Montezuma’s... what’s the opposite of revenge?

Started writing this December 12, finished it December 18 in the Houston airport.

I can say with certainty, now that I have returned from my last weekend trip before I go home, that my weekend in Montezuma was my favorite weekend in Costa Rica.  From the weird adventures and the people I was with to the amazing weather and beautiful beaches, everything about this weekend was extraordinary.  I guess the only place to begin is at the very beginning...

But first, sunset at Playa Grande in Montezuma

For my Ecotourism class, we had two planned field trips this trimester: Tortuguero and Montezuma.  I already wrote about how amazing my trip to Tortuguero was, and now I will be writing about how amazing Montezuma was.  Can’t you tell I just hate that class? ;)

Now, this story really starts the week before in Panama.  I had planned to go a week earlier with some girls from my dance class, but I got sick so I waited a week and tagged along with some girls from my program.  Two went on Thanksgiving, and then I went on Friday with another girl.  As for the return, two girls had to return on Sunday, but I planned on staying until Monday and the fourth girl was planning on staying until Monday with me.  However, and I didn’t find this out until Sunday morning because we ended up staying at different places due to personal preferences, that other girl ran out of money and had to go back to San Jose on Sunday, too.  Since I had already booked and paid for two dives that day, I decided to stay in Bocas del Toro by myself for that last day, figuring I would make some new friends...

When I arrived at the dive center for my first dives as a certified Open Water Diver, I saw that the guy I had gotten certified with the day before was there as well.  Unfortunately, I forget his name and haven’t been in touch with him, but we’ll call him Dive Guy.  (We have since connected on Facebook and I remembered that his name is Devin, but I am too lazy to change all the Dive Guys to Devins.)  Anyway, we take off in the boat for the first dive and I am talking with Dive Guy when I think I hear one of the girls with the group, Julia, say California.  It was really loud on the boat, so I decided not to ask her about it until I heard her say San Francisco.  Turns out she is from Sacramento and goes to Chico, but was studying abroad in Puntarenas for the semester.  After the dives, since diving seems to leave you starving, a group of us went to hunt down a place to get some lunch.  After lunch, I went with Julia and her friend from her program, Corbi, as well as another guy from our dive group to go to Dolphin Bay.  We had a great time, even though we were probably in the slowest boat in all of Bocas, and I found out that Julia and Corbi were taking the bus back to San Jose on Monday morning, too, as the first leg of their journey back to Puntarenas.

Devin and Julia are the people right in front of me

Come Monday morning, I get to the boat to find Dive Guy and his friend there, but no Julia and Corbi yet.  Let me explain the journey back to San Jose from Bocas: boat to Almirante, van/taxi to Changuinola, then a bus to the border where you have you get off to go through customs and then get back on to go to San Jose.  Anyway, I figure they caught an earlier boat or will catch the next one, so off we go to Almirante.  When we get there, most of the vans fill up and leave for the bus stop, but ours is not quite full and wants to wait for the next boat.  So there I am, sitting next to Dive Guy with what looks like room for maybe two more people, with the driver telling us he knows we have to catch the bus and that it will all be fine.  Half an hour later, the next boat arrives and the driver crams maybe 5-7 more people in the van, including Julia and Corbi in the front seat and a couple guys who are sitting about two feet away facing me and Dive Guy.  Well, Dive Guy ends up sleeping and I decide that if the backwards-facing, French-speaking guys and I don’t talk to each other, this 45-minute ride is going to be very awkward due to how close we were all sitting.  Best.  Decision.  Ever.  Chris and Francois from Belgium ended up being some of the coolest people I met in Costa Rica, who I hope to stay in touch with.  Long story short, we ended up passing the 9-10 hour journey from Almirante to San Jose talking pretty much the entire time with each other, Julia, Corbi, and some other travelers.  This was facilitated by the fact that when we finally got to the bus, it was full and our driver had to talk to the bus driver to get him to let us get on the bus even though it meant we had to stand in the aisle for most of it.  We also spent 2-3 hours at the border, chilling and eating ice cream while we waited for everyone on the bus to get through the border crossing.  Was I irritated with the driver for making us wait back in Almirante?  A little, but Pura Vida.  Do I wish I could go back now and hug him because if we hadn’t waited I probably would not have become friends with Chris and Francois?  Definitely :)

Crossing the border back to Costa Rica

How does this relate to Montezuma?  Chris had just finished his program in San Jose and was talking about his plans for his last week in Costa Rica when he mentioned going to Montezuma that next weekend, a.k.a. the weekend my class was going to Montezuma!  Francois ended up deciding to go, too, and together they convinced me to take the bus with them on Friday, the day before my class went.  This journey consists of taking a bus to Puntarenas, a ferry to Paquera, and then a bus to Montezuma.  Unfortunately, my cell phone does not have the clearest reception so I didn’t hear when Francois told me to go to the Coca Cola bus station instead of the Puntarenas station to catch the bus straight through to Montezuma at 2 pm.  This was further complicated by Chris being later than he expected and going straight to the Coca Cola station, but getting there a few minutes after Francois had left to come to the Puntarenas station since I was at the wrong one.  After much confusion, we were all at the Puntarenas station to take a bus around 2:40 pm to Puntarenas and make the journey piece by piece.  At 5:30 pm, we arrived at the bus station in Puntarenas only to hear that there was no point in taking the ferry that night because the only bus from Paquera to Montezuma is the bus that goes from San Jose, which caught the ferry at 5 pm.  After about 20 minutes trying to come up with a way to get from Puntarenas to Montezuma that night, we decided it could not be done within our means.  Since we knew that Julia and Corbi lived near the ferry, we decided to take a taxi there and then hunt down an internet café to try to contact them via Facebook about staying with them for the night so we could catch the ferry in the morning with the morning bus from San Jose.

When we got out of the taxi by the ferry, a man asked me if we were taking the ferry that night and I said no.  He then said something about a bus and I stopped and looked at him.  “What bus?”  “That bus over there.”  “Where is it going?”  “Montezuma, Mal Pais...”  “Wait, wait, wait.  There is a bus going to Montezuma tonight?”  At this point a man walks by and tells me that the bus missed the ferry at 5 pm and had to wait for the next ferry at 9 pm.  We can’t believe our luck, so we go over to the bus and talk to the driver and sure enough, we can get on the bus after taking the ferry to get to Montezuma.  At first we were worried that the bus missed the ferry because Chris had made it wait a few minutes back in San Jose, but it turns out they had a flat tire on the way and got to the dock just as the ferry was leaving.  While not really important, we were glad to know we were not about to get on a bus full of people who had missed the ferry because of us.  Instead, it was just bad luck for them, great luck for us!  We found internet, messaged Julia and Corbi that we had 3 hours to kill in Puntarenas, left them our phone numbers, and went across the street for some dinner.

