Manuel Antonio to the End

Our last city to explore before we head home and this latest adventure ends is Manuel Antonio.

We took the boat from Montezuma to Jaco and then a public bus to Quepos and then on to Manuel Antonio. This route cut the travel time down some and allowed us to see jumping rays and dolphins and some sort of long fish as we sailed from Montezuma to Jaco.

Manuel Antonio is a split city. The "center" is at the top of the hill and then the rest of the town spills down the hill for 3 kms, until it stops at the Manuel Antonio National Park, which borders the Pacific Ocean. As far as I could see the town exist solely as a tourist destination for the beach and for the park. There didn't seem to be too much else there besides resorts, restaurants, hotels, and souvenir shops. Keeping all this in mind, it was still a beautiful place and the park was worth the visit.

On the recommendation of someone that shall remain nameless...ahem...Pam...ahem...I made Cammi and I get off at the top of the town when I saw the Manuel Antonio Backpacker's Hostel. I was told that this was a cute hostel with good food at the restaurant attached to it. So I dragged Cammi to the reception and booked us in for a night. We were both glad it was only for the night. The room we were in was reached by traveling through another room and everything in it was white. There were white walls with white bunk beds and white walls and windows with white bars on them. I instantly felt like I was either in a mental asylum or in a orphanage from the turn of last century. The staff were nice, but the place didn't offer a very homey feel.

We dropped our bags and decided to go for a walk to the beach end of town. Along our walk we met a nice guy from the States that had moved to the city with his wife a few years earlier and opened the only frozen yogurt shop that I'd seen to date. We had a shake, enjoyed the AC, and then moved on.

We passed a bar called "El Avion" that is housed in an old plane. The plane used to belong to the CIA and was part of the Oliver North campaign to supply Nigerian guerrilla fighters with money and weapons in the 80s. When one of CIAs other planes was shot down and the mission was blown, this plane was abandoned at the San Jose airport. It was eventually bought by the owners of the restaurant and made into a bar. I think that's a pretty cool story for a bar. Cammi added an EyeSkull sticker to their door. There was also an "805" sticker there, so I'm not the first Santa Barbaran to make it to the plane.

Eventually we made it to the beach and realized that that's where we really should have gotten off the bus. We decided to find a new hostel that we could book ourselves into for the following night.

The next morning we checked out of the asylum and took the bus to the beach were we dropped our bags off for the day. We weren't allowed to check in to the new hostel until 2 PM, so we decide to check out the National Park first.

Manuel Antonio National Park is small, but boast a large variety of different species of flora and fauna. It also helps that there are a series of private beaches that can only be reached from the Ocean or through the park. Most people hire one of the horde of clambering guides at the front gates, take the two hour guided walk to the beach and then spend the day playing in the water. Cammi and I bypassed the guides and went hunting for wildlife on our own. You didn't really need a guide since it seemed that every other person had one and as as a result it was easy to tell when some animal was spotted...just look for the mass of people pointing into the dense trees, wander over, and ask what they were all looking at. 

Once we got to the beach, we bypassed the beautiful blues and greens and continued on the hiking trail around one of the only other open paths. Most of the trails in the park had been closed and therefore you could only walk to the beach, around a small peninsula, and then along another trail back to town. While wandering through the park, Cammi and I saw the most variety of animals that we'd seen since coming to the country. We saw an agouti (like a giant rat), an iguana that had lost its tail to the crazy Capuchins, a sloth eating, spiders, giant crickets, howler monkeys, raccoons, and tons of Capuchin monkeys. The last two were so used to feeding off of left overs from humans that they had no problems sneaking down to the beach and stealing any unguarded bags. They even were creative enough open zippers and pilfer for what they wanted.

Eventually we did make it back to the beach and Cammi enjoyed the warm waters while I kept the monkeys from gaining access to our bags. It was a nice morning.

We spent the rest of the day and the morning of the next day wandering around the different souvenir shops in town and trying out some of the different restaurants. I have to say that I think the best food that I had during the whole trip was in Manuel Antonio. Almost every meal I had was yummy.

A nice little side note: When we went to check into our hostel for the second night, we were taken to a room with only one bed. I looked at the guy and told him that wasn't going to work. Even though we'd reserved a two bed room with fan in the ConEx complex the day before, and confirmed it that morning when we'd dropped our bags off, the girl at the counter earlier in the day had given the room away. After some arguing and phone calls, we were told that we were getting a "super upgrade" for the evening. This "super upgrade" turned out to be one of only two hotel quality rooms at the hostel. We had a two bed, air-conditioned room, with blankets, a private bathroom, a tv (which we unplugged to get at the outlet), and a fridge. This was the lap of luxury for sure.

