A room wih a view

Hotel Manoa promised fabulous views of the Arenal Volcano from the rocking chairs on our patio.  As you will see, the volcano has been shrouded in cloud ever since we arrived.  We suspect that it is like this much of the year and that they take the promotional photos for the brochure on the one day that it isn't

Taken on self timer - camera on our bed

We have had some very different experiences here in La Fortuna. 

We spent a morning on a 3 mile trail high up between the rain and cloud forests which took us over eight fixed bridges and six hanging bridges, the longest being 22 metres long.  These swung like the wibbly, wobbly bridge from St Paul's on speed!

Turning into "twitchers"

Early evening and dinner was spent at Ecotermales Hot Springs.  There were three large outdoor pools set amongst the trees and connected by water falls and were lovely and hot.  On checking in, the very kind receptionist explained that an hour was long enough but that we should take cooling breaks every 15 minutes.  Fortunately there was a cocktail bar, with an honesty payment system, where we could do this. 

Today we had a free day and so spent the afternoon visiting the hotel's farm where as well as seeing pigs, sheep and chickens, we tried our hand at milking a cow.  RM was more successful than HJ, despite her farming roots, as he managed to squeeze out a teaspoon full of milk.

I think I'll have my coffee black!

The afternoon finished with a happy hour cocktail  . . . . Tomorrow we head for the cloud forest.

Carry on Camping

The view of San Jose from the Cessna

We have spent the last four nights camping and cut off from the world.  Our journey to La Leona Eco Lodge involved a wet departure across the river, a 25 minute flight in a 12 seater Cessna with 6 others, a hurried mini bus transfer across the airport as we only had a few minutes to transfer and another flight in a Cessna and a two hour drive on a bumpy track in a 4WD (45km) and finally a 45 minute walk along the beach with our luggage trotting along behind us in a horse drawn buggy.

Harry the Horse with our luggage before the beach walks

Home has been a tent with outdoor bathroom and cold water shower.  Whilst it hasn’t been luxurious we have been right on the beach and the crashing waves have lulled us to sleep (not!).  True to form, they ran out of Sauvignon Blanc after the first night and the horse had to be sent out for extra supplies.

RM sat outside our tent

Days have been spent with three huge meals a day so that we have had to ask for small portions.  To combat the calories, we have taken ourselves out on a number of walks both in the grounds of the lodge and also the adjacent Corcovado National Park. We have sighted a number of new flora and fauna and our photo album is getting thicker.

Insects and bites galore!

Our last three days have been spent at Tortuga Lodge in Tortugero National Park. The only way in and out is by a 45 minute boat ride or a flight in a Cessna from a small airstrip across the river from our lodge.  We arrived at lunch time after a 5 hour drive and boat trip.

We have spent our time, either on the river spotting birds, animals, flora and fauna, hiking through the jungle trails, exploring the nearby Caribbean beach or lazing by the lovely pool. 

Meals are exceptional and well presented. For example, for lunch today we are having beet gazpacho, creole salad with honey, mustard, mango and star fruit dressing, shrimps with rice in a lemon sauce, Caribbean sauteed mixed vegetables and plantain and pineapple tart with ice cream.  Evening meals are equally good. HJ has photographed all the menus in preparation for her Costa Rican cookbook!

The rooms are spacious but without glazed windows and so we are woken by the sounds of the howler monkeys at around 5.30am.

Tomorrow we are heading for a camp site on the beach just outside another National Park.  We have been told there is no electricity in our tents, and the outside bathroom is open to the elements with only cold water.  We are not expecting the Internet and our mobiles are still not picking up signals so we will be well and truly cut off.

Although we knew we had an 11kg weight limit we didn't realise it included every single item we have. So we are leaving half our luggge at San Jose airport and hope it is there on return!

\On the boat heading for Tortuga \Lodge

The pool and hammock ranchero at Toruga Lodge

A lizard having a siesa

Do you know the way to San Jose?

Crossing the border from Panama into Costa Rica was surprisingly easy apart from having to drag our suitcases across a rather delipidated and disused railway bridge.  Paperwork done, we set off with Eduardo and Mauricio his driver, for the five hour journey to San Jose where we spent the night. We were well looked after with a pile of snacks on the seat between us.

The journey was fascinating and more like a game drive on a safari as Eduardo kept stopping to point out various animals. Our highlight was this sloth on the road whereas they are normally high up in the tree tops. The road followed the Caribbean coastline for some way and we stopped to drink fresh coconut milk. The evening was spent in San Jose eating pizza, a welcome change after all the fish.

