I last left off on the way to the beach with Jen and Fallen. We stayed in Dominical in a typical beach hostel. Lots of beds, lots of very hip, tan, attractive people in skimpy clothes, LOTS of humidity, and sand in all your stuff. We hung out on the beach, went souvenir shopping and had some delicious pizza with cuba libres (they come in a can in Costa Rica. How convenient!). The next day we headed a few kilometers down the road to the neighboring town of Uvita. The Saturday market there is wonderful with everything from woven purses and handmade jewelry to organic produce, unavoidable baked goods, coconut oil and wood crafts. We perused and purchased after having the best cup of coffee I think I've had yet in Costa Rica (from a tiny hole in the wall cafe of course--that's always where the good stuff is).
And after getting my fill of shopping at a local boutique (I found leggings and a sports bra! It was like finding the holy grail...I don't think the salesperson had ever seen someone so excited to be buying simple black leggings), we headed back to Dominical.
Then the national park madness began! We lucked out and got a ride from my friend Nick. His parents were in town and also going to Quepos. They kindly offered us a ride and we all crammed into their rental car. It started pouring rain--our timing seemed perfect on this trip.
Our luck was pretty good too. Even though the hostel we called was full, they offered us space in a guest house called Loma Linda. Which somehow turned out to be the entire bottom floor of a house--for $40 a night. It was amazing! And Manuel Antonio ended up being a very cute (and expensive) tourist town where we enjoyed browsing shops, stumbling upon live jazz, and having a "treat yourself" kind of dinner overlooking the ocean at sunset.
We headed to the National Park (which was like a zoo...of people, not animals). We decided not to buy the overpriced tour and just hike the 2 km on our own, hunting for the wild with only our own eyes and wits. Ok, so we might have eavesdropped on tours in front of us and stopped where they stopped to find what they were looking at...but we found some things no one else noticed. Overall we saw a few sloths, some monkeys, cool plants, a giant spider eating a dragonfly, a deer and 2 babies, a "snake" (all I saw was green but the guide ahead said it was there), bats, and tons of great people watching. At one point we ran across an adorable sloth climbing up a tree. All of a sudden a swarm of people pointing and whipping out their i-phones appeared behind us. There were probably 50+. It was crazy. At the end of the trail is quite a picturesque beach. It's one you'll see on postcards with white sand, palm trees, turquoise water and the coolest part...literally no development. No fancy hotels or bars or cement or trash. Just a beautiful place to spend the day getting sunburned :)
It was sad to see Jen and Fallen go! Our 2 weeks together was so wonderful. We were all flexible and made our decisions based on "what does your heart tell you?" (literally we said that about everyday) and never got sick of each other. It was one of the few times I've traveled with friends and it was da best.
My next 2 weeks of work were backpacking to homestays and the Rescue Ropes certification. It was pretty hard to stay focused seeing as mi madre hermosa was soon to be landing en el mismo pais que yo! But the weeks went well. I worked with a new group of students I hadn't before and it was super fun to get to know them. And we had a lot of new students. The program is growing a lot. The backpacking is one of my favorite itineraries. We get to camp out in the jungle for 2 nights (like real, out there, tarp camping in the jungle!) and stayed with amazing families for the next 3 days. We eat amazing food, speak in Spanish, get to see real Tico houses and learn what it's like to live far from the city on a road only passable by horse or hiking. The Rescue Ropes is super fun too. We get to play with ropes and harnesses and pulleys and hang from a bridge and ascend/descend a rope, haul a litter with a person in it up a steep incline, practice knots, swim, rappel into the river, and create crazy mechanical advantages to haul up a lot of weight. I love that kind of stuff!
