Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Aye Aye Aye, Welcome to Mexico

Up at 7:00, back to the airport on the 7:30 shuttle, we had time to grab a Starbucks and a delicious bagel for breakfast to enjoy while waiting for our 9:00 flight, which actually didn´t leave until around 10:00. But it did leave, and it was a short flight to Cancun. We hadn´t really thought about staying in Cancún, but decided we´d stay for at least a night to ¨see what all the fuss is about.¨ After being lied to by a shuttle bus/taxi driver about no public buses being available, we paid only US$3 for the public bus into town where we were given a full Cancún Mexican greeting. It came in the form of an attendant at the bus station. After trying to get the bus driver to let us out at or near an intersection close to our first hotel of choice and being denied (he said we were only allowed off at the bus terminal, despite the fact that a woman had just gotten off in the middle of the street), we got off the bus at the terminal, grabbed our bags and started to exit the bus station. One of the attendants held up a little stop sign and tried to explain that we couldn´t get out that way (we were heading towards the back of the bus into the driving area). We asked why, and he said ¨You just can´t. It is not allowed.¨ So we went to the front of the bus and walked along the sidewalk in the same direction we had been heading in. Just towards the exit, the same guy tried to stop us again, and said we had to use the exit. The exit happened to be way at the other end of the terminal, in the opposite direction we were heading, and leads out to the wrong street (the terminal sits on a little island of concrete between 3 roads). But we weren´t having any of this sorry attempt at his pathetic authority...besides, what the heck was he going to do to stop us? Call the police? Whatever. So we just kept walking. Nigel managed to get past him, but he tried to stop me by physically sticking his chest out at me, shoving me right in the chest like 2 blokes pretending to have a go at each other. Well, that was just the last straw for me from this piece of crap kid. I put both of my hands on his chest, shoved him as hard as I could (he stumbled backwards a few feet) and yelled ¨Don´t touch me. Get out of my way, and don´t f***ing touch me.¨ What a little shit. Of course what could he say to that? I walked right past him and we left the bus station. The other attendant was totally laughing at the guy. Welcome to Mexico!

We walked around in the humidity and heat for about 40 minutes before finding an affordable hotel. We went straight the bank to get some pesos, had a cold drink and sat down for a bit in 7-Eleven, then had lunch at one of the many little fondas (like a food stall). We then headed back to the hotel, changed into our bathing suits and caught the bus from downtown to the Hotel Zone. Cancun is actually divided into 2 parts: downtown and the city of Cancún, which is on the mainland, and the Zona Hotelera, or Isla Cancún, a sandy island just off the coast and separated by a huge natural lagoon. The town of Cancún really exists to service the resort industry occupying the entire Isla Cancún. And once we arrived at the beaches of the hotel zone, we realized why so many companies were quick to put up their huge hotels and resorts when the area became popular in the 1970s: the beaches are absolutely gorgeous. The sand is incredibly fine, soft and pure white, the water is clear, warm, and turquoise. And it´s pretty much like this along the northern and eastern sides of the island. The Caribbean here really looks like all of the picture-perfect postcards. We spent the entire afternoon walking along the beach from the middle of the northern bit at Playa Caracol to the middle of the eastern bit.We stopped to swim at a few spots, and to buy our first 6 pack of cheap, cold Mexican beer. We chose Pacifico, one of our favourites, and drank it on the perfect beach.

As it got late (but not dark, as the sun seems to set pretty late here), we headed to catch the bus back to downtown, trying to find Nigel a new pair of flip flops along the way since his just broke while walking on the sand. As we walked away from the beach, I started to feel these sudden stings all over. During the bus ride, they only became more severe and more frequent. But we couldn´t see anything on me. By the time we were walking back to the hotel, I was literally crying from the pain of the stings and freaking out since we couldn´t see anything on me. They felt like jellyfish stings, but we didn´t see any red spots. I jumped straight in the shower to soap up, but it didn´t help. I took some antihistimines and after having a beer at a nearby restaurant (XX Especial this time), we searched on the internet for what the hell could all these stings be. After reading a few things, we´re pretty sure I must have swum through a bunch of tiny baby jellyfish (we had seen one thing on my leg that looked like a little bit of glue, but Nigel just thought it was a booger). The stings can keep ´firing´ for hours, days, sometimes weeks after exposure.

We had an awesome dinner at a local taco place, where we had tacos made with cochinita pibil, which is pork marinated in a regional spice rub. Usually it´s cooked in banana leaves, but here it was roasted on a skewer, like a vertical spit. It rocked, and we were loving all of the chiles, guacamole and limes. We feasted and stuffed ourselves for about US$6. We were exhausted by the time we finished dinner, and I was pretty miserable with my jelly stings, so we headed for a cold shower and bed.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

San Jose to Cancun via Miami...and still in Miami, again

We were up at 4:30 this morning and ready to go just before 5:00, our taxi was supposed to arrive to bring us and about 6 others to the airport. When the taxi finally showed up about 20 minutes late, I knew our day was not up to the best start. After strapping all of our luggage and surf boards on top of the van, we were finally off about 35 minutes late. We had to stop about 5 times en route to secure the surfboards that kept threatening to fall off the roof. In the end we finally just crammed it inside with us. We got to the airport just after 6:00...we had planned on arriving around 5:20 since our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:18. But when we finally arrived, we saw that our flight was delayed until around 1:00...so I guess it wasn´t a problem that we had to wait in the line to check-in that stretched from the counters, across the airport, outside and all the way down the sidewalk. It took us about 3 hours to finally get checked into our flight. Pretty ridiculous.

With nothing left to do until we departed, we took full advantage of the free samples of chocolate-coated coffee beans and Costa Rican coffee liqueur set up in the little shops. And the best bit was that nearly every shop had them, so we went around from place to place, getting our coffee fix and drinking up that free alcohol, since we and were able to get our very very last gallo pinto for breakfast...at Burger King! We had the ´BK Pinto´ which was cheap and good. We spent the rest of the morning wandering the shops, reading magazines in the newsagencies, and chatting with a cute young couple from San Luis Obispo. We then had some lunch before our flight took off. It turns out that our flight was delayed because yesterday the plane couldn´t land in Costa Rica due to weather (fog???) and ended up landing in Panama for the night. We had to wait for it to get clearance into Costa Rica to come get us.

Once in Miami, we were sure we´d miss our (new) connecting flight to Cancun. When we arrived, we immediately checked the TV monitors and saw that our flight had been cancelled all together. We went through immigration, past the luggage collection and straight to the AA counter-ticketing area. Here we were directed to a very slow, long line of people. Unfortunately, it was the right place. We were in line along with people from a delayed flight from Orlando as well as a delayed flight from LA. Why their flights were delayed too, we don´t know. All I know is that it took us about 2 hours to reach the front of that line, where we got vouchers for a hotel and 2 meals. De ja vou. We weren´t at the Sheraton this time but at the equally nice Sofitel. And it was only 8:00. We had every intention of fully enjoying the hotel amenities once again, courtesy of American Airlines. We got to the hotel, checked into our room (no Pantene, but huge comfy bed and big TV again) and headed down to the restaurant to use our dinner voucher. We ordered some burgers at the bar, since that was as far as the $20 voucher would take us (and even then we were going to have to pay a few extra dollars), but the waiter came back and informed us that our voucher clearly stating ¨Attention vendor: American Airlines will pay up to the amount of $20.00¨ etc. was really only worth $16 and some odd cents since the hotel had to account for taxes and gratuity. We were quite mad about this for several reasons. One being that there was no way we´d get a meal for $16, and another reason being that who cares about gratuity when we haven´t eaten in 15 hours? And still another reason being that this voucher issue wasn´t a problem 4 weeks ago when we stayed at the Sheraton. Since we didn´t want to have to pay for dinner, the only other option we had was to head back to the airport for cheaper food (where our voucher was good as well). Unfortunately, we missed the 9:00 pm shuttle by about 30 seconds and had to wait until the 9:30 shuttle, which actually left at about 9:45. We headed to one of the only cheap places open in the airport: Burger King. And of course we wanted to use up all $20 to make American Airlines pay every cent for screwing with us (by only giving us $20, then sending us to a hotel where the cheapest meal is about $20). Needless to say we ate ourselves sick.

It was about 11:00 pm by the time we had eaten and taken the shuttle back to the hotel. So much for enjoying the hotel! Instead of going for a swim that we had planned, we both had a long shower, made phone calls to family (thanks for ringing us back guys!) and watched TV until the wee hours of the morning (really, it couldn´t have been later than 1:00).

Monday, August 29, 2005

Final day in CR

With a day to waste in San Jose, we weren't too sure what to do. We used the internet, went and had our last gallo pinto for breakfast, bought our Mexico Lonely Planet, walked around some markets briefly then went back to the hostel for a swim. The skies opened up a bit later, and we watched some TV while reading up on Mexico. Later that evening, we headed out to get some dinner, watched a bit more TV then went to bed early, since we have to get up at 4:30 tomorrow.

