Whew! It's been a while! I guess that means I've been busy. June flew by in a blur. I had a different schedule than usual and had one week on/one week off in June instead of my usual 2 weeks on/off. I worked a week of rafting and a week of Wilderness First Aid and on my weeks in between planned an entire staff training (and then led the training), and spent some time relaxing at a friend's casita overlooking the ocean. That was wonderful. I put my clothes in drawers, put pictures on the refrigerator, I had a refrigeratior (!) and life seemed a little more normal. Those 2 weeks made me realize how much I enjoy little things now. I seriously rejoiced and danced around while I was putting my clothes away in drawers. It was the coolest thing to cook myself 3 meals a day, have a shower, be alone, be able to be messy if I wanted or clean if I wanted. I thought I had learned how to live simply on my bike trip living out of panniers, but Costa Rica has taught me that there is always more to learn. This time it's living out of a plastic bin or a backpack, always moving, never having my own space, never being alone, never having internet, lots of bus time, not feeling pretty (it's so sweaty here all the time!), not being able to save food, not being able to find things I want to buy (I've been looking for black leggings and a sports bra for 5 months...not kidding). I really just have to go with the flow 100% of the time.
July has also been a blur...mainly because I could not wait for my friends Jen and Fallen to come visit! The first 2 weeks of July I worked on trail. Rafting and Surfing. It's the summer (busy season!) so we have lots of new students and lots to do at work. We have new staff coming, some policies have been changing so it's seemed very busy and sometimes stressful. Summers are always busy for outdoor adventure guiding. This surf week was the first time I felt like I would feel comfortable renting a surf board and going out on my own. I felt like I was getting more of a taste of "real" surfing...paddling till my arms felt like they would fall off, getting thrown around by waves, spending 2 hours on the water and only catching 2 waves, bobbing up and down on flat water waiting for waves, getting sun burned, always hoping to catch that next wave...
And then Jen and Fallen came! They got here a week ago and we still have 6 glorious days together! It has been amazing to get to hang out with people I love so so much. To feel completely at ease with them whether we are laughing or just reading quietly together or getting stuck in a funny situation. And we have had some funny ones so far.
Their first 2 days here we decided to go to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. I had never been there before so it was a new adventure for me too! We left San Jose and took a private shuttle/boat to Tortugero National Park/Village. It's located on some canals near the Atlantic Ocean so you can only get there by boat--should have been our first sign of how expensive it was going to be. We had a cool ride there--our tour guide was very talkative and told us all about plants and animals around. We got to the village, unsure of what to expect. It turns out to be one stretch of a concrete walkway with tourist traps/souvenir shops and expensive restaurants about 1/2 km long. We stayed at a dirty hostel for $40 a night (!). Everything to do there cost between $20 and $40. Want to take a canoe ride or rent a kayak? Want to see some turtles? Ok, spend tons of money! We decided to try out the National Park since we had come 4 hours to see it. So we paid the $10 entry fee and took the only 2km trail. That ended up going right next to the beach we had walked all along the day before for free...The park was literally only that trail. I guess I've been spoiled by National Parks in the US that have lots of trails and huge visitor centers/displays. So we decided to leave as soon as we could before we spent more money. The boat taxi out was $35 each.
So 2 days down, unnecessary money spent and not much seen, we landed in the tiny port town of Moin to start again. We got off the boat and immediately had taxi drivers offering to drive us to Puerto Viejo for $15 each. We opted for the local bus which maybe took an extra hour for a grand total of less than $4. And we got to see Limon (another port town where Costa Rica gets most of it's imports) and some local culture. Public transportation in my opinion is more interesting since you get to see the regular folk doing their regular thing. Why isolate yourself in a comfy, clean private shuttle all the time when you can get some local flair for way less expensive?
When we got off the bus in Puerto Viejo, we smiled and almost started skipping. Hippie beach town vibes came at us from all directions and as we checked in to our mosaic/mural/garden filled hostel we felt like the trip we had envisioned had finally started.
The Caribbean side. So much of a different culture I almost felt like I was in a different country! There is a lot of African and Cuban influence mixed in with the Spanish. It was super cool to hear someone speak Spanish one minute, and then change to English with a Jamaican twang the next. It seemed like everyone we encountered spoke 4 languages. We walked around the town, peering in bakeries, locally made clothes boutiques, and eyeing all the colorful bracelets people were selling on the streets. As the sun started setting, we came upon a restaurant called "The Lazy Mon" where a man playing John Mayor covers was belting it out. We sat down and enjoyed the 2 for 1 drink special. We were 2 feet from the beach. What a perfect setting!
