Costa Rica day 9 (Scuba Diving in playas del Coco and Baula Turtle nesting)

Costa Rica day 9

Today it has been a really long day. It started as early as 5:00 am,
and it has just finished at 1:00 am.
But it was really, really great day, everything as planed.

We have being doing three things:
*Scuba diving.
*Hang around in the Playa Conchal and Playa Grande
*See Esmeralda, a Baula turtle, nesting 107 eggs.

We had to wake up so early because the first activity of the day was
at Playas del Coco, which was over 1 hour 15 minutes drive from
Tamarindo. We had to be there by 7 am because Alberto was going to do
the Discover Scuba Diving, and needed to be trained first in a
swimming pool. He was going to take a 20 min brief training and then
Alberto, the instructor Will and me were going to go down.

Either instructor Will, a Colombian guy, was a good instructor or
Alberto is a natural born diver, or both, because we were 12-15 meters
deep in two dives, and Alberto felt really comfortable. We had to stop
him a couple of times because we was swimming away towards banks of
fish. Temperature was good 21-22 C, although Will said it was really
cold, but you know Will was very "smooth".
The visibility was not great, because it was windy, but we were able
to see a fair amount of things, coral, various fishes, manta rays, an
scorpion fish, eels, Octopus and few more I don't know like "morenas",
"camarón payaso" & "pez corneta" among others.

Alberto liked so much that he kept repeating how cool it had been, and
we are changing our plans a bit to dive again in Manuel Antonio or
Drake.

After the scuba diving and lunch we went to visit a couple of the
beaches recommended in the area. Playa Conchal was really nice and
also was Playa Grande, miles and miles of white sand beaches, next to
the Tamarindo Baulas national park.

We then went back to the hotel to rest for a while because that night
we had to be at 23:00 back in "las Baulas" center, where we registered
to try to see baula turtles nesting, and we might have to wait an
unknown amount of time. We had to wait in the center until
the first turtle arrived and that could be immediate, or wait till
4:00 am, or maybe none would arrived.

But we were lucky, very lucky, just when we were going to be receive
the briefing at 23:15, we were told that the first turtle arrived, and
the first 30 could see her. We were number 8 & 9. Apparently that night
was new moon which was the best time.

And it was indeed the best time to see them. The night was clear, full
of starts, we could see clearly the milky way, Taurus constellation,
Orion constellation, and the Polar star low in the horizon was so
bright that it was reflecting on the flat ocean. Amazing. There was
Esmeralda, a HUGE Baula turtle 1.5 m long, that could weight 300 kg or
more. When we arrived, Esmeralda was digging hole with the back legs,
very delicately, to then put in it 107 eggs. And then gently cover
them. Really really amazing.

We were back in the hotel by 1:00. So the next day we would be able to
get up early and continue our way. And we were not going to spend one
more day to try to see lora turtles in Ostional (the Lora turtle is
far smaller).

Filo
A known anonymous
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AlberTICO.

Costa Rica Day 8 (Monteverde to Tamarindo)

Costa Rica Day 8

Today we left Monteverde, visiting the Monteverde Cloud forest
National Park first. The day today was not as good as the day before,
it was raining s bit, and was cloudy again, but it didn't matter when
visiting a dense forest like that.

Then we headed to the Pacific, actually to Tamarindo, where we booked
a hotel with American Airlines, so it cost us 0 $, for 2 nights. The
trip took us 3 h, through a much better road first, a a good rad
later.

When we arrived, we first went to register to try to see the Baulas
nesting. The number of visitors is limited so we had to register for
tomorrow, Sunday at 23:00.

We also booked scuba diving in playas del Coco for the next morning.
Alberto is going to do a quick lesson, and then he would go to the
sea, That will be again tomorrow morning at 7:00, With a 1:30 hour
drive. So tomorrow we are going to have a bloody long day, but very
exciting.

After all that planing the best thing was to go to the beach, the day
now was fantastic, have a swim in the Pacific, and see the sunset and
the girls go by. PURA VIDA !!!!!!

Filo
A known anonymous
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AlberTICO.

Costa Rica day 7 (Monteverde, Canopy and night forest walks)

Costa Rica Day 7

What a grat day today has been. It is hard to be able to express
everthing, but I'll do my best.
First activity of the day was at last an adrenaline full one. We
booked a Canopy tour with "eXtremo Canopy". It was
!!!!!Cojonudo!!!!!!! Excuse my french, I meant absolutely fantastic,
brutal. Four lines were over 500 m long crossing a valley, with
heights well over 150 meters!!!! Fantastic. We had two special, a
Tarzan jump, and the gem of the crown, a 1 km line, hanging from
your back and feet, so you were looking down the whole time, unable to
break, over a 180 m high valley!!!!-!- We have a video we will try to
upload to youtube or facebook.

