Curiosity killed the cat...

...and someday it will surely kill the tanya too.

In Bocas del Toro, Panama, we took an island tour. Last stop - Red Frog Beach. We were dropped off by the boat and then had to hike in through the forest-y area to get to the beach and the frogs. So, we hiked along to the fork in the road. There, the others we were with went right and we decided to veer left, knowing that the two paths met up at the beach.

So I'm ahead and we are walking through the trees along this narrow little path by the murky waters. We hear all the frogs and birds that we came to find, but don't see any yet...and then I turned a corner and there the water came right up to the path - almost over it in fact. Suddenly, something splashed in the water ahead...for a second I saw it - big, bumpy, brown/greenish...from a distance it looked like another of the giant frogs we have seen before, but before I could discern, it quickly submerged and a bunch of air bubbles rose to the surface. I quickened my pace to get a closer look and yelled back, "sean, there's something in the water, come look, I think it is a giant frog or something..."

I stopped along the path, just inches from the water, about where it had been, noticing that there were more bubbles then a single frog could create... there must be a few big frogs, I thought excitedly! And then about four feet back it popped up again, but not like a 'pop', more like a slow sleek rise out of the water. So slow and sleek that not a droplet of water stirred. there was not even a ring on the waters surface that a mere raindrop would create. i realized then that it was not a frog. I froze. Sean saw it too. Two yellow eyes. Watching. Waiting.

And then just as quietly it submerged again. We both stood frozen.

"What was that?"

"It wasn't a frog."

"It was eyes."

"It was a very large lizard of somekind."

And then just to confirm the thought that came rushing in, it peeked out of the water again. "It's a fuckin crocodile."

I didn't know my little feet could move that fast.

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Our trail --- Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica -- San Isidro -- David, Panama -- Bouquete -- Bocas del Toro -- currently...well we crossed back into Costa Rica yesterday with a plan to get to San Jose then spend today getting to the Nicaragua border...but the bus stopped at 2pm and we liked the looks of this place. Not sure exactly where - we are on the Carribean side, just south of Limon. We will spend a few days here we like it so much...plently of time to find out if this place has a name...

Critters n' Things

WOW! There was sure some excitment here the other day! An EARTHQUAKE - the center of which was 20 minutes from where we were standing. over 4.5 on the Richter scale! people from places 3-and-a-half hours away were calling to see how bad the damage was as they felt it and heard it all they way out inland. Here there was a deafening roar. People shook. Buildings shook. The entire place was a buzz. Funny thing was...we missed the entire thing. Standing right in the center of an earthquake and we missed it. We were on a bus. Guess that says a lot about the roads here.

But there are lots of things we don´t miss. All the critters for example. I´ve heard of pretty much everything I´ve seen before, but, I don´t know, maybe it is the humidity or the rains that flood the towns daily, but everything is just a little weirder here. The monkeys think they are squirrels, and the squirrels think they are monkeys. The iguanas are all painted black and white as if a wet zebra slipped and fell on them. The crabs think they are frogs, hopping around. But I guess that´s ok cause the frogs here are to big and fat to hop around themselves. The hermit crabs think they are on Summer Slam, wrestling each other on the beach. The grasshoppers here are big enough to eat the birds rather then the normal way around. The sea turtles think they are bunnies, mating like mad (a very, very slow ¨mad¨that is) in the ocean. The spiders, although larger then my shoes and more colourful then a bowl of gummy bears, think they are invisible. And the cockroaches...OMG - one day I felt someone was staring at me, so I turned around to see and it was a damn cockroach. Yes, they are so big that they actually stare at you. I waved. He waved back. There are lots of dogs here - well maintained with collars, although they seem to have no individual owners. And cattle - I´m surprized by the amount of cattle here, didn´t know beef was such a big industry. I don´t know how they walk around this hilly land though. If you took all the saskatchewan cows and put them here, they´d all fall over. At the bottom of every hill would be a pile of saskatchewan cattle. That´s be the only way to tell the difference between them and the ones from here.

You´ll notice I never mentioned the infamous sloth. That´s because, like the earthquake, we keep missing them. I asked the owner of one of our many guesthouses how deep into the forest you actually have to go to see a sloth. And he looked at me in awe and said, ¨didn´t you see the one last night? he slept in that tree right outside your window from about 5 for the rest of the night.¨ Of course he did.

I don´t know where I was the last time I put something on this thing. I think Tamarindo. So I´ll start the path from there. From the beaches of Tamarindo, we headed back to San Jose, through Liberia, to take Jolene to the airport. Sean and I then headed through Puntarraines, took the ferry to somewhere else, then took a bus that was featuring ¨The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly¨dubbed in spanish, to Montezuma. After a few days relaxing from the day-long trip, we we took a taxi boat past the dophins and mating sea turtles, to Jaco and then settled in Manuel Antonino where we find ourselves now. It is beautiful setting and we find our selves very busy here. Like today, after breakfast we layed on the beach and read until finally we thought we should do something else. So we laid back and looked up in the tree tops overhead and watched the monkeys roam around for a while. Tough day.

Soon...today or tomorrow or someday...we will spend a long time going a short way again as we venture to Panama.

Hugs and smiles,
tanya

Feet in a Fairytale

Hola! Well it's been a week now, but it feels like longer. Since stepping off the airplane (which I must say was the worst flight I've ever taken - I'm not sure it if was the 400 screaming kids, or the fact that they forgot the food, or flying through the lightning storm, or landing with no gates available - but, whatever, none of that matters now).

Exiting the airport, we set foot in a fairytale land. No kidding. Sunshine and smiles. There are friggin caliou lillies growing wild beside the roads! It is so lush and beautiful. Better then I ever imagined!

Our first stop was San Jose, but we didn't spend much time there aside from a few hours to sleep. The first morning we hopped the bus to La Fortuna. Why? Well, to see lava rolling down the side of a volcano of course! (Better then any firework displays I've ever set eyes on) And to hike through the rainforest amidst the poisonous spiders, howler monkeys, and such. We sat in 28 hot springs or so, and then sadly, but with much enthusiasm, we left for our next stop. The trecherous climbing road, complete with pot holes big enough to swim in, lead us to Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. There we spent the day flying through the canopy on 16 zip lines. Harnessed on to the cables we had breathtaking views of the forest below. The monkeys must have laughed as we zipped by and then jumped out of trees on Tarzan swings, screaming in an abundance of excitment! The evening we played Spoons with the guys who owned our guesthouse and their cab-driving buddies from town. To soon it ended - we packed up our meager belongings and headed for the beaches. We have spent the past few days in Tamarindo, where we break from the sunshine and salty waters only for an afternoon siesta or to sip a few beers with our Irish buddies and anyone else we can find in this surf town!

Costa Rica is incredible! Extremely easy to travel, our Spanish is picking up, but one could easily get by with english here. Everyone is very friendly and it is very safe. A week in and already I have added Costa Rica to my tiny little list of places I would live - in no particular order the list is Saskatchewan, Nepal, Costa Rica.

We'll head back to San Jose tomorrow so Jolene can catch her plane back to Canada to the snow and the job - a life which I vaguely remember now... Sean and I will head to Montezuma from there to meet Elsa and Ian, with a stop or two along the way.

That's it for now, I must get back to the beach you see. I hope everything is going well back home and happy birthday to Auntie Brenda and Julie!

hasta luego!
tanya