Wildliferama!

Seen loads and loads of animals. They reckon the place we just visited is as good as the Amazon for variety of animals. They have panthers and puma, loads of monkeys, sloths, crocodiles and cayman and lots of birds and snakes. I loved it. I am (sadly) an animal planet fanatic and know loads of factoids about animals. So it was great getting right in there to see them.

We left the beach early on Saturday and took a bus to Totuguero National Park. It is a protected area as it is the only area left in the world where green back turtles still nest. Unfortunately as the leave the Nicaraguan poachers are still killing them. It was a beautiful trip and we had to take two boats. There were huge crocodiles along the way. They said they can reach 6m in length and could smash our boat with their tails (I got a bit scared then especially when we saw a baby and they said the mum must be nearby and could get angry). We stopped in a little town with the river on one side and the sea on the other. It was a nice place unfortunately our room was a bit damp and stinky - but we only had one night.

The next day we took a boat tour along the canals right through the jungle. We saw loads of crocodile and cayman and I got a great picture of a crocodile head with the teeth out. There were lots of monkeys who were very cute doing their thing in the trees. A snake even dropped right into our boat - luckily it got right out again. We saw some tree snakes and could get right up close. I have some great photos to put on tomorrow. We had a nice lunch and then went on a jungle walk. I was very scared as there was a massive crocodile right by the boat as we got out and our guide had just been telling us horror stories about people being eaten. We walked into the jungle and saw lots of poisoness snakes. Apparently you only have one hour if you are bitten. Luckily the were snoozing and were totally disinterested in us- they only come out at night. We spotted a sloth - I was disappointed as it was so far away but at least we saw one.

We then took the boat out of the national park and arrived here in La Fortuna near Arenal volcano jut a few hours ago. We have splashed out on a lovely hotel with a pool and balcony with rocking chairs. We have had 3 early mornings in a row and I am looking forward to a lay-in and relaxing tomorrow. I will post photos then too.