Roy Fox.

Monkeys At Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica

Sat, 29 May 2010 11:30:00 +0100

Monkeys At Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica

Jurassic Park

Thu, 27 May 2010 01:18:00 +0100

Most of the ocean cargo has shifted from Puntarenas to the nearby port town of Caldera, but there is still plenty of life in the town, and there are still plenty of boats. The fish market, on the northern shore of Puntarenas’ thin spit of land, full of fisherman and their haggling buyers, seemed as good a place as any to start my search.

My Spanish is decent, so I didn’t have any problem striking up conversations with some of the captains sitting around the dock, though I had some trouble being understood. I found I had to repeat myself several times. “Yes, I want to hire a boat. Yes, the crew too. Yes, that is there I want to go. Yes, I’m sure.” After half a dozen fruitless conversations, I came across José, captain of the trawler El Inventado. There were a few false starts, and a protracted hour of negotiation, but aided by a round of cervezas bien frías, we struck a deal. They’d take me where I wanted to go, a small island far out in the pacific. In truth, like the rest of the sailors, they thought I was loco – they were probably just the only ones who had nothing better to do.

“But amigo”, José said. “This island you are looking for. It’s a fiction, nothing more. It does not exist.”

“Don’t worry, José”, I told him. “That’s what they want you to think. But it’s there all right. I read about it in a book. You know what that means? That means it’s true. Everything you ever read in a book is true. Don’t ever forget that.”

The crossing was arduous. The seas were as calm as could be expected, but with El Inventado only averaging eight knots, it would be thirty seven hours after we left the mainland before we sighted land again. To pass the time we mostly talked about football. We dissected the forthcoming world cup in minute detail, and of the five men aboard, all but one plumped for Spain. The other went for Mexico, though he was half mad, and no one paid him much attention.

Finally, we spotted a spec of green on the horizon. Land.

I watched in awe as it grew larger, larger, larger. We anchored barely a hundred yards from the shore, the lush vegetation shimmering in the sunlight above us and crystal clear waterfalls plummeting down into the ocean below.

“Finally,” I said quietly. “I have made it to Isla Nublar.”

“Actually, no”, José replied. “Isla Del Coco.”

“Hmm,” I said. “I guess it could be Isla Sorna”.

“No, Isla Del Coco. It’s part of Costa Rica. It’s a national park and a world famous scuba diving destination. We think it was an inspiration for Micheael Crichton, but that’s all. It’s not like I didn’t tell you back in Puntarenas, amigo.”

“InGen are smarter than I gave them credit for,” I conceded. “They’ve rewritten history. They must have paid off the Costa Rican government. They’ve even changed Wikipedia. Goddamm it, they’re good.”

“I’ll tell you what,” I said. “You leave me here. Come back for me in six months. I’ll photograph the animals. I’ll film them. No one will be able to deny it them. Once a week, I’ll light a signal fire on the eastern tip of the island. When you come back, wait in this bay for a week. If you don’t see the fire, you’ll know I’ve probably been eaten.”

“Much as I’d love to humour you, no can do”, José said. “It’s a national park. Only park rangers are allowed ashore, and you’re not a park ranger.”

“Of course”, I said. “How convenient. How very convenient.”

Rain

Wed, 26 May 2010 23:20:00 +0100

This is the story of a tropical storm. For most people, that isn’t maybe as dramatic or exciting as it sounds.

I woke at 5am to the sound of heavy rain clattering the thin, plastic roof. As I set out from the hotel it was raining hard, fast streams gushing along the storm gutters. When I climbed aboard the 6am bus from Monteverde to the coastal town of Puntarenas, it had eased, but it was certainly raining. As the bus descended down from the cloud forests down towards the coast, it was drizzling, and drizzling still as it pulled into Puntarenas.

I wandered round the town, through the streets, through the rain, through the fish market, past the football stadium. At the ferry terminal it was raining. As the ferry left port, it was raining. For the hour and a bit across the Gulf of Nicoya, it was raining. Grey sea, grey skies.

