Remember, Remember The 5th Of November
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007Fireworks night and we feel so far away from home! We had a quick toast in the evening to all thise who are celebrating with fireworks and bonfires. I tried to explain the festival to the guy on reception as he was interested but I don’t think he quite got the fact that we celebrate in essence a failure!
The weather wasn’t too bad this morning so we wandered into La Fortuna and impulsively booked a tour down the river in the afternoon. The raft and guide came to pick us up at the hotel. When I say raft it was more like a dinghy but carpe diem as they say. The nus took us past plantations of papaya, pineapple, bananas and plantains, cassava and rice fields. The Penas Blancas River was our destination and we had great fun floating down river with our paddles for a couple of hours. It rained for a bit but we still saw a sloth, toucans, a snake, iguanas, howler monkeys, huge Kingfishers and all other sorts of birds. It was brilliant fun and our guide Riberto who was only 26 had such knowledge about the plants and wildlife it was like a biology lesson. The best part? Josh’s face when Roberto said 2 days ago he had seen a crocodile bigger than the boat just by the edge of the river. When we went over the little rapids Josh was eager to make sure he did not fall out!
The tour finished with food and drink at a local house. Mini tortillas with beef and fried plaintains which were delicious. There was a little girl there with her new puppy who was very interested in our pale faces. I had a good conversation with the Mum (via our guide) about washing as I really wanted to know how everything gets dry with so much rain. It was a great afternoon and the kids couldn’t stop talking about it until well into the evening.
The day finished with the sound of the volcano booming in the distance – our own version of fireworks night – Tica style.
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