28th March – getting out there
So today was never going to be a highlight of the holiday but it could definitely have gone smoother. You could say that we were actually pretty lucky to catch our flight in the end – we certainly proved the point that it’s always best to have lots of spare time at the airport!
After a leisurely breakfast we were all packed and ready so moved our taxi to the airport forward an hour (thank goodness!). We’d tried checking in online but had issues and were told by the booking agent that this was common and ‘would be fine once we got to the airport’. After checking in at the manual check in in the baggage hall and queueing at the baggage drop off we were told that we could not have boarding passes as we did not have visa’s for the USA. We’d not realised we needed ESTA’s to be allowed to transfer planes at Atlanta. The only way to be allowed on our flight was to apply for ESTA’s there and then for £14 each as they give an immediate decision. Took about 15 minutes per person sat on the floor in the baggage queue only to get an email saying that the decision for acceptance would take up to 72 hours!! Then followed a frantic blurr of about 30 minutes of me running back and forth across the departure hall between Chris who was speaking to a lady who was saying we’d miss our flight and the lady at the baggage desk who tried and was able to print our boarding passes. With about 5 mins to go until the baggage desks closed we ignored the lady saying no and headed off through security and onto the plane.
We were a little nervy in the queue for security at Atlanta as we’d not received any notification that our ESTA’s had cleared. No issues though seemingly. Our bigger issue was that we had 1 hr 40 mins transfer time which had been eroded down to 1 hour 20 mins after taxiing and disembarking time (we were near the back of the plane). After queueing in immigration control take 1 and giving our photos and fingerprints we approached immigration control take 2 with about 50 minutes until our flight. After a quick word with one of the staff we were passed through the line but still had to give out fingerprints and photos again (!!?? don’t think I’d changed much in between). Long story short we ran from there to our gate and arrived as the last few people were passing through – phew!
Moral of this story – leave more than 2 hours transfer time in American airports – we’re lucky that Atlanta wasn’t bigger (or that out flights were close).
Things were a little smoother after that – 4.5 hours to San Jose, a taxi to our airport hotel (paid for by our hotel) the La Guaria in Alajuela and to bed for 9pm CR time, 3am UK time. La Guaria was a simple, dated but relatively cheap (for the airport hotels) hotel. Absolutely fine in our book for an overnight stay. Breakfast was not large in range with continental only options – lots of brightly coloured American cereals, some breads, ham, cheese and fruit. A few restaurants within 15 mins walk but none which were amazing.
More about the flights in ….(provide link to the FAQ’s/facts page)
29th March – Los Chorros Waterfalls
Still on UK time we woke up at 4am. Couldn’t even go to breakfast for 2 hours. On the plus side did some bird spotting from the window and got my first four CR birds (Tropical Kingbird, White winged Pigeon, Clay coloured Thrush, Rufous collared Sparrow).
After a free shuttle back to the airport and a ride to the car rental company (Payless Alajuela) we picked up our car and headed off into CR looking for some waterfalls partly on our route North. I’d found the Los Chorros Waterfalls online and read that these were not well known to tourists so we hoped to have them largely to ourselves. It’s not a popular tourist attraction and this was our first experience of CR signposting. Don’t expect to see any signs for this place. There is one into the car park on the corner but not from the main road so you have to know it’s there.
It was a gloriously sunny day, hot at 10am when we got there. The walk down was lovely, with few people and we found a little rainforest trail which follows the river. Winding through, ducking branches etc we felt like we were properly trekking in the rainforest. Then the path ran out, so we had to backtrack back up to find the main trail again. We didn’t mind. Carried on down the main path to a picnic area and found that there were lots of people already there! Emerging into the river with the waterfall backdrop there were people everywhere! Turns out it was the Tico’s (Costa Rican’s name for themselves) national holiday. Apparently their favourite pastime is finding waterfalls and rivers and hanging out there in the sun all day. Pura vida!
We waded across the river, found the steps to the second waterfall I’d read about and waded up stream to reach it. More Ticos. We played around for a few hours and watched people climbing the rocks and diving into the waterfall pool and by then the place was packed – barely a spare rock to sit on! We headed back up to the car (quite a queue for the river crossing by this point) and were very grateful for the cold water on sale at the top.
