock and outdoor chairs with the odd dip in the lake. We tried Jamie’s recommended falafel restaurant – Ha Falafel– and were not disappointed – fabulous. Deryn booked in a horse ride for the next day – 80Q ($16) for a 2 hour ride.
The horses and our guide met us a 100m from out villa and we proceeded to ride through the town. It was brilliant – dodging signs, tuk tuks, people etc. Before long the traffic thinned out and we were in the forest around the lake edge. Pedro our host’s English was very good so we got to hear a bit of history of the place. The water of the lake is rising because of the introduction of Black Bass by PanAm in the 50s – they thought they could sell the fishing to Americans. The introduction damaged the natural ecosystem. The bass ate all the local fish and none of the algae which in turn meant the algae bloomed. The algae plugged the vents at the bottom of the lake which helped drain it. Now the water is rising. Go figure. We headed out for 75m, taking only 45 to return. It was brilliant cantering along the paved roads and then winding our way back through the village. Best $16 we had ever spent. We stopped at Ha Falafel for another falafel on our way back to our villa. Spent the rest of the afternoon chilling before heading out around 4 to the hot springs on the other side of town. We were told upon arrival that they needed 30 minutes to heat the water up (not geothermal then) so we headed to a local bar for a quick couple of bevvies and a game of cards. Upon return the water was ready and we got to spend a lovely hour chilling in the hot pool, punctuated by a quick dip in the cold pool . Bliss.
We grabbed a boat the next morning to take us across the lake to San Marcos. It was sad leaving San Pedro, we really enjoyed the back packer vibe of the place. We waited at a local cafe to be picked up and taken to our new home as it was a wee way out of the village. San Marcos is known as the hippy haven on lake Atitlan and we could certainly see why. There were quite a few older, bedraggled and guant westerners around the place – maybe they looked worse before they arrived?? The village was cute. Eventually our host arrived to take us in a tuk tuk to our accommodation – about a 1km out of town. Baraka Atitlan was perched on the side of the cliff with stunning views of the 3 Lake Atitlan volcanoes – Atitlan, Pedro and Toliman. There were steep steps down to a small wharf to jump off into the lake. Magic.
After relaxing and taking in the serenity we headed back into town to grab some food at a Restaurant Fe – pizza and salad. We bumped into both Oded and his girlfriend as well as Teal and Brook walking past the restaurant. Deryn headed home while I travelled for an hour in a tuk tuk to meet a local person. 200Q tuktuk ride. I think I was ripped off but in the context of the bigger picture, not too bad. We did however have a fun night playing cards, boozing and interspersed with some vigorous debates. The next morning was spent enjoying the tranquility and view of our accommodation. Apart from the 2 climbs down the steps for swims and having to move from the upstairs apartment to the downstairs one on account of us being put in the wrong one, we did little activity. The downstairs apartment was still really nice but did not have the deckspace and as much sunlight. Best view from a toilet ever though. Around 4 we headed to Cerro Tzankujil (Nature Reserve) for the well know jump off the platform into the sea. It was 20Q entry fee and then we followed the path along the cliff face until we came across the platform. It was probably about a 10m jump, so not easy. I did a couple of jumps, including a back flip and even Deryn after some deliberation plucked up the courage to jump but landed slightly off so had a bit of a sore bum. We bumped into a couple of Kiwis from the Naki which was nice. I jumped again to encourage a small kid to do it – which he did. Brave wee fella. We made it home just before the heavens opened.
The next morning we grabbed a boat to take us to the town of Santa Cruz – known as the vertical town. The boat trip there was lovely – stopping at smaller towns and wharfs on the way and marvelling at some of the houses built on the edge of lake. Expats or locally owned we wonder? The climb from the wharf at Santa Cruz to the town itself was over 200 metres. There was music blaring from the top of the town – purpose unknown but certainly the speaker system was impressive. The actual town itself was a lot more indigenous than Pedro or Marcos. It was fun winding our way through the little alleyways and streets avoiding the copious amounts of dog poop. We found a tienda selling locally manufactured goods so stocked up on a few local wares.
