12: Downpour or Deluge?

17.10.2012 – 17.10.2012 rain 29 °C

Another day and another bus trip! Today’s was another private transfer from Monteverde to Quepos. Our trip started with the CR massage (the super bumpy road), so we spent the first hour or so wincing every other minute as we kept hitting potholes and heavy bumps in the road. Although the road was pretty ordinary the view was anything but. Our drive was along the continental ridge line.. Super green, and super steep mountains on all sides. All of this framed with blue sky, white fluffy clouds and vultures soaring thru the air.. truly amazing! My photos today are useless so I can’t even share the moment with everyone… 🙁

We did stop for a break half way along at a brown muddy river. On the surface I was questioning why we had stopped at this non-descript river, until Allan pointed out the local wildlife… About ten BIG crocs call this river home, and were lazing on the river bank waiting for a feed of tourists! Thankfully we were a good twenty metres higher up than the crocs so no risk of being croc lunch. I was a bit worried about one errant orange butterfly, it seemed to spend all of its time flying around the heads of a couple of the crocs.. it was still flying when I left so maybe the crocs aren’t that hungry today?  🙂

We arrived into Quepos (Pacific Beachside town) and headed straight out for the beach. We all feasted at this cute little restaurant opposite the beach on some yummy Mexican tortilla and chicken thing, called Buffalito Pollo (pronounced, Buff-a-leeto Poyo). By the time lunch was over the wind had really picked up and the sea had gone from a nice pretty green colour into this angry grey colour so although I wandered along the beach I didn’t hop in for a swim.. plenty of time tomorrow to really soak up the Pacific Ocean!

Ursula and I headed back to town mid afternoon and got back just before the storm hit with ferocity. We were sitting in this coffee shop having a coffee when the rain just started pelting down… Think bad summer storm and then multiply the amount of rain by about 5 times… The amount of rain they had would have flooded the low lying areas of Brissie, but here in CR the drainage is so well built that hours after the storm and the city was dry! Ursula and I were amazed though.. As we were sitting drinking our coffee (watching the storm) we noticed that the car across the street was an open topped Jeep. The driver had covered up the steering wheel but left the rest of the car to the elements. By the time we left we were convinced that the car must be full of water (because we couldn’t really see water draining out of the car), of course, it wasn’t! Clearly, this guy is a local and is used to the weather cause he has drilled drainage holes the entire length of his car.. he’ll have a wet bum when he goes to drive it but at least his feet will be dry!

We had dinner tonight at the El Avion. It is an old cargo plane (think Vietnam war style with bomb bay opening at the back) that has been converted into a restaurant. The interior of the plane is a bar area and the wings are the roof for the restaurant area. Dinner wasn’t spectacular (overcooked Tuna steak) but the location was certainly interesting. We finished our evening with a drink in the plane before we took the bus back into town for an early-ish night in. Tomorrow we are heading out to Manuel Antonio NP and Salsa dancing.

2 thoughts on “12: Downpour or Deluge?

  1. That storm sounds unreal! The Mexican food sounds soo great! You are really an awesome traveller I would experience all that action stuff too if your age! Haha! The beaches are supposed to be fantastic when not in storm conditions of course! I think the water is like the Whitsundays/Cairns….but you can let me know if that is right in next blog!

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