. . . . Ricks Extra Long hair . . . .: Broken baby, outdoors indoors and illegal border crossing....

Before I ramble on with this update, I wasn't able to add the last few photos from the last post. So here are a few of the beach with caves and a stick insect we found on the screen door

Stop eating sand Hannah!

So we're now on the Caribbean coast just outside the town of Puerto Vieja, just a short drive north of the border with Panama. It is hot and sticky here but our house helps to keep it cool. We are staying in an unusual house, which is basically a covered outdoor area with 2 bedrooms off one side and a kitchen and bathroom off the other.

It feels slightly Japanese or Asian in style and is a lovely place to spend our last few days in Costa Rica.

The trip here took us two days as we didn't want to do drive a 9 hour drive with Hannah, so yesterday we stayed overnight at a wonderful rustic house right up in the Quetzales national park, at just over 3000 metres above sea level. It was a great drive, passing through two levels of cloud and gaining well over a mile in altitude to reach our destination. The Iyok Ami hostel, where we met our hosts, Camilla, Bedrich and their 6month old daughter Estella. Bedrich takes tours through the trails here and so we spent the remainder of the afternoon hiking down through the forest enjoying the coolness away from the heat of the coast. They made us a lovely dinner of fresh trout and we spent the evening chatting with them and a nice Dutch family who were camping outside

Hannah and her friend Estella

View from the bedroom

Saying bye bye.

After a great sleep we had a huge fruit pancake for breakfast before saying sad goodbyes to our new friends and heading out again.

The drive here took another 6 hours, including a 30 minute wait at roadworks in the middle of nowhere, but we eventually arrived to meet Carlos the caretaker who let us into the house and gave us a lot of useful info. After a really good dinner in town we relaxed for the evening, making full use of our new hammock in the outdoor/indoor space.

We were woken by a crashing sound this morning and when I rushed to Hannah's room, she had somehow managed to knock her and the peopod she sleeps in, onto the floor. She has a fat lip now, but apart from that is her usual crazy self and still wants to climb everything. Carlos is bringing us a crib to use for her for the next few days and we will make sure that when she uses the peapod again, it is tied down securely. That's what happens when your 9 month old learns to stamp up I suppose!

Kids! They be crazy!

Relaxing

Outdoor toilet, I mean shower!

Sleeping solidly after her fall. (it is now tied down and cannot move)

Ooops

Look, I'm fine! 😊😊😊😊😊

It's a few days later now and the keypad for my tablet is finally giving up after an incident with a swimming pool in Tamarindo. The v,b,n and c buttons don't work and so I am resigned to using the on screen keyboard, which is harder to use. But I will continue...

Yesterday's main goal was to see if we could successfully leave Hannah in a cage with monkeys and see if we could escape before anyone noticed. To do this we went to the Jaguar rescue centre (spoiler... There are no Jaguars there') where a local couple (from Barcelona ) take in injured and found animals before helping them recover and returning them to the wild. (apart from the ones they keep who now live there)

Highlight of the 90 minute tour was the sloths. They have adult, juvenile and baby sloths, who as you can imagine, don't do much except lie around looking cute. You may remember we saw a big 3 toed sloth up a tree last week. But to see so many, up close and all curled up with each other was really fantastic and knowing that they will be returned to the wild is great. Incidentally, we were told of the misnomer of the 3 toed and 2 toed sloth name..... Apparent toe and finger are the same word in Spanish. Sloths have either 2 or 3 fingers, not toes and when translated the translator chose to use 'toe', instead of 'finger' in English. Funny.

Aaaaaaaawwwww

We were also introduced to a Margay. A wildcat just bigger than a domestic cat, but wild and able to leap 12 feet vertically and also imitate the sounds of its prey, who are mainly bigger than them.
This beast eats monkeys and can live in trees. It looks like a really pretty, domestic cat, but can and will eat your face off. Also we saw a croc, wild pigs, spider monkeys and cappuchin monkeys (they spotted Hannah but wouldn't let her stay) a cayman, toucan and lots of snakes, including the deadly Coral snake. One of the other tourists showed a photo they took earlier that day, removing a harmless snake from their pool with the pool cleaning stick. Turns out it was a deadly coral snake and they didn't know. Ooops.

Not a cat a killer!

Booby apparently

It's now getting really close to the end of or journey. Just a couple of days and we return to Canada, we are happy that the snow has gone at home and summer is here. We have a new hammock to put in the garden and Hannah will be running around soon. We will miss our time here but one thing we will definitely miss is the jam. Yep, jam. Over here it doesn't come in jars. It's in a squeezable packet with a short tube. You can squirt it directly onto bread, muffins, toast or into your 10month old daughters gob. Genius. Pure genius

Here's a thought for you... When we get home, Hannah will have spent 1/10 of her life in Costa Rica.

Anyway, once again time has passed and it's tomorrow. Yesterday was hot and sunny, so we spent the morning looking around the indigenous town of Bribri, with its tradition shacks that the people still live in and then the afternoon on the beach, swimming in the warm Caribbean sea and climbing a dodgy dangerous graffiti covered shipwreck, as you do.

Hannah loved the sea yesterday and didn't eat much sand from the beach, which hopefully means she won't be pooping it out again.

It was a lovely day though and even better considering we are current holed up in the indoor outdoor house as the heavy rain falls outside and a little inside. It's our last holiday day though as we return to just outside San Jose tomorrow before flying home the next day. In 30 days we have had the odd shower, but this is the first day we have had more than a short storm. That's fine though, Hannah is asleep, Buff is in the hammock and I am relaxing here. It's nice to be so relaxed. It also keeps the crazy hot temperature down too, which is nice.

Sandwich, not sand, Hannah!

The day after we went on yet another adventure. We had wanted to visit Panama on this trip, but the logistics of renting a car, crossing the border or flying home from Panama made it difficult. So we decided to do it illegally instead. At the Sixaola crossing bridge, the immigration offices are easy to sneak by and we had heard it was easy to get across the bridge, step onto Panamanian soil and sneak back. So we did.

After I did a bit of reconnaissance, watching people come and go in groups, the three of us hung around behind a group of tourists doing the crossing legally. As they walked across the bridge, avoiding the trucks also using the one lane, we followed behind them, looking nonchalant and stopping for pics as they did. The armed guards paid us no attention and we made it all the way across with ease. After 10 minute or so looking round the Panama end, taking photos for proof, we idled back again, looking innocent and playing with Hannah. The armed guards ignored us again and we sauntered past the final checkpoint, without checking in, and were back in the safety of Costa Rica. Amazingly, that half hour was the only part of the day that had no rain until we sat on the beach for one last cocktail, before a nice dinner that evening. A successful day out!