When we walk in the restaurant, who do I see but a group of people from Veritas, including my friend, Kelsey, from my Spanish class back in October.  She starts hanging out with Francois, Chris, and me as I eat gallo pinto and scrambled eggs for dinner, with an Imperial, before we decide to walk the few blocks to the beach.  We get there and chill for a bit and then Julia calls, so we go and find her back by the ferry.  While we walk around with her, we meet these people who drove to Costa Rica from the US in a giant bus-van, and then happen upon Corbi.  We hang out some more, and then it is time to go back to the ferry to cross to the peninsula.  On the boat, they have music and lights and the sky is clearer than I’ve seen in a long time, so we dance and stargaze our way to Paquera.  Stoked off of our luck, we get on the bus and head for Montezuma.  However, one more bump along the way, we have to switch buses in Cobano and our new bus is belching black smoke so we have to go back and get on another new bus before making the last trek to Montezuma.

When we get to Luz en el Cielo, the hostel Chris’ friend recommended and that I now recommend wholeheartedly, it is 12:30 am so we ditch our stuff and head to the local bar, Chico’s.  After some dancing, we go out to the beach and watch the stars.  Chris mentions that he has never seen a shooting star and I tell him that if it is clear enough, you just have to look for a while and you will probably see one.  Well I think there must have been a meteor shower last weekend because we ended up seeing more shooting stars than I could count!  Since we were on the beach, I decided to take off my Rainbows (flip-flops), and left them next to Francois’ shoes by a rock.  After a while spent stargazing, he left, and then about half an hour later I left with Chris and his friend Sina.  However, I could not find my shoes.  The three of us combed the beach looking for them with no luck so I walked back barefoot, and I even went back around 8 the next morning but they still were not there.  I decided I would buy some new ones later that day.

At the bar the night before, Kelsey had asked Chris, Francois, and me if we wanted to go to the waterfalls with her, so that’s what we did.  This hike was probably the most untamed hike I have done.  There was barely a trail visible, so we jumped and climbed our way to the first of the three waterfalls.  As Kelsey said in her blog, it was like tree-root hopscotch!  The first waterfall ended up being so beautiful that we didn’t make it to the other two.  There was a rock that we could climb up and jump off of, and the weather was beautiful.  We took turns taking pictures with my camera, and Chris added to the rock towers off on the side.  After the waterfalls, we hiked back to town so I could meet my class for lunch.

Tree-root hopscotch

Jumping off the rock

Rock towers

At lunch, I learned that one of the girls in my class, Jackie, knew the girl who owns Luz en el Cielo (the hostel I stayed at) and so she came up with me after lunch to go hang out for a bit.  While there, I was talking about how I lost my shoes at the beach and had to buy overpriced flip-flops from one of the little touristy shops.  I went to dinner with my class, since all meals were included, then showered and met the guys back at the hostel.  Again, we went to Chico’s, and it was there that Jackie told me she thought she had found my shoes.  After I had been talking about them at Luz, she walked back to the hotel where our class was and found a pair of Rainbows sitting on a rock on the side of the road.  I still have no idea how they got from the beach to a rock a couple blocks away, but I got my shoes back.  This second stroke of amazing luck led Francois to decide that weird things happen around me.

Sunday morning, before my class left, I decided to stay for one more night at Luz with Chris and Francois and take the bus back to San Jose the next morning since I didn’t have class until 4.  The rest of my time in Montezuma consisted of meals with my class, hanging out at the beach and pool with them before they left, chilling at the hostel, and making the half hour trek to Playa Grande with a group of people staying at Luz.  Monday morning, I had to catch the bus at 6 am, so I got up a little early so I could watch the sunrise.  Well, waking up at 4:30 ended up being very easy since a pack of howler monkeys went by at 4:25 and made so much noise I am sure they woke up the entire hostel.  I said my goodbyes to Chris and Francois, and headed down to town in the dark to park myself on the beach with my camera and wait.  I am not a morning person, but this was definitely worth it.

Sunrise in Montezuma

Under the Sea

This post is about my PADI Open Water Certification.

Part One

While this was not originally in my study abroad plans, I have always wanted to get scuba certified.  I love snorkeling, so why wouldn’t I love scuba?  So when I saw that my university in Costa Rica, Universidad Veritas, offered a program to get certified, I decided to go for it.  It cost $525 (not a cheap hobby to pick up, is it...) and included the online theoretical course through PADI, the practical course with a PADI Dive Instructor, transportation to and from a Dive Center, 2 nights stay by the Dive Center, 2 breakfasts and lunches, and dive gear rental.  Looking back on it, I definitely could have done it cheaper, but oh well.  What’s done is done, and if Veritas didn’t have the program, I may not have done it so I guess I’m paying for the convenience that got me to actually take the plunge ;)

I gave myself 2 weeks to complete the online course before the weekend I had set aside with another girl to go do the practical portion of the course when we actually do the dives.  She had already done the theory part of the course and the confined water dives at home, and just needed to do the open water dives.  Oddly, we were the only two getting certified this semester at Veritas, so she was my dive buddy.  As for the online course, I ended up cramming almost all of it in to the week before we were leaving due partially to internet troubles and power outages, but due mostly to procrastination.

Punta Uva Dive Center

The university works with two dive centers: one in Quepos and one in Punta Uva.  Due to the heavy rains that week that actually made it impossible to get to Quepos and closed down the dive center, we went to Punta Uva (just south of Puerto Viejo).  Looking back on it, while Frederick was nice and seemed qualified to be our instructor, it seemed that he was not following all the rules I had learned about in my online course.  Anyway, funny story, he was staying at the same hotel as us and came to talk to us the night before to go over when and where to meet in the morning.  Then the next morning at breakfast, he must not have recognized us because he and his friend asked to sit with us, introduced themselves, and then proceeded to tell us about how drunk they had been the night before and how he had not slept much because his friend kept him out late despite protests that he had work in the morning.  When he introduced himself, we thought he had just forgotten our names from the night before, but then when we told him where we were staying, he said, “Oh, I’ve got a student named Anna who is staying there too”.  That was when we realized he didn’t recognize us as his students and told him that yes, that was me, Hannah, and we were his students for the day.  Of course, this made him blush and apologize and appear quite embarrassed.

