Friday, 6 February 2015
Homeward Bound
We left the hotel just before 4 am and drove through a busy farmers' market to arrive at San Jose airport. 2 hours to check in then 6 hour flight to Newark (New York). 6 hour wait, then 8 hour flight to Birmingham landing at 7 am UK time having missed the first 6 nations rugby match - Wales vs England. No doubt we will eat and drink to relieve the boredom and return to diet. It has been a great holiday. Pura Vida!
Thursday, 5 February 2015
Beginning of the End
We are back in the Don Carlos Hotel after a 3 hour journey from Manuel Antonio, and, since lunch, have shopped for coffee and souvenirs. Hard work walking the streets of the capital. We got our coffee in the Central Market, some souvenirs in the Artisan Market and the rest in the hotel shop as we ran out of cash. The hotel is as nice as we remembered although we have a smaller room. Still, we will only be in bed a few hours as we have a 4 am pickup. Here are a few pics taken inside the hotel as we sup our pre-dinner drinks.
The last picture is of a decorated ox cart wheel which is over 150 years old. Some of these wheels have been made into beautiful tables which are over 3 ft in diameter. Nice hotel full of art and sculptures.
Topping up our tan on the catamaran!
For Our last day in Manuel Antonio we decided after a chat with Lewis (a tour man on the side of the road) that a boat trip would be fun. We elected to go on 'Top Cat' apparently the safest, funnest (!) boat in the region. We'd seen it from the beach.
Next stop San Jose.
We were collected from our hotel after lunch and proceeded to pick up people from various hotels on our way to the marina at Quepos. We met a Dutch couple, Annetta and Cas, who were also on the boat and had lots to say! Planet Dolphin are mentioned in our guide book and they were a very efficient team.
Our boat had capacity for 110 people, but we were a group of just thirty which was nice. On arrival at the marina we were given wrist bands and then onto the boat for a full briefing of what was going to happen, health and safety and a reminder that wildlife isn't always easy to see!
It was cool on the boat with lots of shade and a lovely breeze. The views of the coastline were lovely and we sailed past the beach we'd spent the day on as well as the beaches in the park. We did see a couple of dolphins too.
After an hour or two of cruising we were issued with goggles and flippers for a spot of snorkelling. We saw much more in the Maldives and Mombasa, but it was very refreshing to get into the water..
After our swim we were served with a delicious meal of curly wurly pasta salad and fish kebabs together with the ubiquitas water melon and pineapple. All washed down with choices of fruit cocktails...vodka and passion fruit and rum and hyacinth!
Fun times!
And so we finished our trip watching the sunset and everyone cheered when it dropped down behind the horizon!
Wednesday, 4 February 2015
Ticking off the wildlife checklist
We saw two and three toed sloths... Two sightings of each. There are lots of differences between the 2 and 3 toed sloths.... The one in the picture is a two toed. Actually they all have three toes on their hind legs, but one has two fingers and the other three. The two toed one has blond fur, the other grey. The two toed are really hard to tell the difference between male and female, the three has an orange marking on the back of the males. The three toed are good swimmers, the two can't swim. The two is nocturnal, the three isn't and one eats insects and leaves and the other only leaves, but I can't remember which is which! Probably doesn't matter! The three toed has a happy face and t'other doesn't....
We finally saw howler monkeys and white faced monkeys. We saw bats, spiders, caterpillars and two katydids. We saw a hawk sitting on a branch.
And we saw a fiery billed toucan. We saw two deer - Costa Rica's national mammal.
Felix also showed us a spiders web that they make bullet proof vests out of (really?) and the leaves they make Panama hats from!! We smelled citronella from the sap of a tree and were warned about a poison ivy with prickles that will give you a rash. We watched an army of leaf cutter ants going about their business and we marvelled at the glorious beach we came to half way through the walk. Lots of white faced monkeys at the beach.
