Rosi Cornwell
So after an eventful first night and first experience of couch surfing, we were found ourselves staying with a very chilled out lovely guy called Pana, in a house that was open plan. Like literally, there were only 2 walls in the kitchen and downstairs lounge.
It was beautiful. A sanctuary. You could sit in the kitchen and eat breakfast with a field to your right, and a pond, trees, greenery and my favourite of all… Vines with leaves shaped like love hearts. It was a really special place. To be able to cook a meal in the open, even during the rain it was magical.
Pana had his friend Kevin staying so he could concentrate to study an online course. Although Kevin’s passion was music. Pana and Kevin were both musicians, Pana played the drums and Kevin bass and guitar. They were honestly such lovely guys. Pana was very clued up about the area as he is a tour guide, and Kevin was super interested in UK music and asking questions about our home towns.
The upstairs of the house did have 4 walls, and big square windows that showed the surrounding fields. In the morning we were lucky to see cows passing through. Kevin, hollie and I had a bed each upstairs, and this was the first time I got to use my mosquito net. It was fairly shabby, rustic, and dusty but so are we, so it was perfect. Who can complain when you’re surrounded by nature!
We cooked dinner and Kevin said it was the first time he was eating food cooked by a British person. It was pasta, so not even a British dish, but when in carb heaven there’s no time to be pedantic about it. Kevin suggested a game of cards, and as he didn’t have a full deck we played uno using a vintage set of Uno cards and a deck of cards. Kevin made up some random rules which was rather amusing. It was a lovely first night and super wholesome.
The next day Kevin, hollie and I explored the local area whilst Pana worked. It was kind of in the middle of no where, so we got to see a lot of lush greenery, more cows and experience the quietness of living in a neighbourhood like this. We stopped by a shop to get some dinner supplies and unknowingly paid £5.50 for 6 potatoes. We knew Costa Rica was expensive but that’s taking the piss!
We got back and had a chilled evening discussing the next day plans. Pana was trying to arrange a lift for us to go to the Etherial Children Forrest, but wasn’t able to. This was a shame as he had said how amazing it was, and we felt like we hadn’t seen much of La Fortuna and were leaving for Panama the next day.
When we awoke the next day Pana sprung upon us that he had been arranging a lift to a different nature park and the lift was coming so we needed to leave in 10 minutes. We quickly packed a bag and were in an old banger in no time.
We drove up a windy mountain road, and the bottom of the car scraped along the concrete and felt like it could just fall apart at any minute.
Alas it didn’t fall apart and we arrived in one piece. Pana stopped by a waterfall for a quick dip before the walk and then we walked down a hill, past a river that’s part of a hydro electric project. Pana said this wasn’t such a good thing though because they keep building loads of them and it destroys the land. For them to be effective they have to have a lot of them, and now Costa Rica has many they are selling the electricity to other counties!
I found this huge leaf and was totally amazed by how big it was!
We didn’t pass a soul on our walk and it felt like we had the park to ourselves. We eventually arrived at a river and Pana said this was when the adventure starts. We went under trees to meet the edge of the river, where it was flowing over rocks. We saw there was steam coming out of the water and saw a dead fish that must have boiled to death!
Pana said that we would leave our bags behind a rock and swim down the river. We got in and the current took us down stream. It was really fun and relaxing at the same time. We swam under a small waterfall and felt a super super hot rock.
We then walked along the rocks to the hot springs! The first one we tried had an even temperature and could sometimes be too hot, we basked in it for about 15 minutes before it got too much occasionally being scalded.
The next hot spring was an even temperature and allowed us to lay and embrace the warmth with out pain and torture. It was great to experience a hot spring and surprisingly wasn’t too hot despite it being the middle of the day.
We headed back and stopped off in the waterfall. Pana and Hollie climbed up to the top where there was another waterfall and Kevin and I followed. It was magical! Pana sat under the fast flowing water and looked like he was meditating. I floated in the water and embraced how relaxing and joyful it was.
We dried off and waited for our old banger to pick us up. When we were walking down to the house Hollie said that she hadn’t seen a sloth during her time in Costa Rica and as if by magic Pana said that he could see one in the tree.
He whipped out his telescope and we all had a look to see the ball of fluff with its long claws wrapped around the tree. How Pana spotted that i’ll never know!
Back at the house the nature watching continued and we saw a hawk and a red bird (sorry I forget the name). Staying with a tour guide really has some cool perks!
Our time was eventually up and we had to pack our bags and head off to San Jose (Costa Rica capital which is very unpleasant and sketchy) to get an 18 hour bus to Panama. Miraculously we were able to scrape together the last of our Costa Rican money to get the buses, which we were super impressed about as we didn’t want to have to withdraw a small amount just for the bus. Bloody cash points here charge so much!
We arrived in San Jose and got a taxi straight to the Tica Bus terminal to avoid any lingering around and minimise any crackhead encounters. It was about 7pm at this point, and thankfully they changed our 11.50pm bus to 11pm. We sat and waited and then boarded our cosy (cosy in all the right ways) coach, where we would spend the next 18 hours as we travelled to Panama!
