The Caribean Coast - no pirates to be seen!



We drove across to the Caribean coast, an adventure in itself as there's only one road and you can't help but get stuck behind loads of enourmous American trucks and wagons struggling up the hill for miles.  You know you're nearly at the coast when you reach Liverpool!

It's so worth it though as once you get to the Caribean you realise that you've arrived in a very different world.  Here life is far more influenced by the West Indies with a large proportion of the inhabitants of the costal towns speaking Creole - some of the original inhabitants came with pirates in the 17th century whilst a large proportion are decended from people shipped over from Jamaca and Barbados to help build the railways and work on banana plantations.

We managed to buy coconut oil straight from the plantation - something we've be searching for since we got to Costa Rica, we just can't find it on the Pacific coast. Dave has promised some delicious coconut rice and that's now possible!

Also, the weather is different.  It's still hot but a great deal wetter, which means facinating wild life, lush rain forest and almost continually wet feet!  Infact the first purchase I was compelled to make in a tiny 'end of the road' village was a pair of wellies!  I then had to go back the following day, after several disasters with waterproofs, to buy the only rainproof coat I could find - and am now the proud owner of a bright yellow children's plastic coat, with a picture of a lion on it.  Very flattering, although in the tropical rain there I really didn't care!!

The architecture is very Caribean, like this Methodist church in Manzanillo (the majority of the people here are protestant rather than Catholic) - also note the puddles, this photo was taken between rain storms!

The jungle (rain forest) here is amazing and we had a brilliant 3 hour walk cut short only by a huge rain storm and poncho problems.  We'll come back at some point and do more of this as it was facinating.  Apart from the usual suspects (noisy Howler monkeys and beautiful butterflies) we came across two types of Toucan and beautiful tiny red poison dart frogs that came out with the rain.

 

I was a little less impressed though when I almost walked into this chap and his large web, whilst happily walking through the bush - that'll teach me to think I'm getting used to jungle!

A beautiful place for a Christmas stay

We made the most of of time in Samara before the New Year rush when thousands of people, both American and Tico (Costarican), come to spend the New Year - this time of year is actually classed as the Summer holiday. Amongst other things we saw the start of preprations for the Rodeo - the chance for people to ride and tease bulls, which is seen as a highlight of the year here but which I have really mixed emotions about. Interestingly, unlike in Spain where the bull always dies, here the bulls aren't killed even if they badly injure, or kill, a person (which is not unknown)! In fact there's a bull that will be coming to the rodeo who has so far killed three people and is seen as rather a legend. Happily even David appears to feel that his bull running days are behind him! Anyway, more of this in a later blog.

We are so lucky to have been able to spend time enjoying the beaches and tranquility here before everyone started to arrive for the holiday season.  Amazing sunsets and almost deserted beaches that we have been privileged to experience and enjoy along with the locals (vultures in this case).

 

Amongst regular vistors to our house are the local chickens and these friendly horses who just roam around the area going wherever they want and eating whatever they want, Christmas and New Year make no difference to them.

 

Still no luck on the crocodile front, although I know Dave has plans to sort that out - so watch this space!

 

Back to the blogging - fully certified!

After four weeks of intensive, and challenging, work we've passed and are now fully qualified TEFL teachers!  It's been a really great experience, although long hours and hard work.  But it was all worth it and we now have a qualification recognised across the world and for which there appear to quite a few job opportunities - which is great to see in the current climate!

 

It's amazing to think how much we've learn't and although we've got a long way to go we both feel ready, and keen, to get into a class of our own and really start teaching!

 

So the hard work starts NOW as we apply for jobs and see what happens.  We'll carry on doing this over the next few weeks alhough everything is starting to close down for Christmas, so we'll be forced into some general relaxation time being tourists, which will be fun.

 

In the meantime we've still been having some impressive local visitors including this little chap who obviously lives somewhere near our house.  I won't be tempted to try and lift him up though as armadilo can apparently carry leprosy!  It's probably pretty rare but I don't think I'll risk it!

