Our travels

9th August 2025 at 01:37 - Damian

07/08/25 - Day 6

Rio Celeste

... to come

9th August 2025 at 01:35 - Damian

06/08/25 - Day 5

Homestay to Rio Celeste

... to come

9th August 2025 at 01:33 - Damian

05/08/25 - Day 4

From Tortuguero we travelled back upriver and on to a small village where a few of the women make rooms in their houses available for tourists to have authentic local experiences.

I have to be honest and admit that this was the bit I was least looking forward to. It wasn't all that bad in the end. Just awkward. I was kind of glad it was over the following day.

A young couple gave us a demonstration of traditional dance they're keeping alive.

A small handful of did a milking/cheesemaking experience which I quite enjoyed. This is a beautiful calf that is used to stimulate his mother's milk briefly, we milked her and then the two were reunited afterwards. I've not eaten beef since.

Saying goodbye to our host.

9th August 2025 at 01:13 - Damian

04/08/25 - Day 3

Tortuguero is a small village on a narrow strip of land between the Caribbean sea and forest wetlands and rivers that formed after the collapse of a railroad project. The locals felled much of the forest but the area was made a national park in 1992 and the ecosystem has bounced back and provided a much more lucrative tourism industry. A win-win.

After a late-night visit to watch a green sea turtle lay eggs (no photos but an incredible experience) we got up early for a boat trip around the waterways where we saw caimans. herons, Jesus lizards, cormorants, vultures, kites, spider monkeys, howler monkeys, tree iguanas and more.

Not many good photos unfortunately as everything was far away.

Later that day we explored a little bit of the national park on foot where we managed to spot some tiny poison dart frogs before a group walk up a nearby dormant volcano.

Early morning boat tour

A teeny-tiny strawberry poison dart frog about 2cm in size.

Orb weaver?

Us at the top of the volcano looking back toward Tortuguero

9th August 2025 at 00:22 - Damian

03/08/25 - Day 2 of the Costa Rica tour.

After breakfast at the hotel we boarded a mini bus and headed from San José north into the mountains which became cloudforest and then rainforest on the descent toward the Carribbean. The "rain" part lived up to its name by chucking it down.

Two hours into the trip and just before we cleared the rainforest we had to stop and turn around due to a fatality ahead where a car had been crushed by a falling tree. So it goes.

Back to San José to cross the mountains to the west adding four hours to the trip.

We arrived at La Pavona (a river port), switched to a narrow riverboat and navigated an hour downstream through tropical forest to Tortuguero township in the national park.

View from the riverboat of the forest

A boat heading upstream

Leaf cutter ants hauling material to feed a fungus they culture for food in their nest

3rd August 2025 at 06:08 - Damian

We've had some really nice meals the last couple of days. Back in Cartagena we went to Alma which had exquisite food focused mainly around seafood. We'd been holding off on ceviche until we got to the Colombian coast and it was worth the wait!

Last night the meal in our San José hotel's restaurant was surprisingly good, too. The beer especially.

Ceviche in a coconut shell with plantain chips

Ceviche done classic-style

Coconut dessert done four ways

My traditional Costa Rica dinner last night. Beer not pictured.

3rd August 2025 at 05:58 - Damian

We flew to San José in Costa Rica yesterday in preparation to meet with our two-week Intrepid tour tonight.

Bit of a down day yesterday as I was over the heat, the constant spruiking, struggling to communicate in Spanish, not being able to flush toilet paper, the beeping, airports, getting to airports, grating airport announcements, push-ins, taxi drivers, did I mention the heat?

I kept a smile on my dial but underneath I was like a bulldog chewing a wasp.

Anyway. That happens and today's a new day.

We're in Costa Rica!

Clever stencil use in our hotel incorporating a fire extinguisher as a scuba tank.

1st August 2025 at 11:32 - Damian

A Botero sculpture in Cartagena. Gertrude. In front of The Church of Santo Domingo.

1st August 2025 at 11:25 - Damian

Colonial architecture and fresh colours in Cartagena

30th July 2025 at 12:20 - Damian

We flew to Cartagena in Colombia via Bogota yesterday. We were hit by the evening humidity stepping off the plane and today it got up to 35°C which felt like 41°C, apparently. We were sweaty messes most of the day.

Did some laundry which cost NZ$18.90. Fairly expensive compared to our NZ$6.30 bill on Quito. Things are a bit more touristy and expensive here with a thousand grifts going on as you walk down the street.

We had lunch at an Italian restaurant in the Getsemani district followed by a walking tour which was, as usual, a great way to get some perspective on a new city.

Lively street decorations in the Getsemani district

Santuario de San Pedro Claver

Piña coladas for lunch.

The walls around the old city took something like 200 years to complete and have been patched up many, many times!

29th July 2025 at 02:33 - Damian

A sign on the ship. Timely advice.

29th July 2025 at 02:32 - Damian

A couple of days ago I borrowed a fellow traveller's underwater camera. When paddling on the surface most of the photos came out a bit murky and blue-tinged but when you dive down and get up close the colours are lovely.

I'm starting to think I may have to up my camera game. The phone can be frustrating, especially around the lack of good optical zoom when bird-spotting.

Sun corals

Striated heron. Photo taken while bobbing in the water.

Sea urchin

Red rocks under water

29th July 2025 at 00:22 - Damian

We returned to Quito from Galapagos yesterday. It was our first organised trip and I have to admit it's probably the best holiday we've had. Expensive though.

We went with Intrepid with their 10-day Classic Galapagos: Central Eastern Islands. It's really 8 days with a day either side in Quito.

Our guide Roberto was excellent. An ex-science teacher with a booming voice he had the perfect balance of information and humour.

Our ten fellow passengers were all a similar age to us or older and were easy to get along with. We were a little worried that we might find ourselves stuck with people who rubbed us up the wrong way but, no. Perfect.

So. A strong recommendation from us if you're looking for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Roberto with our boat in the background. You can't see them but he has sea lion bite marks up his arm from earlier in the year when he tried to remove a hook from one's flipper.

Roberto explaining the way magma circulates beneath the earth's crust.

27th July 2025 at 07:32 - Damian

A marine iguana chewing algae.

27th July 2025 at 05:56 - Damian

I have no photos or videos for this. They wouldn't do it justice anyway.

We were snorkeling in clear, turquoise water this morning when we came across a large ball of silvery sardines around 3m wide. The shapes and glints of colour of the ball as the fish all moved in coordination was perhaps the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

But to top it off there was a family of five penguins flashing through the ball turning it into a torus, a spinning top, a disc and every other shape. Eating sardines, of course. So it goes.

I'm lost for words but I wish you all had seen it, too.

25th July 2025 at 04:13 - Damian

Changing of the guard blue-footed booby style.