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Jerked around

Waking up early this morning, Nigel headed down to the beach for a walk, where he saw hundreds of tracks from the turtles from the night before. It was amazing how many there had been last night. I met up with him later on the beach, and together we went off to struggle to find a place open for breakfast. This is a strange little town, with everything being shut during meal times even though there are so many tourists around. We found a bakery, the Pandaria Dorling (the LP calls it Darling) with the cutest owner/baker/cook. She is practically the only good thing about Tortuguero Village with her bright, friendly manner and delicious food. We had peanut cookies and fresh banana bread for breakfast. We then packed up our hear and watched an inguana in a tree near the river while waiting for our boat back to Moin.

More animals along the river route, we arrived in Moin just after 1:00, got a ride to Puerto Limon, and managed to hop right onto the 2:00 bus to San Jose. This bus only took about 3 hours since it didn't stop every 100 yards to pick people up. We had made reservations at the Tranquilo Backpackers (with some difficulty I might add) and went straight there. We signed in and were about to pay when they informed us that our room was actually down the street in the owner's house! We didn't want to stay in someone's house, especially for US$22. We were pissed at them for not letting us know on the phone, and they weren't really nice to us at all. Especially since I tried to reserve a room around 9:00 this morning, but she told me I had to call back around 11:30 when they'd know if they would have rooms. I explained we'd be on a boat and wouldn't be able to call until about 2:00, could they please at least put our names on a waiting list or something, but she wouldn't do it. So when I rang at 2:00 and they said they had a room, I thought we were in luck. They said they were trying to be helpful by putting us up in someone's home, but in fact they should have just been honest and said "No we don't have any rooms, but you can stay at the owner's house down the street" in which case we could have refused at 9:00 this morning and rang a different place. But now it was amost 6:00 and the next best alternate only had dorm beds left. And to make it all worse, as we left Tranquilo's, it started to rain and it got dark. There we were with no hotel and walking around in the pouring rain looking for a place. Thanks a lot assholes at Tranquilo. In the end though, we were glad not to give them more money since they haven't really been helpful our nice the last 2 times we stayed there (we only stayed for the free internet and free pancakes, plus they do have hot showers).

So, to make a long story even longer, we walked around the city and settled on dorm beds at Costa Rica Backpackers. This place is so much better! Not only are the staff friendly, but they don't have that whole "wannabe hippy, up themselves vibe" that they do at Tranquilos. Plus, this place is huge, with a pool and grass area to hang out in, a huge TV room, free internet (twice as many computers as Tranquilo), a restaurant with an even large TV and lots of games, and hot showers. And it's cheaper. So in the end, it all worked out. After checking in and dropping off ALL of our clothes to be washed, we had a swim in the pool in the drizzling rain and a long hot shower. We then had dinner at the restaurant and then watched "Big Fish" on TV. It was great to hang out and watch some TV in the evening for a change!

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Tortugas

Reluctantly, we left Cahuita this morning in a minvan north to Moin, just near Puerto Limon. From here we had a four hour boat ride up the Rio Tortuguero to the small village of Tortuguero inside a national park. On the beaches here, hundreds of sea turtles come to lay their eggs every night. There are several types of turtles who use this beach at different times of the year. August is the busiest season for the huge green turtles.

The ride along the river, which parallels the coastline, was beautiful, with thick jungle surrounding us the entire way. We saw huge iguanas, lots of basilisks, monkeys, a caiman, a gorgeous rosette spoonbill, which looks just like pink cotton candy (fairy floss), and lots of other birds. Oh yeah, and a crocodile too. We arrived in Tortuguero village around 2:00 where we quickly found a hostel for the night, finally managed to find a restaurant open for a late lunch, then headed right down to the beach for a swim. The Caribbean here is much rougher than down south and the sand is a gorgeous dark brown. After cooling off, we sat and watched a local girl's soccer match while enjoying a few beers. The village was in full party mode (and had been for 3 straight days) to celebrate 27 years of the national park. Everyone was out and about, kids running around with cotton candy and churros, people dancing and drinking beer and loud music. We were advised by our turtle guide for the night, Castor, that we'd be departing to see the turtles around 7:30 pm, so we set out to find some dinner beforehand. There is not much option here, and went to a cute place right on the river called the Buddha Cafe. We ordered a pizza and waited for over an hour for it to come. While we waited, we watched some really cool lightning lighting up big fluffly clouds across the river. At about 7:20, the ditzy waitress came and told us we'd have to wait a bit longer. Of course we couldn't and, pissed, we left.

We were a bit disappointed to see that our turtle group was 14 big. Everyone must be accompanied by an official guide to get onto the beach at night, in attempts to protect the turtles and eggs from poachers, animals, and just stupid people. We walked for about 30 minutes through the thick, dark jungle. We were hoping to see a jaguar, but no luck. Our guide had seen them a few times before, but he didn't sound too keen since they're such aggressive cats.

When we got onto the beach, we had to "share" our turtle with about 30 other people from 2 more groups. I found this a bit odd seeing as how there were hundreds of turtles on the beach. The turtles are huge, probably bigger than me if I were to lay curled up in a ball. We got a few brief moments to watch the poor girl lay her eggs and bury them, and also got to watch another girl make her way back down into the water after finishing her laying. We were surprised to see how quickly they move. The green turtles are named so because their fat inside is green in colour. During the laying season, they return to the same beach about 2 or 3 times to lay eggs. It takes about 2.5 hours for the whole process. Only 1-3% of the eggs actually become adult turtles. Apparently they have really poor hearing, but exceptional smell and can feel predators (including humans) walking on the beach. As we waited for our turns, we could see, courtesy of the lightning, tons of other turtles making their way up and down the beach. It was pretty cool.

The national park tries to minimalise the impact of tourists on the turtles, so once a group has seen a turtle laying eggs and one returning to the water, their time is up and must leave the beach (you can't watch them come up onto the beach because if she sees us or senses we are there, she will turn back into the water and not lay). So about one hour after setting out, we returned along the dark jungle trail and got to see a cute little opossom too.

Back in town, we tried to find somewhere to eat dinner, but everything but the expensive place was closed. But because of the huge fiesta going on, there was fried chicken shop set up, so we had a great cheap meal at their counter before we headed back to the room to read and go to bed.

Friday, August 26, 2005

Perezosos

Today was a great, lazy day. We woke up to a beautifully sunny, clear day. First we spent all morning on the internet, free since we booked a trip to see some turtles with Willie of Willie's tours. We changed into our bathing suits, had an ice cream for lunch (it was pretty hot by this time) and spent the remainder of the afternoon at the beach of the national park in Cahuita. We've pretty much decided that as beaches go, this one is nearly perfect. The jungle comes right up to the sand, and the palm and fruit trees hang over the beach, providing plenty of shade. The sand is incredibly soft. The water is crystal clear and as warm as a bath. The sea is shallow and stays flat pretty far out, perfect for wading and floating around. Towards the end of the afternoon, we had a few beers and watched a group of howler monkeys play around in the trees directly above us. Two of the girls had tiny babies grabbing on to them too. They all get really loud and howl when planes pass overhead. After a shower, we had some dinner and played some cards before heading to bed, tired from our long day of relaxing.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

The Sloth Sanctuary

After a late breakfast this morning, we caught the bus north about 15 km to the Aviarios del Caribe. This is a sloth research and rescue centre we had seen on TV at home a few years ago. A couple had some land on a delta in the Rio Estrella, full of birds and other wildlife. One day they rescued a 5-week old sloth whose mother had been hit by a car. Buttercup, as she is named, began their passion for sloths. Now they rescue, rehabilitate and re-release capable sloths into the wild. They've got some residents who are unable to go into the wild, mostly due to injuries. Sloths fall from trees and break bones, get electrocuted from high tension wires, get hit by cars while trying to cross roads, and are abandoned by injured or dead mothers.

At the centre, we watched a short, really cheesy video then got to meet their sloths. They are incredibly cute in an ugly sort of way, and spend about 18-20 hours a day sleeping. We also got to see the babies. These guys really are cute and quite fuzzy. Some of them are as small as kittens, and the ones that share a box curl up and cuddle together, along with their stuffed teddy bears and stuffed sloths. And of course we got to meet Buttercup herself. She is quite a character, showing off and posing for our camera. She is currently looking for a mate. They may not let her have babies since she was reared by humans and will not be able to teach her babies anything about what to eat/not to eat etc. Slowly she would hold out one of her long, hairy arms, reaching her 3 toes out to us...she took a particular liking to Nigel.

After the sloths we were paddled around through some of their property in a small boat. We saw some lizards, including a few cool basilisks, looking very much like dinosaurs, and Jesus Christ lizards (they walk on water), a caiman, some howler monkeys and a bunch of other birds, including some boat-billed herons. Our tour over, we headed back out to the road and started walking towards Cauhita while waiting to flag down a bus. The surrounding land is mainly all banana plantations. We saw a man pulling along many bunches of bananas suspended from above on a track. It was a mini banana train. After failing to flag down any of the passing buses, a man whom we recognised from the sloth centre kindly stopped and gave us a ride back to town.