And then my mom came to visit! It was a short 6 days but we packed it in! I had the luck of bringing a few graduated students to the airport on Tuesday morning (we left at 3 am!) and it worked out perfectly because after I dropped them off, mama Annelies arrived. It was amazing to see her smiling face walking towards me! I have been missing my family for 6 months now and what a treat to have her come visit. We took the local bus downtown and then taxied over to our "hostel". Our taxi driver kept telling me to tell her (in Spanish) how beautiful and young my mother looked and if she had a boyfriend. It was adorable.
The hostel actually turned out to be the nicest place I've stayed my whole time here! For $35 a night! We had a wonderful room with nice clean and new decorations and it was just so cute (good pick mom!). After planning and re-planning a few times, we had our itinerary: San Jose, Monteverde Cloud Forest, Arenal Volcano, Jaco Beach, San Jose. We rented a car and off we went!
It was weird driving. Not only were we driving in Costa Rica (let's just say people will pass on blind curves guaranteed every 10 minutes), I hadn't driven in 6 months! It was pretty plush being able to drive wherever we wanted with A/C and the security of always having our stuff secure in the trunk.
Monteverde and the town of Santa Elena are a good 2-3 hour drive from San Jose. The last part is up a rocky, pot holey dirt road (oops, we should have gotten a car with higher clearance). We were driving along and I look at the gas gauge. It had dropped to...gas light status. "Uh, the gas light just went on mom," I said. "Oh, I thought it was at half a tank!" she replied. "Umm..." I immediately began planning how to beg for gas from our hostel or anyone that might cross our path. "Ok, how much would we pay for a gallon...er...liter of gas?" I wondered aloud. I kept driving, not quite sure what to do other than just keep driving and hoping it would all work out. And then, somehow, in the middle of nowhere...a magical gas station billowed forth from the dusty dirt clouds we were making. I've never seen a gas station in a rural town here. Ok, Universe, I'll take it.
Then, as we drove into Santa Elena, this huge bustling tourist hub appeared. We were both very surprised by the amount of shops, people, and cars that were suddenly around us when we had just spent a good hour and a half of a very rural dirt road.
But Santa Elena was really cute and a nice place to walk around, be a tourist (souvenir shops! Treehouse restaurant!) and then relax in our nice hostel with our attractive and muscly host (ahem, mom seemed to want to talk to him about all the local info :) The next morning we took a guided natural history walk in the Monteverde Cloud Forest. Our guide had grown up there and led tours for over 22 years. He was quite the expert. We learned a lot about plants/birds, saw a hummingbird swarm attack a snake, hung out on a suspension bridge and then saw dozens of hummingbirds feeding which was super cool. Then we headed over to the Don Juan Coffee farm where we took a cool tour about coffee, cacao and sugarcane. Yummy samples were included.
And we were on the bumpy dirt road again headed to La Fortuna (the town) at the base of Arenal Volcano. It ended up being slow going on the dirt road so we got into La Fortuna late (ok 9 but I was exhausted). The place I had scoped out turned out to be QUITE the party hostel...we walked into a lounge complete with smokers, pillow bed/lounge thingys, many a drink in hand and a pool with a swim up bar...everyone looked about 18. We got a few elevator looks (up and down) being a mom and daughter duo so decided to leave. We got a private room in a quiet hotel at the end of town and I'm pretty sure I passed out the second I hit the bed (my night of no sleep before going to the airport was catching up with me).
About 5 am, we both woke up to the sound of pouring water. I thought mom was taking a shower and wondered why we had to get up so early. Then I realized she was still in bed and it was giants drops of rain hitting the metal roof. Our plans to hike to the volcano seemed questionable. So we wandered for about 10 minutes with our umbrellas in the over developed town of La Fortuna until we ducked into a cafe for breakfast. Luckily, it stopped raining and we headed to the National Park. National Parks are quite different here than in the US. You might be familiar with large, interesting visitors centers, well marked paths with pedagogic signs and rangers in awesome outfits. Not happenin here. All the NP I've been to have been $10-20 admission for a 2 km trail and a bathroom. So that's what awaited us. But hey, at least they are protecting the beautiful land! We hiked up to a viewpoint of the misty, cloud enshrouded, mysterious volcano (apparently on clear nights you can see the lava running down) and then hiked up to an old lava boulder field. We happened to see some birds, tapirs and pizotes (an adorable raccoon type thingy with a long upright tail) on the way which was fun.
