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Hi guys,
Another busy week!
On Saturday, the day before we headed off on our jungle trek we decided to hire bikes (just to warm up the old legs, and because we´re daft) to cycle to another beach town 18K away. Being in the absolute middle of nowhere the road there was bumpy dirt track with massive potholes the entire way. After 2 hours, severly dehydrated and with sore bums, a mirage appeared in the distance. It was a funky open bar and it was heaven! The sore bums were soon forgotten about as we watched howler monkeys swing around us. Headed down past the bar to an isolated beach, and Ali used the coconut skills we learned the day before and after a lllooottttt of effort he managed to crack one open. Such a happy boy! Saw about a dozen scarlet macaws on our way home so it was well worth the knackered legs.
Sunday and Monday; Corcovado national park. Met our lovely private guide Ifi and her trainee Luis (so basically we had 2 guides for the price of 1- BONUS!) at 5am. Headed to the park by ´Colectivo´ which is basically a pick up truck with wooden benches in the back. Bumpy but fun as it waded through rivers to get to the start point. 1st day was 21K through dense primary jungle so saw mainly insects and plants that day, but also saw a toucan, wild pigs, anteater, tapir, agoutis, coatis, and a crocodile. Slept in the ranger station in the middle of the jungle- amazing to be woken up by all the jungle noises.
Started trekking at 5am the next day to try to avoid the midday heat. Saw all 4 types of monkeys found in Costa Rica (squirrel, Capuchin, spider and howler), as well as parakeets. Stopped at a river for a cool swim at lunchtime which stopped the sweating for all of about 15 minutes! We reached the end of the trail really early so crawled into a hammock with a cold drink and didnt move until our ride home. A very hot couple of days but absolutely incredible!!
On Tuesday we left Costa Rica and headed for Panama. After a speed boat ferry we got a taxi to the border, the highlight of which was that the taxi driver let us eat our cereal in the back of his taxi (a pretty big risk to let anybody eat cereal in a moving vehicle, let alone me, who has been known to make a bit of mess at times when eating it would be fair to say). After a long queue at border control, and a broken down bus, we arrived in Boquete, our first stop in Panama. Boquete is in the mountains so the weather was cooler and a bit drizzly, but actually quite a welcome change for a couple days. The next day was a chill out day in preparation for the highlight of Boquete-- Volcan Baru.
Climbed Volcan Baru on Thursday, Panama´s highest peak and the only place in the world that on a clear day you can see both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans at the same time. Despite us asking the girl at the hostel if the kitchen would be open early in the morning and her saying ýes it never closes´ in spanish, it was of course closed. Our milk for our cereal and our sandwiches were trapped! Ali sprinted around town to see if anything was open at 4.45am and he came running back with milk and chicken sandwiches--my hero! So after eating our cereal by the light of our head torches on the steps of a ranger station at the bottom of the volcano (unusual breakfast location no 2), we started our ascent at 5.30am. We were above the clouds by sunrise and it was really beautiful. Apparently, it should take between 5 and 8 hours to reach the summit,but we were up in just over 4 hours. So, we were completely alone at the top for over an hour. Breath-taking views to the Pacific, but unfortunatly not the Atlantic. Treated ourselves to filet steak and red wine for tea, mmmmm!
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