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9th Dec
What a feckin day!! Got up at 3.30am (not even usually in bed by this time), left the hostel in Cancun at 4 and went to get the bus to the airport.
All the flights were on time but just a pain in the arse having to go to Costa Rica via Miami but hey it was the cheapest flight I could get. Glad I am not offsetting my carbon emissions!
Got to CR around 2 pm with no idea of how or even if I can get to La Fortuna. On hind sight maybe I should have looked into this before I left?? Luckily (I thought) there was a tourist information desk at the airport. Maybe the guy there thought he was being helpful by getting out this map (I can't read maps!), drawing tons of lines on it and speaking in English even faster than I do! Think he told me that I can get to La Fortuna by taking 3 buses, the first from the airport in to San Jose town.
Got some money out (looking behind me the full time in case I got mugged) and headed to the bus stop. I am sooo glad I decided not to stay here for the night, the place is an absolute dump to be quite honest. I get off the bus and the helpful bus driver tells me to was 4 blocks up the street to get to the next bus stop. After walking for about 10 mins up a hill with my backpack and a suitcase I see absolutely nothing. I ask someone else for directions and even show them the map that I have. The map is no good to me as the streets here have NO signs on them at all. After walking for 10 mins again I still see nothing. I then ask another couple of people and every single one of them tells me to go a different way. Taxi for Mclaren!!!
Once I get to the bus station I have no idea which bus I am meant to take. Thank god I meet a nice guy there who speaks English and tells me where to buy my bus ticket and where to go. Just so happens he is also going to La Fortuna. He takes me all the way there and once I get off the bus tells me how to get to the hostel. Thank god for this guy. I swear there is no way I would have got there if it wasn't for him.
Arrive in the hostel about 9pm, swiftly get a few G&T's down my neck and arrange a couple of trips. Arrange a canopy tour for tomorrow morning and a volcano tour and hike for the afternoon.
10th Dec
Could life get any worse right now??? Got up at 7am so I could go and lift money for both of my trips today. Got to the cash machine to discover I don't have my fu*king bank card! I must have left it in the machine in San Jose airport. Have to now go back to the hostel and cancel my canopy tour so I can sort this mess out.
Go back down the street to the internet cafe and I am literally soaked right through by the time I get there. CR are having VERY VERY bad weather right now and some places are in a state of emergency. Why didn't I just stay in Mexico? On a high note no one has used my bank card to buy anything, so I cancel my card and feel a lot better. I will just need to pay the price for my stupidy by incurring charges everytime I use my credit cards - oh well it could be worse.
Go back to bed for a couple of hours and get up to do the volcano hike. It's meant to be one of the best sights here, most of the time you can see lava flowing from the huge volcano but you guessed it - we see NOTHING. The weather is so bad and the clouds are so low that you can hardly even see the volcano - typical. The hike through the jungle was nice however and has given me a taste of how beautiful CR is.
Got back to the hostel and booked the Cano Negro tour for tomorrow which should involve seeing lots of wildlife. Met a lovely Scottish gir (cause we are all lovely) called Yvonne who is coming along as well.
Few more G&T's then bed!
11th Dec
At last I have a brilliant day (apart from the Germans singing Noel Noel when the tour guide told us her name was Noella - not good). We went to Los Chiles where the Cano Negro tour was. Along the way we stopped at this place where there were literally hundreds of Iguanas in the trees and bushes. They were like monsters but very cool to see.
As we entered the park we seen tons of birds. Put my camera on and realised I had forgotton to charge it!! Has some life but not much, I am such an idiot.
After driving through the park for a bit we go on a boat trip. It was amazing. We saw howler and white faced monkeys (including an albino one!), sloths, birds, butterflies, these things that looked like crocs but weren't and I can't for the life of me remember the name of them. Everywhere we went we just seen so much green. Plam trees, jungles, bright coloured flowers. The country is stunning.
I am beginning to wish I had just decided to spend my 10 days in CR - not sure what I was thinking trying to do Panama as well! I will definitely need to come back one day.
Booked a bus to go to Cahuita (near Puerto Viejo) tomorrow. The weather should be better here as it is on the the carribean side which hasn't been as badly affected. Fingers crossed. I can't do much more of this 'Scotland' weather'!
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