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Costa Rica is another country that seemingly lets just
saunter in as if you own the place. When I eventually found it, the guy in the customs office was uber friendly (if slightly sarky). After about 10
seconds of me butchering his native tongue, said "Let's just do this in
English shall we?", but he gave me a cheery "Pura Vida" to send me on my way, my
first of many. Pura Vida - or pure life - is Costa Rica's motto, and is very
fitting, as everyone I met seemed to be very laid back and amicable.
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| New advert for the Costa Rican tourist board |
My hostel was very comfortable, but somewhat spoiled by being near a main road (double glazing not a thing here) and being next door to some arsehole who decided 6:30am on a Sunday morning was the best time to build a garage.
I decided to celebrate my
birthday with a bunch of injured sloths at a sanctuary. I learnt enough facts about sloths to write a book, Apparently, they only come down from the trees once every 10 days to use the facilities, then they scarper up a different tree. And while they are usually slow moving, they can move if they need to - they're only slow to conserve energy. Sadly you can't pick up the sloths (though I did have a quick stroke of one), mainly cos they've got razor sharp claws.
I also managed to visit a beach resort called Puerto Viejo, but I managed to come away without a single photo, so you'll just have to imagine what it looks (try and picture a lot of sand lying next to a large body of water).
Costa Rica has hundreds of national parks teeming with wildlife. Unfortunately, if you choose to tour them without a guide, you're liable to miss it all (apart from all the hungry insects, they're good enough to come to you). I borrowed a rickety old bicycle and pedalled off to Tahuita National Park, where the sum total of wildlife spotted was a small snake, a lizard, and something that might have been a crocodile. A pathetic haul.
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| A deadly but thankfully small and immobile snake |
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| I never did find out if these were crocodiles or logs |
Next up. The road to San José ...
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