Sunday November, 7th, 2004
At seven thirty we are all awake again. Emma gets her first feeding at eight and after that we get up. I take a shower with Emma to wash of the dirt from the flight. It's a pity the weather is not good enough for a dive in the swimming pool. After the shower, we pack up most of our stuff and take some of it to the car. Then it's time to enjoy a great breakfast with a bowl of fresh fruit (papaya, pine-apple and banana) and baked eggs etc.
Outside we see our first colibri that's flying around to drink at a special feeding bottle. These birds are so tiny and sweet! I'm not quick enough to photograph the colibri, however I can make a picture of this beautiful yellow bird.
After breakfast we wrap up the rest of our luggage and we set off. We drive to the Poas volcano but unfortunately the weather is very cloudy and it becomes even worse when we get closer to the volcano. We decide not to enter the park and turn back to drive to Puerto Viejo the Sarapiqui. The roads in Costa Rica are of another quality then we are used to. We are lucky when we can maintain an average of 40 kilometers per hour. The road goes through many villages and there you are normally allowed to drive 40 km/h, but when there are schoolchildren at the road you are only allowed to go 25 km/h. We regularly have a good view at the splendidly forested hills, like on this photograph.
We stop at the roadside to feed Emma and we have lunch at a large restaurant. It is a large round building, with on all sides windows. From one side there is a nice view at a water pool a bit lower on the hill. Just before we arrive in Puerto Viejo we see this beautiful black vulture at the side of the road.
We turn the car around and we stay a long time close to the tree where the vulture is sitting to admire him. We are suspecting it sits so quietly, because it got so wet in the rain. Later we will find these vultures to be very common birds in Costa Rica, a bit similar to crows in the Netherlands. We have no problems finding the Gavilan Lodge. The cabins are a bit less well kept than we hoped, but the surrounding is fantastic. The room we had yesterday was a bit bigger, which made it easier to put Emma's bed in the room. In this room, there is already an extra bed, which makes it a bit cramped and leaves little space to put up Emma camping bed. It's raining very hard when we arrive at the hotel. I borrow an umbrella from a member of the staff and I try to keep Michael, Emma and the luggage dry while Michael carries everything to the cabin. I feed Emma immediately after we have arrived and in the meantime Michael takes a shower. Unfortunately he gets little and not very warm water from the electric shower.
After feeding Emma and changing her diaper we go to the restaurant to drink tea. We can already order our dinner for seven o'clock tonight. We put the mosquito net from Emma's bed on the maxi cosi so Emma can sit in her own anti-mosquito tent. She doesn't like that too much. She kicks against the net with her food and looks not too happy. We don't stay in the restaurant too long and return to our room so I can take a shower and afterwards we make a construction with the mosquito nets. I thought Emma's bed was provided with a mosquito net on the sides, but Michael thinks the holes in the net are far too big, so the mosquito's can easily get through. After several attempts we find a way to include Emma's bed in our mosquito net. We put Emma's bed on the separate single bed and push this bed next to our bed. This way the mosquito net is just big enough to cover both our beds. The only problem is that Emma can only be put in her own bed, when we are sitting on our bed. I can't take her out of her bed myself because my arms are just too short. Emma and I try to get some sleep, while Michael rumbles around (and keeps me awake).
At a quarter to seven I want to feed Emma but she is deeply asleep and refuses to wake up. We leave her on the bed and put on the baby phone so we can go for dinner. We can't leave for the restaurant immediately because it just started to rainy heavily again. When we decide not to wait any longer and go through the rain we find an umbrella left outside our room for us. That is a good service! Since Emma is alone in the room, we eat our dinner quickly. Dinner is served immediately and tastes very well, it's chicken with sauce and rise, baked banana and vegetable. Unfortunately the baby alarm keeps going of almost continuously because the rain is falling so loudly on the roof of our cabin. We keep looking at and listening to the baby alarm to see if Emma is awake. When we've finished our dinner we go back to the cabin, where we find Emma still asleep. I feed Emma in bed while Michael reads a little and then we go to sleep. It keeps raining heavily all night. I am frequently awake but I sleep well for the remaining time. It is, however, very clammy in the room and I'm afraid we might wake up with a lot of water in our room. We are next to the river and I wonder if the water level of the river can rise that much during the night. Emma gets another feeding at half past eleven and half past three and seven o'clock.
