Shovelling, SpongeBob SquarePants, Superman & Tarzan

Well after the first 4-5 days of mucho shovelling I looked in the mirror, no can’t be … peered closer, squints … it’s … it’s … a WAIST!!  Being naturally blessed with the figure of SpongeBob SquarePants, as opposed to hour glass, this caused much excitement this end. Note to oneself to invest in a shovel and find a big plot of land when I get back …

Let’s talk pavements … here’s the thing, fortunately for me that generally my want is to walk sniffer dog stylie with my head down and arse in the air.  That has come in pretty handy here with various random holes in the pavement ready for you to break your ankle.  Me being average height and all (refer to previous post), the way the gutters are it is a ‘hop, skip n a jump’ to cross the road as well.    Have never seen gutters like it, random ‘ramps’ are there for those that are not so flexible but the oldies here must also be on the cod liver oil to facilitate the box spilts that are required at times to enter the bus.

Below are snapshots of our last day at La Paz … the lovely family with edible Dillon and builders Christophe and Esteban.  Christophe reminded me of someone and fortunately I remembered who it was post departure (the baddie who cuts his hand off in Prison Break …eeek!!).  Another bit of our work re earth removal and of course let’s not forget Brutus the dog eh (shown above).

The last day however was marred by the fact that Julius (aka Julios) got his phone kernicked … smart phones mucho sort after for tea leaves.  Although obviously very sad for Julios I was kinda relieved that the b**tard App that provided static maps that sent us on a 3.2 km hike to a hostel in searing heat 95% of the way on a steep incline with me arriving like tommy the tomato, looking like I was about to spontaneously combust – along with that there ‘walk’ to the beach, cue 15mins of torture in grass higher then me with pot holes … was no longer with us.

So it was time to move to a new site … this time in La Balsa.  Frio … Frio … yelped Grace when I told her.  Now frio aka cold certainly has a different interpretation here then back home.  Yep the first day was overcast but after that the sun was peaking thru (yay!).  Time wise it is also around 40mins on the bus but in another direction to another lush rolling hills location.  This site was also much more what I expected to see and fab as arriving on day 1 of a new build.  Dishy Mr Digger was on site and my oh my was he skillful with his digger  … however alas he went with said digger on the first day and bum diddy bum I didn’t have my camera with me that day.  Our task for the day was pulling (lots and lots of) nails from the wood of the previous house that had been demolished.  The next day Julios brought me his spare gloves as splinters and a few callouses are not a good look.  Below our loo hut, Julios with said gloves ready for handover, Jason and Listhanu,  cup of coffee anyone? (costa rica after all), me with my jazz hands and a few stages of the build.  This is a very poor área and the people are beyond lovely which makes it feel even more so that you are doing something so worthwhile.  The new house itself is still going to be tiny (42 square metres) for 4 people.  I am not sure how it works here if it has to be like for like.

No sooner had we finished mucho shovelling then it was time to head off for another long weekend’s travel (cue back to yay!).  This time it was just Julios and I as Takuya was moving on to Nicaragua.  Monteverde was the destination, home of cloud forests and mucho adrenaline adventures.  Bus travel here is cheap with 2 buses costing a combined total of around 3000 colones ($6) for a journey that took us around 5 hours.  Following a bonding sess at Monteverde Backpackers, the following day 4 of us set off for the ‘100% Adventura’ experience.  12 ziplines, 1 hanging bridge, the longest zipline in Latin America @ 1590 metres, 2 superman cables (you go face down superman stylie) and a tarzan swing with a 45 metre free fall all for the faberooney sum of $45.  YEEEHHHAAAAAAAAAA!!!! do I love, love, LOVE ZIP LINES!  My first experience thereof and I was WHEEEEEIINNNNNGGGGG all the way thru it as you whizz along at mucho speed.  You go on a wee zip line first to practice ‘braking’ and then you build up pretty quickly to the bigger ones.  They give you hand signals when to brake – time to worry if they start flapping like someone demented.  For the superman however they brake for you (otherwise you’d leave your arm behind as your braked) :-D.  Now as much as I loved the zip lines … the tarzan swing well hmmm.  You walk a long walk.  The guy is there at the end, checks your harness etc, tells you to hold the rope … I look at him and say ‘where here?’.  He replies ‘yes, bend your knees’ whilst at the same time kneeing me behind said knees and opening the gate … f**ker!!  I didn’t even have time to scream.  The fear as you free fall and your clothes are still on the platform … blimey I just shut my eyes and fell aaarrrgggghhhhh.  You basically free fall the first half of the tarzan swing and then it kicks in (thank gawd) … was glad that one was over but hey me being me, I had to do it!  You did have the option to opt out of this bit …  A few shots below of the prep and then others in the pose re Superman (did I say that bit was brilliant and I LOVED it?) oh and the last lady in the pic was a tad scared – sign of the cross and all.  If you want to see more with a vid clip of the Superman then check out http://www.aventuracanopytour.com/

That night we checked out the night walk for any residents as per below … tarantula anyone? Birdies sleeping (very cute balls), ants working, spot the (humungous) stick insect, fire fly.  There was also a sloth that was subjected to 4000 torchlights … good thing it was a ‘bum’ angle and they alledgedly can’t see well!  Oh and a couple of snakes but hmmm they were green … up high in green trees … I gave up saying I ‘couldn’t see them’ and just opted for ‘yes’ save more laser light show in the sky.  There were also amazing fig trees you could venture inside the following day.

Staying at a hostel, no matter what the reviews say, is always a bit hit and miss on who is there at the time.  We hit the jackpot at Monteverde with 5 other single travellers (although obviously for this trip Julios and I were travelling together).  Representing England we had Tom and Charlie, step forward Miss Holland, Nicki, doing his stuff for NZ was Nick and finally a German who didn’t sound German but the name was a bit of a give away, Henrik.  Two nights drinking into the wee wee hours at La Taberna watching the locals strut their stuff whilst we hmmm drank beer, rum and discussed the merits of lingo amongst other things.  There was a bit of action going on in the corner of the bar to which Charlie remarked in his fab scouse accent ‘bleedin hell, it’s like Emmerdale’.  Always feel a tad sad when you have such a brilliant time with people and then 9 times out of 10 never see them again but that’s the nature of life whether you are travelling or not.  Of course, there are always the exceptions and yay for being blessed with fab friends around the world.  So Tom and Charlie hooked up together (in the travel buddies sense as opposed to get your kit off sense) and headed off to Tamarindo aka ‘ere we go Tamagringo’ by the locals, Nicki went back to San Jose to complete week 6 of her spanish language course (tad envious moi?), Nick after already volunteering for 2 wks turtle conservation, 1 wk in a school, also headed off to San Jose for 1 wk in an orphanage, Henrik took the jeep-boat-jeep option (which rather fabulously does not contain jeeps) and headed off to La Fortuna.  As for Julios and I … back on the bus for work the next day.  Wanted to take Bob the dog with me (snoozing below and keeping Tom company) but the hostel owner wouldn’t let me – meanie.