Desafío is Spanish for "challenge". While "challenge" doesn't necessarily define this trip to Costa Rica, I think it will certainly define what I have waiting for me back in the States.
But first, Costa Rica.
This trip to Costa Rica can definitely be defined as fun! I was with close friends, in a beautiful country, creating great memories, and living la pura vida! My favorites were zip lining (for sure!), the sea turtles, and swimming in the waterfalls in the middle of the jungle.
Costa Rica in general is very hot, humid, and sticky. It comes from being 9 degrees north of the equator, and it was rainy season. Nevertheless, we were blessed with great weather the entire week we were there! Blue skies for all but the first and last day! Because of the tropical climate, Costa Rica is very lush and green and there are beautiful flowers everywhere! Reds, pinks, purples, blues! So beautiful!
There is little to no air conditioning in Costa Rica. Homes, hotels, hostels, restaurants, stores, markets, you name it. Most establishments have you sweating when you step inside and sweating when you're leaving. There is also little to no hot water in Costa Rica. I'm totally ok with this though, as the shower was often my only break from the heat (until you turn off the water and you start sweating again). There's just no relief from the heat and sweat. I started becoming more accustomed to the heat by the end of the week, but I was still unable to sleep more than a few hours each night because it was so hot.
The sun sets also so early! Around 6:00 pm! In Georgia at this time of year the sun sets at 9 pm. Because the sun sets so early, businesses close early. Sometimes it was difficult to find a restaurant that was still open for dinner. So since the sun sets early, it also rises early, around 5:00 am. Consequently, the town wakes up very early, businesses open by 6 am, and our days are starting early too.
Costa Ricans are very friendly people. They are open and warm and very willing to help if you have questions. You have to take their responses with a grain of salt though. When you ask someone a question (like directions to a place), and they don't know the answer, then they make one up. They'd rather do this than admit they don't know the answer. You also have to be very aware of your surroundings, especially where you park your car, making sure that you leave no bags in it as car theft is quite common.
Unfortunately, there is a lot more English spoken in Costa Rica than I expected. In fact, Costa Rica, in general, is very touristy. This really threw me off. I was expecting Costa Rica to be more like Chile, where only Spanish was spoken, and if you couldn't communicate in Spanish, then no one would give you the time of day. It was quite the challenge in Chile, but not so much in Costa Rica, sadly.
In Costa Rica I have found that people just start speaking to you in English because you are white. I like to respond in Spanish and practice my Spanish. I haven't lost much if the language since Chile so I was very excited about that. Costa Ricans are also WAY easier to understand than Chileans. Where Chileans mumble, drop letters, and quickly run words together, Costa Ricans speak in a clear, slower manner and use less slang. It has been enjoyable speaking Spanish here, and I have understood most of what I have heard spoken, which is exciting!
However, I was disappointed by the tourism in Costa Rica. I understand that it is a big industry for them, but when I travel to a country, I want to use your currency and speak your language. Do not cater to me. I could have paid for mostly everything in US dollars... in fact, based on the exchange rates, it was cheaper to pay in dollars than in the local colones! Such a bummer!
All in all, what an awesome trip. It had its discomforts (mainly in the heat and sketchy accommodations), but the trip had way more positives, like blue skies, friendly people, fantastic company, adventurous activities, and all around fun times :)
I am currently on the flight back to the States. I am taking the red eye from San Jose to Fort Lauderdale, Florida and then connecting to Atlanta. I should get in to Atlanta on Sunday morning, and then I start work with Deloitte on Monday! Of course, I have my black eye and stitches to show off on the first day.
I cannot believe that this day has come. August 8th (my start date) has been looming in the distance ever since I accepted my job offer back in November. I am so blessed and fortunate to have had this time off, and further blessed to have had the opportunity to spend most of it abroad. Seeing the world, experiencing different cultures, exploring new landscapes, doing some exhilarating activities, learning about myself, feeling God in my life; I take none of this for granted and am thankful for every moment- every trail hiked, every mountain climbed, every ocean/lake/river swam in; and also every dollar spent, every tire popped, every obstacle met.