After breakfast, we agreed to meet at the beach right out front in a bit to do the confined water dives.  He sized us up and called someone from the dive center to bring gear for us.  The weather was not great and it was raining, but as he pointed out, rain doesn’t matter much for scuba.  Wind matters because it stirs up the water, but that was not an issue until later.  Anyway, we completed the required tasks that are mostly comprised of practicing what to do in case something goes wrong in water shallow enough that you can stand up if you freak out.  As I expected, the part that freaked me out the most (and it is the part that freaks everyone out the most) was when I had to remove my mask under water and then put it back on and clear it.  I have always had issues with water getting in my nose, and it was even harder when I had to keep breathing through my mouth.  However, after many tries, a break when we did the other tasks, and then coming back to it, I was able to do it without a problem.  Hear that out there?  If you think you can’t get certified because of having to do that, I was able to get it so you can too :)

Giving the "OK" sign

 After the confined dives, we drove to Punta Uva for our first Open Water Dive.  Unfortunately, it was too windy and the water was so stirred up that we could barely see each other from only a few feet away.  We decided after that dive that we were done for the day and would resume on Sunday.  That night, I started feeling sick.  I called my instructor who said that we were not deep enough for it to be related to the diving, so I just tried to rest and hope I felt better in the morning.  I wasn’t feeling great the next day, but my instructor said I could try if I wanted to, so I decided to go for it.  This dive we actually saw some stuff.  We took pictures with the instructor’s camera, which I am still waiting to receive from him via e-mail...  (*I have them now!)  I was fine for most of the dive, but near the end we did a safety stop, where you stay about 5 meters under for 3 minutes to make sure the nitrogen properly dissolves out of your body.  While there is not much movement of the water near the bottom, at 5 meters you are definitely moving up and down with the waves.  Since I do get seasick sometimes and I was already not feeling good, this did not help.  I was fine, but I decided I couldn’t do another dive that day and would just have to finish my certification some other time.  Turns out I made a good choice because the water was rougher when they went out for the second dive, and the other girl who went with them got sick on the boat.  Due to the weather and time constraints, neither of us finished our certification that weekend, but that’s ok because I had a great time in Bocas del Toro, where I did finish it two weeks later.

Part Two

Since I came down here early, my stay in total is over 90 days, which is the limit on a tourist Visa.  This meant that I needed to leave the country at some point so that I would get a new Visa upon reentry.  I have heard great things about Nicaragua, but the political situation between Nicaragua and Costa Rica right now is not that great so I decided to go for Panama.  I had also heard great things about Bocas del Toro, the closest Panamanian tourist destination to Costa Rica, and I knew that they had dive centers there so I looked into finishing my certification at Starfleet Scuba.  Starfleet was recommended in my Let’s Go travel book, as well as by an office member at my university who dives a lot, and I have to agree that it is a great dive center.  It felt a lot more professional than the center in Punta Uva, while still being very chill and friendly.  Since I had done two Open Water Dives in Punta Uva, I only needed two more to complete my certification, but the center gave me a deal on four dives so I took it.

Saturday morning, I completed my Open Water Certification, along with two others who had been working on theirs there.  I am happy to say that when it came time to remove and replace my mask under deeper water, I had absolutely no problems!  An interesting part was when we had to practice a kind of emergency ascent used to safely ascend if you run out of air and your buddy is not close enough to give you their alternate regulator.  He had us go in order of who had the most air left.  I seem to be good at not using up my air quickly, so I was last, but one of the girls had to do it twice so I started running low.  In the Confined Dives, one thing you have to do is feel what it is like to run out of air.  Your instructor closes the valve and you wait until you feel that there is no air left, then you signal that you are out of air, and the instructor opens the valve.  During this, the air cut off pretty quickly which I found surprising and a little disconcerting.  However, during this dive, I learned that you in fact have a decent amount of time in which only the second half of each breath feels labored, but you can still breathe fine.  It did make my ascent more realistic in that I was actually running out of air, but I was more comfortable knowing that you actually can tell at least 5 minutes in advance that you are running low on air.  I don’t know how much longer I could have kept breathing from my tank, but I think there was still more time left before it actually ran out.

About to make my first dive as a certified Open Water Diver

Anyway, after the two dives, I filled out a card so that they could submit it to PADI and get my certification processed.  Funnily enough, I saw a new kind of typo in my name in the confirmation e-mail they sent me so I will have two cards: one correct, one incorrect.  Then on Sunday, I did two dives just for fun, as a certified Open Water diver!  I realized during these dives that not only is scuba cool because you can stay under the water and get a closer look at the fish and other marine life, but it is a completely different world with different laws of physics.  It was interesting discovering new ways of moving around in the water, and feeling like a part of the underwater world around me.  Sebastian sure got it right when he sang, “We got no troubles, life is de bubbles, under the sea!”

Bananas, Flooded Roads and Turtles

Note: I started writing this November 9 so pretend all my references to time are from that day, not today.

Last week, we had more rain.  And by more rain, I mean a lot more rain.  Thanks to Tropical Storm Tomas, we had another round of closed roads and mudslides (can’t get to Manuel Antonio right now), full with a Red Alert and National State of Emergency.  A mudslide in Escazu, a town outside of San Jose, resulted in over 20 deaths.  Many class field trips were cancelled and ISA recommended that students stay in San Jose this past weekend, but my Ecotourism class field trip to Tortuguero was allowed to go because the Caribbean side of Costa Rica was still in pretty good shape.  I can say with certainty now that I am very glad we were able to go on our trip.  This trip is worthy of its own blog post.

