Night walk

We left at 8 for the Costa Rican border, about 2 hours away and the formalities took about an hour. We had to say goodbye to Geraldine, our excellent driver, as the bus wasn’t allowed in Costa Rica. He was careful and every time we stopped he got out to help us down. In the mornings he was to be found cleaning all the windows so that we all had a good view out. At the border we had 400m to pull our bags which was a struggle for Chris who was unwell, and Georgina who seems to have a disability.

We are not happy with the new bus, which seems to have transmission trouble and rattling windows which are so scraped we can’t see out well. There’s no microphone so we can’t hear anything Miguel tries to tell us. Neither are we happy with the new driver who drives with one hand while on his phone. He is unfriendly too.

The road was not tarred so very slow. We had 2 loo stops and stopped once to see a 3 toed sloth high in a tree. Finally we reached our hotel at 3.45pm, not the advertised one as apparently the Costa Rican office had neglected to book it. We are quite a walk from reception - there are blocks of rooms through grounds and our room is the furthest away so we have no wifi. The aircon is struggling to cool the room.

We had a rather unsatisfactory night walk - we saw some crickets, an hairy oobit and 2 frogs. (8.30 dinner. No veggie or vegan option so Jo said she’d not bother. I’ll have fish)

We start at 5.30am tomorrow as it’s the best time for birds.