Day 10 - The Big Hairy Balls

6th August 2014

We were up at 6am again, but we were all pleased to find pancakes for breakfast on the table at Santa Elena! Pancakes always seem to find us when we're most in need.

Today's work was to maintain the paths and drains around one of the paths in the rainforest. This involved raking leaves off the paths and then shovelling the leaves and twigs from the drains at either side. We worked constantly from 8:30am to 11:30, by which time we were more than grateful to see lunch. After lunch and a bit of blogging, we headed off to the Sky Walk in the canopy.

It was then that we met Steven, our guide, who turned out to be a bit of a character. After informing us that he was pregnant with a child called "Wind", we set off (slightly apprehensively) to the hanging bridges.

We crossed 5 bridges in total, each a different height and length. The views were spectacular, and it was really surreal seeing the cloud forest from above the tree tops. Of course, we got some cracking photos.

After the bridges, we left Steven the Mad behind (after discovering that, bizarrely, he was actually scared of heights) and headed off to the reptile house. There, we saw frogs, turtles and both venomous and non-venomous snakes, all of which are native to Costa Rica.

We arrived back at the hotel so exhausted from the day's activities that a lot of us had a quick nap. After a Costa Rican dinner (you guessed it, rice and beans!), we got to go on a night walk. Jonny showed us a tarantula and snake, as well as constantly reminding us to keep our eyes peeled for "Big Hairy Balls". Eventually, we did come across a "Big Hairy Ball" (he meant a sloth, dirty minded people) but unfortunately it was a bit too high up in the trees to really be distinguishable.

On our return through the rainforest, we volunteered Sarah to bring up the rear (where the risk of being picked off by a jaguar was at its highest ).

Fortunately, we all got back to the minibus in one piece, although admittedly comatose from exhaustion.

Ciao for now (yes, they do say that here),
A very sleepy Team Costa Rica xxx