Touchdown

standing outside the house at some ungodly hour for the last time in a month, with a month's supplies heaped on my shoulders

The story begins at about 05:45 BST, Wednesday 18 June, when I was awakened and got into the car, with a rucksack full of belongings to last a month, and driven up to Gatwick. However, despite the fact that my flight left Heathrow at 12:05, if I'd gotten up any later than this I might not have made it at all!

Mum and Dad drove me to Gatwick, where I got onto a National Express coach heading for Heathrow. Because we got there slightly earlier than expected, I managed to score a place on a coach leaving at 8, rather than the one I'd booked for 8.35. This meant a very quick goodbye as I had to dash onto the coach, last time I'd be seeing them for a month or so. In a way it was a bit of a relief not to have to draw out our goodbyes too much, and rushing for the coach gave me something else to focus on, rather than the fact I was leaving the country on my own for the very first time. It was only meant to take an hour to get there, but of course NE had conveniently ignored the fact that the coach was heading up the M25 in rush hour in their time estimation! I got off the coach at 10, and by the time I'd got to the terminal, checked in and gone through security I had half an hour to wait until the gate opened at 11:20, with the gate itself being a 15 minute walk away. Thank bloody god I didn't get the coach 35 minutes later!

One of the best coincidences I can imagine happened when I was waiting for the gate though; family friend Mike Force appeared! I'd known he was leaving Heathrow on the same day as me, as he'd been staying with us that very weekend, but he was meant to be at a different terminal! Turns out this was the first day in the history of AirCanada that they'd changed their flights to Terminal 2 instead, and so I had a nice but far too brief chat with Mike, feeling rather guilty that I'd had to rush him to the end of a brilliant story so that I could get to the gate in time.

The flight was punctuated by a stopover in Newark airport, one of several that feeds New York. During this time I bumped into a fellow traveller, an Irish Med Student called Katie, who was getting on the same flight before travelling down to Panama for her own voluntary work. Time passed in the airport a lot quicker with someone to talk to, and before I knew it, our two hours were up, and we boarded the final flight.

the first time I've ever actually seen New York. Having studied google maps for two minutes I think Greenwood Cemetery is the area of green visible; you can see Brooklyn, and Queens might just be visible in the top left hand of the picture. My apologies that the plane wing decided it was a perfect opportunity for a photobomb. 

As we got down into the tropics, there were some spectacular lightning storms over Cuba, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. It was the first time I've seen lightning from above and it's one of the most stunning things I've ever seen, for a brief second he whole sky below you seems to be illuminated. I managed to get a video as we flew over Nicaragua.

Soon after we arrived in Costa Rica I was met my Lisa Erb. Manager of Rancho Naturalista, she's Californian-born but has lived here since 1984, with her parents running the reserve before her. She drove me the 50 miles from San Jose airport to Rancho Naturalista, but up winding mountain roads it took about three hours! The same storms that had produced such spectacular lightning also produced fog as thick as soup in the mountains, which Lisa, thankfully, could still navigate expertly. Once we'd got through the worst of the fog she said, calm as you like; "I didn't want to worry you back there, but if we'd gone off the road it would have been about a thousand foot drop til we hit the bottom". I'm quite pleased I didn't know that at the time really.

We arrived at Rancho at about half past twelve, Costa Rican time. It was only now that I realised I'd gone about 26 hours without sleep, and I promptly crashed like a log, once I'd sent a Facebook message to Mum and Dad to comfirm I was still alive!

I was up again by about 05:30 though, partly due to the sound of torrential rain and partly because I was too excited to sleep any longer! Strolling out of the bedroom and round the corner I sauntered onto the balcony, where despite the rain 20+ Hummingbirds were making a symphony of buzzing and chirping, on the feeders placed here as an attraction for the many bird-lovers who pay visit to Rancho. The birders reading this will of course want to know what they were! The stunning White-necked Jacobin and Violet-crowned Woodnymph were commonest, with Brown Violet-ear, Green Hermit, Green-breasted Mango and Violet Sabrewing all appearing too. The very names conjure up images of vivid colours, even if you've no idea what they look like!

Green-breasted Mango

Breakfast was black beans and rice, with roasted sugar beet for some added sweetness. I've not had any type of bean for breakfast since the far-away days of beans-on-toast when I was seven or eight, but this was delicious! I've fallen hopelessly in love with Costa Rican food. I also felt compelled to try the celebrated local coffee, despite never once being a coffee drinker before. I can see why that too is celebrated! 

After breakfast, Lisa suggested I take a hike around some of the trails through the rainforest, and I was only too happy to oblige. If I'm going to be doing any guide work I'll need to know what I'm looking at! Though it does seem unlikely I'll do much guiding, purely because I'm fairly inexperienced with Costa Rican wildlife, and most of those visiting are so keen and knowledgeable that only a real expert will suffice. But I'm happy enough to get free lodging and food, help out with everything I can, get some wonderful experiences and perhaps do the guiding if some more casual enthusiasts come along.

One of the hiking trails into the Rainforest. It's not a Dutch angle, the trees are just growing on a slope!

Anyway, in the rainforest I naturally saw plenty more. I shan't bore you all with the details of every single creature, but an incredible highlight was a Boa Constrictor that I was rather close to stepping on! Mercifully, I'd had the good fortune to encounter just about the only non-venomous snake in the reserve. If I'd trodden on a Fer Le Dance, I can assure you quite confidently that I would not be writing this blog right now! But I did get some photos of this four foot beast (note, this is where the Ophidiphobes like Ami, if you're reading this, really ought to scroll down rather quickly!).

Once back from that, I had lunch with everyone at Rancho, Lisa caught an Armadillo (yes, she actually went out and just picked an Armadillo off the ground, Armadillo's are great and I could write a whole blog about one), I watched in agony as we threw away any realistic hope in the World Cup, and the typical evening thunderstorm came rolling in at about 5pm. It's now 6.30 and, to be honest, I'll probably go to bed quite soon! It's dark already here, weird thinking that it's only two days until Summer Solstice at home.

I hope everyone back in Old Blightly is having a lovely time. Who even cares about the football anyway?

Hasta Luego

Liam