Kate, Helen and I were a bit late for breakfast this morning. It consisted of watermelon and dry cereal. We were picked up outside The Hummingbird at 8.00am by 2 buses. Selina, Jennie and Geoff had to go on one bus by themselves with half the luggage, and the rest of us went on the other bus. Jane produced a compilation tape and Simon was measuring her musical taste on a scale, which included her reaching, the summit of Ben Nevis, and the summit of Chirripó depending how good the song was. There were cows in the middle of the road and it was stuffy on the bus, even with every window open.
We got to Lake Arenal and had to pile everything onto a small boat and sit on little hard seats wearing buoyancy aids. When we got out, I was a little cross about all the attention between Katy and Mark. We all had to get on the next bus. -There was just enough room for all of us, with all the baggage on the roof. The official instructions from Jane were “Look out of the window in case anything falls off”!!!
When we got to the campsite, there seemed to be a lot of people around, and we had to find a suitable place for the tents. Luckily, all the other people were staying in cabins, so there was plenty of room for us. Then, most of us went for a swim and a quick sunbathe.
(Cont’d 5am Day 7!) My current problem is that after a lot of walking to get to La Fortuna and back (Half an hour each way, as the town is 3km away), and waiting around for Mrs L and Geoff (who went missing), I’ve had no sleep all night. A group of us decided that we weren’t tired and stayed up after the meeting which finished at 9pm. -We were all under the hut. -I was there with (in order round the circle) Mark, Katy, Selina, Jennie, Simon and Cheryl. At first, we were playing ‘Extreme Extend the Line’ -The ‘Extreme’ part is a continuation of the ‘Extreme Snap’ idea, which I have yet to learn how to play!
Cheryl and Jennie went to bed at a reasonable time. -About 11pm, and Selina and Simon went to sleep over by the pool on the loungers before going to bed at about 2am. Mark, Katy and I didn’t even consider going to bed until after 3.30, by which time we couldn’t, as we would have woken up everyone in our tents! Instead, Katy sat on one bench while Mark and I were on a second, leaning against each other for warth. Mark made it his mission to make Katy and I ‘proper friends’ again, and insisted on us hugging at least 5 times. Katy decided that we could sleep by the pool, but it was really cold, so we went back and tried to sleep on the stone benches. Just before 5am, I ‘woke up’ to see Mark walking over to the pool. Katy was already there. They are still asleep on the loungers and I am sitting by the table and need some sleep. Jennie and Selina are up now, so I might go to bed for a while.
Later today we are going up to Volcan Arenal. I think we’re getting picked up at 3.00.
Oh, and Simon was 'Muppet Of The Day for setting fire to the patio by the pool.
Day 7 La Fortuna Saturday 13th July 2002
I took a quick dip in the pool after I woke up and then I sunbathed for a while after lunch. Helen, Kate, Liz and I used up the hour of free Internet access we’d been given (for booking the Arenal trip). I e-mailed my brother quickly.
Yesterday, we tried to find out whether we could go back to San José a day early and get into the rainforest a day earlier. We couldn’t get hold of Carlos until this morning and he told us that we couldn’t because we have to register our stay in the National Park with all the rangers and we couldn’t get in a day early. That’s annoyed most of us a bit because it means that we’ll have to go straight to Chirripó from Corcovado without a proper rest.
A bus pulled up at 3.00 to pick us up. As soon as we got off the bus for our trek, the skies opened and it started to chuck it down. -In the worst, heaviest sense. Even though I had my waterproof on, I was sweating and therefore quickly soaked through anyway. The walk through the forest was beautiful but wet and slippery for most of the way. We saw various birds -toucans and parrots. Also a howler monkey. We had a short stop half way through the walk and I realised that my camera would be soaked. The battery has also gone again so I’ll have to buy some more tomorrow. Finally we reached the bus and begged to be allowed to sit in it without having my drink because I was so cold. -Then it was to the hot springs! -I had my bikini on ready to jump in and we all left our bags with Mrs L. Mark was the only one without trunks as he didn’t think that the springs were for bathing. There were 7 temperatures, ranging from lukewarm to so-hot-that-my-glasses-steamed-up, and too-hot-to-sit-in!!! It was gorgeous and we had from 5.30 till about 8pm to soak to our hearts-content!
