Uvita to Bahia Drake

I can´t believe how much I have seen already in less than a week! I didn´t find it difficult to adjust to the 34 degrees over here, but the humidity is tough, though I won´t complain hehehe. It is wonderful, I am really enjoying myself now after a first couple of days of feeling a bit lonely. I´ve met so many nice people already. From San Jose I went down to Uvita where there is a protected coastal reef and national park. The beach there is pristine, nothing man made to be seen, with lush mountains in the back, white sand, lots of birds (I saw a Tucan!) and big wave and strong currents. It was a great feeling to be bathing in the pacific for the first time.

Then I was lucky to meet a friendly couple who gave me a lift down to Sierpe from where I took a boat over to Bahia Drake (apparently some old pirate port). The boat ride started out with a picturesque trip through mangrove forest which I very much enjoyed, until the moment when we were told to put on life jackets.. that raised my suspicion. Then I was told to put away my camera, which I just managed in time before the river hit the open sea and the waves and thus the boat went all over the place. We hid behind a rock with our small boat and then waited for the right moment to speed out over the waves. I shit my pants! I thought all my stuff is on this boat if we go under. The young girl next to me was all chilled and so I had to try really hard to pretend not to be scared, but I am not so sure how successful that was latching onto the bench praying to get past that point! She even told me she goes on this boat with the waves three times as high in winter, I don´t know how the hell she does it, she must be crazy! But then young people have no fear do they. They don´t start picturing all the possible scenarios.

Anyway, Bahia Drake was totally worth that boat ride. It is lovely, and the woman who runs my hostel is from my home town! I am staying in a tent but with a proper bed and fan and light, pretty luxurious compared to my previous camping in Uvita in my own ultra-light mini tent which almost gave me claustrophobia. Yesterday I went with another guy for a hike across the hill down from beach to beach, into the forest a bit, over a hanging bridge, all the way to rio claro, a river that is normally bright blue but because it had been raining heavily with thunder it was all brown (that night I woke up by a massive thunder that sounded like next door accompanied by a loud dog yowl and then the dog speed jumped into my tent and hid under my bed. Poor thing. Woke up to him licking his arse in the morning.) We did a little canoe trip up the river, with the shore rocky and steep with trees high up. The guide told us there was a crocodile which we couldn´t see until it got up, and I couldn´t believe I had not seen it, it was so massive! Slightly scary, after all we were just on a canoe. Then AFTER that incident we left the boat and went SWIMMING in the SAME river. Nice. With brown water so you can´t see anything. Well I´m still alive, the crocodile obviously didn´t like me. On the way back we had to rush as it was getting dark, had a short panic attack when we lost our path for a moment, and then were very relieved as we got back to the hostel.
It feels a bit as if you were on an island here with the mountain in the middle and all the beaches at the side. Bahia Drake is tiny, the centre is a dirt track with two "supermarkets" and a few bars.