We then drove north to La Virgen looking for a lunch spot on the way. Everything was so busy that we passed most the restaurants on route as they didn’t look like they’d have space! We had some pretty desperate young people in the back when we were travelling past La Paz. We were flagged down by the guy behind us who was pointing at our wheels. Pulling over we realised the brakes were smoking (automatic car going up and down hills with 4 cases and 4 people in in – oh dear). At that point we faced a dilemma – how long to wait. We were all starving, but if we moved on too early we faced failing brakes which is not helpful when you’re heading down out of the mountains… We gave it 15 minutes and shortly after found our first soda (small café) and stopped. It was a tiny place with mountain views and no menu but we needed food and the car needed a rest. A few things were listed off to us (they spoke no English) and we chose the queso tortillas. Not good. Made with maize rather than wheat flour and with the cheese as small lumps in it. Not bad for a couple of mouthfuls but they were so plain and dry. We thought we’d been shafted by the locals, but then others came in and ordered and ate the same. Just not to our taste. We ate as much as possible to stop our stomach’s growling and headed off again.
Reached La Virgen about 4. Drove up and down the one road which is the town, picked up some shopping in the supermarket as we were self catering and headed up and out to our eco lodge Wendy’s as the light was starting to fade. That was the strange thing about CR – the sun came up about 4am, but went down early evening so it was pitch black by 6.30! No sitting outside enjoying warm summer evenings! After a welcome drink from Wendy’s mum (Cas juice – no idea what it was but it remained a firm favourite with the kids throughout the holiday) we’d just got inside our lodge when it started to rain. Proper rainforest rain that went on all night, hammering on the corrugated iron roof making it hard to sleep – luckily we were exhausted after being up so early and passed out.
30 March – Dave and Dave’s Nature Park and Tirimbina Night Walk
The rain was still going when we woke up. I knew we were in the rainforest, but it was the dry season – it wasn’t meant to rain this much and I wanted to get out there!
Thankfully the rain stopped about 9am and seeing as we hadn’t seen Wendy in person yet to organise some trips for us we headed off to a couple of places I’d picked up on TripAdvisor. First stop Dave and Dave’s Nature Park at the other end of La Virgen. We had a great time here, with hummingbirds flying around our heads, frog spotting, birds (another 16 species ticked off the list including the White Collared Manakin and a Little Blue Heron) and a pleasant walk chatting to Dave about his work here.
After an enjoyable morning we were all very hungry (that may be an understatement for Evie who gets seriously hangry – no idea where she gets that from :/!) so we looked for somewhere in La Virgen to eat. The kids won and we stopped at La Trongo pizza place (massive pepperoni pizza fed us all for c9,500). Great pizza super cheap = big thumbs up from all of us (although we did feel a little bad to have not fried some more Costa Rican food – possibly we were still scarred by the Tortilla from the day before…).
We decided that we’d try to go on a night walk that evening so headed to Tirimbina Lodge (a bigger, more touristy collection of lodges with trails into the rainforest and guides) to book. Quite amazing to see some fellow tourists as the only ones we’d really come across to this point were the Dutch photographers at Dave and Dave’s. As we walked in there was a Three toed Sloth sleeping at the entrance!
We headed back home to dinner. I managed to fit in a 30 mins walk round the property and added 13 birds to my list (including Montezuma’s Oropendola – one of my favourites – and the Slaty-tailed Trogon) before the heavens opened again. The walk was at 7-9 so we would be out in the dark past the kids bedtime. Decision time came, head out in the rain or give it a miss. We decided to go – we were in the rainforest after all! After getting waterproofs etc on we stepped out to get in the car and it stopped. Excellent. The Tirimbina nature walk was good, one of our few group trips with about 5 other people on it with us (English and American). We ended up with effectively two guides (Sergio and Manuel) as one of the groups were on an organised tour and their tour guise also knew a fair bit about the wildlife. We didn’t see anything big, but walking over the 264m hanging bridge in the dark was good fun as it bounces around and the recent rain meant the frogs and insects were out in force – we saw preying mantis, false scorpions, bullet ants, giant millipedes and a baby tarantula. Total walk was about 1.2km.
31st March – Safari float down the Sarapiqui River
Awoke to sun and great views of Tanagers from the house. Wandered over to the main house where the kids helped feed the chickens and goats with Wendy’s father. Discussed our plans for our remaining days there and Wendy arranged a boating trip down the river with someone she knows. We headed to Puerto Viejo and to a small café there called Sabo which Wendy recommended. Huge portions and generally nice. Not amazing as the kids didn’t like the spaghetti bolognase but we enjoyed the prawns and rice and the shakes and smoothies were great. All for a good price.