Photos from Boca del Torro

Our hotel in Boca del Toro - our room is top right

Found on the appropriately named Star Fish Beach

RM at Boca del Trago

Hats off to Panama

Today is our last in Panama after two action packed days on Isla Colon.  Our alarm call on Saturday was set for 4am so we could catch the 6.30am flight to Boca del Toro. All went very smoothly and we were checked in to our room by 7.45am.  We had an unexpected breakfast provided and at 9.30am we were boarding a boat for a trip.  Our guide was Livingstone, a huge bear of a man, who took us right around the island and to Swan's Cay, a rock protruding from the sea, where we were able to see red-billed tropic birds and brown boobies.  The sea was a little choppy but fortunately we moved off just before HJ started to feel too queasy.  It was then onto Boca del Drago were we were able to walk around the tiny beach resort before a lovely lunch.  The afternoon was spent searching for star fish on the appropriately named Star Fish Beach before snorkeling along the coral reef.  On return we had a walk around the small town which has a very Caribbean feel to it with most of the locals speaking Creole English rather than Spanish. 

On Sunday we left at 9am, against with Livingstone at the helm, and headed for Salt Creek in Bastimentos National Park (Panama's first marine national park).  We navigated through clusters of red mangrove trees to an island with an indigenous population of Ngobe Bugle.  Here our guide took us on a trek along a Caiman trail and we were able to spot, lots of birds, night monkeys, the poison dark frog (about the size of a thumb nail), three toed sloth and eventually at a small lake, the spectaled caiman.  Back on the boat and to another wonderful lunch before snorkeling twice in the afternoon amongst coral and the mangrove trees.  Our day was completed with an hours sun bathing on Red Frog Beach before returning back to the hotel at 5.30pm for much needed showers and our first cocktail of the trip.

All we have eaten here is fish which has been excellent: we have tried, octopus, calamari, langustine, shrimp, dorado and red snapper.

As I write RM is just packing for our transfer to San Jose in Costa Rica (a land crossing) where we will spend the night before moving on to a national park.

School's out . . .

Wednesday and Thursday at school have been spent out and about with a non-English speaking teacher, Dayra.  Firstly we re-visited the canal and this time were very lucky to see five ships passing through which made up for a slightly disappointing first trip.  We visited the museum again, this time trying to read and understand the Spanish explanations. The only blot on our day was horrendous traffic on our return journey.

Thursday was spent visiting Avenida Centrale, which was the original main street of Panama City before the modern expansion.  The shops are all old and the mall, the first in the city, does not even have air conditioning. we walked the length of the street with Dayra pointing out the contents of stalls and the run down shops, again all in Spanish.Most of which we think our lessons have taught us to understand. We came back by bus.

Today, Friday, we have been promised an afternoon visit to the park followed by our graduation ceremony (with first class honours: gowns and mortars have been hired!).

Saturday will see us transferring to Isla Colon in the archipelago Bocas del Torro (which translates to Mouth of the Bull). Our hotel, the Bocas Inn, has 7 bedrooms and sits on stilts above the water. The wooden deck has sun chairs, a bar and dining room and the first floor has hammocks overlooking the bay. It is five minutes from the airport (an hours flight from Panama City). 

This morning on BBC World we could not believe a shot of David Cameron leaving Downing Street. It was snowing and there was so much snow on the car.  It all feels a million miles away!

Pencils sharpened, spatulas out!

This is the ILERI Spanish school. It is a bit of a hike from our homestay as we are sitting on our terrace taking this photograph! 

We arrived on Monday at 8.30am sharp to find we are the only two in the class.

Marianela (the owner) gave us an introduction and overview of the week.  She then introduced our teacher.

This is Melanie who taught us for the first two days.  We have been learning verbs, sentences and useful phrases like "Quero una copa Sauvignon Blanc - mucho grande por favor".  We don't think we need to translate for you.

Melanie has made the course fun and it has been good having her undivided attention.

Whilst RM has been busy in the classroom, HJ has found her way to the cocina (kitchen).  Here she is learning how to make 'pattacones'.  These are peeled and chopped green plantain which are fried, pressed into patties or pots and then re-fried, covered in salt and eaten with a tomato salsa usually containing meat, pork or fish.  We sat down with Stacey after cooking to practice our conversational Spanish. This was the end of day two.

This is our host family, Emilsa and Antonio (Emi and Tony). They are very friendly and fortunately Tony's English is very good which helps.  We are practising on Emi.

We have our desayuno and cena with them and last night cracked open a bottle of duty free prosecco with them which they loved.

RM behind Tony's bar - they had obviously heard about us!

Photo Gallery



RM and HJ on the bridge of the simulator



A close up of going through the lock from th simulator

Men at work in Casco Viejo - the whole place is a building site but will be lovely when finished

The view of the ruins from the Cathedral Tower in the orignal city



Shopping and Sunday lunch

Sunday was spent as if at home, some shopping and Sunday lunch.  The only difference being it was 28 degrees C.  Despite HJs general dislike of shopping, she managed to make a couple of purchases in the very first shop: a light day pack $5 and a pair of leather cream and tan loafers for the bargain price of $16. On the walk back from the plaza we spotted a rather nice french restaurant Petit Paris and so decided to have a rather nice lunch as options for eating out near the hotel in the evening are limited.  We even splashed out on a bottle of cava as it was much cheaper than SB. 

