Day 7: Boca Tapada, Padacito de Cielo

We continue to the Boca Tapada area. According to the travel guide, not many tourists get lost here, mostly adventure seekers.

The road is lined with pineapple fields. Right, left, then a pineapple packaging company, pineapple transports, pineapple waste..... the first pothole, the second pothole... welcome back.

But here, the end of bad roads seems to be in the near future. We were forced to stop for about 20 minutes due to road construction. Unthinkable for us. The line behind us - 2 cars 🚙 🚗.

The construction site, about half a kilometer. We continue through simple countryside with farmers and cowboys, small shops and a large gas station.

After a 3-hour drive, we arrived at Padacito de Cielo. Don Marco immediately greeted us warmly, offered us a welcome drink, and assigned us a table. He only needed the voucher number and the formalities were done.

Don Marco explained the tour options to us and we gladly accepted the river-rainforest tour.

A boat ride on the river, up to the border of Nicaragua, was starting in an hour. Don Marco showed us our little "cottage" - overlooking the river - and we got ready for the tour.

Our room was very lovingly furnished, without air conditioning, all made of wood, very clean. A small balcony with two rocking chairs invites you to read and relax.

The tour started on time, and two young German girls and a couple from Belgium joined us in the motorboat.

Our captain was named Hugo, he tried to explain the peculiarities of the animals on the river with hands and feet, sometimes a mix of English and German. We understood a lot, even though he explained most of it in Spanish.

We saw several species of herons and crocodiles.

Whenever Hugo slowed down, we knew he wanted to show us something, but it often took a long time until we actually saw the animal. Without a guide, you would be completely lost.

We briefly looked at the border, or rather the border river, but then turned around and stopped in a small village.

There was a bar, a chicken coop, and a few houses. There was also a hostel, the "Tapir House Hostel". The owner was very friendly and we drank a special smoothie there. Next door, the residents seemed to have already finished work and were chatting in the bar with music playing. Everything seemed very contented. I made myself comfortable in a hammock, the two men (Robert and the German-speaking Belgian) were talking about this and that at the table.

Unfortunately, we did not have enough colones for our two drinks and they could not change the $20 bill here either.

I wanted to change with the Belgians, but Hugo helped us out with 3000 colones, about €4.50. Really nice and not a matter of course.

The return trip was relatively fast, we stopped at Kokodrillos, otherwise we went back to the accommodation without any stops.

The excursion cost $30 per person and we didn't miss anything.

We took a shower and stayed on the balcony until darkness fell. It was really lively in the tree about 30 meters away. Monkeys jumped from one branch to another and the shadow of a tiny monkey, who kept darting a few meters away from its mother, fascinated us. Wonderful 🐒

In the evening, we had fish and "mashed potatoes" with vegetables and salad.

Very fresh, I would say the best food we have had in this country so far. Don Marco has a fixed dinner time, which is at 7 p.m., the tables are set for each room, and the service is great. Marco always tries to teach us the language, but unfortunately, I can't remember it properly🙈

As always, I woke up at 5 o'clock and decided to experience the awakening of the rainforest on the balcony at half past 5.

The monkeys didn't take long to show up. They roared through the whole forest and came very close to our balcony, so we could take wonderful photos of them.

Breakfast at seven, with coffee, fruits, gallo pinto, scrambled eggs, fried baguette, and fruit puree. Very delicious 😋

Our rainforest tour started at 8 and I had to borrow rubber boots first. We started our tour about 2 km from the accommodation. Hugo told us all about almond trees, tamarind, palms, menthol, cow milk tree, eucalyptus, and various ants. For example, the termites that can destroy whole trees, or the Hunt Ant, which can even kill people who are allergic to their bite. We found tapir tracks, several blue jeans frogs (poison dart frogs), the Mutmut bird, and a snake.

At the end, Robert used a machete to knock coconuts off the tree and we could taste fresh coconut milk.

On the way back, a tapir suddenly crossed our path. We... everyone got out of the car to get it in front of the camera. As if he was waiting for us, he stopped and we were able to take a great photo.

Our trip was over around half past 11, and we were greeted at the lodge by Otto, the German Shepherd.

I realized that spotting a tapir is rather rare when everyone asked me about the photo... we were really lucky 🍀.

It's a shame we were only here for one night. This is PURA VIDA.

We took a quick shower, enjoyed another cup of delicious coffee, and then set off for our journey to the Trimbinba Lodge.