Cool Costa Rica
Well not exactly cool - pretty hot actually... but so lovely and green. Apparently the government is pretty good at protecting the areas... they found some oil or something but decided not to drill for it in order to protect the environment - good on ´em huh?!
The tour group is pretty good - bit of a mix of nationalities and ages - some canadias, a few young gap-year Brits, a belgian, german, texan - 15 of us altogether so quite a big group (be interesting when we catch the chicken buses around). Our tour leader - Veronica - seems good.
Made our way from San Jose to La Fortuna fairly early in the morning... because 4 of us were going rafting the company provided a free pick-up for us all so avoided 8hrs and 3 buses... So I went rafting - was meant to be in Rio Toro (top 4 rafting rivers in the world) but it was too low so went in nearby river - was still grade 3 & 4 rapids and was heaps of fun... some near flips, got stuck on a few rocks (rainy season has just started) but noone fell out...
Went to the nearby active volcano last night to view the larva - was pretty impressive watching it spark and roll down the mountain side (we were still a fair distance away - all managed by national park etc)... then went to Baldi hot springs which were brilliant! - something like 24 pools each a different temperature. They had full-on waterslides as well - you were meant to reach speeds of up to 45km/hr... - crazy stuff! One guy dislocated his shoulder when we were there... I just went down the straight-down one... The one that had 2 curves in it (people went SO close to the edge) I just couldnt bring myself to do.
Had a nice sleep in and made our way to the waterfall today for a very cool dip, but it was beautiful... There were meant to be monkeys there but didnt see any :( Got a taxi there and walked back - expecting to get rained on but amazingly the rain has held off this afternoon (it will be coming tho!).
Tomorrow is Monteverde Cloud Forest (yay!) and maybe the famous zip line the following day... :) Then onto Lake Nicuaguara...
Seeya! :)
Angel Falls
(ahhh pretty! :) )
(view from the plane)
Beside the Canaima airport
The tour group is pretty good - bit of a mix of nationalities and ages - some canadias, a few young gap-year Brits, a belgian, german, texan - 15 of us altogether so quite a big group (be interesting when we catch the chicken buses around). Our tour leader - Veronica - seems good.
Made our way from San Jose to La Fortuna fairly early in the morning... because 4 of us were going rafting the company provided a free pick-up for us all so avoided 8hrs and 3 buses... So I went rafting - was meant to be in Rio Toro (top 4 rafting rivers in the world) but it was too low so went in nearby river - was still grade 3 & 4 rapids and was heaps of fun... some near flips, got stuck on a few rocks (rainy season has just started) but noone fell out...
Went to the nearby active volcano last night to view the larva - was pretty impressive watching it spark and roll down the mountain side (we were still a fair distance away - all managed by national park etc)... then went to Baldi hot springs which were brilliant! - something like 24 pools each a different temperature. They had full-on waterslides as well - you were meant to reach speeds of up to 45km/hr... - crazy stuff! One guy dislocated his shoulder when we were there... I just went down the straight-down one... The one that had 2 curves in it (people went SO close to the edge) I just couldnt bring myself to do.
Had a nice sleep in and made our way to the waterfall today for a very cool dip, but it was beautiful... There were meant to be monkeys there but didnt see any :( Got a taxi there and walked back - expecting to get rained on but amazingly the rain has held off this afternoon (it will be coming tho!).
Tomorrow is Monteverde Cloud Forest (yay!) and maybe the famous zip line the following day... :) Then onto Lake Nicuaguara...
Seeya! :)
Angel Falls
(ahhh pretty! :) )
(view from the plane) Beside the Canaima airport
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