On the third day, we took a bus back to San Jose and checked back into the Pangea Hostel for a last evening in the city.

Thus ends the Costa Rican adventure.

SIDE NOTE: So the reason I ended up buying another ticket home a few days after the canceled one is because the company that had offered me the job in Afghanistan and then taken it away, told me that the position had been re-instated once again. The only difference was that I now needed to move to Atlanta for a few weeks or months before deploying. I'm not sure whether this makes the opportunity worth it or not.

There was for a short period another position that I think I would have enjoyed more, but it too fell through. So now I'm headed back to the States and have some decisions to make in short order.

Montezuma's Revenge

Cammi and I set out by local transportation for Montezuma. This Montezuma is not the one that was conquered by Cortez and the Spanish in the 1500's and spawned the "Montezuma's Cruse" term (that one was Moctezuma II, who was actually the ruler of the Aztecs at the time that they were conquered), but is rather a small hippie beach town in the northwest. Local transport to this little town required a 2 hour bus ride, a 70 minute ferry ride, another 2 hour bus ride before changing buses and then a final 30 minute ride down a crazy road. At the bottom of the mountain, and sitting on the ocean, is the town of Montezuma.This place is quaint, fully of gringos and ex-pat hippies (I hardly saw any locals), and has the nickname of Montefuma for it's 420 vibe. It's like going to a smaller version of Arcadia or Santa Cruz; cute, but without a Costa Rican feel.

We booked ourselves for two nights and had a day and a half to explore. Here, like everywhere in the country, is beautiful, but it's a different kind of beauty. It's a drier, but more hot and humid environment, with the Pacific ocean on one side and mountains on the other. The waters are calm (although they still have strong currents) and are a combination of lovely greens and blues. I liked it, but felt like it belonged somewhere in the States.

We had meant to hike up to a series of waterfalls our first afternoon, but after wandering around town for a bit and getting sucked into having a street artist make me an anklet, it was too dark to explore.

The next morning Cammi and I set out for a snorkeling (diving for her) all day adventure. This was kind of like the reverse of when we where in Bocas, instead of all divers and me, it was all snorkelers and Cammi. Snorkeling is much more popular than diving here. We were on an all day excursion that takes you by boat to Turtuga Island (named after its shape and not because there are an abundance of turtles there). There you get a morning session of snorkeling (or diving), a fish and fruit lunch (with beer if you so choose), and a second afternoon session of snorkeling (or diving). This was probably one of the better day trips we've taken.

The snorkeling was around these giant rocks/tiny islands about 800 meters from shore. I saw more of the blue fish with blue LED like sections, some puffer fish, crabs, a jelly fish, and schools of tiny and giant other colorful fish (too bad I don't know the names of any of them). I didn't get to take any photos since I gave Cammi my camera for her dives. She got some pictures of cool sea life though (but not the reef sharks that she saw).

When we got back from our water adventure, we decided to try and beat the setting sun and go see the waterfalls that we'd missed the day before. Everyone told us that it only took about 25 minutes to get up to them and we had a little over an hour before the sun set. The first small waterfall was about a five minute walked inland from the road and then it became a boulder hopping creek walk for another 10 minutes to the second waterfall.

From there it gos fun. You climb straight up using tree roots, rock outcroppings and the ropes that someone so nicely tied for you. I felt that the Chato volcano mud hike was actually a safer climb than this one, even though this one was way shorter. Once you'd made it to the top of the hill and thanked your lucky stars for not falling off the cliff on the way up, you walked along a path for another five minutes of so and ended up at the smaller waterfall above the one that you saw before you climbed up the mountain.

We were told that if you wanted to you could jump off the the waterfall into the pool below. I looked at the 60 foot drop and determined that that statement should be amended to, "if you're crazy". There was one other waterfall that you could hike to, but we realized you needed to swim across the pool at the base of the upper falls to get to the rest of the trail.

Since light was waning fast, we decided to head back. This was a good decision, as even with running back along the trail until the climb down, we ended up walking the initial 10 minute creek hike out of the woods in near darkness. I was glad that we left when we did or else we might have had to sleep on the mountain until daylight the next morning in order to make the climb back down the hill.

Over all, it was a great day; sunburn aside (apparently white ass chicks of Eastern European descent came actually tan....and burn on top of it).

Feeling the Schmuck as I Return to Costa Rica

The decision on whether to continue to travel through Panama or return to Costa Rica was based on where Cammi could get a flight back to Nebraska from when using frequent flier miles. Turns out that the winner was San Jose, Costa Rica. Therefore, we booked a shuttle to take us back across the border and to San Jose so that we could go visit Montezuma, a town in the northwest, on the Pacific Coast. We had originally skipped the west coast because we were going based off of my schedule and me wanting to see the Caribbean side. Since I no longer have a job to go back to, we're now going off of Cammi's schedule and where she wants to go.

