10-11 July - La Fortuna and Volcan Arenal

Last night we went Volcano and wildlife hunting.... we missed on both counts. The highlight of the animal life was a Cane Toad (we rolled our eyes).

As for the volcano...... Clouds, clouds, wait, was that a mountain top...... no, more clouds. It was a cloudy day, filled with clouds, and the occasional cloud that rained on us. We´ve been told there´s a volcano spitting lava and molten rocks.... but the girls from England thought Lake Arenal looked more like Scotland.... murky and dark. Nice lake (loch) though.

Interesting history, it exploded in 1968 killing about 88 people and has since doubled in both height and diameter (at the base) now reaching about 1700m high and about 7000m wide. Phil doesn´t agree, it´s a tourism conspiracy, aided by numerous postcards which we´re sure are photos of Mount Etna or St Helens elsewhere in the world.
Ref: http://www.arenalobservatorylodge.com/EN/

We then went to Baldi Hot Springs which were strangely enough, quite impressive. Pools ranged from 39°C to 67°C, scaldingly hot!!! With 3 or 4 swim-up bars and inter-connecting hot and cold pools the place was quite nice.

On the Tuesday (11th), it was off to Catarata (Falls) with Rachel and Kataya, two English girls who SCUBA DIVE!!! So we´re hoping to meet up with them tomorrow evening in Playa del Coco for a couple of Costa Rican dives.

8-9 July - Monteverde

After finishing our time at the Monkey Park, we moved back to Liberia so we could get new glasses for Karen, since our bag was stolen. We´ve since bumped into a handful of other people who´ve also been through the same and found out that of all the American Passports in the world (not that there´s many) - the most are stolen in Costa Rica.

Monteverde - tourist trap to the multitudes, but somehow still pleasant. It has a mountain lodge feel with extreme heat instead of snow. We took a guided tour through Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve - fun and informative searching for the elusive Quetzal (the national bird). We also saw a very good exhibit called ¨The Bat Jungle¨ so now we know a little bit more about what we missed out on in Panama.

Then on to a Serpentarium - who´d like to kiss this ugly mother?

Next day we took a zip-line canopy tour (www.skytrek.com) - think of Giant Flying Foxes like when you were a kid, except up to 80 km/h and up to 800m long through the jungle. Met up with Nina and Mike (Chicagoans who enjoy watching AFL on cable TV and think it´s all a bunch of pretty-boys who are very popular in the gay community in Chicago). We also watched the shitty World Cup final - damn Italians didn´t even deserve to be there let alone win that way!!! Ah, well.

7 July - Monkey Park

Sofia the Racoon and the ground team at Monkey Park. Nasira, Roberto, Carlos, Elmer, Gustavo (and son!).


Phil with Nasira, Carlos and Laura (the hard-working vet).



We thought that it was about time we practiced our spanish again... so for those of you who can't read its about the monkey park, the animals and what we're up to... SPANISH ONLY from now on for this entry....

Bienvenidos a la parque de monos...

Estamos en Portegolpe, Guanacaste, en un pueble pequeno en el norte-este de Costa Rica. Comos voluntarios por una semana en el parque que cuida los animales, y les vuelve a las bosques si es possible. Pero mucho de los animales eran mascotas y entonces no pueden regressar a la bosque.

El parque tiene Pizotes (en ingles se llama coatis), Mawcaws, muchos variedades de monos, coyotes, toucans y una goat que se llama Josephina. Nosotros trabajo es limpiando los jaulas y preparando la comida por los animales. Los monos y muchos otros animales comen 2 veces por dia, pero los crocodillos solamente comen 3 veces por semana (y entonces hemos visto ayer). Los coyotes comen muy rapido y comen el pollo y los hueso tambien. Muchos de los monos pueden tocar el alimiento de nuestros manos, pero hay dos que son un poco peligroso y loco (capuchin monkeys). Mucho de los parrajos pueden hablar un poco - ellos dicen "hola" "muy bonita" y "que rico" a los turistas. Cada dia veiamos 20 turistas mas o menos, y la mayoria de ellos son de los Estados unidos.

Estamos viviendo en el parque (pero no en una jaula!) Montamos bicicletas por 1 km para comer en una Soda local. En costa rica restaurantes pequenos se llaman "sodas". La comida es muy buena. Hay mucho comida, y todo con arroz y frijoles! No, no es la verdad... Flori puede preparar qualquier nos gustan... Hemos comido Pasta anoche!

Hasta luego amigos!!

29 June - Karens bag stolen, and monkey park

Well we caught the bus to the Nicoya Peninsula to get to the monkey park, and animal refuge and wildlife park where we are to be volunteers for a week... but more about that later...

The bus trip was hot and long, and after about 3 hours in (of a 5-6 hour ride) I thought it was a good idea to stretch out as much as I could and put my daypack up on the overhead luggage rack. Then about an hour later we realised it had gone. We think we know what happened looking back on it - there was this one guy who was standing in the isle, and he dropped a key and something else and waited for one of us foreigners to bend down and pick it up for him, making quite a fuss - think it was a classic distract move while someone else probably took the bag. Anyway all is not lost and its more an inconvenience than anything else- camera, glasses and raincoat are the main things gone, but I was luck to have my wallet on me, and we'd be in much worse shape if they had got phils bag. Bus driver wasn't helpful, and we're staying in a fairly remote area - no police to report it to yet- we will go next week to make the report for insurance purposes.

Monkey park. There will be another entry in spanish shortly, but I'll try to give a quick outline for everyone else... We've voluteered to do a weeks work through ASVO which coordinates volunteers to work in Costa Rican National parks and wildlife refuges. We were given a choice of a few parks and we chose the monkey park on the Nicoya peninsula, where there is an animal refuge. So we are cutting up fruit and veg, and cleaning cages and looking at the animals....

We'll try to add photos shortly but we're a bit remote, and I've actually made a day trip to Playa Tamarindo to the beach and to visit some civilisation, while Phils feeling a bit crook with a sore throat and head cold so he's stayed put. And I wasn't that keen on bringing any electronic gadgets with me in case someone else takes a liking to my bag while I swim at the beach... yes i'm a bit paranoid now!