maandag 8 november 2004
We get out of bed at seven thirty and take our time because it's still raining. Eventually we get to the restaurant to have breakfast. We put the rain cover over the maxi cosi, so Emma won't get wet. Then we run over the lawn to the restaurant.
The breakfast is very good with rice with black beans, scrambled egg and toasts with jam and coffee and fruit juice. The waitress brings fruit to the feeding table for the birds that's close to the restaurant. Soon several beautiful birds come to the table to get some fruit. Black birds with bright stripes, ordinary thrushes and blackbirds, redbreasts etc.
Michael gets back to the cabin to get some camera stuff so that we can photograph the birds. When Michael walks around with the camera he notices a beautiful flower in a banana plant.
After breakfast we go to the shop in the village to buy an umbrella and something to drink. Afterwards we try to get some money from the cash machine at the bank, but we keep getting error messages from the machine. Then we go for a little drive on the highway to the south. It's a good road that comes through pretty small villages. One part is particularly beautiful with small palm trees on beautiful hills. After a while we like to rest and we stop at a restaurant at the roadside. Just before we want to order they put on very load music. We don't like that and decide to leave again.
We return to the Gavilan lodge and I feed Emma in a rocking chair on the terrace. Then we drive to La Selva because we want to make a guided walk now it's finally dry. When we arrive at La Selva many cars are parked immediately after the entrance. We drive on and then we see why the cars were parked at the entrance. The road is flooded. Because another car overtakes us and goes through the water, we follow. Then we arrive at the real entrance and we ask the guard about the guided walks. He tells us they are all cancelled today because of the rain. So we have to return through the water again. We decide to follow the road our hotel is located on. After a while we can't go on because the river flooded the road here as well. A number of people dares to cross the river by car, but the water seems to be very deep. We don't want to take the risk of getting stuck, so we turn back to Puerto Viejo. At the bank we try to cash money from the cash machine ones more. We are relieved when we finally figure out what we did wrong before. On the question how much you want to cash in multiples of 1000 you have to fill in 50,000 instead of 50, if you want 50.000 pesos. Behind bank the road has also been flooded by the river and nobody dares to cross there. From time to time someone goes into the water on foot but they never get far and return rapidly. Now I realize the footbridge that was high above the river yesterday, is now flooded as well. Since we have some money now, we go to a restaurant in the village to have lunch. Michael takes a hamburger with fries and I take spaghetti and we both papaya shake as dessert. It tastes well! By the time we've finished our lunch we return to the lodge. When we arrive at the lodge we see a brown monkey in a tree at the river. Unfortunately too far away to see it well. I feed Emma on the terrace and while sitting on the terrace I photograph this beautiful mini-lizard that sits quietly on a leave beside our terrace.
We walk a bit around the lodge. Michael carries Emma in the belly carrier. She looks happy and enjoys all the beautiful green leaves.
After entering the bushes we decide to turn back for anti-mosquito stuff. After we sprayed it all over us, we walk into the bush again. The walking route leads us over beautiful broad paths. There are also some narrow paths with high plants but we skip those paths. We see five vultures in the trees. They are so close to us! They make a shrieking sound. Four or them have a red head, one has a cream/brown head.
They are not shy at all. They only move to a higher branch if we get too close. Because the broad path ends at a fence we turn back towards the cabin and after that we follow another path which leads us behind the restaurant. What a splendid vegetation grows here.
At the end of the walk we go to the river and look at the water for a while. The river is really big right now!