As with all the guides, Felix was keen to tell us stuff about the wildlife in his country and there is only so much I can retain but I do remember there are umpteen species of bats that can be divided into five types.... By what they eat.... Fruit, insects, fish, leaves and blood! The ones we saw today were fruit bats. Apparently bats always sleep with their eyes open - why? Because they have no eyelids! One of the species of bat we saw creates a tent out of a leaf to sit under!
Boy, was it hot though walking through the park. According to the weather app, today it is 31 degrees, but feels like 33! According me it is more like 36 degrees with high humidity! Its no wonder the sloths don't move very far or very fast, I know just how they feel.
This afternoon we are heading out on the ocean......now where is the sun block!!
Tuesday, 3 February 2015
Beach Bums
Today we are beach bums. Busy doing nothing other than sitting under our yellow sunshade on our two loungers - all for $10 for the day. The pacific is blue and warm and we are debating hiring a belly board to ride with the waves.
There are all manner of hawkers on the beach but thankfully they are not too pushy. We have been offered bird whistles, necklaces, cigars, pottery, coconuts, massages, meals and other drinks and various activities. For $120, for example, we could be taken up on a parachute towed by a speedboat for about 20 minutes before being dumped in the sea and rescued by a jet ski. The kids would love it! We have opted for a more gentile catamaran trip tomorrow.
Our hotel is comfortable and air conditioned; there is a pool and restaurant where we dined last night and where Amanda had her best meal of the holiday. We sat by the pool in the the moonlight. She had a huge and delicious tuna steak in coconut and wasabi sauce. We were woken up at 3 this morning by 2 troops of howler monkeys. Howler by noise and howler by name. Such a din. They carried on until 6. It was as if they were on our balcony but when we went out they were obscured fom sight by the forest trees which are almost touching distance away from us. The joys of the tropics.
The beach is about 150 yds from the hotel - well we do need some exercise. Talking of exercise, Amanda has just gone for her first dip of the day - blond locks bobbing in the blue waters. When the tide comes in a bit more I will do some surfing. can you spot her?
No?
Yes!
We have been warned not to leave anything unattended so we are swimming in shifts. My turn next.
The body boarding was great fun as some of the waves are quite big.
Amanda surfing.
We have now abandoned the beach. It's 4 o clock. Even though we stayed under the brolly and kept lots of factor 30 on we are looking a little pink. Still it's happy hour at the pool at 5. Pink gins all round I reckon!
Monday, 2 February 2015
X marks the spot
What a spot this is....... After a four hour drive from Monteverde to Manuel Antonio we arrived to a very friendly receptionist in a lovely hotel amongst a whole raft of hotels from the so called Backpackers Paradise through to a Best Western, we are at a tourist hot spot! And the weather is perfect...hot and sunny and the sand whilst not white isn't black either. David generously described it as golden, I would say it's sort of beige!
Our room is big again... We have got used to large rooms, has great air conditioning and a balcony with a view of the forest. We unpacked for our three night stay to the sound of howler monkeys...they make a very aggressive barking sound. Lunch in the poolside restaurant was very nice (nachos) and then we hit the beach. Apparently there is a rip tide here but the advice is to only go waist high and the sea was warm and the surf was fun. We stayed on the beach to watch the sunset, which was beautiful.
After a couple of beers from the poolside bar we are now showering and changing for some dinner.
The views this morning when we left Monteverde were gorgeous...very reminiscent of the Rift Valley.
There are various excursions offered by the hotel, but tomorrow we are tempted to just stay on the beach and contemplate a local story. Apparently the locals believe that a treasure worth billions and billions of dollars lies somewhere in the Quelos and Manuel Antonio area waiting to be discovered. The legend was populariized by English pirate John Clipperton who befriended the locals during his years of sailing to and from the South Pacific. Clipperton's belief stemmed from a rumour that in 1670 a number of Spanish ships laden with treasure escaped from Panama City moments before it was burnt to the ground by captain Henry Morgan. They reckon the treasure was never found and it is around here somewhere just waiting to be unearthed! I reckon the place is treasure enough, without worrying about digging up any gold.
Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon
......But not before we had taken a trip up to the hotel's own stretch of cloud forest. We took the shuttle bus up and ask him to collect us at 4. We had a nice walk through the trails in the forest spotting a huge butterfly, a wood pecker and lots of wild orchids but the most common animal was of the two-legged primate variety - a whole bunch of kids doing the zip-wire canopy tour to much screaming and shouting.
After watching the humming birds at a feeder station, we walked back down the hil as our lift never arrived. Then we lazed for a few hours reading and siesta ing before dinner at a local restaurant. spare ribs for me, king prawns for she. Yumm!
,
Sunday, 1 February 2015
Twitching in Monteverde with the Quakers
In 1949 four Quakers were jailed in Alabama for their refusal to be drafted into the Korean War. They were eventually released, but in response to their incarceration, 44 Quakers from 11 Alabama families left the US and literally headed for green pastures. They chose Monteverde or green mountain as their new home, partly because Costa Rica had abolished their army and Quakers are pacifists and partly because it was a suitable cool mountain climate to graze cattle. Today they are still very active in the area although some of the land they used to farm has been allowed to return to nature and is a primary or virgin forest.
This morning we walked along a trail in the Monteverde cloud mountain reserve with secondary forest on one side and primary on the other. The cloud forest is at the pinnacle of Costa Rica's continental divide. 
Our guide, Roy was particularly interested in birds and we got to see the normally elusive quetzal which was very exciting. It was a juvenile and had yet to develop its beautiful tail, but still was a wonderfully exotic sight. 
Roy told us that most of the Central American countries have exotic birds as their national birds, but Costa Rica has the clay coloured robin! The reason this honour was bestowed on this rather humble looking bird was because the Ticos themselves are humble people (his words) and also, the robin tells the farmers by his song and actions when the best time is to plant seeds! Nice story.
The trails we followed were incredibly busy with lots of people and it's amazing we saw anything, but we did get up really close to a couple of coatis and masses of humming birds that were so tame they landed on anything or anyone that was wearing pink.....pink glasses and pink hair were particularly attractive! There were feeders by the gift shop that are filled daily with a suger solution of 1 cup of sugar to 4 cups of water! 
Roy was an entertaining guide who pointed out lots of tiny creatures including the slingshot spider. There was a perfectly ordinary web and after warning us not to try this ourselves, he poked at the web with a small twig and the web reacted just like a sling - amazing sight. Tucked behind a tree Roy brought out a vine that he proceeded to swing on in a Tarzan like way...another thing not to try! We saw a frog, caterpillars, beetles, butterflies and lots of delicate orchids as well as fat turkey pigeons and several other birds.
Best of all he carried a powerful scope on a tripod and when we saw something that obligingly stayed still, we were all able to see it in great detail through his scope and in some cases photograph it using it's magnification. Hurrah for technology! This afternoon we are going to walk through the cloud forest on our own....we may see nothing without the experienced eyes of a guide but it will be fun dawdling along in the sunshine! Yep today is warm and sunny and completely cloudless!
Saturday, 31 January 2015
Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining
Having recovered from the excitement of taking a hot bath with 40 strangers of various nationalities, it was down to more mundane events. Today (Saturday) we left the Arenal Volcano - still hidden by low hanging clouds - to head for the cloud forest. 
We were picked up from the hotel in an old school bus - yes a school bus just like you see on the American movies. There must have been around 40 seats; the windows were dark and misty. There were 3 passengers - we two and an oriental looking young guy who smiled but seemed to speak neither English or spanish.