Then at night, as the weather remain good, we joined a night walk
through the forest with Selvatura. We were able to see and photograph
very good lots of things, I don't know the name of them in English so
I will we using most of the time the Spanish name, We saw a couple of
big talantulas, bigger than my fist, two finger perezosos, a poison
snake in an attack position waiting for a mouse or something to
eat/bite, many coaties, T.few insects that really looked so good like
leaves, that was impossible to recognized them, unless they moved,
Really good trip.

Pension Santa Elena was really good, good tico receptionists, that
knew how to advise, and they offered you few options and companies.
The people there were really nice, we meet few spanish, canadian,
australian people, that were travelling as well and were shared tips,
and advices. This is really the backpackers atmosphere I was looking
for.

Filo
A known anonymous
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AlberTICO

Costa Rica day 6 (From Arenal to Santa Elena (Monteverde))

Costa Rica Day 6

Last night it didn't rain, so we were fairly confident that we were
going to be able to do some Rafting, but for the third time it was
cancelled. Aparently Rio Toro was not safe yet, and the fact that in
Rio Pacuares the previous day 16 tourist had to be rescued while doing
rafting made them play extra careful.

So we decided to leave and go to Monteverde. On the way we visit
Arenal National Park, and some kava from the 1992 eruption. We did a
nice, 2.5 h hike.

The road to Monterrey was awful, when there was "normal" road it was
full of turns, fallen trees, land slides. But most of of the time it
was a dirt and stones path, full of holes. 4 h drive in total. In our
way we visited some fairly spectacular waterfalls.

When we arrived to Santa Elena, by Monteverde Nationsl park, we
couldn't get to the Pension Santa Elena, our choice for the next two
nights. There was a strange parade, with groups of majoretes, few
Santa Claus dresses in various colours, green red, blue, In a really
tinny town line Santa Eleba, they manage to have a 4 hours parade!!!!!
In.f this was Mexico City the parade would have lasted few weeks or
months. The theme if the parade was the "festival de la luz", Festval
of light, and actually the town went iut of light (electricity) for
hours, so when we finaly checked in, candles snd torchs was all that
we had.

The clouds went out showing and incredible sky full of starts, even
better with the town with no lights. This was the first day we were
able to see the starts in Costa Rica.

For the next day we booked a Canopy tour (in spanish is circuito de
tirolinas) in the most extreme company, 180m high, few 500+meters long
lines, including one of 1km doing it Superman way!!!!!!. Hopefully the
weather would repect us this time.

Filo
A known anonymous
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AlberTICO

Costa Rica day 5. (Thermal Springs in Baldi by Arenal)

Costa Rica day 5.

It rained like hell all night and all morning in the area. It rained so much that they had to cancel the Rafting tour we booked, AGAIN. But maybe it was a good signed, because on the news they saw floods everywhere in the area, roads closed for trees falling, and land sliding over the roads. In fact La Fortuna, where we were staying, had in the morning almost all roads closed to all directions, and was therefore almost isolated from the rest of the country.

So had virtually nothing to do, because all the trips, excursion, and things to see were going to be spoiled under the heavy rain. The guy from the reception recommended us to spend the day in one of those thermal water complexes. We didn’t follow initially his recommendation because that was not in our plans (we preferred to go to a public free one and the guy in reception was clearly trying to see us something), but after talking to local guys in the gas station, local guys in a Tico bar, guys in the Arenal National park, etc, everyone of them told us there was no free thermal springs to go, and they all recommended the best thing to do on a day like that was going to thermal water centre. So in the end we booked the one that the guy in reception recommend us, with a good offer including dinner. So we went from travelling as posh backpackers to do very posh backpackers. Instead of a day of action, we did a day for full relax, we watch Athletico Madrid match having a piña colada, water slides, almost burned ourselves in almost boiling waters, etc. In the afternoon the rained stopped so it was nice in the end.

I have not talked about the Hostel yet. It was a very nice one, with a good swimming pool, internet area, clean rooms. Pity about the day, because the swimming pool would have had views of the Arenal volcano, if the cloud didn't cover it all.

Hopefully the night would be good and tomorrow we would be able to do rafting. At least that was what they told us in the evening.

Filo
A known anonymous
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AlberTICOCosta Rica day 5.

It rained like hell all night and all morning in the area. It rained so much that they had to cancel the Rafting tour we booked, AGAIN. But maybe it was a good signed, because on the news they saw floods everywhere in the area, roads closed for trees falling, and land sliding over the roads. In fact La Fortuna, where we were staying, had in the morning almost all roads closed to all directions, and was therefore almost isolated from the rest of the country.