The guy that we booked the shuttle through was a little on the shady side, but the helpful clerk at our hostel assured us that he was legit and we'd end up in San Jose by nightfall. We were told to meet at the hostel at 11:30 am for a noon boat back to the mainland. Homer, our transportation arranger, arrived at 11:55 am and then took us to another hostel where there were more people waiting to leave for the trip. He told us that everything was delayed and we were now on the 1 pm boat. The boat ride and then shuttle to the Panama/Costa Rica border were fine. It was at the border that we ran into issues.

The people on the Panama side turn you over to people on the CR side and they take you to your final destinations. It turns out that our CR side arranger was the same one that helped us cross when we were heading the other direction a few days earlier (not that he remembered us). When he was talking to the shuttle driver, he mentioned that everyone was going to Puerto Viejo. I told him that that wasn't the case and that we were going to San Jose. This is were the problems started.

Apparently there is only one trip a day that goes from Bocas to San Jose, and it leaves at 8 am, not noon. After we explained that we were told otherwise, they looked at our receipt (always have those handy here) and told us that we'd only paid for Puerto Viejo and not all the way to San Jose. I told them they were wrong. Eventually, all the other passengers and the driver left and the "arranger" went back to the Panama side of the border after telling us that he would be back with our money and that they were going to put us on the standard bus.

The guy disappeared across the dilapidated old train bridge and we waited...and waited...and waited...and a "helpful guy" laughed at us and said he'd wasn't coming back and we were on our own. He also told us he deplored people that take other people's money and other platitudes of that sort. The city bus left at 3 pm and it was now 2:30 pm so we were thinking we should just buy a bus ticket and if the guy came back he would just reimburse us for the tickets since they were putting us on the bus anyways. So I left Cammi at the border to wait for his potential return and I walked to the bus station to get tickets. When I returned, the "arranger" was walking back across the border and the "helpful guy" was looking bashful for having told us he wasn't coming back.

The "arranger" came and told us that he'd arranged a safe ride for us and then I told him I'd bought bus tickets. He asked why I would do that and I explained that the other guy told us he wasn't coming back. I should have waited, but I didn't. We went to the bus station with the "arranger" to try and return the tickets, but they wouldn't refund them. I tried to explain that I thought they were just putting us on the bus anyways and therefore could just pay us back for the tickets. He said that he'd arranged transport. It went back and forth for a few minutes and I felt guiltier by the second.

Eventually, the "arranger" pulled out his wallet, gave us $20 of his own money (he didn't really have any) and walked away looking very sad and under appreciated and betrayed. Cammi and I looked at each other and realized that we were in the wrong for not waiting for him to come back and we felt like the scum on the bottom of your shoe.

We ended up taking the public bus to San Jose. Cammi sat next to a nice local woman that didn't speak any English, gave us weird fruit that I think might have been lychee, and talked to Cammi for a bit in Spanish before realizing Cammi didn't understand her at all. I sat next to a nice local guy that passed out almost instantly once the bus started moving and ended up practically sleeping on me. Guess it was karma for being a jerk.

This was our re-entry into Costa Rica.

Bocas del Toro, Panama

I think the Costa Rica/Panama border crossing goes down in the books as one of the most interesting border crossing I have ever gone across. The border is an old train bridge with a rusted metal frame and rotting wooden boards laid across the slated for people to walk across. The bridge crosses a river where you are in one county on the one side and in another on the other side. I took lots of pictures; and I wasn't the only one.

After you cross the border, it's a forty minute ride to Almirante, where you hop a 30 minute boat trip to the Bocas del Toro archipelago. This region encompasses sections of the mainland (in both Costa Rica and Panama) and nine islands. Bocas is the main island and Isla Colon is the main city were most travelers are dropped off and tend to stay. Many of the other island contain clearer beaches and beautiful villas for rent, but they all require additional boat trips to get to. It's not too bad though as water taxis are everywhere and relatively cheap. We stayed on Isla Colon, but I wouldn't mind coming back some time and staying at one of the more remote locations.

In another example of the world's concept of six degrees of separation, it turns out that one of Cammi's high school friends (that she hasn't seen in 15 years), moved to Bocas a few years ago and was thrilled to see us and show us around when she wasn't working. It's definitely a lot smaller of a world than we all think.

