Travels with Hayley

Up before 6 again today, it was so rainy and misty, it looked and sounded like something from a movie. I laid in the hammock outside the room drinking it all in, I feel so lucky to be experiencing all of this.

Breakfast at 7, plate of fruit and then a pancake with maple syrup and scrambled eggs was served to me all on the same plate. I slung the maple syrup over the pancake without really thinking about it – turns out maple syrup on eggs tastes fine which is lucky!

I was just leaving to go back to the room to get my stuff and arranging what time to meet everyone when Maggie cornered me. She’s 68, from Switzerland and is a tiny little lady with big owl eyes behind her designer glasses. She’s very softly spoken but very blunt – even more so I think because English isn’t her first language! She is always quizzing us ‘in England do they do XYZ, in England do they say XYZ’. She asked me today ‘in England does everyone call everyone else darling instead of their name’ – I had to tell her no that’s just me Maggie, I’m over friendly and also can’t always remember everyone’s name!! 

Off at 8am to the National park, it was cooler today with some rain so a good temperature to walk in. It was amazing, just vast and gorgeous.

Highlights were an amazing waterfall (less amazing were the 250 steps down – and then back up – to get to it) and a spot where 2 rivers join together. There’s an optical illusion where one river is much richer in minerals than the other so the sun reflection makes it a bright vibrant blue and the other river joining it appears crystal clear. The locals say after God painted the sky, this is where he cleaned his brush out. Isn’t that nice! There was also a hot spring nearby where the water was 92 degree Celsius and bubbling and steaming away – not quite boiling point, more of a gentle simmer if you will but hot enough for there to be a lot of signs around instructing you not to even think about getting in if you valued your skin staying attached to your body!

We saw a giant ant colony, a tunnel spider’s tunnel (no spider today), a wild turkey and monkeys swinging though the trees with babies on their back. So cool!

Also much excitement/panic as a bright red and yellow striped snake appeared from nowhere on the path about 4 feet in front of me – and about a foot in front of Kristy who jumped out of her skin – poor girl, first soap snacking and now venomous snakes appearing from nowhere! Actually Marvin said it wasn’t poisonous – I thought I’d be really scared but I loved it, I decided I’m just very shallow and liked it because it was very pretty – the pattern would make a lovely cushion 😜

We also saw another tiny snake in a tree, this one was poisonous, the Eyelash Pit Viper. It’s also one of the fastest snakes in CR – it can catch and eat a hummingbird straight out of the air 😳 I used zoom for that photo rather than getting a close up!

We left the park at 12 and went to the restaurant opposite for lunch. 3 of us ordered 2 meals to share – shrimp pasta and fish fajitas. What arrived was shrimp pasta and essentially fish fingers, chips and salad! Turns out fajitas means something different over here…! We ate some of it and then a wild Turkey launched itself onto our table and decided Costa Rican chips were the culinary delicacy that it had been missing all it’s life so hoovered them up before we could do anything (I mean, what could we do really, I’m not in the turkey hustling business as a general rule…) and it had just managed to snag a slice of garlic bread when a park ranger turned up and caught it in a net!

We headed back to the hotel for a 45 minute break – much excitement as someone spotted a toucan in a tree! I really wanted to see one while I was here so that was really exciting. And a woodpecker that got slightly overlooked in the Toucan extravaganza but he was very cool too! Katie hadn’t been on the hike and she had had a frog invasion in her room – worried it might be poisonous she went reception to ask for help. Unfortunately there was not quite enough common language for the word frog to be understood, so she was forced to do a seemingly excellent frog impression, bouncing around the floor complete with ‘ribbits’!

Off back out at 2pm in the van 10 minutes down the road to the river where we went tubing. You get a big inflatable rubber ring with the hole in the middle covered by a net. You put your bottom in the hole and legs over the side and then you go down the river, letting the current take you wherever it wants. It was soooo much fun! You went over loads of rocks and you had to squeeze your stomach muscles and ‘bum up’ to lift your bottom off the net so as not to bash it on them. We all missed a few so there’s some bruises this morning! In parts it went quite fast and it was just so much fun, I laughed the entire way, my face hurt from smiling so much. Obviously, as I went to get into my tube at the very beginning I tripped and fell flat on my face in the river – but that just ensured I got the getting wet bit straight out of the way so that was fine 😂

We had a guide with us who helped us along the way and freed us if we got stuck between the rocks. Each time I got stuck he said that I did it just so I would have an excuse to see him again 😂 He asked if I was married and when I said no, said ‘lucky me!’ So if I get desperate for another husband it’s nice to know I have options available and willing, even if they involve an 11 hour flight and the requirement to live on another continent 😜

Halfway along the river we stopped and put the rings on the bank then had a swim. It was lovely. There was a rope swing that you could climb up on the bank and swing on then jump off l, and a place where you could jump in from which a couple of people did. I really wanted to do it but I had my contacts in and was worried if they dislodged I would have to do the rest of the river blind! Was kicking myself for not taking spares tucked into my bikini! I will know for next time.

At the end they gave us fruit and water, I went for a wee and narrowly avoided getting locked in the loo – it was pitch black and I just couldn’t find the lock! Fortunately managed to get out after a couple of minutes – I felt a bit better when I found out exactly the same thing had happened to Judy too! Can you imagine the shame of I’d have had to have been recused from the loo in a bikini 😳

I hadn’t got enough change to pay Marvin for the tubing, so we stopped at the supermarket at the way back so I could buy something to make change (plus Kristy and Katie asked me to bring them all the chocolate while I was there!) I jumped out of the van and everyone started laughing and saying ‘are you going in in just your bikini?! Yes indeed I was, I wasn’t struggling into damp clothes just for that and it’s a nice bikini 😂 The cashiers face was a a picture though 😂

Back to the hotel for a nice hot shower and off to the restaurant for dinner. On the way I almost tripped over the hugest toad! It’s so exciting not knowing what kind of wildlife you’ll bump into around the corner!

Dinner was much more successful tonight, everyone got the right meal and within about 15 minutes everyone was served. I had fish fillet with garlic, salad and mashed potato, was lovely. Maggie cornered me again to tell me about her daughter (35, in HR). I said how lovely she had such a good job. Maggie said yes, she studied for a long time and very hard as she didn’t want ‘a job like yours’ (imagine a dismissive hand gesture at this point). It’s very lucky I have a thick skin on this holiday, everyone is searingly honest 😂😂😂

A few of us stayed behind after dinner to chat and suddenly the security guard ran in saying ‘tapir, tapir!’. We all jumped up and ran out of the restaurant to see – outside one of the hotel rooms was a tapir, just wandering around, having a little evening snack and minding his own business. He was so much bigger than i had imagined! We watched him for a couple of minutes before he went into some bushes and must have left in a different direction as we couldn’t see him again . It was so exciting, I don’t think I drew breath the entire time! There’s only about 18,000 of them in the world and they are notoriously shy – our guide has lived in CR since 1996 and have never seen one before! Just incredible. Video is attached in the Dropbox but it doesn’t do it justice – that’s true of basically all the photos and videos here, you just can’t capture the sheer scale and magnitude of the place on film, it’s completely magical.

Can’t believe we’re halfway through the trip already, how much else can we pack in?

Hope you’re well and let me know any news?

Lots of love always xxx