Playa Avellana - Ohhhhhhhhh Baby!!

16th - 18th August

I don't have much to say about this place other than it's SiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiK!

Best waves of the trip so far. I surfed twice a day for 3-4hrs each session and ended up with rashes all over the place, it was soo worth it.

Just 20mins South of the Americanopolis of Tamarindo is a really undeveloped beach called Playa Avellana, a dirt road takes you off the main road and delivers you directly to a beach front car park which is literally someone's garden with two guys who collect your money... There is a large pig that roams around and quite often snuffles around on the beach front by the surf. If you carry on round there are a few little beach front shacks with space for camping and a couple of small bars but on the whole this place is still relatively untouched.

I stayed in a bar/restaurant called Iguana Verde which was basically a lady called Rita's house in the centre of which she had made a bar and stocked a fridge full of beers... the local alcoholics kept her busy and every night I would walk in and out of random, loud, shouty but friendly, incoherent conversations between the three or four guys that propped up the bar. One guy, Harold Marselas or 'Ula Ula' claimed to be one of the big surfers in the town and would grab me and tell me for half an hour at a time about how he digged my style, my ride, that fact I surfed little Hawaii and that it was in the heart and the eyes... 'No Bullshit, No big mouth etc...'. He would tell me about big days surfing Witches Rock, Ollies Point & Playa Negra and with every story he would stagger around acting out the drop and turns and shouting 'Back side, Back side'!! He was an awesome character and remarkably active in the mornings until lunchtime when it was time for a beer!

Rita's place was super basic and totally opposite to the places I had been staying with dad. I scored a private room for $10/night, the matress sagged in the middle so much that it was like sleeping in a hammock, the door had been kicked in and the handle was missing, instead a small metal bracket had been screwed into the door and a padlock was provided for the feeling of security despite the fact that you couldn't close the door fully! The whole setup was super basic but absolutely perfect for what I needed.

Rita was a woman of few words but had a wicked laugh, she let me use her kitchen and otherwise left me to it. I lived cheap on a diet of porridge, pasta and even a pack of sausages. I was the only tourist in the place, it was a lonely existence but Thea and I chatted everyday on Skype and I was happy catching waves all day long. Every morning I would get up at 6am and walk 20mins up the beach, passed through the river where aligators allegedly lay in waiting and up to the reef called little Hawaii... the wind was offshore most of the time and the sun shone hard.

On my second day I had the best surf of my life at little Hawaii. A super fun A frame peak was reeling right for 50-75m, the reef bubbling away below and the occasional turtle popping up in the wave. It was like a machine, one after another, with time to paddle back to my spot, catch my breath, smile to myself about how awesome the last wave was and then turn and go again... the killer thing was that I had it to myself for 4hrs... Unreal!

That evening the sunset session was more crowded, I shared the peak with ten guys, it was bigger, getting on double over head on set and there were plenty to go around. I got chatting to a super friendly guy called Michael from San Diego, he was digging my trip and really kindly invited me to stay with him and his family when I reach San Diego, his two sons, Nikki and Sandy run a surf adventure company called California Surf Adventures. Check em out, they play Frisbee!!!!!

Just as the sun was dipping below the horizon a wide and chunky set wave screaming my name swung past the pack and right to where I was sat... it was beautiful... such a long drop, right from the peak and walled up all the way down the line... I nailed my bottom turn, swung up toward the top of the wave and flicked the board round for a second drop, pump, pump, cut back to the pocket, one last pump and as the wave closed ahead of me I dropped onto my belly to body board out onto the beach. A perfect end to a perfect day!!!!  :) :) :) :)

I don't have any photos of Little Hawaii or many of Playa Avellana as I was in the water most of the time... you will just have to take my word for it!

Out of my Depth - Mal Pais to Playa Avellana

Friday 15th August

After some breakfast dad and I said our goodbyes which was unusually emotional for us, it had been a fun few days and we were both sad that it was ending.