Since graduation from Tech in December, I've been to Egypt, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, some quick trips to New York, Chicago, Michigan, and Oklahoma, and then on to Alaska and Costa Rica. I've been to six of the seven continents! Who wants to plan a trip to Antarctica?!
My start date has been steadily approaching for eight months now. Sometimes I've had feelings of anxiety or apprehension, but now I can say that I am ready. Ready to start this new phase of my life, to test the waters in the corporate world, and to see what consulting has in store for me. I have accepted that this will probably be a difficult and long transition for me into the working world, but I am prepared to face the challenge, el desafío. New adventures await!
Sunday, August 7, 2011
La Fortuna
We watched the sun rise over the Caribbean Sea before leaving Tortuguero on the 6am boat. I slept during most of the hour river cruise back to Pavona. When we arrived in Pavona, we started our drive to Arenal and La Fortuna- a beautiful area of The Costa Rican interior at the base of Volcano Arenal.
We had magnificent blue skies today as we drove away from the coast, through the jungle, and toward the mountains. Tiffani had a fantastic quote- "This his is like driving through the Discovery Channel. Like, we're not supposed to be here."
We stayed in the town of La Fortuna, which was a little more built up than the places we had been staying. Parts were certainly touristy, with nice restaurants and souvenir shop after souvenir shop. But because the town was still small, there were parts of the town where you could still get that local feel. The best part about La Fortuna- it's right at the base of Volcano Arenal! We had another clear sky day, so our view of the volcano was magnificent!
Volcano Arenal is currently the most active volcano in Costa Rica. It is green and covered with rainforest on one side (the side that you can see from the town), and then the backside is sand and cooled lava flow. Recently it has been flowing lava, which we heard could be seen very well at night! We were pumped about seeing real lava flow, and the pictures on many signs and billboards in the town were incredible! We inquired about some of the night lava tours that hotels and agencies offered, but it turns out that Arenal is currently not erupting... so no lava watching for us :(
We checked in to the hostel called Backpackers, recommended by someone Agatha works with. It was by far the best hostel I've ever stayed in! It had a pool and hammocks, and it was $14 a night per person in an 8-bed dorm with its own bathroom AND air conditioning! I was super pumped about the A/C! I haven't been getting more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep each night because it's been so dang hot. However, the A/C unit in the room didn't make any difference, so I still didn't get any sleep during the two nights we were there. Nevertheless, Agatha put it into perspective perfectly (and sarcastically), "Guys, what a terrible view from our hostel. A pool AND a volcano."
The first thing we did when we arrived in La Fortuna was go Zip Lining!!! Zip lining AA so referred to as Canopy) was my number one thing that I wanted to do in Costa Rica. It was a blast!! The zip line area we went to had eleven cables. You reach speeds up to 70 km/hr, heights of over 700 meters, and distances of over a half a mile! One of the cables was even over the top of La Fortuna waterfall! It was so fantastic, being above the trees, flying along the zip line! The weather and the view was incredible! Agatha and Travis had their cameras and took some awesome videos from the zip line too. Zip lining is something I could do over and over and over! It was exhilarating! We made friends with our guides, and they let us fool around a bit. I got to hang upside down on a cable for a few pictures, and I got to ride double on one of the cables with the really cute guide :)
The next morning, Agatha and I went canyoning and repelling while Courtney, Tiffani, and Travis went caving. I didn't really want to go canyoning, mainly because it was expensive and I'd already had an awesome abseiling and canyoning experience in Australia, but Ag really wanted to do it, so I went with her. We repelled off of 4 waterfalls, and the final repel was 70 meters high (220 feet)! It was fun, but it wasn't as challenging as the repelling I had done in Australia. The repelling here in Costa Rica was more like zip lining. Your feet aren't on the rock wall, you're just dangling in the air and let yourself down. We DID get a really awesome Costa Rican lunch afterwards though- rice and beans, pico de gallo, chicken, potatoes, carrots, yucca (a type of potato), and mango juice.