After a late casado lunch, went straight to the national park beach and spent the rest of the afternoon swimming. We played "wave golf," competing for the least amount of waves it took us to surf back into shore. When it was getting dark, we went back for a shower and spent some time just drinking beer while sitting on some benches on the road, watching people go by. Cahuita reminds us a bit of Vang Vieng, Laos, with its unpaved roads and traffic being about 90% on foot. We shared some great pasta for dinner before heading to bed.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Returned vision

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLIN!!!

Ready to leave Puerto Viejo, but with time to kill until our flight to Mexico on the 30th (still trying to change it), we took the bus back north to Cahuita, dropped our gear off at Cabinas Smith then caught a bus straight away to Puerto Limon. It took about an hour, and our purpose was to pick up my new glasses I had ordered last week. It only took about 20 minutes to walk to the shop and get them, so we wandered through some shops for 40 minutes until the next bus left for Cahuita. Back in town, we hung out, had some dinner, and went to bed.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Surfs Up!

This morning, after trying in vain to change our flights to Mexico (we're ready to leave Costa Rica), we spent a while on the internet before a quick lunch. We then hired some boogie boards and walked to Playa Cocles, where we spent over 2 hours catching the huge, perfect waves. It was so much fun. Some of them were really strong and we ate it a few times, but no injuries were incurred. The sea water here is the absolute perfect temperature, cool enough to give relief from the heat, but warm enough that you could stay in all day long without getting cold.

After walking back to town, we had a shower and relaxed with some beverages in our room. We then headed to the same restaurant that shows movies. This time I brought my prescription sunnies so I could see. We caught the end of "Harry Potter III" and then stayed to watch "Troy" while snacking on nachos and pizza. As we walked back to our hotel just before 11:00, we realised that this was the latest we've been up in a long tine. It was almost like being on a date.

Monday, August 22, 2005

Cycling, sloths and surf

Today was a great day. We hired some bikes and headed south (technically it's east down the coast, but whatever) from Puerto Viejo, eventually ending up 13 km away in Manzanillo. We rode our beach cruisers along the road (paved only part of the way), which was surrounded by lush, thick jungle. We could hear tons of birds, bugs, monkeys and at times, waves crashing on the nearby beaches. We stopped about 7 km out of town at Punta Uva, a perfect beach of white sand, clear water and jungle. There were a few people about, but not many, especially considering how huge this beach is. In fact, we have been amazed seeing one perfect beach after another, stretching from Puerto Limon all the way to Manzanillo. And so few people about, NO hotels, and little tourism. It really is a form of paradise.

In Punta Uva, where not one house or building can be seen from the beach (and really there are very few as it is), we spent a few hours in the water, floating about in the gentle waves. We had packed our lunch and set about making a delicious tuna sandwich...this time we were careful not to let the monkeys get our avocado! Nige collected some bamboo and driftwood to try to make a seat, but it collapsed halfway through. After eating, we had another quick dip and got on our bikes to keep riding. We stopped to watch a group of howler monkeys in a tree along the road, and nearly missed seeing the perfectly camoflauged sloth sitting on a branch of the same tree. We also saw a few toucans in a nearby bush, our first close-up experience with these beautiful birds.

We arrived in Manzanillo, a tiny town on the edge of the Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Gandoca Manzanillo, a national park. There are a few restaurants and cabinas in town, perfect beaches (of course!) and lots of fishing boats. We treated ourselves to a Cuba Libre at the one and only pub while we watched the locals pass by under the balcony. We hopped back on our bikes and started biking back to Puerto Viego, stopping to see some more sloths. We stopped at Playa Cocles, yet another huge, gorgeous beach, where we spent a few hours body surfing in the huge waves. We made it back to PV just in time to return our bikes at 6:00.

We had a shower and headed to a place to share a plate of nachos for dinner, where we watched some of the movie "Guess Who." We didn't stay for the whole thing though, since I had no glasses and couldn't see much, despite the fact that it's played on a huge screen. Back at our hotel, we put some DEET on (we have been getting lots of mossie bites at night and there is nowhere to hang our nets) and quickly drifted off to sleep.

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Salsa Brava!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TONI!!!

Last night we were treated to a huge display of brilliant lightning and thunder. We woke up to a slightly rainy morning, and enjoyed some gallo pinto con natilla at our hotel restaurant. Sitting there, we wondered how long it has been since we ate in a restaurant with 4 walls and a door. It's been a while. We spent some time watching the surfers from the beach right outside our cabina. It is here that the most famous wave in Costa Rica breaks: the Salsa Brava. It's named for the huge helping of 'sauce' it serves up on the shallow reef to which it breaks. Many a surfer has endured scrapes, snapped boards, broken bones, and even death. It doesn't look too crazy this time of year.

We spent all morning using the internet and burning CDs before walking about 2 km west of town to the Finca la Isla Botanical Garden. This is a working tropical farm where the owners grow trees, spices, fruits and plants from all over the world. It is absolutely gorgeous. We were given a map and a small booklet about each area and spent nearly 2 hours wandering around the property. A special treat was to see all of the tiny little poison-dart frogs hopping about. These are gorgeous little creatures, about half the size of my thumb, in brilliant colours, from bright red to light green with black spots (we call them the 'mint & chips'). There were all sorts of trees and plants that we have seen in our recent travels. At the end of our explorations, we were able to try many of the exotic fruits grown there.

We walked back to town along Playa Negra, a black sand beach. The sand is completely black but shimmers and sparkles in the sun. It's gorgeous. Back in town, we got some beers and drank them while swimming in the shallow waters among the reefs, and played with a few local dogs prancing around. We had a shower and a cheap burger for dinner before heading back to the hotel for bed.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Friends in low places

After a late breakfast, we checked out of our perfect little cabina and caught the noon bus south for the short trip to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. This is a small (larger than Cahuita), laid back Caribbean town, full of rastas and reggae. And also perfect beaches of course. After some walking around in the humidity, we found a little cabina right on the beach, with perfect views from the door leading out to the water. Not the nicest cabina, but the location made it worth it. We headed directly down to the water for a swim before walking around town, trying to find a cheaper place for a late lunch. We settled on some expensive but delicious tacos at a small soda. Since it was low tide, we walked around the exposed (dead) coral to see what we could find in the many tide pools. We saw lots of crabs, some small fish, lots of muscles and a really cool eel, which was most likely poisonous.

We swam for the rest of the afternoon before heading back to our hotel for a shower. While Nige was under the tap, a little friend crawled out from the drain. It was a crab! He hopped around for the rest of his shower, trying not to get a pinch on the toe. We enjoyed some beer and cocktails on our porch overlooking the ocean and played some cards. We ate a "carnival-style" dinner from a few random huts set up along the road: some freshly fried chicken, a few grilled pork kebabs served with a fresh tortilla, and a hot dog from the German guy's Frankfurter stand. We tried to give the deep-fried bananas served with the chicken to a few of the many dogs wandering around, but even they wouldn't eat them.

Friday, August 19, 2005

Cheeky monkeys

After breakfast this morning, we bought some lunch, packed up our stuff and headed out to spend the day in the Parque Nacional Cahuita. We walked through thick jungle on a small path along the beach...here, the jungle literally falls right into the sea. For about 7 km we followed this quiet path, hearing many birds and howler monkeys along the way. We saw tons of lizards, butterflies, leaf-cutter ants, and birds. We passed a sleepy sloth high up in a tree, and then, after trudging through foot-deep mud, we stopped to watch a group of capuchin monkeys play in the low brances of a tree on the beach. They were not shy at all (perhaps some annoying tourists have been feeding these guys?) and before I knew it, one had jumped from a log onto my back, hanging onto my backpack and knawing his way through the plastic bag tied to the bag, which contained our lunch (some bread, a can of tuna, and an avocado). I didn't want to slap it off for fear that it would bite me, so I yelled to Nige to get it off, and he kicked it in the head (gently, kind of). After the second kick it released its grip and scampered up a nearby tree...with our avocado! Cheeky little bastard. And it looked like such a good avocado. There was much fighting among the group as everyone tried to get a piece of the fruit. Half of our lunch gone, the monkeys then began mashing an odd looking fruit from the tree, and rubbing the juice and mash into their fur. We think that it's a natural bug repellant. Too bad it smells worse than a garbage dump, or I'd be slapping that stuff on myself!

We continued our walk out to the point of the small peninsula and around to the other side. It was just so beautiful, and where the path came out along the beach, we were treated to endless views of the clear, turquoise waters. What a gorgeous spot of Earth.