At 5:45 am Saturday morning, I found myself sleepily joining my sleepy class at the university to leave for Tortuguero.  One girl’s parents decided they did not want her to go on the trip because of the weather, so she wasn’t there.  Of course, seeing as it was before 6 am on a Saturday, she was not the only one missing.  Two of the three guys in my class did not show up, so there were many girls, our professor and his wife, our guides, and Mike.  Our guide started something on this drive that he would keep up the entire trip: He would address us as “Ladies, and Mike,” then he would laugh to himself, and continue.  This got to be so expected that we all would laugh at him laughing at himself.  So there we were, bright and early and giggling, and on our way to Tortuguero.

Banana plantation

Getting to Tortuguero consists of driving to a city in Limon Province, Caño Blanco from what I could tell, and then switching to a boat to go along the Canals of Tortuguero up into the town.  While a lot of the road was nice and paved, we did eventually have to turn onto bumpy gravel roads after our breakfast stop.  We passed a lot of banana plantations, and even stopped at one to take a mini-tour, take some pictures, and buy baby coconuts for snacking.  We learned that the banana bunches are covered in blue bags to protect them from weather and bugs, and that the blue helps keep animals from trying to take them because there really is not a lot of blue in plant life.  We took some pictures of the washing stations, and said hi to some of the workers.  There was a man with a cart selling baby coconuts that some people bought for the coconut water, but the part I discovered I like is the coconut meat.  The baby ones are a little sweeter and softer than mature ones, and a lot of the people who bought them to drink didn’t like eating them so I got a lot of free coconut!  Yum :)

Cutting the bananas off to rinse them

Then we continued on our way, until we saw that the creek along the road had flooded from all the rain.  For the most part, the flood was away from the road, but then we reached a part where it covered the road.  And I don’t just mean a little bit of water; I mean enough that we were nervous we might not make it.  Well, we did.  Continuing on, we came to many more parts like this where the road was completely flooded, but we also passed cars driving the other way and would ask them how bad it was.  Since they had all made it through, we figured we could too.  At some point during all this, the juice and coffee from breakfast kicked in and I had to pee.  I asked our guide and he said we were only about fifteen minutes away.  Unfortunately, he did not take the dead van blocking the road about 500 feet from our destination into account.  We had to stop in one of the shallower parts of the flooded road because we couldn’t get around the van, and nothing seemed to be happening.  Meanwhile, my bladder was getting quite annoyed with me so I asked the guide and my professor how much longer it would be, and they did not know.  Long story short, I peed behind our van into the water flowing off the side of the road as the class waded to a van on the other side of the roadblock to take us to the boat waiting to leave.  If it weren’t inappropriate, I would have asked for a picture because it was just that interesting of an experience.  Speaking of pictures, I would love to see a picture of the place where we got on the boat on a normal day when it isn’t entirely submerged.  Our van had to drive through more water and we had to jump a little to get from the van to a dry spot on the ramp up to the dock.  We got on our boat, and headed up the river to Tortuguero.

Hmm can we make it?

Flooded boat station

After this adventure, the trip consisted mainly of touring the canals, walking around the park and the village, and seeing a lot of wildlife.  The town was adorable, possibly one of my favorites, and they were having some sort of festival that I never did figure out what it was for.  During the boat rides, we saw a toucan, a few crocodiles, a caiman, some monkeys, some sloths, and many birds.  Apparently it was migration season, so the sky was full of birds just about every time I looked up.  While we were a couple weeks too late to witness sea turtles coming onto shore to lay their eggs, we were lucky enough to see quite a few eggs hatching and the baby turtles making their way to the ocean!  The first day, we only saw a couple and I was already ecstatic because my friends had been to Tortuguero the week before and did not see any turtles, big or small.  However, the next day was amazing.

Town of Tortuguero

First, we went on a long boat ride on which we saw most of the wildlife from the weekend.  Then, to get to where we were eating lunch, we had to walk through a flooded town.  We all took our shoes off/put on flip-flops to walk through the layer of water that covered most of the streets.  That was definitely an experience.  After lunch, we stopped to take a quick walk through the National Park.  While interesting, it was also very hot and humid, the air was full of mosquitoes, and the ground was covered in ants that started climbing up our legs every time we stopped to discuss something we saw.  Overall, we were a very grumpy bunch and could not wait to get back on the boat and just head home.

These guys blend in surprisingly well

Right before it dove in the water

But then we walked out of the forest onto the beach right as what appeared to be an entire nest of turtles had just hatched and were crawling out of their ditch in the sand towards the water.  Excited beyond belief, we followed the bunch of them, cameras in hand, as they scurried to the shoreline.  I couldn’t believe I was seeing this, but I was also saddened by the amount of trash on the beach that they had to crawl over, and by the woman in our group who would pick them up and get in their way despite our guide explicitly telling us not to.  Yes, she was just helping them over tough spots, but when I asked the guide, he said that other than turning them around if they start to crawl in the wrong direction, it’s better to leave them alone because they will make it on their own.  However, despite this, it was an amazing thing to witness before we got back on the boat to head home.

I think I can...  I think I can...

Amazing

If you're going to San Francisco...

This post is dedicated to the 2010 World Series Champions, the San Francisco Giants!!!  I am not usually one to get homesick, but I find myself wishing it was easier to fly from San Jose, Costa Rica, to San Francisco so that I could go home and celebrate with everyone.  As much as I love traveling, I seem to be learning more and more that I am truly a San Francisco girl at heart.  I really do love my city by the bay and the amazing team that I've been following from all over Costa Rica :)

The Long Overdue Update

Where to begin?  I guess I’ll just go chronologically, starting with the weekend trips, and then I’ll give some updates on my life in and around San Jose.

Volcan Arenal from the lookout

Arenal/La Fortuna: This place was beautiful.  The volcano was amazing and while I did not get to see it erupt lava, I did see it erupt some smoke on the way there.  We stayed at Los Lagos, which was a very nice hotel that had hot springs and hiking trails on the grounds.  This is the only place where I’ve seen a hot water pool, and it was great!  Also, the hike to the lookout spot leads to an amazing view of the volcano, including a seated area to watch from.  The view for the sunset was spectacular as well, but I was definitely grateful for my bug spray!  I also went canyoning (aka rappelling down cliffs and waterfalls) and had a blast!  I am definitely spending a lot of time making my body move past the instinct to back away from cliff sides, but don’t worry, I think the instinct is still there as the first time going over the edge is still the hardest part.

