Costa RIca- - do ya wan' fries with that?

Instead of crossing to Costa Rica as planned on Thursday 24th November we remained in San Carlos awaiting the arrival of Otto. Lest it be thought that Otto is an old friend from Munich we need to say that Otto was in fact a Category 2 hurricane. Otto made landfall at San Juan de Nord on the Caribbean coast at about 7 am and then made its way steadily inland reaching San Carlos just after lunch. We decided then that we had made the right decision to stay put as Otto turned out to be quite an impressive hurricane and, in any event, we found out later that the border crossing close to San Carlos had been closed.

Predicted path of Hurricane Otto

After finding some lunch at one of the few restaurants that was still open we went back to our hotel and then the wind really started to blow and the rain started to lash down and after a little while the power failed, various bits of corrugated iron roofs started flying around and branches of trees falling off.

In typical fashion, Alan decided to walk along to the lake front in order to take some photographs of the hurricane in action, much to Sue's dismay who thought he was going to get decapitated by flying roofs, but he came back unscathed!

Palm tree about to be blown over

We then sat on the khonde along with a bunch of Honduran motor bikers who called themselves 'Los Piratos' and were happily working their way through a bottle of Jack Daniels and a rather bemused looking French couple who had only just arrived in Central America. They stood in a corner hugging each other and periodically poking their heads round the door post and looking at the mayhem that was going on outside and then going back to their mutual comforting routine.

At the height of the hurricane

The horizontal rain continued for about two hours and then everything was quiet for a couple of hours whilst we were in the eye of the storm and then the wind and rain started up again, this time coming from the opposite direction but not for nearly as long as it had previously.

It was an interesting experience. We felt ourselves exposed to nature red in tooth and claw and when some of the more impressive gusts were going on we realised just how insignificant man is in the great scheme of things.

Supper was a bottle of wine and a bag of crisps which we enjoyed whilst our IPod played our favourite classical music and our camping light illuminated our scummy little hotel room.

Next morning there did not appear to be too much damage. There were a lot of trees down but mercifully none that we saw had landed on any houses which were  mostly intact. So we set off bright and early to cross the border only to discover that it was still closed.

Cleaning up after the hurricane

Now, San Carlos is on the south eastern side of Lake Nicaragua whilst the only other crossing is near the south western side of the lake but unfortunately there is no road on the southern side to connect them. Not wishing to hang around in San Carlos we decided to drive all the way back up and around the lake (a mere 100 kilometres long by 70 kilometres wide) to Granada which is situated on the north eastern side of the lake.

Crested caracara seen on road back to Granada

After an overnight stop in Granada we had an uneventful trip to the border on Saturday morning. The Nicaragua/Costa Rica border gets the putty medal for the most shambolic border crossing that we have found so far and it also gets the record for time taken (two hours thirty five minutes).  Among the delights was the fact that everybody in the customs department had gone to lunch so there was a substantial queue building up until one of them sauntered back to his station. The man at the insurance office was one of these types who inspects every document from both sides and upside down and we're reasonably sure he'd never seen a form V5 before.

We got all these trials and tribulations out of the way and finally arrived in the city of Liberia at about six in the evening.

There's not much of interest in Liberia itself but we had a couple of days there to catch up on domestic chores and on Monday we took a trip to Buena Vista, a local nature reserve, where we picked up a guide and went for a very pleasant walk through the jungle followed by lunch and some lovely hot springs to laze around in.

Crested blue jay, Buena Vista nature reserve

Waterfalls at Buena Vista

On Tuesday 29th November we set off for Lago Arenal and the volcano of the same name. Lake Arenal is the largest lake in Costa Rica (it's actually a man-made lake created when the Arenal dam was built in 1973) and is quite beautiful set against the rolling hills and with the majestic volcano at one end. Volcan Arenal is reportedly one of the ten most active volcanoes in the world. You cannot climb it due to the constant showers of boulders and toxic gases that it emits. However, on a clear night you can apparently see the red lava streaming down the slopes or shooting high into the air. Naturally we were keen to view this spectacle and so we pitched up at a small campsite next to some developed hot springs right at the base on the volcano, so close in fact that there were basalt boulders all around us.

Lunch stop at Lago Arenal

We arranged to do a canoe trip on the Rio Frio (the same Rio Frio that we had been on in Nicaragua close to the border at San Carlos) in an area called the Cana Negro which is full of wildlife. It had been raining ever since we arrived at the campsite on Tuesday afternoon and it was still raining when we got up at six am on Wednesday for our canoe trip.

After a two hour drive we got to the Rio Frio and our guide looked at the river and decided that he would rather not take canoes out on it because it was in spate due to all the rain and flooding from the hurricane. In fact, on the way there we saw much of the damage the hurricane had done on the Costa Rican side with numerous trees flattened and widespread flooding. Ten people were actually killed in the town of Upala following massive mudslides and flooding there. Costa Rica has not suffered a hurricane for over 170 years and they were taken very much by surprise.