On the return journey on the boat we bumped into some Aussies from Perth although one of them was now living in Mairangi Bay in Auckland. Small world indeed. We stopped at Restaurant Fe again for the same pizza and salad. The owner recognised us from earlier and returned Deryn’s water bottle which she thought she had lost. We returned home for a kip, followed by our now regular daily exercise routines then it was into the cards and booze before our favourite home made meal of taco shells, tomato, onion, cheese, avocado, jalapeños and spicy sauce. Yum!! It was a reasonably early bedtime to start watching the next series of Mindhunter.
We had 1.50pm flight to Guatemala City so it was a leisurely start to the day. It was another stress free flight with minimal effort. I was a bit nervous about flying Volaris Airlines, Mexico’s biggest budget airline, but it was fine – I guess people with something to moan about tend to post. We grabbed a 6 Gig Guatemalan Tigo SIM card for $50 and was at our B&B Oh Espana within 20 minutes. It was located in a Johannesburg like restricted gated residential zone where you had to enter through a boom gate. The B&B was lovely with the owner going out of her way to help us. Suddenly I was excited about traveling again.
A few days earlier in Costa Rica I had started to feel like I was getting over all the traveling. After 135 days on the road I was finding it a bit of a chore and wasn’t getting excited about the journey ahead. After a bit of a discussion Dits suggested we slow our travels down – spend a min of 3 nights in desired locations and not head up through Belize to give us more time in Guatemala. A great idea. I am writing this a week later in San Pedro on Lake Atitlan in our lovely AirB&B, its a sunny day and the views across the lake are stunning, set off nicely by some lovey tunes that Jake Casella has loaded on Spotify for me. I am just loving being on the road again and really excited about the travels ahead. Guatemala really is special. Anyway, back to the journey to here.
We asked our hostess to recommend a dinner spot. She recommended Ciudad Cyala. We had to wait for the traffic to ease before grabbing a 40 min Uber ride to what turned out to be an upmarket shopping/dining area. We felt like we were back in Costa Rica!! We grabbed an expensive, but good, Mexican meal before heading home. It was an early(ish) start the next day so we could get a 10.30am bus to Quetzaltenango, more commonly referred to as Xela (pronounced Shay-la). We got to the bus station around 9.15 and after a slight language battle managed to booked out tickets. We had an hour to kill so headed off for a wander. We found a farmacia so grabbed some sleeping pills and then headed into McDonalds for some coffee. Even though we had days of breakfast at our B&B, I could not help myself and grabbed an egg McMuffin and hash brown.
After a 3 hour pleasant bus journey we arrived in Xela and grabbed a taxi to our hotel Lar Antiqua Hotel. The location was great but the hotel appeared as if it was in the middle of a renovation. We chose a room on the third floor for the view which meant plenty of stairs – get us in shape for our next trek! We headed out to explore Zona 1 of Xela and, as Deryn described it, “felt like we were back home”. It was so nice being in a town that oozed indigenous culture. We walked to the Quetzaltrekkers office to pay for our trek, Xela to Lake Atitlan Their office was in a run down hostel full of animals but the people were lovely. Quetzaltrekkers support a charity that educates village, and sometimes homeless, children – I think they said about 170. It was A$300 total for a 3 day / 2 night trek. The weather was a bit miserable so we grabbed a lovely Indian at Sabor de la India and headed back to the hotel to watch a movie.
Deryn’s research found us a decent place for breakfast called Mandarina. Turns out its run by a Melbourne lass called Alice who has been living in Xela for nearly 5 years. The restaurant helped fund her charity called The Dox Project which took stray dogs off the street, nourished them, neutered them and then found them a home. The place was full of dogs (clean and nourished) but we had a genuine Aussie breakfast including 2 fantastic lattes! A seed has been planted in Deryn where she is going to come back for 3 or 4 weeks, learn Spanish and volunteer with the charity.