When Ag and I returned to the hostel, we napped in some hammocks while we waiting for Courtney, Tiffani, and Travis to return from their caving/lunch. I love hammocking.
When we all met up, we drove over to the waterhole, which is a local hotspot where two waterfalls dump into a deep pool of water, there's a rope swing there too! We swam around for a while and jumped off some of the rocks. Travis and I swam underneath one of the waterfalls, and when I came up on the underside of the waterfall, I hit my eye on a rock. I thought I was just going to have a nice goose egg, but then Travis said "Hey, your face is bleeding."
So... I used my tank top to clot the blood under my left eyebrow as we climbed the rocks out of the lagoon. We drove back to the hostel where my favorite dialogue occurred:
Me: Hi, is there a clinic or hospital nearby?
Male receptionist: Why? Oh shit!
We all drove over to the local clinic together, where I was seen immediately by the nurses. I got my eye cleaned and ended up needing three stitches. Travis was awesome and held my hand :) The doctor put a bright white bandage on the stitches, and I got to walk around for the rest of the day looking like a mix between Frankenstein and Quasimodo. When i returned to the hostel, they were out of ice, so i laid down on a couch with a can of cold beer on my eye while Agatha made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and Travis gave me cookies :) I got some awesome stares and had fun coming up with stories about what happened. In reality, I swam into a rock.
That night we went to the "free hot springs". So, there are natural springs that are heated by the volcano. Most of these springs are part of resorts, and you have to pay around $20 to use them. They've been built up and expanded to be more touristy. However, the locals know the way to the free hot springs, which are across the street from one of the resorts. We found our way there at night, and when we went down to the hot springs, we found that it was packed with people! Lots of laughing and screaming and drinking and of course, the hot water. It was a blast!
The next morning my eye was super bruised and super colorful, but not as swollen as the day before. This day was our last full day in Costa Rica, so we decided to do a long hike in La Fortuna National Park to Volcano Cerro Chato. The weather was rainy and cloudy, so the views on the hike were limited, but it never down poured.
Cerro Chato is a dormant volcano that flanks the southeast side of the Arenal Volcano. Cerro Chato has been inactive for some 3,500 years and rests at an elevation of 3,740 ft (1,140 m), which is much lower than it's neighbor (Volcano Arenal). Cerro Chato first erupted 38,000 years ago during the Pleistocene period. One of these eruptions paved the way for the waterway that leads to the La Fortuna waterfall. It has two peaks, named Chatito and Espina, as well as a 1,640-ft (500-m) crater that’s filled with greenish-blue water.
Our hike took us uphill for three kilometers, sometimes reaching grades of 75 degrees. It was uphill uphill uphill, and sweaty sweaty sweaty. Most of the hike was uphill through the moist and foggy rainforest where you have to pick your way over tree roots and through mud puddles. When you reach the top of the mountain, you then proceed down for about 150 meters to reach the emerald crater lake. Swimming in the lake is not advised because of the mineral content of the water, but that didn't stop Ag and Travis! I got some awesome pictures of them swimming butterfly across the crater. Crazy awesome! We were told that it should take us two hours to get up and then two hours to get down, and we did both parts in about an hour and 15 minutes each. Not too shabby!
After our hike, we relaxed at a nearby bar with some Gatorade and watched toucans high in the tree tops. I was so excited to see toucans! They are so colorful! Ag, Travis, and Courtney went back to the free hot springs while Tiffani and I went back to the hostel to shower. About an hour later, we were all packed up and getting ready to drive to San Jose to return our rental car and catch our flight back to the U.S., but not before stopping at a grocery store to buy some Costa Rican coffee and eat our last Costa Rican meal of chicken and rice and beans!
We had magnificent blue skies today as we drove away from the coast, through the jungle, and toward the mountains. Tiffani had a fantastic quote- "This his is like driving through the Discovery Channel. Like, we're not supposed to be here."
