10.10.2012 – 10.10.2012  32 °C

We scored a lucky break today. We were supposed to catch three separate public buses and a boat today to get to our next destination of Sarapiqui. Allan offered the group the choice of getting up at 5am to start catching the buses or for us to all pay an extra 10 dollars, catch one mini-van and one boat and leave at 8am… Hmm.. Fortunately, the team agreed with me that there was no debate and that we all wanted to get a bit more sleep and not change buses every hour or so. So, on the stroke of 8am we were all on board the boat and off to see the next part of our journey.

Not long after boarding the boat we witnessed some awesome lightening displays and heard plenty of thunder and then it started to rain. And not just light drizzle but a constant steady stream of water falling from the sky. By the time we made it to the boat launch (same place as we left for Tortuguero from) it was really raining and even with our rain jackets on we were all wet by the time we got into the mini van.

Our trip to Sarapiqui was tight (we were all crammed into a Tarago sized mini van) but it was pretty quick and at least we didn’t have to stop at every bus stop, and every bus terminal on our way to our next stop. Our accommodation here in Sarapiqui is in our host’s back yard. Alex (our host) bought this land many years ago, built himself a jungle and then installed plenty of little cabins. Very cool place to hang out for a few days. I have my own house! Complete with front porch, a hammock, chairs and tables, huge four poster bed and ensuite. All of this amongst a beautiful tropical jungle. Only drawback that I can see is the insects…. They are big, they bite and they are everywhere! For those of you who know me well, you know how I’m feeling about now!!!!

Taking the insects aside, the place is awesome… Alex even has two sloths living in the trees! We saw one of the sloths today… Reminded me of a brown very furry koala! I could only see it’s bum and it didn’t move. In fact, sloths don’t really move.. they sleep something like 18hrs of the day! I’m guessing that therefore I’m not really going to see one do anything other than just sit in a tree!!! Ursula is teaching me random German words, so for everyone’s information a Sloth is called a Faultier in German and Faultier directly translates as the lazy animal.. Much more appropriate name for this animal than Sloth!

Alex also has plenty of birds (and a bird feeding station), lizards and this amazing ant colony. When we came back from dinner last night we were walking around and found this huge trail of ants. Big ants too! Anyway, there were thousands of these ants all following each other carrying bits of leaves on their backs. Amazing to watch! I felt slightly sorry for the tree though, because they must have stripped a good portion of leaves off the tree last night. Apparently, the ants take the leaves back to the colony, where fungus eats away at the leaves. The ants then eat the fungus!

We spent our afternoon both in town and back at the hotel playing cards and hanging out. Tom taught us all a new game using four cards.. I won a round of games and lost plenty! Quite fun and easy to learn. I hit the sack early tonight because tomorrow we are going White Water Rafting!