“Monkey knife fight...”

Furious George ain’t so pretty anymore. We rented kayaks and toured the river and came across quite a few howler monkeys. I’ve attached a video of one monkey we saw walking from tree to tree. Then that evening turned out to be the night of the spiders. Just as I was walking over to turn off the light, there was a rather large spider standing in my way. I would say it was a little bit bigger than a toonie; quite a large banana spider. Naturally, Denielle was quite enthusiastic at observing such a wonderful specimen of local fauna. I was then charged with removing said spider, but before I could shoo it out the door, it ran under the other bunk bed. Problem solved, or so I thought.

I climbed up into the top bunk after turning out the light, only to have Denielle leap out of the bottom bunk moments later as something had landed in her hair. She turned on the light, and with some help, reasoned that it was likely a moth, as spiders don’t fly. I suggested turning on the fan to keep the other moths from perturbing her sleep. So I shook out her sleeping bag and pillow to show that there were no more cuddly creatures waiting, as she watched from the top bunk. As I went to move the fan, I caught a brief glimpse out of the corner of my eye of something that shouldn’t be under the base of a fan. I quickly replaced the fan in hopes that it was a figment of my imagination, but Denielle was already alert to something being amiss.

I lifted the fan once more, this time to find a spider, approximately the size of a mouse, waiting to see what my next move was. Probably some sort of small tarantula, not really a spider at all, but still the largest arachnid I had personally seen outside of a zoo. After gathering courage and Denielle’s nearby sandal, I courteously ushered our new friend along the floor and out the door. After placing my sheet under the bed to prevent further friends from coming in, we were set to sleep.

The next day we set off to find out about climbing the larger volcano. After settling our tab at the previous hotel, we were left with $110 dollars in our pockets as the ATM on the island did not like either of our bank cards. We picked up some groceries, ate breakfast in the car, and walked down to one of the main tour offices. After recent volcanic activity, and winds that had prevented the ferries from operating the previous two days, hikes on the big volcano now only went to the 1000m mark, far below what we had climbed on the smaller volcano, and for a staggering 50 dollars per person. That was enough convincing to come back to the mainland, where I now sit back in San Juan del Sur, preparing for Costa Rica in the morning. The tentative plans are Volcan Arenal and La Fortuna for a few relaxing days of liquid hot magma, hot springs and waterfalls, and then a few days in the cloud forests of Monte Verde before returning to the coast of the Nicoya Peninsula.

Tyler.