We were delivered to Arenal lake - it felt like a delivery - and deposited on a small boat, just we three again. The boat driver, captain would probably have given him a status he didn't look as if he merited, was cheerful and keen to show off any birds or reptiles along the shores. There were quite a few photo opportunities including turkey buzzards and egrets. The boat journey took around 40 minutes down and across lake Arenal. and still the rain came down. On reaching the other side we had to climb the slippery slope, Amanda with the help of a couple of 10-year-old boys who earned 200 colonies for their cheerful helpfulness.
There was much milling about while boats came and went and people slithered down or up the slope depending which way they were heading. We were not sure which was our transport; some people had numbers to match their bus. We just had our names but, as always has been the case since we started our tour, our transport duly arrived, Bryan introduced himself and we embarked followed by our smiling young amigo. The road was dirt-track nearly all the way and full of potholes. We climbed and climbed up into the clouds, being bounced and thrown around in the back. At one stage, the road was just too steep and slippery for Bryan's mini bus and we had to reverse back down the hill 3 or 4 times before trying to charge up the slope. To the smell of burning rubber and smoking clutch we finally got up on the fourth attempt. We cheered. Bryan was relieved. The tyres were almost treadless. When we reached the higher slopes, the silver lining arrived in the form of blue skies and sunshine! The 40 km bus journey took over 2 hours with only the last couple of kilometres on made up roads. But who cares, it was warm and sunny and we had arrived safely at Monteverde, green mountain. We booked in after lunch. Our room has magnificent views across the mountains to the lake. We have a suite with two king size beds on two different levels. We will only use the one. After lunch we strolled down hills into town for a coffee in Tree Tops before taking a taxi back up the hills; makes sense that.
The beautiful Monteverde reserve came into being in 1972, when the Quaker community, spurred on by the threat of encroaching squatters, joined forces with environmental and wildlife organizations to purchase and protect an extra 328 hectares (811 acres) of land. This fragile environment relies almost entirely on public donations to survive. Today, the reserve totals 10,500 hectares (25,946 acres). Just thought you would like to know that!
Well tonight we did a night walk in part of the cloud forest looking for nocturnal animals, frogs and the like. We got lucky and saw a kinkajou, an olingo as well as a white faced coati. On a smaller scale we also saw a tiny frog, praying mantis, cricket, grasshopper, tarantula, sleeping birds and other things. All of this gave us an appetite so we walked to a nearby restaurant for a few beers and chicken and beef quesadillas.
Kingajou
Tomorrow we are up early for a 7.00 am start and hike in the cloud forest reserve. Buenes Noches amigos!
More Pictures to follow.
Food Glorious Food
The national dish of Costa Rica is rice and beans aka gallo pinto. The beans are small and black and the dish is delicious if a little samey after a while. No problem for vegetarians, it is always on the menu! We have eaten a couple of other unusual foods.....cassava*, and plantain**. Both delicious in small doses!
We've had a pipas (madafu/green coconut) each in Tortaguero and lots and lots of delicious coffee. In the Tree House*** as in other places they decorated the top with patterns and pictures. A gin and tonic always goes down very well and the Tom Collins I had in the Volcano Lodge at La Fortuna was sublime. Less exciting was the blue cocktail sipped in Turtle Beach Lodge. The local cerveza called Imperial is very palatable. And not forgetting the local rum we had in the hot springs.
Costa Rica isn't known for gastronomic delights and the hotel food has been pretty unimaginative on the whole, although perfectly edible. So, we thought we'd treat ourselves to a place called Trio in Santa Elena, the town close to Monteverde and our hotel El Establo. The guide book said it "has a classy contemporary open air dining room perched in the trees.......has a highly touted burger with figs and ..... does amazing things with tropical fruit". But it's closed and there is a tapas bar in it's place! So we will try one of the other recommended places.
At every breakfast so far there has been a trio of fruit....pineapple, water melon and pawpaw. Freshly cut and each with a wonderful flavour. We are eating plenty of fruit, but not many vegetables.
Another week to go and we will be back in the UK and starting our next dieting regime!