We headed back to the perfect, 2km-long beach near the entrance to the park where we had a dull lunch of plain tuna sandwiches. We spent some time swimming in the warm water and just relaxing. Before we knew it, it was after 3:00 and cocktail hour was well on its way. We walked further down the beach to the park entrance, and I headed to a shop to get some drinks. We had cocktails on the beach while swimming and listening to the incredibly loud howler monkeys in the jungle directly behind us. As it got dark, we headed back to the hotel, had a shower, went out for some dinner and then headed to bed.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

To the Caribbean and another world

It took about 15 minutes to get a taxi on the deserted streets (we have the first one to 2 old ladies), and headed to Tranquilo backpackers. Luckily some drunk guy was wandering around inside, looking for beer apparently, so he was able to let us in. We put some bean bags together on the floor of the lounge area and went to bed. We woke up around 6:30, surprisingly refreshed despite the lack of sleep. We paid US$12 to the hostel for the use of their floor for a few hours, too much in my opinion, but took advantage of their free internet, pancake breakfast and hot showers. We then walked to one of San Jose's many bus stations and got a ride to Puerto Limón on the east coast. We walked a few blocks to the town's other bus station to get a ride south to Cahuita. On this short walk, we passed an optomotrist, so within 20 minutes I had ordered myself a new pair of glasses, which will be ready in a week. I guess there are some advantages to being in Little America.

It didn't take too long to reach Cahuita, a tiny town on the Caribbean Sea. We got ourselves a really nice cabina with our own hot water bathroom at Cabinas Smith. The Caribbean side of Costa Rica is incredibly different than the Pacific side. Most people are of Afro-Caribbean heritage, noticable immediately by their rich, black skin, 'Jamaican' accents, and reggae/calypso music being played at every shop and restaurant. It's a much more casual environment than other places in Costa Rica, and the people are much friendlier than on the Pacific side. We headed went to Playa Negra, the town's black sand beach, for a swim, but the tide was up and there was no beach. So we found ourselves at the entrance to the Parque Nacional Cahuita, a gorgeous national park nearly in town. There is a donation payment required to enter, but since it was after 4:00, the guys let us swim at the beach just inside the entrance without paying. The water was clear, warm and beautiful, and we swam and body surfed until it was almost too dark to see. We did some laundry in our immaculate shower, had some beer and played some cards (Nigel had bought a new deck) and then shared some rice and beans for dinner. As we left, the owner gave us some cookies which he assured us we would 'really enjoy, mon.'

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

On a road to nowhere

I think the last straw for us in Tamareemdo was losing our deck of cards, so today we decided to head over to the Caribbean coast of the country. We had some breakfast, packed up and caught the 11:20 am bus to Liberia, where we then got the 4:00 bus to San Jose...and nearly 12 hours later, we finally made it to the capital. What should have been a quick 4 hours down the Panamerican Highway turned out to be one long wait on the bus in the middle of the night. There was an accident at some stage. Apparently a mack truck had overturned somewhere up ahead. So the bus turned off the engine, along with all the other cars, trucks and buses we could see, and we sat there waiting. And sat and sat, in the dark of course. At one stage our iPod ran out of batteries, so we sat and did nothing. Over 7 hours later, the bus slowly inched along and we were finally able to pass (this being the only road, and one lane each way). We got to San Jose just before 4:00 am.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Blinded by thievery

By walking away from the central part of town, we managed to find ourselves a cheap place for breakfast, delicious gallo pollo con natilla (rice and black beans with sour cream). Afterwards we went straight to the beach to swim for a while, had some lunch, then hired some body boards for the afternoon. I think this is when it all started to go downhill. While boogie boarding, we managed to lose the equivalent of about $20 and, worse, Nigel's special nyaminyami necklace from Zimbabwe. After about an hour of riding the boards (all we felt we could afford, but it was fun), we returned them and headed back to the beach with a bottle of Rostov vodka and Fresca soda for more swimming. We took turns watching the little stuff we had and going for a dip, but as the sun went down we both went into the water. When we came back out, we realised that someone had stolen my glasses. Not my $500 Oakley sunglgasses (left safely in our room) but my prescription glasses. And they didn't take our vodka or towels or hats (Nigel had been clever enough to bury what little cash we had, so at least that was still there after losing so much already). Who the hell would steal my glasses, set to my crappy vision? Granted, they were Valentino and worth about $450, but still, they were only of use to me. And besides all that, now I can't see. Bollocks. At least I still have my prescription Oakleys so I'm only blind at night. We went back to our hotel, set on drinking some more and playing cards, only to discover that our deck of Cathay Pacific playing cards, which we have had since our very first flight from Sydney to Shanghai, had gone missing. We searched around but they're lost forever. And they were so loved. Sniff sniff. So we decided to call it a day, finished off the bottle of vodka, ate some nachos as big as our ass then went to bed.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Wonder Bread

We had an extremely early start this morning as we needed to catch the 6:00 am bus east to Tamarindo, a beach town on the Pacific coast. Our alarm went off at ten past 5, and much to our amazement, we were showered, packed, out the door and at the bus stop by 5:30. We watched the town dogs roaming around the empty streets, and Nige got us some coffee at the pandaría while we waited. Finally around 6:30 our bus took off. We had to get off at a crossroads somewhere, then waited for our connecting bus on the side of the road to get to Liberia to get another bus to Tamarindo.

When we finally arrived in Tamarindo around 1:00, we walked around for quite a while searching for an affordable place to stay. We settled on some cabinas for US$16 with outdoor, cold showers. But that didn't matter as it was hot, humid and sticky in Tamarindo. We got ourselves the cheapest lunch we could find (a shared casado) then headed straight to the beach for a swim. The beach here is long and perfect, but we could actually have been just about anywhere in Southern California, especially San Diego. And nearly everyone is American here anyway. Actually, we may have even preferred to be in San Diego as at least then we'd have a better chance of finding cheap food. I think my sister Shannon put it best when she described Costa Rica as the white bread of Central America.

We got ourselves some beers at the supermarket and drank them on the beach. Earlier while swimming, we saw that some guys were setting up a small area with flowers for what looked to be a wedding. Sure enough, when we returned with our beers, we saw that there was to be a wedding. It turns out that the only people there were the bride and groom, the celebrant, a photographer and a videographer. So we inched our way closer to watch, but not close enough to hear. The couple couldn't have asked for a more perfect sunset ceremony. With the huge rain clouds in the sky, the sun broke through just before the horizon, spraying the sky with bright yellow and orange light. It was gorgeous, and the couple was totally cute. Nige took some photos and I gave our email address to the celebrant in case the couple wanted to have the photos we took (they've since emailed us and we're in the process of sending them).

For dinner, we treated ourselves to "Nachos as big as your ass." That's actually what the restaurant calls them. Granted, they were not nearly as big as my ass, but they were pretty big and absolutely delicious. We even broke down and bought ourselves each a beer at the restaurant. Over the course of the day, it became apparent to us that 'Tamagringo' as some people call it, is actually 'Tamareemdo' as the prices are sky high. Very unnecessarily I might add. As we finished our meal, we watched a huge, spectacular storm come in off the coast. The lightning was so bright that it lit up the whole ocean, and the thunder was loud enough to make us jump. The rain that followed bucketed down. Even though our hotel was only across the street from the restaurant, we were drenched through to the bone by the time we reached our room. Nigel had a shower in the water pouring off of the roof, and I had one in the outdoor stall amid cracking claps of thunder and flashes of lightning. We watched the storm for a while longer before heading to bed.

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Burritoitos

Today we were up reasonably early to go on our canopy walk We caught a mini-bus to a private reserve called Selvatura, but not before spending a small fortune on a delicious breakfast of fresh muesli and yogurt and a vanilla latte. At Selvatura they have zipline tours, walking tours and a few other things. The most popular was the zipline but we wanted to see some animals so we ecided on the walk (plus it is cheaper). It is made up of a series of trails and bridges that are in the upper canopy of the jungle. The jungle, actually a cloud forest, is beautiful from the ground up to the canopy. It is certainly a different perspective from the top.
Walking around we didn't see much wildlife unfortunatly. We saw a few hummingbirds, butterflies, a colourful slug and a squirrel. We wern't sure if it was the noise from the zipline users or the big group of obnoxious and loud frenchies walking in front of us. We should have just done the zipline and had some adventure. Oh well, it really was a beautiful walk though.

After the walk we went into the hummingbird garden where there are about 20 hummingbird feeders set up. There are so many hummingbirds there. They are fantastic, some were tiny and green others had a blue chest and a purple head and the largest was almost all blue. We sat and watched the birds and ate some corn nuts for quite while. The noise that their little wings make, flapping so quickly, was incredibly loud.

As we waited for the bus we had a cup of tea in the restaurant. In the garden out the front of the restaurant we found a small lizard that I picked up and held for a while. It was like a small guana or something. It would jump from one hand to another and then jumped on my arm and crawled up onto my head for a look.

Our bus came and we made our way back to town. We had a small lunch at the coffee shop. It wasn't meant to be small but the burritos must have been the smallest on earth. They were tasty though in a kind of pizza sauce kind of way.

Well it was that time again so we played some speed and had some more Rostov. We enjoyed the same dinner as last night (when you are on a good thing...) and off to bed we went, just as silly as last night.

Saturday, August 13, 2005

Jeep - Boat - Jeep

This morning we had another great breakfast by Adriana and caught our 'Jeep' to start our trip to Monteverde. The driver's wife had actually forgotton to tell her husband we had booked so we were 40 minutes late to the boat, but that didn't matter as the the boat goes regularly anyway. We drove the same route we drove yesterday, up past the volcano covered in cloud and across to Arenal Lake (man made reserviour). We threw our bags on to a small motor boat seating about 20 people and cruised across the the lake to the other side to meet our connecting Jeep. We were not surprised when we were bundled into a mini-van. Kel mentioned to the guy we were supposed to have a jeep and he kind of laughed and said 'yeah supposed to'. I actually predicted the minivan half-way across the lake.

