Travels with Hayley

Another 6am start to lay in the hammock and write yesterday’s diary – I will forever be 24 hours behind 😂 Really exciting as seemingly out of nowhere a coatimundi (a bit like a racoon) just nonchalantly strolled across the lawn, taking his time, surveying his kingdom. He was only about 6 feet away, not the least bit bothered about me being there. He perused the vista to check for any tasty morsels (none took his fancy it appeared) and then went on his way as suddenly as he had appeared. There’s truly never a dull moment to be had here!

Went off for breakfast but had to wait for a minute or 2 for the snake that was under the table to be removed! It was just a little one though and not poisonous so my pancake was not too severely delayed (ditched the eggs today for the pancake only, I’d had second thoughts about them with syrup…)

Jumped in the van to start my full on day – today was optional activities only and only 8 of the group had decided to join – it was nice to not have so many people to corral and they were definitely the most fun ones out of the group so it boded well from the start! 

First stop was another waterfall – this one was a beast at 90 metres high (98 yards for the imperialists among you). It put yesterday’s 250 steps to shame as this one was 508 steps down…😳 It was really well done though, the steps were new and even which makes all the difference – you could still see the original stone steps that had been replaced – let’s just say I would have been less keen to do the climb back then!

A quick aside on fences here (stay with me…). Because it’s so humid they can’t really use wood in most places so the fences are made of concrete but carved and coloured to look like wood. It’s incredibly effective and such a nice extra effort to keep everything looking organic and as Katie said ‘very classy’. I’ve enclosed a picture for those who are interested in such things (Dad, I’m looking at you here!)

Once we were at the bottom we stripped off as we had bikinis underneath, scrambled across the rocks and got into the waterfall. We were probably less than 10 feet away from where it crashed into the water and the power was incredible – I was swimming really hard just to stay in one spot. It was also, of course, utterly freezing. You didn’t warm up the longer you stayed in, you just numbed!

After about 10 minutes we were pretty tired from the current, and not wanting to end the trip being dashed against some rocks, decided to get out. Round the other side, across from a natural dam was a shallow pool with lots of fish so we got in there for a bit and took a few ‘sirens on the rocks’ pictures, attached for your perusal. Do you think we would have successfully distracted the poor sailors to their doom 😜

After getting out we wrapped ourselves in towels, got shoes on and cracked on with the the 508 steps back up. For those of you who complain about the stairs to my flat, that is 9.08 times as many, just for context!

We headed back into town for lunch and went to a local soda again – I had the Casado which is the lunch dish of the day – always rice, beans and plantain, choice of protein (fish for me, obviously, sorry Martin!) and then whatever else they fancy whacking on the plate! Today a whole bunch of us had the Casado but all got different sides! I got pumpkin purée and a courgette and corn mixture. Marvin got green banana salad (Delicious. This is a really good group of trying each other’s food and sharing dishes, it’s so perfect for me!) and some got a beetroot and egg mix (I dodged that bullet, phew!) I’ve not actually managed to finish a meal here yet but I keep on trying 😂 I also had a tamarindo which is a tamarind juice drink, looks horrible and slushy brown but is totally gorgeous, sweet and tangy all at once. They also gave us a tiny sample of coconut rice pudding, yum!

Got locked in the loo again, obviously. Eventually managed to wrench the door open but I may stop locking doors and just wedge my foot against it at this rate, third time may not be the charm 😂 

To celebrate our 1016 stairs and battling nature’s forces we spent the rest of the day on a sun lounger, sipping cocktails and being fed grapes. Of course, I am kidding, we headed straight out on on a 5km hike which doesn’t sound very far but it was essentially vertical and although there was a trail it was rudimentary in parts. Also included in this extravaganza, our old friend – stairs! Many, many of them. And not nice and even like the morning but random, uneven, made of dirt and rocks that slid out under your feet and so steep and high that at a number of times I had to use my hands to get up them. To put into context how many stairs today involved, Brendan’s tracker said we had climbed 88 flights of them today. That’s just up too don’t forget, it doesn’t include the down ones…! 

The town we are currently in (La Fortuna) is Marvin’s home town so we had popped to his house and grabbed his 5 year old son who came with us. This was a great incentive as I kept thinking ‘if a small child can do this, so can you!’

We got halfway through the hike to a rest point, passing through a wide open area that could have been the English countryside except you had an enormous rainforest on the left – very disconcerting! The van had driven up to meet us with a cooler of fruit and some water. Judy from Australia decided to stop there and waited with the van but the rest of us carried on. To avoid going back on ourselves (just to point out, this would have taken a maximum of ten minutes on the path – much as it’s not much of a path, it’s still a path…) Marvin decided the best thing to do would be to just ‘take a shortcut’ and walk sideways down the vertical mountainside…😳 At this point my ‘if the kid can do it, you can’ analogy somewhat fell apart as he tripped and tumbled head over heels down the mountain! Luckily kids are somewhat bouncy, apart from his pride he seemed to be pretty much ok after a few tears and a cuddle from dad (buggar all sympathy though, he told us he just told him well you’ll be more careful next time won’t you!) and we carried on. By the by, the kid’s name is Killian which is the name of that man I worked for for a week last year when I quit Barclays – every time Marvin called out his name I got an involuntary shiver down my spine 😂

The next section took us over the lava flow of the volcano where it erupted in 1968. It’s very loose l, rocky and gritty and the steps got massive here, there was a lot of scrambling up but I made it up to see the gorgeous vista – and then down again which was even trickier as it’s harder to use your hands but I did it!

