Los chilles

This is an interesting town basically a border town, where everyone passes through on there way to Nicaragua. All the houses are one story bungalows, ugly looking, there's this pale street light colour giving it a real down town grimy look...

This is the soul of this community, a piece of grass everything is built around

The only entertainment, fruit machines

According to the one person who speaks English here and the only person to have ever left, Gary, who's dad runs the local shop and a restaurant, its a safe town, with some drug addicts who you just ignore. He says Costa Rica is generally safe cause they are used to and like tourists...unlike Nicaragua.

I had to stop off here cause the border was shut till tomorrow. I'm staying in this shit pension ($6 for a room, can't complain), which has cockroaches in the shower and I think the owners son looks inbred. I dunno they are all a bit strange, imagine never leaving this place!! I can't wait to leave...I think it'll be an adventure getting to San Carlos Del Juan.

Last day Jungla Paraiso

Sunday January 25th 2015

Well if visiting jungla paraiso wasn't enough I also get to meet Alex, who, along with his family, own the land. Just a quick point it turns out Esteban is actually just the manager of the place at the moment and doesn't own any of it. It's all Alex and his families land that they inherited from there father. I'm confused as to why Esteban told me he had invested a lot of money in it. I have a feeling Esteban lies about a lot of things. He isn't a bad person but he needs to learn to be honest with people else he will shoot himself in the foot.

Anyway, the last day was really cool...Alex took us on a walk to another set of waterfalls. We had to climb down the slope again, from which I fell and twisted my ankle, but I was ultra cautious this time so I was ok. 

These new waterfalls were hidden way in the top of the jungle. We had to hack our way through quite a steep path. There was actually a quicker way which was to climb up one of the waterfalls with ropes Alex had set out, but because I twisted my ankle Alex decided not to bring his ropes...I really trusted Alex a lot more as a guide because he was more attentive and careful about my well being that Esteban, who although was amazing when I hurt my ankle walked ahead a lot and ultimately didn't see the rope getting caught and slipping, which would have saved met ankle. Sorry Esteban, you gotta pay more attention in these situations.

When we got to these new waterfalls it was just brilliant, I showered beneath one because I was really really hot, and felt so refreshed afterwards. 

Turns out waterfalls are great to wash clothes under. The shear force of the falling water from the waterfall (or the cascadas) means your clothes get all the dirt beat out of them...was wicked seeing a rainbow at the bottom as well when the sun came out.

Making out way back down I managed to get all my clothes completely soaking It's very hard to stay dry in a rainforest, by their nature you and everything else is wet!

Alex fooling around

They don't call it the rainforest for nothing!

I decided to leave that afternoon with Alex and his two Spanish friends because it felt right because Alex offered to give me a lift and let me stay at his Mum's house, and they are much nearer the border to Nicaragua...also as relaxing and nice as it was I wanted to move on, get the mud out of my clothes and I'd had enough of being bitten by mosquitoes!

Leaving the farm with Alex, Frank and Geoffrey; Alex carried my bag the whole way through the mud

An almost Jurassic landscape, actually they filmed Jurassic park here in Costa Rica 

A tranquil moment by the river 

Trekking Jungla Paraiso

Friday/Saturday 23rd, 24th of Jan 2015

Our first days trek was to this awesomely beautiful waterfall. It was relatively short through some really nice jungle. Gave me plenty of opportunities to photograph Neptune (Alfred's toy that came Travelling with me) in plenty of different places. But anyway:

This is just a place of astounding natural beauty. I could have sat on that log all day and just read a book. And I swam in the lake below the waterfall and water was clear and you cound even drink it if you wish. Alex told me that you can drink spring water from the mountains, not just because it is fresh and unpolluted but because the force the water is smashed against rocks destroys bacteria.

The second day of trekking wasn't so good. I slipped climbing down a slope because the rope was caught and then got loose so I fell. At first it hurt then the pain went, so we kept walking for miles through pristine jungle, up 60% gradient slopes. We were literally cutting a path through jungle no human had been to before!

I saw trees with huge spikes growing from them:

Don't walk into this tree!