Buen provecho!
*Manihot esculenta, with common names cassava, Brazilian arrowroot, manioc, and tapioca, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae family native to South America.
**A cooking plantain or plantain is one of the cultivated varieties of the genus Musa whose fruit is intended to be consumed only after cooking or other processing, rather than being eaten raw.
***the Tree house is apparently one of the world's top ten bizarre restaurants! Built around a half century old fig tree, it's a unique setting.
Feelin Hot Hot Hot
The highlight of our trip so far came at the end of our hike round the national park at Arenal, the volcano. More of that later.
Our afternoon started with an explanation of how they know that Arenal went back to sleep at the end of 2010. It had awoken with a vengeance on July 29th, 1968, destroying three villages and killing around 80 people. We saw the lower slopes, but the peak was covered in cloud.
On our walk we learnt lots from Isaac our guide, who said if it moves, don't touch it! Apparently there are 750 snakes in Costa Rica including the eyelash snake who likes to curl up in beautiful yellow flowers! No more sniffing beautiful yellow flowers then!
We saw lots of birds including a rainbow toucan and a fiery tailed toucan and Isaac was delighted to point out a white hawk, King of the forest.
We also came across a white faced coati! Whilst the below isn't our photo, we think we have a feasible one on the 'good' camera!
The Coati is a raccoon-like omnivore, but is more slender and possesses a longer snout. It is a nosy, busy little creature with an insatiable appetite. The Coati is gregarious and noisy as it travel about in groups of from 6 to 24, holding its tail almost erect and chattering with others.
This grizzled gray-brown mammal grows 30 to 55 inches long and stands 8 to 12 inches high at the shoulder. It can weigh from 10 to 25 pounds. Males are almost twice as large as females.
The Coati has a long snout that is white near the tip and around the eyes, which often have dark patches above. The Coati has small ears, dark feet and a long, thin tail (as much as 2 feet long) with 6 or 7 dark bands.
Coatis are diurnal, spending most of the day foraging for food, which includes insects, lizards, roots, fruits, nuts and eggs. They are very fond of fruit, especially the manzanita berry.
A little further along Isaac suddenly got very excited and produced a pen knife to dig out the volcanic mud in a layer beneath the 'ordinary' mud. David dug some up too, so we are now carrying a bag of mud along with our luggage!
Next stop was a magnificent waterfall which no one could be persuaded to go in with Isaac!
It looked very exhilarating...maybe 30 years ago I would have done it.
We traversed three hanging bridges without too much trauma, although I was reminded of a recurring nightmare I had as a child about crossing a hanging bridge with a raging torrent below.
Some of the filming of Jurassic Park took place here in Costa Rica and we saw one of the scenes! As were the Peru scenes in Paddington!
Back in the van we (2 Mexicans, 2 Ticos, 2 Italians, one American, one Scotsman, one Canadian and us) were driven on appalling roads to a pond by the side of the road. It was pitch black by now. With just the light of the moon and a torch, Isaac climbed a tree and brought us a fine specimen of a red eyed tree frog.
Amazing creature that looks just like a leaf when it's in it's camaflarged state.
And so to the highlight..... Picture the scene.....we are with a bunch of strangers and our guide pulls up at the side of the road. Tells us to strip down to our swimming costumes and leave EVERYTHING in the van. iPhones, cameras, money, passports, shoes, towels, everything..... And his 'mate' will guard it while we head off bare foot into the blackness. Across the road and down some slippery, presumably volcanic rocks, to a hot spring. Talk about adrenalin rushes.... Holding hands with a 75 year old woman (not sure who was helping who) we made it to the top of the waterfall where two Ticos (male Costa Ricans) took each hand and threw/hurled/launched me into the pool below! It was like being in a giant hot tub with 40 or so others. Underfoot there were rocks and stones and the water coming from the top was like a natural massage. Health and safety where are you? We were given plastic cups of Costa Rican rum and sprite and a mud pack smeared on our faces. 40 mins or so later we emerged dripping to make our way back up to the van and back to the hotel!