In the spirit of distraction I jumped on the bike and rode to the beach at Mal Pais, the surf was pumping and getting on double over head on the sets. Paddling away from the main crowd I found a super consistent and long right hander which I shared with one other guy for a couple of hours. I had the best surf in ages and was loving the board!

Back at the Blue Jay Lodge I collected my stuff and loaded up the bike, I was keen to move on, keep the momentum up and not dwell on being on my own again. I had decided to ride up to Playa Avellana which was supposedly made famous by the cult classic surf film, Endless Summer II. Whilst packing up David one of the staff at the lodge started chatting about my trip and the bike and said that in Costa Rica the bike would cost $6,000-$7,000 and that I should give him a call when I get to San Francisco and he would give me the $2,500 I paid for it! I have no idea if he wanted me to ride it back down to him or not but it was interesting to know. He also advised that I needed to ride North back to Paqueres and then West to get to Avellana... My sat nav said to go a more direct route through the middle of the Nicoya Pennisula and naturally I trusted it rather than the human with local knowledge....

It transpired that the reason for going North is that the roads are all tarmac and easy, the route I took was quite the opposite! I didn't mind the dirt roads soo much, they were actually quite good fun and I was getting more confident with the bike so enjoyed the more challenging climbs and descents where the roads seem to turn into a gnarled up river beds with big ruts, channels and holes! After 40mins or so of relatively slow progress I dropped down a long descent and rounded a corner to be greeted by a 20m wide river....!

I have never ridden a bike through a river before and wasn't sure what would happen to the bike if I did... where was the air intake? How deep could the bike manage? What would I do if I flooded the engine? How do I start the bike if the electrics blow, there's no kickstart?!! Where is everybody and how do I get help if I get stuck?!!! Many questions raced through my head and I considered riding back the way I had come but it was 40mins and would have sucked.

Suddenly a small 4x4 rolled round the corner and pulled up next to me... man was I glad! A Spanish guy and his Argentine woman jumped out and agreed that this was a little unexpected! The guy had flip flops on and waded into the middle of the river to check the depth... it never made it passed the top of his calf and we concluded it would be fine... off he went and then waited for me to cross.

As I rode into the water a decent bow wave formed and despite trying to keep my feet as high as possible the water flooded into my boots and was well up over the footpegs. Things were going well until a third of the way across the bike started spluttering and cut out! Both feet went down and I stood in the river holding the bike up whilst steam rose all around me... I thought that was the bike done and tried pushing it out but wasn't having much luck on the slippery rocks (the bike fully loaded is proper heavy and hard enough to push on dry land!). I tried the key and to my surprise the nuetral light came on so I tried the starter... with a bit of a splutter she fired up and I powered hard out of the water!!

I was so chuffed... I crossed a river!! I crossed a river!! In my head that's 10 adventure points!! I was however soaking wet, my boots and trousers were dripping and I had several more hours of riding to go and I didn't know if I'd got water in the engine or not... oh well I figured I probably wasn't far from civilisation and tarmac roads????

I was far, really far... after another 15mins I hit river number two! Not as wide as the first but the run up was deep, wet mud and the water murky so I couldn't tell the depth. I reasoned that the 4x4 had obviously made it so I'd just give it a go... 3/4 of the way across the same thing happened and I ground to a halt. I got straight back on the starter and powered out both relieved and elated.

Feeling good about myself I rode on happily weaving throught the dirt lanes thinking I was some sort of hero and that even a river couldn't stop me! Another tricky descent led to a corner where a track forked off the main track and seemed to disappear into the bushes, I wondered what was coming and rounded another bend to be confronted by an actually very big river... shit. It was probably 30m across, fast flowing with a section of rapids and it looked deep. All that confidence vanished and I had a horrible feeling that I was going to have to turn back and undo all the good work of the previous hour and a half of heroism. But... to my complete amazement the Spanish guy from river #1 was stood in knee deep water on the other side of the river and waving at me. He shouted saying that they had pulled up and almost turned back when a couple of local guys had turned up on motorbikes and ridden through. There was a special route that avoided the really deep parts but required some careful navigation but he was confident I could make it!! After lots of funny gesticulating and instructions I headed back up the track to the diversion through the trees and pulled up by the side of the river. I shouted across and asked him to film it as there was a good chance of me floating off down river then powered into the water... I rode across the river along the top of a section of rapids and then 3/4 of the way across just passed a clump of green stuff I made a right hand turn and powered up stream... it seemed to get deeper and deeper and despite the bike lasting longer than before she cut out just 5m from the river bank. I was stood in knee deep water and sure the bike was spent... incredibly it fired first time and I spluttered out of the river and up the muddy bank! Such a good feeling!!!!

