Galapagos Islands...

We left Cocos Island and headed to the Galapagos Islands - crossing the equator on the way!
Newbies who haven't crossed the equator are called "pollywogs" and after their initiation - and abuse! - they are called "shellbacks"

So after the equator crossing, we pulled into San Cristobal Island to clear in.....with a crew of 3 mohicans and 7 bald heads! Must of looked like a boat of convicts...but they let us in anyways.

















What amazed me most about the Galapagos was the sheer diversity of scenery. Each island was different to its neighbour, both with animal life and appearance.
Some were lush green with rolling hills (reminding me of the English countryside!) yet others were sheer rocky cliff faces, surrounded by screaming birds. One of them looked like the surface of a planet almost, with lava rocks and dirt, only punctuated with a cactus here and there. The one pictured above was circled by a long, white, beautiful sandy beach....just happened to be prime sealion viewing. They owned the place.
















Having never been attacked by humans (there is a no touching rule) they know no fear of us and so see no reason to move away! Amazing. You can just walk in amongst them....but not too close to the alpha male. The pups even race up to you to sniff at your legs!

A sea lion on the aft deck was an almost constant fixture no matter where we anchored. One evening we even had one come up to the dining table where the guests were eating - they were loving it - but then it took a turn towards the salon doors. They were laughing so hard they could barely shout out for me to stop him, luckily Byron was working on something in the salon. In the end it was a comical picture of Byron holding up the entrance mat (not knowing where the switch to close the doors was!) and waving in front of the sea lion who was dodging left and right to try and get past Byron, not in the least bit bothered by the mat being waved at him!
Wish I had my camera for that one - although it wouldn't be easy serving dinner with a brick hanging round my neck....





Unbelievably lucky to be on the boat we were on ("Tahiti") we got to do a fair few activities thanks to the owners generosity. A full packed schedule with people slotted into different activities each day: morning walk, morning dive - move the boat - afternoon dive, crew dive, afternoon walk.

I was able to visit the Darwin Research Centre - where they bring tortoises from the islands to breed and study and release back into the wild (once they are over 20cm) and met the famous "Lonesome George"! - go on beach walks to see the sealions and huge lizards, cliff walks scouting for blue footed boobies and frigate birds, dive with the sealions - experiencing some serious thermoclines! - and many other activities.

Our fantastic dive guide found the time to run Byron and I through our dive exercises and offically certify us as divers!

The diving was fantastic - if unbelievably cold - with all the marine life surrounding us. There were fish galore, tortoises swimming past, sharks, plenty of mammoth rays and even a wee seahorse - although it was pretty deep and the temperature dropped over 10 degrees on the way down, so it was more of a quick look/snap/admire and then back up.

But my personal favourite were the sealions. So much fun to watch how they roll in the water and swim right up to your face to check you out before swimming circles around you. Fascinating to see how much they enjoy themselves and how interested in visitors they were.

Sadly, our time aboard the boat had come to an end - as the Engineer was able to return - and so we had to say our goodbyes and head to the airport...yet another adventure in itself.

It was a tender ride to the town, then a 45 minute taxi all the way to the top of the island, then a ferry boat across, followed by a bus to the little shack where the planes leave from! Officially the smallest, most informal airport (seriously, water? nah, take it on with you) ever have I seen.

And then we were headed to Ecuador to relax on a random beach before going home...

(I'll put up some more Galapagos pictures soon)

Cocos Island...

Bit behind on the old blog right now...seeing that I'm back in Liverpool, sitting in front of the fire (novel!) with a cuppa!
So here's to catching up...

After leaving Costa Rica we headed out to Cocos Island, the largest uninhabited island in the world, for some serious diving.

The 36 hour crossing was pretty uneventful, nice smooth sailing, although we did catch a whopping fish.





We spent from the 4th-8th March anchored off Cocos Island.
Cocos has some of the best diving in the world, especially at this time of the year as this is a big feeding ground for the hammerhead sharks.

Schools of hammerheads with as many as 300 of them have been seen!

....I managed to see 2.
But one of them was a beast!

Last time I was at Cocos was on a different boat (lets call it the "big L") and didn't manage to dive much at all - although hard to complain when you're learning to dive in a top dive site...
...2 years went by without another opportunity and then I was on my way back....
This time however, on a different boat (lets call this one "Tahiti"), even with the owners onboard, I was diving once a day, seeing unbelieveable numbers of fish, chasing sharks and somehow my problem with equalising has magically dissapeared. Fantastic!