After breakfast we grabbed a local chicken bus to Zunil village (5 Quetzel each – $A1) and then a tiny car (30Q) up the hill to Las Fuentes Georginas – hot springs. The road was steep and windy – I was glad we did not get a tuktuk up although Dits was adamant our car was a tuktuk in disguise – it also got very foggy near the top. It was 60Q for each of us to get into the baths plus another 15Q for a locker key – not a cheap outing. However the baths were lovely, especially when the place was shrouded in thick fog. We managed to hitch a ride in a tuktuk back down – there was 6 of us crammed into it – and got dropped off in a different spot to grab a bus back to Xela. We should have realised that the bus would be going to a different part of Xela so after a few conversations with the bus driver, they dropped us off at a petro station and then flagged down another chicken bus which took us into Zone 1. It was an unintended and not particularly interesting tour of Xela.
We grabbed a tapas meal before heading back to the Quetzaltrekkers office for our 6 pm briefing. We met our guides – Will and Jamie, both Australian. Will was from Melbourne and Jamie from Cronulla. There were 6 other trekkers – Blake and Teal from Portland Oregon, Riley and Ellen from Vancouver, Oded from Israel and Katrin from Germany. At the briefing we found out we had to carry all the food and were allocated our share. We also grabbed our sleeping bags and mats. Packing was going to be a real problem so we decided to take my large backpack and Deryn’s smaller one. Even then it was tight. We had to be back at the office by 6am the next morning so it was back to our hotel to sort out the bags, grab some booze (it is so cheap – $6 for a 375m of 5 year old rum and the same for a bottle of red) and try get some sleep. Neither of us slept well – I was awake most of the night, not helped by following the second Bledisloe on the NZ Herald web site. Glad to see normality restored on that front.
It was a bit of an effort hiking through Xela at 6am with all our bags but we got there. Breakfast was great which helped offset the annoyance of being told that we had even more food to carry. The weight of my bag was getting ridiculous. Around 7am we left and walked across town to grab a chicken bus from the Lo Rotunda bus stop. It was then a 25min ride to the start of our trek at Xecam. We immediately started climbing out of the Xela valley and for the next 2 hours it was basically up. Deryn and I both struggled, partly due to the weight of our bags but also because of the poor night’s sleep. We reached the highest point Alaska (3069m) at 10.30 and then spent the next couple of hours in a slow descent through the beautiful lush cloud forest. We stopped in a clearing for lunch – thick crunchy taco shells, fresh tomatoes, guacamole, peppers, spices, beans and lovely sauces. Delicious. The speed of the group was quite fast paced so we reached our first day destination, the village of Antigua Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan by 3.15pm.
The last hour or so was really tough so Deryn and I were pleased to collapse onto our straw mats, on concrete, in the village hall. After a coffee we headed to the wonderful session in the village temescal– basically a sweat bath/sauna that is the earliest of its kind in the world. It was housed in a tiny shed, inside were hot coals, a heated urn of hot water, a bucket of cold water and a bucket to mix the hot and cold water. You had to duck down to enter the temescal, quickly close the wooden door and once inside remove your clothes in a near pitch black environment. It was also very smoky. You mixed the waters, washed and then poured it over yourself. It was magic. Deryn lasted 13 minutes, I did 15. All the aches and pains of the trek vanished. We walked 16km and climbed 911m over 7 hours. Throughout the afternoon it was fascinating watching the clouds rolling into the village. By 6pm it was completely engulfed in cloud which gave it a very eerie feel. We were asleep by 745 after a fantastic meal of pasta and lunch leftovers.
Sleep was OK – my pillow was the sleeping bag cover stuffed with clothes and the ground was damn hard – but we were that exhausted that nothing would keep us awake for too long. We were awoken by Will at 6.15 am to the sound to cheesy classic greatest hits before waking across to breakfast at a local comedor (restaurant). The coffee, beans, rice, and veggies were really good. We were on the road by 8 for a gentle walk through the village before reaching Record Hill just before 10am. It’s called Record Hill because its basically a time trial to see how quickly you can climb the 600m (200m height) distance. The quickest time (a local – we did not not know whether he was carrying any gear) was below 7 minutes. Anyone getting sub 10 minutes was treated to a free ice cream at the upcoming “ice cream village.“ Will had seen a guest do it in 9.45 but anything below 15 mins was regarded as impressive. I came a respectable second in a time of 13.40 behind Blake who did an impressive 11.25. Dits did 16. It was a brutal climb but at least it made a challenging hill a bit of an adventure. At the top our guide Jamie gave us an impressive and fascinating summary of Guatemalan history and politics while we all got our breath back. We kept on gradually climbing until we reached Ice Cream Village (Tzucubal) for a well earned ice cream (no freebies).