Giant vines dangling from the tree

And Esteban showed me a way you can use these army ants as natural stiches! They had massive pincers, this looked painful, but anyway:

Esteban's natural stitches idea using ants

Beautiful but poisoness caterpillar by the toilet! Glad I checked the seat before sitting down 

Eye-lashed pit viper, we got this shot by lowering the camera on a long stick into his lair (by the toilet) glad I was warned before relieving myself!

Then when we got to the old poacher's camp my ankle started to hurt again. And it got worse and worse , until I was literally in agony. I couldn't really walk, but I had to because the only alternative was to spend the night in the jungle, but seeing as we had just found jaguar tracks, I didn't feel that was an option! Esteban really helped and carried me basically through the last bit then he rushed back to the camp to make hot water bath for my ankle. He gave me pain killers and massaged this cream into my leg...then I went to bed as I knew rest would help fix it. I think the fact that I'd walked on a bad injury for so long had aggravated it.

Esteban Vargas - Jungle Paradise, Costa Rica

Wednesday 21st january 2015

Esteban is the son of a communist mother. His step father got rich through coffee, but doesn't spend a dime, is politically powerful (The Costa Rican president came to lunch at his parents' house), and told him repeatedly as a child he wasn't able to do something - this only fueled his will to suceed. I'm not sure about his real father, but apparently he tried to pay his mother to have an abortion before he was born and wasn't there for him. His uncle was the one who brought him up and gave him his confidence, and told him he could do something and was capable.

He likes drinking Cortez (strong Costa Rican liquer):

His sister is the total opposite to him who would step on 1 billion people to advance herself in politics.(however I think Esteban has what it takes to survive and could be ruthless) But the difference with him and his sister, is she has been given everything by there Dad (his step dad), whilst he hasn't been given a penny, perhaps because his step Dad treats them differently because his sister is biologically his daughter, but he isn't his son. 

He used to teach environmental science at university in Costa Rica, but hated it because of the politics and it was against college rules to sleep with students, even though they wanted it from him, as the university deemed it as giving those students an unfair advantage...so he retired and bought his own piece of pristine rainforest (for $100,000), which came with waterfalls, rivers, snakes, spiders, panthers, jaguars and unfortunately some poachers who have basically killed all the big creatures! Esteban insists, however, things are there, but we just can't see them :(

 Also included was a wood cabin; 

Luis (his helper who has lived here for 30 years and knows everything about the land);

a horse called Fuerlla (who carries people's backpacks from the river over the mudlands to the house).

Chickens, fish and a dog named Cinamen, who came on our jungle walk and could climb hills I had trouble with and was brave enough to run off into jungle!

Oh and I forgot to say he still teaches Environmental Sciences at his lodge in the jungle but gets his students to come to him instead, and charges $50 a night. He generally screens his guests by hotness (he has a lot of girlfriends), but also willingness to live in the great outdoors and walk through meters of mud to get here. He is currently in love with a 50 year old climatology professor from Russia, who is beautiful as well as hardcore, I imagine she looks like Lara Croft from tomb Raider!

Tree Climbing with Alex

Monday 26th January 2015

So Alex let me stay at his Mum's house on the Sunday. I was gonna head off and go to Nicaragua early next morning, but Alex is so chilled he was just like, don't worry dude, wash your clothes let's eat some food and while they are drying we can go climb a specific type of tree in the forest...these trees are hollow from the inside, so you can climb up inside them and rapel down the outside.

Me about to jump out

Alex inside the tree!

I was actually shitting myself a bit when we got there and had climbed up inside as I had never self-rapeled myself down before. I've only ever belayed with a partner. But it's easy you just put the rope around the tree, then feed both bits of the rope through the figure of 8. As long as you keep hold of the rope to control your descent, you'll be fine. I was actually panicking a bit cause I didn't know what would happen.

Everything was ok in the end!

Afterwards we found another amazing waterfall with a pool to swim in, where we could wash ourselves off and refresh after our climb...I didn't wanna jump in though, it has actually been really rainy and cold recently, I mean not freezing but cold enough...

Cool day!

Alex and his family

Gotta say my experience of Costa Rica has been fantastic, and that's mainly due to meeting all the awesome local people. Basically from finding Esteban on couch surfing, I met Alex, and through Alex I got to stay with a real Costa Rican family. Also Esteban added to my experience at the farm. 

