20:10 Another
early start this morning (04:30), even harder because of those damn comfy
beds. We first took a taxi to NatureAir
airport (wrong place), so we got another taxi who knew what he was doing and
rushed us to Sansa Regional. Here we had
to pass through a barrier into a tiny car park of a private looking airport
that had only about 12 people in the vicinity.
It did feel odd to me to be leaving San Miguel though I was about to
fulfil a small dream of mine which was flying somewhere in a small passenger
plane.
Landing was a
lot different, perfect but greeted by a large cemetery right next to the runway
which made a nice welcome and the Germans new backpack he was so happy about
had broken already.
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| Another Plane Landing (D.Philpot) |
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| What We Were Greeted By Airfield Side (D.Philpot) |
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| A Long & Complicated Baggage Collection - Just Grab It (D.Philpot) |
We walked
about and with some luck bumped into another German (not too surprising though
due to their abundance in this country) who was extremely friendly and ended up
giving us a tour around the town of Puerto Jimenez in her car. I expected nothing as usual but was
pleasantly surprised that this was a full bustling town which you could
actually easily live comfortably in. We got some money, ate, found and
paid for a “bus” to the “town” of Carate, got a good room for only $8 and saw
some Scarlet Macaws!
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| A Very Social Flycatcher (D.Philpot) |
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| Corcovado Artwork, Unknown Artist (D.Philpot) |
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| The "Town" Of Carate Guide (D.Philpot) |
In the
afternoon we went kayaking, which was also cheap, through the system of
mangroves here where we saw some birds and then we decided to head “out to sea
to look for dolphins” – not the best of choices. At this point I realised the water quantity
in my kayak was a problem and, upon swiftly retreating towards shore, capsized
in my kayak though through some more swift movements I saved my camera by
rolling the kayak, pulling it from my pocket and holding it clear in the air.
After towing
it to the nearest beach, maybe 200 or 300 metres away I found some rope in the
drift line on the beach, emptied a seemingly endless supply of water from the
kayak and then made some repairs.
However, upon returning to the ocean I discovered I hadn’t really fixed
the problem and almost sunk again, plus the tide was going down and so we
called it a night.
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| Fixing My Kayak... (D.Philpot) |
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| Kayaking Among Mangroves In Puerto Jimenez (D.Philpot) |
We
found the Puerto Jimenez equivalent to B&Q (a large hardware store) and
finally got us a couple of sharpened machetes.
Then dinner was made in our lovely host families kitchen, she told us a
story (and showed us) some pure gold that was, and can be found, in the park
which was very cool. I hoped to find my
own piece and maybe have it shaped into the shape of Costa Rica.
Just about to
head to bed now, yes at 20:30, though I just found a golden beetle in our room
which looked surreal. I am thinking now
of all the birds we have already seen
all over this place and know that we are only likely to be seeing a lot more :-)
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