We noticed most houses were not quite finished – turns out it’s how to avoid paying tax. You need to pay when the house is finished. It started raining soon after leaving the village so bag covers and raincoats were rapidly engaged. Next on the route was the “Corn field of Death” so named because it was a slippery downhill followed by a steep uphill. We were planning on having some lunch but decided to keep moving in the hope the rain eased at a suitable location. After a couple of river crossings the rain stopped so we found a nice spot by the river for lunch. The rain started up soon after lunch, but we weren’t too concerned as our home for the night, Don Pedro’s casa allegedly had hot showers and a fire to dry our clothes. We arrived at Xiprian at 3.15 and Don Pedro’s soon after. Today we walked 17.6km, climbed 833m over 7.35 hours.
The fire was certainly welcome but unfortunately the shower was freezing. Not to worry, it was still nice to wash off the mud and sit in front of the fire. Will had phoned ahead and ordered us either strawberry or pineapple drinks which went down very well with my rum. The rest of the group headed to the local shop to grab beers (no wine) while Dits and I got stuck into our carried booze. Deryn ended up sharing a lot of her much appreciated wine with those in the group that missed out on buying some. Don Pedro’s dinner hit the spot and once again everyone was in bed by 830. The roosters crowing, dogs barking all night and our impending 3.15 am wake up made sleep difficult – I have no idea why the Latino roosters find it so difficult to crow at dawn??’!!
It rained hard during the night so for a while the 3.15am awakening looked less likely. But no, 3.15am and Will was in there rousing the troops. Normal routine – toilet, teeth and pack up, ahead of climbing to the mirador for breakfast and hopefully some volcanic eruptions. We had a 45 minute walk up to the mirador, mostly along a well lit the road. The last 300m was through thick woods, before arriving at a paddock with apparently great views of Lake Atitlan. It was pitch black with loads of cloud when we arrived so we all grabbed our sleeping mats and lay on the grass waiting for dawn or an eruption. Unfortunately the clouds remained and the rain got us first – you could hear it working it’s way through the forest. Thankfully we had a small covered area which we all cuddled under for breakfast. When the sun rose and the clouds dispersed the view was stunning- we could see most of the lake, the villages of San Pedro, San Juan and San Marcos to name a few. Blake took the chance to fly his drone for some photos.
A couple of armed security guards appeared. They had in fact been there the whole time keep an eye on us and escort us down to the village of San Juan, 90 minutes away. They are hired by Quetzaltrekkers for every trek as it could be a bit tempting for some to know that there were, pre dawn, a dozen or so tourists every Monday and Friday huddling in the bush 3km out of San Pedro. Fair call I thought. The walk down was quite difficult as it was steep, but the views were amazing. We arrived at a little look out just above San Juan just before 10 and so had to kill an hour before the coffee cafe opened in the town. We lulled around the mirador before slowly strolling into town and the El Fondeadero cafe and coffee store.The coffee was great, as was the carrot cake and pineapple. A short walk today of 6.4km, climbed 142m over 5 hours.
Afterwards we all piled into a Ute for the journey over the hill to San Perdo and lunch at a local cafe. The restaurant was perched 8 or so metres above the lake with a gate you opened to then jump into the lake. I loved it and had to show the crowd my full repertoire. Lunch was a chicken sandwich for me and fish for Dits with a side of guacamole, rice, vegetables and chips. Once the rums came out it was bliss. Will took me on a wee tour of the town before we all said our sad goodbyes. It was so nice spending some quality time with a lovely, diverse bunch of people. I often saw Deryn chuckling away to herself as i regale these poor captives with my enthralling stories. Thanks Quetzaltrekkers! We grabbed a tuktuk for the 120m trip to our lakeside, 2 bedroom lake side apartment. Luxury!!
While writing this I heard another very loud cracker (I assume) explode, a lot closer than normal. We have been hearing them a lot in Central America but today we must have heard 9mor 10. However the latest few are really close. We must find out what they are about.
