It is home to a great charity called “Kids saving the rainforest” started by a 9 year old girl a few years back. Having met the mother, I figure that the daughter couldn’t play tennis or sing so she had to push her into something.

Anyway it is a good cause and in this part of the country which risks over-development, anything to raise awareness is good. Actually 30% of Costa Rica is National Park so they take their conservation seriously, they need to as tourism is now the number one earner and without the natural wonders nobody is going to come here. Thankfully the government recognised this over 40 years ago and although huge chunks of the country were carved up for coffee and banana plantations there are still large areas of primary rainforest that remain untouched.

Our journey started off in the capital city of San Jose, an unremarkable typical Central American city surrounded by mountains, with open squares, parks, a few attractive colonial buildings but mostly ugly buildings put up in the 50’s and 60’s. Reminded me of a tropical Adelaide, great reason to get out and head for the coast. Pretty special coast too! We were going to the Caribbean, just over the horizon the likes of Ponting and Gilchrist would be slogging it out in the cricket World Cup! There are no roads in this region in the far north east of the country, so the last part of the journey was in an open boat that took us along the natural canals that link this part of Costa Rica to the outside world. By the time we reached our lodge the waterways were only a few metres wide and you could reach out and touch Caymans (small crocodiles) that were sunning themselves on the banks, howler monkeys echoed in the trees and cormorants perched on the protruding branches of fallen trees. There are a few basic lodges built on the canals, backing on to the ocean, a couple of small villages but other than that the region of Tortuguero is pretty much uninhabited by humans anyway!

We spent our time at the lodge taking guided walks through the jungle, knee deep in mud, often only 100m from the lodge but totally immersed in the thick foliage. Alone, totally lost, you would not last many days – poisonous trees, poisonous frogs, poisonous snakes, yeah it was pretty toxic. However our guide who I named Jesus (For his hairstyle not his guidance) pointed out the plants you could eat, the ones to stop you getting malaria, the animals to avoid etc.., I figured with his help you could survive forever. I guess some people do! We saw lots of rare species, including the tiny blue jean frog – he was only about 1cm long, bright red with blue legs! He told us lots of interesting facts about this unique rainforest and a story about the time he spotted a jaguar but I missed most of it as I was always at the back dragging Sheridan out of the mud, she had a knack of putting her feet in the deep holes and slowly getting sucked down, ok so I´m exaggerating but what is it with kids and mud – you couldn’t wipe the smile off her face!

One thing that did wipe the smile off my face was the beach! 27km of pristine Caribbean coastline covered in rubbish. One day I went for a run north of the resort and ran 2 or 3km through piles and piles of it. On closer inspection I set myself the task of identifying its source – there was shampoo from Brazil, bleach from China and bottles from The Netherlands, mystified I asked one of the locals and he pointed out to sea and said “Cruise Ships”. Yep, all the rubbish thrown overboard from those giant ships way off to the west gets blown on to the Costa Rican shoreline, there is a rumour that a few miles offshore where the currents meet is a giant floating island over a mile long – made up entirely of rubbish!

As depressing as it was it was a real life reminder of the damage we are doing to the planet – the next day I spent an hour on the beach taking photos. Look out for my work at a gallery near you, “Orange Bucket”, “Head and Shoulders” and “Toy Mercedes Truck” and the rare one titled “Happy Crab”. I annoyed everyone for the next two days with my obsession with rubbish, however next time you get sucked in by the L?l ads and reach for that bright green Garnier Fructus shampoo on the supermarket shelf think of how it will look on a beach near you. I counted 12 of them at Tortuguero, time to change brands I guess!

Leaving the coast behind it was time to move inland and up into the hills, past the endless banana plantations. At one stage having to stop at a boom gate as stems of bananas crossed the road, half an hour of “Why did the banana cross the road” jokes and many miles of coffee plantations later we were finally at La Fortuna, the adventure capital of Costa Rica sitting at the base of the perfectly shaped active volcano of Arenal. The highlight of our stay there was a walk through the forest at the base of the volcano in the path of the massive eruption of 1968 which wiped out a village and killed 24,000 cows! It was amazing how quick the forest had grown back, yet there were some giant trees that remained standing but were completely black. It is funny how fast you can walk with the occasional rumble of an active volcano at your back.

