Meeting other travellers who were headed north through Central America everyone was very dismissive of Costa Rica, in large part to the expense of everything and that it’s so heavily touristic. As I travelled from Isla Ometepe, (bus, boat, taxi, chicken bus, border crossing with a one km gap to walk between Panama and Costa Rica, bus, and final small bus for two hours along one of the worst roads I’ve been on in eight months.) I didn’t immediately clock any changes. But on arrival in my first destination of Monteverde up in the cloud forests it was evident . Every sign in every shop and cafe etc was in English, and on my first meal out soon copped a feel for the prices to! There’s a huge US college presence in the town as its a destination for students studying biology or animal science or something. Even a bar of soap in the supermarket was twice as much as it was every other country I’d been to. And having been enjoying dorm prices around 6-8$ it was back to 10$+.

Having had a very fun and social time in Nicaragua, I withdraw a bit for the next few days and chilled out a lot, in part as my shared dorm I’d booked turned out to be a private double with great wifi and I caught up on some personal admin and smashed through some more of Madmen on Netflix. The main reasons for going to Monteverde were to go ziplining and experience the forests and see a bit of nature. I had three full days there and went to a butterfly garden (bit boring), a night walk in the forest (pretty cool with frogs and insects everywhere), an early morning guided walk in the cloud forest (very expensive at 30$!, but did get to see a Quetzal bird!), and also went ziplining. The ziplining I had been super excited about, and I chose the most extreme company with longest lines, including the final 1km superman style. It was really good fun, but it didn’t exhilarate me in the same way that other things I’ve done like horse-riding, mountain biking, jumping off stuff into water. Basically it was all a bit safe, and we were moved along the lines by cheeky chappies like we were at an amusement park, everytime with the Costa Rican catchphrase “Pura Vida!”…..which I found a little irritating after the fifth time! I think I’m just a bit spoilt now with some of the things I’ve seen and done. It was definitely worth it, and I did really enjoy it, but I just didn’t scream my head off like everyone else.

After my early morning cloud forest trek I headed to the capital city San Jose, unfortunatly my arrival was upstaged by Obama rocking into town; so no red carpet for me. I met up with the two Swedish girls I’d hang out with in Antigua Guatemala, and next day we had a very westernised Friday spent at a huge shopping mall. I had a haircut (cheapest and worst cut ever!), pedicure and bought some essential clothes….(tumble dryers at laundrettes have shredded all my underwear!). They headed off in the morning early and I was picked up at 6am for Whitewater rafting.

This was something I was going to do in Bariloche Argentina but weather had not been on my side. I’d done a bit of research and Costa Rica came up as good option, so had pencilled this in. However the normal river was a bit low as the rainy season hasn’t really started and only had class two and three rapids, so I was heading to a different river. It was a 100$…cheap for back home, but a big cost for me at this stage of my trip. After a two hour transfer to a hotel resort and arriving at 8am, I was told the raft group would not be picking me up till 10.30….Having got up at 5.30am I was a bit nonplussed. When the group turned up, there was 34 of us in total, and nearly all of them were part of one group of students on holiday from Florida. I was put in raft with three of them….I was dreading it at a this point as I didn’t quite have the high energy vocal enthusiasm as my team, ” we can do this team!! Yeah, let’s go…we got this, whoop, whoop!!!…..”. My xenophobic streak was sneaking out again.

But, as we got into the river and our guide assured us that the river was going to be great today as they had a huge downpour the night before, and almost immediately we were in rapids my expectations rose again. And I even enjoyed in with the “Pura Vida” shout out after every section involving all of us holding our paddles aloft before slapping them down on the water. Can’t beat em…join em! I was at the front with a guy, and then we had two diminutive girls behind with the guide at the back. We seemed to function pretty well together, yet again I think I was the best at following direction and paddling. I’ve done a fair bit of kayaking and think I understood the river a little better than the others. I have to say our guide knew that river so well. We were seven rafts all together, and a they had one guy in a canoe who went ahead to check the route for obstructions. Early on we all had to get out as there was a huge tree blocking the river after the previous nights heavy rain. The landscape was stunning, with forest and waterfalls around us. I had thought it might be a section of rapids then ten minutes before the next bit; not so, it was almost continuous levels of three and four….and it was awesome! We had one flat section, where the guide let me crew and steer the raft from the back, I was the only passenger on the river that got to do that and was smug.