I've eaten amazing Costa Rican food...so you eat tortillas for breakfast, lunch and dinner, filling them with fried plantain, chicken, rice and beans, tomatoes; drink the freshest jugo naranja, orange juice - I think I've actually lost weight still though as you eat such natural foods, def better than all the peanut butter and bread and cheese I used to eat...got see amazingly special places I.e The Jungle, learnt more Spanish met Alex's family and mainly made a new friend in Alex.

Night at Jungle Paradise

Right so it's pretty fucking scary when it's pitch black, there's no electric and all you can hear is the deafening sound of whatever the fuck is out there...also tonight a cockroach crawled on my face. Somehow it got in the tent and dropped on my face! I felt itm, and I immediately switched the light on then had to capture it and squash it in a plastic bag. Fuck! All night I was twitching imagining things crawling on me!

I can also hear this loud high pitched note, fairly close to the tent tonight. I thought it was a phone or something. Apparently it was a bird, but sort of bird sounds like ringtone?

And every now and then I can see lights, obviously it's Louis or Esteban walking around. But it scares the shit out of me as I can just see shadows getting closer. And I know this totally irrational but you think who is? Is a jaguar going to jump on my tent and rip it to pieces and drag me from my sleep...basically the night here lets your imagination run wild!

Puerto Viejo, 19th January

So I was never meant to come here, Infact I had bought a ticket to San Jose, but something told me to get off and see the place for itself...also I'd been told there was this really cool place called Rocking J's where you could sleep in Hammocks:

Also, I wanted to dive. Unfortunately the diving is shit here...the dive school said the visibility was 2 meters! No big fish and it costs 100 dollars for two tanks, that's 30 more than Bocas. Still this place is awesome. I only wish I'd been here at the weekebd.

As soon as I got to the hostel I went to sit by the sea (the hostel is on the beach) and I was offered a joint, so got immediately stoned. It was fun! Soon after I went to sit at the tables and got drink with this drag queen from San Francisco, Matthew Mullarkey. Anazing cause you never really meet people like him when you travel. Gay guys are always too prissy to want to stay in hostels or backpack. And here I am having a beer with a drag queen in a hostel on the beach in Costa Rica. Brilliant! Other than being hilarious and telling me stories of his trip round the jungle Matthew told me about this thing you can join where you have to reduce all your worldly goods to 100 things...I'd tried to reduce everything as much as I could over Xmas, but just 100 things, I'm not sure. Matthew said that whenever he moves into a house he always likes to leave with the same amount he brought and never add to that.

There were also some other great characters of the evening. Most notably this totally awesome dude called Silas from South Africa...he was telling me all these stories about his travels , and seemed similar to me, but most interestingly he was telling me about Burning Man festival...I never knew but the whole thing is based on a sharing economy. So when you go you don't need to buy stuff but you trade your skills with people for things....so it gets rid of all the shit you have to put up with in modern life, no need for money or greed cause you can't have it unless you can trade sonething for it. I'm still not sure what it would be like but it sounds interesting. Maybe I'll go to this festival and check it out. Maybe go with him! We then tried to play Uno but I massively failed, cause I was too drunk to play and remember the rules.

There were these really cool guys from Holland too, which was great chatting to them as I could talk about my experience of Ansterdam...also was fun to talk about the book what Dutch people like.

I can't actually remember the rest of the evening , but the general impression is it was fun and Puerto Viejo may not be a diving paradise but is a really cool backpackers town.

Leaving Bocas

It actually wasn't a tough decision to leave Bocas...it was beautiful but not my type of place, far too touristy! And the diving was ok but not great. I'm in search of a backpackers paradise with beautiful clear seas, colorful coral and an abundance of fish (big and small) maybe it doesn't exist? Well I've heard of a place called Cocos Island on the pacific side of Costa Rica, now it sounds expensive but it's stunning...I'm toying with whether I should go check it out.

It was a fun journey from Bocas to Puerto Viejo, which lies just across the border from Sixola...I was determined not to pay tourist prices to get there. Hostels and tour companies were saying it would cost 30-40 dollars. In the end it cost $14. $6 for the boat taxi off Bocas, $2 for local buses to Sixola, $3 entrance into Costa Rica and another $3 to Puerto Viejo! The information the tour companies had told me was total bullshit. They'd said there was only one bus a day going to San Jose (there were several), they never mentioned the local buses, hmm wonder why?! They do this in every developing country cause it's how they make money, but I wanna travel like local people do, see the country from their perspective, and save money.