We met Luis outside the restaurant with his boat. We parked our car outside his brothers house on that road (so they can keep an eye on it – car crime seems to be a big thing in Costa Rica), got in his truck and headed upriver. The boat ride back to the river was excellent. Luis was excellent and knowledgeable (he has worked in La Selva Biological Station before and really knows all the birds and animals) and really good with the kids. He was friendly but unobtrusive at the back – perfect. It was just us and him in an inflatable boat with the four of us paddling and Luis steering. There wasn’t much need to steer through as the river was taking us in the direction we wanted to go. We could get out the boat and float down the river too whenever we wanted – I kept my life jacket on and floating down the river looking up at the trees was very peaceful (rather then swimming). We stopped on a bank halfway and Luis produced a pineapple, orange, watermelon and guabo’s (a bean you eat the flesh around) which Luis skilfully chopped up for us there and then. I ate so much pineapple my tongue was stinging but it was simply delicious. We fed the rinds to the piranha’s (vegetarian ones only in these waters!) and headed on.
Saw so much wildlife on this trip, many birds but also massive iguana’s and basilisks (Jesus Christ lizards) running on the water and we all had a wonderful time – remains one of the highlights of the trip. We were with Luis for nearly 4 hours rather than the 3 we’d paid for and he stayed around with us at the end in Puerto Viejo helping me identify the birds I was spotting there.
Stopped for pizza take out from La Troco’s on the way home.
1st April – Tirimbina trails and Chocolate Tour
Literally woken up by the sound of a Howler monkey troupe passing 😊. Beautiful sunny morning.
We headed out to Tirimbina again as having been on the night tour we were allowed to walk the trails for free. Wandered around about 3km of their many trails and went over the 264m suspension bridge. We didn’t take a guide but the trails are clear and it’s pretty impossible to get really lost as the trails are signed.
Aiden was particularly happy as he tracked down a Howler monkey from its calls, spotting it high in the trees. There was also an armadillo on the way in, rummaging in the leaves a few metres away from us totally unconcerned. There were literally hundreds of Central American Whiptail lizards sunning themselves on the path – beautiful lizards with yellow spots and blue tails. My husband Chris also had a run in with an army ant who grabbed onto the seam on his shoe and would not let go –
We ate lunch in the restaurant at Tirimbina, which was totally empty as we arrived at 12. Just as we walked in a massive green iguana (at least 1.5m long) fell from the tree beside us (2 metres away!) and landed with a massive crash! Looking up there was another one who was still in the tree, crest raised looking very smug (if lizards can look smug!). Seemingly they’d been fighting and the one on the floor had lost. His crest was down and he had an injured leg so he stayed right next to us for a while and crawled slowly off whilst we ate. This was Aiden’s highlight at this point.
Lunch at the restaurant was ok, the burgers were nice enough but double the price of any meal so far – the price of eating in a tourist lodge rather than with the locals.
After lunch we headed back up the road to Chilamate to Sarapiqui Best Chocolate for a chocolate tour. It didn’t look much from the outside, we weren’t sure whether the kids would enjoy it and the sun was beating down but Wendy had recommended it so joined the Polish couple waiting by the side of the road. We were glad we went. Rodolfo who runs the company, an ex guide who knows Wendy wanted to give something back so he quit being a guide two years ago to start these tours. HE buys all his chocolate from small local growers who are too small to sell to the wholesalers and make any profit. He teaches them how to make the chocolate properly from the cocoa and teaches them English.
He took us through the trees to their chocolate making site and told us about the plants and showed the animals that were there, including some roosting pygmy round eared bats inside an old termite nest and a canopy lizard. The chocolate making area was well covered and in the trees and we learnt a lot about the history of chocolate making and cocoa pods. It was very interactive with lots of opportunities to taste the chocolate (raw, roasted, melted, liquid and finished) and the kids enjoyed it – especially when they made it into a hot chocolate which could be flavoured with vanilla, chilli and sugar!
Back home for a spot of birdwatching outside the lodge for me and a homecooked dinner.
