Monday (1 April), we left Granada, Nicaragua heading for the Costa Rica border. Leaving Nicaragua was not too troublesome. Another 1km walk across no man’s land to the Costa Rica entry point, after a 45 min queue in the sun, we finally got to Border control, which is where the trouble, at least for some of our group started. To enter Costa Rica you have to proof you intend to leave. For some that was easy, they were due to leave the Intrepid tour in San Jose, Costa Rica and have a flight booked out of the country to return home. Some of us were lucky and were not asked for this proof, that thankfully included us. Other were asked, and the only proof they had, was a letter issued by Intrepid stating that they were on a tour and leaving the country overland. Despite this being acceptable previously, today the border control decided it was not acceptable. So dealing with that and arranging onward travel documents took and additional 2 hrs!! Thankfully we were being met by a private transfer with air con, so we were just sat in air con waiting for our fellow travellers, who had a much more unpleasant wait!
Eventually we were all in Costa Rica, but we still had a long drive to Monteverde, which is in the mountains with not the best roads. We didn’t arrive at the hotel until after dark, though we did see a lovely sunset en route.
Tuesday, Monteverde is in the cloudy forest, Nic walked the ‘hanging bridges’, a network of 6 bridges up in the trees, plus interlinking trails. We had a guide who spotted wildlife, and used a telescope so people could get a better view. We saw loads of birdlife, Nic’s pictures seem to be mostly of plants !
Rog did the zip wires, including a mile long zip wire, longest in Central America, and a jungle swing with a 40 metre drop. It was also amazing ziplining above the trees!
Wednesday, we left Monteverde and headed to La Fortuna by bus and boat, another interesting day travelling through the mountains, then across Lake Arenal.
The bus driver stopped so we could take photos of the Coati.
Our hotel in La Fortuna was out of town and set in lovely grounds, so we spotted lots of wildlife. There were no dinner options at the hotel, but the owner also owned a restaurant in town, so he ferried us all there. Rog ordered smoked ribs, which were really good.
Thursday, we did a River Jungle floating safari down the Sarapiqui River. Which was basically sitting in a small 4 person (plus a guide) inflatable boat, floating down a very calm river looking for wildlife. We saw lots including a howler monkey swimming across the river (he didn’t look happy swimming) a cayman, turtles, iguanas, other lizards and lots of different bird species.
Back at the hotel we spotted a sloth in the garden.
Friday, taxi from the hotel to the local bus depot to catch a public bus to Quesada, a quick change of bus to San Jose. Public buses are always an interesting experience.
An interesting hotel, right near the railway line, thankfully our room was still reasonably quiet
Had a orientation walk around San Jose, then a final dinner for the second part of our tour, 9 of our fellow travellers are leaving us here.
Saturday, a free day in San Jose, so we wandered around the city centre, had lunch in the local market and coffee in the National Theatre cafe, built with the Costa Rica export taxes on Coffee.
Another welcome meeting, with another change of guide and only two new travellers, plus the 7 of us traveling on. Had a group dinner, our old travellers were in the same restaurant so we all joined them on a big table!
Sunday, taxi to a different bus depot in San Jose, to catch a bus to Sarapiqui (back to where we did the river safari from La Fortuna), we had delay on the bus as there had been a fatal accident.
Got to our hotel, another one out of town in its own grounds, so we went for a walk, spotting more wildlife.
After dinner we joined a ‘night walk’ with a local guide, who spotted lots of wildlife including lots of frogs, toads, spiders, insects, birds and a couple of snakes. (Don’t worry – no snake pictures).
Travurple 