So had virtually nothing to do, because all the trips, excursion, and things to see were going to be spoiled under the heavy rain. The guy from the reception recommended us to spend the day in one of those thermal water complexes. We didn’t follow initially his recommendation because that was not in our plans (we preferred to go to a public free one and the guy in reception was clearly trying to see us something), but after talking to local guys in the gas station, local guys in a Tico bar, guys in the Arenal National park, etc, everyone of them told us there was no free thermal springs to go, and they all recommended the best thing to do on a day like that was going to thermal water centre. So in the end we booked the one that the guy in reception recommend us, with a good offer including dinner. So we went from travelling as posh backpackers to do very posh backpackers. Instead of a day of action, we did a day for full relax, we watch Athletico Madrid match having a piña colada, water slides, almost burned ourselves in almost boiling waters, etc. In the afternoon the rained stopped so it was nice in the end.

I have not talked about the Hostel yet. It was a very nice one, with a good swimming pool, internet area, clean rooms. Pity about the day, because the swimming pool would have had views of the Arenal volcano, if the cloud didn't cover it all.

Hopefully the night would be good and tomorrow we would be able to do rafting. At least that was what they told us in the evening.

Filo
A known anonymous
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AlberTICO

Fwd: Costa Rica day 4 Tortuguero+ Arenal

Costa Rica day 4 Tortuguero+ Arenal

We woke up at 5:30 again, althought for 1 hour it was really difficult
to sleep because it was raining dogs and cats. We went to the meeting
point and Roberto the Tortuguero park guide was there and told us we
had to start in one hour, to have more chances to see things,

So at seven we started our 3 hour canoe trip. We saw a different type
of birds, yguanas, a few other reptiles like few Basílicas, the one
that walks over the water. a couple of monkeys and a small caiman. The
trip is normally more successful but all the rain makes animals to
protect them sekf , making rhem more difficult, and half way through
it started raining again and later started it went heavier and
heavier, and heavier.

With all that rain there was no point in visiting the Tortuguero park,
so we decided to leave Tortugueroto go to Arenal, which was 5 h drive
away.

We arrived around, 6 pm, We couldn't see the Arenal volcan because it
was cloudy and raining gently. The hostel, Arenal Backpakers Resort,
was fantastic, ckean, with a nice swimmingpool, which we didn't used,
hammocks, lawn area, etc.

We booked a rafting trip for the following day and we went out for
diner, and some drinks. It started raining very heavily around 8, non
stop. Bad sign for the following day.

Filo
A known anonymous
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AlberTICO

Costa Rica Day 3 (que pena que no fuese el quito)

Costa Rica Day 3 (que pena que no fuese el quito)

I have to start in Spanish I am sorry for those that cannot speak it or read it, but there are few things, the important ones, that have to be said in your mother language and they have a very bad translation, and of course like Mr Charlton said once, football is not a question between life and death, it is more important than that.

CIN COmentarios desde C.R.0. Guardiola se tomo una Mou 5 estrellas. Nos quedamos CIN COmer, a las CINCO de la tarde, a CINCO mil kms de distancia, en un restaurante que ponían MANITAS de cerdo, ante un Madrid de aCERO o hojalata. El Barça está a CINCO mou años luz.

Now back to English. We contracted a rafting excursion in Puerto Viejo. The plan was not to take the transport they offered but to follow the bus, so after the Rafting we could head to Tortugero. The bus should be picking us up at 6:20, we had everything loaded in the car and were waiting in front of the Hotel. When the bus arrived, at 6:40 they guys told us to follow him, we got into the car (no more that 10 seconds) start the car (2 seconds) and the bus was no longer there. Got to the reception again , and called the company and they wanted us to try to drive them and find them. We were not in the mood anymore, so we recovered our money, and make our way to Tortugero.

We stopped in Puerto Limon in our way there, nothing to worth mentioning (CIN COmentarios). We then get to La Pavona to catch a Boat to Tortuguero. We arrived around the time of the match, but the electricity went out in the entire town, so we could not see it, but we had 3G connectivity and we were able to find out how Barcelona was running over the Mou-Team, despite the messages from Alberto’s brother at the end of the match saying that the match was borring and was a going to be a 0-0 draw :).

We spent the evening in the afternoon in the tortuguero Beach looking for little turtles. We had a big walk through volcanic sand, we were fairly unfortunate because we saw the sings of a 20 or 30 of them, who should have reached the sea minutes before we got there. But on the way back, when it was already dark we saw one, in fact I almost kicked it. We couldn't take any pictures cause it was dark and we didn´t bring the tourches with us.

We went back to the hotel and had dinner in the hotel itself, who had the best restaurant in Tortugero. We were really tired, and it started raining heavily, for the next day we had a 5:30 start for a canoe tour through the canals. So we decided to rest a bit in the hotel and go to bed early, watching all the comments and news about the game..... . What a sweet dream we were going to have .

Filo
A known anonymous
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AlberTICO