Then in the car again headed to the beach! We went to Jaco, which is rumored to be a sketchy surfer bum town so I wasn't sure what awaited us, since I had never been there. It was the closest beach to San Jose that wouldn't be a super long drive back to the airport. I would describe it as the Las Vegas of Costa Rica. There were casinos, lots of ladies in heels and leopard print, bumpin clubs and people randomly peeing in public (yes, while eating ice cream, in broad daylight, we witnessed a woman squat between cars, pull aside her undies, pee, then spritz a little water on her exposed lady parts and just walk away...). But we once again lucked out with our hostel. It was right on "the strip" but it was a nice, quiet oasis with a little pool and A/C. We enjoyed people watching, a lovely day at the beach and a wonderful treat of an organic/fresh food meal complete with appetizers and drinks (fresh ginger mojito please!).
Overall a wonderful, wonderful, trip. Mom definitely treated me to a lot which was incredibly nice and I hope she had a great time too.
Then, after madre safely on her plane, I was off to renew my 90 day tourist visa again (had it really been that long?). I headed up to Nicaragua again by bus. I tried to spend less on travel so I could treat myself to private rooms! I spent 5 days in San Juan del Sur. I did yoga everyday, ate fresh food and smoothies, read, knitted, hiked up to a giant statue of Jesus overlooking the bay and took 2 surf lessons. And I stayed in my own room every night! It was an incredible treat that I haven't had very often here. It was the most relaxing and slow paced trip I've taken here and much needed to reset myself for my last month of work.
The surfing was awesome and I met a woman who had just moved there and we buddied up for 2 days of lessons from Norwin (a local surf star...literally his last name is Estrella). We asked him to give us more of an intermediate lesson on how to catch waves by ourselves and on form and all that. It was wonderful and we tried 2 different beaches (Playa Remanso and Playa Maderas). Luckily for us when we went to Maderas it was a small day (apparently waves can get 10+ feet tall there). It was crystal clear blue water, cool rock formations, white sand and lots of surfers. I would have been nervous without a teacher to tell me which waves to go on. That day was probably the best surfing I've done. I actually caught the "green waves" and rode them sideways. It felt amazing but my shoulders were so tired after 2 days of paddling. My last wave in I caught it and then fell straight down onto the board. I ended up sitting with my legs off to the side (like side saddling it) and somehow staying on the whole time. It was pretty funny.
The power also went out 2 nights in a row. In the entire town. Apparently if a nearby town needs repairs on the electrical lines, since all the power for kilometers is connected, they just shut of everyone's power without warning. Some places had generators, but can you imagine never knowing when your power was going to be randomly turned off for 5+ hours? Everyone just brought out their candles and twiddled their thumbs waiting patiently. Can you imagine if that happened in the US? People would freak out and complain and it would make the news. But that is just part of life in Nicaragua. Can you imagine what that would be like for a restaurant? How much business, food and money they would lose if they can't afford a generator (which a lot can't). It was interesting talking to the family who owns the hotel I stayed at about it. They were just like, "Yeah, it happens when it rains in Rivas, but don't worry it'll come back on anytime now." Perspective.
And now I'm back at my favorite hostel in San Jose (Hostel Casa Del Parque) where they somehow remember my name every time I come back. I can't believe I only have 1 more month here! I bought my plane ticket back to the States for October 1st! 3 more weeks of work and 2 more weeks of play! My friend Christy is coming to visit my next off shift (how did I get so lucky with all these visitors?!) and I'll have to get all my last Costa Rican kicks before I leave. Que loco!
Ok, muchos besos y hasta proximo!
Pura Vida,
Rose
