And Tharr Were Pictures :)

http://www.hobiesailor.com/albums/CostaRica2007/

All good things must come to an end

The last two days in Tortuguero were awesome. Sunday night was the football national championship. The local bar was packed. And if you´ve ever watched latin american football you know how excited they get. I made some friends with a couple locals so that made it all the more fun.
The park was amazing. I took two canoe trips into the park and saw many camen, frogs, fish, turtles, and birds. The second trip got a good rain forest soaking half way through so we didnt see much while retreating in the downpour.

Stay tuned for pictures when I return :)

Manual Antonio

Just arrived back in San Jose and not a moment too soon. Manual Antonio was a let down. The park was absolutely beautiful, but the town was pretty mediocre. It was the dirty tourist kind of town that I hate. Where it's all centered about getting money out of the tourists by selling everything imaginable. I really wasn't feeling the vibe and then while I was at dinner I noticed a crowd across the street around a guy with a camera. Apparently he was basically the Tico FBI showing pictures of a gringo that was killed the night before on the beach to see if anyone recognized him. That sealed the deal for me. I avoided the night life and went to bed early. But got up at dawn to be the first along the trail that day at the park. It was a shame I had to leave to catch my flight fairly early but the rest of the days flights were full.

BTW

It's a very strange feeling to put your shoe on with a Crab in it :)

Back to the world of Internet

Drakes Bay was awesome. This is what you would picture true Costa Rica to be. Just beach and rain forest. All the roads were dirt, including the airstrip. This is the kind of airstrip where you worry about a cow wandering across it. The flight back was literally me and the two pilots in a single engined cesna.
The first day I went horseback riding through the rain forest with only the guide. He only spoke a bit of English but still communicated ok. We worked our way into the forest and then actually stopped at his house for lunch. His wife and daughter were home along with a worker. His daughter is a student in San Jose and spoke perfect english so that made translations for lunch much easier. He has a great little farm on the edge of the Parque Nacional Corcovado. There were monkeys, Toucan, many other birds and beautiful forest along the trail.
The hotel was a 5 star stay. With only 3 guests, every need was catered too and meals were all freshly prepared on the deck overlooking the ocean.
Day 2 was diving. I did a 3 tank dive off Isla del Cano. The first two dives were both on a pinnacle called El Diablo. We stayed in the 60-70 foot range, amazingly that's where the thermocline was so it was quite warm diving in only a shorty. There were TONs of fish, and a few eels. I was hoping to spot a shark but none materialized. The third dive wasn't much due to some Red Tide in that area. It took the visibility down to about 15 feet and ran most of the fish off. Hoever we did see about a 3-4 foot Devil Ray that made the third dive worth it.
This morning before my flight I spent it on the ridge behind the hotel in a hammock. I disturbed a coatimundi on the way up. It basically looked like a big cat coming down the tree.
Tomorrow I'm off to Quepos and Maual Antonio.

That New Car Smell

Well new country smell. I love landing in a new country. It's just a different vibe you get that is something out of the ordinary from what is our normal frame of reference.
I just landed in San Jose, Costa Rica for a week. I tried to hop straight to the domestic airline to get out of dodge as San Jose doesn't offer that much of the local beauty but am spending one night here. I'm flying to Drakes Bay in the morning. It's on the southermost part of the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica.
I'm going to try and get a SCUBA trip out to Isla del cano.
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