Canyoning

Manuel Antonio: This is where I was during my first week here and it was still amazing, but I definitely saw more animals this time around.  I decided not to do any special tours on this trip and instead stuck to hiking in the park and relaxing on the beach.  Oh how unfortunate ;) Just a few minutes after entering the park, we were lucky enough to see a sloth just feet away from the main path.  As I later heard on a night tour in Monteverde, seeing sloths moving in the daytime is very rare so I guess we were even luckier than we thought.  I also saw raccoons raiding the trash bins, and monkeys stealing food out of people’s hands.  Even weirder was watching them eating and drinking out of containers that they clearly knew how to use.  Like when I was here before, it rained a lot in the afternoons so that led to a lot of hotel relaxing and hanging out, too.  Also, I revisited El Avión and maintain that the not-so-cheap (though not bad) prices are definitely worth it for the quality of the food, the view, and the plane sitting next to you.

Sloth

Monkey drinking a juice box

Monteverde: This is where we were supposed to go with ISA that first weekend when the rains caused most of the main roads to close.  This was also the first weekend that we did not have an ISA excursion (those are done).  I used the recommendations in Let’s Go Costa Rica and on Hostelbookers.com to choose and book beds at Cabinas Vista al Golfo and they were definitely good ones.  It was clean and the people at the front desk were very helpful with planning tours.  There were also a few good hangout spots, including a section of ceiling-hanging hammock chairs and a beanbag room with a TV (though they were having trouble getting all of the channels as I learned while frantically trying to find the last Giants game against the Phillies).  They also provided a pretty good hostel breakfast, including fruit, cereal, toast, and eggs.  We chose to do a Canopy + Hanging Bridges tour with Selvatura and it was definitely better than the canopy tour in Tamarindo.  Cheaper too.  The cables were longer and higher, and the forest was denser and greener.  We also got to do a Tarzan swing at the end (more practice ignoring the instinct not to jump off of tall platforms).  That night, I did a night tour with one other girl.  Why someone with arachnophobia would decide to do this is beyond me, but I did.  We saw a sloth, two snakes, two tarantulas, a frog, a massive ant colony, and plenty of other bugs here and there along the way.  I also learned how to lure tarantulas out of their holes as I witnessed from about 3-4 feet away (yikes!).  The guide put some saliva on the end of a stick and poked it near the tarantula so it would think there was an animal nearby to eat and it came crawling/pouncing out.  I also learned that my waterproof jacket and shoes and water-resistant pants were essential purchases as they kept me dry until my pants finally couldn’t resist the water anymore near the end of the 2 hour tour in the rain.  The next day, we went to wander around in the Monteverde Nature Reserve and made it up to the Continental Divide.  The park is beautiful.  Everything is green and the views were spectacular.  It was also surprisingly empty.  One last note: If you get motion sickness or don’t like being able to look over the edge of a cliff as your bus leans over it while turning then you might want to ensure that you pass out on the bus ride to Monteverde.  They even sell license plates that say, “I survived the Monteverde road”.

Hanging bridge

At the Continental Divide

This past weekend, I stayed in San Jose so now I’ll move on to the local updates and goings on...

ISA: Excursions are done so now we’re on our own for traveling.  They are doing some cultural activities in the afternoons, but so far the one museum trip they did was during my class.

Daily Activities: I am now done with my Spanish class and just have my electives left for the rest of the semester.  My ecotourism class is going on a field trip to Tortuguero this weekend, and to Montezuma the first weekend of December.  My dance class has gone on one field trip to a salsa club and will be going on another one this Wednesday.  If you can’t tell, classes here are horrible (please note sarcasm).  I started my volunteer job (ELAP through ISA) last week at the Ejercito de Salvacion (Salvation Army).  I am working at a daycare center for underprivileged children, specifically with the super young ones.  I can’t tell exactly how old they are, but I would guess in the 1.5-3 range.  They are adorable, but definitely get crazy sometimes.  The small space for the number of kids and the mostly broken toys don’t help, but they all seem perfectly happy with it.  It is unfortunate that there are not enough teachers to separate the kids into more specific age groups, as some of the activities that the teacher uses are above the heads of some of the kids.  However, even with the help of my friend and me, I don’t think it would be possible to split them up.  I think the teacher takes a break as soon as we get there and I don’t blame her.  I don’t know how she does it alone.

Spanish Class Field Trip: One Friday, we went to see an artisan where he works and visited the Peace University.  The artisan shop was cool, as we got to see his workshop and talk with the man who lives and works there.  He is in a wheelchair and is missing a leg.  His house is small and not the nicest place, yet he seems completely happy.  The Peace University was interesting, but not worth the tour.  We didn’t know our 45-minute tour cost $5 per person.

The artisan

Tamale Festival: When I told my Linguistics professor that I was staying in San Jose this past weekend, he told me about La Fería de Tamal in Aserrí and said that I should try to check it out.  He said it is a good, free cultural experience in a town in the mountains outside San Jose.  My roommate and I went on Saturday and I loved it!  There were plenty of tamales as well as a lot of artisans selling their crafts.  I even found churros rellenos con dulce de leche!!!  Those are churros filled with dulce de leche, the caramel-like substance I became obsessed with in Argentina last summer that I have also found at the grocery stores in San Jose :)  The town also had an amazing view into the valley between the mountains, and was just a cute little town.  It was nice to see how easy it is to take a bus out of the city for a few hours.

Mmmm tamale :)

Halloween: Since I learned that they do not celebrate Día de los Muertos and they actually kind of do celebrate Halloween here, I decided last week that I had to dress up.  It is basically just a bar-holiday here, so no kids trick-or-treating in their cute kid costumes, just adults in the same kinds of costumes they wear in the states (ranging from prepackaged and skimpy to legitimately well-done).  Anyway, I was trying to decide what I could do with a black dress I already had.  After getting through the easy things like witch or cat, I stumbled upon penguin.  So that’s what I did :)

With my roomie on our way out

My New Travel Must-Haves

Everyone has those travel items that they just can’t go anywhere without, and I have two things to add to my list that already includes items such as a good travel purse, my linen pants, comfortable shoes, and an umbrella.  These two new items are Avon Skin-So-Soft Bug Guard and (sorry, this is probably TMI but I feel I must share this with the female population) the Diva Cup.