We had a live-aboard dive master/park guide from Galapagos who was amazing. He took Byron and I through our dives, managed to order our dive course books (in the middle of the ocean) and have them waiting for us at the next port (Galapagos!), filmed the owners and crew during their dives and made a great DVD at the end of the trip for us all to take away.


There are 3 trails on Cocos, last time we did the waterfall hike - which was awesome, but was closed this time due to heavy rains making the trail impassable - and this time we managed the Chatham Bay trail.
It starts off zig-zagging steeply up the side of the mountain - so you're totally knackered by the time you reach the top - then meanders through all different kinds of trees and shrubs, the guide shows you which ones the wild boars eat and, of course, which ones are endemic. Some beautiful views of the coast line way down below!
Then it all changes...
it pretty much becomes a vertical downhill mudslide with a few knotted ropes here and there at the desperate parts. Lots of fun!


It ends around the other bay, near the rangers station and you can see the 'famous' bridge made from fishing equipment (in one of the photo's at the top). It's illegal to fish anywhere within the Cocos protected area, which extends pretty far out, but they only have like 3 boats to patrol the entire area surrounding the island! When they do find lines and nets though, they haul the entire lot in and take it ashore to put it to good use - there is a bridge, walls, barriers....interesting uses. Whilst we were there they were constructing a path up the side of the mountain, with fences woven from fishing line and buoys!

And then it was on to Galapagos...!!

Road Trip...

3 days off.

What else would Byron and I do other than our favourite past time....ROAD TRIP!

The plan - seriously, why do we bother! - was to head to Muelle, stay one night, in order to go hot air ballooning, then move on to Arenal volcano for some hiking. Then a scenic drive around the lake before exploring the Monteverde cloud forest....

So of course, after setting an alarm for 5am and throwing on clothes - only to find that it's not all that warm inland and elevated - to make it to the meeting point for 5.45am, the weather was miserable. Drizzle! Like being back in England.

And so began day one...

But the guy who was running it was really sound and gave us lots of tips on what to do for the day - even though we were miles from anywhere.

We ended up driving north almost to the Nicaraguan border, to the Tenorio volcano national park. This is where we saw possibly the biggest tree ever (see picture) and, after over an hour of hiking through the rainforest in a torrential downpour, the Rio Celeste waterfall. It was meant to be this sweet little waterfall that fell into a teal blue lagoon - seriously, we saw pictures - ......but of course, due the downpour, it became this torrential monster pummelling down the rock face into a churning sea of dark frothing water and then practically formed river rapids!!

Interesting hiking experience. With each step, the mud was squelching over the top of our hiking boots. Downhill - almost like a slip'n'slide. Fun!

Saw plenty of Pineapple fields though. Strange. I'd never pictured them growing like crops with these huge bushy heads before.

The 2 hour drive back was a bit...damp.

But we spent the evening at the Eco-termales hot springs - beautiful place. Unbelievably hot water!

They start with 'cooler' pools at the bottom (think like a hot bath) and then move up to seriously steamy pools at the top (think....being poached alive!).

Was hard to enjoy a good G&T whilst slowly becoming a bit pink. But all in all, a very relaxing experience.

Day two....

I know what you're thinking. Today's the day!

But no... Once again, 5am alarm, sunscreen (at 5am. It's still dark and I'm slathering on SPF 50!), scrabble for clothes and it's back to the field to meet Estefan.

This time it was foggy as anything, we couldn't even see 100 metres ahead of us as we drove to the meeting point.

Foggy. So here I was in Central America and so far the weather for our road trip had consisted of drizzle and fog. And people ask me if I get homesick...?!


But Estefan took us back to his humble abode. This huuuge ranch on the hillside with stables, outhouses, landscaping and his house, built around a courtyard with 360 degree views from all the floor-to-ceiling glass windows. His wife cooked us a typical Costa Rican brekkie and we sat around wondering a) if the fog would clear or not....and b) why the hell we didn't accept his offer to stay in one of the stable rooms....

It was only now we found out that it had a jacuzzi and air con. Heaven!

Instead we had stayed in La Mosquito Suite (could be it's real name, I'm not sure) and were now bitten from head to toe. (No air con, cockroaches running amok, broken shower, no lock on the door and windows that couldn't close, but that had no mosquito nets. Just these pretty lace curtains....with huge holes!) who says Byron doesn't take me anywhere nice...

In the end we decided to drive up to Arenal volcano and go hiking...

Apart from early morning the volcano was always covered with clouds. We heard rocks come hurtling down the slopes of the volcano, you could see them smacking the ground and bouncing back in the air, and wherever they touched the side of the volcano they scorched it, leaving big black marks.

