Costa Rica day 4: swimming in our boots

We awoke to much excitement from the late card game playing boys, a frog had entered the card game, and proceeded to be photographed. It is indeed was pretty, and it made me happy that it had made otherwise-macho Chris scream.

Karl lost his phone, then found it. I am proud to say I most nothing, I am a machine of efficiency. Breakfast was rice, beans and egg. Today, we were going into the JUNGLE officially, with no support, and just mules to carry our reduced luggage. Water would come from streams, with purifying tablets. This was hardcore, no turning back. We met our 2nd jungle guide, Hector, who spoke little English, but could make any animal noise you wanted, so was forgiven for skipping the phrase book.

I had an exhilarating cold shower, and put on my swimming costume beneath my trekking clothes. We trekked, we did hills, bit cooler today, lots of shade, but still tough! Mid-morning we reached a waterfall and water hole, this is where we would swim! In our boots!

Like a Timotei advert, I slipped into the water. I was unable to use my Molton Brown, as it’s not eco, but I took a satisfying photo. We dipped, swam, screamed, splashed. Rather than dry off, I then continued to walk in my swimming costume. I looked like a hybrid between a cheerleader and a surfer!

We still continued up, through the jungle, through different landscapes, different flora and fauna. It got misty as we crossed some grassland, felt really special. Chris, our UK leader, grid some vine swinging, but failed, however it made a good video! Then, he and I got slightly lost, which meant I personally did an extra hill, gah!

We remained wet, in the boot mainly. And muddy. This was all a world away from my dressing room! We had lunch by a river, and I was acutely aware of how easily a snake could have accessed my trunks..! I ate my squashed sandwiches, this would become a theme. Randall, our Costa Rican guide told us we had 2 hours to go, in fact it was 10 minutes. He’s a rascal.

We’re so quick we arrived before 2pm, to a very remote camp hut! It was quite magical. No electricity or anything! We played loud card games, I realised my T-shirt stank, so did everyone else! Randall sat drinking coffee for hours. He’ll never sleep.

Today we walked only 4 hours (cos we’re quick!), 6.8km, but we went up a total of 4,000 metres, which is FOUR Snowdon’s! At a 60% gradient at some points. All at an average speed of 1.6km/hour. This data is correct to the best of my knowledge!

Tomorrow, we were told, would be the toughest day, 10 hours of walking and we needed to start at 3am, and walk with head torches!

We played connect 4, olympic level, and I struggled through some more card games. We ate our dinner in the dark, spaghetti, so god knows what I’ll look like in the morning, as i shower it off with cold water…!