Wet wet wet

It poured most of the night. Being in a hut with a tin roof the downpour was even louder than in the camper van. Much, much louder. We woke at daybreak, 5 am, and it was still tropical. Well we are in the tropics. So much for my plan of taking my book to a Caribbean beach to soak up some winter sun.

After breakfast the rain eased up so we went on a boat trip round the waterways to look for wildlife. We saw some sloths high in the canopy of trees and a few Howler monkeys, too far away to photograph. Iguanas were bright in colour so much easier to spot, up in the trees, not on the ground like Galapagos ones. Ibis were in the trees with wings stretched out to dry them. We saw different kinds of herons, and a pretty little bird with a yellow head, it had 3 little chicks following him. Yes him - the males of that species look after the young. It wasn’t long before we had another downpour which was so persistent that the guide decided to take us to the local village for a wander when it eased off a bit. (We had been given stout blue ponchos to wear). That lasted 10 minutes and it was back in the boat for a hot shower, dry clothes and lunch.

We met at the boats at 2pm baby which time the sky looked more promising so we set off again, but the ponchos were on in no time. The guide decided it had set in for the day so got the boat to take us to a new place not opened yet, which had a concrete trail through the rainforest and let eventually to a few hundred steps up to the top of an extinct volcano, from where we had a view over the rainforest and the waterways. However the concrete path was totally unsuitable for the wet conditions and was already very slimy and slippy. Some of the group were not walkers so it was slow progress. At least it was not so wet with the vegetation sheltering us from the worst of the downpour. The only wildlife we saw was a poisonous red frog the size of our thumbnail. It was good to see the plants from above as we climbed up the steps. I was pleased that despite stopping to take photos I was 3rd to the top. One little man who’d been an apprentice jockey was on a mission to be first and didn't look at anything, and neither did the second man.

When we got back to the boat it was time to speed back to the lodge before dark. By now the rain was so torrential we had to sit with our heads down as it was impossible to see with the force it hit our eyes. I don’t know how the boatman could see where he was going.

Despite my raincoat with the poncho on top I was soaked - again - to my underwear. Of course it is far too damp to dry our clothing.

It is all quite entertaining, but I can hardly say it’s a recommended destination so far.