Bocas is also known for it's surfing and other water sports. It's not considered one of the best places in the world for diving, but when the conditions are right, it's supposed to be great. Cammi didn't care either way and on the recommendation of Kamron (her friend from high school), she sought out a local dive shop almost as soon as we'd dropped our bags at a hostel. She booked herself for a night dive and then a two tank dive the next morning.

When she came back from the night dive, she was raving about the bio-luminescence that was everywhere and how she now was in love with the town and could stay here diving forever. I think she was just thrilled to finally get a dive in.

We meet Kamron in the evening at a Rap Off, hosted at the Bookstore, which may have actually been a bookstore at one point, but now is a bar with books that you can buy and a ping pong table. This event was held in the street in front of the bar (since it wasn't that big) and consisted of four guys each composing their own raps on the fly (think 8 Mile with Eminem). When the guys weren't rapping, the band was singing covers from various different genres. It was fun to watch.

The next morning Cammi had signed up for a two tank dive, and not wanting to be left out, I signed up to go snorkeling on the same trip. I was the only snorkeler on the trip and therefore spent a lot of time swimming around by myself in not the most ideal locations for snorkeling as the boat was stopping in places that were good for the divers (i.e. further out to sea). I did however see a bunch of coral and different species of fish. I even got to float in the middle of a school of Sergeant Major fish and stalk these juvenile fish that glowed a bright blue (I really wanted to take one home).

On the trip, Cammi and I became friendly with a few of the other divers (Meryl, Simona, and Jackie) and all of us decided to spend the rest of the day together. After changing and grabbing some supplies, we all caught a water taxi to Bastimonti, another island in the archipelago. This island is mostly known for Red Frog Beach. Before heading to the beach, we stopped in town because we were told that there was a restaurant, The Firefly, that was not to be missed. After transversing the town, we found out that they were only open for dinner. Although the place was adorable and we were disappointed, the workers pointed us to a local spot, Alvin and Kesha's. The was a house on the water run by three generations of the same family. We has an eight year old girl as a waitress that was just as likely to bring you your food or clear the table as she was to start telling you about her pets and favorite subjects at school. It was beyond cute and the food was great too. Turns out this was a pretty good alternative to the other restaurant.

With full bellies, we commandeered another water taxi and headed to Red Frog Beach on the other side of the island. Once on land, you have to pass through a control desk that has signs gleefully telling you that while the beaches are all free, the lands surrounding them are private and you need to pay to cross them to get to the beaches. We each shelled over our $3 and followed the groomed paths and manicured jungle to a picturesque beach that made you forget the fee instantly.

After playing in the waves for a bit, we retired to the bar and enjoyed Rum Punch and Coco Loco Surprises (these were wonderful and served in the coconuts that were used to make the drinks). We all lost track of time and actually had to have a water taxi called from the main land to come and pick us up and a take us home.

Showered and refreshed, we all meet back up for a nice dinner out on the town. We went to Lemongrass, which had a good facsimile of Thai/Indian food, but I didn't think the portions matched the prices much at all. The atmosphere and company were good and Simona and Jackie were calling our waiter Senor Guapo (Mr. Handsome) and that's really all that mattered.

The final activity for the evening was to take another water taxi to the Aqua Lounge, the happening spot for a Wednesday night. This is a hostel that turns into a crazy party place with multiple bars at night (I haven't figured out yet if it's just a few nights a week or every night). The place gets it's name because the patio outside the hostel is built over the sea and has various areas cut out so that you can either swim if you feel like it or fall in if you drink too much.

I ended up going home around 2 am, while the others stayed to close the place down. I heard the next morning that I made the smart choice. The water taxi that the other girls were all taking back capsized while they were getting in (too much weight on one side) and they all got an unwanted bath in salt water. The worse part though was that while they were trying to get out of the water someone stole Simona's purse and everything that both her and Jackie had. I didn't see them again since they were supposed to be leaving for home the next morning, but they assured Cammi after the incident that they would be okay. I hope they are. I think it's deplorable that someone would steal shit from others when they're already in a crappy situations (i.e. dunked in the water).

Our last day in town, we meet up with Kamron again for a day of bike riding and exploration of Bocas del Toro island. This island is a lot bigger than the town that most tourist only ever see. We rented some beach cruisers and then proceeded to take them essentially off-roading. The road out of town that wraps partially around the island is only paved for so far. The path then goes across the sand, through the jungle, across a river, and along various not so crappy bike friendly paths. It was fun though and the sites along the way were great. We stopped at a few of the beaches for a quick dip in the sea and an attempt at snorkeling (failed every time). We even rode past the old airfield that was possibly an illegal air strip used to funnel drugs or people out of the country in the 70s. The only thing left is a few structures. You can't even tell there was a runway there, but Kamron assured us that there was.

