Rincon de la Viella

Today we drove to the National Park. The last five kilometers of dirt road are private and you have to pay a toll of 700 colones each. Then you pay the special foreigners' entrance fee of 15 dollars. This country should be renamed Costa Plenty!

We hiked the Pailas trail which wound its way via a waterfall and various boiling mud pools through verdant forest. We saw white faced monkeys in the trees along the way.

Afterwards we attempted another trail to a waterfall, but had to turn back in order not to be travelling after nightfall.

We identified two types of tree new to botany. The 'trip you up' tree extends it's roots in a loop above ground, whilst the 'break a leg' tree's roots are larger and on the ground surface but cunningly conceal a deep trench downslope.


Possibly Costa Rica is epitomised by two sights we saw today: Street lamps and speed humps in a dirt road.