Actually crossing the border was kinda fun. It's this really old rickety iron cast bridge, but it's missing loads of planks to walk on, so in some places there are just holes, which you could easily fall through (Altho my backpack might have stopped me, with just my legs dangling through!). I'd like to think it was a cute tourist attraction but unfortunately I doubt it! Just years of delapidation and decline. 

That's what I love about these kind of countries, they just get on with things and make the most of it...I mean yeah things could be better but they aren't, so let's deal with it, not shut the bridge, keep it open and let anyone stupid enough fall through the holes and get eaten by crocodiles!

On my way to Puerto Viejo I met a Jevovah's witness couple, on their way to San Jose. I ended up chatting to them for a while , while we were waiting for the bus. I thought they were really nice, but I turned the topic onto their religion, cause im interested. I totally agreed with the guy about all the good things that they try and promote in people, treat others like you want to be treated, be kind and generous...just totally disagreed with him when I asked what about gay people. So their view is is that they are chemically imbalanced and the Bible says marriage should be between a man and a woman, so being gay is wrong...and you can be a Jevovah's witness if you aren't a practicing homosexual...right so at this point I had a lot to say but I didn't cause I could see it would never have convinced them. It's just so wrong and fucjed up to say or think shit like that though. They clearly have no understanding of sexuality, they don't understand it isn't a choice, and they don't get what damage that does to a person to say what you are is wrong, so you need to change yourself and debt yourself. This is my problem with organized religion and the bible. As good a number of values as it teaches, it also teaches intolerance to people, and so you look down on some people. 

Diving on Bocas

Saturday 17th

So today I got to do my first dives! First place we went to was a place called mangrove point. The visibility wasn't so good and it was very green. The coral seemed healthy though although they have a problem with Lion Fish as they aren't native to those parts, nothing eats them and they eat the coral damaging it. We only saw one though amongst a pretty coral stack.

I got some great pictures of Neptune (Alfred's new beanie boo) on the bottom of the ocean and then emailed them to him pretending I'd found him and he was coming Travelling round Central America with me. Apparently Alfred was confused because I'd written them from Neptune, but he did take it in and told his Dad (Owen) I'd found one on the bottom of the ocean. His first concern was whether the toy was for him, because of course he'd like a new beanie boo!

In the evening we did an awesome night dive! I did it with Frank and Cahwill and then our Dive master JC and another girl. Unlike with my first night dive in Koh Tao , where there were loads of schools (there's 55 on one small island the size of Colon in Bocas) it was just us 5 in the pitch black darkness swimming around the reef and a shipwreck! Cahwill told me the last time he did this a nurse shark just appeared suddenly Infront of his torch and then turned. Sadly nothing so interesting happened this time! It was beautiful seeing the real colours of the reef with our torch lights and the phosphorescence in the darkness...I made some videos of it im going to put on a Vimeo account.

I moved into Cahwill's after diving cause I didn't wanna have to stay in a dorm in hostel, cause other than the expense of it (you can't get anywhere less than $15) its such a hassle when you have to creep around people, and get stuff out of your locker quietly in the morning, trying not to rustle any plastic bags too much (they're the worse for disturbing people!) and then you drop or loose shit because it's dark and you couldn't see what you were doing. And also what you want from your locker is always in the bottom of some bag so you gotta get everything out and go through it, while trying to be really really quiet! And then if your me, you'll need to go back in your locker about 15 times cause you keep remembering something you should have got! Yeah so shared dorms in hostels aren't for me! Also I prefer the couch surfing experience anyways as I like meeting locals.

After we went to this Reggae party Cahwill was doing his fire show at. It was really good but I didn't like the party cause It was full of Americans, and it was too macho straight, bullshit Reggae...

For all the reasons I didn't like the Reggae party I decided almost immediately I wasn't gonna stop in Bocas for long, as Bocas was too expensive and too touristy for me. I mean the Island has an airport that brings in hoards of Americans everyday...it's a beautiful place but not a backpackers paradise.