And to cap it all.....it wasn't raining and didn't rain all afternoon!
Friday, 30 January 2015
Hidden or Sleeping
Our hotel is called Volcano Lodge and, as the name suggests, it is situated next to a volcano. But don't worry, even though the Arenal Volcano is Costa Rica's youngest and most active volcano, it is currently sleeping. It is also hidden by low level cloud, so despite us traveling al this way we have seen nuffin'! Tomorrow we are going to hike to the volcano observatory in the hope the clouds might lift and give us an eye full. If not, we will just have to look at photos and read all about it. And bathe in the hot, volcanic springs - such hardship!
Thursday, 29 January 2015
Toucan or not Toucan
We spent a very happy couple of hours this morning watching the birds...first from our breakfast table and the from our verandah. We saw red ones, blue, green, yellow and black and top of the list a gorgeous so called rainbow toucan!
Popped into La Fortuna and had coffee with the Swedish pair we had met at the previous hotel. Booked a tour for tomorrow and did lunch. Still raining....back to the hotel to be met with this clever towel display!
Wednesday, 28 January 2015
It Rains in the Rain Forest!
As dry as it was most of yesterday, it has poured today. In a brief respite, after showering and putting on some dry clothes, we made it to lunch. It seems that the spread is the same for each lunch and dinner except for the meat or fish that goes with it all. Tomatoes, cucumber, coleslaw, rice, beans, pasta and for lunch today - pork. It was good!
After lunch we sat in the comfy seats in the open bar area, watching the rain pouring down and temporarily flooding the surrounds. I can think of worse places to be marooned. We have no plans for the rest of today, given the rain, so we will relax and read and blog our way to dinner. We were told by our guide that the average rainfall in this area is 8 metres - not sure if that is a weekly, monthly or annual figure! The rain is noisy as well as wet! (Update it is annually)
No phone signal or wi-fi so we are blissfully unaware of what is happening in the rest of the world.
It rained buckets, cats and dogs and full on tropical stuff ALL night and in the morning we were issued with black bags to cover our stuff. 
Poured all day today (Wednesday) too. But we have arrived at hotel number three and it's fabulous.
All creatures great and small
Whilst at Turtle Lodge we saw a selection of birds and reptiles and mammals.. Most of our photos are on our 'good' cameras so can't show them on this blog post, but will add them to our book when we get home.
Apart from our night time boat ride, we had a crack of dawn boat ride and two walks...one self guided on a great path in the dry and one guided on a muddy trail (we were wearing wallies thankfully) when it poured and poured so much so that we only did 40 mins of our promise hour and a half.
The wildlife is interesting and definitely different! Meantime this is called a lobster claw!
Turtle beach lodge
Did we mention we are in the wrong season for sea turtles?
It didn't matter as we knew before we booked! But after a lunch of Gallo pinto, the ubiquitas rice and beans we took a walk along the beach on the Carribean side of Costa Rica. It's a peculiar experience for someone used to the Indian Ocean.. The palm trees are there, the waves are the right height and the sea and sky are blue. The sun is shining and the flotsam and jetsam that litters the beach is a familiar mix of coconut shells, plastic bottles, palm fronds and old bits of rope, sea shells and bottle tops BUT the sand is black. Very odd.
Our rustic Banda is just a stones throw from the beach and the sound of the surf pounding the sand is non stop.
We drifted our way through the afternoon reading and sleeping and then after dinner of rice and beans we set out on a night boat ride to spot some nocturnal rain forest wildlife. Incredibly it has hardly rained since we got here and we survived the two and a half hour trip in an open boat without getting wet.
