Left the Zona Norte over the hills into North West area called Guanacaste. This is a totally different environment, it is dry, windy and hot. The grass is a bit scorched and there aren't any rain forests in the lowland area. This is also cattle ranch country so it is normal to see cowboys on horses, lots of cattle, horses, goats and dogs. We stayed on a ranch in a huge house owned by an American. The house was great but the ranch has 18 dogs!!!! Nightmare. They were all running free doing their job of guarding the cattle and us (especially from snakes which was a benefit!). I did expect this and the house was chosen more for its location than anything else, but it did mean we couldn't sit outside anytime without a welcoming party!! The main reason for this location was to visit 3 national parks. They were fantastic. The first was Rincon de la Vieja which is located under an active volcano. Here we saw bubbling hot mud pots, steaming lakes and steaming craters. It was really fascinating as we haven't seen anything volcanic before. We also did the relatively long walk to a lovely waterfall.
The second national park was Volcan Tenorio, again another volcano but completely different. This national park is famous for its spectacular blue water. The walk through the park includes a beautiful waterfall flowing into a brilliant blue lake, a blue river and a blue lagoon. The water is blue because of its mineral content. Really surreal views.
The third national park was totally different. Palo Verde is located on an estuary and is famous for its birdlife. Saw lots of new birds, including large wood stork, four different types of heron, cattle and snowy egret, an osprey, a spectacular yellow Oriole and lots of Kiskadees. We had a short boat trip in the park and also saw a number of crocodiles, some pretty big ones. This park also had the most iguanas we have ever seen anywhere and lots of different butterflies that I can't identify. Great wildlife spotting day.
On the way to the way to the next location we went mountain biking close to Rincon de la Vieja Volcan. This was a fantastic mountain bike route over fairly rough terrain and crossing 4 rivers!! One river we rode through but the last three were too deep and fast flowing so we had to get our feet wet and walk through pushing the bikes!! The ride took 4 hours and was tough because it was over 30C, luckily the route skirted in and out of forest so we had a bit of cover.
