Travels with Hayley

Off up and out at 6.30 again today for a wander around the town while it was coming awake. I really like doing this, it’s much quieter and you get to see everything coming to life before the tourists get up. It’s worth the 6am alarm! I went to a fruit and veg shop, lots of things I recognised and a whole bunch I didn’t – have attached pictures to see how well you fare with them!

I went to the bakery again and bought a selection of items and as Katie and Kristie get out of bed with just enough time to get to the bus by the skin of their teeth I was on breakfast retrieval duty. Sadly todays was not as successful as yesterdays ‘ear pastry’ it was all a bit dry – I suspect being so early I got yesterdays leftovers! Never mind, we were fed and watered and ready for the day ahead!

We’re leaving La Fortuna today to head to our next destination, Monterverde. It’s a lower elevation and we’ve been told the weather will be much ‘fresher’ there! I have my hoodie at the ready!

Bus came at 8am and we headed out. The drivers here are great, if they spot any wildlife they immediately pull over and let you get out for a proper look. We saw another coati today, they are everywhere.

Next mode of transport was a boat and it was such a gorgeous trip. The weather was amazing, you could see the top of the volcano for the first time (it had been too cloudy until now) and everyone after a while just lapsed into silence and enjoyed the amazing views.

A flock of swallows was flying around and around the boat and we spotted a kingfisher as we swept along. The lake we were on has actually been artificially created with a dam and it’s used to provide over 15% of the countries electricity. Please don’t ask me how though, I just liked that it was pretty 😂

Off the boat and into a private minibus with a couple of impromptu stops along the way to see a coyote and a wild pig! Also lots of cows along the way, they are so skinny and bony, seems to be the way in hot countries doesn’t it. The scenery was very different, not as tropical looking. The best way I can describe it is like England on steroids – everything is just bigger, greener and goes on longer it feels!

We stopped at a rest stop which had a small restaurant (mainly I think we stop at these as Marvin doesn’t like his breakfast until 11and then he likes a nice big meal – there’s been quite a number of 11am ‘rest’ stops that coincidentally have a cafe attached 😜) They had a couple of things we hadn’t tried yet, empanadas which are like a pocket of corn dough, kind of the shape of a pasty, fried with meat or cheese inside (I’ve had the columbian version in London) and tamales, which are a corn dough with rice, meat and vegetables inside, wrapped in a banana leaf (kind of like natural tin foil), tied with raffia and steamed.

I bought one of each and got the girls over to try them, they love the fact I’ll buy anything without knowing what it is just to try and love it even more that I only ever want 2 bites and I’m done and they get to finish it off! The empanada had slow cooked spicy pork, was really good. The tamale was ok, I wasn’t a big fan of the texture of the dough which I found a bit – damp?! At least we didn’t do what someone on one of Marvin’s other tours did and eat the banana leaf and raffia too 😂 We also had an orange and carrot juice – jugo de naranja y zanahoria – what a mouthful!

We popped to the new hotel to drop the luggage in our rooms. (I’ve totally lost control of the luggage situation, it seems to expand at each stop even though I haven’t bought anything?! I have 2 extra bags I’m lobbing stuff into now, along with my suitcase – I’m not the only one which makes me feel better 😂) They’re like little wooden lodges, it’s very sweet although the lime green curtains were an interesting design choice…! There’s also an amazing plant hanging outside, it looks like something fake you’d get from Poundland but it’s totally real, I’ve never seen anything quite like it before!

We walked down the (very very steep hill!) to a local cafe although we weren’t feeling too hungry after all the snacks! The three of us decided to share an Aztec soup, a salad with a chocolate balsamic dressing (which had to go back to the kitchen as I pointed out it was missing the cheese – which in a ricotta salad is a bit of a blip…) and then a slice of tres leches cake which is a speciality here. All were so good! Aztec soup is like a tomato soup with kind of a fajita flavour. It’s full of shredded chicken, pieces of mozzarella, avocado and has crispy fried strips of tortilla on top. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Who would have thought avocado chunks would work in soup but they really do. The cake looked incredibly sweet but actually wasn’t at all and was really lovely. We ended up sharing it between half a dozen people at least, we’re totally now onto the using each others spoons stage, it’s all gone a bit feral tbh 😂

