The fastest Mantis in Central America
My football coach & cycling guide waiting to start training
The lemon tree
One enormous lizard
Jaco beach - black volcanic sand
Dr Goodfellow doing the surf dude mooch
Our Day at the Volcano / Zoo
Breakfast shenenegans
Husband absent – otherwise engaged in necessary white water experience.
Three kids up dressed brushed taken to smart restaurant for breakfast ( yup it’s a killer, several knives dropped, drinks spilt etc. but at least some semblance of charm…. Ola and gracias abundant) plasters and cream applied over injuries, bacon and eggs pancakes hot chocolate etc go down a treat, if a little slowly the car is due in fiftenn minutes. Think I managed some melon between questioning, those kids are like the Spanish inquisition.
Oscar and the bus
Eight o’clock a very calm Oscar arrives with bus at the ready for volcano trip. I still in cagoul / hat / sun tan lotion / minibeast repellent finding panic. Run on to bus to discover, oh joy 1.5 hour trip before volcano extravaganza. Encourage kids to start counting motor bikes. At 20 bikes stop for cash.
Coffee, cows and the lemon tree
At 77 bikes visit coffee plantation. Oscar very kind and wise on subject of coffee but largely lost on kids who pick coffee beans than find a lemon tree and start hurling lemons at each other. Girls get a ride on cows which can only be a good thing, am stung for gifts heavily at the gift shop. Enormous bottles of Sprite all round.
Up and up and up - 108 motorbikes, forty pees
Sprite not good for junior bladder control, scenery breathtaking, lots of motorbikes still which is good but now added variable of five minute pee stops.
Cloud forest being well named
Finally one and three quarter hours, one very patient guide, two cows, 47 road bikers, 124 motorbikes and seven pees get to end of road and park up. Its very very damp i.e. you are in a cloud. I.e. that’s why cloud forest is so named but I am obviously naïve – had expected to be able to see something other than own two hands and some Japanese types wearing Ponchos.
Humming bird
Oh yes did see most beautiful humming bird on the walk up to the crater but Oscar unimpressed by its normaillity and urges us on into the cotton wool fug
Throwing the lemon into the volcano
Monty’s highlight. What do you do if you have discovered a lemon tree half way up a volcano. Obviously hang on to your lemon, don’t tell a soul then hurl it as hard as you can past the Japanese tourists into the crater which you can just glimpse through the swirling cloud. That’ll fox the vulcanologists.
Down down down –strawberries and two currency brain ache Dollars & Colones
Didn’t hang about too much actually although we did bring home some verrrrrrry amazing volcanic rocks, yes we can delight and regail you with them at a later date. Oscar was top geology person. Now kids also hungry so strawberries and crisps from the local shop should do the trick…. Stop on the way back down at about 170 motor bikes. Pay in dollars, get change in two currencies. Oh my goodness even A level maths and an accounting qualification didn’t prepare me for this gig.
Back to base Mantis
Return in one piece to the hotel to find we have a praying mantis living on our verandah. How cool. Tell kids how female manti mate then devour the males… kids look at me in a slightly alarmed manner. Wonder internally if I was somewhat over enthusiastic on the subject and they fear for their father.
Zoo with Jason –more wet animals
Fifteen minute turn around then picked up by Jason the best taxi driver in the world and dropped at San Jose zoo. Am getting accustomed to seeing bedraggled animals its really raining again.
The jaguar - a Staffordshire bull terrier of the cat world?
Oh and jaguars are just like Staffordshire bull terriers with big fat cat heads, they even trot around in a staffy off to get some supper sort of a way. They look more Top Cat than top predator.
Crocodiles tapirs iguanas and crocodiles again
We have two hours to spend at the zoo in the pouring rain. Although the animals were very accommodating, the local population of San Jose appeared to have abandoned ship. We pretty much have the place to ourselves which on the one hand is v. cool on the other hand a bit like being a character in a Steven King novel. If you let your imagination run wild its not too difficult to imagine being forgotten and left overnight in the rain in the dark in the zoo with a very suspicious looking wet lion, three wet iguanas and ten wet crocodiles.
Unfortunately no food at the zoo on Sundays so as four o’clock approaches the kids start to verge on the hypoglycaemic. I manage to find half a packet of peanuts and three boiled sweets in my ruck sack which the girls eschew but Monty bolts down merrily. Survival of the least-pernickety I guess.
On the third circuit of the zoo the animals are starting to look decidedly peckish, Although in retrospect maybe it was bravado, they were probably worried we were going to eat them.
Luckily the best taxi driver in the world had predicts our mood and is there twenty minutes early to pick us up before we and the animals come to blows.
Back to base, Macdonalds: Poya and Papas
The best taxi driver in the world takes us home via the Macdonalds drive through. Oh joy, rice and beans is all very well but when you have three kids with nothing in their stomachs but fizzy florescent coloured drinks from the zoo the sight of those golden arches warm the cockles of your heart.
Much hilarity ensues all round when we discover that chips in Costa Rica are known as ‘Papas’ , the kid’s pet name for Hugh’s dad. The best taxi driver in the world loses it giggling and I fear he may crash. Watch out Granny, think they might have a new name for you………. ‘chicken and chips’…here is ….Pollo (Poyo) and Pappa.
Mantis movement
We get back at about five happy and full to find that the mantis has moved about three inches. That is some slow moving dude. Can Preying mantis fly? Anybody out there know? This one certainly isn’t racing towards its next meal.
The Great White rafter arrives some time later and we all go swimming.
Socks in the minibar
And yes, why were there socks in the minibar? That’s were Monty keeps them of course.
Read in the paper yesterday that 'Cost Rica is the happiest place on Earth and one of the most environmentally friendly, according to a survey by the New Economics Foundation. Latin American countries occupied nine of the top ten spots but Western nations did poorly.' Guess where dear old Blighty came. Hmmm. 74th. Looks to me like all that happiness is rubbing off on you all. Keep it up! xxx
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