On the water

My first mission is to do some jungle hiking and see some wildlife on the Osa Penninsula. This is supposed to be one of the best wildlife areas in Costa Rica. Getting to the national park has been much slower than expected but I'm on vacation, so no hurry.

The first step was to take a 20 km taxi to a village on a river and wait until the morning. Then I hunted down a boat driver to take me down the river to an even more remote village. The river trip was amazing. It was much like what I expect the Amizon to be like, very swollen, chocolaty (choccy as the Australians would say) and practically hot to the touch. During the trip we saw a sloth hanging in a tree. Also during the trip I made friends with three very hip girls. They are from England, Canada, and Acrada (California). They are all traveling by themselves, and met each other while in Costa Rica. Today the four of us, and some other people from the boat taxi went to a nearby island to do some snorkeling. On the way we encountered a pod of a dozen dolphins. The boat driver slowed down, and they came right up to the boat and swam with it. After about 15 minutes, we resumed our high speed travel, and the dolphins continued to join us, leaping completely out of the water in pairs as they raced along.

The snorkeling conditions were great, warm clear blue water with lots of fish, but there were hundreds of stinging jellyfish. After getting stung 10 times, we got back into the boat and were taken to the island shore. The driver dropped us off and said he would be back in 4-5 hours, and that the snorkeling would be better here. then the left.
The jellyfish were even worse at this location. My arms and forehead have red blisters. I only stayed in for about 30 seconds. Just long enough to swim out a bit and realize that there was a tiny jellyfish every six inches. We decided that it is probably a local joke to take the pale gringos to the jellyfish infested beach and drop them off for the day, while making a profit. But I made the best of it. There was a trail into the jungle and along it were marble spheres carved by the ancient Mayans. The ones I saw today were the size of a basketball, but earlier I saw one that was about 5 feet diameter.

Tomorrow, I will finally take a boat to to Corcavada National Park, the place I.ve been trying to reach. Sam, the English girl is going to join me for a two day hike through the Jungle. After that we will probably return to our own seperate adventures.

Of course, stories are better told with pictures, but there is no USB port on this computer, so once again you,ll have to envision the scenes for yourself, for now.

I`m giddy with excitement, this is such a wonderful place.