I was super grateful that the guys had waited for me, they probably had to wait for 10-15mins and without them I would not have crossed that river. I'm hoping they will email me the video but I haven't seen it yet... the photos don't do it justice.

Fortunately there was only one other small river to cross that day and the next hour was spent buzzing along dirt roads and feeling awesome!

Eventually I found some tarmac roads and managed to get some gas which was running low. It was now 4:30pm and I still had another hour or so to go and was running out of light. The rest of the ride was easy going and I made it to Playa Avellana just in time for a beautiful sunset! Epic day!

One Last Blast - Nicoya Pennisula

Due to the road block in the night we had some catching up to do in order to make the Nicoya Pennisula that morning. We were out of the door and on the road by 7am and dad was tonking along. We hoped to get back to San Jose, collect the bike, get some breakfast and head to Puntarenas to catch the 11am ferry to Paqueres... Easy! Unless you're a total idiot and leave your fanny pack under the pillow in the hotel!!

We had driven for 45mins and as we pulled up to a toll for the main road I started lookng for some cash and realised that all my money, passport and bank cards were sitting under the pillow in our hotel in Jaco. I had done 'a Burnham', a classic manoeuvre whereby you endanger your whole trip by faffing so much your brain losses track of what was faffed with or not! A technique I developed back in South America ten years before. What a Douche!

Back to Jaco we go where all my stuff was waiting where I'd left it! We'd lost an hour and a half and concluded we weren't going to make the 11am ferry... the next one was at 2pm so we figured we had loads of time & got some breakfast. Back on the road we pushed on and within 1hr 30mins we were approaching San Jose. Sat Nav was set to the airport from where we could easily find our way back to the hotel.......

We missed our first exit off the main road, no worries up to the next one, do a u turn and try again... made it, then missed the next one and then another and despite having sat nav we were doing a lot of unnecessary miles. I was getting more and more angry with myself, first the stupidity of the morning now this, I was totally messing up our day... Eventually we had weaved our way through all these different junctions and found our first official airport sign, Yes!... But then, just as the runway came into view, dad let out a huge burst of laughter. I had directed us to the wrong airport! I had done another 'Burnham'... two in one day, we must have wasted another hour and a half trying to find the wrong airport.... Arghhhhhh. Double Douche!

Finally back at Hotel Mango it was 12pm.  It was 1hr 30mins drive to Puntarenas to catch the 2pm ferry... if we missed this one there was not another till 6pm and we would have had a nightmare getting to where we wanted to stay the night in Mal Pais. As is customary when in a rush, leaving was not easy and it took 25mins of negotiating with the spanish speaking staff before we were allowed to leave. I had used the hotels phone last time we were there to call my bank about card troubles and the bill had apparently come to $40! I was not allowed to leave until the bill was paid.

Finally on the road the sat nav said we would arrive in Puntarenas at 14:02 just in time to watch the ferry leaving town! In addittion my fuel was low and I would definitely need to stop before getting to the ferry. I led us out of town as fast as the traffic would allow with dad following closely behind, both a little anxious that if we got split up we would struggle to contact each other. After about 45mins the bike started to splutter and I was out of gas... we pulled up on the hard shoulder and I frantically undid the straps holding my spare fuel can to the side of the bike and chucked my emergency gallon into the tank. Sat Nav was now showing our arrival as 14:08pm and I would still need fuel... 15mins later we took a junction off the main road and refuelled, in my head I was sure we would miss the ferry and I had ruined our last day together in Mal Pais, despite this I rode flat out and we pulled up at the ferry terminal at 14:04pm and with a huge smack of relief we found a friendly worker who got us on the boat with minutes to spare! What a ridiculous morning!

