6th August, Transfer to Arenal

Dave and I got up early to search for monkeys. We saw one sneak into the restaurant and grab two sachets of sugar. He then sat very close to us, ceremoniously ripping open the sachets and gobbling the contents, all of which Dave captured on video!

Today was a long transfer day, so at nine we headed along the river from Tortuguero and then by coach to our lunch spot at Ceibo. We were then met for a three hour private transfer, with Pedro, to Casa Luna Hotel and Spa near the small town of La Fortuna by the Arenal volcano. I sat in the front with the driver and got a good fix of Spanish chat. We drove past pineapple and sugar cane plantations, as well as fields of palmitos – small palm trees, the core of which are used as a salad vegetable. Pedro explained to us why the pineapple here tastes so much better than the fruit which is exported to Europe, and can be eaten right to its core. It is because it is picked at the perfect point of ripeness, after totally organic farming methods, whereas fruits for export have chemicals added which delay he ripening, and are also picked when they are only partly ripened.

He also explained to us that the best places to get typical Costa Rican food at a good price are the restaurants called ‘Soda’, which are normally family owned individual businesses. We found one such place, Soda Vizquez,which came highly recommended on Tripadvisor. We ordered a cab in reception for a five dollar ride into the town. The restaurant staff were very welcoming and we shared nachos to start, followed by various types of chicken – garlic for Ben, Parmesan for me and lemon for Sam. Dave had the chicken ‘casado’ which is the typical mixed plate of rice, beans, salad, vegetables with either fish beef or chicken.

Sola Viquez


They then got a few essentials (Rum :-) )in the supermarket opposite whilst I shopped in the best souvenir shop I had found so far here, also opposite the restaurant, with hand made jewellery made of macramé and semi precious stones. One of the shop owners let Ben have a go on his guitar when I told him how much he was missing being able to play! Sam bought a lovely bracelet for my birthday, so it has been hidden away from me until then!

5th August, Evergreen Hotel, Tortuguero

After a reasonable night’s sleep amidst the sounds of the rain forest, we got up early, if not bright! , at 5.30 and set off for the six ‘o’ clock boat tour into Tortuguero National Park. 

After the initial confusion about which boat we should be travelling on, we were lucky to spot a sloth, a large iguana and several birds within the first few minutes of entering the park. Grandma’s binoculars came in very useful for creature spotting and we also saw toucan, white faced monkeys and a snake bird, spotted by Sam, who had a long twisty neck like its namesake and, although generally avoiding people, was still drying its feathers in the sun before being able to fly off so we were treated to an excellent view of it.

Iguana, warming up in the morning sun

Yellow ... Heron?

Yellow Heron Chick (of the above Heron)

Collared Aracari (Toucan)

White Faced Monkey

Snake Bird (Anhinga) as spotted by Sam

We then came back to the lodges and the others had a much needed kip. Dave and Ben then decided to do the Evergreen Lodge zip wire canopy ride, and right on cue, the heavens opened as they set off!

Dave: not a lot of English was being spoken so Ben had to interpret. As you can imagine not a lot of words came forth. The 1st zip wire , while getting very wet, was pretty gentle, but then you had to climb up about 20m up a big ladder. Probably my least favourite part. You got a great view of the jungle floor, so quite a different perspective than when you are In a boat. After that it was great fun, apart from the Tarzan swing which I wimped out of much to Ben's disdain.

Sue: Sam and I, meanwhile, had lunch and played Slam! Then at three we all headed off for our free kayak hire from the hotel. This was fantastic. We started in our own little channel, paddling through lush vegetation, until we could not get any further and the boys had to extract themselves from a narrow inlet via somebody’s garden. 

We then went across the main river to the other side and a bird landed on a branch right above us as we rowed into an inlet.

We rounded off the day with a swim, viewing toucan and monkeys by the pool – then cocktails by the pool bar ....

and, after dinner, a torchlit hike up the jungle trail and along a hanging rickety bridge, until the nibbling mosquitoes got the better of us and we played card games in the little bar before turning in for a good night’s sleep.

New Experience: Zip wiring 

4th August, Transfer to Tortuguero, Turtle Central

 We set off at six 6 our hotel for the transfer to Tortuguero. The boys were pleased to see that the coach was much more luxurious and, because we got on it first, we did not get the seat over the wheel! We stopped for a typical breakfast of tropical fruit, gallo pinto, fried egg and plantain. 

We saw a sloth up a tree behind the restaurant....

..... as well as a very old tree with an enormous trunk. (Thats the bit behind Sue...)

We drove on through banana plantations and cloud forest for the boat trip to Evergreen Lodge, seeing another sloth on the way, along with dragonfly and butterflies.

We were greeted at our destination with fruit cocktails and then went to our individual wooden lodges. Within five minutes of our arrival we had seen a large and a baby iguana, a hummingbird and bright butterfly.

In the afternoon the boys wisely opted for a sleep and Sue an I went for a trip to Tortuguero visit. The village was interesting for about 10 minutes but a sleep probably would have been a better idea. However I did get a good shot of the Caribbean coast , which was not exactly golden sands and palm trees.

