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12-15Mar

12Mar was another rest day, except for our Night Tour 6PM-9PM. Jose met us at our hotel office at 6PM, gave us our boots, and then met us minutes later at the Top Trail office in the village. From there, we walked down the hill to meet four septuagenarian men from France. We wandered onto someone's property, who Jose obviously knew, and started photographing toads and frogs. From there, we wandered into the ditch where we spent the next few hours identifying spiders, ants, and scorpions.  13Mar was definitely a rest day. A walk to the beach and back is about all we could muster. 14Mar was a little more energetic: it turns out to be about 9KM to walk from our hotel to Cocalito Beach and back (the same walk we did on 11Mar). On the beach, we swam and rested in the shade. On the way back, we stopped for drinks at Aguila de Osa . We got back as the greatest heat of the day arrived, and hid in our air-conditioned room. While at Aguila de Osa, we chatted with an older couple (81) who we...
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7-11Mar

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We're pretty convinced we both have COVID, and so I have learned fist hand how COVID can suck the life right out of you. Not just energy for activities, but energy we need to focus. Hence the lack of writing and some of the screw-ups below. So after Tue rest day and Wed snorkeling day, we went straight into Thu/Fri which was our Corcovado Park Overnight Tour. As with all tours here, they start very early on the beach: 5:50AM. After almost 90m of boat ride, we arrived at the beach. My unhappiest moment was when I stepped off the boat with my sandals in hand (as we tend to do for beach landings), but the person on the boat waited until that moment to mention I might want to have my sandals on, since this was a rocky shore with waves pounding. So after a few minutes of embarrassingly being pushed over by crashing waves, losing both sandals and a water bottle, and swearing up a storm ... with the help of nearby friendly faces retrieving my bits ... I walked onto the rocky beach with sl...
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Snorkeling Day

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Noodles for dinner last night (boiled the water using the coffee maker). Today, we did (barely) make it to the pickup spot in time for a day of snorkeling. We were up in time, got breakfast in time, but as we were about to leave the room, I had a bathroom emergency that required me to change swimsuit and pants. Very glad we made it. We saw a pod of dolphins on our way to Cano Island. When we arrived, we checked in with the Rangers who just wanted to know how many from what countries: 1 from France, 2 from Canada, and the other 7 were Flemish (from Belgium, I presume). We dropped two elderly Belgians on the beach, and we went just 100-200m offshore to jump ion for snorkeling. We had 2 guides in the water and 2 support staff on the boat. We got to see many colourful fish including Parrot fish, Puffer fish, Angel fish and Red Snapper, different colours of coral, a few small (harmless) sharks, Two Manta Rays and up to 6 turtles (of 2 varieties). It's hard to say how many turtles becaus...
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Sickies who bounce back

So soon after I got back with the groceries for Kate (Canada Dry ginger ale, electrolyte drink, oranges, and granola bars), I started feeling sick too. So we both slept the afternoon, evening, and night away. The next morning, we got breakfast, which was the first real food for us since breakfast the day before. Kate was doing slightly better, but I still had a fever and aches. So we took a rest day. Kate went out for more electrolyte drink, for me this time ... she also had a walk to the beach. My fever broke mid-afternoon ... so nice to be able to think again and not have aches. We decided we're on for snorkeling around Caño Island tomorrow morning.
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Big Hike

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We didn't hear back about our planned activity today (Night Hike for bugs and night creatures), so we did our own hike to Naguala Falls . We went the long way there, and the short way back. Maybe a little too adventurous for our first full day, as we came back, showered and crashed ... and Kate is showing symptoms of something. It was fun though! Three kilometers to the point we climbed down to the river, 4.5km to the waterfall, jumped in the water at the falls, then 3km until we climbed up from the river, and 1.5km home, for a total of 12.7km, 4 hours moving time, and 5 hours total. We saw 2 monkeys as we got to the river, birds (including 8 ibis or egrets), tadpoles, frogs (from 5mm to over 10cm), fish, caterpillars, lizards (from 10cm to 60cm), and 2 dogs. On the river itself, we only saw 5 people, not counting the 4 on horses. Most of the river walking was IN the river, so our sandals/watershoes were handy. I'll go get Kate some Ginger Ale and snacks from one of the 4+ food...
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First oops

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Bags ... check! Wallet and passport... check! At airport 2hrs before flight ... check! In line for security check ... where's my phone?! I must have left it in the car (Mom dropped us off). Called Mom, she came back to the airport with my phone/lifeline ... then through security with plenty of time to spare (despite a very friendly but very loud Austrian). Puddle jumper to Vancouver, but found time to nap. ... Barely time for one movie from Vancouver to LA. Free food consisted of one 2-inch fruit bar and one non-alcoholic beverage. Dinner in LAX was US$45 for a single Caesar salad, burger, and Coke (!). Met a young family who were on their way back from a week in Costa Ric and headed home to Reno. ... Another movie and a nap and we arrived in San Jose ~6:30am. Short walk to the domestic terminal where we got a flight much earlier than scheduled (8am vs 12:30pm). Whatsapped the hotel so they can inform our scheduled pickup of the change. Got a ride to the hotel, and dropped our bags...
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Twas the night before go-day

We are packed and ready to go. We checked-in online. We're booked for hotels, taxi (to/from Drake Bay Airport), and activities. We have a bunch of US$ and Costa Rican Colónes (CCR), but maybe not enough ... we may pick up more in San José Airport since there are no bank machines in Drake Bay. So tomorrow, we fly Victoria (YYJ) to Vancouver (YVR) to Los Angeles (LAX) to San José (SJO) to Drake Bay (DRK), and it will take us 27h20m ... closer to 30h once we get from home and to the hotel. So lots of exploring/walking airports and napping/reading in airports. We're ready for this ... bring it on!
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