At 4pm we pulled out of the ferry terminal is Paqueres and ambled through the windy little roads to Mal Pais... after an hour or so the roads changed from asphalt to dirt and the last half hour was slow going as we dodged holes, road creeks and big lumps of rock. We arrived at the beach front at 5:15pm, the sky was turning colourful and the waves were pumping!

Dad was keen to have a little comfort for his last couple of nights and very kindly treated me to a stay in the Blue Jay Lodge, which was just a few km's West of Mal Pais and back 200m from the beach. It was a real nice place and still not massively expensive. We had a cabin 50m up the hill which had a sweet little balcony with a pair of hammocks that overlooked the turquoise ocean in the distance. Nice!

After signing in we legged it to the beach and whilst dad tried to lock us out of someone elses car I jumped in the water for the last half hour of light. It was getting on double over head but crumbly and playful with some really long rights and lefts to be had. Straight off the bat I picked up two nice looking, chunky rights but on each wave, after a big drop and bottom turn I got thrown off as the white water came down the face. After that I couldn't catch a wave to save my life and with the light all but gone I rolled back onto the beach, the last one out the water and with a slightly concerned father!

That night we ate at an Argentine restaurant on the main (only) road which was fantastic, great food and some really funny banter with the Argentine waiters... after a few cheeky comments he asked where we were from and I said Germany... he almost kicked us out, too soon me thinks! (Worldcup)

Anyways the next day was beautiful, we woke to blue skies and jungle noises and had a pleasant breakfast before walking down to the beach. The tide was low and the Mal Pais beaches are just exposed rock at low so I saddled up and rode NW to check nearby beaches... after about 15mins I found a stunning beach with a heavy & hollow right reeling off a rocky outcrop. I parked the bike in the sand, jumped in the rip and got sucked out to the break in no time. It was busy, 10 or 20 good surfers were hustling for two peaks that jacked up quickly and were easily a head and a half on the faces (If I were stood on my board at the bottom of the wave the top would have been one and a half times as tall as me). Not as big as the previous night but more powerful and more technical... I managed to pick off 10 or so decent waves and had some pretty heavy, sandy hold downs before the wind swung onshore and killed it.

Dad had been walking in the morning and we had arranged to meet for lunch. There was a really nice bakery in town (the same road!) which hit the spot just right. After all the shenanigans of the last few days we just wanted to relax and spent the afternoon by the pool before dad went for a guided nature walk by the hotel staff David and I went for a sunset surf. I had a terrible time and kooked everything up which was probably karma for not spending the last afternoon with dad. Dad had a fantastic time and saw a troop of White Face monkeys rumble into Howler town and have a monkey stand off!

For our final meal we decided to be adventurous and go back to the Argentine restaurant for some more meat and wine. We shared a huge Parradilla, (mixed grill) which was delicious. Those fellas were good guys and they knew how to cook meat. In the front corner of the restaurant was a huge 5ft x 8ft fire with a grill over the top where all the meat was cooked, it must be insanely hot work but it made the whole restaurant smell of beatiful wood smoked meat. We had another great night and finished the trip in great style. 

Dad would be leaving in the morning for the airport and it was going to be difficult to say goodbye and readjust to travelling solo and on a budget. We had a brilliant time together and it was a huge privilege to be able to share some of the most incredible experiences of my life with my old padre, it would be very sad to see him go. I was extremely impressed at his attitude, he was up for everything (except water sports!) and had the stamina to keep trekking through some testing jungle missions. Many thanks for coming out to play and thanks for putting me up in some halfway reasonable accomodations and eateries, it was awesome! 

