Costa Rica Wed 17 Nov 10

Costa Rica Wed 17 Nov 10
Today is our last day in Cahuita. This morning, four of us go snorkelling, it´s only a short walk to meet Joseph with his boat then 10 minutes max to the reef. An hour in one area then a second hour over a different part of the reef. The water is clear, we see loads of fish all shapes, sizes and colours. I am also lucky to see a ray and a reef shark. I follow a shoal of quite large fish, several varieties yellow, blue and brown, charging around as a group, sometimes stopping to feed on a piece of coral then charging off again. Then I follow a big fat fish, all head and no body, maybe 12" diameter. It doesn´t like being followed and hides under a rock until I go away. This is a very pleasant way to spend a morning. We feed on pineapple on the way back in the boat.
This afternoon I walk with two of the girls about 3k along a dusty road to the ´Tree OF Life´ which is Botanical Gardens and a Wildlife Rescue Centre. The gardens are beautifully laid out with trees and shrubs and various herb and spice growing plants. The animals in residence during our visit included a pecary (a piggy sort of thing), racoons, a capuchin monkey which had lived in a bar and become anti-social with other monkeys, coatis, a kinkajou which has a prehensile tail and normally lives in the forest canopy, deer and turtles. There is also an aviary and a butterfly farm with dozens of those beautiful big blue ones fluttering all around us. As we leave we chat with the dutch lady who owns and runs the place, it has only been open one year and we compliment her on the clean conditions for the animals.
The girls opt to walk around the coast back to the town but we end up stuck in residents gardens and are finally released through the gate of an empty, for-sale property, by a formidable looking Costa Rican lady who stands waiting for us with hands on hips. But she mellows a bit when one of the girls shows her a bleeding leg which she had caught on barbed wire, luckily for us.
Another good day, 6.30pm now, there is reggae music in the bar next door and soon Aaron our guide will take us to yet another restaurant. I am hungry and must go and shower now.
All the Best,
John