We stayed in the town of La Fortuna, which was a little more built up than the places we had been staying. Parts were certainly touristy, with nice restaurants and souvenir shop after souvenir shop. But because the town was still small, there were parts of the town where you could still get that local feel. The best part about La Fortuna- it's right at the base of Volcano Arenal! We had another clear sky day, so our view of the volcano was magnificent!
Volcano Arenal is currently the most active volcano in Costa Rica. It is green and covered with rainforest on one side (the side that you can see from the town), and then the backside is sand and cooled lava flow. Recently it has been flowing lava, which we heard could be seen very well at night! We were pumped about seeing real lava flow, and the pictures on many signs and billboards in the town were incredible! We inquired about some of the night lava tours that hotels and agencies offered, but it turns out that Arenal is currently not erupting... so no lava watching for us :(
We checked in to the hostel called Backpackers, recommended by someone Agatha works with. It was by far the best hostel I've ever stayed in! It had a pool and hammocks, and it was $14 a night per person in an 8-bed dorm with its own bathroom AND air conditioning! I was super pumped about the A/C! I haven't been getting more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep each night because it's been so dang hot. However, the A/C unit in the room didn't make any difference, so I still didn't get any sleep during the two nights we were there. Nevertheless, Agatha put it into perspective perfectly (and sarcastically), "Guys, what a terrible view from our hostel. A pool AND a volcano."
The first thing we did when we arrived in La Fortuna was go Zip Lining!!! Zip lining AA so referred to as Canopy) was my number one thing that I wanted to do in Costa Rica. It was a blast!! The zip line area we went to had eleven cables. You reach speeds up to 70 km/hr, heights of over 700 meters, and distances of over a half a mile! One of the cables was even over the top of La Fortuna waterfall! It was so fantastic, being above the trees, flying along the zip line! The weather and the view was incredible! Agatha and Travis had their cameras and took some awesome videos from the zip line too. Zip lining is something I could do over and over and over! It was exhilarating! We made friends with our guides, and they let us fool around a bit. I got to hang upside down on a cable for a few pictures, and I got to ride double on one of the cables with the really cute guide :)
The next morning, Agatha and I went canyoning and repelling while Courtney, Tiffani, and Travis went caving. I didn't really want to go canyoning, mainly because it was expensive and I'd already had an awesome abseiling and canyoning experience in Australia, but Ag really wanted to do it, so I went with her. We repelled off of 4 waterfalls, and the final repel was 70 meters high (220 feet)! It was fun, but it wasn't as challenging as the repelling I had done in Australia. The repelling here in Costa Rica was more like zip lining. Your feet aren't on the rock wall, you're just dangling in the air and let yourself down. We DID get a really awesome Costa Rican lunch afterwards though- rice and beans, pico de gallo, chicken, potatoes, carrots, yucca (a type of potato), and mango juice.
When Ag and I returned to the hostel, we napped in some hammocks while we waiting for Courtney, Tiffani, and Travis to return from their caving/lunch. I love hammocking.
When we all met up, we drove over to the waterhole, which is a local hotspot where two waterfalls dump into a deep pool of water, there's a rope swing there too! We swam around for a while and jumped off some of the rocks. Travis and I swam underneath one of the waterfalls, and when I came up on the underside of the waterfall, I hit my eye on a rock. I thought I was just going to have a nice goose egg, but then Travis said "Hey, your face is bleeding."
So... I used my tank top to clot the blood under my left eyebrow as we climbed the rocks out of the lagoon. We drove back to the hostel where my favorite dialogue occurred:
Me: Hi, is there a clinic or hospital nearby?
Male receptionist: Why? Oh shit!