Back to the Mountains - Chirripo

11th - 12th August

No Toucans on our second stay at the jungle hostel but it was still a beautiful place to wake up! The shower is a two storey hut with the four sids stopping at shoulder height so you can watch the jungle go by whilst you wash your bits... very kool!

After an eggy breakfast dad and I went for a walk up the track by the hostel to check out the view over the jungle and take in the whole of the Golfo Dulce... it turns out the wildlife wasn't exclusive to the park and there were humingbirds, woodpeckers and toucans to be spotted just up tut road! As we were just getting back to the hostel we saw some rustling in the trees ahead which turned out to be 20-30 squirrel monkeys making their way through the trees literally 5m away. We watched as they jumped from branch to branch until we ended up in our hut with monkeys in the trees all around the hostels grounds! The photos don't do it justice but I did get some good video which I'll try and post when I get home.

Anyway that was all before 9am! We were leaving and heading NW to the mountains of Chirripo National Park, the tallest in all of Costa Rica. Hooray! We said our thank you's and goodbyes and set off down the road with a guy called Adriana on board. He had been volunteering at the hostel but was from San Jose and wanted a lift to San Isidro to meet a girl... cheeky Tico! 

It was a beautiful drive back through the windy roads of the Osa Pennisula and within an hour and a half blind, old captain speedy (dad) had us back on the Main road and heading back up the coast toward Domincal. On route we saw an awesome looking, palm lined bay which turned out to be Domincalito. Go, go Japanese tourists... we all smashed out some photos and then hit the road again! 

Turning off the main road at Domincal we climbed a long and windy road up into the mountains of the central valley and after another hour or so we reached Adriana's drop off point, there were hugs all round and several adios amigos and we went our separate ways. 

From San Isidro we did some man navigation and blagged our way onto the right road up to Rivas, a small town at the entrance to the NP. Using my interweb skills I had found a nice looking family run hostel for a mere $15per night, however, and I am absolutely not complaining, mi padre, who was still damaged by the harrowing poverty of the house in Carate was keen to find somewhere a little more upmarket, somewhere with toilet roll and bedding! Much fun was had (by me anyway), as I mocked his middle class sensibilities all the way to the door of our very clean and comfortable looking mountain lodge at the Talamanca Reserve. Although the name sounds posh it was certainly not top end, at only $25 each per night it was actually very reasonable but my god it felt like another world compared to where we'd been.

We were the only guests in residence during our two day stay at the reserve and were treated to excellent, attentive yet unintrusive, friendly and informative service by the young lad who ran front of house who was spookily also called Kenneth. The on site restaurant knocked up some great meals and had a woodburner and ping pong table. After several glasses of wine padre was back with it and made short work of destroying me 6 - 3 on the miniture tennis court. 

Anyways shower, bed etc... excellent sleep and a little too long in bed saw us taking breakfast at 8:30ish the next morning. We had hoped to be up early, walk in the morning and drive to San Jose for a night in the hotel in order to collect my bike for our next mission but our day didn't exactly go to plan.

The Talamanca Reserve is a 4,000 acre, private reserve of primary and secondary rainforest that sits at the edge of Chirripo National Park. Miles of well marked and even signed trails take you around the reserve to see waterfalls, jungle and many types of birds. Armed with a 'hand drawn' map of the 4,000acres we set off up the trails without water, food or a even a compass on what we thought would be a nice 3hr stroll! Ha... It all started quite well, the tracks were wide, not too  steep and the cool mountain air made the going a lot easier than on the muggy jungle treks in Osa. Initially we trekked a path that took us to three pretty waterfalls nestled in the jungle and had a really nice walk, this however was a diversion from our main walk which would take us to the other side of the reserve and into the neighbouring Cloud Ridge reserve where we would loop back round to the restaurant, in theory! After about 4hrs of walking the jungle was getting a lot more wild and the trails a lot smaller and we were still heading away from our base, we still knew roughly where we were but were getting tired and running out of map. At the edge of the reserve was another big waterfall and a rickety suspension bridge over the river which took us into the Cloud Ridge reserve. By this stage we were getting a bit panicky and my imagination was conjuring up all sorts of dark scenarios of getting lost in the jungle with no water, no supplies and no way of calling for help. At this point dad decided to up the anti and took a dive on a slippery rock landing heavily on his back and letting out an almighty scream. I was a way ahead scouting out the trail and shat myself thinking he'd broken his leg or something, in a mad panick I ran back to see him lying on his back and wincing with pain. Fortunately he was Ok and after a minute or two he was back on his feet but bruised and knackered. We considered our options and decided that carrying on, through to the unknown and un-mapped Cloud Ridge reserve was not a good idea and that we would have to go back the way we came. 

