After leaving the other tour we joined the next tour. This one will go again into Monteverde, La fortuna(which i know it might sound like again.. but in fact this town has so many activitues to do that you will not get bored) and we are adding Puerto Viejo ( which is in the caribbean side.. apparently very beautiful water) and then into Panama where we will be ending in Panama City.

So first we decided to look for our hotel where we will be meeting the new group. The hotel looked alright but no tour guide yet.. we asked the receptionist and she mentioned that he said that we will be having a meeting at 6 pm.

So 6 o´clock hit and we got to meet our new group. I was happy because we were only 6 and the tour guide (which is soo much better than a tour with like 16 people). But let me tell you, my first impression of our tour guide( Augusto) was like "are we in jack sparrow movie or what".. he looked just like a pirate, the only thing missing was his bottle of rum and his parrot on his shoulder hahahha.

He then when on and on explaining about Costa Rica and having a laser pen to point out the volcanoes... ps. his laser was all around the map so no idea what was happening..

Then had a nice dinner with everyone but there was something missing. I was very desperate to get home because Mexico was playing Costa Rica again for the last qualification place and the owner of the restaurant was from Argentina and it was Argentina vs another country so he kept switching back and forth so I was not a very happy camper. :/

So for the next day we had a city tour that will involve 3 hrs of walking around downtown. Augusto was our tour guide and after that we all got to know that he is one proud Costa Rican with a lot of knowledge of his country. He knew every single detail possible, what type of plants, flowers, who was who and was the latest news on Costa Rican government was. The only problem was that every explanation would take him like 20 min. He talked so slow and alot. lol

We had the afternoon free, but we heard that the jade museum was great , so we decided to cheked it out. I found it to be too repetitive, same artifacts over and over again. But besides that it looked like going into a jewelry store with lots of choices :).

Then we met with the group for another nice dinner in a big city.. our last one before we left to Monteverde.

Monteverde

Once again the cloud forest town!.. WE both love it, nice weather, friendly people, and lots to do!...

This time we decided to do the buggy tour of the Costa Rican highlands(or as I called it boggi.. it is basically like an off road cage small car).. oh and just to give you and undertanding of how Costa Rica works, so right now is low season, so not alot of people are here.. and basically all the tours we booked on are just us and the tour guide..

So now back again to the buggy.. so like I mentioned this time was only the guide and us two. I decided that Phil should drive for the first half of the tour and then take turns as we go. Phil described this tour as AMAZING!.. he absoluteley loved it.. It was a 3 hr drive around different small towns, so we went into the clouds, got rained on a little bit, crossed some cows and horses and even went down a path that when is raining is a river, so basically big rocks on the downhill.. it was awesome, I thought we were going to get stuck for sure but nop.. we were fine and after the tour.. the guide said that we were actually lucky because normally everyone ends up very dirty and it is always raining.. but this time the weather was on our side so it was cloudy but with little bit of sun, and no rain ;).

Then we went to the hanging bridges (which basically are bridges around the forest at canopy level, so it makes it easy to walk and enjoy the nature). This time once again the guide and us two, it was awesome!. The whole forest to ourselves. We got to see lots of trees, and no animals apparently this forest is a new forest so mainly there are lots of ants and some birds, but no monkeys or anything huge. Phil got caught up with the army ants. They are HUGE!.. and they all walked together so it looks kinda weird because is like a massive cirle of black dots.

My favorite moment was the last bridge. We had an option to clim the tree or use the stairs which is like an extra 5 minute walk. So obviously we decided to give it a go. This tree is an old tree, and it got stranged by another tree that left it hollow. it was awesome.. had some rope to help pull yoursellf up but it wasn´t hard at all.

After our tour ended, it started raining like no other... you could hear the rain hitting the windows so hard and lucky we were inside the building by then. Actually somehow we´ve been lucky to not get rained on yet!.. We´ll see how that goes since it rains everyday here.

So our next stop La Fortuna...

Once again same process.. bumpy roads, lower temperature and the slowest boat to cross the Fortuna lake!

Once we got there we knew we wanted to do canyoning (more Phil´s choice :) ), because I wanted a day in the disneyland spa.. It is a hot spring spa that had like 9 pools and you can be there all day and not get bored. Every pool has different temperatures and mainly all have a bar!.

But surprise! Phil feels adventurous so obviously I have no option but to join!.. This time we were doing canyoning, caving and hot springs at the end.