2nd April – Cano Negro National Park
Another gloriously sunny morning. We set off early for Cano Negro National Park near Los Chiles on the northern border. We knew it would be a fair drive but it’s also meant to be excellent for water birds. Basically the kids and hubbie were suffering a long drive and birdwatching trip for my entertainment. Which just made me feel worse when we couldn’t find one of the roads (Costa Rica’s lack of signs got us again) and the road we ended up on (which didn’t look much different on the map) turned out to be a super windy mountain road frequented by lorries. 3 hours and 15 minutes later we arrived at Los Chiles (big shout out to the kids who were angels and didn’t even once ask whether we were there yet!). It was interesting to see the sugar cane and pineapple plantations which covered most the land from xxx to Los Chiles. Apparently this used to all be virgin forest and the theory is that the dropping water levels at Cano Negro are due to the large amounts of water being removed from the rivers to irrigate all these crops. Not good.
Anyway. After all this time we were not where we wanted to be – we were trying to find the road to xxxx which various posts talked about but after reaching the border, coming back and taking the turn at the cell tower as per the instructions we found ourselves at the docks at Los Chiles, which was empty as it was now past 12 and most boats had left. We were approached by a man who offered us a boat tour from there. Couldn’t actually see a boat and his English was patchy so we were a little unsure. Would we even see anything on this stretch of the river – the tour would not make it to the lake/wetland area where the best birds were meant to be? There was a little empty soda at the docks so we stopped off to have some food – I was too hungry to make decisions about whether I was about to be ripped off as I was too hangry. The soda staff spoke no English again but we asked for chicken, rice and beans and were not disappointed – as usual it was delicious. We said yes to the boat due to a lack of options – we couldn’t face more driving around trying to find the road when we had no idea where it was, it was 30 mins to the lake dock we were trying to find on unpaved roads and it was already past 1.
Despite our doubts we climbed into our 12(ish) seater canopied boat and our captain Henry set off. We’d hardly turned a corner when Henry took us to shore to look at an adult caiman and babies on the bank! Maybe the tour wasn’t going to be that bad after all!
It was actually amazing – we had a private tour again without paying the extra for one and Henry was so experienced – he could see things on the bank from the middle of the river which we couldn’t see even when they were two metres in front of us – like this amazing Basilisk (which looked like a green leaf to our eyes). A lot of what we saw we had already seen in other places but as we were on a motorboat we could move in and get really close. We also saw lots of new animals (and a few new birds) like the caiman and it’s babies, super close views of Jesus Christ Lizards, iguanas, Howlers lounging in the trees above and white faced monkeys facing off across the river. When we got within a few metres the male was squaring up to us too!
We saw a couple of other boats on their way back – bigger boats with lots of people on them which I think were the organised tours from Arenal/San Jose.
On the way home we discovered a new road not on the maps which goes from just north of La Virgen across so the journey only took us 2 hours! Gutted!
3 April – Wendy’s bird walk and trip to waterfall
Woke for a 6am start with Wendy birdspotting and saw loads (kids and hubby stayed in bed). We didn’t have to go far, just around the property and over into the neighbours property to see a whole host of species.
Wendy’s parents used to work growing Yukka plants and selling them to a wholesaler for $1 each (and most the time they didn’t get paid for all of them) for sale to the American market for over $20 each. Wendy wanted something better for her family so they built the ecolodge in the forest at the back to allow them to stop that and actually make some money. They have recently built a second smaller lodge and the plan is to build one more and plant more bird attracting tree species.
After a lovely swing in the hammocks below the lodge we went for lunch in San Miguel following a travel guide recommendation. We couldn’t find ‘La Mirador’ restaurant which supposedly has views of a waterfall and a hummingbird feeder, but we did find Hotel Gallios who had an open area at the back overlooking trees and fields which also served rice, beans and pork ribs which was excellent. Spotted another couple of species too – with 934 species in Costa Rica there are so many around!
Headed back for a post lunch nature walk with Wendy down to the waterfall and pool on the neighbours property. Wendy talked to the kids on the walk down about the jungle layers and plants which was nice. We had the pool below the waterfall to ourselves – it was cold but ‘alright once you’re in!’
Dinner was sea bass, rice and beans with a selection of veggies (mostly from their garden) cooked by Wendy’s mum. Delicious! A lovely day although a bit much for Aiden – he fell asleep in the chair after dinner!
April 4th – Moving on and Cataras Del Toro
Woke up at Wendy’s for the last time. Packed slowly as we were all sad to leave such a beautiful and peaceful place. Reflected that we should have spent more time hanging out at the lodge.
