Finally made it and BOY have we seen A LOT!

Today is sunday and Jenn and I have been here in Costa Rica for 5 days....and BOY have we gotten around! We landed in San Jose on Wed at 5.30 AM and decided to head straight for Tortuguero Village so we headed to the bus station where we got on a bus that took us to Cariari. In Cariari we hopped on another bus to Pavona where we ended up getting stuck on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere! Our bus driver left us with the bus running and came back 20 min later with some bolts and a wrench and fixed the bus! We finally made it to Pavona and hopped on a boat that took us the hour and half ride to Tortuguero Village. WE were a little confused when we were left off but with some help of some locals and a guy who spoke on our boat who spoke spanish we were able to make our way to the other side of the island and find our hotel. We stayed at a cute place named Miss Miriams and we had a deck that looked out on to the Caribbean! All we´d had to eat all day was an empenada I´d grabbed at the bus station so we were starving so we went and ate at the Buddah Lounge along a canal....we ordered a shrip pizza....lol....i KNOW! SO costa rican, huh? We were so hungry we DEVOURED the whole thing! We went back to our room and were ready to crash out but were shocked to realize that it was only 8 pm! I guess with all the travelling and the lack of sleep on the plane the night before we were exhausted!

Day 2

We decided to check out the island and find a cool place to eat....we wandered around just missing all the downpours when we found a place called La Casona. Jenn and I shared a plate of fresh cut fruit and eggs with toast and headed out. After meeting 2 girls from England we had decided that along with the turtle watching tour we wanted to go on the canoe tour and catch a direct shuttle from Tortuguero Village to La Fortuna (a 4 hour trip instead of a 12 hour trip if we took public transportation). That night we got to see a green turtle laying eggs.... it was pretty cool to see the golf ball like eggs falling out of the turtle! We also got to see her covering the eggs with her back legs! The tour itself wasn´t what we had expected. We thought that we´d get to sit and watch the whole process with our group of about 10 but it turns our ALL the groups went to watch the SAME turtle and we had to take turns....it was DEF cool but not what we expected...BUT at least we got to see a turtle...the groups that went after us didn´t get to see the turtle laying eggs because her nest washed away so she went back to the sea.

Day 3


Jenn and I woke up at 5am so that we could go on our canoe tour before we headed to La Fortuna. We had heard it would rain but we had NO IDEA!!!! When the rain started we decided to just enjoy it and not put on our panchos....no big deal....the tour continued on and we saw LOTS of birds, iguanas, an Jesus Christ lizard(because it can run on water!), a sloth (it was waaaaay up in the tree....all I saw was a dot!), some howler monkeys and a white faced monkeys, and a fresh water turtle. Our guide pulled it out of the water so we could hold it! We didn´t see as much as the other tours though because of all the rain....yes, the RAIN! It continued to come down all through the tour but at the end it was coming down like a SHOWER....a REAL shower! I coulda been standing in a shower if I closed my eyes! There was also thunder and lightening which was VERY cool! On the way back to Tortuguero Village the rain was coming down so hard that EVERYONE was ready to be out of the rain! The roads in Tortuguero were so flooded there were rivers that went up to my ankles! When we got back to our room I was wringing out cups and CUPS of water from my clothes!

After showering and getting dry clothes on and packing our stuff Jenn and I grabbed some breakfast and headed to the docks to catch our boat to head to La Fortuna. In La Fortuna we found out that EVERYONE was there and finding a room was difficult. We ended up sharing a room with the 2 girls from England and hanging out with them that night.

Day 4

We woke up to find out that the hotel we were staying at was shady and wasn´t being honest (she had said we could get 2 rooms on saturday but then said they were booked and acted like she couldn´t understand me) so we all moved to the hotel next door which was much nicer! I decided that it would be a great idea to wash some of my clothes in the sink. As i was wringing my clothes out and pressing them into the side of the sink to get the excess water out the whole SINK FELL OFF the wall!!!! OMG!!!! I was laughing so hard and yelling for Jenn to come help me...who woulda known it was just hung on the wall! We ended up getting it back on the wall but I was afraid to touch it again!

Later that afternoon Jenn and our English friends headed out to see Volcan Arenal and Baldi hot springs....the trip to volcan arenal was wet, wet, WET....and i was equally as wet! We hiked to a waterfall which was cool and tried to see Volcan Arenal but there were too many clouds so we couldn´t see the volcano OR the lava running down it! After all the rain and mud we were all very happy to go to Baldi hot springs where we could get warm and wash away all the mud. There were 25 pools and one of them had 3 slides....they were REALLY fast and fun! The only bad thing about the hot springs was that we had to put back on our cold wet clothes!

Day 5

Today Jenn and I are in Santa Elena, next to Monteverde cloud forest....we had to take a shuttle from our hotel to a lake, a boat across the lake, and a shuttle to get here....we´re gonna go grab some food and check things out...hopefully we´ll be able to go to a bar to see some night life tonight! I´ll try to updae more frequently!

hugz