I left the ferry and joined the waiting bus to the hippie-beach-surfing town of Montezuma, and it had almost, so very nearly, stopped – but it was raining. The bus twisted and turned through the green, wet landscape of the Southern Nicoya Peninsula, and it was raining. When we arrived in Montezuma, two hours later, the heavens were wide open again.

I found a hotel, and sat down to catch the last twenty minutes of the England Mexico friendly. Outside, the rain was running off the roofs, running from the trees, running down the hills. The rain picked up as I set out to find some food, and it was cats and dogs when I returned to the hotel. It was raining as I sat on the terrace, and raining as I gave up on the day and went to bed at 9pm.

The next morning, when I learnt that the wind had whipped up the seas and my snorkeling trip was canceled, it was raining. As I wandered down the rugged coast road, watching dirty brown streams gushing down from the hills, dirty brown rivers churning and threatening to sweep the bridges away, it was raining. As the land crabs warily retreated into their holes before me, it was raining. Through lunchtime, teatime, through a fruitless visit to the broken internet cafe, through a temporary insect invasion, though a visit to the supermarket, though six hours reading, waiting and watching the rain, it was raining.

Definitions of “raining” are changed. “Raining hard” becomes “raining”. “Raining” becomes “not really raining”. “Drizzling” becomes “not raining”.

I’m sure Montezuma is lovely in the summertime but even for an Englishman, two full days of rain is hard to swallow.

Tomorrow may rain, so I’ll follow the sun. Since my boat to Jacó was washed out by rough seas, that means the road back to Paquera, the boat back to Puntarenas, then the road south.

Rain/Cloud Forest at Santa Elena Reserve, Monteverde, Chile

Sat, 22 May 2010 22:19:00 +0100

Rain/Cloud Forest at Santa Elena Reserve, Monteverde, Chile

Jeep-boat-jeep

Sat, 22 May 2010 00:54:00 +0100

Monteverde, like Volcano Arenal, is one of Costa Rica’s top tourist attractions. Though only 15km away as the crow flies, it takes a disappointing six hours to reach by road. Well, there’s a big lake in the way, after all. Strictly speaking, I guess Lake Arenal is actually a reservoir - a dam was added in 1979 to expand the existing lake to three times its original size.

We tourists are a often money-rich, time-poor bunch, so it’s no surprise to see enterprising tour operators solving the problem of the six hour journey. The so-called jeep-boat-jeep is a quicker way to make the trip: a jeep (actually a minibus) to the lake, a boat across it, and a 4x4 from the other side of the lake to Monteverde.

The bumpy road from the lake up to Monteverde was easily navigated in a 4x4, though at one point, as the road passed through a little village, we had to slow for speedbumps - even though we couldn’t get above walking pace anyway. It was a nice touch. Overall the JBJ turns a six hour bus ride into a pleasant, scenic two hour journey.

When tourists speak of Monteverde, they’re usually talking about the Reserva Biológica Bosque Nuboso Monteverde, a private cloudforest reserve. The reserve gives people an opportunity to walk though unspoilt primary and secondary cloudforest. It’s a beautiful, if busy, place, and a surprisingly good place to spot wildlife. Instinctively, you might think that a forest full of guided tour-groups would make it difficult to spot wildlife - actually that isn’t wholly true. While the noise of all the visitors undoubtedly scares many animals and birds away, the tour guides all help each other, shouting and whistling to each other when they spot something. Despite all the visitors, we were able to get good sitings of Quetzal (possibly #1 on many peoples lists of birds they want to spot in Costa Rica), some monkeys, a viper (possibly this one), the Three Wattled Bell Bird, with its distinctive, metallic call, a group of monkeys, a forest hawk and a trogon.

A short distance away, the reserve at Santa Elena offers a contrasting cloudforest experience. To the untrained eye (that’s me), the forests look similar. Actually there are some crucial differences, as they sit on opposite sides of the continental divide and they have quite different histories. Nevertheless, the real differences in the experience of visiting stem from the number of visitors. While at Monteverde tour groups flood in and the paths are pretty busy, at Santa Elena I walked through the forest for four hours and saw three people. At Santa Elena you feel like you’re walking through the rainforest – the paths are muddy and rutted, the forest dense and disorientating. At Monteverde, it’s more like a walk in the park – the paths are wide and well-maintained, the forest more airy and open. I’m over exaggerating the differences, of course, but if I could only go back to one, it would be Santa Elena. It’s a shame that more people don’t visit it, and at the same time, that’s what creates its charm.

