This blog is a bit different. I traveled without Richard this time. So this blog may be missing that bitingly sarcastic humor you've come to expect, and will be more documentary style. I traveled to Costa Rica with my friend Mena. A brief history of Mena and I: We met in high school when I was an Orthodox Jew and she was a hardcore religious Muslim. We became good friends, unlikely couple though we were. Over the years, our paths stayed on different but similar courses, as we both became much more toned down religiously. We remain great friends and our similar unique sense of humor, adventurous nature and desire to have fun made us perfect travel partners. Mena was studying Spanish for her medical program in Costa Rica for a week prior to me getting there, and I met her there to travel and explore the country!
The trip started out a little unexpectedly. I got to LAX for my 1am red eye. I waited in what seemed like the longest line EVER to check in to Taca Airlines. I was astounded by how ridiculously long each group of people was taking at the desks, thinking that this was the slowest airline imaginable. Finally, dangerously close to my flight time, I got to the front. The Taca woman casually mentioned how I might need to reschedule my connecting flight as the flight was delayed. I perked up. Delayed? By how long? 6 HOURS! Apparently this was a last minute delay, and they were supposed to tell everyone in line (they didn't). I emailed Mena in hopes she'd get it. And settled in for my night at LAX. It's not as fun as it sounds. Though I did get to see what security looks like with no lines! I didn't even know which way to go without hoards of people lined up. And I did get a free first class upgrade! After an additional 1.5 hour delay, and a short layover in San Salvador, I finally made it to Costa Rica. With my fingers crossed that Mena got my message. Sure enough, she was standing very expectantly at the airport exit, and we both breathed a massive sigh of relief. Now, on to our adventures!
Mena had had quite an eventful day herself, learning quickly about the locals' penchant for... how do you say it... taking advantage of tourists? By the time I got to her, she had a "you're not about to mess with me" attitude ready to go. After dodging one sketchy taxi driver, we took another taxi to the San Jose Central Bus Station. It's in a rather colorful part of town. We navigated our way to the correct bus (which was the interestingly and perhaps our good fortune, the only bus there) - to La Fortuna, by way of San Carlos. We got to San Carlos at night - to find out the next bus wasn't going to leave for a couple hours. Somehow, miraculously, we found a different bus leaving right then. And by a crazy and hilarious (to us, not to the locals who just thought we were nuts) series of interactions, we got on that packed bus. One of the nice Costa Rican (or Tico, as I came to find out they're called) boys even got up to give me their seat! After a long exhausting day, we finally made it to La Fortuna - and our hostel,
Gringo Pete's. Yes, that's really the name. $6 each per night! It was quite the happening place too! Met lots of travelers from all over the world. Interestingly, nearly ever other tourist we met on the trip was traveling for months at a time.
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| Mena in the kitchen at Gringo Pete's |
Next day we set out for one of Costa Rica's most popular experiences - ziplining! We went to
Ecoglide in Arenal Park where we went on over 15 cables at varying lengths over the beautiful green forest. Did I mention Costa Rica is extremely green? Everywhere. It was fun and neat, though Mena and I both were thinking how it wasn't exactly as scary and adventurous as people made it out to be (I told you we were the adventurous type!). But then we got to the Tarzan Swing. We stood on a platform with the guys getting us situated. We didn't exactly know what was going to happen until suddenly the guy tells me to grab the rope and then whoooosh down I go! It was pretty incredible. Check out the videos below!
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| All suited up and ready to go! |
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| Mena coming one way, me going another |
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| One of the views we saw along the zipline |
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| Tarzan Rope! |
In the afternoon, we made our way over to the
Baldi Hot Springs. La Fortuna sits right aside Arenal Volcano, a pretty active volcano. As such, the land is rich with geothermal activity, such as hot springs. Baldi is a beautiful resort with 25 different pools of varying temperatures, a beautiful garden, waterslides, bars in the pools, a full resort and waterfalls. We got access to everything, and a full buffet dinner, for $23 - not bad! We even got a view of the volcano smoking while we were there.
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| Baldi Hot Springs |
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| One of the 25 pools at Baldi |
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| The Jardin at Baldi |
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| Costa Rica has tons of gorgeous flowers like this |
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| Arenal Volcano smoking! |
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| Enjoying the hot springs |
The next day we set off for
white water rafting on the Toro River. A group of 3 guys from Spain joined us. We stopped off first at this area where there were hundreds - literally - of iguanas in the trees. They were crawling everywhere, it was pretty amazing.
Then we headed down to the river. Got suited up, learned the commands (which differ a bit from rafting commands in the U.S.) and ready to go. For the rest of the group, it was their first time rafting (I have been). Mena had no problem catching on... the others however, were another story, though made for some entertainment for Mena and I. Ironically, the guide switched to Spanish for
them, and we were the only ones following the commands! One of the highlights of the rafting was our monkey spotting (!!) along the way. Saw a black monkey up in the tree - and in case you don't know, I'm obsessed with monkeys. After some fun class 3 and 4 rapids, we headed for lunch. Had a traditional Costa Rican lunch, vegetarian style. Although, matter of fact, the guide also ordered the vegetarian meal and says he always does, because it's so good! And it was... beans, rice, fried plantains, and more... with the famous Costa Rican Lizano Salsa to go with it.
