Back to reality

Sitting in Miami Dade airport for our oh-so-fun 4 hour layover.

It's funny, since being in my own country I've had 2 people (airport employees) address me in Spanish. Good thing I've had lots of practice with that!

We flew from San Jose with a big group of loud and obnoxious teens/pre-teens. I thought the flight would never end.

Anyway, this time will give us a moment to reflect on our trip.....

Incidentally, our last day in CR was spent shopping--that fun last-minute souvenir/gift shopping that always sucks us in. I was enchanted by some of the art work that is available in the "souvenir" shops in San Jose. I really liked the work of a painter by the name of Gustavo Araya--but the prices were a little too high for an artist that was displayed alongside the "pura vida" rainbow keychains and shell art. We did find a few paintings that we really liked--from a different artist, but the lowest "precio" was $800--a little steep for us. She didn't seem to want to budge on that price, so it was probably not terribly marked up. We didn't buy any art in the end, but we did manage to take home a borucha mask from a co-op type store.

Anyway, reflections on Costa Rica--or this trip anyway.

Driving is exciting, but not awful (except in San Jose). By some insane magic, one manages to find one's way around even without street names or numbers. Rules are apparently flexible, but we saw no accidents during our 3 week visit.

Costa Rica is expensive--period. Expect U.S. prices or higher. Sure you can find cheaper accommodations, but not like in Asian countries. In addition, lots of cool things are accessible only by "tour". Not everything, but it certainly makes it easier.

Black beans are everywhere. The same black bean and rice dish can be called Gallo Pinto at breakfast and Casado at lunch and dinner. (not entirely true, Casado usually has chicken and plantains). I don't even know what the black bean plant looks like, but I'm sure it's all over CR.

Season will drastically affect your experience. When you get advice about places to visit, always take into consideration the time of year both the advisor and the advisee were/will be visiting. If you have inside information on the geographic position of the "masses"--avoid those areas. Christmas through New Years and Easter are major Tico vacation times. It is probably wise to avoid the country during this time.

Ticans are, as a whole, very friendly. Even though we've read that 50% of the CR coast is owned by expats, we never felt resented--Quite the opposite, we were treated better by Costa Ricans than we were by the expats!

Knowledge of the spanish language is necessary only in some parts of the country--Osa Peninsula being one. Costa Rican Spanish is quite easy to understand, however, and most people are willing to listen to you destroy their language if you ask. Otherwise, they will put you out of your misery (and theirs) and just speak English.

Snuggies aren't a necessary carry-on item although San Jose was quite chilly and the Snuggie wasn't entirely out of place.

Vibram 5 finger toe shoes are excellent choices for hiking in the jungle especially under muddy conditions. Our guides were often skeptical, but after watching us tromp right through the stream while our hiking-boot-wearing brethren were balancing precariously on rocks and sticks to avoid getting their boots wet, they soon came to appreciate the "toe shoes" (and so did we!) Where they fail, however, is on the beach where the sand can manage to find its way into your shoes and make you feel as though you had strapped sandpaper to your feet.

Ok, Isaac keeps talking to me while I'm trying to write, so I'll sign off for now.

See some of you soon!

Last Days at the Beach

Hi all.
So the time we stayed in Puerto Viejo was spent doing a little snorkeling, a little body surfing, some beach walking, and a little jungle hiking. We wanted to do a Cacao tour, but we could not make it happen this trip. It was nice not having a schedule and just taking it easy. We couldn't help but feel that our trip was coming to an end so we were also battling the blues. We had a good dinner last night at Loco Naturales in Puerto Viejo and took off this morning for San Jose.

We drove back to San Jose through Turrialba. On the way we decided to stop and check out the tallest volcano in Costa Rica, Volcan Irazu (3400 + meters in elevation). It is supposedly still active, but not terribly. It is a long drive through some ag land up to the top of the volcano, but unfortunately when we finally arrived, the man at the gate told us that it was too cloudy and they were closing in an hour. Basically, he wasn't going to let us in. Oh well. The drive was nice anyway!!


We managed to get through San Jose again. Man, it's a crazy place to drive! We found the hotel that we will call home for the next two nights. Its a pretty posh place right downtown, Hotel Presidente. We'll see if the noise from the street and bars ever dies down.

Updates

Hi All,
Just wanted to let you know that we added a few pics to the previous posts. Lately we've been taking more videos than pictures and unfortunately they are too big to post on the blog. We will try to get some more pics.

Until then, I forgot about Isaac's nemesis bird on Corcovado, the scarlet macaws. We saw plenty of them, but he could never get a good picture. In fact, they seemed to be taunting and laughing at him. Finally though, he got a few good ones. I'll give you a look at one.



We didn't get to do the SCUBA course so we're just going to bum around the beach for a while. Not much more to say!