Maybe a bit too smug and cocky, and maybe nothing to with that as we approached the only class five rapid of the day…it was huge and next thing we were all flipped out of the boat. For at least a full minute I was smashed along the bottom over rocks, at one point I could feel rocks below me and a raft trapping under water from above. Every time I nearly surfaced I was pulled back down by the current. Finally I was dragged out by another raft were I lay on my front coughing up water for a few minutes, before slowing getting up and started assessing damage. A cut on the hip, grazed thighs, calves, knees and a huge lump on my forearm. I hobbled back over to our raft, were everyone was a little shaken up to say the least. The helmet and life jacket had definitely provided vital protection. We had a few more minutes back on the river before a break, at which point the girls really broke down and were in tears. My one leg was really given me some pain, and I wandered off to deal with myself for a bit. Our guide seemed to have gone very quiet to, and I don’t know if maybe he was financially penalised for our raft ended up in the water or something. After a twenty minute break we got back on the river, all the level four and fives behind us it was only another forty minutes to the end. I still enjoyed it, aside from the pain in my leg, but the girls we seriously freaked out and every time we went through a slightly rough bit they were nearly in tears. We finished the trip fine, and all though that’s the nearest I’ve ever got to drowning it was totally worth the money and I felt I got my full worth of adrenalin and adventure…and that’s what I paid for. On my return to the city I found a chemist and bought some ibuprofen gel & tablets, muscle relaxants, and antiseptic cream. I dosed myself up having really hobbled up the stairs in my hostal and hit the sack.

In the morning I woke expecting to be even stiffer….no…medicine had worked and all though still bruised in places the main pain in my thigh had totally subsided. I caught an early bus to my final Costa Rican destination on the Pacific Coast of Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio. I arrived in time to check in, get some cash and lunch before the first major rain of the season came. From four till ten it completely lashed it down. Not many people were around the hostal that day, and it suited me to have quiet day rained in following the previous day. Next morning bright and early I headed to the beach with a chap from my dorm. I hadn’t actually been back on the Pacific coast since Mexico. And whilst not the turquoise waters of the Caribbean, the water was equally temperate. The area is very heavily developed with quite expensive hotels and resorts, but the beach wasn’t too bad. Nothing has been built on the actual beach front itself, and further up was nearly desolate. We headed back just at the right time, and had been back in the hostal for ten minutes before the rain hit hard again. The hostal had really filled up, with quite a lively bunch. After some pressured drinking games they dragged me along to a bar in a hotel. I just can’t deal with reggatone, RnB, Sean Paul….despite trying to numb the musical pain with a few tequilas I snuck off early.

The areas main attraction is a very small national park full of wildlife, which I headed off to early next morning with the same chap. I’d been told you don’t need a guide for this, and we didn’t. Along the path the guides with grops had stopped with telescopes, and were pointing things out and we’d just peak in and see what is what they spotted. In an hour we seen sloths, monkeys, lizards, vine snakes and even a Boa-constrictor waiting up a tree for iguana to come out of hole. Also in there park are a few stunning beaches, with some very cheeky and bold monkeys trying to steel food! My chum headed off back to San Jose midday and I spent a few hours on a more remote beach with about two hundred metres entirely to myself. Floating out a sea again, I had the calmness to remind myself how lucky I am to be enjoying this year….the places I’ve seen, the things I’ve done, they people I’ve met…..could all be downhill when I get home in August from then on in…in the meantime I’m loving life. I had another day lounging on the beach, and managed to avoid partying to heavily with the rest of my hostal, always sneaking off at an apt time and dodging the impending hangovers everyone else had..

And that was Costa Rica for me in ten days, forest, ziplining, rafting, beach, shopping, and plenty of nature and animals. It is a beautiful country, but I really felt the pain in my pocket….I literally couldn’t afford to spend too much more time there.

On leaving Costa Rica for Panama I had thought I’d need for return to San Jose to get a direct bus through to David, but I’d met a two guys at my hostal who ran a hostal in David and were travelling back on local buses the same day as me. He’d said it might take five or six hours. We left at 8.30am, I arrived at my destination in Panama, Boquete twelve hours later..(four buses, a paid lift in a pickup truck, three hours sat waiting, and a crazy hectic border crossing)…but at least I was sharing the arduous day of logistics with some people. That’s probably my last land border crossing for a few months….something I won’t miss!