So, we had to settle with going on a river launch along with a dozen other people and a jolly tour guide (definitely not Alan's cup of tea). The trip was however admittedly good. We saw a lot of Capuchin monkeys, spider monkeys, howler monkeys, a couple of sloths, some exceedingly large iguanas, a Jesus Christ lizard (so called because it can run across water on its two back legs), as well as numerous birds.

Black howler monkey, Cana Negro

Three toed sloth

Grumpy looking female iguana

Impressive male iguana

Jesus Christ lizard

Capuchin monkey

When we got back to the campsite it was still raining, the blessed volcano was still shrouded in mist as it had been ever since we arrived and we were wading around in about six inches of mud. But were we downhearted? Well actually yes, a little bit, but we got over it!

Campsite at Arenal with invisible volcano behind

Thursday was a better day. The rain cleared in time for us to de-camp and then we set off back round Lake Arenal to Monte Verde cloud forest which sits high on a mountain ridge.

Monte Verde, like Lake Arenal, is very much geared to tourism and has been sanitised somewhat to provide the 'ultimate cloud forest experience' with prices to match. It is however undoubtedly a beautiful place and we were lucky enough to find a small hotel with a cabin opening out onto a lovely wild garden which was teeming with humming birds and nature trails where we could explore the forest.

We went to Monte Verde cloud forest reserve on Friday on an unusually clear day and spent about four hours wandering around in the forest, or rather the tiny little bit of it which is accessible to tourists. We didn't see much in the way of wildlife but we saw a lot of trees and enjoyed the moss covered orchid clad mighty big trees that grow in that area.

One of the main excitements was when Sue nearly tripped over a tarantula. It was a very nice friendly orange and black tarantula and it posed nicely for us and then wandered off in the direction of some shrubbery.

Big hairy tarantula

After that we went and stood on a lookout and looked out over miles and miles of verdant cloud forest and across to Lake Arenal and life felt good.

The top of the cloud forest

View of Lake Arenal from the top of the cloud forest

And, of course, we did an early morning walk with a very pleasant and knowledgeable guide (whom we had to ourselves this time) and were rewarded with viewings of numerous beautiful birds and a family of Capuchin monkeys who posed obligingly for their portraits.

White bearded Capuchin monkey, Monte Verde

Blue crowned motmot, Monte Verde

Emerald hummingbird, outside our cabana

Another emerald hummingbird

By Sunday morning the rain and cloud were enveloping us again so we decided it was time to leave the cloud forest. We drove down the pacific coast to the town of Quepos which is close to another very small national park of which much good has been spoken.

The park is in a place called Manuel Antonio which is one of the main tourist destinations in Costa Rica, rammed with hotels and restaurants and very expensive, so we were glad to be staying in Quepos which is a local fishing town, a little rough around the edges but where we felt much more at home. The gutters in the streets here seem to have water in them on such a permanent basis that they actually have minnow size fish in them, a phenomenon which neither of us has come across before.

We tried to visit the park on Monday. We got most of the way there and then a man jumped out into the road and waved his arms and said the park is closed today and, by the way, why don't you park here and we can do this, that and the other tour for you, so we didn't.

We turned around and went down a track and parked up close to the beach and had a walk in both directions. One end was very busy with people on sun loungers, but the other end was much quieter and we noticed that there was a place where some people had brought their vehicles down onto the beach. Alan said wouldn't it be nice to bring Lucy down onto the beach for us to have lunch and then disappeared for an hour because the track leading back to the road where we had parked Lucy was about a mile away. Needless to say he had his collar felt when he finally returned with the vehicle but then we had a very nice lunch looking at the surf and the pelicans and the frigate birds.

The beach at Manuel Antonio

Rocky shoreline and pelican, Manuel Antonio

Lunch stop on the beach

Lucy was booked in for a 10,000 mile service yesterday, Tuesday 6th December, but once that was done we did finally go to the Manuel Antonio national park. It was something of a disappointment although only in so far as the predominant species was homo sapiens. We duly went to the entrance and solemnly trooped along together with about 500 other people all doing exactly the same thing and most of them talking.

There was however plenty of wildlife. We saw a number of sloths including one with a baby clutched to its breast and when we got to the beach which was undeniably beautiful there were racoons, coati and capuchin monkeys. Unfortunately, because the place had become so corrupted with tourists the animal life spent most of their time trying to nick people's food.

Racoon on the beach at Manuel Antonio National Park

The highlight of our visit to the park was a lovely swim in the beautiful semi-circular bay, perfectly shaped with lovely golden sands and warm sea.

Ready for a swim

We had a discussion yesterday evening about what we should do and where we should go next and we decided that as time is a little limited (we have to be in Panama city by 20th December to get Lucy loaded onto the container ship for Cartagena in Columbia) we will crack on straight away for Panama. So, we departed this morning and have stopped at a pretty coastal spot close to the border with the intention of crossing tomorrow.

It has been raining fairly unremittingly for the last two or three days so we will head along the Pacific side in the hope that the weather might be slightly better than on the Caribbean side. Hope springs eternal ....

Our time in Costa Rica has been quite short so we can't claim to have explored it as thoroughly as some of the other countries we have visited. However, our overwhelming impression is that it is civilised, organised, very much under American influence and with a highly developed tourist industry. Not really our thing.