The road to Monteverde is a bumpy dirt road through hills and farmland. The locals don't want to seal the roads as it will give more access to tourists and cars. Right now you need a 4x4 or a thrashed out minivan to travel easily. The main attraction here is the jungle tours. The most popular is the canopy or zipline tours where you take a flying fox through the tree tops. Oddly enough, Monteverde was settled by some Quakers (one of America's stranger religions) in 1951. Four guys were jailed in 1949 for refusing to register for the draft. After their release, they set out with about 40 others from various families, bought some land in Monteverde and began dairy farming and making cheese. They chose Costa Rica due to its peaceful policies and lack of army.

After finding a great place to stay, we took a look around the town we were staying in. It is Santa Elena, a beautiful small town mainly consisting of hostels and hotels. We had a quick lunch of Gallo Pinto, booked a tour for tomorrow and then went to take a nap. Just after we woke up I was looking out the window and heard a squeal as some people had seen a sloth in the tree. We ran out to watch as it made its way down through the trees right in front of us to have a poop. Sloths come down the tree to poop, then change trees so that predators can't follow them. It was pretty cool as they only come down once a week to do their business. This was a Hoffman's two-toed sloth, which are nocturnal so even more special that we saw him.

The cocktail hour was upon us so we decided to buy some cheap Rostov vodka and Squirt to accompany our card games. For dinner we found a great Soda that serves a yummy casado with tortillas. The Rostov made us pretty silly (I think there is metho or something in it) so it didn't take us long to get to sleep.

Friday, August 12, 2005

Volcan Arenal

We had an awesome breakfast at our hotel this morning, cooked by Adriana herself, and it was only US$2 each. We then wasted the morning using the internet and who knows what else, shared a huge burger for a late lunch, then got back to our hotel at 3:30 in time to catch our tour to the volcano.

The whole purpose in coming to La Fortuna is because of Volcan Arenal. This is Costa Rica's largest active volcano. It has been spewing ash and lava almost daily since its huge eruption in 1968. In fact, molten rocks fly out of this perfectly cone-shaped volcano nearly every 20 minutes, but can only be seen at night due to the amount of light in the sky during the day. Our trip started off great as we wound our way through the lush, green countryside. Our van pulled over next to a few others so we could get out and see a brown-throated three-toed sloth relaxing up in a nearby tree. This is one of 5 species of sloths in the neotropics. He was really cute, almost smiling, but not doing much, so we turned our attention to a huge army of leaf-cutter ants. We had looked for days in the Amazon for these little guys, and here they were in the hundreds (and now it's over a week later and we've seen them everywhere). Back in the van, we kept widing up the hill and stopped to see some coatis. We were the first ones out of the car, and as Nigel knealt down to take a photo of 3 or so in the middle of the road, a whole herd of them came scampering up to him from the hill along the road. These guys are so cute. They are members of the racoon family with long noses which they skim along the ground looking for insects, fruit and small animals to snack on. They've got long tails that kind of curl at the end and seem to have fun personalities.

After watching them for a bit, we continued on towards the volcano and stopped at the entrance of a trail, where we started a 2 hour walk with our guide, Fabrizio. He is extremely knowledeable and appropriately excited about the surrounding plants and wildlife. We were excited when he pointed out some ferns that curl up and wilt when touched. They are totally cool. I know they have them in New Zealand and I looked everywhere for them, but never found them when I was there in 1998. We saw heaps of other plants, flowers, and trees in the lush jungle and heard the sounds of many birds and howler monkeys. We saw hummingbirds, butterflies, & insects. Along the path at one stage, I looked up and there was a howler monkey sitting in the tree. The grunts and howls from these guys can be heard for over 1 km in the jungle. We also saw a large group of white-faced capuchin monkeys. These guys are small and really cute, and cheeky. During the whole walk, the sounds of rocks and lava tumbling down the volcano could be heard above everthing else.

At the top of our walk we had great views of the volcano, but it was mostly covered in clouds. The sunset was spectacular behind us, and we sat and watched the volcano for about an hour to try and spot some lava. And lava we did see! It wasn't much, as we had to wait for breaks in the clouds, but we did see it. Very cool. When it appeared that the show was over for the night as the clouds got too thick, we got into the van and headed down the hill for an evening at the Baldi hot springs. There are tons of hot springs around La Fortuna (due to all of the volcanic activity underground) but sadly they're all resort-like and way overpriced. This was included in our trip, so we decided to have a swim. Inside was like a water park/resort, with at least 8 different pools of varying temperatures, all nicely carved and paved, surrounded by thick flowering bushes and trees. Two of the pools have huge swim-up bars (we've never been to one before and have always wanted to) with over-priced drinks.

After eating our sandwiches we had brought for dinner (luckily, as the restaurant was way out of our league), we changed in the locker rooms and headed to the top pool, which was so hot we couldn't even put our toes in. We thought this was a bit dangerous, as there was nothing to prevent someone (or some child!) from falling in. We then went to one of the pools with a bar and splurged on a few cold beers as we sat and suffered in the incredibly hot water. Still, it was so nice to swim around and soak our skin. For the rest of the evening, we hopped from pool to pool, going to the cooler ones when we got too hot. It was fun. Around 9:30 our group met back up, we were driven back to town, and we headed straight to bed, our fingers and toes like little prunes.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Cerveza Cara

We couldn't see that there is much to do in San Jose, so after a free pancake breakfast at the hotel (which we cooked to perfection ourselves), we walked a few blocks to one of the many bus stations and got a bus northeast to La Fortuna. It took about 5 hours, but we were happy to pay the incredibly low price to take the local bus rather than the outrageously priced tourismo minivans that go direct. Since we were quickly learning that Costa Rica is not very cheap, we are happy that at least buses are.

In La Fortuna, we walked around in the humidity trying to find an affordable place to stay, and finally settled on Cabinas Adriana, dumping our gear in our room just before the skies opened up and bucketed down. We donned our rain jackets and set out to find some cheap beer...(and it's now 12 days later as I type this and we're still searching). Disappointed, we finally settled on buying some beer at the supermarket and headed back to our hotel where we sat at a table on 2nd storey deck outside our room, where we played cards, drank our beer and watched the rain pour down.

For dinner, we tried to find a cheap place, but unfortunately we didn't. We had an okay casado, a set meal consisting of rice, black beans (my favourite!!!), salad, and the meat of our choice (chicken). Then we went to bed.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

To Costa Rica...finally!

The early morning alarm at about 5:00 am came way too quickly. We were supposed to be at the airport at 5:00 for a proposed 7:00 am departure, but we saw no point in being there 2 hours ahead of time since we were already checked in, our luggage was on the plane, and we already had our boarding passes. So we took our time (and another long shower) and got to the airport around 6:00. One look at the TV monitors told us our flight was now departing at about 9:10 a.m. We were right not to hurry, but were pissed that we could have stayed in the hotel room longer!

So off we went to spend our measly $5 breakfast vouchers. I thought this would be impossible, but we went to our breakfast choice anyway (yep, the same bagel place where we had lunch yesterday) and only had to pay US$0.68 extra. But of course that was without coffee, and of course we couldn't pass up a Starbuck's opportunity, so we shared an iced latte (there are at least 3 Starbuck's in the Miami airport, and Nigel was surprised when I turned down a drink at all 3 of them yesterday when he offered). We waited at the gate...and waited and waited. Finally we saw our new plane arrive. The AA staff announced that the flight crew required more sleep (yeah, so does everyone else!) and we'd be departing around 11:00 after 1 more delay. And the plane did finally take off just before noon (after everyone had boarded and then deboarded at least twice). We hoped they would be really nice and offer free alcohol, but we were wrong to think AA would go that far. And they built up their generostiy by announcing "We've managed to organise with catering to serve food on this flight since we know it has been a long wait for you guys." But in truth they just served snack packs with food packed with fat, preservatives, sodium and sugar. We still enjoyed them, don't get me wrong, but we thought we all deserved a hot lunch at this stage. And leave it to an American airline company to serve the unhealthy crap.