Headed for Cataras Del Toro on the road to Bajos Del Toro up in the mountains. A beautiful drive with some decent signs for once! We walked down to the waterfall around the edge of the crater and down the hundreds of steps to the base of the 90m falls.
It was pretty busy here – there was a photography group at the start taking pictures of the hummingbirds at the feeders around the restaurant and some of them were walking down to the falls.
24m Colones entry for the four of us. 259 steps
Came back up and wandered through the gardens, which were empty but another great site for birdspotting.
We ate at the restaurant with the large variegated squirrels coming right next to the table.
We spent over four hours here before getting back in the car and heading back down and round to La Paz.
Just before La Paz Waterfall Gardens there is a waterfall (the 5th one of LA Paz Waterfall gardens) on the side of the road. We stopped and walked the little trail to get behind it before heading on to our home for the next two days – Tiquicia Lodge (about 5 mins further on from La Paz Waterfall Gardens). Arrived in the cloud so couldn’t see much of anything – except for the painted shoes and brightly coloured room. A quirky place!
5th April – La Paz Waterfall Gardens
Up early for a spot of birdwatching as we were cloud free and the sun was shining before breakfast which was lots of fruit and scrambled eggs.
We headed to La Paz Waterfall Gardens getting there about 9am. It’s back on the tourist trail so it’s a pricey and busy place – $180 for the four of us with lunch! This day was for the kids though, who had been so great wandering forest trails and looking for birds.
We’d done all the animal exhibits by 12 so stopped for lunch which was a lovely buffet (unfortunately we got there just after a coachload of people on a guided tour so we had to queue for a while for lunch and the restaurant was busy (it was beautiful though with views out across the valley).
After lunch we walked down to the waterfalls. The trail is pretty short but nicely done with a bus at the bottom to take you back up if you can’t face the stairs back up (I think everyone is meant to take the bus). We walked back up – it’s really not that far. Then we went on the other trails there – these were totally deserted and obviously infrequently travelled as the route is paved like the waterfall trails but it was all covered in moss so it looked lovely and green and natural. Well worth it. Nearing the end the heavens opened and we were treated to our first proper drenching since arriving in the rainforest – it felt like a right of passage! The trees provided some cover but as we came out we realised how big the raindrops were – massive! We were soaked by the time we got back to the bird house. We’d heard some people talking earlier about sloth feeding at 2 so made sure we were there for that. It turns out that was a private tour who were getting a ‘behind the scenes’ tour or something as it was just a couple of families who were taken into the sloth cage to stroke and feed the sloths. We weren’t allowed in, but the lovely people there let us in after to stroke them – lucky! As it was still raining we headed into the butterfly house next door (the best butterfly house I’ve ever been in – it felt magical to have the ginormous blue morpho butterflies flapping around your head) and saw the group again with a man holding a large net full of butterflies. We headed over to watch as he got the butterflies out and placed them on people (freshly hatched butterflies whose wings hadn’t quite dried enough for them to be flying yet or something – they sat on people for ages). He went round the circle and then started putting them on us too – whoops but also yay! Great experience – I have no idea how much extra this tour cost these people but it looked pretty worth it! We thought that we should probably not follow them after that so we headed back to the restaurant with the buffet for free drinks (still get them with our buffet lunch drinks bands) and ice creams. Then to the jaguars pens again for feeding time of the big cats. By this point it was steadily raining and most people had left so we had front row seats to the large male jaguar crunching the chicken carcass like it was a wafer bar – his face literally inches away from ours through a piece of glass. I will not be picking any fights with a jaguar in my future – scary stuff! Aiden high fived a mountain lion (through glass again) too and we got good views of other cats. Ran back to the car in the heavy rain and had dinner in Tiquicia Lodge again.
6th April – Tarcloes and the beach!
We packed up, had breakfast and then headed out on the trails at Tiquicia as it was our last chance and we hadn’t done it in yet as both evenings had been rainy. Another sunny morning though so we took our chance. The owner had made an Emoji trail with emoji’s to find in the gardens and along the way. The kids went round with a notepad and recorded what they saw – just like me with my birds 😊.
Then it was a long car journey back through the mountains towards Alajuela again and down to the Tarcoles area (3 hours not helped by the total lack of signs and us not having any mobile data so we had to guess our way through Alajuela). There’s a bridge across the river as you approach called the ‘crocodile bridge’(you can’t really miss it). It’s famous for having crocodiles under it a lot of the time. It’s also known for car theft – they wait for you to park at the end of the bridge knowing the walk along the bridge and back will take at least 5 mins, smash a window and grab what they can. Do not leave your car unattended here – we heard two stories about this happening whilst we were there. The bridge did not disappoint and there were at least 20 massive crocs in the river below. We also saw our first Scarlet Macaws flying over.