We all drove over to the local clinic together, where I was seen immediately by the nurses. I got my eye cleaned and ended up needing three stitches. Travis was awesome and held my hand :) The doctor put a bright white bandage on the stitches, and I got to walk around for the rest of the day looking like a mix between Frankenstein and Quasimodo. When i returned to the hostel, they were out of ice, so i laid down on a couch with a can of cold beer on my eye while Agatha made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and Travis gave me cookies :) I got some awesome stares and had fun coming up with stories about what happened. In reality, I swam into a rock.
That night we went to the "free hot springs". So, there are natural springs that are heated by the volcano. Most of these springs are part of resorts, and you have to pay around $20 to use them. They've been built up and expanded to be more touristy. However, the locals know the way to the free hot springs, which are across the street from one of the resorts. We found our way there at night, and when we went down to the hot springs, we found that it was packed with people! Lots of laughing and screaming and drinking and of course, the hot water. It was a blast!
The next morning my eye was super bruised and super colorful, but not as swollen as the day before. This day was our last full day in Costa Rica, so we decided to do a long hike in La Fortuna National Park to Volcano Cerro Chato. The weather was rainy and cloudy, so the views on the hike were limited, but it never down poured.
Cerro Chato is a dormant volcano that flanks the southeast side of the Arenal Volcano. Cerro Chato has been inactive for some 3,500 years and rests at an elevation of 3,740 ft (1,140 m), which is much lower than it's neighbor (Volcano Arenal). Cerro Chato first erupted 38,000 years ago during the Pleistocene period. One of these eruptions paved the way for the waterway that leads to the La Fortuna waterfall. It has two peaks, named Chatito and Espina, as well as a 1,640-ft (500-m) crater that’s filled with greenish-blue water.
Our hike took us uphill for three kilometers, sometimes reaching grades of 75 degrees. It was uphill uphill uphill, and sweaty sweaty sweaty. Most of the hike was uphill through the moist and foggy rainforest where you have to pick your way over tree roots and through mud puddles. When you reach the top of the mountain, you then proceed down for about 150 meters to reach the emerald crater lake. Swimming in the lake is not advised because of the mineral content of the water, but that didn't stop Ag and Travis! I got some awesome pictures of them swimming butterfly across the crater. Crazy awesome! We were told that it should take us two hours to get up and then two hours to get down, and we did both parts in about an hour and 15 minutes each. Not too shabby!
After our hike, we relaxed at a nearby bar with some Gatorade and watched toucans high in the tree tops. I was so excited to see toucans! They are so colorful! Ag, Travis, and Courtney went back to the free hot springs while Tiffani and I went back to the hostel to shower. About an hour later, we were all packed up and getting ready to drive to San Jose to return our rental car and catch our flight back to the U.S., but not before stopping at a grocery store to buy some Costa Rican coffee and eat our last Costa Rican meal of chicken and rice and beans!
Tortuguero
Tortuguero National Park is located in the Limón Province of northeastern Costa Rica. It is located in a tropical climate, is very humid, and receives up to 250 inches of rain a year. The park has incredible biological variety due to the existence within the reserve of eleven different habitats, including rainforest, swamps, beaches, and lagoons.
Tortuguero is along the Caribbean Sea, and it is best known for it's high population of sea turtles that come to shore to lay their eggs. Here's another cool part- Tortuguero is one of the most remote places in Costa Rica. It is only accessible by boat or by plane! There are no cars in Tortuguero.
To get to Tortuguero, we drove through San Jose (during which Travis drove the wring way down a One Way street and had to pull up on a curb to let all of the cars zoom by. Haha minor details...), and then drove on to the small town of Cariari. We stayed in a quite sketchy hotel called Hotel Central during which the lady owner asked if our car had an alarm.
We woke up early the next morning and made the hour and a half drive to Pavona, which is where the docks are located to get on boats to Tortuguero. We drove through farmland and alongside groves and groves of banana trees over an unpaved road covered with potholes for about an hour. When we reached the docks, we parked the car for the night and then boarded a long wooden boat that was about a foot out of the water. We rode on the boat for about an hour through curving and muddy jungle rivers (and in the pouring rain) until reaching our destination- the village of Tortuguero.