A note on the volcano – when it erupted in 1968 the lava flowed to the opposite side to this town, and so the town was saved. At the time the town had a different name but in celebration of this obviously fortuitous circumstance, they changed the name to La Fortuna – The Fortune. Bearing in mind  for years afterwards lava was still spewing from it every 15-20 minutes – I don’t know about you but that seems like just tempting fate changing the name to me doesn’t it?!

In between trying not to crash to my death, slow down the group or shame myself in front of a 5 year old, I also got to see loads of wildlife. It included a hawk, a black vulture and – wait for it Em and Shona – an anteater!! Just minding his own business, snacking on ‘ze aunts’ up a tree. I could not have been more excited!

We also saw a so called peeling tree that looks like it has peeling sunburn to get rid of anything on it’s trunk that tries to cannibalise it, a rattlesnake plant (as it looks like one visually, not because rattlesnakes live in it – I really do hope I got that translation right…😳), a ‘monkey brush’ seed pod, a Cinderella shoe orchid, some leaves that are so shiny and flexible they are traditionally used to wrap up food to keep it fresh, nature’s cling film if you will, and a rubber tree that apparently if kids get a puncture in their footballs, they get a plastic syringe, tap some sap out of the tree, inject it into the ball and rattle it around and it plugs the hole! Allegedly. Sometimes I’m not convinced Marvin is not not having us on 😂

I was so, so proud of myself for completing the waterfall and the hike, I’d been really scared I’d hurt myself or be too slow or let the group down that when we finished I actually jumped for joy! Killian was laughing at me and Marvin said he wants to know why you’re so happy (I hadn’t told anyone I was really nervous) I explained to Marvin how clumsy I was and always falling over and he said oh why is that, are your legs not strong? Always nice to know that the first and lasting impression a man has made of your legs is that they’re probably not very strong 🙄😂

Quick stop at the bathrooms on the way back to put our swimwear back on (mmm, damp…) and back to the bus as Marvin had offered us an extra activity that wasn’t in the Intrepid schedule, totally free. This area is really famous for it’s hot springs, there’s over 30 hotels and spas that you can pay to go into that have made them into a big feature with swim up bars etc. They are very commercial and some aren’t actually even the natural hot water, just standard jacuzzi hot tubs. But the locals know a secret spot where there is a natural one flowing from the river. We parked up and scrambled down a load of rocks (I kept my trainers on for grip, I knew they would dry out overnight and you’ve got to play the odds you know, after my joy jumping celebrations of coming through the hike alive I’d fallen out of the van 10 minutes later so know your limits…). Then you walked across a concrete slab where the water was gushing through a tunnel so strongly that you couldn’t take normal steps, the current forced your legs apart in kind of Monty python silly walk! Then you sat on the side of the slab and dangled your legs over the side, stretched a leg right down until you reached the rock below and then took your weight on your arms and lowered the other foot slowly down. I was fine but poor Homa can’t swim and had very bravely agreed to come in as Marvin promised her that water was less than hip high. She was physically shaking, it was actually very brave of her to do it at all I thought.

Then you waded through the rocks in the river and found a nice cosy corner in the natural rock pool. The water was as warm as the most perfect bath, it was just so lovely. The sun was setting and Marvin ran back to the van, then appeared back carrying a massive cool box on which Killian was sitting on top of like some kind of sultan in his sedan chair! It was unbelievably cute. By this point it was getting dusk and Marvin secured candles to the rocks around us and then opened the cool box and served plastic glasses full of ice, local rum and Fresca (delicious, very sweet lemony fizzy drink). The whole thing was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever experienced. We sat there while it got pitch black, lit by a few candles while fireflies whizzed past us, lighting up the dark with their pinpricks of green sparkle and we just chatted and drank and enjoyed the warm water. It was just truly amazing, I never wanted to leave.

We talked a lot about travelling, some people here have had the most amazing experiences and been to 60 or 70 countries, they have done long extended trips and had the most amazing experiences. Their stories are wonderful and so inspiring. I’m so glad I’ve found holidays like this, I hope I can be one of those people in the future with so much to tell 😍

After we very reluctantly left, we hopped back to the hotel for a speed of light shower and change and went out for our first dinner of the trip to what I would say was a very western style restaurant, really quite a bit fancier than we were used to. The prices reflected it too, one of the specials they were pushing was £34! We stuck to the cheaper side of the menu and Katie and I shared a trout with creamy rice and hearts of palm (excuse the photo, we ate some before we remembered to take it!), and chichorrones again (the pork crackling thing from the service station) but this time it was like deep fried pork belly served with salad, salsa, bean purée and tortillas. Plus a side order of plantain as I am on a mission to have plantain at every meal before I leave as it’s so delicious! They were both really really tasty but super rich, we couldn’t nearly finish them. Interestingly, we’ve all clocked that Marvin almost always has the most expensive thing on the menu at dinner, normally some kind of massive steak – we forced him to cough to the fact that 95% of the time he gets his meal comped in exchange for bringing us in there. The barter economy is still fully alive and well!

Got back and had a long heart to heart with Homa where at one point she went into a very long explanation comprising of comparing me to an onion with a very ‘crusty ugly outer layer’ There were, charitably, two ways to take the analogy and I’m going to be kind and give her the benefit of the doubt taking the language barrier into consideration so as not to have to give her a slap 😳. We then both decided to read a bit before bed. Her holiday reading material? Kafka. Mine? Jilly Cooper. It’s potentially not an intellectual match made in heaven is it 😂

Sorry for the length of this today but it’s just been so amazing that I didn’t want to forget a single thing so I had to get it all down – congratulations if you got this far 😂

Lots and lots of love always xx