We drove on another 20 mins (partly up a very steep unpaved road which the car barely made it up (it was heavily laden with people and cases so I won’t blame the car too much). It started to hammer down too as we were driving up. We made it up only to find out the restaurant was closed. We could tour the gardens in the rain for a pretty pricey ticket. Turned round sad and hungry to search elsewhere and found Ti-Ka’s on the way back down. There were stunning views out to sea (once the rain stopped and some of the cloud cleared. We had burgers and they were delicious eaten outside under cover.
Back on the road for the remaining 2 hour drive to Matapalo which was very straight forward – it’s literally one road along the coast the whole way – and a great road at that 😊. Finding the property was guesswork with no mobile data/map but we got there by driving all the roads in Matapalo – luckily there aren’t many!
Casa aba Matapalo was great. We took a dip in the warm pool before bed.
7th April – Beach time
Up and off to the beach at 8am. It was literally 100m away and virtually empty (although it was 8am so that may have had something to do with it). It was a beautiful long shallow beach with great waves rolling in from way back which were great to jump over and it was so warm – I’ve never got in the sea so quick in my life. Unfortunately we were having too much fun and didn’t put much suncream as a) it was 9am and b) we thought we’d only be out for a few more minutes which turned into hours. Got completely burned – especially the kids.
Went for lunch at La Parcela restaurant 5km south of Dominical on recommendation from Luis (our first boating tour guide). It had beautiful views across the sea on both sides as it was on a small peninsula. The food was lovely (whole fish, parmesan chicken).
Headed back to Dominical which was much smaller than expected. A single unpaved road lined with bars, tour shops and other shops (mostly surfer gear) to set up some trips for that week. Hired body boards so came back to the beach to try them out and catch the sunset. Great fun!
Another dip in the pool with pizza take out and then bed.
8th April – Where are the passports?
After a bit of thought and searching we accepted we’d lost the passports.
Headed to the beach for more body boarding anyway fully covered this time and with liberal amounts of factor 50Board hurt my burnt thighs a bit but was great fun, especially when all of us caught the same wave and came drifting into the shore together. We saw stingrays swimming round us but didn’t know what they were (shapes only) .
Tried to apply for the ETD’s before lunch but it was super slow internet and kept timing out before we could complete the application form. We gave up and wandered down the road to one of the two restaurants in Matapalo – it was so hot – much hotter than in the forest at about 33 degrees so we chose the first one we came too called K (although driving out later we realised the other one was only about 100m further and looked a lot nicer). Food was ok though, we all had burgers.
Kids went in the pool with hubby in the afternoon whilst I applied for all 4 ETD’s and set up the apptmts. Tried calling the local police a few times but there was no answer., I hope they have a better reaction time if I call the emergency lines!
Had found something that looked like beef mince at the (which shop???) so had spaghetti bolognase for dinner.
April 9th – Boat trip to
Woke early as we had to be in Uvita (a 40 minute drive) for 7am for our boat trip. Sky was dark and looking very ominous and the weather forecast said thunderstorms all day – yikes! Checked with the tour group and they pretty much said ‘of course we’re going you’re in the rainforest – it rains here’ which is true, but rain I’m ok with. Out on the seas in a thunderstorm with a daughter who isn’t a big fan of boats I’m not so ok with. We went anyway seeing as it wasn’t actually rain or lightening yet.
Arrived at Costa Rica Dive and Surf in Uvita and got kitted out in wetsuits as they reckoned it would be quite cold on the journey out with the wind (hubby decided against it). After waiting for the rest of our group (not a private tour this time and one of the most expensive trips we’d done ☹) – some of whom (the Americans) turned up an hour late! We had Julia the german, a Spanish brither and sister and the American and his parents so not a big group at least. Headed to the beach where we waded through the sea to the boat and they told us that on these flat sandy beaches there are stingrays which you should be careful not to tread on by doing ‘the stingray shuffle’. We had a bit of a moment of thinking ‘oh s**t we’ve been running around on the beaches with the kids with rays around us’ but no stings so it was all good! Resolved to be a little more careful from then on.