We ended up at a restaurant back in La Fortuna. The food was crap! Most people thought so. My grilled chicken seemed more like grilled fat, and I ended up freezing cold because my clothes were drying onto my skin. Because I was in the middle of a large table, there were conversations at both ends, neither of which I could hear properly, therefore I spent most of the meal in silence, and felt far too sorry for myself.
Day 8 La Fortuna Sunday 14th July 2002
There wasn’t a lot we could do because of the rain. 5 of us walked into La Fortuna quite early. -Me, Kate, Mark, Cheryl and (I think) Helen. (Yes, it was Helen, because she bought a hat!)
Mark, Kate and I went shopping for tomorrow’s food -To travel back to San José with. Helen and Cheryl were trying to sort out transport for tomorrow. Shopping with Kate and Mark turned out to be fun and we spent a lot of the time talking about lots of things.
I ended up spending most of the day with Mark, as when we got to the campsite, most people were crowded round one of the tables and there wasn’t much room for us. We sat together on the same table for most of the afternoon, just chatting. We were assigned to cooking groups. I was put with Selina and Simon. I later found out that they were trying to get Sul and I to be better friends although it didn’t really work. -We just didn’t talk to each other very much.
Before tea, Helen, Kate and I decided to see what was over the bridge next to the hut. Simon told Mark to go with us, even though we were in a three. Mark fully declared himself an unwilling Muppet Of The Day when he slipped over on the bridge on the way back. (it turns out that he also fell over on the basketball court! It was a very short walk because Kate and I were wearing sandals, Mark and I were wearing shorts, and the path was totally overgrown. Instead, we took a walk down the lane in the opposite direction to the town! Mark and I spent the entire time hitting each other, until I knocked his hat into a ditch!
We had a successful tea and Jennie bought marshmallows for a game of Chubby Bunnies! Simon won with (I think) 12 marshmallows in his mouth at once!! Then, we all went to bed for an early night. -We planned to take the 7 o clock bus to San Carlos, then a second from there to San José. -A journey lasting about 5 hours and costing about $5 each.
Day 9 San José Monday 15th July 2002
I woke up just before Jennie said “It’s 4.30” and I got dressed quickly and went to help make sandwiches for lunch on the buses. The bus was supposed to leave at 7.45 and as it was a half-hour walk to La Fortuna from Sanchal, we left at 6.30 in order to get good seats. We had to stop several times for tying shoelaces and for Mark to run back and grab an empty kitbag which Mrs L had left on the fence when she put her tent down.
We got to La Fortuna in the rain and crowded under the bus shelter in a huddle. At 7.30, Mark ran over to see if the bus on the other side of the park was ours. A woman told us that it was, so we all hurried over, only to be told that the one we had first been at was ours after all! So, we traipsed all the way back over. As we waited, a guy came over and said that he could offer us a better deal at $7.50 each, but it would mean reaching San José in about 2/3 hours with no stops and it would be just us on board! We took it!
With Jane in front with the driver, we all got into the back with one seat left for kitbags. I ended up next to Mark and the kit bags for 3 hours, listening to Jane’s tape! We had a selection of good conversations, especially when Helen fell asleep on Kate’s shoulder, and then Kate dropped off on Helen’s head! The only bad point was, that with a dripping wet fleece and shorts, all the water in Mark’s clothes soaked into the seat, and onto me, so I had a wet bum after half an hour.
When we got to San José, we found that we hadn’t been booked in. (Carlos told us that all our nights in San José were pre-booked).We could only get double rooms, not larger, so I’m going to share room 19 with Liz, Mark is on the floor in the guy’s room and Jane is by herself.
I went food shopping with Katy, Selina, Kate and Simon, where Kate and I ended up walking round at the back. On his travels, Mark had found a laundry which I was happy to use! We ended up taking all of our own clothes there and some of Jennie and Cheryl’s too. Because we weren’t allowed in a two, Geoff came with us, so we ended up walking round San José looking for some more DEET for Mark because he’d spilt most of his Mozi-spray, and a restaurant for dinner.
