San Jose, Part III

Location: We're back in San Jose, en route from the Osa Peninsula to La Fortuna, a town near the Arrenal Volcano. Vehicle Status: 3 out of 4 brakes are working; the clutch is fading; and we're leaking from every orifice, but at least in consistent quantities. Passenger Status: Chafed, wet and beginning to stink ... stink very bad. Colin doesn't understand how Darren's clothes can smell like ammonia (he secretly thinks Darren might not be exactly human). Kiki Status: Her hula skirt has been reattached without incident. Notes: Setting out from San Jose, we once again headed south through the cloud forrests in the mountains as we made our way towards the Osa Peninsula. Despite a near reoccurence of overheating and cracking our cylinder head and the canyon sized potholes encountered en route to Puerto Jimenez, we made it in one piece and in time to celebrate Colin's birthday (27, unemlployed and unmotivated - we're all very proud). The next day we left for the beaches and rainforrests found so readily on the peninsula. The first night we stayed in Leona, a nice place but still a six hour hike from the real reserve of Corcovado. Unfortunately after those exhausting six hours, much of which was on soft sandy beaches, we realized while in Serena, at the research station, that our schedule was pushing us out of Costa Rica sooner than we had hoped. So bright and early the next day we were back on the trail returning right back to the place we had come from the morning before. The park on the Osa Peninsula is a virtual cornocopia, a plethora if you will plant and animal life with a steady presentation of jungle meets ocean. Darren fell in love with the hermit crabs, Brendan the monkeys, and Colin the elusive tapir that orchestrated a night raid on our camp site. We were only in the park a total of 36 hours but in reference to its diversness it was honestly the most impressive thing any of us had seen. Just to give you guys an idea of whats out there, only a few of which are in the pictures, we saw: tiras, anteaters, howler, white faced, and spider monkey, pisote (analagous to raccons but with elongated faces), basilisk, parrots, and tons of other snakes, lizards, birds and crabs. A short trip but definately worth every minute. So now its on to the Volcano, which should be impressive and luckily in time to celebrate Brendans birthday, ,which is today. ** We should also take this time to mention that we've celebrated Darrens birthday while on this trip as well. We were on the canal up in the lake and therefore a little restricted on our celebrating capabilities but it was fun nonetheless. We the management apologize for not having mentioned this sooner.