Saturday 12 January: San Jose - Newark - Gatwick

The next morning we had a leisurely start before heading of to the airport. We bid farewell to our traveling companions, except Dan and Tanya who had already left at 5.00am!!. We did a final trawl for souvenirs in the hotel gift shop, purchasing several.

At the airport we were surprised to se that Paul’s company had diversified to a greater degree than previously suspected. The snack and drinks kiosk bearing a suspiciously familiar logo………

Which is the real one?

The flight home was uneventful, though the food on the second leg was awful, even by the standards of airline food. We landed at Gatwick at 10.00 the next morning. It was grey and overcast but it had been quite a trip. We had hundreds of photos to look through.

Friday 11 January

Our last adventure of the holiday jet skiing. It turned to be quite a trip. We hadn’t been going that long when suddenly 2 humpback whales surfaced within about 200m. it was quite a surprise and apparently we were quite lucky to see them. They were a mother with her calf. We stayed well clear as they repeatedly came to the surface over 20mins or so. We also saw dolphins again as well as many types of birds.

Bracing? Who needs bracing?


After lunch it was the start of our journey home. The 1st leg being back to San Jose. After leaving the coast the road wound up into the mountains. We climbed into the clouds before descending back into sunshine. Our leader,Erick, had already been assigned his next tour in Nicaragua so he left us at the airport. We were driven into San Jose during the Friday afternoon rush hour, it was pretty heavy.

As it was our last night we felt we should make the most of it. Before leaving our Erick had recommended a restaurant L’ Monastre. It turned out to be a great place to spend our last evening in Costa Rica. The food was marvelous, a little pricey by Costa Rican standards but quite reasonable with sterling exchange rate. It was perched on top of a hill with the lights of San Jose spread out below us. They had one of those auto-pianos with a mannequin dressed as a monk. OK, a little tacky but the rest could not be faulted. The waiters were very attentive and it had a chapel by the restrooms. Apparently it hadn’t actually been a monastery but it had been a large private house.

Thursday 10 January

After breakfast we caught the local bus the few miles to the national park. It wasn’t long before we found wildlife. We walked past the beach where the previous day we had had our very brief swim. We walked up and around the headland with views to the small offshore islands. The paths were very muddy and treacherous in places but we made it. As we walked along a second beach we met Sal and Dana who were just arriving. We had a swim then settled down and watched the wildlife attempt and in some case succeed in pinching the food from picnickers on the beach. It’s actually quite bad for the animals as normally they would forage for food over quite a large area.

After the national park we caught the bus back down the road to a restaurant called El Avion. Essentially its called this because it has an ex-Contra Fairchild C123 parked in the middle of it. Indeed the bar is in the body of the aircraft. The plane was funded by the CIA from the profits from selling arms to Iran. More details can be found here; http://www.elavion.net/

We watched the spectacular sunset before having dinner and the odd drink or three.

Wednesday 9 January

After breakfast it was down to the harbour for a trip on a catamaran. There were quite a few folk on the jetty. We admired the four masted sailing cruise type ship and the construction of the new marina. Luckily our party of nine got a boat to ourselves with just 2 others on board. In no time we were off and headed for a beach in the Manuel Antonio park. The skipper said that it was time for a swim, but not to go ashore to the National Park. Most of us just barely had time to jump in the water when the skipper announced that dolphins had been spotted and that we were off. We did manage to see dolphins but they were rather tricky to photograph, so no photos (sorry). But you could try here

http://danandtanblog.blogspot.com/

Not our boat.

But this

After that it was a spot of snorkeling, the fish were spectacular lots of bright yellow ones. But we didn’t have an underwater camera, so no pictures (sorry). We had some salt biscuits which they were very keen on. Elsewhere we had strict instructions not to feed the wildlife (more on that later) but we guess that feeding fish isn’t a problem. Once we had surfaced we set sail (literally sailing albeit quite sedately at around 2-3 knots). Lunch on board was white marlin which we enjoyed while cruising along with a beer or 2.

It all ended too soon and we went back to the hotel to await our next adventure. We sat by the pool for a while and this little fellow kept coming around to see what we doing by his pool. He's a 'Great Kiskadee'.

Around 2pm we were picked up for the surfing lesson. Paul photographed while Dan, Tanya, Sal, Dana and Wendy were taught the rudiments of surfing. Initially on dry land to get the right poise (particularly important in surfing).

Er, this isn't it

Nor this

All too soon it was on to the water. All made valiant efforts and all made a stand. It was exhausting just watching from the beach.

This almost it..

When we got back to the hotel and making our way back to our rooms Wendy heard Dana shouting. Wondering what could be the issue we dashed around to find that we were being invaded by… monkeys. There were around 20 or so of them. It was almost sunset and they were extremely difficult to photograph, they didn’t stay still for very long and when they moved they moved fast.