Day 3 - Whitewater rafting and Sloths!

 Today I was the only one brave enough to sign up for whitewater rafting. I ended up having a private minibus to take me to where the rafting started, which was a little way out from where we were staying.

I found out the tour company we had booked with also seemed fairly exclusive as it would just be me, a couple and the guide, which was pretty nice compared to some of the other groups who had a lot of people to manage, although it did mean we had to work harder!

I had opted for the grade 2/3 option. 1 is pointless and 4 was probably pushing it in terms of my bravery levels. That said, my main barrier did seem to be my co-ordination or lack of and I did struggle initially to understand the instructions until I got the hang of it.

The guide was super patient and once we were in the water we were off. It was a great experience, and really exhilarating. Some of the rapids were definitely more of a challenge than others, but at least we stayed afloat.

I was super impressed with the photographer who managed to kayak through the rapids with a camera. Pretty awesome.

After lunch, I was back in La Fortuna and had the afternoon free. Our guide had sent through some ideas of things to do so I looked into booking onto a wildlife tour in the afternoon, which was a short Uber drive away. What was great was a couple of the group also wanted to come too.

We'd managed to sneak onto the last tour of the day, and had hoped to miss the downpour, but no such luck there, although we did manage to see some worker ants, and parrots before we saw our first sloth up close (having seen some from the road). We also saw an iguana (I think) chilling precariously on the branch of a tree. It's crazy how they manage to do this.

We then ducked for cover when the downpour finally came, expecting this to be the end of our wildlife spotting, as they, like us would want to seek shelter, but were fortunate. When the sun came back out again, our guide managed to spot a mother sloth with her newborn baby (less than a day old!).
Sloths are not the most exciting animals, they spend most of the day sleeping, not dissimilar to koalas, and when they do need to get anywhere, or eat anything, it takes them an incredibly long time to do anything. However they do look incredibly cute. A trend I found across all the tour guides in Costa Rica was that they were 1) extremely knowledgeable on everything and passionate about their job, which made every single tour an absolute delight 2) they were geniuses at spotting seemingly impossible to see creatures but also carried these telescopic lenses, perfect for helping us less experienced to see them more visibly, and great for zooming in on mobile phones to get even better photographs. This really helped when trying to spot our baby sloth.

We were later rewarded with the national bird of Nicaragua and also some frogs, including the famous red eye tree frog which very quickly became my favourite creatures from the whole trip. Our tree frog was a bit dozy as it was nighttime for him, but it was still a pleasure to see one of Costa Rica's most iconic creatures.

The evening was marked by a nice group meal, before an early return to bed as it was due to be an early start the next day.

 Day 2 - Friday 14th February

San Jose - La Fortuna

This morning was a hideously early start...something that is fairly normal for trips like this, but intentional so we could get ahead of the San Jose traffic. Thankfully everyone was ready with their luggage and we were off on time.

We stopped at a nice little cafe for breakfast, and I had the opportunity for huevos rancheros, something I haven't had since my last trip to this part of the world. I wasn't disappointed! They were good portion sizes too although when my cup of tea eventually materialised I definitely regretted ordering tea con leche. Note to self, tea con poco poco leche!!!

On the way we stopped as our eagle eyed driver had seen a sloth. There are supposed to be loads, but not always easy to find, and sometimes tourists go a whole trip waiting to see one at all, so it was amazing to see one on our first day.

We also saw a couple of scarlet macaws, who apparently stay together throughout their lives - clearly showing off for Valentine's Day. Sadly the sun was in the wrong place to get a good photo, but it was great to see them.

At lunch we stopped off at the coffee plantation, a community project supported by G adventures, and had the opportunity to see how it was produced, and understand the different types of quality control. 

Lunch came at a good time, as it emptied it down, so it was good we were inside, whilst the food was tasty, I am starting to get a bit fed up of rice, beans and egg...

The afternoon was spent travelling to our hotel, but beforehand we had a chance to book our activities for the following day. With so much choice it was difficult, but in the end I stuck with my instinct and went for white water rafting. Then a group of us chose to book into the hot springs that evening, as the volcanic area made this a popular activity.

 Day 1 - Thursday 13th February

This was the first official day on the tour. We had a mostly free day to spend in San Jose before a group meeting later in the evening and dinner with the group.

I managed to meet a few more people at breakfast, and decided to make plans to go on a walking tour of San Jose, somewhat last minute. This turned out to be a good decision, as it gave me a chance to have an explore of the city and find out a bit more about the culture.

