Costa Rica....Reflections

Vanessa making the most of it on Cocles Beach, Costa Rica

Rain. Not short sharp tropical showers. Relentless, torrential rain.

We walked for hours…..in the rain. We cycled for miles……in the rain.

However, it remained about 30C so it was never cold and it prevented us from spending much money, particularly as Costa Rica was never going to be much more than a passage for us as its by far the most expensive Central American country so we could never really justify spending much time there. Saying that, it was nowhere near as expensive as we thought.

Costa Rica is a lush, tropical, beautiful place and Puerto Viejo, our final stop for the last few days highlighted that. However, the new camera and walking boots didn’t get to see much of it in our short, damp stay there but we went for it in the couple of hours of sunshine that we did have.

DAYS SPENT:   8

TRANSPORT:  1 coach, 2 taxis, 2 local buses, 1 shuttle bus

NUMBER OF PLACES WE STAYED:  5 (1 backpackers, 2 guesthouses, 2 hotels )

ITEMS LOST/BROKEN:  none

FAVOURITE EATERY:  Flip Flops in Puerto Vieja

WILDLIFE SPOTTED:  sloths, white faced monkeys, snake, iguana, mangy dogs

TOURS TAKEN:  none

BEST VALUE FOR MONEY:  The rain. It stopped us from spending very much.

 

Sloth

Electric sloth

Our three night stay in the cool little Caribbean town of Cahuita, Costa Rica, coincided with a three day festival of rain but luckily for us the middle day was cancelled due to glorious sunshine so we made the most of it and visited its main attraction.

Cahuita is a tiny place but bizarrely has its own National Park, a tropical rainforest stretching for about 10 miles along the the coast, which is free to enter apart from the strongly enforced 'donation' which everyone has to pay.

Costa Rica is famous for it colourful and abundant wildlife but we didn't get our hopes up too high, at least for the first 100 yards when amazingly we spotted a sloth, moving at the speed of a passport control queue. Lizards, white faced monkeys, a snake and an iguana later and we were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves.

Not everyone is lucky enough to spot this strange creature on their visit to Costa Rica but then the strangest thing as we sat eating our pizza in the evening, another sloth but this time crawling along the electricity wires in the main part of town, much to the amusement of the other diners. There was enough time to finish the pizza and tackle a local beer before deciding to take a picture of it.

Which way to San Jose?

Our two week visit to Nicaragua ended with a couple of nights in Santo Domingo, a 4km long stretch of beach that joins the two volcanoes of Ometepe together, plus a night back on the mainland in San Jorge ready for our next Central American border crossing to Costa Rica.

We decided to take the easy six hour route by booking the International Tica Bus which apart from the obligatory mind numbing immigration bit on the border, took us directly to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica.

The sole reason for going to San Jose was to re-stock, mainly to replace my busted camera, Vanessa's hiking boots which died of old age, and various amounts of her undercrackers which were virtually destroyed by a Belizean tumble dryer. Amazingly we managed to replace everything despite having to suffer the only thing worse than listening to Chritmas music in all the shops, and that's listening to Christmas music in all the shops.......in Spanish.

Costa Rica was never going to be a major part of our travels mainly because its the most expensive of all the Central American countries. Basically its been Americanised. Subsequently, after a couple of nights in the non-descript capital city and with our mission accomplished, we caught the local bus to Cahuita, a small town on the Caribbean coast just an hour away from the Panamanian border.

They were having a festival of rain when we arrived but undeterred and with our backpacks on, we trudged through the deluge to a very cheap and very damp room, right next to the ocean. We wondered why it was cheap but then we noticed the lack of a toilet seat but we couldn't be bothered to venture back out in the rain. We may have had to squat but we were happy.

Nicaragua.....Reflections

After a slow start to Nicaragua, it picked up rapidly, culminating with our  fabulous week long stay on the volcanic island of Ometepe.  Overall, perhaps it didn’t quite live up to expectations and it certainly doesn’t compare with Guatemala.

However, from staring into the mouth of an active volcano to swimming in freshwater crater lakes we’ve have had some amazing experiences in the third country on our visit to Central America.

DAYS SPENT:  14

TRANSPORT:  1 plane, 4 taxis, 2 chicken buses, 2 ferries, 2 trucks

NUMBER OF PLACES WE STAYED:  7 (2 hostels, 4 hotels, 1 homestead)

ITEMS LOST/BROKEN:  Paul’s camera, Paul’s watch, Vanessa’s hiking boots

FAVOURITE EATERY:  Finca Mystica on Ometepe Island

WILDLIFE SPOTTED:   howler monkeys, parrakeets, mangy dogs

TOURS TAKEN:  2 (Masaya Volcano, Lake Apoyo)

BEST VALUE FOR MONEY:  Finca Mystica

Images of Nicaragua

More Spanish lessons required?

Howler monkey

Isla de Ometepe

Sunset at San Juan Del Sur

Crater lake, Lake Apoyo

Punta Jesus Maria, Ometepe

View of Ometepe from San Jorge

Playa Maderas, San Juan Del Sur

Eau de Vanessa

Our week long stay on the remote, spectacular and quiet island of Ometepe continued with me getting bed bug bites for the first time. Normally my insect repellent, Eau de Vanessa works perfectly so perhaps it'll have to be changed.

Waterfall on Ometepe island

Subsequently we moved to the smaller of the two volcanoes that make up the island, to a remote little homestead called Finca Mystica in the village of Merida, run by a great American couple who grow virtually all their own food and its by far the best we've had in Nicaragua.

From there we took the sweatiest 4 hour hike to a waterfall which was actually worth it. Partly because it was nearly 100 metres tall but mainly because we could cool off and dry out our disgusting clothes. We sat there for an hour with no one else around, mesmerised by the plummeting cascade of cool water.

Our final night was a stormy affair. No rain but the winds were incredible and nothing liked we’d witnessed before. As we were based at the foot of the volcano you could here the gusts of wind start high up and then roll down the hill through the trees like a juggernaut, continuously slamming into our tin roof cabin. Not much sleep for anyone that night but quite an experience.

After three nights at Finca Mystica's, with our bellies full, we luckily left at the same time as another couple who'd hired a truck so we were able to hitch a lift and jump on the back to the village of Santo Domingo located on the strip of land that joins the two volcanoes. A couple of nights there and our time in Nicaragua will be nearly over.

Ometepe

Island of Ometepe

Three days on the beach in San Juan Del Sur and the surf dudes were beginning to wonder who we were so we thought it was time to move on despite ‘their’ beach being a perfect place to hang out and swim.

Our next destination in Nicaragua though, the Island of Ometepe belongs in a fairytale novel. It’s an island formed by twin volcanoes rising out of a lake with lagoons, waterfalls, beaches  and numerous unspoilt villages scattered around the edge.  

The one hour ferry crossing from the mainland dropped us at Chaco Verde which was very remote but right on the lake. We walked miles to a beautiful lagoon and just when we were leaving, the local funeral director pulled up in his truck  and offered us a lift. Gladly we hopped on the back and he dropped us back to our hotel and refused to take any money for his trouble. The following day we hired a couple of bikes which I’m positive used to be bikes in a former life, and a cycled on the one road surrounding the island to a couple of swimming spots. Despite the difficulty of pedalling with only one pedal and me being stuck in 18^th gear and Vanessa stuck in 1st, it was amazing to cycle along this tropical road and have the lake on one side and one of the towering volcanoes on the other whilst the local life unfolded in front of your eyes.

Surprisingly we’re going to stay on the island for about a week.