We left Cahuita heavy hearted at 9 am, Alex has been such a caring host - we were sad to leave him and his enthusiasm for the animals and going an extra step to make his guests feel good at the 'El Encanto'. Our driver Martin wanted to chit chat...but we tried to catch up on news thanks to the good WLAN in the car. We stopped half way through the journey to buy a baguette, prepacked cheese, chips, water, coke and our favourite gum 'big read' and to look at some g...

For our first trip to a national park, we geared up: long pants, long sleeved top, suncream, mosquito repellent, closed shoes...Cahuita National Park is free (donation welcomed) and can be accessed by foot without a guide. The whole trip is about 9km long and the nicest part its along the beach front. At the first river - we had to take our shoes off and wade through the cold brownish water of the river delta, after that, we managed to go about 1km further. We sa...

Our second night at the Carribean side was spent in a private house/cabin close to the entrance to the national park. Honestly, I did not feel very safe but it seemed the only option since our hotel was fully booked. Another hot, humid night, checking on fan intensity, holes or badly placed mosquito nets, new sounds from outside and another early wake (5 a.m.) for all of us. Have I not mentioned that there is no airconditioning in this town? Ecological awareness ...

At 4:45 a family of howler monkeys woke us up ... or maybe we were awake already, waiting in anticipation for the loud and some kind of scary sound! The night felt very short... every noise, each sound made me wonder.. what animal it came from and how far away it was?! Aurélie and Athena started a game of "Eile mit Weile" at 5:15 a.m. under the mosquito net, protected from all the wild&evil out there

We booked a Garden villa (3 double beds) with a beautiful view, settled in lush gardens on the top of a hill. Unfortunately we spent only our first night in this charming place. Our inner clock woke us up at 5 am... Alex grabbed his Gopro and went on an animal hunt... A fresh fruit platter, 2 eggs, some hash browns, toast and a coconut cake was served for breakfast. There was a nice little coffee trail that led around the premises where we spotted our first giant...