Pura Vida!

And so to the pure lands of Costa Rica. First stop Liberia where we were lucky enough to arrive during the week of Guancaste carnival, and caught our first Rodeo! Three teams competed for the title of rodeo king in events such as, bare back horse relays, and musical tyres, won by the campest cowboy ever. Luckily it rained heavelly so we saw a lot of falling off and mud wrestling with bulls.

After the excitement we headed for the active volcanoe La Arenal, staying in the worryingly close town of La Fortuna, a town made up almost entirely of hotels and fast food restaurants. Even the taxi journeys involved nature though as rob was attacked by a flying turtle who thought it would be a good idea to jump on his shoulder mid ride. One evening we went to see lava rocks spew from the constantly erupting crater, but unfortunately this was not captured on film, or to be honest the human eye. Our guide instead entertained us with firefly displays demonstrating the power of bum contact (the flies that is). We then headed for a late night dip at the local hot springs where we learnt the new sport of sliding backwards on our backs using the star position, under road bridges with only the power of the thermal stream! try it at home. High off this trip we signed up for a hike the next day with the same guide.

The next day the same guide kindly handed us over to his thirteen year old brother who belted off ahead on a three hour hike to a crater lake. It was hard work and we celebrated with a dip in the bright green (and freezing) water of a lake surrounded by lush forest.The tranquility was quickly smashed by the arrival of a group of teenage english school girls, led by a slightly miffed scots man. Our descent involved snake dodging and then the inevitable down pour, the latter reminding us of deer sweet england.

Our last day in costa rica we hiked up to the amazing waterfall catarata. Was huge and gave us the excuse for some rock hopping and sandwiches in the jungle. Our descent was once again slowed by the daily downpour (is it rainy season or something) but a friendly local gave us a lift in his pickup. Feeling fully natured up, we are now heading for the tranquil lands of Panama city........

Hope all is well back home

love rob and lou