Caribbean Coast

Hello, All y’all! Since I have finished both of the books that I brought along for reading material and Marguerite hasn’t, I will be filling in with today’s entry. Again, sorry about the lack of pictures. We have taken many videos and pictures but we haven’t hit an internet connection that will handle the size. I guess you’ll just have to wait to see all the “wild life.”

For now, however, let me regale you with today’s tales of daring do (do, Ha!) We left the booming town of Guapiles around 9 am and drove to the scenic and heavily barb-wired city of Puerto Limon. Limon is regarded by many of the guide books as a fairly dangerous place with nothing redeeming to visit. A recent acquaintance spoke of Limon with fondness and this one caveat: “If you are going there on vacation, don’t.” Marguerite and I have been learning a lot about security and safety here in Costa Rica and we have noticed that this place is fairly easy to read. All you have to do is check out how the locals live: if they have no fences and are generally hanging around and chatting, it’s probably a fairly safe, honest place. If, on the other hand, all of the houses (and churches) have 6 foot high metal bar fencing topped with either razor or barbed wire, then you might want to keep one eye looking over your shoulder. Let’s just say that Limon had 7 foot high concrete walls topped with razor wire around the church and let your imagination do the rest.

But it takes all of 7.5 minutes to drive through Limon and so we were on our way quickly enough. The road south from Limon to Cahuita starts off as many of the CR highways do: The occasional pot hole, one-way bridge, random police blockade, lane striping, and “Velocidad Maxima” sign. After about 5 kilometers, however, the later the items disappear and the prior two become more frequent. But this is really no bother, since driving in CR keeps you on your toes anyway.

Cahuita turned out to be a nicer place than I expected. It was by far the most laid back town on the south Caribbean stretch. The town itself is much like many of the small resort destination places that we have visited so far. A little downtown area with some local dives and shacks, surrounded by an eclectic bunch of B&Bs, Cabinas, hostels, hotels, and tour companies. The guide books suggest that the last five years have seen an increase in crime that has subsequently been stamped out. Making notes on our drive-by tour, I think I would like to go back there and hang out for a while. But I had set my sights on seeing all there was to see of this little piece of coastline and so on we went.

The next notable town after Cahuita is Puerto Viejo. And I gotta tell ya: Wow! Even the traffic in San Jose wasn’t as bad as this! What should have been a two lane road through the middle of town was packed on both sides by parked cars, forcing the hundreds of pedestrians, bicyclists and cars to take turn squeezing through this little, ram-shackled, dive of a town.

There is a chance that we will go back to PV on Monday and all will be back to its sleepy norm, but for now, the place is packed—PACKED—with Ticos and foreigners on vacation. And it didn’t stop there. The traffic (pedestrian, bicycle and car) held out for the next 11 kilometers, coming to a head at the end of the road in a “sleepy hamlet” called Manzanillo. Arriving in Manzanillo was like pulling into the final stretch of parking lot for a Grateful Dead reunion show (assuming Jerry was still alive.) So much traffic, buddy, SO much traffic! And then, to really put the icing on the cake, it started to rain. This completely destroyed any dreams I had of finding a nice peaceful piece of Caribbean beach at the end of a dirt road to chill out on before we are due back at the airport. Somewhat dejected, we sat in the parking for a little while and called the cabinas and hotels in our guide books.

This experience only served to reinforce my flagging interest in Caribbean CR. Not only were the responses to my room inquiries tersely negative to the point of rudeness, but I was on the edge of admitting to Marguerite that she might actually be right about planning and reservations. Since this goes against so many of my most deeply felt travel instincts (okay… maybe just my pride), it was a completely unacceptable situation. So we did the next logical thing; we left Manzanilllo, heading back toward Puerto Viejo stopping at every place that looked like it might have acceptable (yes, I have rather snooty taste) accommodations.

It turns out that for all the hustle and bustle, some of the nice places were fairly empty. We settled on a comfortable little group of cabinas with more bugs, frogs, night time singers (wildlife-wise), and solitude than most of the places that we have stayed. Hotel Kasha has turned out to be just the ticket... so far. Tomorrow we are going to try to start our PADI Open Water Diver certification courses, but time is not on our side. Expect some palm tree, beach-lounging Snuggie shots if we don’t go diving! Or maybe even if we do…

Cheers, Everybody!

Heading East

We somehow managed to make it to the 7:15 boat back to Sierpe on the 1st. I was really afraid I was going to blow chunks on the boat ride, but I managed to maintain composure--mostly because I was still drunk.