Upon seeing Tortuguero, I was expecting something a little... more. Perhaps it's because Tortuguero's only source of revenue and only purpose is for tourism. Tortuguero village was founded in 1940 solely as a place for tourists, and it still serves that purpose. There are 15 hotels and over 10 lodges that all offer canoe/kayak tours in the rivers, hikes through the rainforest, and sea turtle watching at night.
Nevertheless, there were no towering hotels or fancy restaurants. The buildings were wooden and run down, the "roads" were simple foot pathways in the mud. Though it was a touristy place, you were living up close and personal with the locals. We meandered through little alleyways by little homes, kids going to school, boys playing pick up soccer games. It was actually a really neat experience to be living right along side the locals, whose main purpose was to serve us, the tourists.
After checking in to a hotel (we stayed at Miriam 2, which was right along the Caribbean Sea), the weather had cleared and opened up to blue skies! So, we jumped in a six person canoe with a guide and paddled along the river for three hours. We paddled through the reeds, along the shore, and in narrow little passage ways. It was truly a unique experience, as it was much closer than we ever could have gotten in a motorized boat.
We saw lots of wildlife during our canoe trip! The kingfisher bird, beautiful bright blue butterflies, and a green-backed herring. We got two feet away from a sleeping cayman crocodile, watched spider monkeys and howler monkeys swing from the trees, held a freshwater turtle that was the sjze of a dinner plate, and stared into the eyes of a spoonbill bird. We saw tons of iguanas hiding in the leaves, and even got to see a Jesus Christ Lizard run on the water! It was for a split second ,but it was something I never thought I'd see in my life! So neat!
After our canoe, we donned black rain boots (it was the rules) and went on a three hour hike through the National Park. The hike was kind of miserable... mainly because we were wearing these uncomfortable boots, it was hot, and the trail was boring. You basically just walk along the coast of the Caribbean Sea for two kilometers, and then you turn around and walk back. We did get to see lots of ants on the trail- those big red fire ants carrying big green leaves. It reminded me of the ants in the beginning of the Lion King.
After our hike, I crashed in one of the hammocks outside of our hotel and fell asleep listening to the waves of the Caribbean Sea breaking on the shore. We later walked through some souvenir shops and went swimming in the Caribbean! It was neat to swim in the Pacific Ocean one day, and the very next day be swimming in the Caribbean Sea!
That night, we went on our sea turtle tour!!! First of all, the night sky was clear of clouds, so there were tons and tons of stars overhead! Beautiful! I think I spent more time staring at the sky than anything else during the tour. We walked along the beach in the dark with a guide until we came upon some sea turtles! We got to see two different species tonight- Leatherbacks and Green Backs.
We saw one turtle covering her eggs with sand, another turtle camouflaging her nest, another turtle returning to the sea, and we saw a turtle actually laying eggs! Literally! I got to stand a couple feet from a giant sea turtle (1.5 meters in length!!), and watch her eggs fall into the nest! INCREDIBLE! Certainly a once-in-a-lifetime moment! I also liked seeing all of the turtle tracks on the beach, left behind by the turtles who have come on to the beach to lay eggs or have returned to the sea after laying eggs. Fun fact: sea turtles lay eggs every six years, and when they lay their eggs, they do so twice that year.
Some tourists are lucky enough to see the turtle eggs hatch and watch the little baby turtles scurry to the ocean. We weren't in Tortuguero during the hatching time, but it was still super super neat to see the sea turtles laying eggs! Haha what shocked me most was how big they were! Absolutely amazing :)
Tortuguero is along the Caribbean Sea, and it is best known for it's high population of sea turtles that come to shore to lay their eggs. Here's another cool part- Tortuguero is one of the most remote places in Costa Rica. It is only accessible by boat or by plane! There are no cars in Tortuguero.
To get to Tortuguero, we drove through San Jose (during which Travis drove the wring way down a One Way street and had to pull up on a curb to let all of the cars zoom by. Haha minor details...), and then drove on to the small town of Cariari. We stayed in a quite sketchy hotel called Hotel Central during which the lady owner asked if our car had an alarm.
