Costa Rica

The day after we crossed the border into Costa Rica, we headed for the coastal town of Tamarindo and a few days rest after the hectic drive across Honduras and Nicaragua.. Full of surf shops, the young and beautiful - and us, it could have been any beach town in the US. It certainly didn't feel like Latin America, more like North America. I had found us a really nice apartment and was so glad for the few days off the road, as a bout of gastric flu kept me indoors for a bit. We saw some really beautiful sunsets while we were there

From Tamarindo we headed inland to the mountains and the "cloud forests"  of Monteverde.

We went on a guided night walk and were amazed that within a few minutes of leaving the front office, we were in dense rain forest.  We saw a bright green tree snake, birds (Mott Mott), a sloth feeding high up in a tree (well, we saw its backside and it was having a good scratch) a huge orange and black tarantula in its hole, and lots more. And of course, it's called a rain forest for a reason. We had a fantastic storm with thunder and lightening right overhead, and despite our rain ponchos, we completely soaked through at the end of 2 hours. Needless to say, I didn't get my camera out!

Time to head back down the mountain and to the capital, San Jose. Founded in 1738, it is one of the youngest capital cities in Latin America.

 

Even San Jose doesn't feel like Central America. We went into the Central Market yesterday (Saturday) and it was so civilised and CLEAN! Nothing like the chaos and mayhem that was the market in Antigua Guatemala.

After a couple of days sightseeing around the capital, it was time to head down the coast. We are now in a small port town of Golfito. This is the view from the deck outside our room.

Tomorrow we cross the border into Panama...