Here are the pictures from Santa Elena. Here’s Monteverde.

Heat And Paying For Waterfalls

Tue, 18 May 2010 21:12:00 +0100

The locals in Costa Rica often talk about their tiempo loco, or crazy weather. It could be a baking thirty five degrees, it could be torrential rain, it could be both on the same day. Their are microclimates everywhere, and different parts of the country have their own weather and their own rules, but, to someone accustomed to the changeable British weather, it all seems quite predictable.

Meteorologists will shout at me. It’s an oversimplification. Nevertheless, in May it tends to be sunny in the morning, rainy in the afternoon. It’s gorgeous by six in the morning, with the sun already high in the sky and a temperature already past 25 and reaching for 30. By midday it is starting to get a bit too hot, then the rains come for a spell in the afternoon, cooling everything down. The day ends cloudy but humid. The nights are warm to start with, but cool off. You may need to reach for a blanket about 3am, but it starts to warm up once the sun reappears, about 5am. Of course, all rules can be broken. It could be muggy in the morning instead of sunny. Sometimes it could just rain, rain, and rain. More on that later.

There’s a waterfall you can walk to from Fortuna. It’s about 5km from the town, and while most people will drive, I thought it would make a nice early morning hike, using one of gorgeous mornings I just described. Yes, it’s the tropics, but the sun can’t be that strong at 6am, can it?

The first twenty minutes is lovely. The sun hat got his hat on, but it’s still cool. It hasn’t yet heated the ground and it hasn’t heated me. It’s a stroll. After 1km, I turn off the Sam Ramon road, and towards the falls. The road starts to climb. Gently at first, then steeper. Hills for tiptoes and calf muscles. It’s only just after 6am, but the sun is high in the sky now and it’s heating up. There’s precious little shade and I can feel the sun trying to burn through the sunblock on my neck. I’m sweating pretty hard, but it’s humid, so the sweat just sits on your skin. My shirt is soaked, but it isn’t raining. I’ve nearly drunk my whole water supply, a little over a litre. I have to leave the road to seek shelter, so I’m in the grass where the insects are. Insect repellent on top of sweat on top on sun cream. I don’t want to walk too slow, but if I walked any slower I’d be stopped. I arrive, hot, tired and thirsty, at 7.30am. Conclusion: mornings in the tropics are hotter than they are at home.

The waterfall itself is beautiful, a picture perfect single cascade in the middle of the forest. You might think it would be free to visit a natural phenomenon like this, but it isn’t. Like so much of Costa Rica’s ecotourism attractions, it’s privately owned, and you have to pay $10 to get in. Tourists, of course, are used to paying for attractions, even natural ones. I have no problem with paying an entrance fee to a national park, so that the money can be used to protect it. Here, however, $10 buys you a ten minute walk to see a pretty waterfall. You could use the same $10 to buy entrance to the Corcovado national park, which would give you many miles of paths through 263 square miles of tropical rainforest. The $10 is surely more than is needed to support the maintenance of the paths around the waterfall, so we can only conclude that the idea is to turn a profit. Though property ownership is a cornerstone of capitalism, it’s strange to see it applied in this way. While tourists won’t think twice about stumping up ten bucks, the concept of using the landscape and wildlife to turn a profit is something that frustrates some Costa Ricans, who are uneasy at having to pay to enjoy the beauty of their own country. A guide and conservationist I met later explained how he hiked though the forest, around the entrance to the waterfall, to avoid having to pay for what he felt was his by right. For good or bad, however, there seems little doubt that the commercialization of nature underpins the tourism boom in Costa Rica.

Zona Norte

Mon, 17 May 2010 17:19:00 +0100

After more than a week in the largely-derided-by-tourists-and-guide-books-but-actually-not-all-that-bad capital city of San José, I’d exhausted all the day trip options. I struck out for the rest of the country.