Headed off towards the biggest grey cloud and were soon warned that it didn’t look good for us as they could see other boats which had turned around and were heading back to shore. We were reassured that this wasn’t because they feared sinking in the storm, just that the waves slow the boat down and it was quite a way to the island we were trying to get to so they wouldn’t make it in time. Ours was a nice new boat with twin engines so they were fairly confident we’d get through. Then we entered the storm – the rain started (which is basically horizontal and hits you at pace when you’re going that fast) and the waves got rough. Evie was not impressed and bored – it’s an hour’s trip out there and we were wondering what we were doing on this trip. I was super glad of the wetsuit as the rain felt like hail. It was a pretty glum trip out but then we came through the rain, blue sky appeared and the island came into view basking in glorious sunshine and our spirits lifted. We headed to our first site, where half the group were scuba diving and half were snorkelling. Neither of the kids had snorkelled before but both were willing to try. I paired with Aiden and Chris with Evie. Unfortunately the sea was still pretty choppy and Evie would not put her head in – she was convinced that the water would go down the end of the snorkel and she’d drown and it was hard to reason with her when she was being constantly hit with waves. Aiden was a little unsure too and found the flippers really difficult as they made his feet float so got rid of them. After I’ve put my head under and seen the number of fish below I was able to convince him that he really should try it. Once he’d seen the fish he was sold and didn’t want to take his face out. Evie was taken back to the boat in tears. Heart breaking and hubby went to sit with her rather than leaving her sad and alone in the boat. I was swimming about after our guide towing Aiden along looking at all the different types of fish. The water was really clear and you could see 20m to the bottom. There were fish everywhere, from small electric blue ones, yellow box fish and angel fish to big pink and green groupers. At times they were all around you. I’ve snorkelled in the Med before but this was a whole other level – I must have seen at least 40 species of fish. There were a couple of other groups there (although less than normal as some had turned back) all swimming about behind a guide and we heard the shout ‘tortuga’ (turtle) so followed the crowd and saw a turtle resting about 30m down where it was a little murky. There were so many people there with flippers kicking around I was worried Aiden would get kicked in the face so after a quick look we moved on.
Back on the boat for fruit and a quick stop on the island (a biological reserve where there were loads of huge hermit crabs. Both kids decided they’d rather stay on the beach than go to the second snorkelling spot so Chris stayed with them to play on the beach. They were literally left alone on there on their own private island.
By now the sun was blazing and they only allow organic suncreams as the others damage the reefs. I was covered to elbows and knees by the wetsuit and figured that my arms and legs would be well below the water so I’d be fine for another 40 min snorkel. I’d been burnt before snorkelling but that was on my back and bum which were covered.
The second snorkel was also awesome, there were no other groups at this one and it was a little easier for not having to drag Aiden around. I kept close to the guide so I could see what he was pointing out. Saw another turtle much closer and stopped to watch for a bit. It swam off, slowly coming to the surface so we were following it a couple of metres away. It surfaced just in front of us – we could have touched it – and stayed there for a minute or so before diving down. A really magical moment shared with the Spanish siblings.
Just as I was thinking ‘seeing a shark now would make this a truly epic trip’ the guide called ‘shark!’. As I was nearest to him I looked and saw a white tip reef shark a couple of metres long. It saw us and with a flick of its tail it was off. We swam after it but we were close to shore by this point and the water was a lot murkier – all we could see was the white tip waving as it disappeared off into the murk. Still – I’ve swum with sharks!
We picked up the kids and hubby from the beach before heading home. They’d had a great time building a hermit crab hotel. Ate lunch on the boat (rice, chicken and salad) and then back up to full speed to head home in the sun.
Chris saw some leatherback turtles (we think) on the way back – massive turtles a couple of metres across floating on the surface). We’d hoped to do a whale watching tour but seemingly we’d just missed the season so picked this one as it had snorkeling and they did say we might see some cetaceans from the boat on the way out and back. I was just thinking that we were going too fast and it was too late when the Spanish man and hubby suddenly saw some movement off the boat. A pod of Pacific dolphins – about 40 of them. The driver headed over and started driving in circles and invited us up to the prow of the boat. A handful of the dolphins joined the boat and swam along in front, leaping in the bow wave. We were leaning over to watch and again I’m sure if I’d have reached in I could have touched one. The kids loved it and Aiden was thanking us for bringing them on the trip 😊.
Played with the dolphins for a while, some swimming with the boat, others leaving in our wake before heading home.