Laidback border crossing

Trip Start Jan 15, 2013

Trip End Jan 07, 2014

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Flag of Costa Rica Los Chiles, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Wednesday, February 13, 2013

After a 5am start on the buses, aka london tube at rush hour at 45 degC, we arrived at Los Chiles at 1ish. It was a small sleepy town consisting of very little and a small office, where you can stroll in at your leisure and get your passport exit stamp.

Having got our passports stamped, we found a little restaurant, and spent our remaining costa rican colones on quesedillas and imperial beer, and walked over to the little boat, that was going to take us up the river to San Carlos, Nicaragua.

The little boat journey was laidback and fun - as well as a functional, cheap boat ride through the jungle!
We sat in front of a little family with a little girl (2 or 3) with a miniature puppy in each hand, and her grandma, who took it on herself to point out every single bird and creature that we went past to me. She was very lovely, although I did get bored after the hundreth egret!

We saw (plenty of heron and egret type things), 2 fighting chameleons, a couple basilicus' (aka the jesus christ lizard, and yes we even saw them run across the water to get to other branches as the boat went past), an otter (perro de agua), some turtles, and monkeys of course.
Definitely a lot more than at gatwick arrivals!

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