Heading north to La Fortuna I passed though the town of Naranjo. It won’t feature in many guide books, but it’s worth mentioning because it looks like the town planners had football on the brain. The football pitch is at the centre of town, and the town slopes up in every direction from there. Pretty much everyone in town can see the pitch and watch the game without leaving their house. Life’s a dream.

Most tourists, including me, head to Fortuna because of the volcana that looms over the town. The volcano is still active, and at night you can often see lava flowing down the side of the volcano. I couldn’t, as it was too cloudy, but a fair percentage of visitors do get to see the lava and leave satisfied. That said, there is a bit of trickery involved in many of the photographs you see of a mountain covered in lava, which tend to be created with long exposures (I’m guessing 30 seconds plus). In practice, you’re more likely just to see a brief flash of red.

You can’t actually go on the volcano or climb it – it’s far too dangerous – but you can hike a few smaller hills nearby. One such hill sits on top of the site of the village of Tabacón. Until 1968 the volcano was not thought to be active, until the top blew off and buried Tabacón, killing 78 people.

Nature has worked fast to reclaim the area – in the 42 years since the eruption, plants, trees and animals are well on the their way to covering it’s surface. Still, in parts, you can still see volcanic boulders sticking though, reminding you how the hill was created.

From Fortuna, you can day-trip to the wetlands of the Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge, near the border with Nicaragua. While Costa Rica is famous for it’s unspoilt forest (I say unspoilt – lots of Costa Rica’s famous forests are actually secondary, rather than primary forest), the Zona Norte is one of the main agricultural heartlands, home to a diverse and exotic variety of crops, plenty of which are visible from the road. The most obvious are the huge fields of small, spiky pineapple plants – I don’t know why, but I always pineapples would grow on a tree, like mangoes – and you can also see oranges, sugar cane, yuca, papaya, rice and bananas. I hear pineapples have actually overtaken coffee as Costa Rica’s #2 export. Bananas are still #1.

Caño Negro is a good place to spot wildlife. I’m not sure there is any more life there, per se, but it is certainly easier to spot. Wildlife spotters often find themselves frustrated in forests. It’s not that the wildlife isn’t there, you just can’t see it. Caño Negro is a wetland, so you explore the still waters on a boat and there is plenty to spot on the riverbanks. I jotted down Anhingas, Roseate Spoonbills, four kinds of Kingfisher, Boat Billed Herons, Black Belling Whistling Ducks, Hawks, Caimans. In truth, there was probably more, but I didn’t write down the names, so I forgot them, which means I didn’t see them. Any drunkard can tell you – if you don’t remember it, it didn’t happen.

Spooky Lunar Landscape at Volcan Irazu, Costa Rica

Sun, 16 May 2010 21:12:00 +0100

Spooky Lunar Landscape at Volcan Irazu, Costa Rica

Photos from Costa Rica

Sun, 16 May 2010 21:08:33 +0100

Photos from Costa Rica

Hummingbirds at Laz Paz Waterfall Gardens, Costa Rica

Sun, 16 May 2010 20:10:18 +0100

Hummingbirds at Laz Paz Waterfall Gardens, Costa Rica

Cool traffic lights in Costa Rica - check out how the green man...

Fri, 14 May 2010 23:37:00 +0100

Cool traffic lights in Costa Rica - check out how the green man breaks into a run and then a sprint as the lights are about to change

Some anecdotes

Fri, 14 May 2010 00:05:00 +0100

Backpackers sometimes do things that might seem a little crazy. Back home, it would seem pretty ridiculous to get three forty-five minute buses just to reach a little village because a guidebook said it was pretty. When abroad that it totally normal behaviour. Orosí, south of San José, sits in a little valley and it kind of pretty, though I’d rate it’s prettiness as worthy of only two buses, not three.

From Orosí I headed to the near-by but not so hot town of Paraíso - which means I got to ask for “a taxi to paradise”. That’s the title of a future hit for Bon Jovi or my name isn’t Dr Watson.

