Week 6 – from dire to delicious… and the tan fades :(

So… the last week is here! I can’t believe I’ve been here for 6 weeks! Crazy!!!

Anyway.. back to Samara… we left camp and stayed 2 nights in Samara, lovely hotel, nice beach, great cocktails and the most amazing sunset I think I’ve ever seen. (There are plenty of photos to show you!) We left Samara on Saturday after sufficiently eating, drinking and sleeping too much and headed for Montezuma on the southern tip of the Nicoya Pennisula, it had been recommended as it has a beautiful waterfall, also, Tuen, Dirk, Jasper, Paul and Joanna from the volunteer camp were going to meet us there. To get there it was a 4 hour bus trip along dirt roads. Montezuma is a tiny, hippy town witha strange vibe, both Julia and I felt it straight away. We went to the hostel recommended by the guys and they only had one room left so we figured we should take it… big mistake… too expensive ($30) and REALLY DISGUSTING! It was a tiny room with bunk beds and a tin roof that was covered by a carpet! Mozzies everywhere and no air… Tip: ALWAYS SHOP AROUND FOR ACCOMODATION! We were just tired and wanted to get sorted. anyway… we spent the afternoon wandering around town and we went to the waterfall which was refreshing and gorgeous… got back to our room and had to go out again. Montezuma felt a little unsafe. it felt like our belonging weren’t safe and like eyes were on us all the time. As the day passed we realised that the eyes were those of the pervy old western men in bad shirts that wandered around the town! Yuk! So. evening came… we almost paid twice as much to stay in the rooms in the next door hotel but we decided we were tough… we’ve camped in the middle east, we should be able to do this!!! So we did, it was fine, but we did leave at 8am the next morning and didn’t wait for our friends to arrive.

Next was going to be Rio Tarcoles, where there is a long bridge and underneath are hundreds of huge crocodiles (think Indiana Jones)… it was a whole day out of our way and although we wanted to see these massive creatures we figured that it might not be worth it… so we began the journey to Monteverde, beautiful cloud forest in the middle of the country. From Montezuma this meant a bus to Paquera, a ferry (after waiting 2 hours) to Puntarenas and another 5 hour bus to Monteverde. We made it without killing eachother. As we climbed up the mountain in the bus it started to get colder. We were in singlets and shorts… outside people had raincoats and beanies on… we were going to FREEZE! On arrival we were bombarded with people offering accomodation but we had decided on the backpackers which was supposed to be nice – we needed this after the Montezuma incident… it was full! Oh no… he recommended Cabinas Eddy to us just down the road… best recommendation ever. $8 a night and fanatasic… we loved it there and stayed 3 nights. Day 1 – did a canopy tour, amazing, the lines were 750m long across an entire valley, we even had time to look at the view as we flew along the wire. Julia did it too and as she’s scared of heights that was a great achievement… fortunately it was AFTER this in the bakery that we met a german guy who was on the tour after us, he told us he and his friend had collided mid line with the (silly) people in front who had stopped mid line as it was very cloudy… ambulance for 5 hours to SAN Jose for them! After the Canopy Tour we spent our days sleeping, eating at the local soda (that Eddy ran – he spoke very little english but he liked to chat anyway!), visiting the local cheese factory, went on a coffee tasting, went to insect world and saw a MASSIVE tarantula, and we also went on a 4 hour walk through the cloud forest in the rain! We had such a great time…

Next… La Fortuna… Volcano time… we took a taxi then a boat across the lake and another taxi to La Fortuna and watched as the volcano emerged out of the clouds… Wow! It’s still active- erupts every day and we wanted to see Lava! We booked into some really good but really cheap accomodation, met a couple of American guys who had also just arrived and then met Mr. lava lava who guarentees you will see lava… so we went to the locals hot springs ( a river) and then went to see lava… we did see some but it was far away and only occassionally… still fun and interesting – i wish i’d taken a jumper though… very very cold!

The next day (yesterday) it was raining raining raining… so we decided the best thing to do would be spend the day at th hot springs…. the fancy ones… $60 just to get in… compared to $6 beds at the hostel we figured it was ok! we ended up staying there for 10 hours! We had a package that included lucna and dinner, so we ate ourselves stupid, relaxed for soooo many hours in many many different pools and we could hardly walk when we left as we were soooo relaxed…. sleep last night was goooooooooooooood!

That brings us to today.. waiting for our bus to take us back to San Jose (another 6 hours), then to our hostel ready to fly out tomorrow morning… I can’t believe it’s over… I’ve had such an incredible time… I’ve met sooo many great people and taken soooooooooo many photos on my fantastic camera (thanks girls)!!!

Back in Sydney on Monday (yes it takes 2 days to get home!)

xxx

p.s. it’s been raining and i’ve been in the rainforest and hot springs for a whole week…. the tan is dying!!!!!