The next day we rented cruiser bikes and made our way down the 10 km stretch of beaches in our sundresses. Put me on a bike and life is good! We met a man named Franklin selling "patty" (a delicious pastry with pineapple or plantain or meat filling. He would ride his bike yelling, "Patty, patty, patty, patty!" so of course we had to try some!) and he told us of a sweet beach where we hung out all day playing in the waves and getting sunburned (...Jen). On our ride back we stopped at a little soda and tried Caribbean rice and beans and chicken...made with coconut milk. Sooo goood! All the food we tried here was amazing.
We played at the beach the next day and met some more characters (we made a soul sister friend named Aurora who was 57 and kept telling us about girl power and how "the love of learning is what makes life beautiful" and took us Salsa dancing at a local haunt. A cute and wonderful experience.
We then had a nice long travel day! 8-9 hours on buses heading across the country. We decided to spend a day or 2 in the mountains to let our sun kissed skin heal before hitting the beaches on the Pacific side. So I took Jen and Fallen to one of my favorite little towns, San Gerardo. This is the town where the Chirripo National Park is which I climbed in March.
So I might have forgotten how hilly the town was and how far the bus drops you off from the hostel...well it's 2 km up a freaking giant non-stop hill. Jen and Fallen killed it (even though they were probably hating me during the climb haha) and we made it to our adorable hostel, Casa Mariposa.
We've realized sometimes we make things a struggle when they really don't need to be, or funny things just happen to us. Or sometimes things are just a hilarious struggle because we are in a foreign country. So we've dubbed ourselves "The Struggle Bus Salute". An example of the struggle bus salute is that say we decide to take a normal bus to San Gerardo like I already have before, so I thought it would be no problem. Half way through the ride, it stops, parks on the side of the road and the bus driver indicates to get off the bus and walk up the hill. So we do, thinking we are all cool and understand Spanish. Then we realize the bus is not going to drive up the hill with our bags, and we walk all the way back down and up with our bags with the bus driver thinking we are crazy. Then we walk on a tar covered road for a while and get on another bus that takes us the rest of the way up the hill. Thus the struggle bus salute was born.
And yet the mountain air and views were worth it for sure. We spent the rest of the day relaxing, sitting by nearby waterfalls, playing cards and drinking local wine and chatting with our hostel mates. 2 northwesterners (they are everywhere!), 2 girls from Sweden, and a couple from Belgium who were volunteering at the hostel for free room and board. We had our own room called "The Jungle Room" with views into the forest and half the wall just open screens. The main common area felt like a mountain lodge/living room with a stove, couches and recycled art everywhere. Very cute! One of the coolest hostels in Costa Rica.
The next day, we had a plan to hike what we thought was 4 1/2 km to some hot springs. We thought it would take us about 45 minutes since it was all down hill. It took us 1 1/2 hours and the last half was up another grueling hill! (Jen said she was not made for backpacking after that...). We made it to the hot springs with about 10 minutes before we needed to head back down to catch the bus back to San Isidro. We were pretty stressed and tired from such a long hike and bummed we couldn't even enjoy the water before leaving...until we realized we could just take the later bus. No stress. What a great plan that ended up being!
We let our stress evaporate in the steam of the hot springs, then hiked back down the hill to an artisan chocolaterie. On the way, it started to pour (of course!) so we arrived ready to sit and eat as much chocolate as we could. We just about got everything in the display case. Just a little bit down the hill was a family that made Swiss style cheese. We knocked on their door and they gave us a tour and some samples and we got about 1/2 a kilo of deeeelicious artisan cheese for about $8!
Next we met up at my friend Rachael's for the night. She let us stay in her little Casita (which I stayed in for June) for the night. What a relaxing segue for the beach times ahead. An ocean view, a pool, smoothies and naps.
We are now headed to Dominical, Uvita and Manuel Antonio to soak up as much sun as we can before Jen and Fallen have to leave on Tuesday! 15 days of fun and adventure :) Thanks guys for coming to visit me!!! I am so grateful to have a little slice of home and lots of laughs this off shift!
