18th August 2025 at 12:34 - Damian

18th August 2025 at 12:22 - Damian

The first stage of the Saturn V rocket is 42m long and has a diameter of 10m. Its job is to lift the rocket to 60km above the earth. Basically it has to throw a HEAP of mass out its arse-end VERY rapidly.

It feeds around 5000L of fuel EVERY SECOND to those five engines and empties itself in a mere 2.5 minutes by which time it's cleared the stratosphere, is discarded and stage two (with its own set of engines and fuel) takes over.

The scale of these things. What a ride it must have been!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-IC

18th August 2025 at 09:09 - Damian

17th August 2025 at 13:36 - Damian

We're in Houston for the night before I head home and Sally heads to NYC with Adrienne.

Where we're staying is beside a freeway near the airport with dire food options. We found a craft brewery (City Acre Brewing¹) a short taxi ride away. What a find. It was off the main road and felt like we were walking into someone's home.

I made the mistake of wearing my knock-off Yankees cap into the bar which earned me friendly scorn and banter. They gave me a free brewery merch cap just to stop me wearing it.

The food and beer was delicious. Our first real taste of Southern hospitality.

1. https://www.cityacrebrewing.net/beers

17th August 2025 at 00:15 - Damian

We saw hummingbirds in Colombia and Ecuador but I never attempted to photograph them thinking we'd have better opportunities in Costa Rica.

I was correct, in a way. But they're really hard to capture as they're quite shy and move fast.

This is one taken by one of our guides with a phone clamped to a spotting telescope (which EVERY guide carries).

17th August 2025 at 00:07 - Damian

12-15/08/2025 - Days 11-14
From Monteverde we descended from the cool mountains south to the Pacific coast to the beachside town of Manuel Antonio where we spent a relaxing four days to end the tour.

We spent a morning kayaking in the mangroves and, on another day, did a final nature tour in the nearby national park with a guide followed by a swim at the beach.

13th August 2025 at 01:42 - Damian

11/08/2025 - Day 10

A day in Monteverde. We did a guided orchid experience, a guided butterfly/insect experience and then a guided night walk in the forest.

The orchids were fascinating and we learnt a lot. They've evolved a heap of strategies to tempt specific animals (mostly insects) to pollinate them and, because they have both male and female parts additional strategies to avoid self-fertilisation.

The night walk was interesting, too. The whole place comes alive at night.

11th August 2025 at 12:04 - Damian

10/08/2025 - Day 9

We relocated from La Fortuna across Lake Arenal to Monteverde which is at 1300m in cloud forest. Much nicer temperature at this altitude.

On arrival we did a three hour walk in the cloud forest and we're heading into town for dinner tonight.

11th August 2025 at 06:57 - Damian

08-09/08/25 - Day 7 & 8

From Rio Celeste we travelled to La Fortuna which is at the base of the active Arenal volcano. Quite a touristy place but near a nice national park with lots of walks.

We did a walk to the La Fortuna Waterfall and had a refreshing swim there.

10th August 2025 at 12:47 - Damian

10th August 2025 at 12:45 - Damian

10th August 2025 at 12:42 - Damian

10th August 2025 at 12:41 - Damian

10th August 2025 at 12:40 - Damian

9th August 2025 at 01:37 - Damian

07/08/25 - Day 6

Went for a forest walk but it was quite crowded so I disengaged myself from the line of people and meandered, instead. Also pissed off with a local guide who was manhandling a beautiful red-eyed frog which is hugely detrimental to their health.

Here's a cool white-faced coati.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!