We saw a few more crocs on the boat ride but nothing too exciting. We collected our car and headed off in the direction of the Caribbean--well not exactly. There aren´t any roads that go from the Osa Peninsula directly to the east so we had to drive back up to San Jose and then across. We took a road that the guide books advised against taking. It goes up through the highest part of Costa Rica and there are many landslides, fog, and crazy drivers. It also happens to be part of the major highway in Costa Rica--and the rest of Central America--the Pan American Highway. We decided that we had been lucky so far so we pressed on with our plan.

Unfortunately, before we got to the fun part of the road, we were pulled over at a police check point. Apparently, our license plates had expired and the cop wasn´t going to let us go before we called the rental car company to straighten it out. I guess our chariot was turning back into a pumpkin. The guys at Budget told Isaac on the phone that the cops were just trying to get money from us--but the truth was that the plates were expired--if only 1 day expired. The cop agreed to let us go without any money changing hands and the manager of Budget told us we would have to go to San Jose to switch vehicles. This was quite disappointing considering we were just planning to skirt around the city on our way east. But rather than have to bribe every cop in Costa Rica, we agreed to make a stop.

The drive was spectacular through the mountains. The road wasn't too bad. We only saw one section where our lane appeared to have disappeared off the edge of the cliff. We did come across a cow standing in the middle of the highway which was quite a shock. Anyway, it was lovely and if we had more time we might have stayed in the area to check it out more.

So we called the rental car manager back to find out where the budget office in San Jose was located. We had picked up the car at the airport office, so we weren´t familiar with the main branch. He assured us that we couldn´t miss it--just stay on the road we were on and it would take us right there.

Ha exclammation point.

We followed a sign directing us to San Jose and that´s where the trouble began. Let me just sum it up by saying there are very few--as in 1 or 2--streets that are labeled, streets become one-way without much notice, at an intersection there might be both a stop sign and a green light, you often can´t turn onto a one-way street even if you want to go the correct way, etc. etc. I think you get the point. Somehow, we managed to find the Budget office after about a half hour of very tense wandering. I´m still not sure how we did it. San Jose is a very big city.

When we arrived, the agent told us that there were no cars at that office and we would have to go to the airport office. I thought Isaac was going to jump across the counter and have her for lunch. What could we do? Luckily she sent us with one of their employees--we made him drive--which made route finding much easier.

Well all that took a couple hours off of our travel time. This and our exhaustion made us decide not to push to the east coast tonight. We picked a town on the way and looked in the guidebook for hotel ideas. The comment about Guapiles in the book was that it was the largest city in the Province and there was absolutely no reason for tourists to go there. Well with that great review, how could we resist?

We found our chosen hotel--ok we didn´t find it--we drove around aimlessly in the dark until we broke down and decided to ask for directions. It didn´t seem like it would be too difficult when on the map the town consists of 2 parallel sections of highway about 1 mile long. The hotel is very out of place in a town that supposedly has no reason for tourists to visit. It is quite large--300 rooms--and has an olympic sized pool, a casino, a spa, satellite tv--but a lousy internet connection. All this and its one of the cheapest hotels we´ve stayed in so far.

So now you´re up to date. Sorry no pics. Maybe tomorrow.

Happy New Year

Corcovado continued.

We awoke the next day bright and early and met up with Everest and the other two tourists. The were a nice couple from Spain--unfortunately the did not speak English. I only say unfortunately because this meant that Everest conducted the tour in Spanish. I can understand most of what people say--getting better every day--but Isaac is still not able to follow conversations so well. So he had to rely on my poor translations. It actually wasn´t so bad.

The boat ride on the way out contained some excitement. A large cluster of brown boobies hunting was a signal to Everest that there were probably dolphins in the area. Indeed while we didn´t see too many, we did get a glimpse of a few fins. Kind of a bonus. La Sirena Station in Corcovado --our destination--is a 1 1/2 hour boat ride from Drake Bay. Most of that time is spent travelling past a ridiculously long stretch of beach--something like 29kms with no people. Crazy. After some wild wave dodging by our boat captain, we landed on the beach near Sirena. Our walk to the station brought us some fresh puma tracks, a guan, and I´m sure some other stuff that I can´t remember. Hopefully I will be able to relate the highlights of the day at least.



We arrived at the station after our morning hike. Everest went off to perform some magic with the ranger and came back to tell us that we would be able to stay. Yay--sorry I can´t get the exclamation point or the parenthesis to work on this computer. We set up our tent and were off on another hike.

Rather than try to give a blow by blow, the exciting points were seeing all species of monkey--white faced, howler, spider, and squirrel monkeys; seeing a mama sloth and her baby, a giant anteater--a really funny story about that one, crocodiles and hammerhead sharks in the Sirena River, tons of Great Curasou and Tinamou, a few more trogons, a wooly possum, tiger herons, a tapir, tons of black hawks, a collared falcon, another coati, a roseate spoonbill, tons of whiptail lizards and anoles, marguay cat tracks, mountain deer, and so many other birds, plants, trees oh my.