The flight to San Jose from Miami is pretty short (still no movies). It was late afternoon when we arrived. We got our bags, which we were happy to see, checked out of immigration and caught a taxi to a hotel. As we approached, the driver explained that this was not a very good area (it didn't look good either) so we had him drive us to another place I had written down from Kim's book. We got to Tranqilo Backpackers, a place in a cute neighbourhood, paid too much for a room, and then treated ourselves to a hot shower and clean clothes. We set out firstly to find ourselves a guide book and ended up at a pedestrian mall full of shops. We wandered around a bit, bought a Lonely Planet, then ended up wandering through some indoor markets. We had a beer (our first of many overpriced ones) at a soda, a Costa Rican deli type place, then set out to find some locks for our bags since the immigration people at the Miami airport had hacked through ours, leaving a friendly little note saying "In your absence, we had to break into your bag, ruin your locks and rifle through your stuff so we could make sure you're not terrorists." Thanks American Airlines, for letting this happen. We then had the cheapest dinner we could find, and oddly, it was at Taco Bell. Still, this was a pretty good treat for us. We headed back to the hotel in the pouring rain where we used the free internet and headed to bed.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Lima to San Jose via Miami...and still in Miami

Our taxi picked us up around 5:15 this morning for a short ride to the airport. We checked into our first American Airlines flight, had a coffee and a doughnut at the conveniently located Dunkin' Doughnuts (where I nostalgically thought back on the many weekends spent at my Grandpa's house), browsed the duty free shops (where I made made perfume selection for the day so I could smell nice, something I do at every airport since leaving home--perfume has become a luxury) and waited for our flight. We were excited for the trip to San Jose, Costa Rica, even if we had to fly via Miami. But our excitement was quickly stomped out as soon as we got on the plane and discovered that, although it's an international flight, we had to actually pay for alcoholic beverages! What a disappointment! Leave it to American Airlines to be the one to refuse us our natural rights as international travellers! It didn't help our moods any by the fact that the plane did not have TVs in the backs of each seat (every flight since we left Australia has had them, except for the small domestic flights). Not only that but they only showed one movie on the 5 hour flight, then shut the TV screens off for the rest of the trip. We did get a hot breakfast though, even if it was served by rude American flight attendents.

We reached Miami without any dramas. We headed to the international transfer lounge but were stopped short by some immigration officials. When we showed our passports, one woman handed Nigel an I-94 form, saying he needed to fill it out. This is a form for an electronic visa. Innocently, we questioned why he needed this form if we were just in transit between international flights. The woman was less than friendly and basically said "Just fill it out."
"But why?" Nigel asked.
"You just need it. Ask those people over there," she rudely replied, pointing to other immigration people a few feet away.
It did not escape our attention that she herself should know why travellers need certain forms, being an immigration officer and all. When we finally did get an answer, it was a rude, annoyed and patronizing reply "Because. You are going into a domestic area."

Ahhh, lovely America! What friendliness. Welcome home.

There have been a few countries so far where the immigration people are abrupt and seem not to enjoy their jobs. And the odd country has quite friendly personnel working their borders. But in all my travel experiences, it has been the people at Sydney immigration who are consistently happy, friendly and seem pleased to be of assistance to each person who passes through their gates. Likewise, I think it is the American immgration people who are consistently rude, obnoxious and up on their high horses.

So, on Florida terra firma, we set out to waste our 5 hour layover by exploring the airport. We treated ourselves to bagels for lunch (and anyone who knows me, knows what a treat this was!), and we couldn't get enough of the FREE water from the soda machine, WITH ICE! We just drank cup after cup, and we didn't even have to pay for the cup. What a treat! We then wandered around looking for a Costa Rica Lonely Planet. We had flashbacks of being in Heathrow airport looking for a Brazil book, which we never found. And, we never found a Costa Rica book either. In fact there was not one guidebook of any brand in the whole airport. Weird!!

Around 6:00 pm we headed to our gate, anticipating the 6:30 departure, only to find that it was delayed by about an hour. So, we picked a piece of carpet and sat down to read and do some crossword puzzles. Nigel had a little nap, and I didn't wake him a while later to tell him our flight was delayed even longer to about 8:30. And then they switched the departure gate, so all of the passengers waiting gathered up their gear and trotted across the airport to the new lounge. Now, we had been debating all day long whether or not to buy ourselves a US$7 beer from the Sam Adams kiosk we kept passing, and up until now, we thought we did pretty well to resist. But the gate change was the last straw so we happily gave in and got a pint each. While we sipped these cold, tasty beverages, Nige rang his parents and sister, and I rang a sister and my Mom. Thanks guys for ringing us back so we could chat! It was a real treat to talk to them, as it had been a LONG time. My Mom happened to be in Maine at the time, and we were so excited to be in the same time zone for the first time in well over a year. She was happy we were in the USA, but made the point that we were probably safer in Lima than in Miami. Good point Mom.

As 8:30 came and went, passengers on our flight started getting antsy and people started asking questions and demanding answers. Apparently our plane had a "mechanical problem" which they were fixing and they would update us as soon as they knew any changes. I got chatting to a cute Canadian couple, as I had noticed them reading a CR Lonely Planet, and seeing as how we had no idea where we'd go once we got to San Jose, I asked to borrow it to jot down a few hotels. Kim and Suesh are both PE teachers, and were actually starting their 3 week honeymoon. Not a great start for them, but what can you do? We also chatted with Jamana from SF, and they all made the time pass rather quickly. Nige got bored and went to argue with one of the irate customers who was being a real ass. He wanted to know exactly what was wrong with the plane. The poor counter staff were getting hounded with questions and abuse. Nige asked the guy, 'What does it matter what is wrong with the plane as long as it gets fixed right?. Are you an aircraft mechanic?....'
'No'....'
'So they could tell you anything and you wouldn't know what it was right?....' replies Nige.
'I guess so....' the guy shrugs.
'OK, then they are fixing the flux capacitor.'

Around 10:30, after witnessing several arguments at the counter and one pretty abusive one, the AA staff announced that they couldn't fix the problem on the plane, and we had to wait for a new plane. This would require us to stay over night in Miami and depart in the morning when the plane would arrive from San Francisco. You can imagine the obscenities flying about from a bunch of irate tourists (some of which we really felt bad for, ie those with kids, those who had pre-booked hotels and tours etc--but that's why there're travel insurance!). But Nigel and I were so excited. Staying in a REAL hotel! With hot showers, towels, soap, shampoo, and CONDITIONER! And TV! And 2 free meals!! Woo-bloody-hoo!!!

We queued up with about 300 other passengers (some people just went to their homes in Miami) to receive our hotel, dinner and breakfast vouchers. Nigel and I couldn't contain our excitement as we looked at the hotel voucher and saw we'd be staying at the Sheraton, Miami airport. We left our luggage at the airport or on the plane or wherever it was (as most passengers did) and hopped on the Sheraton shuttle for the quick trip to the hotel. When we walked in, we knew we were in for an even bigger treat than we anticipated. This hotel is pure luxury (to us anyway). The lobby and rooms are all decorated much to our style, not some gaudy carpeting and cheesy artwork. There were exotic flowers, bamboo screens, simple black and white photos decorating the walls, and black and chrome fittings in the bathrooms. And I nearly fell over when I saw that the free shampoo and conditioner was actually Pantene (I have been using nothing but Head & Shoulders for the last 8 months, with no conditioner).

Being 11:00 pm, we weren't too hungry for dinner, but didn't want to pass up on free food, so we met Kim and Suesh in the hotel restaurant for a late meal. I had a Caesar salad (yum!!) and Nige had soup, and a root beer! Back in our room, we both had a shower for about 20 minutes each, WITHOUT flip flops. The bed was huge, full of pillows, and so comfortable. The TV was huge. With so many channels. I didn't want to waste one second of that luxurious bed and fell asleep quickly. And Nigel didn't want to waste one second of that TV, so he stayed up late watching movies (funnily enough, we learned later that Kim went right to sleep while Suesh stayed up watching TV too).

Yeah, American Airlines, you can delay our flights any time...

**Note: as much as we complain, and will continue to do so, about the staff of American Airlines, the staff members at the gate fielding all of the questions and dealing with plenty of irate people were very nice, calm and helpful. I guess ground staff and flight staff go to different schools. The ground staff butters you up and gets you in a good mood, and the flight staff just ruins all their hard work.

Monday, August 08, 2005

Beer at 9

Waking up early this morning, we packed up our hammocks and gear and waited to reach Iquitos. As we approached the city, longboats full of guys sped up next to our big cargo ship and all the guys jumped on board, Miami Vice style. Apparently they do this so they can have first pick of the produce for sale before the boat even gets to port. Some boats even hovered right next to us and loaded their bananas right off the cargo boat while cruising along. At port around 7:00, it was pure chaos. We waited on the top deck for things to calm down a bit, as people scrambled to get on to buy stuff, people scrambled to get off to sell stuff, and passengers were just trying to get off. Gary told us to take everything out of our pockets as it´s not unusual for foreigners to have stuff nicked while trying to squeeze their way through the hordes.

Finally off the boat, we caught a motocarro into town and were dropped off at The Yellow Rose of Texas restaurant. Gary departed to take a shower. We enjoyed a great, cheap breakfast of pancakes and Colombian coffee before using the free shower Gerald provides for travellers. I think this was one of the best showers we´ve ever had. Not because it was some fantastic feat of the shower engineers of the world (it was just a cold tap) but because we needed a shower SO BAD. I had made the mistake of ´washing´ my clothes in the Amazon a few days ago, and from then on they just smelled so bad. The river water combined with the fact that we were never actually dry became a leathal combination for our noses. We scrubbed up nicely though, and took our laundry to the lavandaría down the street, where the little lady promised it would be ready by 10:30 for us to leave to catch our flight.