Skin-So-Soft Bug Guard: Once upon a time, my mom heard about Avon and the Skin-So-Soft product that was apparently an amazing bug repellant.  This was good news because I am one of those unlucky people who mosquitoes have always seemed to love.  Unfortunately, we could not find it, but then, last Christmas, one of my presents from my mom contained two bottles of this rumored miracle bug spray.  I didn’t have a chance to try it before I came to Costa Rica, so I also brought some DEET with me.  I don’t know about everyone else out there, but I don’t like DEET.  It makes me nervous with all the rules about when and where you can wear it and how you have to shower it off as soon as you are indoors.  Since I get bitten just about everywhere (both where I am and where on me), DEET just doesn’t quite work for me.  Luckily, Avon (and my mom) has come to my rescue!  This product does not smell like a mass of chemicals AND you do not need to wash it off immediately.  It also contains SPF 30 sunscreen.  And did I mention it works?  I have worn this during a canopy tour, rappelling down waterfalls, and hiking right after sunset and it protected me every time.  Yes, I am still getting devoured by mosquitoes, but only during those times when I decide there shouldn’t be mosquitoes around and I don’t bother spraying myself.  The only downsides I can find are that it is pretty oily and it cannot spray upside down, but its effectiveness makes it completely worth it!

Diva Cup: This is when anyone who does not get a period and/or doesn’t like talking about them should probably stop reading.  Consider yourself warned.  The Diva Cup is a menstrual cup that is used to catch menstrual blood.  Unlike a tampon, it does not absorb anything so it does not cause TSS.  Therefore, it can be inserted before your period even starts and can be used until the last bits of spotting are done.  You have to empty it and clean it with mild, unscented, Ph balanced soap (such as the Diva Wash) twice a day when you have access to potable water and the rest of the time, it goes unnoticed.  This is great all the time, but especially while traveling.  I do not have to lug around tons of pads and/or tampons and I don’t have to worry about changing pads/tampons every __ hours.  Since I am sleeping in places with potable tap water, it is easy to wash it every morning when I wake up, and every night before I go to bed.  For travel in third world countries, I believe there are methods to make it work.  I was on my period while in Arenal and it was not a problem at all, not even with rappelling down waterfalls or hiking and swimming everyday.  For more information, google “diva cup” or “menstrual cup”.

The Rainy Season

The view from my room in San Jose.  There are usually a LOT more clouds.

When they named this season, they were not kidding.  It has rained almost every day that I have been here for at least a few hours, if not all day.  Most days, it is dry in the morning, sometimes even sunny, and then it rains in the afternoon and/or evening and/or night.  However, it was really bad last week, when I think it rained for two days straight.  From what I have heard, this year has been especially bad, and last week there was a tropical storm passing nearby.  Many roads were and are closed due to mudslides and flooding, and I believe two major roads (one of which is less than a year old) collapsed.  This meant that our planned excursion to the Monteverde cloud forest was switched to a trip to Tamarindo beach.  While I had read that traveling during the rainy season was not too bad since it means there are fewer tourists, the effects it can have on travel have been significant this year.  Usually, only smaller roads are closed due to flooding, but this year, two of the largest roads have been closed because they collapsed in parts.  Every night last week, the news was about the rain.  More floods, more mudslides, more collapsed roads.  It may not be like this every year, but I think the rain is definitely worth taking seriously when planning to travel here.  Fewer tourists and cheaper prices don’t mean as much when you can’t get where you want to go, when you want to go.  At the least, bring a waterproof jacket and shoes (but be ready to stand out by actually wearing them) and a good umbrella.  Luckily, I will be here for three months so I plan on going to Monteverde another weekend.  After all, this is supposed to be the last really wet month of the rainy season.

View from the hotel balcony in Tamarindo.

As for Tamarindo: Beaches were nice, canopy tour was fun, nightlife was decent, but I don’t think it will be one of my favorite places.  I am sure there are better beaches elsewhere, I have heard that the canopy tour in Monteverde can’t be beat, and while the nightlife was fun, it was definitely pretty sketchy.  Let me just say, I was very glad that the tour company ISA uses had us in a nice hotel with a gate and security.  Also, while the canopy tour in Monteverde may be better (I’ll let you know), I was pretty sure it would be the kind of thing I would love to do more than once and I was right.  It was awesome and I cannot wait to do it again :)

Before things get too crazy…

My room :)

 My program has officially started and my life will probably get crazier now, so I figure I should update this while I still can!  I met my host family today (most of it anyway) and the other ISA student who I am living with.  Everyone seems great, and I am very excited to be living where I am!  It seems like, unlike my Argentina homestay, this one really is just a short walk away from the university and ISA office.  Takes off a little of the 9 am orientation sting…  Oh, and I have WiFi :)

If the people I have encountered so far are any indication, I can say with increasing certainty that the people in Costa Rica are extremely friendly and always ready to help.  Between all the Ticos (what Costa Ricans call themselves) who helped out during the bus adventure and the beyond-friendly workers at Casa Ridgeway and the Costa Rica Backpackers hostel, I feel very welcome here.  I also encountered this at a restaurant called Tin Jo that serves pan-Asiatic food.  While the food was pretty good, I was most impressed by how they handled the fact that they were busier than they could handle.  Until Tin Jo, I had never seen a restaurant hand out glasses of wine to the patrons waiting for tables.  They also took other drink orders and passed around menus.  I was waiting for a carryout order, and one of the waiters brought out a stool for me to sit on because all the seating was full.

My adventure today, besides meeting my Tica family, consisted of exploring the Centro Nacional de Arte y Cultura.  My Let’s Go travel guide had a helpful hint regarding this landmark, saying that I could use a certain entrance and possibly see performers practicing.  I used what appeared to be the entrance mentioned, from the Parque de España, and found some martial artists practicing on an outdoor stage.  I also stumbled upon some empty dance studies that appeared to be used by the National Dance Company.  Surprisingly, they were sitting wide open, with no signs saying who can or cannot use them, so I helped myself to a few minutes of studio time.  I will definitely be hunting down somewhere to take some kind of dance class while I am here, and it sounds like there will be a lot of performances that I can go see as well!

Lastly, I apologize for the lack of pictures right now.  As a lone, female traveler for the past few days, I didn’t want to have my camera out all the time…

Pura vida!

The Wild Bus Chase OR My Faith in Humanity OR So this is why you’re supposed to carry US$100 hidden in your bag so that you forget about it until that crucial moment when you’re really grateful you have it

I apologize for how long this post is, but it was a long adventure.  I really need to map this all out, but I haven’t done that yet so words will have to suffice.  Oh, and keep in mind that this happened almost entirely in Spanish.