So lets start with canyoning. We got picked up early in the morning, we changed from a road van to the the jungle limo ( I thought it was hillarious, we were all sitting in the back of the truck with bumpy roads, no joke it was easy to fall down).. We got our gear on and we were ready for it. At first I was super nervous because they advertised the last jump as the highest and hardest one right!.. so the first rappelling was okay, very small and not hard at all.. we went down the mountains to our second one.. which I thought was hard but i did it!.. onto the 3rd one where Phil thought it was so small he was able to jump it!.. and the grand finale.. the longest one... to our surprise it was not hard at all. We had to go down like less than 2 meters and then just let go and hang on to your rope. ( I was loving it.. no work.. and i didn´t get to see the bottom.. I thought it was soo fun).. but on the other hand Phil thought it was a piece of cake.. and not that impressed.

Next stop caving!.. It was sort of suspicious, because we got picked up by a couple in their car.. Phil was like mmm not getting in there!.. But it was fine we got dropped off at the caving place which was about 45 min outside La fortuna and on to our adventure!.

So lets start by describing our guide.. he studied caving at college so he knows everything from bats to rocks!.. and he is VERY passionate about caves!. He had slightly weird eyes as if he lived down there too which we both found a bit freaky..

I was scared to death to get in the caves at first, our flashlights were not that powerful and we had a 2 hr tour coming up being in the dark.. great :(... first minutes you could only hear bats flying around the area and with minimum light.

Our guide was like runing through the caves not scared at all.. touched several spiders, and he even talked to the bats lol.. weird eh!.. then the not so fun part began.. we challenged ourselves to go through a small hole were you will be able to see a nice waterfall.. I go after the guide panicking, if an earthquake happens I will be stuck.. but no I was fine!.. Phil tried next but it was too small for his shoulders to pass by so he decided to wait for us. And I decided to name the caves as 'The Mayan Caves', this caves were made more for mayan people only hahah.. the walls were narrow and the ceiling was low as well.. so me and the guide easy to walk and pass by phil not so much since they were some tiny spaces to pass.. few parts we even had to do the plank postion and push ourselves with our feet and elbows.. I end up with lots of bruises!.. But we had a blast!..We saw some fossils and waterfalls. and we end up super muddy from head to toe!.

Our next stop.. Hot Springs!!.. Finally an activity that requires nothing! hahaha.. It was awesome lots of pools some more hot than others and what can I tell you just a relaxing afternoon!.

Next day was beach day!... Puerto Viejo

This beach is close to the border of Pnama and is in teh caribbean side.. At first I thought the water was going to be super blue, great sand and all that but it ned up being dark sand and not much to do in this beach.

The only fun part was that our hotel was close to the beach, you just had to step out from the lobby walk about 20 steps and the beach was there!.. Our firts day we just explored the town, which it was no more than 6 blocks and full of restaurants..

Here everyone is a rasta man!.. So you get the point of the vibre in this town.. lots of Peace and love hahhaha..

Our first day, Augustu took us to the national park/ cahuita beach.. Here is like a giant zoo that has a beach were you are aloud to stay there for hrs and enjoy the animals, beach and the sun!.. We walked about 2 km and we saw everything from spiders, capuccino monkeys ( they have a white face and a brown body), to sloths ( that actually "move"), to different birds.. Even one of the monkeys desided to walked with to us because someone had food and wanted to steal it lol!.. the lady gave him food but the prob was in this park you are not allow to feed the animals.. but we got good pics!.( we will put them all the pics some time this week!)

After that, there was not lots to do but to enjoy the beach. We literraly sat close to the beach with our cahirs and umbrella for two days, enjoying the sea and the sun!.

Oh not to forget that I made Phil try Yoga. I thought it was a great idea, the sound of the waves and all that, will make it the best Yoga class ever!. We got to the place and it teh lady had everything prepare to us. Phil has never tried Yoga so he didn´t know what to expect!.. the first 30 minutes was perfect, perfect strecth and then we had a noisy cow in the back then it turned into the most hippie Yoga ever.. The lady made us close our eyes, while she started singing in another language for like 5 min. Then she made us have breathing excersises using your thumb to close one nostril whilst bending two others and keeping your pinkie straight. It was just too weird. I have never being in this situation but I was trying to keep a straight face while looking at Phil. His face was priceless, almost laughing but trying to be polite and keep a straight face.. The most funny Yoga calss in my life! lol

After all that we had a good night out in the town, before our next stop Panama!!!!!!

Yvette and Phil