The tour was a food tour as well, so we had the chance to sample local cuisine - including local fruits. There was a wide spread of different fruits, including many that I hadn't sampled before (a couple very sour!), and another sweet fruit very like a pomegranate. We also had the chance to try some local chocolate and an ice cream which had had the same recipe for around a century (it tasted like cake batter - very nice).

The tour took us through a number of different markets, which themselves were very historical. There are limited historical buildings in San Jose, but one we did get to visit was the Teatro National, which had some wonderful artwork, and was stunning.

We finished the tour with a traditional lunch of local flavours and had a chance to make empanadas. We also had some information about coffee making (and sampled coffee...I tried it, but could't drink much beyond a sip...I tried!).

The evening was spent with an introduction about the tour and then a visit to a local restaurant where we had a chance to get to know each other, before learning about a painfully early morning the next day...

Back to Central America

Feb 12th 2025

So I’m back on my travels. In 2010 Andy and I had planned to visit the islands of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, but as luck (or the weather) would have it we never made it past Nicaragua before having to turn back so we could make our flight home.

Costa Rica has always appealed to me because it’s notorious for being a biodiverse haven, a place of stability in a region notorious for social challenges and is leading the way in the fight against climate change by being a leader in eco tourism.

Desperate not to have the same issues as before I deliberately avoided rainy season. My flight booked for February - what could possibly go wrong…

I’m guessing I hadn’t banked on the heaviest snow storm to hit Canada in several years (my flight was via Toronto). What turned out to be a laughable amount of snow - which probably would have grounded Heathrow quickly became a white out and I increasingly became anxious as to whether my flight would leave.

Thankfully we did, but the pilot really earned his stripes navigating the blizzard. 

We were delayed by an hour on what ended up being a 24 hour day (with barely any sleep) by the time I’d reached the hotel. I was exhausted and very ready for my bed.

Day 21 - Los Angeles - Sun setting on my holiday

I'm definitely done with hostels. I'd gone to bed, pretty late actually, like 11pm, and none of the other three people in my room were back. I was drifting off, and then the lad underneath me, who is 20 and acts even younger, gets back, clearly drunk and brings with him a takeaway! Not only that, but something that is really smelly. I was tempted to remind him of general social etiquette, like there are plenty of places in this hostel to eat your post-night out food, and non of those places are your bedroom, but refrained from doing so. But seriously?
This is the same person, who when I introduced myself and said where I was from, his first words were "oh s***, Brexit, yeh we were studying this at my school" (he's Danish). So European students are discussing Brexit at school now? Great! Maybe they'll solve it before we do.

I was actually stressing a bit, because the Uber app for some reason wasn't working, so I decided to try Lyft instead, which seems to be really popular round here (it's an Uber competitor), but having pre-scheduled my rides to gymnastics, I still hadn't received any confirmation that a driver had been matched, and had no idea when they match you with a driver. The longer this went on, the more I was regretting my decision and feeling like I was going to be wasting my day.
However, ten minutes before the allotted time, I got a notification that a driver was on his way and this all ran smoothly and I was at the gymnastics club in plenty of time, so needn't have worried.
It's weird having to get taxis everywhere, but this is how things are in LA, because public transport is non existent. It's pretty bizarre given that they are so environmentally conscious here. They are definitely going to have to up their game in terms of public transport for the Olympics in 2028.

Gymnastics was pretty hard going to start off with, as I felt quite unfit, although kept reminding myself I haven't exactly eaten healthily, but when the conditioning session had finished, I was pleased with the work I did on beam and vault. But it reminded me just how much I miss the sport, and although I'm sad my trip is coming to an end, I'm jumping at the bit to continue with my training and of course the gymnastics world championships start on Friday! (I'm also looking forward to being back in my own bed)

I spent the afternoon sunbathing on what appeared to be a virtually empty beach, before enjoying the last of the summer's ice cream (although I'll probably eat some tomorrow morning before my flight, and if I remember correctly I might have some in my freezer at home). Having checked in for my flight (always a priority especially for long-haul to make sure you get a good seat!) Rather appropriately, my seat number is 30.
I then settled to watch the sunset. I decided to splash out on a cocktail at the restaurant I was having dinner at (I had some rather peculiar but delicious fajitas made with a vegetarian steak substitute. Not sure where the tortilla's were, but I didn't miss them). I chose a Sidewalk (the name of the restaurant) Sunset Margarita.  I took this photograph of the trees from the restaurant, and as I'd already ordered it was a bit difficult to get up and move and get a better angle, so am slightly annoyed about the lamppost else it would have been a stunning shot to round off what will be an incredibly diverse range of photos and memories - from ice on glaciers to desert wilderness, from red rock to blue and emerald lakes, from imposing mountains to quirky non-trees, from forests to palms and sandy beaches, God’s creation is truly breathtaking and we must all act now to ensure this beautiful creation doesn’t disappear.