The hiking was really pretty. Easy this time, not like the squelch-fest of the rainforest!

We hiked down to one of the waterfalls and over hanging bridges - terrfiying - before going on a bird hunt. The pictures show the humming bird that was right near us and one of the yellow macaws that flew past whilst we were watching the volcano.

We made our way, at 10kmh, back down the "road". I use the word loosely due to it barely being a few pebbles strewn across the top of the biggest potholes I have ever seen!

If you don't have a 4x4 over here you're screwed - well, your car suspension is anyways.

The afternoon we decided could be spent horseriding somewhere on the far side of Lake Arenal. With a side trip to a butterfly conservatory and botanical gardens....

Ah, if only it was that simple.

We managed to make it round the lake just before dark, in time to see the clouds open and get a good soaking and find out that there are no rides on a Sunday. Bugger!

And as for the mysterious botanical gardens that we spent an hour searching for (there were 2 signs pointing in opposite directions saying 200m, we travelled easily more than a mile in each direction. nothing.) even up this steep, mountainside dirt road where we eventually got stuck.

Then on the wy back down Byron managed to drive the 4x4 headfirst into a rather steep ditch. BANG!

We couldn't go forward - because lets face it, a 4x4 might be strong, but you can't shift solid earth! - and to begin with, we couldn't reverse either, the tyres were just spinning.

Besides, after ramming the front of the car into the rock and christening the car with a nice big chip, we didn't want to cause any more damage...

But whilst Byron hopped around and mused about our predicament I found a trail of red ants carrying pieces of leaves back to their nest! (Just like those in the museum eh Linz?!)

Although you have to be careful, not all the ants are on a leaf mission. Some of them have the mission to keep the line safe. They send out these huge bad-ass ants, with nasty pinchers to attack anything considered a danger....i.e Me! Figured that one out quickly.

Day three.....

And this was it!

I didn't even want to get out of bed in for the 5am alarm, after the miserable weather we drove home in last night. But I was glad that I did. Even in the morning dark you could see that the sky was clear.

We packed up all our things - and our fresh mosquito bites! - and headed for the meeting point.

Estefan was there and took us straight to the field where his guys were helping him set up the balloon.

...and WE WERE OFF!!

The mist was just rising up through the trees and the sun was about to come up.

First thing we saw were these "chicken Iguanas" - so called because they hide up at the top of the trees.

It was amazing how much control he had over the balloon, and how he could take us in any direction we wanted.
(There are different altitudes on the way up and each one has a different air flow, usually in different directions apparently. So we just rose or fell in order to catch the right breeze. Amazing!)

Estefan took us over to the primary forest and dropped the balloon to the point where we were brushing the tops of the trees!

We even dropped into a few clearings - followed by a few sharp rises to avoid oncoming trees...!

There were monkeys jumping through the trees, green parrots flying in group, macaws, toucans and all kinds of life in the forest.

It was beautiful.

This was us trying not to squint in the sun for the picture. (I forgot to pack the sunnies. I did pack the sunglass cases though....but the sunnies were in the glove compartment. Great work)

These are the Pineapple fields. Rows and rows of them.Arenal Volcano. We couldn't go any closer to the volcano for safety reasons and air flows.

We spent about 90mins in the air and then was the descent...in someones back garden!

There were people shouting up to us with the promise of brekkie if we landed in their field, children running after the shadow of the balloon and cows looking very bewildered and unsure of this random thing dropping from the sky.

Interesting landing though.

The basket drops with a bump, everyone braces against the basket - all limbs inside!! - and then when the balloon drops it still has wind and so the basket and its passengers gets dragged, side-on, thorugh the field at quite a speed. Tearing through furrows and throwing up soil everywhere!

Awesome experience!!

But back to Los Suenos we went, turning what should have been a 3 hour drive into a 9 hour epic. What with an earthquake 2 weeks prior causing landslides and taking out towns - and with it our road! Coming to a motorway junction without a single sign telling you which was the way to the west coast and which was east. Helpful. So of course we took the wrong direction and ended up 20km outside of San Jose before we could turn around (even then it required us to drive the wrong way down a one way sliproad, dodging bikers and trucks as we went!).

So that was fun....

Croc watching on the River Tarcoles...

We're now here in Los Suenos, Costa Rica. A beautiful resort area, with restaurants, bars, a marriot, condo's, shops and the like. But once you get outside the resort entrance....it's rustic! Small town Costa Rica for sure.
Byron and I spent our day off cycling the local streets looking for a bakery (seriously, Byron was even hopeful in Costa Rica!) and then did a Croc Safari on the River Tarcoles.