And to finish with some dogs. This pack suddenly appeared in Xela, in a real hurry to get somewhere.
We headed off to Manuel Antonia park. The drive was just over an hour along a narrow coastal road. The traffic wasn’t as bad as previous days so it was a pleasant hour. We arrived at our accommodation – Manual Antonio Park House– in a stretch of coast that was packed with accommodation. The house used to be a restaurant but was turned into a guest house. It was run by a Dutch local called Michael who did a great job of making the place feel like a family home. It had a huge pool and was completely surrounded by national park – so we got to see monkeys and Agouti (guinea pig) while chilling around the pool or in the very comfortable lounge. We went for a walk to explore the area and I dropped off a load of washing at a local hotel that did laundry – I was told it was 1800 colones a kg which was reasonable so I was a bit pissed off when they said they had a minimum charge of 5000 colones (A$15) for my 1kg.
Michael offered to cook us dinner – he used to own his own restaurant in the area. I had the veggie lasagna and Deryn had the chicken pasta. Delicious. Micahel was amazed I could manage seconds!
We were planning on getting to Manual Antonio National Park ahead of opening at 7am (it’s Costa Rica’s Mostar popular national park) but Michael said that is the busiest time, its best to turn up around 10 when the early arrivers start leaving. So we grabbed a local bus at around 9.45 (340 colones each/$1.20) and was in the park by 10.30. It cost $16 each. Most of the early path were wheelchair accessible so it was easy walking. It wasn’t too busy but it certainly was hot so at the earliest opportunity we headed into the sea. The landscape was stunning, tropical rainforest surrounded by stunning beaches on both sides. There were plenty of animals (monkeys and iguanas) as well as birds and butterflies. We spent a fair bit of time at Playitas Beach which was at the northern tip of the peninsula.
We spent about 3 hours in the park and walked over 8kms so were happy to head home to the pool and get out of the heat. We spent a pleasant afternoon chilling by the pool reading. We were treated to another of Michael’s meals for dinner – he gave me a massive plate of pasta and again was astounded that I finished it. Having the munchies certainly helped.
We had a leisurely start to the day as our next stop was the nicely named Cool Vibes Beach Hotelon the reasonably well know surf beach of Dominical. The drive was very easy and within the hour we were checked in to a well run and busy Cool Vibes hostel. The pool was tiny but that was fine as it was only 100m from the beach. The surf was obviously good as the place was packed with surfy types and there must have been 20 surfboards on the rack outside our room.
We headed down to the beach for a swim and to explore the area. The beach was pebbly with dark sand but pretty impressive. The surf was very choppy but the water temperature was perfect. We walked down the river at the end of the beach and had some fun diving into it and floating back towards the ocean. The town itself was tiny with half a dozen shops and the same number of restaurants. We grabbed a drink at Coca before heading home for another swim. It started absolutely bucketing down so we headed indoors for several hours to wait the calm. It never came so we drove back into town for dinner and an early bed.
The next morning we drove the 3 kms down the road to Hacienda Baru, a private natural park. Another $15 and we were enjoying the tropical rainforest once again. It was almost deserted which was a treat after Manual Antonio. We saw the usual monkeys, Iguanas and birds but not anything new which was a tad disappointing. After really enjoying the drinks yesterday, we headed back to Coca for lunch. Very good. The afternoon was spent chilling again before I cooked our leftover spaghetti and vegetables for a tasty wee dinner. That followed by another shite Netflix movie – our hit ratio has been sub 30% on the tour to date. Terrible recommendations from the online critics.
Deryn spent most of the following morning trying to sort out her phone. We’re not quite sure where it is – either at the DHL office or customs. We’re going to start with the DHL office and work our way from there. We were going to drive back to San Jose via route 2 (very mountainous) but decided with all the rain around visibility could be a problem. Before heading away we went for our last swim in the ocean for a while. It was absolutely teaming down which made it even more special.
We stopped at Ridiculous (priced) Burgers again for another overpriced burger as we passed through Jaco. After that the traffic wasn’t too bad until we got close to the airport and the DHL office. Initial discussions were promising but soon turned to dust and it now looks like Deryn’s phone is a lost phone. Incompetence. The drive to our hostel Finca Escalante– was slow but it was peak hour.