Our walk back was long and tiring but at least we knew where we were going. It took another 2-3hrs of fairly rapid walking to get back to the restaurant and we were both extremely relieved to receive a nice cool beer on our return. 

I was genuinely worried that we were going to have to spend a night in the jungle, had one of us fallen and broken something we would have been in real trouble and I still can't believe how stupid we were to go out without any water or a compass! Idiots! Anyways it all worked out in the end and we avoided becoming another headline but I could see how easy it would be to fall victim to wilds of the jungle. 

Soo a lot later than planned, we left the Talamanca Reserve at 6pm just as it was getting dark and the rain was coming in. We hoped to drive to San Jose which was 3:30hrs according to GPS and made a reservation at the hotel Mango warning them that we wouldn't by the till 10pm. The entire way a huge electrical storm lit up the sky, huge forks of lightening stretched across the horizon and briefly shedding light on the un-lit roads, it was an awesome sight and literally constant for about 3hrs. Unfortunately just as we passed Jaco, with an hour or so to go, the traffic came to a stop and we pulled up in a long que of cars and lorries. After 15mins I took a walk down the hill to see what was going on... two big trees had come down in the storm and were laying across the road blocking both lanes and having taken out the power lines on the other side. The fire trucks were just arriving but it looked like we weren't going to be able to pass for at least an hour. We turned the car around and headed back to Jaco and found a cheap but clean hotel for the night and went of to get some food. 

Another manic day of adventure!

Back to the Mountains - Chirripo

11th - 12th August

The Photos....

Osa Pennisula & Corcovado National Park

9th - 10th August

Got soo many photos for this post I have put them in a separate post after the txt... My ability to format is limited on me phone.

Sooo... From the darkness we awoke to the sounds of jungle... buzzing, sqwaking and grunting noises were accompanied by shards of light piercing through the jungle surrounding our little hut and as I pulled back the curtain I was greeted by four colourful Toucans sitting in the tree just in front of the hut! WOW! Not used to being outdone on beak size I think they were curious to see two animals (me & dad) with bigger hooters than them!

We had decided to take Kenneth up on his jungle tour so after a quick bit of brekkie, we missioned into Jiminez, gave Kenneth $160 each and he sorted our guide (Gabriel) and tickets for entry to the National Park. After stocking up on supplies for the trip we met Gabriel at the hostel, packed the car with boards and took off down the dirt road towards Matapalo.

After a bumpy half hour we reached our first destination, a right hand point break called Pan Dulce. I have never seen such a pretty beach / wave / backdrop combo in my life. Turquoise waters lapped at the soft sand at the edge of the jungle while a perfectly formed, peeling right rolled across the bay with the Gulfo Dulce and mountains in the background. Mind blowingly beautiful!

Unfortunately the tide was high and the swell too small to push through... the odd set was breaking up on the point and Gabriel and I jumped in for a couple of waves. With a bigger swell the wave would have run for over 300m but today was not the day so we pushed on to the beach at Matapalo.

Matapalo is the most exposed point on the pennisula and picks up any swell going... it was sick! See the two photos with the hammock type thing hanging from the tree and the shredder on the head and half wave in the background. The wave was powerful and pushed a strong, steep right hander down the beach before crashing down in a heavy shore dump. I had some super fun waves and  got to see a couple of turtles popping out of the water just meters away!