There were problems when we went out for tea. I felt as if I was being single-handedly blamed for not finding a suitable restaurant. We had been trying. Selina got sarcastic and I think we were ready to kill each other for a while. I was swearing under my breath and she was steaming. We ended up in the same restaurant we were in before. -The one with the ‘meal deal’! I wanted another “Caffeine bomb” which was what we christened the coffee last time, but I was sent off early to make sandwiches for travelling to Corcovado with.
I was on my way upstairs for an early night and a shower when I was told that there was a meeting in Cheryl and Jennie’s room. It was a meeting to ‘sort out communication problems in the group’. -i.e, me and Sul. It felt again as though I was the main person being blamed and I nearly cried. Selina told me afterwards that she nearly did too. Anyway, tomorrow, we have to sit next to each other on the bus to sort out our difficulties.
Day 10 San José Tuesday 15th July 2002
Got up at 2.45 to make breakfast. I was half awake, and waiting for a knock from Selina to wake me up. I got a knock at 2.45 and Liz sat bolt upright and said ‘who is it?’ in a really scary voice. I told her that it was my wake-up call. Somebody called my name and I went downstairs to find Simon and Selina still in their rooms. -Mark was knocking on Selina’s door but hadn’t been upstairs to knock on mine, so the mystery on the Phantom Door-knocker remains unsolved! Simon cut up the melon while Mark and I took it in turns to work out how best to chop a pineapple! We were in Jane’s room and she was in bed where she happily stayed to eat!
We left the hotel at 3.45 to get to the bus station with plenty of time to spare and waited outside till it opened. We then stood inside, around the rucksacks, watching the progress of the ‘Cockroach from Hell’ around the wall, closer and closer to our bags!!!
The bus was supposed to leave at 5am, and after about fifteen minutes, Liz began to refer to Tropical Time. -The excuse for all delays in the Tropics! It took until about 5.50 before somebody came over and tried to explain why the bus would not leave that day. -We pushed Katy in front and from what we could gather, there had been some sort of accident on the road which our bus would use. Then we noticed people hovering underneath a TV screen and we realised with some sort of low-level collective horror, that there was no accident, but a selection of riots up-and-down the country. It was based on some law which had not been changed to the Tico’s liking. Then we found out that the bus yesterday had been overturned and fire-bombed, killing the driver. Then, we realised that had we been able to change our itinerary and leave La Fortuna a day early (and leaving San José a day early), then we would have been on that very bus. -That was a very scary moment, and we all just sat round staring at each other. By this time, we were back at the hotel, having walked back to make sure that we could have our rooms for another night. Luckily, we could. Carlos was coming in to talk to an arriving W. Challenge team in the hotel, so we waited to speak to him. He said that we could miss out the eco-camp in the rainforest, and stay on track for the rest of the expedition.
We found other things to do for the rest of the day. I went shopping with Mark and Selina for more sandwich stuff, and then we all went to visit the Theátre Nacional, Costa Rica’s most important theatre. It was a beautiful building, the sort of place that I’d love to see a performance.
Then we went ‘rock climbing’ at a wall not far from the supermarket. Mark and I didn’t really feel like it so we sat and watched and chatted. By the end of it, we were holding hands as discreetly as we could, but I have a feeling that Katy saw, even if nobody else did. Eventually, we left the climbing place and went back to the hotel, where, soaking wet from the sudden heavy downfall, we sat in front of the TV, and I dried my glasses on his t-shirt, because my clothes were too damp. -We were all impatient to get back, while Jane Liz and Geoff were quite happy to wait for half an hour under a nearby bus stop until the storm was over!
We decided to eat in the café next to the hotel where the food was really nice. I had Arroz con Pollo, (Chicken and rice) which I thought would be really plain, but was actually very nice.
Again, I left earlier to make sandwiches, this time cheese, then jam. Then, I agreed to help Mark sew up his shorts which had gotten ripped, but somebody decided that we would go back to the bar. -24hour happy hour!! Sul and I had a vodka shot each, then we ordered 6 Tequilas along with Katy and had two each. Simon, Cheryl and Mark all had beer. I was holding hands with Mark again, and this time, Simon definitely saw!! Cheryl looked wasted. When we’d been making sandwiches, she came round the corner, seeming really upset, and said that she’d lost Jennie, and that was after just three or four beers with our tea!
When we got back, I went straight upstairs because I’d told Liz that I was mending Mark’s shorts which would not have taken that long!
