July 22, 2011

I have not had access to the internet since July 19th, so I will use this time to update those 4 days. Get ready..... it's gonna be a long one.

On July 18th, I was able to go on a Tour of the Sarapiqui River. A tourist van picked me up just down the street from where I am staying. I was told by the driver, who spoke no English, that there would only be one other person going on the tour. After a 20 minute ride, we stopped at a Hotel and picked up two fellas, Ken and Stuart, who were going on the tour as well. Just before getting on the interstate, we picked up another couple, Richard and Natasha. The van ride took almost 2 hours, where we arrived at the boat company for our 1 hour boat ride. While on the river, we saw Howler Monkeys, a Crocodile, a Turtle, two Parots, and a Snake Bird. We arrived at the Private Reserve where we would take a Canopy Tour, and then have a Costa Rican lunch.

The Canopy Tour was not at all what I expected. I was not nervous, and I had a wonderful time. The only draw back is the huge shaky ladders that I had to climb to get to each platform. By the time I would ascend to the top of the ladder, I felt as though my arms would stop working. Guess I need to work on that upper body strength. There were 12 platforms total and it took about an hour for the whole tour. By the end, my stomach was growling, so it was nice to eat lunch. The lunch was roasted beef, pico de gallo, potatoes, black beans and rice and coffee. The bus ride back seemed a little longer, as we were traveling up the mountains, back to San Jose. The van driver was kind enough to drop me off in front of my house.