Saw many, many, many birds....oh a a few mammoth, 17ft crocs! The 3 biggest on the river are called Osama Bin Laden, Fidel Castro and Mike Tyson! Afternoon wasn't really the best time to go see them as they were all well fed by that point. Apparently in the morning before they have eaten they are VERY active! The guys who give the tours get into the water in front of the crocs with half a raw chicken and start slapping it in the water to "entice" the crocs - more like tempt fate if you ask me - and the croc moves closer....and closer...then BAM!
It comes right up out of the water and takes the chicken from the guys hand. Almost civilised.

Very surreal being so close to the crocs. They aren't afraid of the little river boats that the tours go out on.
We saw those little lizards called "Jesus Lizards" due to the fact that they can run on water! If you look really hard you can see him running with legs akimbo - awesome! Fast as though, took a few takes to actually catch it on camera.

Our new obsession here in Costa Rica, for some random reason, is Sushi. We can't get enough of it and luckily there are 4 sushi restaurants around. So far 2 down, 2 to go.
Although we had possibly the worst service I have ever had at the last one (I love sushi). Don't think I've ever been served one of my main courses before my starter, and finally recieved my starter as others were contemplating dessert.
We deduced, since we had a couple of hours between ordering and being served, that it must be a partnership of 2 guys. One of which ran his arse off all night, the other, well, he walked around, mainly outside, with a bottle of beer. He would saunter over to the tables to see if everything was ok - not that it mattered - then check out the kitchen before chatting up the bar maid, grabbing another beer and heading back outside.

A sushi bar with a ceiling full of surf boards, a soundtrack limited to Bob Marley or Peter Tosh, furniture made only out of wood and a very random collection of staff. Intriguing....

Bound for Costa Rica...

Puerto Escondido was a small surfing town all spread out along the beach.
Apparently in summer it's full of surfers and the waves get up to 30ft!
Plenty of bars and souvenir stalls.



Then we cruised on down to Huatulco to get our papers in order so we could leave the country...

Of course we managed to hook a few beauties on the way!

This one on the right was the first sail fish that the boat had hooked since being launched. The captain managed to reel it in without much of a fuss.




After a few small catches - that have to be thrown back - we hooked a decent sized Mahi-Mahi.....so dinner was pretty fresh!


We've been underway for 3 days so far and we arrive into Golfo de Papagayo, Costa Rica tomorrow morning...

Acapulco

We've just left Acapulco and are now headed down to Puerto Escondido after having spent 4 nights at anchor in the bay - surrounded by the millions of lights from the city.

The beach stretches along for miles, but to get to the beach you have to go through one of the hotels, or (obviously the more favourable option when you're living on a beautiful yacht...) a beach bar!

Hello Club Tropicana!

The old town is centered around a place called the Zocalo, which is really pretty. Very 'local' Mexico - which makes me wonder why I thought it was ok to buy strawberries on the side of the road, from a woman who looked like she hadn't washed in about 3 weeks and had red dribble all around her mouth - a blatant sign that she's been at her own produce, no?! But so far so good....

Have I just jinxed it?!

There are 5000 (yes thats 3 0's!) VW beetle taxi's in this city! Taxi's! Sooo quaint. We actually counted 8 in a row go past.

One of the most famous things to see here are La Quebrada. These crazy Mexican cliff divers who dive over 120ft into a tiny 12ft wide, 8ft deep, crevease. They have to time their dive with the surge that comes in - oh and avoid the rocks that litter the place! Besides the fact that the waves are crashing all over.

And yet they still don't just do a boring dive.

They do somersaults, twists, there's even a tandem dive!

If you squint really hard at the photo, you'll see some dude standing on the top of the far cliff in his little speedo's.

This is after he climbs from the water up the cliff face! Seriously - crazy antics!

Zihuatenejo...

Now we are in Zihuatenejo, about 14 hours cruising down the coast from costa Careyes.

This was the beach from the final scene in Shawshank Redemption! (Looks a fair bit different now though, quite a few hotels and bars and the like)

Went for a kayak over to the beach and a swim around the boat.....and then a short while later there was a large crocodile sighting not 60ft from the boat!! Apparently there is a river full of them just on the otherside of the bay, they have a fence across the entrance, but, of course, being Mexico, having a couple escape to go greet the swimmers on the beach every now and then is not a big deal...

A couple of the guys went fishing and caught a couple of decent sized beauties, shame they turned out not to be edible. So now we have one, half-filleted, strung up on a line behind the boat for the croc! (and of course the security cameras are all on 'croc-watch'...)