Author: Maggie Page 17 of 36

Today’s drive is scheduled to take 3.5 hours. We have coffee on the terrace and leave at 08.30 with the intention of breakfasting on route. We watch the abundant bird life and an agouti grazing on the lawn.

We are travelling on the intercontinental highway and initially we make good progress, even on the sections that are single lane and under construction. We had some great views on this section.

We stopped briefly for breakfast and then hit a jam slowing our progress. The journey eventually took 5 hours. We did make a second brief stop at the crocodile bridge where we bought sublime fruit smoothies and eyed the large crocs in the river below.

We arrived at our hotel at 13.30 but the room was not ready so we headed to the restaurant for lunch, which was good. I stayed here before on my trip in 2020 and knew the accommodation was of a decent standard. Our room was lovely – close to reception and with a small pool outside.Even better there are comfortable loungers with big fat cushions. Luxury. We have spent a lot of time sitting on hard seats. Nowhere seems to believe in cushions and our bottoms require something soft. Our terrace is quite shady so we head down to the main pool for a swim and afternoon siesta.

We head for sundowners at El Avion which is a cool bar with an aeroplane but it was pretty noisy. We had a painkiller and took some sunset shots.

Then we drove down to the beachfront in Manuel Antonio where we found an excellent restaurant, with efficient staff, great ambience and live music. We ordered the special – snapper with salsa topping cooked in a banana leaf. It was delicious washed down with a cheeky chardonnay, which was the only wine option!

After a full on day yesterday we decide to do very little today. This is a holiday after all! It’s a glorious morning. We have breakfast of pancakes & fruit then hit the road. We are heading down to Canas just south of the continental divide where the weather should become more stable. The road from Canó Negro was much better than expected although not without a few impressive potholes. The scenery is pleasant and the trip fairly uneventful apart from the encounter with drovers and their herd of cattle.

The weather changes dramatically as we pass between the mountain ranges. Here it is much drier, hotter and a brisk breeze is blowing. We stop at a supermarket to buy essential provisions of wine, beer and snacks and are hit by the heat and wind as we exit the car.

Waze took us to our entered location of Hacienda el Pacifico. It did not feel right and clearly was a working farm and nothing like the booking.com pictures. We re-entered our destination – this time with Hotel in front of it and were pleased to see we were only a couple of miles away from the correct destination.

Our room isn’t ready so we relax by the pool and drink the recently purchased beer. The grounds are tropical and it is easy to relax.

We have lunch which is bigger than required then just chill. We swim and hear howler monkeys close by. We also spot an agouti in the nearby undergrowth. We have sundowners on our terrace, where we play music, drink wine and watch deer grazing on the lawn outside our room. It’s particularly enjoyable as the terrace has leather rocking chairs. So comfortable!

A pretty perfect day….

Another early start today. Up at 04.30 to meet our fishing guide for 06.00 departure and we are told it is a 45 minute drive. It is a only about 7km but the road is terrible with huge potholes. We also have no address – just a pin mark on google maps and it does not appear to be on a road….

It is still dark and as we head north we are surprised by the amount of traffic. There are farm workers but also giant lorries which are completely unsuitable for the dirt road. It is slightly un-nerving to confront them in the dark just as you are trying to avoided half a dozen potholes. According to Waze we reach our destination in about 20 minutes but can see no likely properties. We drive back and forth. I suggest phoning our guide but Paul insists that, as he is a bloke, he can find it unaided. A man suddenly appears with a torch and it turns out to be our guide Napoleon. Annoyingly Paul was proved right – no call required! A bit fortuitous admittedly.

Napoleon greets us warmly and escorts us down to his boat. We set off in pursuit of tarpon. They feed in the morning and late afternoon and can be spotted rolling on the surface. The river is beautiful and teeming with life. Huge flocks of birds are roosting in the reed beds, herons and cormorants are already fishing and caiman and crocodiles laze on the banks.

It seems that every tree has iguanas roosting in the branches and large males show off the their vivid mating colours. Howler monkeys are abundant too and call loudly as we pass below. Howlers are usually black with a tan back but we spot an unusual orange one sleeping in the branches.

We anchor in a likely spot but nothing bites so we move on. This is Paul’s lucky day. We see tarpon jumping around us and Napoleon says this is a good spot. Almost instantly a tarpon bites. It is actually quite exciting and this one seems big and strong. I follow the action keenly with my camera as I want some good footage of it jumping. My patience is rewarded. It makes a run for it and leaps. It is huge. Napoleon thinks 60kg!

The tarpon was so heavy that it broke the line as Napoleon was lifting it from the water so no shots of Paul holding it but he is still very happy. The weather changes by the second here. Sunshine, cloud and occasional torrential rain but it is always hot. We even had a rainbow.