Also, one quick note about the national park: When planning what you will do each day, make sure you remember somewhat early on Sunday that your plans to go on Monday morning before you leave will not work because Manuel Antonio National Park is closed on Mondays.  We forgot until after the park had already closed on Sunday.  Oops.

Well, come Monday afternoon, and it was time to leave Manuel Antonio and head back to San Jose so that my friend could fly back home today.  We went to the bus station earlier in the day to make sure we had tickets like we were told, hung out at the hotel a bit, my friend bought some souvenirs in the gift shop (I just now saw all the same stuff at a little market in San Jose), and then we headed back to Quepos to catch our 5:00 bus.  We got there around 4:30 and it was raining, so we sat down on some benches that were covered and in a spot where we could see all the buses.  Or so we thought.  Around 5:25 we started getting a little nervous.  Yes, the bus was coming from Manuel Antonio so it wasn’t supposed to be there exactly at 5, but this felt a little late.  We asked around and our fears were confirmed: We had missed our bus, which was the last bus from Quepos to San Jose of the day.

The bus driver, his assistant, and one of his passengers who had confirmed that our bus had simply passed through and somehow we didn’t see it were very helpful.  They told us that if we got on that bus, it would take us to Puntarenas where we could catch a bus at 9 that would take us to San Jose.  If you look at a map, this is a very roundabout way to get from Quepos to San Jose, but we decided it would be much better to be in San Jose Monday night.  We got on the bus.

Three hours later, we pull up to a very closed-looking bus station at about 8:40, with only three passengers on the bus.  The other lady just needed a taxi to go a few blocks, but we needed to get to San Jose and the station looked deserted.  The driver’s assistant wandered around, talking to people that I never saw and making phone calls, and learned that there had been an accident on the freeway from Puntarenas to San Jose and that the bus we needed had been canceled.

Continuing to be super nice and helpful (I mean how should they have known our bus would be canceled due to an accident on a freeway their route doesn’t use?) the bus driver and his assistant told us that there is a bus that goes from Liberia to San Jose, that would pass the Restaurante Tavares in Caldera around 10.  Since it was only 9 and they said that a taxi ride there would only take about half an hour, giving us time to grab some quick food and use the bathrooms before getting on another bus, we decided to head to Caldera.  They called us a cab, explained our situation to him, and we were on our way.  Well, almost.  When we mentioned that we might need a bit more cash to pay him, he turned around to take us to an ATM (or ATH here) rather than find one by our destination.  I guess taxi drivers want to know you have the money before they make the drive.

We pulled up to the restaurant around 9:20, and proceeded to make sure we had everything figured out since our luck had been so bad.  Our driver went inside to pass on our story to a waiter there, who came out to help us make sure we understood everything.  The bus sometimes pulled into the restaurant lot (which seemed to be a truckstop), but in case it didn’t, we should wait across the street and wave it down.  It would go by between 9:45 and 10:05.  As our driver was about to leave, he stopped and warned us that this wasn’t a very safe area.  He said if anyone came up to us while we were waiting, to run back to the restaurant across the street.  This was a little worrying, but we figured we wouldn’t be waiting too long, and the restaurant really wasn’t that far.  Ready to be done with our adventure, we hurried inside, used the bathrooms (saw a cockroach), got some sandwiches hoping we weren’t about to add food poisoning to our problems, and crossed the street to wait at 9:35.

Of course, we didn’t forget our driver’s warnings, and so we stood so that we could see all around us if anyone was coming.  A little paranoid because of how our night had been going, we waited.  And waited.  9:45.  10:00.  10:15.  Oh look the restaurant is closed.  Hope nothing happens now.  And then our bus comes around the corner!  We go up to the edge of the sidewalk, waving our arms, and it passes us.  The last bus of the night passes us.  Now what?

Luckily, two waiters from the restaurant, one being the waiter who our driver had talked to earlier, were just leaving on their scooters.  The restaurant was closed, and they were the last people we could see.  There was literally nothing else in view, other than the cars and trucks going by, and some trucks parked just off the road.  They had seen the bus pass us, and so they came over to help us figure out what to do.  We decide that we don’t care how much it costs, we will just take a taxi to San Jose.  He gives me a phone number to call, and I am very happy that I set up my AT&T phone to work down here (even though it is expensive and I now have a Costa Rica phone number to use that is cheaper).  Anyway, first number I try, the lady hangs up on me when I say I need a taxi from Caldera to San Jose.  I try another number, but again they get frustrated and hang up.  The waiter asks me to try the second number again and to let him talk.  I am staring at this waiter, sitting on his scooter, asking me to give him my phone, thinking how easy it would be for him to ride off with it, and decide I don’t really have any other choice.  I give him my phone, and he talks to the taxi company for about 5 minutes.  I can hear him telling the person on the other end our entire journey, which he knows from our taxi driver, who heard it from the bus driver.  Finally, he hangs up, hands me my phone, and tells us to wait 20 minutes for Esparza cab number 39 (the number ensures that you get the legitimate cab you wanted, and not some scam cab you don’t).  He makes me repeat it over and over, and tells us very sternly, “Do not get into any other cab”, which was frankly a little hard to agree to since we were basically stranded in the middle of nowhere with no safety restaurant to go to anymore.  And then they ride away, leaving us alone in this dangerous place, with no safe zone.

I know this doesn’t exactly count as a near-death experience, but it was the most scared for my safety I have ever been.  Two travelers with all of our stuff, standing on the sidewalk by this closed truck stop, with a dark beach behind us, and no sign of anyone who could help us if something happened.  Fearfully waiting and thinking a continuous string of “Don’t panics”, watching boats slink under the nearby bridge, a couple of pairs of guys on bicycles riding past us, and finally at 10:45 we see a cab come around the corner: Esparza 39.

With a huge sigh of relief, we get in the cab and head on our way to San Jose.  We ask him how much it will cost, and he calculates around US$100.  Knowing that we don’t carry that much money around with us, we tell him that we need an ATH.  He starts to look worried, and so do we.  We remember the taxi driver who didn’t seem to want to take us to our destination if we didn’t already have his money, and the last thing we want to do is make another stop after everything that had happened.  Getting legitimately worried that our night is about to take another wrong turn, I suddenly remember the US$100 I have (well, had) in an envelope in my backpack, stashed away for emergencies.  When I tell him that I have the money, he relaxes, and we are finally, really on our way.

