14 Hours on the road (and river)

This time Last year

Everyone in the group decides not to paddle the Rio Toro today but instead to take a boat trip and admire the wildlife from a safe vantage point. The boat will leave Oscar's Mother's place in Boca Tapada and head north down the Rio San Carlos to the Nicaraguan border, then down the Rio San Juan to a place called Trinidad and then upstream on the Rio Sarapiqui to Puerto Viejo where we will stay for a couple of nights.

I, instead, will ride shotgun with Luis and the bus.

We go down to the riverside and wait for the boat to arrive. Once everyone is on board Luis and set off on our four hour drive. It's two hours before we leave the dirt road and it's quite a bumpy ride. We arrive in Puerto Viejo at about 1pm and get evryones luggage unloaded before we have some lunch. We are not at our usual place - apparently it is booked solid with bird-watchers! It'll be a bit cramped as Luis, Manuel, Carolyn and I are all sharing one room!

We pick them up in town at the ice-cream store about 4pm. They tell us they had a splendid lunch with camarones on the river-side somewhere and saw plenty of American Crocodiles. We don't often see these when we are paddling (just the Caymans) as they prefer bigger and slower rivers. These things can grow to about 5m.

We have a pleasant evening and share a bottle of run; Flora de Cana of course!

This Time in 2007

Today would turn out to be a very long travel day indeed.

We were up at 6am for breakfast and the boys arrived at 6.30am to cart our luggage through town to the dock. We me an Irish couple there who said that the 6am boat had failed to materialise. However the 7am boat was on time and we were soon on our way upstream to San Carlos.

We watched the green countryside speed past and looked at the dilapidated buildings that were scattered every now and then along the coast, We saw a huge Tarpon fish leap above the waves. It must have 1.5m long. after three hours or so we arrived in San Carlos and dragged ourselves round to Immigration before piling onto the boat for Costa Rica and Los Chiles.

It took and hour and a half to reach Los Chiles but as usual we were entertained by the birds and Howler Monkeys along the way. It took half and hour to get through the luggage check and then we found that the Immigration Office was closed. We missed the 2pm bus and had to wait for the 3pm Express. Express! It stopped every half an hour but at least we didn't have to change bus at San Carlos (Costa Rica).

Normally this bus ride would take about 5 hours but we got stuck behind a broken down Sugar Cane Truck and it took an hour to squeeze by as it was almost blocking the road. The bus almost became impaled on the truck but finally we got by. It was 8.30pm when we got to the airport in San Jose where we dropped off the public bus and Luis picked us up for the last hour to the San Gildar Hotel in Escazu. Here we dropped off Lee, Florence and Carlos and Luis drove me up to the Pico Blancas Hotel where Jim and Carolyn were staying. We had dinner and a couple of beers. What a long and tedious day. More than 14 hours on the road (and rivers!).

Back and Forth

This Time Last Year

Today was our transfer day to San Jose in Costa Rica. That meant a ride upstream on the Rio San Juan, then upstream on the Rio Negra to Los Chiles and a numbing five hour bus ride to San Jose. A long day.

We were up at 5am and ready to leave at 6pm. We saw our canoes going past on the slow cargo boat back to San Carlos. We sped up the river and arrived in San Carlos at 7.30am and had breakfast in the Mirador. Jim turned up having arrived on his new boat from Solentiname. We said goodbye to Pat and Dorothy who were flying out to Manugua and home to the USA that way.

The rest of us went through customs and got back on our boat to Los Chiles. Luiz was here with the bus and after customs we were on our way by 11am. We had lunch somewhere past Zarcero and arrived in San Jose at 4.30pm.

Manuel and I were going to stay in Santa Ana with friends but it turned out all the rooms were let so Luiz drove us up to the Pico Blanco Hotel in Escazu which is a strangely opulent place in an obscure part of town. It's always empty too. You get superb views though.

In the evening we had our farewell dinner with our guests at a Peruvian restaurant. And the taxi got lost taking us home!

This Time in 2007

This was also a transfer day as we left San Jose in Costa Rica to get to Solentiname in Nicaragua.

I was up at 4.45am but Luis was late picking me up (as usual!). We then went to the San Gildar Hotel in Escazu to pick up my co-guide Carlos and our only guest Lee. This is the first time we run a trip with a single guest. It's going to get strange! Jim was also with us as he was returning to Solentiname. Carolyn was staying behind to recuperate from her back operation.

We left San Jose at dawn and were soon out of the suburbs and climbing the hills. We took a break at Zarcero and looked at the topiary gardens and the amazing pink church. A bit later we stopped for a pancake breakfast. After crossing the mountains we dropped down into Santa Rosa for another stop. We needed cash and peanut butter (for Lee).

Luis got us to Los Chiles in plenty of time for the Collectivo (the public boat), which will take us into San Carlos, Nicaragua. We all negotiate customs successfully except for Carlos who can't get his visa signed. Some cross-border nonsense is going on between Costa Rica and Nicaragua and making life difficult. In fact it takes three days for Carlos to get this sorted out and we have to leave him behind.

At Oscars cafe we had some pineapple juice before wandering down to the dock. the Collectivo doesn't leave at any particular time it leaves when it is full. You can pay extra if you want to ask the driver to leave now! It wasn't going to leave any time soon so we went back to Oscar's for an early lunch. In fact Jim went off to find a private boat as he feared if we waited for this Collectivo then we would miss the Collectivo at San Carlos which is to take us out to the Solentiname Islands. This latter Collectivo only goes twice a week!