The hostel was lovely. It used to be a wealthy family home and was converted to a hostel a few years back. It was in the heart of the gastrointestinal area of San José so their were plenty of decent restaurants in the area. We met a friendly local so spent the evening playing cards and finishing off our alcohol. The next day was very slow but we did venture our for a walk for lunch before retreating back to the hostel for movies and sleep. We headed out for a meal – best meal on tour so far. I had sweet potatoes gnocchi and Deryn had tuna.
Our flight was at 1.50 so it was a leisurely start to the day before heading off to the airport at 10.
Our first night’s sleep in Costa Rica was punctuated by fireworks going off at 10pm (OK) and then 4am and 530am (Not OK). The only reason given by Charles is that there is a firework factory nearby – not sure of that marketing strategy.
After an amazing breakfast – fruit, eggs and potatoes we started out for our 3 hour drive to Fortuna. The roads were really busy because it was the Black Madonna public holiday. The roads reminded us of NZ – hilly and windy. And slow. But it was lovely countryside to be driving through although it got a bit dodgy when we hit a really foggy patch at the highest part of the journey. We stopped for a coffee in a little town on the way and to get a break from the really slow traffic. We finally arrived in La Fortuna about 1.30pm and spent a fair bit of time trying to find our backpackers – Hostel Packpackers La Fortuna– basically because they have 3 hostels in the town. The hostel was pretty cool, you are given a wristband which then gives you access to the facilities at all the hostels which include a pool and a hot pool. We unpacked and them grabbed a feed at the bar across the road. I ordered a local beer thinking it would be cheaper – no luck, $9 for a pint. Amazing how expensive everything is – most people coming to Costa Rica are from the US, Canada and Europe. They usually come for 2 weeks and pre-book everything so are not really noticing the pricing. We on the other hand have been backpacking through cheap counties and have got used to those prices. We decided after that to cook more of our own food while here in Costa Rica.
We booked our canyoning for the next day – US$80 each. On our way to dinner we met a local with whom we had a bit of fun with. A few games of cards and some rum/wine before we headed to the pool table to teach the other travellers ‘NZ rules’ at the pool table. We were tucked up in our beds by midnight ready for our early start. We were picked up by Pure Trek Canyoning at 7.30 – and they arrived on the second. Deryn assumed Costa Rica would be similar to our Colombian experience – we now know different! It was a short drive to the start where we changed into our wet weather gear and given a helmet and a heavy duty set of gloves. Our adventure included 4 rappels (3 waterfalls and 1 rock wall), monkey drop and a rock climb. The first rappel was over 50 metres so it was in at the deep end! Being dropped into a pond and rappelling through waterfalls was pretty amazing but there wasn’t really the fear factor Deryn and I were expecting. They wanted US$30 for the photos they took, but the twotightnomads just couldn’t spend the money. The bus took us back to their head office for a traditional Loi local meal – beans, rice, salad and chicken, topped off by this incredible sauce called Lazana Salsa.
After that excitement we headed back to our backpackers for an afternoon chilling around the pool before driving 5km north of the town to some hot baths. It was 5000 colons/US$10 to enter but the facilities were pretty good. Including a couple of water slides that Deryn and I had a go on. There was only 1 really hot pool, the others ranging from tepid to cold. Still it was a couple of pleasant hours – would have been amazing if Arenal volcano has popped through the clouds for a bit longer.
We headed out for an early meal before getting back into the routine of a few games of cards and the rum/wine. We popped out and saw our new local friend after a couple of hours but were in bed by 10 as we planned a hike the next morning. We picked the Arenal 1968 walk (that was when it last had a significant eruption – its been erupting regularly every few years since – nothing as major though). It was a 35 min drive from La Fortuna, and then US$16 each for the hike! We got there at 9 to it wasn’t too busy. It was a 5.1km walk around a lake and then up to a lookout where you had a great view of Arenal Volcano (assuming there is no cloud). We saw a few birds, but the highlight were these inedible ant trains carrying chopped off leaves as fuel for the fungi in their nexts. Amazing. The walk was OK but sorry to sound like a stuck record, but not worth the US$16 each. The walk was basically natural with very little human involvement – be good to know what they do with the money?