Anyway, have to stop for the moment as we're off to hunt for crocodiles again - so far no joy at all.  The place we went to yesterday (where crocs have been spotted very recently) had none, even though small children were happily swimming - this live bait made not a bit of difference!

 



A marine maternity ward

 

An interesting minibus trip, including fording a river in the dark, took us to the beach of Ostional where thousands of Oliver Ridley turtles are currently making their presence felt.  These are the smallest of the marine turtles and Ostional beach is the second most important nesting beach in the world for them, the first being in South Africa.  Over a few nights they come up onto the beach to lay eggs - an incredible and exhausting process (for both turtle and observer) as you watch them slowly crawl up the beach, dig a deep hole (which may fall in on itself, in which case they have to start again), and then lay over 100 eggs.

 



As dusk drew on more and more turtles slowly and silently emerged from the sea, in the end I was worried I was going to tread on one as it got darker and darker.  Neither the darkness nor our presence put these amazing creatures off at all.  It really was quite surreal.

We were also privileged to see the release of a baby turtle - part of a conservation project to ensure that as many turtles as possible actually make that first, dangerous, journey as successfully as possible.  You must play Dave's video below, it's soooo cute!

Interestingly the local village play a really important role in the preservation of these turtles.  As the turtles come ashore volunteers from the village arrive at the beach to keep watch on them as they dig holes, lay eggs and then make their way back to sea (a period of several hours).  These volunteers will sit, with torches, and keep a general eye on things - helping out if necessary.  Also, the village benefits from being able to sell a certain amount of turtle eggs.  This may appear strange but in fact the turtles lay far too many eggs on the one stretch of beach which means that a certain % of them will never get through to maturity and need to be cleared off in order to enable better survival of the rest.  The money obtained from the sale of the eggs - several thousand dollars - is then distributed amongst the community.  As a result it's a real 'win win' with the turtles being helped and looked after at the same time as this rather remote coastal village.

 

 

 I'll never forget this incredible experience, the first glimpse of one of these creatures literally brought tears to my eyes.  I've see it on TV but this was something else!

 

The evening was made more exciting by the fact that our guide thought he'd lost a member of his party on the pitch black beach - never mind, he turned up in the end!

 

Will get blogging more regularly soon - have started our course and it's totally manic.  We've been getting home, making something to eat out of what's in the fridge ( a bit like one of those TV programmes where you have 10 mins to make a meal out of half a tomato, 2 bananas, a tin of sardines and some grated cheese (no don't send recipes), doing homework and collapsing into bed!



Not all's rosy in the tropical garden



After a night in a very basic house with a non working fridge, no hot water and 8 beds we moved into our 2 bedroom, ground floor, apartment.  It's really sweet, and I now realise as large as (or larger than) many Costarian village houses, which is a real eyeopener.  However, it was filthy when we took it over - which I think is far more to do with the young landlord and previous western student tenants than Costarican living standards - I'm continually amazed to see beautifully dressed children emerge for school from small wooden houses with tin roofs.

After a day's deep cleaning the apartment is so much nicer - and I'm possibly the only woman down this dirt track with a nice new pair of marigolds!  We spent time in the local supermarket trying to understand the different types of cleaning products which then needed decanting from the plastic bags they're sold in to one of the many empty plastic bottles we've been saving - as we have no sellotape we've tied labels round the bags to remind us of what is what.

The fridge in this apartment is really good however we still have no hot water. This isn't anything to do with an interuption in service but is a permenant situation.  I have to say my initial reation was that I was not sure how long I could manage with cold showers, but it's amazing how you get used to it, particularly in a climate where it never gets cold - there are only 2 seasons, wet and dry but both hot.  Having to heat water on the stove for washing clothes and dishes is a pain though, and suddenly these practical necessities take up so much more time than they used to.  Once we start our TEFL course we're going to have to be really organised and get all this done after/before college which is apparently 10am to 7.30!

Apart from being cold the shower is also nothing but a pipe coming out of the wall.  This works though, and interestingly is exactly the same arrangement as many locals so isn't simply down to having a rubbish landlord.