It was super useful to have a guide / surfer to show us the spots in this very remote part of the world, the roads were unreal, and resembled boulder river beds more than a road. Without a guide I don't think we would have believed them passable and the decision to get a 4x4 was definitely justified.

Leaving Matapalo we slowly clambered over the boulders back to the road to Carate and as we stopped to return a borrowed knife to a friend of Gabriels we spotted a small troop of howler monkey's playing in the trees above us!

From Matapalo it is a further 45mins drive to Carate which is the end of the line and where our accommodation was for the evening. Both dad and I were totally spent and when we entered the house we had a nasty shock... a small tv belted out tinny spanish voices from a soap opera, two guys hung in the hammocks on the porch, there was no toilet roll in the filthy bathroom and the kitchen was a state. Gabriel showed us to our room, where the mosquito nets were torn and hanging off the walls and there was no bedding! After a long day and with high expectations we were dissapointed to say the least. It hit dad hard, partly because of tiredness from his flights and travel but also due to the new traveler paranoia he was not comfortable or able to relax.

We went out for a walk down Carate beach which was stunning, dark sand backed by jungle and an incredible, moody sky line, it was beautiful.

Back in the house I knocked up a shockingly bland stir fry and we ate off stools in our room after which dad passed out and snored like a trooper! Gabriel very kindly rolled me a joint and we passed it round on the porch, I hadn't smoked in 4 weeks and it hit me hard! I went and laid down and enjoyed a most incredible hour of kaleidoscope colours combining with the rhythmical beat of the jungle... It was like an insight into the origins of tribal music!

The next morning at 6am we were up and off to the Corcovado National Park... we hiked for 3km's down the beach and jungle trail to the ranger station at the entrance to the park. Bright red Macaws sqwaked and flapped around in the trees above and we stopped every five minutes to try and get a decent photo. At the park entrance we signed a register and were told of a young American guy who had gone walking in the park without a guide 3 weeks ago and was lost & presumed dead. It is illegal to enter the park without a guide and whilst the section we walked was pretty easy going (there was a cut trail and we were always within 20m of the beach), you could see how easy it would be to get completely lost here. In addition the place simply buzzed with life, everywhere you looked there was something scurrying or rustling or simply hanging in a web. I have never seen such an abundance of wildlife anywhere in the world, we were treated to a great day of animal spotting.

In two days I reckon we saw the following: Macaws, golden orb spiders, jesus christ lizards (they run on water!), normal lizards (they don't!), iguanas, howler monkeys, picato monkeys, spider monkeys, an owl, crabs, turtles, 4 or 5 different types of little birds, 2 anteaters, a furdilanze snake, toucans, blue morpho butterflies, hummingbirds, 3 woodpeckers, a couple of bats, a tiger heron, several dogs and I had a Tuna steak when we got back! There were probably more but I can't remember and I think I made my point!

After walking for about 3-4hrs we were ready to turn back. Unfortunately the trail was not a loop and we simply went the same way back which was a bit dissapointing but the animals had changed position so it kept us interested. As with all these things I never seem to turn back until I'm tired, the trouble is you've then got to walk the same distance to get back! By the time we got back to the car we were knackered, it was a sweltering day and we were both dripping with sweat. Sitting down in the air conditioned car was bliss!

Corcovado absolutely delivered. I had heard so much about the fantastic nature reserves and wildlife in Costa Rica and was so glad we took the time to go so far South. We very nearly didn't do the Osa Pennisula at all but I think it has been one of the most special places I've seen so far and it was amazing to do it with me dad! I know there were a few moments that were well out of his comfort zone but I don't reckon he'll forget it in a hurry!

Thankfully we didn't have another night in the house in Carate so we drove back to Matapalo where I had a quick, but terrible surf and then back to the jungle hostel In Puerto Jimenez. Dad and I had some excellent sea food in town and several beers before passing out in our jungle hut! An amazing couple of days!

Osa Pennisula & Corcovado National Park