Here’s a picture of the main square in Paraíso- perhaps they reached a bit too far when they named the town:

http://picasaweb.google.com/roysfox/CostaRica#5473491302146271634

I clocked up a traveller’s favourite in Cartago, near Paraíso. I remember this one from South America: you ask a question in Spanish, they start to answer (proving they’ve understood the question), then pause, and ask “… do you speak Spanish?”. Yep. You know when I spoke Spanish just then? That was your clue.

Cartago also had great traffic lights. (Check out the YouTube video I posted below.) The green man strolls across the road, then as the lights are about to change he breaks into a run and then a full blown sprint.

Back in Guadalupe, some teenage kids next door were rehearsing their band (two guitarists and a drummer - they need to find a bassist but they are always hard to fine because they are so damn weird). They only knew one song, and they couldn’t play it that well, but it was interesting to hear what the Costa Rican kids are playing these days. See if you can guess what they were playing. It’s a song by a heavy metal band from the Black Country. It was originally released in 1970 as the title track of the band’s second studio album. Q magazine placed it at number 11 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. Rolling Stone ranked it number 250 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and called the song, “a two-minute blast of protopunk”. In 2009, it was named the 4th greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1. The singer’s name rhymes with Fozzy Fozzbourne.

Finished with my woman ‘cause she couldn’t help me with my mind
People think I’m insane because I am frowning all the time

More tedious travel writing

Wed, 12 May 2010 21:36:00 +0100

OK, two hours in an internet cafe and I‘ve just remembed another thing about travel journals. Writing a journal eats time like a hungry catepillar eats a bad metaphor. Let’s rattle though the last few days like a simile rattles through a, well, you know.

I moved to Guadalupe, in the suburbs of San Jose, for a week staying with some Costa Ricans -essentially for a bit of Spanish practice but also a chance to get to know the culture a bit better. This is called a homestay, or, in Spanish, un homestay. The house I’m staying in is a little out in the sticks, as it’s half an hour on the bus to the city centre. (Think Streatham to London). The people are nice, though, the neighbourhood seems quiet and the food is good. Costa Rican food in general appears to be deceptively good i.e. It sounds rubbish on paper, but turns out to be be really nice. Q. Could rice and beans ever be a tasty breakfast? A. Yes.

The next day, not wanting to pay for a tour, I took a public bus up to Volcan Irazu, another volcano within spitting distance of the capital city (if you can spit 50km - I can). It looked like I was going to be disappointed, as the summit was again clouded over. It was a weird place, regardless - volcanic dust everywhere, sulphur smells floating in the wind and disembodied voices drifting in the mist. It was kind of lunar in some respects, and brought back memories of when me, Neil and Buzz used to hang out and be the first people to go moons and stuff.

We were sitting in the a cafe, waiting for the bus back down the mountain, when with 20 minutes to spare the clouds suddenly lifted and we got a good view of the volcano - lunar landscape, crater and all. That cheered me right up, that did.

Last night on TV was the Gran Final Del Torneo De Verano, between Deportivo Sarprissa and San Carlos. Best I could tell, this was the final of Costa Rica’s rugby-league style end of season play-offs. For anyone who thinks that ITV is bad, imagine a world where every set piece in a game of football is sponsored, and the commentators say things like “From the Pizza Hut Express free kick, the cross comes in, and it’s gone behind for a KFC corner. No - the defender didn’t get a touch, it’ll be a Toyota goal kick.” Even the legendary “Goooooooooooooooooooooool” has been replaced with “Goooooooooooooooool Taco Bell!”.

Ah, Costa Rica. So young. So much still to learn.

Costa Rica - First Days

Mon, 10 May 2010 20:59:00 +0100

As I said in my previous entry, I am not a huge fan of travel journals. So here is my travel journal.

My flight from London, via Madrid, survived the ash cloud that was dancing around northern Spain, and I picked up my first new Spanish phrase - nube de ceniza. Long flight, about 12 hours, mostly boring, except for spotting a few Caribbean islands, and the final descent into San Jose. From the air, Costa Rica looks like the greenest place in the world.

