Day 3

Like most days, we started the day with breakfast in a place that only had a roof. Places of social gathering don’t need walls or anything in Costa Rica as it never really gets cold, it just rains (a lot) occasionally, hence the need for only a roof and some poles to hold it up. We were greeted by a hummingbird and then made our way to the docs in Los Chiles for a boat tour in (or near) the Cano Negro Wildlife Refuge. As in my personal opinion a vacation is not a vacation if it does not involve a boat tour at some point, I really DID get a vacation this time.
A boat tour in those surroundings is already a treat in itself and in addition to that, we have been spotting many animals, including birds, iguana’s (and other lizard-like creatures), caimans, and monkeys. I adopted the same strategy that has been proven very effective before during my trips to Africa. Take a quick shot (or not) with my camera and then take the binoculars to observe and relax. So my photo album of this trip will – again – be filled with other people’s pictures and luckily some of them had good camera’s and took many good shots. My favorite animals were some small swallow-like birds that would fly by the boat. What I liked about them most is that they were impossible to catch on camera, so they could only be truly enjoyed in real-life. Our captain even saw a sloth, but I have absolutely no idea how he did that as even with my binoculars I could only see (or believe I saw) a face peeking through the canopy; no pictures possible either.
One of our group members (in his late forties) was working on his Sudoku puzzles during most part of this tour. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy them as well and I have done my fair share of them during this trip, but it just seemed slightly awkward for us to run from one side of the boat to the other (not too many to the front at once to avoid the engine in the back coming out of the water), to catch glimpses of all these animals, while he would occasionally look up to see if the fuss was truly big enough to get bothered or not. I found out later that this was already the third time he and his mother took this trip and, as his mother would let us know, ‘he does not like boat trips’. You’d think that there is sarcasm in here, but this is actually a pretty objective reflection of what was going on, as his mother would literally speak for him all the time. I have rarely come across someone who was that self-absorbed (she’d turn every conversation in something about her, it didn’t even matter whether that something about her was not even remotely related to the topic at hand) and that was living so much in her own reality (she was for instance completely convinced that all her children (except the one that was still single, living with her, and going on trips with her) married their first partner. When we suggested that they may have married the first partners that they introduced to her, but that there may have been others before that, she was absolutely convinced this was not the case for her children. Just the general notion that parents don’t know everything about their children, was too foreign for her to wrap her mind around). Ignorance might be bliss, but it can get pretty annoying when it’s on a trip with you.
On our way back we had a quick stop at a souvenir shop that was feeding iguana’s so we could see many of these prehistoric creatures up close and personal. Quite impressive. What I liked about the gift shops in Costa Rica was the almost lack of interest from the owners in the tourists. Compared to my trips to Africa, where every stop meant endless discussions with shop owners about buying something in their shop, the experiences here were much more relaxing.
As it had been pretty warm, I took (what I believed to be) a refreshing dive in the swimming pool once we were back at the hotel. I was slightly disillusioned when I discovered that the water was about as warm as tub-water. As it was literally too warm to swim laps at a decent pace, I slowly made it back and forth through the pool, while being cheered on by the gods (i.e. thunder in the distance) and howler monkeys. I was really amazed at how loud the latter can be, especially since they are not that big. Since I was not wearing my glasses and therefore could not see them, I was at some point even worried that they would be quite close and actually getting agitated about my presence, but as more people arrive this turned out not to be the case.
When the thunder had approached to about 1 km and the wind started to pick up, we went back for a shower and to prepare for diner. The rains were again incredible and I sat on the porch a bit to watch. When I wanted to get back in, I realized that I left the key inside, but I also remember that I could not figure out the day before how to lock the windows, so I had to perform some of the Angelina Jolie moves again, that I had already perfected earlier this year in Greece to get the keys to our hotel room there (only this time I only had to slide open the window and take a small step to get in, I did not have to take off my high heels and hoist up my fancy dress to elegantly climb over a bar and back).