The Problem with PADI

Cahuil has been Travelling, or atleast not been home to Argentina, for 3 years. He has been all over Central America, but decided to stop off for a bit and stay in Bocas. He got involved in Diving kinda by accident, his friend just told him to come one day. He hasn't done his dive master but he works for a school and knows more than some people who have paid the money and had the training...which is my issue with PADI (put another dollar in) if you have the money you can be an instructor in no time, but without the experience you really need to actually be an instructor...a guy French guy called Bertran, who I met at my hostel and runs a dive school near La Rochelle in France, told me that for a while French dive schools were not allowed to let PADI instructors work at their schools without them doing the qualification CMAS first, because with CMAS you have to have 8 months worth of experience before you can take the exam...with PADI its a couple of weeks! So Cahuil is in this situation where he is a qualified through experience to be a dive master or an instructor but doesn't have the money to pay to get to that level, and until you do you can't officially work. So what you can have in the PADI world is relatively unqualified instructors and dive masters working, taking care of the lives of other people who got their not necessarily through experience but cause they had the money...I'm by no way saying this is everyone, I'm sure there are tonnes of PADI instructors and divers who love what they do and are good at it, but by the very nature of PADI it means you can have people who aren't as qualified to take care of people's lives.

Bluff beach, Bocas Del Torro

Friday 16th January

Spent some time wandering around looking for a hostel to stay in, something cheap, but all I could find was $15 a night places (that were decent) sharing in a dorm. Bocas isn't your cheap destination like Thailand or India where u can stay in your own room for a few dollars a night. It's very much a popular Carribean tourist destination, nice but not your cheap backpacker kinda place, perhaps a lot of Central and South America is like this. 

Frank had a couch surfer to stay with, this really awesome guy called Cahuil, but I met up with them later and he took us on this long bike ride over sand and rocks around the coast of the Island to a place called Bluff beach which is just the most idyllic place I've ever visited. It's like what you would imagine The Carribean to look like, perfect sands, coconuts and massive waves...basically Bocas is a surfers Paradise. 

Cahuil taught us how to open coconuts! First you tear off the tough fibre exterior so you can get to the shell. A lot harder than you think...you gotta smash the coconut against a rock or a stick to break in the shell...then once you get to the coconut you can poke a hollow stick through 2 soft ends of the coconut, if it's ripe and then drink through the stick like a straw, and then when u finish you smash it to open it up s d eat the flesh...fantastic! I never had such fresh coconut before. 

You see you'd never get to do things like this if it wasn't for meeting couch surfers, local people and spending time with them...you'd never find the places and have the experiences.

The Problem with PADI:

Cahuil has been Travelling, or atleast not been home to Argentina, for 3 years. He has been all over Central America, but decided to stop off for a bit and stay in Bocas. He got involved in Diving kinda by accident, his friend just told him to come one day. He hasn't done his dive master but he works for a school and knows more than some people who have paid the money and had the training...which is my issue with PADI (put another dollar in) if you have the money you can be an instructor in no time, but without the experience you really need to actually be an instructor...a guy French guy called Bertran, who I met at my hostel and runs a dive school near La Rochelle in France, told me that for a while French dive schools were not allowed to let PADI instructors work at their schools without them doing the qualification CMAS first, because with CMAS you have to have 8 months worth of experience before you can take the exam...with PADI its a couple of weeks! So Cahuil is in this situation where he is a qualified through experience to be a dive master or an instructor but doesn't have the money to pay to get to that level, and until you do you can't officially work. So what you can have in the PADI world is relatively unqualified instructors and dive masters working, taking care of the lives of other people who got their not necessarily through experience but cause they had the money...I'm by no way saying this is everyone, I'm sure there are tonnes of PADI instructors and divers who love what they do and are good at it, but by the very nature of PADI it means you can have people who aren't as qualified to take care of people's lives.

The Cats of Bocas:

So many cute kittens, through dinner at this awesome pizza place had a cute one  day on my lap. But at 3 months old they are still tiny...I feel sorry for them. Puk, Ben's kitten, in Amsterdam was about 3 times the size by that age...they need to eat more!

In the evening we watched Cahuil do his awesome fire show! I'll post video later.