Eventually, I called for refreshments and we hit up the last bar/restaurant on this part of the island. I had an amazing Mahi Mahi sandwich and a homemade Basil Ice Tea that was excellent. If I hadn't gotten sunburned (even with many many liberal applications of 70 SPF sunblock), I would say that this was an ideal low key day.

In the evening, Cammi grabbed another night dive with Meryl and I had some time to catch up on my blog entries. Even though Bocas was great and we were enjoying ourselves, it was time to move on.

SIDE NOTE: On my first day in Bocas, I received an email that told me to call my new employers because some things had changed. In changed, they really meant that my position no longer existed. The company rushed to have me sign up and fill out a contract and get ready to come home and then they had the meeting with the government and were informed that the government did not want any latent print people whatsoever on the new contract. They sincerely apologized for any inconvenience that this may have caused me and then told me to enjoy my vacation. So now I'm definitely a little peeved (mainly cause I bought a last minute plane ticket home and the company says they won't reimburse me cause it's not their issue), but on the upside, I get to continue wandering (now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do).

Puerto Viejo and the Caribbean Coast

Like I noted in my previous post, it's easier to take some sort of tourist shuttle from one place to another in Costa Rice since they are so readily available and the locals will steer you that way more often than tell you how to take public transportation. But just because you take the expensive route, it doesn't have to be boring or ordinary. There is a company that will pick you up in one of six different cities, take you to a central location, the Pacuare River, for a day (or two) of rafting, and then drop you off at the end of the day at anyone of the same six cities. So to travel from the mountains in the north to the the eastern Caribbean coast, Cammi and I signed up for a day of white water rafting.

We climbed into a van at the crack of dawn (0530 hrs) for a three hour drive to the hub for Explorades. When we arrived, there was a hearty breakfast waiting for us and a place to lock our bags up for the day. Filled with tasty food, we piled back into a van and drove to the start point for the day. Cammi and I were in a raft with four new graduates from North Carolina that had somehow managed to score a six month gig working and living in San Jose, Costa Rica. We were both insanely jealous.

The day was spent, chatting, getting in water fights, getting grounded on some rocks, and going through some pretty cool rapids. There was one raft that didn't make it through a class 4 rapid and wrapped around a giant boulder (all the passengers were dumped into the river, but everyone was okay). We watched as all the guides from all the rafts paddled or swam back up stream to help pull the raft back into the flowing water. It was a neat sight to view and showed great teamwork.

The end of the trip was cool as well because there was an old train bridge about 60 feet above the river were a crazy 10 year old was jumping off. I give this kid major props. He would scramble up the hill, crawl out to center of the bridge, and just leap. It was cool to watch and something I would be terrified to do (remember I couldn't even jump off of the 30 platform for the Tarzan swing when there were two ropes tethered to me).

At the end of the day, we were dropped in the main part of Puerto Viejo and found a cute little place to stay. We were originally headed to Chuita (about 16 km from Puerto Viejo), but the company doesn't drop you there because it's too small. Stacey had told us that Chuita was smaller, but that it was also nice since it wasn't majorly touristy and you'd be able to get an idea of what true Costa Rican Caribbean life was like. There was also a Nature Preserve there that was supposed to be amazing. So we didn't make it to our primary destination, but the touristy Caribbean town was an okay substitute.

Puerto Viejo is located right on the Caribbean Sea and you can rent bikes and ride out along the coast all the way to Panama or back North to Puerto Limon. We meet an Aussie named Nicole on the ride back from rafting, who was staying in town and the three of us hung out for day. Nicole had originally come to Costa Rica with the intent of visiting a bunch of places, but fell in love with the coast and spent her whole vacation there (with the exception of the day on the rapids).

The best part about this area is that there is an animal rescue center (Jaguar Rescue Center - named after the one jaguar that they had who unfortunately passed away the week they opened their doors) that gave tours. It was started by a couple of biologists that had moved to the area to retire. When word got around that there were biologists living in the region, they started dropping off sick animals on their doorstep. The couple couldn't leave the animals to die nor stop the townspeople from bringing them more, so they opened a rescue and rehabilitation center and it's been a giant success. The best part; they have a baby sloth that we got to see!!!!!! We'd been trying to see a sloth forever and regardless of all the assurances that they're everywhere, we'd yet to see one. At the center, there was a volunteer that was walking around with the infant and let you take pictures of him. I even managed a shot with his eyes open.