Later in the day we saw a small eruption with fiery red boulders coming down the mountain…way off in the distance. One evening was spent in hot springs that got cooler as you moved down the slope, kicking back drinking mocktails, every now and then there would be a rumble and you didn’t know whether to look across at the giant Tico woman in the g-string bikini, paws wrapped around a large keg of Bavaria or up at the volcano. Either way it was time to get out and head to Monteverde, the land of the quakers!

Getting anywhere in Costa Rica aint easy, the roads are shocking! My theory has to do with the fact that Costa Rica disbanded its army in 1949 and countries with armies build the roads well so they can get their troops and tanks to the borders efficiently. Anyway nobody in my group has questioned my theory; actually they don’t say a great deal to me coz they are worried I might bring up the rubbish conversation. Getting to Monteverde was a blast; you could catch a boat and drive for 5 hours or ride most of the way. Whilst Michelle and Sheridan chose the long way, a few of us jumped on horseback and rode along the lake and through the hills. It was magic country, small farms, lush rolling hills, forest and the lake surrounded by volcanoes was off on the right hand side throughout the ride. My horse was a bit lame and never did much more than a fast trot but eventually I found the rhythm and by the time we got to our destination I looked like a right royal gymkhana rider. I had a sore arse for a few days but not too worry, we didn’t come to Monteverde to sit down.

Monteverde Cloud Forest is an amazing place chock full of thousands of species of birds, insects and wildlife. We had a brilliant guide who knew all the bird calls and we spent hours tracking birds throughout the park. The guides could impersonate the birds so well that at one stage she was making the sounds, the bird would respond and slowly we got closer and closer, finally a few feet away she realised it was one of the other guides – not a bird at all!! Much to her chagrin, I spotted a Resplendent Quetzal – a magnificent blue bird with a long tail, quite rare in these parts. However, she won the day and scared the kids with her discovery of a black and orange tarantula about as big as my hand!! This was all before lunch..the afternoon was what we were all looking forward to! Yes, we were going to do the canopy tour – Sheridan and I had been looking forward to this for the past 12 months!

The Canopy Tour is the ultimate adventure activity in Costa Rica. Within a vast tract of jungle they have strung out 15 wires or “zip lines” varying from 100m long to the longest at 672m. These zip lines start in the tops of the trees and traverse gullies and a very wide canyon. You get into a harness like mountain climbers wear, are given a helmet and special gloves then go off for a quick lesson. Cross your legs, lean back, one hand on the wire behind the pulley, head to the side and don’t squeeze the wire or let go! Sounds easy, then you climb up this tower; they clip you on and whoosh at 60km per hour you fly through the trees. By the third one your heart has settled back to 5 x its normal rate and you get into the rhythm. Problem is that number four is the longest and biggest mother you have ever seen. Imagine climbing up one of the MCG light towers stepping out onto a platform, attaching yourself to a wire and whizzing above the crowd to the opposite tower. Ok you can picture it? Now double the distance and the height and you are on the mark. Oh, those dots you can see below are not Collingwood supporters, they are real monkeys and yes they think it is really funny!

Finally when you think it can’t get any worse there is the Tarzan swing. Yeah too easy, climb up a tower, jump off, swing back just miss the tower, swing forward just miss a tree, then when finally released collapse to the ground coz your legs have turned to jelly. Next….I hear the tour of the cheese factory is a lot of fun!! Did I tell you that whilst Sheridan and I were risking our lives for the sake of a good story, Michelle was hanging around a nearby bakery looking at loaves of bread…but not touching? (If you don’t get this joke refer to www.glutenfreetravel.com.au

Ok, not true but she chickened out and my nine year old mate with the big heart and I are not going to let her forget it. I guess that brings us back to Quepos, quite funny in the last 3 hours of typing this it has rained non-stop, virtually the only rain we have had for 10 days! In the next day or so we are off to Boquete in Panama, still need to organise a bus for the 12 hour journey, which might be an issue as Semana Santa is a really busy time of the year in this part of the world and the locals are all on the road.