Unfortunately they don´t allow night hikes in Corcovado due to some folks getting lost for 3 days a while ago. So we hung out at the station and just watched as wildlife came to us. The tapir is one of the coveted sightings near Sirena. There aren´t many of them and they are quite shy. While we were sitting on the front porch of the station, one just came strolling out of the woods onto the airstrip --a large grassy spot adjacent to the station. People went crazy shouting tapir tapir tapir. It was quite hilarious. We had actually gotten to see one sleeping earlier in the day, so we weren´t as crazy. Sadly we didn´t have our camera ready for that one.


We spent a very--I mean very--hot night trying to get some sleep before our 4 am hike with Everest.

Due to the heat, 4 am actually couldn´t come soon enough for me. I was up and at em excited to get out of the tent. Our goal was to follow the same trail on which we had seen the puma tracks the day before. Everest was determined to find it for us. Unfortunately the moon was almost full that night, so there was still a lot of light in the morning--not so good for hunting if you are a puma--but it was still really dark under the canopy.



We weren´t lucky enough to see the puma, but as we circled back to the River Serena to see if our tapir friend would show her elongated face, another group that came after us --about 45 minutes after--said they saw fresh puma tracks on the same trail we were on. She was stalking us--or following us in any case. Too funny.

We went back to peak in at our tapir friend that we had seen the day before. She was in the same spot, but as we watched she got up. She was only about feet away from us in some really thick pineapple relative plants--and enormous. Even Everest was a little nervous and started to back away with an alarmed look on his face. Luckily she settled herself back down and we enjoyed watching her flicking her ears our way. We went back, had breakfast, and went for another walk. We didn´t see too many new species that day--maybe some birds whose names I can´t remember--but we did get to watch Everest dance around as he discoved his pants were full of those tiny little pepper ticks. Poor guy--but it made a funny sight--until we also discovered a few on ourselves a little later.



We met up with another day tour at around 10:30 and got back on the boat. The waves were crazy choppy and we were actually given life preservers for the first time. If not for the courage of the fearless crew.....la la la. We made it anyway. We stopped at another station, San Pedrillo, on the way back and hiked up to a waterfall. We all got in and enjoyed some pretty deep pools and Isaac managed to scramble up to and behind the waterfall itself. The rocks were quite slippery, but remarkably no blood was shed.

Whew what a day. I was exhausted--but it was the 31st and more excitement was yet to come. After dinner, Everest came to find us again to celebrate the New Year Tico style. I should really have Isaac write this part because I don´t exactly remember all of it. Let´s just say there were fireworks on the beach, lots of dancing, and, um, a little bit too much drinking.

Feliz Nuevo Año

Ok where do I start?

Sorry still no pics until we get a good internet connection.....

So the first day in Drake Bay we just stuck around the area. We were told there was a small beach not far from our hotel where the snorkeling was pretty good. We took it easy in the morning, went for breakfast, and then took a walk through the forest to find the beach. We first stopped to check with another tour place to see about getting an overnight in Corcovado. This guide, Kenneth, said he could probably take us the next day, but he would have to call the park to check. He told us to come back before 3 to check. We were hopeful.

There is a large beach right outside of our hotel where the boats land, but its not terribly nice for swimming or snorkeling. To the south there is a trail that passes a number of small beaches. Our first stop was at one that had the most amazing shells on it. We spent a little time shell hunting there and then continued on. We found one that looked promising as far as snorkeling went and we stopped and spent a few hours. It was actually quite interesting--not spectacular, but also not like snorkeling in Arizona. There was a lot of coral that looked to be just new, parrot fish, ras, trigger fish, a lobster, and some other beautiful creatures.

We walked a little further down the trail just to check it out. We found all these eaten and uneaten orange bean pods on the trail. We were just wondering about them when one of us looked up and noticed a chestnut mandibled toucan sitting above us. Isaac got some wonderful pictures of this guy. We saw another trogon --seems to be Isaac´s bird he spots them everywhere--and some more white-faced capuchin monkeys. We made our way back to town to check with Ken and saw another agouti.


Ken informed us that there were no spaces for the 30th--but there were some for the 31st. The problem was that, like all Ticos, he wanted to be in town for the party on the 31st--not camping out in a park with a bunch of gringos. We told him we understood and discussed our options.



That evening, we spoke with our hotel owner and one of his guides, Everest --yep that´s his name. What Everest suggested was going for the day tour --he was going to take two people the next day-- and when we got to the station, he would ask his friends if there was room for us. If there was, we would stay the night there; and if not, we would come back. This seemed like our only possible chance to get to stay there--without spending the rest of our trip waiting--so we took a chance. We crossed our fingers for the next day's luck.