Woke up to a stunning view across the river but pouring rain. Walked to the other end of the village for a good breakfast at the Fresh Food restaurant that the Sunset Rooms hotel had given us vouchers for.
Suddenly realised that having finished breakfast at 8:40 we might just have enough time to catch the 9am boat rather than the 11am one we had planned to board.
After some very rapid packing and fast walking we made it, even allowing for not knowing where to buy the tickets!
The boat ride upstream to La Pavona only took an hour despite the river running faster because of the rain. We had been so lucky with the weather whilst we were in Tortuguero.
The car was still parked exactly as we had left it, except the sleeping dog had moved from alongside the front wheel to alongside the rear.
The drive through Braulio Carrillo national park was quite something. Huge American style container trucks looming out of the cloud and rain on a highway carved out of alarmingly steep mountainsides with tree ferns and other vegetation clinging to near vertical slopes. The satnav kept giving warnings of falling rocks. There may have been incredible views, but today we could only see cloud.
Once over the mountains the weather changed completely. The sun shone with no trace of the rainclouds we had been travelling through.
Travel slowed down even more though once we had turned off the main road, as we found ourselves following a funeral cortege. Most of the mourners were walking behind the hearse and the procession of cars held up behind couldn't pass due to the narrowness of the road. Life became even slower when the cortege encountered a minor traffic accident between a lorry and a van where neither vehicle could be moved as the police hadn't arrived yet. Just to compound the problem, the accident had occurred just where the electrical supply was being re-strung between poles and various people were busy up ladders or untangling cables on the ground to add to the confusion. I think it took the best part of an hour to cover half a mile. Lucky we started early!
Our trusty satnav was not fazed when the road ahead turned out to be closed for reconstruction, and led us with unerring accuracy to Montana de Milena cabins. We have a log and stone built cabin for the night and a man is coming at 8 o'clock to light the log fire to keep us warm!
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