7 hours after missing our bus and US$100 later, we finally arrived at our hostel in San Jose, relieved that we made it all that way without anything truly terrible happening.  With a renewed sense that bad things can turn out okay, and that there really are some truly nice people in the world (except for the jerk bus driver who left us stranded in Caldera), we celebrate our safety and my friend’s last night in Costa Rica before passing out after our exhausting adventure.

It's Never Too Late

View from El Avion

First a few updates before the main story.  Arco Iris in Quepos really is where the locals go when they want to go out at night.  El Avion is a really cool restaurant built around a plane, that also has good food and a great view.  Manuel Antonio is a small enough place that we have run into these two guys three times (so far): on a trail in the park, at a restaurant in Quepos, and on the beach.  Sloths really do move slowly.  Monkeys are cute, but from a story I heard last night, they know how to work zippers on backpacks and pull out your bag of chips.

However, the main story I want to record here today as I listen to the rain is from an old man on the beach.  He was actually on the same bus I took from San Jose to Manuel Antonio, and then he happened to be on the beach right by my friend and I today and we ended up talking a bit.  He had overheard me talking about how cold the ocean is in SF (especially compared to how amazingly warm it is here) and mentioned that he lived in Berkeley for a bit.  After that, we ended up talking and I told him I was studying here for 3 months, but was vacationing a bit first, and then I asked why he was here.  He told me that he is doing TOEFL (learning to teach English as a foreign language).  Since that is something that I am interested in doing one day, I asked him if he could tell me more about it.  Thinking he was probably telling me a lot more than I wanted to know, he proceeded to tell me what I consider to be a very uplifting story.

First of all, I would guess that he is around 70 years old.  He said he took an early retirement a few years ago, but his father in law is 93 and has this and that (a long list of ailments that I can't even begin to remember).  His wife wants to be able to take care of her parents when the time comes, so they need to make a bit more money.  He mentioned that he had always wanted to do the TOEFL thing, but never got around to it.  She told him to do it.  He kept asking about who would take care of things, to which she simply replied, "I will."  So now he is here in Costa Rica, finally learning how to teach English, and will be teaching for about a year while she stays with her parents.  I find it so inspiring to hear about this man who is finally living a dream he probably thought he had missed out on.  I guess it really is never too late...

Sunset on the beach

Mono Azul

 View of Mono Azul from the bus stop to go to the beach/park!

I arrived at the Mono Azul hotel in Manuel Antonio/Quepos last night with my friend, and we proceeded to learn just how powerful the rain can get during the rainy season.  Right about when we were deciding to go exploring, it started pouring rain.  We decided to go swimming since it was still very warm outside, and neither one of us had ever gone swimming in the pouring rain.  It was actually pretty cool and made the rain seem like much less of a big deal.  However I think the rain took offense to that, as the power proceeded to go out within the hour after we went back to the room.  After that it was mostly off, but would come on for a few minutes every now and then.

Today, we headed over to Manuel Antonio National Park and went on a hike to a waterfall.  On the way, we met a guy named Dave from DC.  He told us about a beach to see monkeys at since we hadn't run into any yet, but we had decided this morning that today would just be for hiking so we didn't have any beachwear.  The waterfall was pretty cool, and I learned that my hiking shoes and socks are still pretty comfortable when wet.  We didn't see any monkeys or sloths today, but I think we'll try again tomorrow or Sunday.

The waterfall

A small cave by the waterfall

Some bumps along the way, but I'm finally here!

One phone frustration, one sleepless night, and one very delayed flight later, I find myself in Costa Rica.  It keeps hitting me that I am going to be here for 3 months, but it doesn't really sink in, so I realize it about 10 times a day.  I am used to traveling, so the initial journey here didn't feel that different.  Anyway, here are some notable moments from the past few days:

-AT&T did not know that the LG GU295 (the phone I bought to get unlocked and use as my travel phone) is not unlockable.  If anyone out there plans to use this phone for traveling and wants to get it unlocked, let me tell you right now that it can't be.  It is not up to AT&T or LG.  The phone was manufactured in a way so that it cannot be unlocked by anyone ever.  At least that's what they told me.  Oh and I found this out the night before I left.

-There is a store in SFO in the international terminal that sells unlocked phones.

-I really need to learn not to save packing for the last minute.

-Continental: If you have to do maintenance on your plane, please make absolutely certain that you are done before you start boarding.  Lugging stuff onto a plane only to have to turn around and get off, then get back on ten minutes later is kind of a pain for everyone involved.  That's on top of being an hour and a half late already.

And now I am here.  Spent one night at the Costa Rica Backpackers Hostel, taking advantage of their airport pickup, slept wonderfully except for the train horns blaring periodically throughout the night, took a taxi to the ISA office to drop off a suitcase, got lunch (passed my university on the way), and now I am back at the ISA office for a few more minutes before I head for the bus station to catch a bus to Manuel Antonio.  I haven't gotten an ICE SIM card yet since I got to the airport so late, but I will update on that process once I do.  I have a week and a half before I move in with my host family and officially start my program, which is probably when I will be writing more.

Hasta luego for now, and pura vida!

First Post

Hello out there, and welcome to the first post on my travel blog!  I wanted to get this set up before I leave because I think once I get to Costa Rica, I probably won't want to take the time to do this.  Of course, I have plenty I should be doing now instead of this, but this was on my list so now I get to cross it off!

Since I am here, I might as well give you a little peak into what I've been up to.  As fun as this year will be, and as excited as I am, there is a LOT of stuff to do to get ready for it.  Unfortunately, it is not as fun or exciting as the traveling will be.  Between tickets and paperwork and needing to buy stuff (like a suitcase because my old one broke) and seeing people and figuring out my phone/money, I haven't even started packing yet!  At least I have been putting some thought into it.  I know that I definitely have to bring a lightweight, waterproof jacket because every website and person I talked to said it is a necessity.  However, everything else is still a little up in the air (or all over my room).  No matter how many times I've realized it already, I keep forgetting that packing the recommended one checked bag with three months' worth of stuff is going to be quite a challenge...