San Jose is not a destination. With apologies to the city, it simply lacks charm and character. There are few old colonial buildings and the rest is a conglomeration of shops set amongst aging and decaying infrastructure. On the advice of some Canadians we met in Jaco, we decided to investigate dental work in Costa Rica. The cost for cleaning or repairs here is about 25% of what it would be at home.
We then headed north to La Fortuna for one more attempt to see the Arenal volcano spewing lava. The slightly cooler temperatures are a welcome relief from the heat of the beaches and the mountain scenery is lovely. From the balcony of our hotel we had a perfect view of the volcano - although once again it was only cloudless for about an hour each morning. Every evening we were prepared to take a taxi to the north west side where the lava flow is most visible but in the four nights we were there, it never fully cleared.
Back to San Jose by bus - a trip that should have taken three and a half hours turned into nearly six as we were on the milk run. Then on to Cahuita and the National Park and beaches again. This time we managed to get a hotel next to the entrance to the park, with a large room with a kitchenette, air-conditioning, and cable T.V. Being able to cook your own meals is a pleasant change from restaurants. We spent the first couple of days hiking through the parks watching white-faced and howler monkeys feeding in the treed all around us.
On February 22nd we made our way to Limon to meet Andrea and Steve Burdick who were arriving on the cruise ship Coral Princess. They were on a ten day cruise out of Florida and we had arranged to meet for lunch at 1 pm. Unfortunately we were going by Costa Rica time and they were on Florida (ship) time! We thought we would surprise them by being early but their time is one hour ahead so once again they were there ahead of us. Oh well, some reputations are hard to change. It was great to see friends and catch up with all their news and activities.
The next day we decided to rent bicycles to ride rather than hike through the park as the first 1.5 kilometres is a long straight path that parallels the beach. That allowed us to get much further into the park than we had in the past. There were several families of monkeys fighting for territory and the howlers were very vocal sounding like packs of wild dogs. We thoroughly enjoyed riding along the beach on the southern side of the peninsula.
About ten kilometres north of town is a sloth rehabilitation centre which cares for orphaned and injured sloths. We had the unique opportunity to see baby sloths up close as they were being fed by staff. We also saw several sloths which had been burned on electrical wires. If the sloth recovers the centre releases it back into the wild. They also care for those that will never fully recover.
On Sunday we leave for Limon where we will pick up a bus on Monday morning to Bataan for the boat trip to La Tortuga Feliz turtle project. As the project has no electricity, this will be our last entry for a couple of weeks.
Happy winter!
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