The boat trip

Before you read this make sure you check Sam's blog, he describes this trip really well... I hope it's because of all the English and reading he's been doing. So unfortunately Sam has a bit of an ear infection which means he will have to stay out of the surf for 7 days. He has a fungal ear infection and has antibiotics and drops...it's not as bad as it sounds as he has no pain it's just a bit swollen and itchy, going to the doctors is pretty expensive here (thank god for travel insurance!) So we decided to take this opportunity to do a trip we had been planning for a few days, we can't do trips like this all the time because of the expense but this was definitely worth it.

We picked up the boat at the river mouth in Tamarindo and it took us out onto the river which was surrounded by mangrove trees, the trip lasted two hours and on the way we saw crocodiles, Ibis, Herons, Kingfishers, Crabs and at one point we got off on an island and we saw lots of howler monkeys with their babies... apparently Howler Monkeys live in a pack with ine alpha male and lots of females, when the babies are born the male kills all the male chimps so that he has no competition. We also saw termite nests and the guide told us that parakeets lay their eggs in the nests so that when the chicks hatch they eat the termites! It was a really good trip and Sam loved it as one of his favourite things (beside surfing) is to see the nature.

We have also hired a car which we pick up tomorrow to drive down to Santa Teresa - it's a 4x4 because we hear the road is pretty crap (could be Nicaragua part 2!) so we will set off tomorrow morning and it should take about 4 hours. We have had a great time in Tamarindo, much better than anticipated and are a bit sad to leave but Santa Teresa is meant to be beautiful and has lots and lots of nature for Sam. We are now off to see the band play in the pub round the corner so I leave you with a picture from the boat trip.