Well the mozzie net wasn’t needed.  As it turned out the only mozzie in the room took plenty of blood from me while we were having dinner earlier.  The room without the fan after midnight was also pretty cool and when the now regular thunderstorm kicked in around 3am it was really nice.  Again the rain continued well into the morning enough to wet us but not soak us on the way to the boat. While we were waiting on the jetty we were attacked by a vicious mob, flock, pack, whatever they are called of mozzies.  They were tiny but fast and left a huge welt the size of a dime after they were done.

Although we had 11am seats booked for the return boat to Leticia we took the 7am boat after yesterday’s delay we decided better to make sure we were in time for our flight otherwise we would also miss our connection to Mexicio city in the morning and get hit with huge expenses for late bookings and cancelations.  It took the lady on the boat a few minutes chatting with their base to accept our tickets but she did so we were set.

The boat was a lot bigger than the one we arrived on with 48 seats now and only about 15 people travelling. Most of the tourists who had arrived with us were also leaving, probably they also got hungry with the restaurant closed!  Funny on the boat there is a big sign saying to use the life jackets which are hung over every seat but in reality they just add extra padding to the back of the seat or the odd person uses them for a little wind protection.  This was evident by the rather large spider making her home between one of the jackets and the seat infront.

Sights along the river were of course excellent. . .

More photos from Day 8

We arrived in the metropolis of Leticia just after 9.30 and made the trek through the now very muddy and slippery trail which was continuing to become

Roberto our guide woke us as promised at 5.30am but we were already half awake after an alarm of one of the teachers who was on an overnight excursion phone alarm went off at 4am.  It only stopped about 15 minutes later when another teacher who realized what it was called the phone.

We have a full card today with Monkeys first, breakfast, canopy tour, lunch, fishing, dinner.

Monkeys I thought was going to be a bit ho-hum, tourists feeding monkeys type trip but actually it was very cool.  We paddled (well at least Roberto paddled) across the lagoon in deathly still waters stopping at an overhanging mangrove type tree.  A few monkey calls later and the little fullas came from everywhere.  The jump from the tree to the closest point in the canoe was me so I was the landing pad for 1/2 a dozen hungry monkeys.

We fed them small bananas which they helped themselves to while posing for photos with us.  They were pretty wild jumping skittishly at any small move with a limb that didn’t contain a banana but not aggressive at all.  Richard got a little scratch but then he should have given over the last of the banana and it probably wouldn’t have happened!

Breaky was bread, watermelon, pineapple, eggs (which we didn’t try) and round bread things that Richard tried but they were really hard and not edible.  Once it was done we headed out for our tree climb which was exhausting but excellent.  Richard made it about 10m up then got hauled the rest of the way by the guys while I was on the other rig that didn’t have that luxury option so I had to muscle to the top.  Pity I didn’t have more muscle because it was 38m up in the hot, hot jungle and at about the 20m mark the sun was on me and it got doubly hard.  I think I lost about 3kg which was all collected in my shirt and baggies.  I was completely soaked through, what a workout!  We had a 10min rest at the top to take in the jungle canopy and then zip line to a nearby tree (about 80m) and then abseil down.  Really excellent and a must do even if it isn’t included in the park or resort fees.  50,000 pesos we paid, I hope this was what I should have paid!

After this it was lunch time with the schoolies.  We lined up for rice, fish, beef, carrots, beetroot (a bit of a pattern forming here) and some deep fried corn tortillas.  Nice all up.

We started the afternoon with a fishing trip which got cut short because somebody ‘didn’t go before we left.’

Well today was the day. While our jobs in Cost Rica hung in the balance Ian and I decided to dip our feet a little deeper into the water and try out white water rafting instead of pondering our future.What better place to do this than the Pacuare River in Costa Rica?Here is our story. . .

The scene was set beautifully with a two hour drive through some of Costa Rica’s perfect landscape of rolling volcanic hills.We set off from our hotel in Escazu, San Jose at 6am on the dot. Of course quite a bit earlier than we were used to however, the breakfast stop just near Bueno Vista at about 8am was a picture perfect place to wake up and smell the super fresh air.

Scoffing down eggs, fresh fruit and Pinto Gallo (some local dish consisting of mushy rice, meat and beans) which they assured us was a normal local breakfast, we spent most of our time marveling at our next one day trip, the volcano Turrialba.

About 30mins after breakfast we arrived at our launch point into the river Pacuare.Suited up in our geeky but all important safety gear we listened intensely to our guide, Ali from Cost Rica Expeditions who was explaining the commands that would help us to