At the driveway to the hotel grow several plants with beautiful flowers.
When we are looking at the river from another spot closer to our cabin, the receptionist of the hotel calls us and shows us a monkey that's sitting quietly in one of the trees high above the river. We also spot an army of ants near our cabin. They cut small sheets of the leaves of the tree and bring them to their nest. We try to follow the route of the ants with the video camera. The activity of these animals is so cute. In the meantime it has become time to feed Emma again. Afterwards we let Emma play on the bed for a while. She is very active and doesn't want me to go to sleep. She keeps beating my arm or drawing at my hair. At four o'clock we go to the restaurant for a cup of tea. It started to rain heavily again. We put the mosquito net over the maxi cosi again, which Emma still doesn't like. Michael continues to walk around with her in the buggy or with her in his arms. Around five hours she finally falls asleep. We book dinner for seven o'clock tonight and we order fish this time. When I look up from writing my travel report I see the monkey again. It's sitting in a big tree, high up and far away from us. Before we go for dinner, Emma gets another feeding and afterwards we put her in her bed and turn on the baby alarm. Dinner is nearly the same as yesterday, only this time it's with fish. We are the only guests in the lodge by now because the three Germans who were here yesterday left this morning. After dinner we read a little underneath the mosquito net at bed and because we are both very tired and Michael is quickly snoring softly, we go to sleep early. Emma wakes me two times during the night and both times she gets a feeding when she doesn't want to go back to sleep.
Tuesday 9 November 2004
We get up around six thirty. There is no water in the shower, so we start by packing our stuff. Around a quarter to seven we hear water running so I decide to take a shower with Emma. Afterwards I give her another feeding. Then it is time for breakfast. It's starts with fresh fruit and then toasts with jam, baked eggs and rice with black beans. The juice has little taste so we drink more coffee. Time to wrap up our last stuff and leave the lodge. I pay at the reception and there we find a folder of the Timirindi park where your can walk in the jungle. We expect that Selva will still be closed and although Timirindi doesn't look spectacular (it seems to be mainly meant for school trips) we decide to go for a look. When we arrive at Timirindi it appears to be possible to take a guided walk for $15 a person. We get a private guide, a young guy who tells us as lot about the vegetation. He shows us all kinds of plants and animals. After ten minutes we are already certain it was worth spending the money and at that time we still have an hour and a half to go. At the start of the walk we take a small staircase downstairs and then we walk along the Sarapiqui river. Here the guide shows us mini bats.
They have made a shelter underneath a palm leave. So cute! Later we cross the river by an enormous steel hanging bridge. It bounces with each step, therefore it is rather nerving and the river swirls and thunders underneath us. On the way we see so many particular plants.
Also we see two poisonous snakes that are rolled up and fast asleep. They are rather dangerous, without treatment a bite is even for people deadly. They only move at night every couple of days and once they've found food they will be asleep for a few days again.
At the end of the route the location of a third snake is marked with a ribbon but we don't walk up there. According to the guide it is the same type of snake as the ones we have seen before. The guide shows us an example of Monkey ladder, a twisted plant which swings along other plants and gets very old (300 years minimum). It only gets flowers and leaves when it reaches the top of the trees. The guide also shows us the bullet ant, an enormous ant of which the twinge seems come to as a bullet. Furthermore for example plastic fern and water vine. During the walk Emma behaves very well. I carry her first. At first she's looking at the leaves and seems to enjoy herself. After a while she falls asleep. After we've walked for an hour I feel she's getting heavy so I give her over to Michael. That wakes Emma up of course, she's looking around for a while, but then she falls asleep again. At the end of the route we cross the Sarapiqui river and while we are on the bridge we see two people in a canoe that are following the river spectacularly.
After the tour we continue by car. Along the highway I suddenly see a large iguana sitting on a fork tree. Because it's not busy at the road, Michael can turn the car. We stay a while at the side of the road to examine the iguana before we move on to Volcano Arenal.
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