This has been a holiday full of diverse and wonderful landscapes just as I had hoped and anticipated. Now the editing begins!

Day 20 - Los Angeles - Celebrity houses, oh how the other half live!

When I was on the bus home yesterday I realised that they had only validated my ticket for 24 hours. Grrrh, so it meant I was deliberating as to what I could do today. Do I chance wandering around making a stab at finding the bus again, only to find that I might not be able to get the bus because of the bus company's incompetence or do I not bother, book onto some other tour, complain try and get my money back etc.?

I had done some research into the celebrity homes tours which all looked pretty good, but unfortunately most started in Hollywood, so I actually had to get there i.e. my bus pass would be pretty useful. At breakfast I had the sudden brainwave that apparently there was a bus from outside my hostel which ran till 9.30am (I forgot to mention that on the way back home, the bus stopped right outside the street across from my hostel).
With that in mind, I rushed through what I was having, neglected my cup of tea and rushed off, with the thought, if the driver rejects my ticket at least I haven't wasted half the morning walking over to a stop in Santa Monica where I still don't know where the stop is, only to find my ticket is rejected. I also put my tea in my room thinking, if things don't work out, at least I have a cup of tea to come back to, to reheat, when I can come back to the hostel and replan my day.

9.30am came and went and then I glanced down at the map (which I had from being on the bus yesterday) and realised I was probably, (I can't be certain) in the wrong place. I decided to stay put for a bit, and then the bus rocked up. I decided, old school style, to flag it down, so have absolutely no idea if it stopped intentionally or whether the driver was being polite. She clearly wasn't in a hurry and realised the mistake with the ticket so all was well. I had to re-listen to the commentary again from yesterday as I was pretty much doing the exact same route, but never mind. I hadn't actually booked my celebrity homes tour yet, but as they ran hourly I thought I'd chance it as I got to Hollywood, as I had no idea how long it would take to get there, with it being Sunday. As I got nearer, I thought I wouldn't risk the 12pm one, so booked the 1pm slot, but decided to wander over to the meeting point so at least I knew where it was. When I got there, luck would have it that they actually had spaces on the 12pm, and would I like to go any earlier? Awesome!

First stop on the trip was the Hollywood Sign. I'd snapped a pic of it yesterday from a distance, but it didn't look particularly good in the rain, whereas today the sun had come out and plus we were much closer.

Leonard DiCaprio's Hollywood Hills House!

We then drove around the Hollywood Hills and Mulholland Drive, where there are a bunch of very nice houses with pretty awesome views, many of which are owned by celebrities. The downside is that this is a high risk fire area. The other area of town very populated by celebs is of course Beverly Hills, which we would visit later, but the bonus to living in Hollywood Hills (other than the views) is that the houses are a lot more spread out. There was a beautiful place which had an infinity pool (I'm still not convinced I could deal with that), and then a small property worth $13.5m belonging to non other than Leonardo DiCaprio! The biggest shock was that it was only $13.5m. There are places round here that are between the $3m and $5m mark. London is such a rip off!
We also got to see the former home of Whitney Houston.

We passed by various film locations too - unsurprisingly a lot of scenes from films are shot here in Hollywood - most of these passed me by, but there was one which I was aware of from E.T. I'll have to rewatch that, and look out for it!

Off to Beverly Hills next which is probably even better known for being the place to live if you are someone and have money. Elvis Presley lived here at one point (his home is now rather aptly owned by the owner of the Hard Rock Cafe), we also got a sneak peak at the residence of the King of Pop when he died, and got to see the house exterior of the pop star creator (albeit for a few months...), Simon Cowell.
There were loads of other beautiful houses which just belonged to random people with lots of money. It's a very pretty neighbourhood. One random fact about Beverly Hills is that all the trees on each street match, so if one street has palm trees then the whole street will have palm trees on both sides all the way up. Another street might have oak trees and so on.
People can also offer up their houses for filming if they wish.
I've taken a photo of the famous Beverly Hills shield. This is copyrighted and is in high demand to be used in films. It can only be used for personal photography - in professional cases a fee needs to be paid! I'm not making money off this blog so I'm okay haha.