That all worked out so we finally left to follow the Rio Negra downstream to Lake Nicaragua. We waved to Carlos as we left him behind! Our private boat was very fast and only took 45 minutes to get to San Carlos. The Collectivo can sometimes take 2 hours!

We get through customs with no problem and the local boys pitch up with a wheelbarrow to help us carry our stuff through the small town to the dock at the other end whre the boats to the islands leave. I notice that the main high street is now paved. It was just dirt a couple of years ago. The Solentiname Collectivo is ready and waiting and so we load our stuff onboard and say hello to those people we recognise. As usual the boat will not be leaving at any specific time so we wander back into town to buy some supplies. We go to the market to get fruit and vegetavles and a dry good store to get water and beer! I get some netting to make butterflky traps!

Eventually the boat gets under way and we have a two and a half hour ride out to the islands. At San Fernando island we unload at the dock of the Albergue Celentiname. I notice that half the dock has slipped into the lake since I was here last. I wonder how long it will take Daniel to repair it?

I have the same cabin I had last time and of course I should be sharing it with Carlos. I wonder what he is doing. Probably having a Kafkaesque experience in getting his visa signed.

After dinner we laze around in the hammocks before knocking off for an early night.

Paddle Steamer

This Time Last Year

I was up at 5.30am for a paddle upstream on the Bartola. a lot of bird noise, but not a lot to see.


Everyone packed after breakfast before embarking on a paddle downstream on the Rio San Juan. I was teamed up with Pat in an old wooden canoe and everything went fine until we came to a rapid and shipped some water. I decided enough was enough (Pat is 80 years old!) and decided to be rescued by the San Miguel who was escorting us.

At a tributary junction (I can't remember the name of this river), Pat and I swapped canoes and paddled upstream. We pushed over three rapids and spent some time watching and photographing dragonflies. Everyone had lunch on the riverbank before paddling back downstream to the San Miguel.


At this point we all got on board the San Miguel for a ride back to El Castillo, whilst a smaller boat, Bob, was charged to tow all our canoes back. We stopped off on the way to examine the ruins of an old Paddle Steamer which had sunk in the 19C. This was part of the Vanderbilt service from New York to San Francisco in the Californian Gold Rush, and apparently quicker and safer than going across country!


We disembarked at El Castillo and walked through the town, whilst the San Miguel rode the Diablo Rapids. We re-embarked upstream of the rapids. The Vanderbilt's route did this too and built a small railway through the town for carrying the passengers and their luggage. The town has no visible remains of this, but the town has no access by road either. Everything arrives by boat.

We continued upstream to the Rio Sabalos and stayed the night at the Hotel Sabolos right on the river front. In the evening we sat on the deck drinking and watching the stars.

Gallery

Finished calculating print prices, which now include postage and packing world-wide.

Rio Bartola

This Time Last Year

Today we leave El Castillo for the Bartola Lodge which is at the confluence of the Rio San Juan and the Rio Bartola. It takes us about an hour to paddle down as the Rio San Juan runs quite fast here.

On the opposite side of the Rio Bartola from the Lodge is the offices of the Indo-Maiz Reserve. After we disembarked most of the group were happy to rest in the hammocks and read or bird-watch. Pat I paddled up the Rio Bartola enojoying the silence. We pushed and pulled our way up over seven small rapids before finally deciding that the river was too narrow to go any further. We rode the rapids on the way back and arrived just in time for lunch.

After a brief siesta I took M for a paddle back up the river. It was even quieter this time although we still saw a few monkeys about.

Gallery

The price list is now uploaded and the portfolios tidied up. Next I have to figure out how to get more hits on the site.

Photo Restoration

Family

It's Kristines Mother's birthday tomorrow and I've promised to restore and print some old photographs from the 1920s and 1930s. They are not too damaged but some of them are very small so it will take a little bit of work. I wonder how large they want them printed!

Gallery

Have decided not to use the store/printing facilities attached to my Smugmug website. I had a couple of test prints made and I wasn't that impressed. Largely too dark. A b/w shot had a greenish cast too. I am going to print everything myself. At least this way I have control of the way they look and can also choose the paper. I think that'll be best even though it'll be more work for me. I have to improve my printing and matting skills in any case. I shall still have to deal with both imperial and metric sizes both for the prints and the mattes themselves. This is a pain.

This also means that I must post my "Warranty" page on the site and put up a price list.


This Time Last Year

I was up at 5am to take a walk. Surprisingly three guests came with me. A thin crescent moon sits over La Venada Island.

It takes us half an hour to walk to the look-out point but clouds have formed on the horizon and spoilt the sunrise. We wait a few minutes and manage a few shots.

We stroll back past the school and over the hill and along the shore on the track back to our Albergue Celentiname.

After breakfast we get the boat loaded with everyones luggage and finally leave Solentiname. Before arriving at San Carlos we take a detour to Bird Island (I can't remember its proper name). We watch hosts of Wood Storks and Roseate Spoonbills.

At San Carlos we change onto a public boat for the trip down the Rio San Juan to El Castillo. We take the fast boat which takes about 3 hours whilst our canoes come on the freighter which will arrive this evening. We stop at a river-side lodge for lunch before continuing to the Victoria Hotel in El Castillo.