After having flights messed up and rerouted to different airports in USA we eventually landed in San Jose but without baggage. Much to late and tired to worry about things too much we were told it would be delivered to our hotel the next day. Yes you guessed it, no chance so lots of phone calls and a trip back to airport to find out they had no idea where it was, possible Chicago, Dallas or Miami but they will chase. In the meantime we could go purchase a maximum of $300 clothes etc to get us by. Hmmm not happy but buy we did. We returned to hotel on afternoon of day two to find out bags had been delivered but according to internet baggage they have no idea where they were. Oh well we had them so we could move on.
The first couple of days were just outside a largish town called Alajuela in a small hotel with great gardens with plenty of birdlife, the car was collected so now we had bags we moved on to The Arenal Observatory lodge on a slope opposite the active volcano Arenal. This was a spectacular setting high up in the forest overlooking the impressive cone shaper volcano. It has been very active in the last few years with large eruptions but at the moment is rather quiet so no night time fireworks from it. Lots of hikes looking at birds, amphibians including the Costa Rica symbol animal the Red Eyed Frog and some reptiles including a large Musserana snake found this morning. This snake is not venomous and in fact is welcomed as it kills and eats other venomous snakes but it was an impressive size of about 2 metres but objected to me trying to catch it sadly.
We had two days there and have now moved on today to The Cloud Forest at Santa Elena. Only been here a couple of hours but had White faced monkeys in the trees next to our balcony in another small hotel. Also just had a huge rainstorm with thunder but this seems to happen most afternoons. The plan here is to walk in the cloud forest looking for birds, mammals and reptiles. Hopefully I will get to see a Yellow Eyebrow Pit Viper, one of the most photogenic snakes around but some what poisonous.
More to follow and hopefully lots of pictures. Just follow the links on here for the pictures
Mike & Jan
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