Natives

Today we visited an indigenous reserve of the Boruca people. Their history is a little convoluted - they're actually an amalgamation of several native tribes. Anyway, many of them live up in the eponymous village of Boruca. They're trying to keep their culture alive (yeah thanks for that Europeans) mainly through arts and crafts. They make these incredible balsa wood masks. Not strictly a traditional craft but hey ho.

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This is a Jaguar skin. Jags are the largest predator in Costa Rica.

And here is the spear wot done it in.

Another beautiful waterfall near to the Boruca village:

The village was high up in the mountains - 8 km up an incredibly bumpy pothole filled dirt road. Was actually pretty fun driving up it. I didn't know there was such a thing as a "compact 4x4".

Anyway, there were some great views at the top of the mountain. Also, it was extremely satisfying taking a piss of the edge of the abyss. TAKE THAT NATURE.

Here is me experimenting with the Panorama setting on my camera. It doesn't seem to actually stitch them together, probably because it is a cheap ass piece of shit:

The Greater Winged Awesome Fish

Here is a video from a couple of weeks back when we were doing some snorkelling. We discovered this amazing fish. I couldn't possibly believe no-one had ever seen it before so I named it the Greater Winged Awesome fish.

Here is me looking equally awesome:

Recap

What with illness etc, not posted for a while. Here is a quick recap:

We travelled to Manuel Antonio, near Quepos on 15th July. We knew a couple of people from our volunteering who are living here, so it was good to catch up with them. I mostly spent the week being ill here, though we did get to see a cool waterfall.

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On the 22nd July we travelled to a a little hamlet called Uvita which is on the edge of the Marina Ballena marine national park - an area of protected sea and coastline. Lots of pristine beaches and islands.

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It's a pretty quiet place - we're currently off season and it also has the feel of a place that will be much busier in 5-10 years.

Yesterday we went on a boat ride to see whales - which we did! A few big fat fish graced us with their presence. Hoping to do a snorkelling trip today.