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| River rafting on the Toro River |
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| Playing in the river during our snack break |
We walked around the town a bit... amazingly ran into one of Mena's classmates from her program! Then set out for our next destination in the evening. As our timing as after the shuttles and buses left (and they take much longer), we had to arrange our own transportation. Our hostel hooked us up with a private driver. He brought his wife and daughter along since he would be driving alone very late at night on the way back. They spoke no English, so it made for an interesting car ride, full of conversation with our somewhat limited Spanish (Mena and I did pretty well, here and throughout the trip, though... lot of my high school Spanish vocab came to me!).
This week on Sept 15, was the Dia de la Independencia for Costa Rica. They start celebrating a few days earlier, and have the tradition of running with (and passing) a torch all throughout the country. Amazingly on our drive, we were lucky enough to see that! Suddenly we saw tons of bikers, follower by lights and sirens of the police and ambulance (only festive, non-emergency!) and finally the man running with the torch. It was pretty cool. We drove through areas where people lined the streets, starting the celebration. We arrived at Tamarindo Beach in the Guanacaste region, late at night. Went to our hostel,
La Botella de Leche, which inexplicably translates to "Bottle of Milk". Cute hostel, with our private room/bathroom, and even our own hammock on the patio! $12 each a night!
Tamarindo is a cute beach town, and one of the most popular in the region. We walked around a bit that night, stopped at one of the cute outdoor bars, chatted with the bartender, Elissa, for a bit. We started talking to her because Mena liked her haircut - and hold that thought, because that does become relevant later! We also found out Elissa was a surfer, who had competed in the Costa Rican surfing nationals. We we had been trying to plan surfing lessons for the next day, and she said she would take us!
The next morning, we rented a kayak and kayaked out to what became our own private island. We walked around, took some fun pictures. After Mena made fun of my dorky water socks (thanks Rich!), justice was had when one of her flip flops was carried out to sea. We had rented snorkels too, and did some snorkeling. Saw some pretty fish. Enjoyed the warm water. Paddled back in (it sure is a workout!) to get back for our surf lesson.
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| Made it to the beach on the ATV, kayak in tow! |
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| Mena after she lost her sandal. Had to walk in flippers on the rough rocks |
Met up with Elissa and headed to the beach at Tamarindo. Picked up our surfboards, did a quick lesson on the sand and headed out to the waves. Wow, surfing is hard! Gave me an appreciation for surfers and how amazing they look out there, cause it's not easy! Was able to stand very briefly a couple times (only to fall pretty quickly!). But, made a little progress. It was fun though and I look forward to trying it again sometime!
That night headed out to happy hour at a bar right on the beach. Amazingly, we ran into Mena's classmate who came with us. $3 drinks, surrounding by palm trees, right on the sand, yes please! Then we went to the bar of the night. We found out that Tamarindo organizes their bars so that each night a different bar hosts the action. And many nights there is a ladies night - free (watered down) drinks for 2 hours! Joined the rest of the tourists and some locals, for some drinks, Salsa dancing and hung out with some others from our hostel. The only downside being, that apparently the rest of the world consists of chain smokers. Wow. Other than that, fun times!
Next day, we decided our best bet would to rent a car that would take us around to beaches and ultimately get us back to the airport at San Jose. We made sure we got a GPS since we heard the street signs were a little less than helpful around Costa Rica (hold that thought for later too). We also were told we needed a 4-wheel drive car, and we soon found out why.
We headed out to Playa Conchal, a beach we had our eyes set on getting to. I was the designated full time driver, since most other countries apparently only drive stick shift cars - but I was secretly excited to get back behind the wheel of a stick shift. We drove along until finally our GPS lady told us to drive onto the beach. Now, having been told by GPS to drive
into the Glacier Lagoon in Iceland, I hesitated for a moment. But this time, it apparently was true. And the 4-wheel drive was in fact useful, as we drove over the sand and through a wide stream. Then we got to the end of that beach area, with the only way to go being over a dirt hill, which we couldn't see what was on the other side. GPS lady I think was kind of lost at that point, and we were on our own. We took our chances and drove over the dirt hill, bumping and bouncing along, and emerged on the other side with the view of a gorgeous blue private beach. This is the only way to get to it. It is called Playa Conchal because the sand is made up of billions of crushed shell pieces. The water is crystal clear and warm. Green trees surrounding the shorelines making for a beautiful view. We had been on the go quite a bit up until then, so it was the perfect time for us to relax and enjoy!
