End of Chile and Costa Rica
A nice end to the time in Chile by going to the relaxed colonial town of La Serena and then travelling in the Elqui Valley with a sailor I met on the bus there - Erwin. Elqui is home to the delicious alcohol Pisco but we ended up on a horseride up & down a steep mountain for views overlooking Elqui Valley and never made it to the tasting. Instead, a water fight (the horses weren't amused as we were using their water) and later a grape fight - just like children, but very good fun.
Costa Rica
Sooooooo different to any of the other countries I've been to - so green lush and evidence everywhere of the rainforests which used to occupy the whole country. The weather is so changeable with sun one moment, dense cloud (running up the high street), then rain pouring out the sky. So far I've turned into a lobster (despite putting on factor 40 every day) and have been bitten by the lovely mossies - I think I'll end up with a polka-dot tan!
So far visited 2 volcanoes but the very active one spewing lava has managed to avoid me (hid behind cloud for the 3 days I laid in wait to take a photo. Nevermind, lots of other volcanoes still to come in Central America:) The drive to the beach at Manuel Antonio was really green and lush and the waters gorgeous. So much wildlife in the forests as well from sloths, iguanas (one scurried away with my lunch on the beach whilst I relaxed), snakes, parrots, bats, monkeys etc.
Then onto Monteverde for a walk in a cloud forest and a visit to a shadegrown coffee plantation (the tasting element was a bit wasted on me though as I don´t drink it:)).
This entry will be updated with more photos once I'm actually out of Costa Rica and in a place where I have enough power to upload!
(Pictures - Poas Volcano, Manuel Antonio beach/national park/wildlife, Volcano Arenal)
Education corner - interesting thing about the Arenal Volcano. If you look at the picture it looks as if there is a mis-shaped crater at the top. The right side of the 'crater' is actually a second peak. The volcano came alive again in 1968 with the perfect conical volcano (the crater being the left hand part of the crater in the picture) exploding from the bottom on the other side of the volcano to where this picture is taken. The continous lava pouring out (a 50km lava chamber underneath the volcano) meant that the volcano grew in size to look like a conical shape but with two craters. Since 1968 the new side has equalled the 1600m hight of the original crater and is now 100m higher.
Costa Rica
Sooooooo different to any of the other countries I've been to - so green lush and evidence everywhere of the rainforests which used to occupy the whole country. The weather is so changeable with sun one moment, dense cloud (running up the high street), then rain pouring out the sky. So far I've turned into a lobster (despite putting on factor 40 every day) and have been bitten by the lovely mossies - I think I'll end up with a polka-dot tan!
So far visited 2 volcanoes but the very active one spewing lava has managed to avoid me (hid behind cloud for the 3 days I laid in wait to take a photo. Nevermind, lots of other volcanoes still to come in Central America:) The drive to the beach at Manuel Antonio was really green and lush and the waters gorgeous. So much wildlife in the forests as well from sloths, iguanas (one scurried away with my lunch on the beach whilst I relaxed), snakes, parrots, bats, monkeys etc.
Then onto Monteverde for a walk in a cloud forest and a visit to a shadegrown coffee plantation (the tasting element was a bit wasted on me though as I don´t drink it:)).
This entry will be updated with more photos once I'm actually out of Costa Rica and in a place where I have enough power to upload!
(Pictures - Poas Volcano, Manuel Antonio beach/national park/wildlife, Volcano Arenal)
Education corner - interesting thing about the Arenal Volcano. If you look at the picture it looks as if there is a mis-shaped crater at the top. The right side of the 'crater' is actually a second peak. The volcano came alive again in 1968 with the perfect conical volcano (the crater being the left hand part of the crater in the picture) exploding from the bottom on the other side of the volcano to where this picture is taken. The continous lava pouring out (a 50km lava chamber underneath the volcano) meant that the volcano grew in size to look like a conical shape but with two craters. Since 1968 the new side has equalled the 1600m hight of the original crater and is now 100m higher.
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