After all the effort of eating, showering, and taking care of our soaking wet laundry, we thought we deserved a nice cold beer...or two or three. The great thing about Iquitos is that no one cares if you´re drinking beer at 9:00 in the morning. And Gerald assured us that his fridge was currently at minus 4 degrees C, so our beer was perfectly chilly, and went down smoothly.

Sure enough, at 10:30 our laundry was done, we packed it up, thanked Gerald and his wife profusely for all of their help, and headed to the airport. We dutifully paid our departure tax and waited for our TANS Peru plane to Lima. The Iquitos airport is a bit funny. There is only one runway, used both for takeoffs and landings, and it doesn´t matter which way the planes go. And seeing as how it´s completely surrounded by thick jungle, it´s a wonder the runway is even paved. As we walked out on the tarmac to board the flight, we took a few photos of the broken down, deserted planes strewn along the side of the runway, practically overgrown with foliage. Very funny.

It was a short ride to Pulcallpa, then a quick trip to Lima from there as we chatted to a young 15 year old from Delaware who had just been in Pulcallpa for a month with his missionary group building a church. Back in Lima, we caught a taxi to the Hotel España, headed straight to the post office to get rid or our accumulated gear (we had decided we´d rather pay the high price to ship it home rather than lug it any further), ate some churros, used the internet, played some cards and drank more beer, had a Tear Gas burger for dinner and headed to bed early, excited for our early start tomorrow to a new country.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Back to "civilisation"

We woke up early this morning as it had been pouring for the last few hours. We decided to skip breakfast so we didn't have to cook in the rain, but it stopped by the time we were ready to pack up our gear. We worked fast and were in the canoe not long after 8 am. It was a quick ride as we were paddling with the current, so it only took about 2 hours to reach base camp. And it didn't rain either. It was a gerat time to be on the water, since all of the birds were coming out after the downpour. We were happy to be greeted very enthusiastically by one of the dogs at camp. We unloaded the boat, ate some breakfast, and had a splash in the river to kill some time. We then hung out around the camp and later Mitchell and Gary made us pollo saltado, a yummy Peruvian dish. But it was the end of Camilla's life...Camilla was the live chicken we had brought with us all the way from Iquitos. She stayed at base camp but her life ended for us to have pollo saltado. I think we gave all of the chicken to the dog behind Gary's back.

After lunch, our driver with the motorized boat arrived and we loaded up the boat. We all got on board just in time for the rain to start pouring down. So most of the 3 hours in the boat were spent huddled under an umbrella. We were desperately trying to keep our feet dry, since we both had just dried them out after 3 days of being soggy and wet. As we got near to the town where we were to catch the big cargo boat back to Iquitos, we stopped the boat for a bit to watch for some freshwater Amazonian dolphins. And much to our pleasure, the rain stopped, the sun sort of came out, and with it, the dolphins! We saw quite a few of the pink dolphins, and they're really really pink! And we also saw heaps of gray ones, which look just like bottlenose dolphins except their bellies are pink. These guys were having a blast, jumping out of the water and doing spins. It was a real treat to watch.

Back in town, we had a cold drink and waited for the cargo boat. When it arrived, it was mad chaos as everyone tried to scurry on to get hammock space (the boat was already nearly full when it reached us) and the locals scurried on to sell their food. We just managed to find place for 3 hammocks on the top deck, although not all together. Nigel and I bought some delicious food (it was like a stuffed potato but was yucca or something else). We had some beers with Gary and chatted about our trip, enjoying talking about all we saw and did. And then we pretty much went to our hammocks to read and try to sleep. We were like ping pong balls in our hammocks, being swayed back and forth by the fat dudes on either side of us. I think we managed to fall asleep at some stage.

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Hacking through the jungle

We thought that it rained really early this morning, but in fact it was just all of the moisture from the trees way up high dropping down onto the jungle floor. We also got to listen to the otters playing for a bit, and all of the fish jumping around all night. We had a quick breakfast of fried egg sandwiches before setting off for a 5 hour trek through the jungle. Before we left, we had to stash our bags in the trees so that passing fishermen wouldn't raid our camp while we were gone. This was probably needless since in over 3 days we only saw 1 other person out there in the jungle.

It was slow going hiking around in our galoshes as every 5th step was preceeded by a few hacks of the machete in order for us to pass through. And it was incredibly hot traipsing around in the humidity. We were only loaded down with some water (which proved not to be enough), our camera and binoculars, and a machete. Oh yeah, and the shotgun too. Just in case. We hoped and hoped to see a jaguar (very rare, but the last guys to come to this area saw one a few days ago), but then again, maybe we didn't want to see one...

After the first 10 minutes, we reached one of many streams to cross. There was no visible way across it, so Gary just chopped down a tree to make a bridge. I wasn't too happy about this, but at least the log stayed in the forest rather than being removed. We saw so many varieties of trees, and tons of vines hanging down to the ground. Halfway through our hike, we stopped for Gary to chop down a palmito tree so he'd be able to make us a hearts of palm salad for lunch. The edible bits are way at the top of the tree inside the trunk, so it's necessary to chop the whole thing down. Again, I wasn't too happy to see this. Although the salad we later ate was absolutely delicious, I'm not sure I'll ever eat palmito again, knowing what is necessary to get it. I'll have to look into it.

We headed back to camp and were absolutely knackered by the time we got there. In all, we were a bit disappointed in the lack of wildlife we saw. But it was nice to see 2 toucans and a few macaws flying around. Also a fresh water stingray and some jungle chickens too, which Gary wanted to catch for dinner. After a much-needed splash off in the river, we all went into our mossie tents for a little nap. Nigel and I then spent the rest of the afternoon fishing. After dinner, we waited for it to get really dark, then set out on a night cruise up the river in the canoe. It was so incredibly dark out, and so silent...except for the thousands of bugs and other animals making their night noises. We used a flashlight to try to spot animals on the banks. But after about an hour, all we saw were some huge spiders. It was tough in the boat because there are so many logs under the water. They are extremely difficult to see in the daytime, and impossible to see in the pitch dark of night. At one stage we got stuck and we were sure we'd be swimming with the piranhas, but we made it through. I was glad we had left some candles burning at the camp or I don't think we would have been able to find it coming back. We watched the glow bugs for a bit then went straight to bed.

Friday, August 05, 2005

Eating fish with teeth

Last night we were treated to the night sounds of the jungle, mainly frogs and bugs of every imaginable size.

Up with the chickens this morning, we had a great breakfast before we packed up our gear into a tiny dugout canoe for our trip further upriver. Our gear was precariously balanced in the small boat, and strict concentration had to be maintained at all times while getting in, getting out, or moving even an inch in the boat or else we would be piranha feed. A couple of times we got stuck on a submerged log and Gary had to get out into the water and free us.

For the next 3 hours, Nigel and Gary rowed us up the river with their homemade oars (I spent the morning using an old tuna can to bail the water out of the boat). It was so beautiful. Just the three of us and the whole huge quiet jungle. The sounds of birds & monkeys were a constant source of pleasure. We saw tons of different types of birds, including many kingfishers, and some teeny tiny monkeys high up in the trees. Definitely the highlight was seeing 2 endangered Giant Otters. They were playing on a huge log over the water, gave a little bark, splashed into the water, & paddled a bit before disappearing. It was quick, but a real treat anyway. The Giant Otter population once spread from Venezuela to northern Argentina. Today only isolated pockets of otters, estimated 2,000-5,000, are left due to fur hunting and habitat destruction.

After nearly 3 hours and very sore butts, we reached our camp for the next 2 nights. Really it was just a spot in the jungle that happens to have a bit of flat land and is raised up above the water level. We unloaded our gear and set up camp while Gary cooked lunch. It didn't take long to set up camp since all we had to do was hang up the hammocks in some trees. After lunch we went out in the canoe to fish for piranha. These fish are so hard to catch because they take a nibble out of the bait as fast as lightning and then are off. But we did catch quite a few of them, and 2 of the 3 species. Of course there were the 2 or 3 big ones that got away. It was a lot of fun.

We got back to the campsite just as it was getting dark. We had a quick bath in the river...this time we DEFINITELY were not getting in that water, after seeing the piranhas close up. They have so many teeth, which look like little shark teeth. As it got dark, the daytime animals went to bed and the nighttime animals came out, changing the sounds of the jungle. And much to our surprise and delight, our campground was full of fireflies. The small ones are like the ones we've seen before, with their little butts glowing. With the larger ones, it's their eyes that glow. Very cool. They made the campsite look like a fairy wonderland.

Gary fried up the fish for dinner. We expected them to taste muddy, since the Amazon water is brown and full of sediment, but they were quite good. A lot of bones though. After eating up our fill, we pretty much just went into our hammock caves (we had full mossie nets around them) and went to bed. The noises of the jungle were so loud that it was almost deafening. And it was so dark out once we blew out the candles making the millions of stars in the sky stand out so brightly.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Base Camp

We were not too successful sleeping in our hammocks last night, swaying on the cargo boat. And it was hot. But there were not any mosquitos, so we were happy about that. We got up just as the sun was rising over the river--a beautiful site to see. We packed up our beds and dragged our stuff to the bottom level of the boat to get ready to get off at a town which we can't remember the name of. It was settled by the Swiss back in the day, and the locals still make cheese.