In Spanish, sloths are called Oso Perezoso, which translates to Lazy Bear. This name pretty much fits the creatures. They are slow moving and spend most of their days sleeping in the trees. Although, to be fair, it takes a sloth a month to digest one meal and they only poop once a week. I'm sure that would make any creature lazy. At the Center, there were two other sloths in addition to the infant. We got to see the two juveniles at "climbing school". Here the volunteers were trying to teach the sloths to climb into trees and be normal. There was one female that was failing miserably. She was crawling on the ground clinging to one branch on the ground level, reaching for another at the same level, and then deciding that it was nap time. It was so damn cute.

At the Center, we also got to go into the monkey play area and got to have them climb all over us. That was awesome, even though the one Capuchin bit me. I was told that that was normal for that type of monkey.

Overall, another highlight of the trip.

For the rest of our time in Puerto Viejo, we played in the water and ate too much food. There was a breakfast place call Bread and Chocolate that made amazing breakfasts, coffees, and deserts. Bill, a retiree that was spending three months trying to find himself again after 48 years of work, treated us to anecdotes and breakfast. He was an interesting and kind person.

On the advice of Nicole, Cammi and I set out for Bocas del Toro, Panama the next morning. Nicole told us that the beaches there were phenomenal and showed us these amazing photographs of tiki huts, green and blue waters, and sandy beaches. Since it was so close and the pictures were so enticing, we headed that way.

Arenal and the La Fortuna Valley

Transportation in Costa Rica (at least as far as gringos are lead to believe) is a long and arduous task. Tour guides and companies would love to transport you via shuttle, boat, ferry, etc. to your destination of choice "for a good price". I'm sure that public transportation isn't all that bad (as we took to from San Jose to Monteverde without any problems and for cheap), but I don't think that it goes to that many of the different cities by any direct route. Therefore is why I think we all fall for the alternative route.

Cammi and I took the "jeep, boat, jeep" (which was really a "van, boat, van") route to La Fortuna. La Fortuna is considered the second most visited city in Costa Rica for tourism, after Monteverde, even though they're really just opposing sides of the same mountain range. A lot of activities that were offered in one city, where also offered in the other.

The main reasons that we came here were because we had heard about a series of caves just waiting to be explored and Cammi really wanted to climb a volcano. Luck was with us in last we arrived an hour before the afternoon tour that headed to the Venado Caves and we were able to book ourselves a spot (turns out we were the only ones wanted to go then and therefore got a private tour).

The caves were about an hour drive from La Fortuna and our drives was awesome in that when we asked him whether there were any sloths in the areas, he not only told us that there were, but he also went out of his way driving trying to locate some for us. Even though we never found one, it was still a really cool thing that he did.

The lax safety regulations that exist in Central America lend to a more adventurous tour of the cave system. Cammi and I were outfitted with head lamps and rubber boots and then followed our trusty guide into the underground abyss. This was no pansy walkway tour like you might find in the US. Here the guide says follow me and then disappears and you realize that what you though was a solid wall really has a foot by foot hole half submerged in water that you can crawl through to emerge in another chamber. It was completely awesome. We crawled, climbed, swam, photographed bats, scorpion spiders, crabs, fish, and other creatures. There was an "Alter" made of calcium carbonate that reminded me of the white pools I'd seen in Pommakkale in Turkey and people come here to actually get married (it's different. but it could work). The caves quickly climbed to the number one thing that both Cammi and I had done since arriving in Costa Rica.

The next day, the two of us were booked on an entire day excursion to hike and see the Arenal Volcano and it neighbor, Chato. No one is actually allowed to climb to the top of Arenal since it technically still has the potential to blow it's top (although it is currently dormant), but you can climb Chato to the Green Lagoon that is located in the crater at the top.

Even though the tour agent that sold this trip to us told us that it was a more difficult hike, he greatly undersold the "difficult" part. This was definitely not a hike for anyone not in some sort of shape (there was an older woman that came on the hike and with the help of the guide and her son made it and instantly became my hero). You climb a mile straight up the mountain and about a third of the way up the pathway turns into a bouldering mud climb via whatever tree roots and/or vines you can find to haul yourself up the nearly vertical surface. You end up climbing through and then above the cloud line and therefore are actually walking in a cloud forest. It was grueling, tiring, and absolutely amazing. I loved it even though I would have gone at a much slower pace than our part billy goat guide set if I had done this on my own. At the top we were rewarded with fantastic views and the chance to swim in a freezing lagoon inside the crater of a volcano. we actually passed on the swimming but got to have the fun of walking through the mud and climbing back out of the crater and then down the other side of the Volcano to get to the bottom.

At the bottom, three was a very friendly and human corrupted Cotemundi. He would walk up to you and beg for food and then take it out of your hand if you offered him any. I know that it's bad to domesticate wildlife, but he was just so cute and I wanted a photograph with him, so I caved and fed him a bit of apple.