On the way back we stopped at the Scratch River for its famous free hot water pools. It was really busy so you had to use some local parking lads who charged you a fee for their advice and to clean the river. When asked how much he said between 3000 and 5000 colons (US$6-10). I gave him 1400. You had to walk under an over bridge to get the pools but it was definitely worth it. It was busy – the damn Black Madonna – but still easy to find your own spot in the river. We hung there for 30 minutes to so before heading back to our backpackers. We chilled for a few hours before heading out for dinner – Dits did a scout run returning empty handed saying she would rather buy some pasta in the supermarket and cook it ourselves. Which is what’s we did and it was really good!! Then it was back to cards and rum/wine. I ran out of rum around 10pm so we headed out to buy some more and had a bit of wonder around town. There were quite a few weirdo’s out and about, including a very pissed local who enjoyed a swig out of my bottle of rum. We got quite a few offers of cheap cocaine from various drunk locals. Thanks, but no thanks.
It was a bit of a slow start the next morning but we managed to get away just before our 11am checkout time for our 2 hour drive to Monteverde. Amazingly the town was 26km as the crow flies but over 110 km by road. It was a lovely drive around the western bank of Lake Arenal and then into the hills of The Children’s Eternal Rain Forest. The last 45 minutes was on dirt roads which made for slow going. Monteverde on first impressions was a lot more laid back than La Fortuna. Our hostel, Cabinas El Puebla, was near the centre of town, and given the prices we had been paying in Costa Rica, incredibly cheap at $26 per night. We had our standard Costs Rican lunch of cheese and salad sandwiches in the hostels cute kitchen and then chilled for a few hours. Deryn booked us a zip lining session the next morning with Extremo Canopy after which we headed out for a late meal (for us) at 7pm. The place was packed with northern hemisphere tourists so it took 4 goes before we could find a place we could eat.
It was a 20 minute drive to Extremo. We got there at 10.55 to be greeted by 20 people standing in the queue to check in and another 10 or so already checked in. We had read about the crowds but hoped for better. We finally got checked in, got our harnesses on and the went for our briefing. One for the English and the other Spanish. There was about 20 in each group. The Spanish finished first but waited for the English group to go first – tourists are more likely to complain on social media? I made sure I got to the front of the queue so for all 12 zip lines it was Deryn and I first and second! It was a real blast. 4 of the lines were over 400m, one superman line was 750 (you lie down with your feet in a harness for the superman zip). A couple of lines Deryn and I went together. We finished with a Tarzan swing where you are 100ft up a platform and drop into a huge swing. A real adrenalin buzz and not too bad value at $50. We met a young English couple – Jack and Yasmin – who had a phone and took some photos of Deryn and I. In return we dropped them off back at the village so they didn’t have to wait 45min for the tour bus. Before we left a couple of Scarlet Macaws took a liking to Jack and chased him around the Extremo office. Hilarious.
We spent the afternoon investigating some free walks in the area but nothing was that inspiring so decided to flag it. I headed up the the very popular Taco Taco Taqueriato grab an outdoor table about 5.30 to wait for Dits while she did her daily yoga. Tried a few local beers and then a spicy margarita – nearly blew my head off. The meal was ok – not sure why the place was so popular? We managed to get away reasonably early but had to detour to a local cafe to access wifi so we could cancel our booking in Playa Hermosa as it was the wrong Playa Hermosa nearly 300km from where we wanted to go. We found a place in Jaco and headed off.
The drive was pleasant – again the roads reminded us of the back roads in NZ. We stopped briefly on Crocodile Bridge over the Tarcoles River to marvel at the many very large crocodiles cruising in the muddy waters below. We arrived at our Beach Break Resortin Jaco just after midday. The place was very ‘resorty’ but perfect to chill for a day before we headed up to Manuel Antonia National Park. We headed into town for dinner at the famous Ridiculous Burgers before heading home for a Netflix movie.
The next morning it was a buffet breakfast with the American tour groups before Deryn headed off for the oldest surf group lesson ever. I finished “The Power Of The Dog” (incredible read) and chilled by the pool after a quick dip in the very warm sea.
