When looking through the various guide books I bought on Central America I saw how amazing the wildlife in the area was so one of my top priorities before coming out here was to see lots of wildlife. However we haven’t really seen as much as I was expecting so today a few of us decided to take a trip to the Cano Negro National Park despite the fact it would involve a whole day of travelling.
After picking up a few people from other hotels we started out on the 90 minute drive out of La Fortuna all the way up to within a few miles of the Nicaraguan border. On the way we stopped at a couple of locations to check out the wildlife including at a bridge over the river where there were hundreds of iguanas sunning themselves on the trees. Our guide explained that there were so many as they have been protected to stop the locals eating them so their population has boomed.
When we arrived at the park we saw a lot of people sitting on the jetty being watched by armed guards – apparently this is one of the places from where Nicaraguan illegal immigrants are deported back home as it’s so close to the border. However we were heading in the opposite direction into the park for what ended up being a 2 1/2 hour journey around the various waterways.
The trip around the park showed us more wildlife than I had seen so far on the entire trip. We saw Heron, Crocodiles, Swallows, Capuchin Monkeys, Howler Monkeys, Jesus Lizards, Kingfishers, Bats, a Hawk , a Sloth and much more so was definitely worth the exhaustion. I took so many photos but will only be able to upload a few of them to my blog.
Lunch for the day was at a typical local restaurant and the meal was good, when it arrived. They tried to give me the wrong meal a couple of times and in the end I had to pretend I had a seafood intolerance to get them to give me to beef – it worked! Then not long after I got my meal it was time for the journey home which was pretty fast until we got held up in some sort of horse rider parade just outside La Fortuna.
Gina had spotted an ice cream parlour in town and so we decided to go there after getting back from the trip to see if it was any better than the one in Granada, and it was, despite all the weird flavours we decided to try. During my time in town I stocked up on supplies ready for the journey to San Jose tomorrow and bought the last few souvenirs for everybody.
Team Breakaway decided to head out for dinner tonight at the Lava Lounge while the others went out drinking at a club. The food was actually really nice and I decided to sample a Thai Chicken pizza with a side order of Hot Wings. We stayed and chatted for a while before deciding to have another Team Breakaway catchup over wine in the hotel although this one didn’t go as smoothly as the other times. In Monteverde the hotel owner went to get us some glasses and then washed them all up for us but at this particular hotel they wouldn’t even give us glasses until we bribed them with money.
I’m now relaxing in my room catching up on my reading and watching TV – I Am Legend is on which is coincidental considering Will Smith is filming just outside town. The door to my room is self locking so I hope Guido gets back soon as I’m exhausted and need to have a good nights sleep tonight.