After we'd all successfully made it to the bottom of Chato, we continued on our way through the park to the base of Arenal Volcano. There is a nice simple walking trail that goes around the base of the volcano and takes you across two hanging bridges and to a La Fortuna Waterfall. Cammi and I did actually go into the water at the base of the waterfall. We both attempted to make it to the backside of the fall; Cammi made it, I took a photograph.

After our nice dip in the frigid waters, everyone continued on to a hotel that lets you walk out on their deck to watch the sunset. It's a gorgeous view and I could totally see myself just chilling at that hotel for a while and running away from civilizations. But, alas, that wasn't to be. We all piled into a van and headed to our final destination for the day, the hot springs. La Fortuna is know for Arenal Volcano and for its volcano heated hot springs. There are numerous resorts that have captured this heated water and piped it into cement pools that they've created at their amazing resorts. For those that don't have the money or inclination to visit the spas; there is one free spring. This spring flows from the base of the volcano and is heated naturally to a pleasant 85 or 90 degrees. It's like being in a comfortable bath. We eagerly slipped into the soothing waters in an attempt to soak away the hike from earlier and the stress of everyday life. It was awesome, made even better by the provided cocktail and the natural mud facial that our guide made and applied to all who wanted it. It made my skin so soft.

Overall it was a fantastic day and vied with the caves for best experience.

Although I would have been content to just spend another day in town chilling at our hostel (that had it's own pool, series of hammocks, trampoline, bar, and mini restaurant), time constraints forced us to book onward travel for the next morning.

Monteverde is a Small Quaker Town

While everything in Costa Rica may cost more than it would be to buy a small country, it seems that public transportation is still a reasonable way to travel.

Cammi and I spent the morning of our third day traveling from the city to the mountains. We headed to Monteverde, which is one of the most well known (and consequently most tourists infested) cloud forests in the country (and maybe the world).  This is also an adrenaline/adventure location (although now I'm beginning to think that the whole country is the New Zealand of Central America).

While the entire region is called Monteverde, the actual city itself is really a small "blink and you'll miss it" town that was originally started by Quakers. The place where the bus drops you off and that seems like a real town is called Santa Elena. The whole region is a series of natural reserves, nature, and pay to explore "one of a kind" experiences.

The actual Monteverde reserve contains a large section of primary forest and ancient trees with bases that would take 20-30 people holding hands to circle. it is a cloud forest, as opposed to a rainforest because it is at a high enough elevation that the clouds are there and the rain is below. That is basically the difference between the two.

Although Cammi and I were set up at a hostel/lodge in Monteverde with the help of Stacey, we never made it to the actual Monteverde reserve, nor did we really enjoy our isolation. Santa Elena and the main hub of activity were a 3.5 km walk from the relative quite and isolation we were inadvertently booked into. It was quite peaceful out in the boonies though and the proprietor was wonderful, but it was isolated and expensive to go back and forth to town.

We put the two days that we were there to good use with a night hike, a canopy zip line tour, and a hanging bridge walk; the latter two were through the cloud forest and the former was through a secondary rain forest.

The night hike was at The Children's Eternal Rainforest, a nature reserve started in 1987 by the Monteverde Conservation Group in partnership with multiple other countries (it's up to 44 countries currently). It's the largest reserve in the country and gets larger all the time as more and more land is bought to be preserved.

We spent two hours wandering through the reserve as our trusty guide pointed out various plants and species of wildlife. Even though they tell you you might not see anything and the guide tells you he doesn't know the location of any animal per say,  our guide either had superman sight or knew where the animals were cause he'd point out little birds and insects way in the mist of trees that I'd never have seen on my own in the dark. Cammi and I didn't find our sloth (to hug and squeeze and call George), but we did see some Cotemoundi, frogs, birds, bats, and a tarantula.

The genuine adrenaline rush began the next morning with a trip to the Selvatura Aventure Park. Cammi and I signed up for the canopy tour and the canopy walk. The former was a two hour zip-line excursion through the canopy of the cloud forest and the latter was a 3km walk through the forest, with 8 hanging bridges.

The zip-line was amazing and had various different lengths and heights above the forest floor. The longest run was 1000 meters and you went tandem (one person with their legs holding on to the person in front of them). The idea is that if you go this way you'll have more weight and thus more speed, which is needed to not get stuck. Apparently Cammi and I together don't weigh enough or aren't very aerodynamic because we got stuck about three quarters of the way to the end. Cammi was rescued by the guide, who came out to wrap his legs around her waist amd monkey crawl along the wire to the end. I rescued myself.