It was a lovely night sleep in clean sheets and an air conditioned room – for me, not so much for Dits who gets cold with the air con on 24 degs! We ended up back at Nomada Eatery for breakfast – the food really was good – after putting our clothes in a washer at a nearby laundromat. I couldn’t believe they didn’t do a drop off so I had to dash back after 30 minutes to put the clothes in the dryer.
We then headed to the Canal Interoceanico de Panama in the old city to see the history of the Panama Canal. It was $10 each to get in but well worth it. They had a big globe which showed the movements of the continents from 380m years ago to today. Incredible. I had no idea how much the continents had moved and that the creation of the Central American Isthmus had such an impact on global weather and ocean currents. The building of the canal was a phenomenal achievement, but at a huge cost. The French first built the railway line at a cost of 12000 lives and then started on the canal. Over 20000 died before they gave up and went home – mostly of yellow fever and malaria. The Americans took over and first thing they did was improve sanitation and eradicate yellow fever. They lost few thousand lives but far less. They also used more dynamite than they had used cumulatively in their history. It was fascinating. I got a bit bored with the politics so moved quickly and in the process lost Dits. Thankfully I found her 20 minutes later wondering around the square outside. We had a wander around the old town before heading back to the sanctuary of our air conditioned room. The amount of upgrading of buildings in the old town is incredible – a function of the world heritage listing. The place is going to look incredible in 5 or so years. I spent the afternoon writing the blog and updating our expenses (South America is not that cheap!) while Deryn started planning Costa Rica.
We had an early dinner at a local bar and the headed back to the sanctuary for another average Netflix movie. We tried to sleep without the air conditioning but a rave next door meant we could not open the window. Thankfully the rave finished at 2am so we got some sleep.
We had our now favourite homemade breakfast of muesli, banana and yoghurt before grabbing an Uber to visit the Panama Canal proper. We timed it perfectly to watch a boat work it’s way through the Miraflores Locks. It was $20 entry which included entry into the museum. The whole process of the boat moving through the two locks was commentated on by a guide which made it really interesting. It took the boat 45 mins to work its way through the 2 western locks (there is a eastern lock and a western lock – the eastern one was closed due to maintenance) – it costs between $80k and $120k depending on their tonnage. The museum again was well worth a visit. We then grabbed an Uber (Uber’s are a must in Panama City as they are cheap and the cars are modern – unlike the yellow cabs) to a local Mall to grab a few supplies and for me to get a burger! The mall has every top end shop you could imagine – I grabbed some shorts and new jandals.
We were going to climb a local hill for the view but they close it at 5 so we had to make do walking into the new city along the ocean. It was a lovely walk with plenty of sights. We grabbed dinner at an authentic little Indian restaurant owned by a former bollywood star. We over ordered on the starters – who doesn’t over order Indian? We walked a bit of the way home before jumping in a dodgy yellow cab.
We had planned to climb the hill the next morning but on reflection decided to enjoy our last morning of the sanctuary before heading to the airport at 11am for our flight to San Jose. We grabbed another Uber to the airport (a long way out of town). Checking in to our Avianca flight was a breeze and so we got to spend an hour in their lounge. The flight to Costa Rica was 90 minutes, customs was a coddle and within 20 mins we grabbed our Avis guy to go pick up our car. Deryn had spent hours trying to sort out the car, insurance and not paying for an extra driver – mostly to no avail as the rentalcars.com terms were not accepted by Avis. Still, we still got a very cheap (works out $65 pd) new Nissan SUV. We were on the road by 3.30 with our first stop a local mall to try get some money (no luck) and a SIM card (sorted but no idea how to install). The traffic was a mare until we got north of the toll booths on the motorway, after which it was just busy.
It took us 75 min to reach our guesthouse in Greacia – La Terraza Guest House. It was run by an American from Washington called Charles. It was really nice with large rooms with balcony views of the lush bush below. We had some burgers delivered and went to bed with the balcony doors wide open (although with the insect screen closed) to appreciate the sounds of nature outside. A lovely welcome to Costa Rica.
And now to finish with a beautiful tabby we bumped into on our walk into the city.