Heading into the jungle
Up early to head to the jungle, we were asked to be in reception by 6.20. Our transport and guide Raimon duly arrived and squished us into the back seat of a 16 seater bus (there were 17 of us). He talked about his country for the first hour or so of the journey and was interesting although I couldn't retain much I do remember he said:
Top industry is agriculture....export of bananas, pineapple and coffee, 2nd tourism and third, production of microchips for companies like Intel
Costa Rica is the newest/youngest country in the world having been formed by plates colliding under the ocean. They have six active volcanoes. And several mountain ranges.
Bananas are grown in fields and the fruit is covered by blue plastic bags to protect it from the insecticides that are sprayed by aeroplanes. Harvesting the bananas is done by groups of three men who use machetes to cut the fruit and then use sponges in between each banana to protect the fingers so they get no bruising or blemishes. They carry them on their shoulder and in the factory the bananas are cut into hands of 7 or 8 fingers each and the ends are sealed with varnish and then packed to be sent overseas. I have no idea where the bananas we see in Aldi or the Coop are from...note to self, find out.
We saw pineapple fields as well and Raimon told us that they have to be careful the pineapples dont grow too big otherwise they can't be exported.
We stopped for breakfast of rice, beans and egg and fresh watermelon, pawpaw and pineapple and good coffee and then had a quick snoop around a butterfly park at the back of the restaurant. Back in the bus we carried on to the port where we put our luggage on one boat and got on another to head for Tortaguerno village. On the way we saw two cayman and lots of birds. We also saw toucan earlier in the day. The village was interesting with the river on one side and the ocean on the other. All the buildings were on stilts as it floods twice a year! Picked up another boat and finally arrived at our hotel for the next two nights.
Sunday, 25 January 2015
Filibustering Around San Jose
We thought Sunday would be a good day to filibuster; we didn't' yet know what it meant but there was plenty of it going on in the past. More of it later.
After breakfast at 7, comprising fresh fruit, scrabbled eggs, rice and beans, toast and coffee we set off to explore the capital. First stop was Parc Espana where we hoped to see a chunk of the Berlin Wall and a statue of Christopher Columbus; we found neither but it was a nice green park! On to the city centre and coffee at Alma's one of the 'most beautiful cafés' in the city located in the National Theatre. Ceiling frescos were all part of the charm.
From there we decided to walk the length of the city centre, taking in all the shops and sights to our planned lunch stop.
We passed a couple of McDonalds, a couple of Burger Kings, KFCs, and Pizza Express on our way to Machu Picchu a locally renowned Peruvian Restaurant. There I had sea food soup followed by king Prawns and Amanda, octopus in olive oil and avocado followed by a chicken stew. It tasted better for the long walk and beers to go with it.
We remarked on the lack of obvious tourists and tourist gift shops and then we found a whole street of them! A glorious riot of colour and trinkets and souvenirs from key rings to bags, wooden carvings, paintings on feathers, real butterflies, t shirts and all the usual stuff. Davie bought a Panama hat and very fetching he looks in it don't you think?
We were making for the Parque Nacional. Meant to be the nicest park in San Jose. Right in the centre is a dramatic statue of of the Central American nations driving out the American filibuster* William Walker! We also saw the statue of Juan Santamaria, one of Costa Rica's national heros.
Filibuster William Walker launched several expeditions into Latin America. For a time he ruledNicaragua, although he was eventually forced to return to the United States. In 1860, he was captured and executed in Honduras.
*A filibuster or freebooter is someone who engages in an unauthorized military expedition into a foreign country to foment or support a revolution. The term is usually used to describe United States citizens who attempted to foment insurrections in Latin America in the mid-19th century, but is also applicable in the modern day.
Filibusters are irregular soldiers who act without authority from their own government, and are generally motivated by financial gain, political ideology, or the thrill of adventure. The freewheeling actions of the filibusters of the 1850s led to the name being applied figuratively to the political act of filibustering in the United States Congress.[1]
Unlike a mercenary, a filibuster leader/commander works for himself, whilst a mercenary leader works for others.[
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