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It rained heavily last night and on the way to our early morning bird watch we saw a tree which had fallen onto the electricity cables, it was sparking and smoking so we went to reception to try and tell someone but there was no one around. We continued with our walk, it didn't get light until 6.15 so we didn't have much chance of seeing anything before that! We walked in the dark along the side of the river, we could heard loads of different birds some sounded like whistling, but didn't see any. We were just about giving up hope and then on the walk back Nathan spotted a toucan high up in a tree which made the early start worth it! We returned to our cabins for a half hour nap before breakfast at 8, which we weren't very impressed by! Nathan ordered hot chocolate which was cold and came in a bowl, we were given scrambled eggs, a piece of extremely hard toast and a hard wheaty pancake type thing which wasn't nice at all.
The park offers a few different activities to do around the river, we signed up for rafting and were in a group of 6 plus a guide. It was nice and gentle cruising along, we saw loads of birds such as a heron, a grey bird with a blue bill and a of couple of dark blue and black birds, as well as a massive bright blue butterfly. About half way through the guide told everyone to drop their paddles and stand up on the side of the raft, he then jumped in the middle so three of us including me fell in! Nathan managed to stay on the boat although he didn't stay dry and smug for long as he then took us under a mini waterfall where we all got absolutely soaked! Luckily we had been warned we 'might' get wet so we didn't have anything on us. His next trick was getting us to spin around in a circle, the right hand side paddling backwards and the left forwards and then we all had to stand up on the sides whilst it was spinning. Nathan and I didn't fall in so he made us do it again! It was good fun even though I had said beforehand I did not want to fall in because of the colour of the water! We then floated to the end lying on our backs with a mini pillow which was attached to the life jacket. Some of the group swung from a rope and jumped into the water, we gave that one a miss.
We had a bumpy truck ride back to the restaurant for lunch, which was beef again with beans, rice, salad and plantain. After a cold shower back at our cabin we went on another walk the same route we had done the night before but a little further, the sun was out so we saw it in a different light and some of the river even looked green rather than brown! We left about 3pm to do most of the journey to Bogotá in the daylight however it wasn't quite that simple. The road between Medellin and Rio Claro was blocked off due to a landslide from the heavy rain the night before, this meant there were no buses coming through at all! After two hours waiting we managed to catch a taxi to the local village of Doradal, he was off duty but agreed to take us and picked up his daughter and grandson on the way! He dropped us right at the bus terminal and made sure they knew we wanted to get to Bogotá. Within an hour we were on a bus, unfortunately this one didn't have air con so it was like a sauna (they seem to be one extreme or the other!). The journey took 8 hours rather than 5 so it was 2am by the time we arrived, we got straight in a taxi however he got a puncture on the way so had to change his tyre. When we finally arrived at Masaya hostel they were very welcoming considering the time of the morning, luckily they had space although not in the same dorm so I went in a girls only one and Nathan in a mixed one on the floor above. We were very glad to get our heads down after a long day!
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