Napoleon takes us back to his house for lunch. He has a wonderfully manicured garden leading shown to the river with an abundance of tropical flowers. He feeds the birds bananas and they fill the garden with their song and bright colours. We have rice and scrambled egg for lunch which is actually very good with fruit juice. The rice has had herbs added so is very tasty. Napoleon says’ Mi casa es tu casa’ and leaves us the run of the place as he goes to pick up his wife.

I have fun photographing the garden and bird life. Paul chillaxes.

We set off again at at 2.15. Paul catches another tarpon but this one is really huge and gets away. It’s a lovely afternoon nevertheless and so much more enjoyable than the fishing experience at Tortuguero.

We thank Napoleon for his hospitality and great fishing and head home. We are shattered so have an early dinner and head straight to bed.

It is about a 3 hour drive to Canó Negro but we think it might be good to make a detour to Poas Volcano. It will add a couple of hours to the journey but will add some interesting landscapes and the Poas Volcano crater looks amazing and is still active.

We pass through some truly stunning scenery and encounter a large temperature range from 30C down to 10C. It is always surprising to see how manicured the verges are.

We pass huge lorries carrying sugar cane and can see fields where the cane has been cleared. The cane is black and I guess that is the reason that where we are going is called Canó Negro.

We then catch our first glimpse of Poas Volcano and start the hour ascent to the crater.

We cross several narrow bridges….

and are treated to a surprise viewing of La Paz waterfall, which is adjacent to the bridge we are about to cross.

The temperature has dropped markedly. We are now in the cloud forest and are driving through fog and rain as we continue our ascent

We eventually reach Poas Volcano Park and see signs saying we need to buy a ticket in advance. We were unaware of this so ask to buy one when we reach the entrance gate. We are told we must do it online. There is a hut opposite with Wi-Fi and we can do it there. The lady in the kiosk is very helpful and also shows us the current view of the crater on the webcam. It is a white out. She advises that we save ourselves $50 each and drive back down. We take her advice and although it was disappointing not to view the crater the drive was still very worthwhile. We stopped for a coffee on our descent at something very reminiscent of an alpine restaurant. The weather felt alpine too at that stage, so I grabbed my fleece from the boot to find that my water bottle had leaked all over it. To wet to wear. Grrr….

The views on our descent were also stunning.

The drive from the crater to Cano Negro was 3 hours. Longer than we expected but that was because the last 20 km were on terrible roads with numerous potholes. We had to weave from side to side to avoid them and every so often a huge truck would come towards us, which made life very interesting indeed.

We are staying at the Natural Lodge. It looks like there has been some recent new investment here with a new reception and pool area and refurbished rooms which are very comfortable. We swim in the new pool and then I have walk around the grounds with the camera. What a treat. Howler monkeys appear in the trees behind our room with their deafening calls. The light is poor so no decent photos I’m afraid but a treat for me nevertheless.

The staff are, as everywhere else in Costa Rica, lovely but there’s a bit of a problem with the pre-dinner drinks. We order G&Ts and they arrive in big glasses and look great. It ends there. They taste truly terrible. Really sour, loads of lime. We both nearly choke on the first sip. The waiter comes over to ask if the drinks are OK. I say no and the waiter says he will make me another one. Paul is more accommodating and perseveres with his. I should have done likewise. It took 20 minutes for my replacement drink to arrive and we think in hindsight that the hotel had no tonic and tried to improvise. Clearly someone was sent out to buy some, because the 2nd drink was fine… hence the wait.

We wake early. It is raining but no surprise there. It has rained heavily every night. Fortunately the weather always improves in the daytime with just the occasional afternoon shower. We take a last look at the Caribbean. It is still raw and wild with masses of washed up debris and sadly huge amounts of plastic litter the shoreline.

We are taking the 08.40 boat back to La Pavona. It is a 100 yards or so to the dock so the hotel organise our bags to go to the dock in a wheelbarrow. Everything here is very efficient and the boat departs on time.

It’s an hourish trip back to La Pavona where we stop for a coffee, put our route into Waze and depart. The drive is easy with great views of the cloud forest in the distance.

We are delighted with our choice of hotel – Ara Ambigua. It is in the heart of the forest, birds abound in the foliage and howler monkeys call in the distance. We have a well earned G&T, a light lunch and then I go out with the camera.

I work out my problem with the big zoom lens yesterday. I had knocked the lever and it was set to 6m to infinity instead of 1.3m to infinity. Hence I could not focus on anything close up.

The hotel organises guided night walks and we have signed up. Our guide is very good with sharp eyes he first finds us the famous red-eyed frog but then finds many other species of frog, assorted insects and a snake – non-venomous. I am pleased with the photographic results.