We got to San Jose without difficulty before 9am and were fortunate to find the hotel had a room for us even though we were so early. As we felt quite wiped out with our early start we decided to just find the laundry and relax afterwards. After a false start we eventually found it but they were too busy to do our washing for the next day so I washed some through at the hotel in the hopes that they would dry in the next two days. We are finding the currency changes difficult to get our heads round - with 800 colones to £1 one can soon become a millionaire! After having a very good lasagne at a nearby restaurant we read and slept until dinner time which we had at the hotel. An early night was called for...
Wednesday after breakfast we walked for about 40 minutes to the downtown area. The pedestrianised street was very reminiscent of Manchester's Market Street! The weather was cloudy so we were not too hot and we had a pleasant drink, read and snack in a pavement cafe before visiting the National Museum. We spent an interesting few hours studying pre-Columbian artefacts (very impressive gold ornaments) and learning some of Costa Rica’s history from the Spanish conquest to the present day. If anyone knows what the large round stone balls found around Costa Rica are, you need to let them know. These 'bolas' are found in all sizes from tennis ball sized to massive 6 foot diameter spheres. I wondered if they were similar to Krishna's Butterball we saw in Rajasthan.
We met up with Chad (our tour guide) and most of the rest of the group at 6pm for the tour briefing before going to a Lebanese restaurant for dinner. We are a group of 15 and we are the eldest and the only ones from the UK. The others are twenties/thirties apart from one older woman and come from Canada and the States. So far Costa Rica seems far more westernised and more affluent than Mexico or Guatemala but San Jose has little to recommend it apart from the museum.
After an early start of 7am we drove for four plus hours to Fortuna near the Arenal volcano. It was so rainy and cloudy that nothing can be seen of the volcano and the rafting we were going to do in the afternoon was cancelled. Instead after a hurried sandwich we ventured out on canyoneering down the ‘Last Canyon’. We hurriedly bought some very cheap watershoes which we were very happy with as they were very non-slip. At 1pm after a short ride in a coach and then pick-up trucks, we were kitted out with harnesses and started down the canyon, walking through variable quantities of water to the first rappel down a 25 foot waterfall. This was followed shortly by a 140 foot free rappel which I enjoyed much more. The tricky bits were walking and scrambling through the stream on the uneven rocky bottom! Another waterfall where Ann ended up lying on her back, laughing and unable to move, was eventually safely negotiated and then the final free rappel down more than 200 feet...great fun! The canyon was quite spectacular and we ended back at the start for a drink and some food before returning to our hotel rather later than expected at 6.30pm. We went out again at 8pm for dinner and we shared a starter of deep fried cassava (yucca) and a pasta dish with salmon and capers (much better than the starter!). When we got back to our room we found we had given house room to an enormous beetle (?or cockroach) which Iain spent ten minutes catching before we could throw it outside!
Today we decided not to go rafting but to have a gentler trip driving to the north near the Nicaraguan border and going up the Cano Negra by boat for two to three hours. It was dry but cloudy and we saw many monkeys, white faced capuchins, spider monkeys and howlers as well as cayman, iguanas and many varieties of birds.
Our guide was excellent and a fount of information on all things Costa Rican. We were correct with our original surmise re the increased affluence of Costa Rica compared with Mexico and Guatemala. There is free education (and health care) to 18 years (school being compulsory to 15yrs) and free health care to over 65s and pregnant women as well. There is a 98% literacy level and a life expectancy of 85 years. We passed many plantations of cassava (yucca), oranges, sugar cane and bananas. Unfortunately many areas of Costa Rica are suffering the ills of monoculture and spraying with insecticides. Tomorrow we go by van, boat and horseback to Monteverde and hopefully will spot the volcano on the way - the cloud cover has been so thick that we've not seen a hint of it!
We have just heard that our trip to Easter Island should be okay, so that's good news. Love to all Ann and Iain