Costa Rica

So from the last blog Harry Tom and myself spent another two days in Monteverde, We did a night tour through the jungle and seen a snake a sloth and heaps of crazy bugs, to be honest it wasn't very good. We also hike to the tree that is not very well known to tourist, it was a strangler fig tree. I found it really interesting, basically what the strangler fig does is grows from the top, out of the existing tree and down towards the ground , taking over the existing tree and "strangling" it, killing the once existing tree over years and years. It made for some great photos. From Monteverde we caught a few busses and a huge ferry across to the Pacific Coast to the small surf town of Montezuma, the trip was a totally of 8 hours and the ferry ride was really good, we all sat and had a few drinks, the table behind us was a group of older people doing shots and getting crazy, two of the ladies couldn't do the tequila shots they had so they gave them to us, after the ferry the 2 hour bus ride to Montezuma was a quite trip we all fell asleep within the first 10 minutes. In Montezuma we stayed at a cool little hostel, i don't remember the name but it was really chilled and a little out of town. One of the days we hiked about 30 minutes to these amazing waterfalls where you could climb the rock cliffs and jump off to the swimming hole at the bottom. We climbed the 30m rock wall to the right of the falls, it was actually REALLY scary because there was all these hooks and rope point made for using rope and safety equipment to climb it but we went up without anything and also i had my big camera, one slip of the foot and it was a 20m... falls to the rocks at the bottom. Once at the top we found so more falls with rope swings and everything it was truly beautiful, really loved it there, it just didn't feel real, almost like a fairy land of waterfsalls with the dense jungle right down to the waters edge. We spent hours there just swimming and chilling out. There was no chance i was climbing back down the cliff face so i walked back along a hiking trail i had found at the top, it took 2 hours to get back but that didn't worry me, it was a different adventure in itself. Montezuma was a bit of a hippy town, the locals actually call it Montefuma "fuma" meaning smoke in Spanish. We left a few days later, we headed for San Jose the capital of Costa Rica, the hostel was really cool it had a good vibe with a nice pool and the best showers of my trip so far (with some hot water...) The main reason for San Jose was so i could get to an apple store because i wanted to get an ipod touch so i could use it like a phone on wifi. We went to a giant shopping centre which was basically better than any at home. Costa Rica is a wealthy country, totally different to the other countries in Central America. I brought my ipod touch at an expensive price due to import taxes and everything nearly 50% more than home. From the hostel we arranged a tour to do water rafting in the Pacuarde river, Brad had recommended me to do it. From the hostel in San Jose they picked us up drove 2 hours to the rafting ate breakfast then did the rafting all day with lunch included, then drove us to our next destination, which was Puerto Viejo. All for $99 which we though was well worth it. The rafting was just epic, we did not stop laughing the whole day, my stomach was sore from laughing so hard. The rapids were a grade 4 - 5 and some of it was intense, we had a Canadian girls with us named Kim, somehow in the moment of the crazy rapids we managed to hit her in the head with our paddles, 3 times for the day haha luckily she wasn't hurt. The rafting was 27km long through the most beautiful country side you could imagine, the valleys and canyons where just amazing and so untouched. It was one of my highlights of the trip so far, absolutely loved it. We went with Kim when arriving at Puerto Viejo because she had found a good hostel to stay at. The hostel was really good, very clean, new, neat and chilled. Puerto Viejo was a great place so much to do and see with amazing food and some small surf, everyone in the town just rides bikes to get around, we hire bikes on the first day and rode 18km around to the end of the coast towards Panama, it was a great ride going trough jungle and some magic scenery. We swam and chilled at the other end, ate some lunch and cycled back, on the way back i let everyone go ahead because i wanted to stop everywhere and take pictures of all the amazing things, i somehow found a secret beach i just went off track for a while and come down to this tiny little white sand bay. The best way i find places like this is when i go off with my camera i always end up finding cool little private forest or beach and jungle, it's quite adventures and fun. The following day we all got a bus to the Cahuita National Park where you walk a 9km loop along the coast and through the think trees, we seen all kinds of animals including snakes, sloths, spiders, hermit crabs, birds, anteater, racoon and hundres of bugs and butterflies. It took us around 4 hours and we were very well spent after that. The last day in Puerto we just chilled out and we swimming at the beach not doing much at all. We then left Puerto Viejo the next day at 8am to cross the boarder into Panama, the shuttle drove us to the boarder, you then get out walk across the bridge to the Panama side to clear immigration in to Panama, which really was an absolute pain in the ass, we had to show proof of our flights out of Panama, i had a flight booked but just didn't have it printed off or anything, so we then had to go and find internet with somewhere to print off some flight itineraries, we finally got there in the end and jumped aboard a different shuttle that then drove us to the ferry dock to catch a boat to Bocas Del Toro, where i am now, It is probably the biggest touristy place i have seen since Cancun, we arrive yesterday and went out last night to a big party at one of the hostels on the other island, it was such a fun night and lots of people there to, so many people i have met at random places along my travels, even as far back as Mexico. Today we slept in and then this afternoon we got a $2 water taxi to a beach on the other island, it was just beautiful palms and clear water everywhere, i went there without my camera because i just wanted to not worry and be able to swim without any hassles, but then i regretted it because there were huge storm clouds and the pics would have been great, so when we got back to our hostel i grabbed my camera, going straight back to get a few shots, it was well worth it. Tomorrow we are thinking about doing a $20 tour for the day seeing dolphins, snorkelling and heaps of other things. It has been so much fun traveling with Harry and Tom we just laugh heaps it's awesome, it's going to be sad to say goodbye in about one week!!! From here were are going down to the San Blas islands which is just meant to be amazing

Such action packed days finding it hard to sit down and find the time to read and blog!!