After we had finished gazing into the homes of the rich and famous it was time to have a look at how else they spend their wealth. Shopping! Rodeo Drive is a street full of designer shops. You can tell my knowledge of fashion by the fact I hadn't heard of half of the places! Apparently, if the blinds are drawn in the shop, it's because there's someone famous in there who doesn't want to be papped.

I really enjoyed the tour, although I think it's pretty crazy to think that people are that interested in where celebs eat and shop. I was just interested in the nice looking houses and slightly curious about who lived in them! Apparently there are some equally nice houses in Malibu, just along the coast, where there are tours to as well, but I think I'll run out of time what with my plans for gymnastics tomorrow.

When I got back, I started off on a walk to watch the sunset, which then turned into a walk to find food too. I ended up in Santa Monica so decided to explore the Pier a bit. I ate a weird veggie hot dog. The jalapeño sauce was a definite let down.
The Pier is also the end of Route 66.


When I got home, I still had the cup of tea, which I reheated, so a win all round!

Last day tomorrow, and my plans are basically to go to gymnastics if I can figure out the Uber / Lyft apps and then chill.

Day 19 - Los Angeles - acclimatising to England?

Okay, this was NOT what I had in mind when I woke up this morning, especially after last night's beautiful sunset!
In fairness, the BBC weather forecast had predicted it would be overcast today, but it hadn't predicted rain, although I packed my rain jacket just in case...turns out I was right to be prepared.

I wasn't best pleased with the start to the day either. I had a 48 hour hop on hop off bus pass, and aside from being slightly worried about whether the buses would accept the confirmation I had on my STA travel itinerary sheet, rather than some official looking voucher, there was also the issue of where the nearest bus stop was. Last night's hostel receptionist was pretty useless and there are no maps in this hostel, which is pretty irritating if you ask me as normally hostels are pretty clued up on things like this. The guy this morning was extremely helpful and phoned up the company (who were confused about which stop was nearest...) and I ended up wandering around for absolutely ages to find the bus. None of the stops are labelled so its a case of wander round, hope for the best and flag down a bus roughly in the right area. Turns out the main reason for all the confusion (other than the lack of bus stop labelling around the route), is that they have changed the route as of a week ago, which actually does include a stop near our hostel, but this also seemed to vary depending on the time of day.
When eventually I tracked down a bus, as predicted the bus driver was confused by my "voucher", but let me on anyway and said I'd need to register it further down the line. I kind of expected this but at least after all this trouble I was able to get on a bus, but still frustratingly I'd wasted half a day.
I suppose on the plus side, the weather had put tourists off and my bus was pretty empty, so I didn't find myself queuing to get on it. I did, however find myself sitting inside, rather than on the top deck (which had been so popular in San Francisco) as it had started raining and was rather chilly.

This is where the Oscars are held!

Even though I was later in the day, it made more sense to head over to Hollywood which involved changing buses, because of the way Los Angeles is designed (there are three hop on hop off bus routes and where I'm based you have to connect at one point to get onto another). At least I was able to find out more about the city, although as I learned, barring facts about celebrities who have spent money/got into debt/died/struggled to make ends meet before coming famous LA doesn't really have much else in terms of history and culture so the buildings aren't particularly interested. When there is a point of interest which says "this is LA's largest cemetery" you know they are scraping the barrel. One of the stops "Pinks Hot Dogs", has individual hot dogs named after celebrities.

Harry Potter

I passed by the stop for Beverly Hills, which I will return to when the weather is better (which is meant to be tomorrow) and headed for the walk of fame and the home of the Oscars - the Dolby Theatre. What I didn't realise is that the walk of fame actually includes musicians as well as actors and they have a different symbol underneath the name of the star. So I found the likes of Elton John, the Beatles, Michael Jackson and so on. There were also Disney characters like Mickey Mouse. I expected it to be a lot busier, and I think the weather and the lack of school holidays was a huge advantage as it meant I got some really clear photographs. Whilst I was there, they were setting up for a film premiere. Not sure what it was for, but I gather this is a frequent event here in Hollywood.