On my first day, to get a bit of Spanish practice, I arranged a homestay with a Costa Rican family. This was actually surprisingly easy - a hot tip from the Rough Guide led me to a language school in the University district and it was all sorted within a few hours. In the evening I headed into downtown with some young americans guys from the hostel. For a couple of them, it was their first time out of the States, and it was interesting to contrast their first impressions of Costa Rica (dirty, chaotic) with mine (cleaner than I expected, less chaotic).

Next day I took a touristy-tour. I’m sure they’re the same the world over - you get whisked around in a minibus, stopping at various attractions. I am not big on this kind of thing, but I wanted to get out of the city and see something before my homestay started a couple of days later.

First stop was a visit to a Coffee plantation and processing plant. I don’t like coffee, so this was a smart choice on my part, but it was interesting nonetheless. Besides, it was a gorgeous morning and I ate plenty of chocolate covered coffee beans at the end of the tour. (You’re supposed to just try before you buy, but they cost more than they do back home). Second stop was Volcan Poas, an active volcano in the midst of a national park full of cloud forest. You can drive almost to the summit, but sadly the clouds had closed in and you couldn’t see the crater, so instead I followed a short (3K) hike though the forest, which was pretty nice.

Last item on the tour was La Paz Waterfall Gardens, a “tourist complex”, which is in fact a luxurious ludicrously priced hotel (the “peace lodge”) with a little zoo, and nice trail that leads to some pretty waterfalls in the forest. The all-you-can-eat buffet was great. The hummingbirds were great too, because they fly free (seeing a Scarlet Macaw in a cage is actually not that great, IMHO).

The last day before the homestay I went white water rafting on the Rio Pacuare. It’s in the top five rivers in the world for rafting, according to some guy on the tour who might have made that up. I thought the rapids (class III and IV) were more good solid fun than white-knuckle-thrilling, but essentially it’s four hours of floating on a boat, down a river, interspersed with occasional moments of pretending to be Indiana Jones. What’s not to like? (Answer - the sunburn).

Costa Rica - Intro

Sun, 09 May 2010 20:29:00 +0100

I‘m in Costa Rica.

I am not huge on travel journals, as they can be self indulgent - look at me, I’m having a great time, I discovered the new world! - but I’ve noticed that when you’re travelling, you tend to keep busy. You fill up your brain with new memories every day - older ones, even from a few days hence, simply don’t have time to bed in. I’m going to write some things down because otherwise i’ll forget them, and writing on the internet is easier than writing a journal these days (no bad handwriting, and you can’t lose the internet). Perhaps it is unnecessary. People tell me I actually have a brilliant memory. I am awesome at remembering facts, sports results and phone numbers. When I’m busy, I tend to forget the unimportant stuff, like people, and things that happen.

Heybaloo for (hyper)local writers and bloggers

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:10:48 +0000

Heybaloo for (hyper)local writers and bloggers:

Heybaloo is now out of private beta, and available for everyone. One group in particular we think Heybaloo will be great for is local and hyperlocal bloggers.

Heybaloo is designed to help you…

Usability in the cloud: why remote usability testing kicks ass

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:40:16 +0000

Usability in the cloud: why remote usability testing kicks ass:

Truth be told, I am a bit of usability freak. I love it when websites work well – it’s a thing of a beauty. Of course, it’s an art, not a science. No matter how much we learn about the right way to…

Burglars using Foursquare to lure other burglars out of their homes and burgle them

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:51:00 +0000

Burglars using Foursquare to lure other burglars out of their homes and burgle them:

credit: dpstyles™

LOS ANGELES. A new twist emerged this morning in the ongoing debate surrounding mobile social network Foursquare, after it was revealed some burglars…

News anchor feels personal responsibility to take everyone in entire world to task

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:03:38 +0000

News anchor feels personal responsibility to take everyone in entire world to task:

LONDON. A television news anchor from London feels a deep personal responsibility to ask everyone in the entire world tough questions, it was revealed today. In a frank interview with himself, John…

Man in old clothes accidentally fashionable

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:40:28 +0000

Man in old clothes accidentally fashionable:

LONDON. A mature student, well known amongst his friends for never bothering to buy new clothes, became briefly fashionable today after he accidentally put together a new season outfit from some old…