Actually getting off of the boat was an adventure in itself. As some passengers were waiting to get off, a bunch of locals were waiting to get on to quickly sell their piping hot food and cold drinks to those still on board. And there was no civilised way about this. We had to stick our elbows out and struggle just to stay upright and not get knocked over. Of course there was only a skinny plank of wood to cross from the boat to the shore as well. Safely on land, Gary took us to a small restaurant for breakfast before we met up with our boat driver for the morning. We loaded our gear onto his motorised dugout canoe and set out for 3 hours upriver, turning off of the Amazon and down the ever-narrowing tributary of the Rio something-or-other (will look it up later). This put us over 330km upriver from Iquitos, and the further we went, the thicker the jungle and the less people we started to see.

It was quite hot sitting in the boat with the sun beating down, but we hardly took notice as we enjoyed the jungle. Just all of the sounds of birds and animals made the trip worth it up to that stage. We saw TONS of kingfishers and other birds, a turtle, and a few small monkeys. At one stage we pulled up to the side for a toilet break and Gary just happened to pluck a baby anaconda out of the water. It was so beautiful, but still managed to give us the chills despite being a 2 foot long baby. But Nigel put his fears aside and held it. There are 2 types of anacondas in Peru, the yellow (like this one) and the even more dangerous black anaconda.

After about 3 hours, we arrived at our base camp, where we would be staying for the night. We were pleased to be greeted by 3 very excited and friendly dogs, running down to the water to greet us. They followed us from the river into the jungle where we met Mitchell, a buff old Peruvian, and a small family, all staying at this base camp working. There is a huge screened common room built up off the ground, as well as another deck area with a toilet. They have randomly growning gardens like chili plants and jungle fruits. In addition to the 3 dogs, there are 2 resident parrots who wander around with the chickens and never fly away. I guess you could say the camp is semi-permanent. All I know is that the mosquitos definitely live there!

While Gary and Mitchell cooked us up a delicious lunch, Nige wandered around and played with the dogs while I tried (all in vain) to escape the mossies. After lunch we went traipsing through the jungle, accompanied by 2 of the dogs. At first I was worried that the dogs would scare off any wildlife before we had a chance to view it. But after walking for only 10 minutes, I realised that with all the noise the three of us made, we couldn't even sneak up on the dead. We had galoshes on our feet because of the mud, and since the ground is covered by about 3 feet of leaves, we couldn't have been quiet if we tried. We walked for about 2 hours, enjoying the thick, lush jungle. At times Gary had to hack our way through the vines and trees with a machete. We didn't see any animals :( but we enjoyed having the dogs with us.

After our walk, we desperately needed to cool off so we 'bathed' in the river. I refused to get in completely because of the piranhas, so we just splashed ourselves off while sitting in one of the boats. We then made some bait with flour and water to try and catch some fish. We caught a few small ones. Gary cooked us up a great dinner, then we went to bed to escape the mossies.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Boat people

We got up this morning, had some breakfast at Ari`s Burgers (a huge 50s, Mel´s Diner type place owned by Gerald´s (from the Texas place) brother-in-law, then went back to the hotel to pack up our things and gather our stuff for 5 days in the jungle. Since check-out wasn´t until noon, we spent the rest of the morning in front of the fan in our room watching MTV. I think this is the first English language TV we´ve had since maybe India, so we indulged ourselves. At noon, we reluctantly checked out of the hotel, dropped our bags at the office of our jungle company, and wasted some time on the internet. We grabbed some sandwiches from the Yellow Rose of Texas for our dinner on the boat, then went to our tour office to wait for our ride to the big boat.

I think I'm probably the only person EVER to have started their Amazon trip with 44 mosquito bites already, and I haven't even left town yet! The bites from those tiny black bastard bugs on the top of Machu Picchu are still raging and it´s been 5 days. When we got to the ´port´, we saw that our cargo ship was just docked along the muddy banks of the river, and there were tons of people moving like ants, loading their stuff onto the boat. Most of it comprised bananas, sacks of who the hell knows what, and crates of who the hell knows what. Why were bananas travelling from the city to the jungle?? No idea. But it was exciting to watch.

We pushed our way to the top deck of the tri-level boat (with the help of one of the guys from the tour company office) where our hammocks were already strung up, hanging from pipes along the ceiling. How we found our hammocks must have been a miracle because there were already at least 100 hanging up, their owners lounging around or still on land. And that was only the top deck! At least the sides are open to the air. The middle and bottom decks seem more like compartments on a slave ship. After a while our guide for the next 5 days joined us. Gary (it´s actually Moises Jr. or Moises the 5th or something, but he hates it) is a 20 year old who grew up in the jungle. When he was a baby his parents sent him to live in the jungle with his grandma, and he only moved back to Iquitos when we was about 14 or 15 to finish school. It seemed like we´d be in for a great time. We chatted as the boat slowly filled with more passengers and their cargo.

Almost at 5:00 p.m. exactly, the boat´s horn beeped and we were off. The cargo ship would be taking us about 14 hours upriver (west). We spent the first 30 minutes or so watching the sun set over the water, and retired to our hammocks as soon as it got dark. We played some cards (the cards were precariously balanced on our legs as we swung from side to side in our beds), read, and then went to sleep for lack of anything else to do.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Welcome to the jungle

We got up this morning, packed up, waited an infinitely long time for our breakfast at the Hotel España, then took a taxi to the airport for our flight to Iquitos. It was strange to be flying domestically, and we didn´t have the hassles of immigration and exchaning money. We still, however, had to pay a departure tax. Despite being a short domestic flight, we were warned that we should be at the airport 2 hours ahead of time to be sure we actually got on the flight. And we did, with no problems.

Although it´s a short trip to Iquitos, we still had one stop-over in Pocallpa where, surprisingly, most of the passengers on the plane got off. The little TANS Peru Boeing 737 was only 1/2 full for the rest of the flight. Throughout the whole flight, we had clear, fantastic views of mountains, desert, and, finally, the dense green jungle, tons of small rivers, and the huge Amazon River. The plane landed in Iquitos (rather a bit too quickly in our experience) and pulled up to a building off the runway. We were happy to see a man with a fluoro vest wheel a staircase up to the plane, which we descended and walked across the tarmac, just like in Adelaide. We were immediately assaulted by the hot, humid weather of the Amazon jungle. The airport is ´inside´ with four walls and a roof, but they don´t connect at all. After getting our bags, we went outside and caught a motocarro into town, a little seat attached to the front of a motorbike, like many we rode in southeast Asia. In fact, just the sight and sounds of the tons of motorbikes on the streets brought us back to our fun days in Phnom Penh.

Iquitos is a large town (nearly half a million) on the banks of the Amazon. Actually, it´s the largest city in the world not with no roads reaching it. The only way to get here is by air or a very long boat trip, and is a tourist jump-off place for treks through the jungle and on the Amazon River. Iquitos saw grew rapidly during the rubber boom, but quickly declinced at the start of WWI. Now most money comes from oil (yes, unfortunately they found this evil black stuff in the jungle) and tourism. Still, we think it´s got a bit of it´s own sort of charm.

We walked around the suffering heat and humidity of Iquitos while trying to find a hotel for the night. Most places seemed to be a total rip-off, but we finally found one for a reasonable price (it was actually the first one we went to--at the time, we thought it was expensive, but once we compared it to other places, it was the best choice). We then set out to find a company to take us into the jungle. After talking to several over the course of a few hours, we finally chose one, with the help of Gerald, the owner of the restaurant The Yellow Rose of Texas. Gerald used to be the Minister of Tourism in Iquitos, and he knows just about everything regarding tours into the jungle. And he is so happy to help travellers out without asking for anything in return. Of course we ate all of our meals at his restaurant because he's got the coldes beer fridge ever. It sits between 0 and -4C. And it totally rules! We easily put down a few with sandwiches for dinner before heading back to our hotel, where we proceeded to glue ourselves to the TV in our room and watch MTV.

Monday, August 01, 2005

Black and Blue shopping

Another day wasted in Lima, we didn´t do too much. We had more tamales for a late breakfast before getting a taxi to the American Airlines office for yet another flight change. We had planned on this wasting at least an hour but it only took a few minutes (which really we prefer, given the hassles we´ve had with changing flights) so we took another taxi to the Povolos Azules, Lima´s black market (even though ´azules´ means blue in Spanish) of stolen and illegitimate goods for sale. Naturally, the place was huge, full of stalls selling clothing, shoes, pirated CDs and DVDs and any electronic item you could ever hope for. We wandered around a bit, Nigel looked at some camera stuff, and then we left, not having purchased anything. Apparently the law enforcement turns a blind eye to these markets, probably because it´s where they do most of their shopping too.

When we got back, we used the internet a bit more, tried (and failed) to confirm our flights to Iquitos, had dinner and went to bed.