Monday, June 9, 2008

The day after we got back from rafting, we left to go to the Osa Peninsula. I was an 8 hour drive, followed by about an hour boat ride in the rain. We started in the boat through the Mangroves, and opened into a river at the mouth leading into the Pacific Ocean. It was very a very pretty boatride, We got off onto the beach during a ¨wet landing¨ and had jeeps waiting for us there to take us to where we would be staying. Our living situation was similar to that of WWII because we were staying in tents, with a cot for us to sleep on. It was not bad though because it was the grand opening of the resort, and the first thing the owner told us was not to go hungry. We could get food any time we wanted. The only thing to do at night was to go to the common area which was a huge outside room and play cards or socialize. We went to bed the first night and were woken up at 5 in the morning to sun light and howler monkeys that seamed to be right outside the door. That day we went on a 3 hour hike through the jungle, seeing lots of leaf cutter ants, puma tracks, lizards, tucans, macaws, and termites. We had to wade across a river to get back to where the boats were for lunch, and the water was just below my chest. There was also a half eaten otter floating in the river, and after we got to the other side learned of the 7 foot crocidile that lived a couple meters away from where we crossed the river. After lunch we had an afteroon hike to a waterfall to swim in, where we were informed last year there were three crocs just above the waterfall hanging out, not bothering anybody. The next day we took a boat ride to an island about an hour away that was 300 hectacres and reserved as a national park. We went snorkling off the shore. It was cloudy out and the water was about 20 feet deep so the snorkling was not ideal, but it was still fun. We ate lunch there and saw spotted dolphins on the boatride back to our tents. The next day we left and spent about 11 hours traveling due to the roads that the locals will not pave to prevent too many tourists from flooding the region.

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