We headed off for the Turtle tour, first catching the boat from the hotel. When we arrived, the long wait began! We were given group number six, so several groups headed off before us as the rangers gradually identified the best spots. We had been told to dress in dark clothes, to bring no light, no cameras, and that we would follow the one torchlight of our guide, in groups of ten. Eventually we set off and marched along a smooth landing strip behind the beach, which was relatively easy in the dark! When we veered off towards the beach, we went into single file so that each person could warn the person behind them about dips in the sand, vegetation and various debris such as coconuts or large pieces of driftwood! We managed to navigate our way to the first spot, where we waited at a safe distance as there was one turtle who was at the stage of digging a chamber in the sand above the tide line, in preparation for laying her eggs. The sea was crashing onto the shore and getting quite close to where we stood, but the white foam was easy to spot against the  sand, so we managed to keep dry!

While we were waiting, Ben spotted a turtle emerging from the sea just behind him. Unfortunately, the first turtle got wind of our presence, got nervous, and went back into the ocean. We just saw a blur in the darkness as she swam away! We then changed position moving close to the next turtle whose chamber was at a fairly advanced stage. There we waited patiently and quietly for quite a while until our guide informed us that it would only be about five minutes before she would be ready to lay the eggs. Our hopes were dashed again, however, as the turtle decided at the last moment to change position and start all over again to dig – she was struggling with some roots in the undergrowth which were in the base of the hole that she had dug.

At this stage we were beginning to lose hope of seeing some action, as the guides are restricted to a very strict two hour time limit, so despite the fact that August is the height of the turtle breeding season and we had been given a 95 percent chance of seeing one, time was of the essence! Fortunately for us, it was a beautifully clear night, so at least we were not standing in a downpour being nibbled by mosquitoes, as we had expected. Instead of this, we witnessed the most beautiful night sky imaginable, with fabulous stars and an excellent view of the Milky Way, due not only to the clear night but also to the lack of street lighting and remoteness of the location meaning that there was very little to conflict with the natural light.

We moved to location number three, having to carefully circumnavigate one particular turtle who was at the stage of the process when she could not be disturbed, in order to get close to the next one. A little later, our patience was rewarded as we got an excellent view under red light of this turtle laying her eggs. This was amazing and well worth the wait. She had obligingly come up trumps and laid her eggs just before our appointed time slot expired! Not only this, but we then also got to see another turtle digging to cover over the eggs that she had just laid to protect them from predators.

The guides were fantastic and did their utmost to accommodate everybody. The night before they had had to coordinate 780 visitors along a five mile stretch of beach. The visits are very heavily regulated and, as a result, the turtle population in Tortuguero has been steadily rising. It was certainly a trip with a difference and was very memorable. Back to the lodge for sleep

New Experience of the day: Turtle egg laying and I am not sure I have really seen the Milky Way before.

3rd August, San Jose

Woke up pretty early, to good weather. This is the view from the bedroom window. Had good breakfast , Sam liked the pancakes. Ben likes pineapple, Sam likes melon. Obviously Ben was quite happy as he agreed to take a photo to celebrate our 22nd anniversary. 

Good guide up to the volcano , cloudy at the crater  , so walked to lake, cloudy still . Walked back to crater and the mist/cloud miraculously cleared and we were able to get a good view. Bit pongy , that would be the sulpher!

Lunch was at a coffee plantation , gallos Pinto (rice and beans, just for a change) and coconut fudge with coffee for afters .

The guide then showed us around the coffee which was pretty interesting, however the boys choose to go and play in the rain. Once the tour had finished we bough some coffee and got the boys to try some from the restaurant . Sam is now a coffee convert and keeps making coffee when it is available in the room.

 

Then off to go "shopping"i.e. buy some souvenirs from the local souvenir shop. Sam found something he wanted pretty quickly, but there were some other interesting things to see.... I guess , i.e. ox cart wheels which get highly decorated and are now a world heritage artefact... apparently.

Dinner was in an Argentinian restaurant down the hill from the hotel. Not cheap but very good steaks. £130 for the 4 of us . Off to bed and we were due to be up very early the next day to go to Tortuguero.

New experience: viewing a volcano crater lake or handling a massive machete?

2nd August - The Journey

Journey up to Heathrow was very smooth , and all the family had access to the lounge. Sam looked especially pleased with this. They both seemed to enjoy the free food and drink, strangely.

Priority access to the check in and boarding went extremely well.

The plane to Miami was an old 777-200 (not one of the new 700-300ERs  which was a bit of a shame. My screen didn’t work so I flagged it to the stewardess. She “rebooted” it or whatever they tell you they do to it , and it worked for a bit and then failed. So she brought me a Samsung tablet in the end. That was much better than the screen. However she then seemed to get a a bit stroppy about it and almost told me off when she collected it, saying she had been very accommodating and I could6 take it up with the airline, which was very bemusing. Even more bemusing was when a steward came an apologised , which then almost descended into farce when they gave me a welcome pack from 1st class, which was full of the usual rubbish. I was obviously mistaken for a stroppy other person.

We ran through Miami , We did very well and got to the gate within an hour , which was a huge relief to me! We even had time for a Sam Adams. 

 Got met at the airport and despite a long detour almost into San Jose then back out to the airport   got to the hotel which is pleasant and extremely spacious , but a bit tacky. Pura Vida …..

Nipped round to a very nice supermarket for a few, supplies, i.e. beer.

off to sleep , end of day 1

New experience: eating pastries in the business lounge!