There was also a Tarzan swing that you could try. You were hooked to two ropes and then jumped from a platform and fell about 5 feet before going into a swing. I climbed the platform and took photos of those that jumped, but chickened out when I was supposed to jump. That's sad when you consider to two people terrified of heights both sucked up up amd went. Oh well, I'll wear my wimp badge proudly.

The canopy walk consisted of a nice easy trail through the cloud forest from which you could attempt to spot wildlife. The highlight though was a series of hanging bridges that were suspended anywhere from a few feet to hundreds of feet above the ground. We got lucky in that it was sunny amd clear and we could therefore see quite a distance. I did figure out though that hanging bridges are the answer to how you can get motion sick while walking.

On a random side note, while in Monteverde I was also on email and Skype with a contracting company that decided to pick me up, but wanted me home ASAP. We settled on a week and a half later and the end result was that my open-ended adventure became very limited. It also forced Cammi and I to reevaluate our travel plans and pick just a few places to visit.

Costa Rica Begins

Costa Rica - The Start and San Jose

Being laid off your job can feel euphoric at first if it's something that you wanted. Suddenly you have all this freedom and endless possibilities. You spend some time visiting friends and running around enjoying everything you missed over the last year. You sleep in, eat junk food, and don't go to the gym. This is great and fine and fun, but eventually the feeling that you should be doing more begins to set in. I attempted to find work in forensics, in archaeology, and even as a PA for Em's industry.

One by one each option let me down and I realized that I was just putting off traveling for some unknown reason. Thus an impromptu plan was formed. I had wanted to travel to SE Asia, but Em kept giving me weird,  wounded puppy dogs eyes every time I mentioned wanting to go there. This is was out out as an option. A bunch of people I know had gone to Costa Rica (one had just returned) and so that was fresh in my mind and I decided that that was where I was going to go.

As I was making my possibly rash decision, a friend from my last job, who was also currently unemployed, Cammi, called to see how I was. She was also currently at home wondering what to do with herself. I told her my plan and she decided to get on board the crazy train. So with no real ideas of what we were going to do or see and armed solely with a one way ticket, I set off on this current adventure a week later.

One of Em's college roommates, Stacey, moved to Costa Rica a few years ago and currently runs a yoga studio and walking tour company in the capital of San Jose. Em got me in touch with her ex-roomie and Stacey graciously offered to let Cammi and I stay for a few nights when we first arrived.

Sleep deprived and with the the remains of a cold still clinging to me, I arrived in San Jose and was met by Cammi, Stacey, and Stacey's husband, Robert. The international airport here is really small and therefore it's pretty easy to find people. Apparently you can just walk up to a random girl drinking a beer and ask if they're the friend of the sister of your old college roommate and you're pretty likely to find the person that you were looking for.

Stacey and Robet live in a one-bedroom apartment that is attached to their yoga studio and across the courtyard from a massage studio. It's a cute, typical starter home located in Downtown San Jose (which makes it a great home base from which to wonder the city). The yoga studio and also a downtown art/architecture/history walking tour company are Stacey's brain-children and they seem to be doing well.

The first day that we arrived, Cammi and I just wandered the downtown area in an effort to put off wanting to crash right away.

Our second day (and only full one in the city) was packed with a trip to the local museum, a historic tour (curtesy of Stacey's company), some traditional cusine, and some catching up with Stacey and Robert.

Cammi and I set out early to explore the National Museum of Costa Rica. The venue for this museum is pretty different in that it's an old fort. This particular old fort used to house the military contingent for the Costa Rican army in the 1800s before they were dissolved (Costa Rica is one of the only countries in the world without a formalized military). The president at the time actually knocked down one of the crenallations from the turret in a symbolic gesture of its abolition.

The museum, while small, is packed with a good amount of exhibits in a variety of subjects. You get to start by wandering through the butterfly habitat while you climb the ramp up to the old fort's parapet. At the top, you exit the butterflies and enter a quaint courtyard that is rung with smaller exhibition halls.

One of the other notable items held at the museum are these mysterious spheres. These are solid rock spheres of varying diameters that were created by an unknown indigenous culture 2-3 thousand years B.C. All of the spheres are 95% perfectly round. It's believed based on the formations some of them were found in that they may have had astrological connotations.

In the afternoon,  Cammi and I tagged along on a city tour being run by Stacey and led by Mariel. The tour was three hours and walked us around a few different areas in the city. Mariel did a good job of showing us some of the older buildings, a few churches, some street art, and a few other odds and ends.

In the evening we had some local cuisine and Robert even made us some friend plantains since I was disappointed that the resturant didn't have any.

The next morning we set out for Monteverde.