The owner of the hotel, Luis, was also our driver for the day and was taking us to the National park. The van was quite small so they asked for a volunteer to sit in the front on the bench seat between him and Marvin. Now you know me, I’m an absolute trooper, always happy to put others before myself so, reluctantly, took one for the team and squeezed in between the 2 very attractive Latino men 😜. We stopped at an atm for some people to get cash and there was some kind of issue so we were there for a while. Got chatting to Luis whose English is pretty good and got him to teach me a bunch of bad Spanish words I could use for the rest of the trip 😂 I now know how to say nice arse in Spanish plus some other even less delicate phrases that I feel certain will come in really handy at some point! We were laughing so much we were almost crying, he kept putting his head in his hands saying ‘oh my god, Marvin will keeel me’. I was told my cackling could be heard from outside the bus 😂

Off to the National park, some people went off on their own walk but however much people insist ‘you can’t possibly get lost’ – come on, of course I could! So I stuck to the group that went with the guide. It was a lovely place, really pretty and it sits on the exact point where the Atlantic and Pacific oceans meet, so water that fell on our right hand would lead to into the Pacific, and left hand into the Atlantic. There was viewpoints on each side and really weirdly, the Pacific side was swarming with mosquitos like nothing we’d seen before, it was awful. Even Marvin begged some bug repellant off me and he’s been boasting all trip he’s impervious to them! The Atlantic side was fine. Very weird.

Walking through the forest there was a load of holes in the side of mud, apparently they were tarantula dens so obviously, Marvin got a stick and poked about it one until a couple of very hairy, black and orange striped legs appeared and flailed about a bit like a can can dancer in novelty tights. It’s testament to this trip that it didn’t even seem vaguely weird to actively encourage a venomous arachnid to come closer, it would have felt stranger not to at this point!

We also saw a tree fern, also known as a monkey tail fern as when the new leaves are created they look exactly like monkey tails. Apparently they have been around since dinosaur times. I don’t know how they know that but let’s assume that they aren’t having us on 😂

After we finished the park we crossed over the path and went to the hummingbird garden – this was one of the highlights of my trip. Dozens of hummingbirds in every colour of the rainbow were flying through the air, the plants they love to drink from were all around us and they had special feeders full of glucose so they were just buzzing around and around, the air was thick with the sound of their wings and felt like it was full of jewels, the colours were so bright and iridescent. There was a purple one so vibrant is honestly didn’t look real. It was unbelievably magical, it actually teared me up a bit it was so beautiful. Hummingbirds are officially my new favourite animal.

Back to the hotel and we were told down the road was a good spot to see the sunset. I got the directions – left, left, right – from reception and headed out. Obviously and inevitably I managed to take a wrong turn and after walking down a very steep hill with the sun on the wrong side to see the sunset, I realised something had gone wrong 😂 I headed back to reception via the insanely steep hill to be met by an incredulous Luis – how did you miss it, it’s literally 3 turns and 5 minutes away?! How people underestimate how useless I can be 😂. Luis’ older brother Miguel was in reception and held out his arm out for me to take ‘my bebe, I will take you!’ So he walked me right to the last junction and pointed out exactly where to go.

After all that it was super cloudy and started to rain so it really wasn’t worth it 😂 But hey, I did it so that box can be ticked off!

Quick shower and we were meeting at reception at 7, I got there early at 6.45 and found Luis and Miguel with a couple of other guys there hanging out on some sofas. One of their names was Kevin which is apparently a very common name here? Lots of people have very British sounding names in fact, Marvin’s sons are called Killian and Noah for instance. I wasn’t expecting it! We got chatting and before I knew it we were doing shots of the moonshine his 85 year old father had made 😂 Oof that stuff could strip paint! A few of the others turned up and got roped in too and a party atmosphere ensued! Miguel was somewhat too touchy feely though and I said to him, you’re a dirty old man, do you know what that means? The other guys burst out laughing and said that’s his nickname 😳

Off to a restaurant around the corner, I had a lovely prawn pasta dish and it was a really fun evening, lots of laughs. It such a great group, everyone is so nice. It truly feels like a family, it’s lovely.

More to come, stay tuned!

Lots of love xxx