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| Playa Conchal |
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| shells that make up the sand at Playa Conchal |
We now felt pretty empowered having a car of our own there! We made it back into town in the afternoon. The plan was to do a little more surfing with Elissa. However, rainy season in Costa Rica had a mind of its own as a giant thunderstorm started up suddenly. Luckily we hadn't been affected by the rain much up until then. Mena however had been determined to get back out on the waves. She and Elissa headed out for awhile even with the thunder, lightening and pouring rain. The beach was practically cleared except for a few other crazy people. Elissa had said most surfers don't go out during the thunderstorms. Besides the water being rougher, it's not a good thing to be the tallest thing in the water surrounded by lightening. I may be known as daring - and am happy to jump out of a plane and
climb bridges when going with a company with a 5-star Yelp profile.. But when the few seasoned surfers left are having a tough time standing on the choppy waves, and the rest left to avoid being hit by lightening, I'm happy to watch from the car! Mena thankfully made it back okay (I really didn't want to do the 5 hour drive to San Jose by myself!).
Then it was off to our next adventure... Remember how Mena had admired Elissa's haircut that first night. Well she was also saying how we should do something fun and different to come back with from our trip. She mentioned (jokingly?) tattoos and piercings. And if you know my thoughts on tattoos (hate them!) and piercings (happy with my one hole in each ear, thank you!), I was happy to settle for a fun and different haircut. Elissa hooked us up with woman who did her hair, an Italian woman who actually did hair for big designers and modeling shows back in Italy, and just did it for a side job in Costa Rica, so charged only $20 each. We drove to her house, where she had a little corner set up for her hairdressing. Now before you think a haircut wasn't crazy and different enough... this was a haircut with a person we couldn't really communicate with. We speak English, and some limited Spanish. She spoke Italian. Elissa, also a "Tico Italiano" (Costa Rican Italian) spoke fluent Italian. She translated for us and we had to hope it came out right! Mena got a more drastic haircut - cutting her longtime long hair up to around her shoulders. I changed my boring "Suupercuts" haircut and got some fun layers. Both of us were very happy with the results! After bidding our stylist a huge "grazie!" we left to get ready for our last night in Costa Rica.
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| Celebrating Dia de Independencia (with out new haircuts!) |
After a late nice dinner at a restaurant right on the beach, we headed out to the bar of the night again. This was also the Dia de Independencia - though we were told it was a lot less festive in Tamarindo since it's a tourist town there. But there was still some celebrating going on. Did some dancing. Crazy enough ran into the 3 Spanish guys from our rafting trip in the bar (this was a different town from where we rafted, 4 hours away!). And said goodbye to the friends we made in Tamarindo. Got back to the hotel after 2am. Realized we needed to leave around 4am to leave enough time make it to San Jose, and hit up some of the souvenir shopping markets there. Yes, we'll take shopping over sleep! By the time we had to get ready and pack, it didn't really make sense to sleep and I knew it'd just make me more tired. So instead did the totally logical thing and loaded up on free coffee from our hostel. Also emailed myself some backup Google maps directions. And soon we were ready to be on our way.
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| with our friend Elissa, on our last night |
We got in the car and set off. GPS Lady eventually told us to turn down a dirt road, and it being the all-knowing GPS, we followed her instructions. A ways down this dirt road, it seemed wrong. We reset GPS Lady and turned around, knowing the other way was the right way. After GPS Lady then kept telling us to turn where there was no turn and positioning us on clearly the wrong place on the map, we knew something was off. We played with the settings, reset the GPS, all to no avail. It was up to our navigating alone to get us there. We knew we had to make it to Liberia (the capital) as there is where we'd pick up the main highway in the country, that leads to San Jose. But getting there is all along barely populated deserted roads. We followed signs, did a few half-rolled-window askings (again in our limited Spanish) of directions along the way. I had paid some attention on the way in, so was able to recognize a few things that I thought looked familiar. But it was still a tense first couple hours as we hoped we were heading to the right place - and wanting to strangle the GPS Lady. The Google maps directions turned out to be useless too, all in Spanish, without street names corresponding to any signs (and a lack of many signs at all). Amazingly, we made it to an intersection I knew I recognized and then finally to Liberia. Liberia has another international airport, and there we passed by an Avis. Which also happened to be open at 6am. We stopped in there, brought in our useless GPS, which the Avis people fiddled with and also were baffled that they couldn't get it to work. They gave us a replacement GPS though. And the rest of the way was pretty straightforward along a highway too. Although don't get any thoughts of this looking like the 405. This was a 2 lane highway, one lane each way. And it's common - and apparently expected - that you are to pass the slow drivers. Which becomes an interesting game when there are twists and turns in the road, and you can't really see what's ahead, and you could end up head on with a giant truck. After what felt like the longest drive ever, although with some pretty scenery along the way, we finally made it into San Jose. Our navigational issues did cut into our time though, so we had to skip the shopping and head to the airport, where I dropped Mena off for her earlier flight. We said goodbye and that we absolutely have to do this again sometime!
I returned the rental car, paid my $26 tax to leave the country (yes, everyone has to do this) with my remaining colones, got myself a free upgrade to first class for both flights on the way back, used the free internet in the airport and let Rich know I was alive, and soon headed back (flight on time this time!). Really enjoyed Costa Rica. It's a great country, very beautiful, so much to see and do there (much of which we didn't even have time to get to!), very tourist friendly, and really a relatively easy place to get to. I look forward to going back again someday! And maybe I'll bring Rich next time ;-)