Although the official currency is the Balboa, it is tied to the US dollar and this is what they use for notes.  Coins are stamped in Balboas and they use both these and US currency.  Although in her change HJ got coins from Mexico and Ecuador.

We have just had breakfast and are now waiting to be picked up for our week at Spanish School.

Panama . . . not just a hat

Saturday, 12 January, was our first trip of the tour.  It was around the city and the highlight was finishing at the Panama Canal. 

Victor and his huge mini bus collected us at 9am and we headed for Panama Viejo.  This was the site of the 16th century ruins of the original city which was the main Spanish site for gold until it burnt down in an attack by the English pirate Henry Morgan in 1671.  Here we climbed the 22 metre cathedral tower which was undergoing restoration and were shown around the museum.

Our next stop was Casco Viejo which was founded in 1673 using many of the bricks from the original city.  This became the centre of Panama between the 17th and 19th century.  It fell into disrepair in the 1930s and parts of it reminded us of a crumbling Havana.  However, there is a huge amount of restoration taking place with many of the buildings being turned into hotels. We had lunch here in the Plaza Independencia with Victor who continued to provide us with lots of examples of life in Panama City. 

Post lunch, we headed for the canal via Amador Causeway, where we stopped for photographs at a huge marina, past the Frank Ghery designed Bio Diversity Museum (due to open later this year) and huge US military barracks many of which are being turned into discos. 

At Miraflores lock we were lucky enough to see the last ship of the day go through on its way to the Caribbean.  The gap either side is 60 cm and so requires skillful navigation.  A short 3D film followed which explained about the canal's development and the expansion project which will see new locks being opened in 2014. In the museum the highlight was a simulator where we stood on the bridge of a container ship as is was going through the locks.  It was assisted by mini trains on either side and then once out of the lock, it was buffeted by small, sturdy tugs who helped to keep it in line to enter the next lock. It was all massively impressive and we came away with a head full of facts and figures.

Back after a long day to snoozes before a light dinner back in Beirut.

Photos may follow if we sort out the IT: we also currently have no mobile coverage.

Fog on the wine . . .

After an early start, our flight from London was delayed by fog in Madrid.  We set off an hour late but had plenty of time to make our connecting flight to Panama City.  The ten and a half hour flight on Iberia was very good mainly because of the food and drink.  We were deciding what to chose from the  menu of five starters, when we realised it was a tapas style selection of all of them. A choice of three mains followed and then pudding all with copious amounts of wine.  After snoozes and films we found we'd landed.

We arrived at the Deville Hotel at 7pm local time (we are 5 hours behind) after having had a very interesting transfer where Andy our driver gave out lots of snippets.  For example, Panama's economy is very strong, based on the canal and tourism; there is no army and four women to every man; it is the second biggest duty free zone after Singapore and people love to shop (the shops are measured in miles and thousands).

We decided to eat in the hotel bar and had a selection of hot tapas with two large jugs of white sangria which were very refreshing and induced a sound nights sleep.

Our first morning in the city was disappointing because all we could see was a multitude of high rise buildings (many currently under construction), which all seemed to be banks.  We walked down to the marina having to negotiate crossing two four lane highways but when we got there, there was a dearth of much needed bars.  The weather is very hot and so we decided on a cab back to our hotel.  After a brief respite, we headed off in the other direction and found where all the action was.  Lunch was in Beirut where for $14 dollars we shared a very substantial mezze ($140 BOO luncheon vouchers remain).

We are now back in our hotel and having spent some time trying to master the blog again, RM has mustered an ice bucket and I can hear the pop of a cork as I type! 

As Peter, Paul and Mary said . . .

. . .  ‘I’m leaving on a jet plane’ . . . ‘All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go’.

After months of intense project planning, monthly, weekly and finally daily check-point meetings and never ending lists and ticks, we’re finally ready to set off tomorrow.  HJ had an excellent send off yesterday from colleagues but we awoke without sore heads.  This was just as well because despite all the plans this has been a very busy day.  It is now nearly 7pm and we are just about to open the truffles and bottle of champagne kindly provided by LB. 

Our trusty taxi driver, Fenton, is collecting us at 3am for our initial flight to Madrid where we’ll pick up our direct flight to Panama City.  We arrive about 5pm, just in time for a quick unpack (11kg won’t take long), an early dinner and hopefully a good nights sleep.  We’re staying at the Deville Hotel for four nights before starting Spanish School on Monday.  In Panama we have mostly free time where hopefully we’ll discover that there is more to the city than the Canal, Panama hats (although they originated in Ecuador) and being the home of ‘canoe man’, John Darwin after he faked his own death.