We don't have an oven at all, just a couple of (rather effective) gas rings.  However, this does limit the cooking possibilities (any suggestions for good meals on the top of the stove would be gratefully recieved)!  This and the fact that the typical, and cheapest, local mainstays are beans and rice have led Dave to complain that we're now living on 'student food' - he's been spoilt by living in France for too long.  France is a country with a different cheese for every day of the year whilst here the cheese is almost entirely tasteless and appears to come in two varieties - white or yellow!

The fruit is wonderful though (and good value). You can't beat being brought fresh papaya whilst lying in a hammock, particularlly if accompanied by a glass of cold white.  Unfortunately the high cost of wine is something else we're having to get used to - although we've just had some great local advice pointing us to good quality wine boxes at 2,400 colon /approx £3/3.8 euros/4.8 dollars a litre, these obviously need to be investigated.

Biting things are also an everyday problem to be dealt with, within an hour at a beach bar something had decided to treat my leg as lunch.  To be honest I appear to react particularly impressivly to bites, Dave is also bitten and itchy but his bites just don't look as good.  The ones shown here are far better than they were initially and are getting lots better already - however, am now covering myself with insect repellent when we go out in the evening.  I may look ok but I smell rubbish!

Woken by Howler Monkeys!

 

We're both jet-lagged to the eyeballs and struggling to get a good night's sleep which is not helped by what sounds like dogs howling outside our house at about 4.30am.  This turns out to be a troop of Howler monkeys who've decided the trees by our door would make a good place for breakfast. 

 

 

 

These brilliant animals are amongst the largest monkeys in the New World and have prehensile tails, making them fasinating to watch as they use these to help get around the trees, or to hang down whilst enjoying a snack!

 

As we'd got up so early we decided to go down to the beach for a walk and a swim.  What an amazing way to start the day - breakfast, a walk on the almost deserted beach, a swim, a walk back by the jungle and still only 9am!  This is a great time for a swim as Samara is known for it's surfing but at this time of day the surf's not 'up' - to use a technical term - and the sea is just perfect.  Average water temperature 28 degrees and beautiful soft sand.

 

 

In the early evening we took another walk and came across 11 monkeys in one tree.  Stood and watched tham for ages, including the cutest baby monkey ever.

 

 



We have to make the most of this time as we start our TEFL course on Nov 19th and everyone's said that it's really intensive, with no time to do anything else, even keep up with your favourite soap - so I'll just have to make do with a catch up of The Archers Omnibus on i-player!

 

By the way all the photos (and video) from San Jose onwards are Dave's - no need to search Google for images any more!

 

 



We get to Samara - home for 2 months.

Took Interbus shuttle from San Jose to Samara - 5 hours in a really well driven minibus with a loo stop just over half way.  This stop was our first encounter with Costarian wild life as a loud noise alerted us to something in the trees - at least 6 Scarlet Macaws.  These birds are considered to be an endangered species and are the largest parrot in the world (they can grow 33 inches from beak to tail).  Amazingly they can live from 50 to 80 years!  They were incredible to watch (and hear) but I did think that whilst it's mean't to be good luck to be pooped on by a bird you really wouldn't want to get caught under one of these!

Arrived at Samara, an amazing costal village with an authentic Costarican feel and obvious American and European attractions in the form of fantastic surfing and a couple of language schools.  My immediate reaction was that there was a large percentage of young, fit and beautiful people.  This has two effects:

1.  The village is less impacted on by older, middle class customers  - more by young back packers on a budget -  and has a laid back, simple, slow atmosphere.
2. It makes you feel your age!!

We arrived at our accomodation only to find that the owner wasn't expecting us and that the flat we'd booked was still occupied!  However, he put us into the house next door so we had somewhere to stay, although not really cleaned and very basic.  Having said that the position was incredible - down a dirt road on the edge of both the village and the jungle - with chickens for neighbours and something strange (although I'm sure harmless) living in the roof - we think it might be an Iguana, a bit like the 2.5 foot one below that we saw on a short walk to the beach!