We woke up early the next morning and made the hour and a half drive to Pavona, which is where the docks are located to get on boats to Tortuguero. We drove through farmland and alongside groves and groves of banana trees over an unpaved road covered with potholes for about an hour. When we reached the docks, we parked the car for the night and then boarded a long wooden boat that was about a foot out of the water. We rode on the boat for about an hour through curving and muddy jungle rivers (and in the pouring rain) until reaching our destination- the village of Tortuguero.
Upon seeing Tortuguero, I was expecting something a little... more. Perhaps it's because Tortuguero's only source of revenue and only purpose is for tourism. Tortuguero village was founded in 1940 solely as a place for tourists, and it still serves that purpose. There are 15 hotels and over 10 lodges that all offer canoe/kayak tours in the rivers, hikes through the rainforest, and sea turtle watching at night.
Nevertheless, there were no towering hotels or fancy restaurants. The buildings were wooden and run down, the "roads" were simple foot pathways in the mud. Though it was a touristy place, you were living up close and personal with the locals. We meandered through little alleyways by little homes, kids going to school, boys playing pick up soccer games. It was actually a really neat experience to be living right along side the locals, whose main purpose was to serve us, the tourists.
After checking in to a hotel (we stayed at Miriam 2, which was right along the Caribbean Sea), the weather had cleared and opened up to blue skies! So, we jumped in a six person canoe with a guide and paddled along the river for three hours. We paddled through the reeds, along the shore, and in narrow little passage ways. It was truly a unique experience, as it was much closer than we ever could have gotten in a motorized boat.
We saw lots of wildlife during our canoe trip! The kingfisher bird, beautiful bright blue butterflies, and a green-backed herring. We got two feet away from a sleeping cayman crocodile, watched spider monkeys and howler monkeys swing from the trees, held a freshwater turtle that was the sjze of a dinner plate, and stared into the eyes of a spoonbill bird. We saw tons of iguanas hiding in the leaves, and even got to see a Jesus Christ Lizard run on the water! It was for a split second ,but it was something I never thought I'd see in my life! So neat!
After our canoe, we donned black rain boots (it was the rules) and went on a three hour hike through the National Park. The hike was kind of miserable... mainly because we were wearing these uncomfortable boots, it was hot, and the trail was boring. You basically just walk along the coast of the Caribbean Sea for two kilometers, and then you turn around and walk back. We did get to see lots of ants on the trail- those big red fire ants carrying big green leaves. It reminded me of the ants in the beginning of the Lion King.
After our hike, I crashed in one of the hammocks outside of our hotel and fell asleep listening to the waves of the Caribbean Sea breaking on the shore. We later walked through some souvenir shops and went swimming in the Caribbean! It was neat to swim in the Pacific Ocean one day, and the very next day be swimming in the Caribbean Sea!
That night, we went on our sea turtle tour!!! First of all, the night sky was clear of clouds, so there were tons and tons of stars overhead! Beautiful! I think I spent more time staring at the sky than anything else during the tour. We walked along the beach in the dark with a guide until we came upon some sea turtles! We got to see two different species tonight- Leatherbacks and Green Backs.
We saw one turtle covering her eggs with sand, another turtle camouflaging her nest, another turtle returning to the sea, and we saw a turtle actually laying eggs! Literally! I got to stand a couple feet from a giant sea turtle (1.5 meters in length!!), and watch her eggs fall into the nest! INCREDIBLE! Certainly a once-in-a-lifetime moment! I also liked seeing all of the turtle tracks on the beach, left behind by the turtles who have come on to the beach to lay eggs or have returned to the sea after laying eggs. Fun fact: sea turtles lay eggs every six years, and when they lay their eggs, they do so twice that year.
Some tourists are lucky enough to see the turtle eggs hatch and watch the little baby turtles scurry to the ocean. We weren't in Tortuguero during the hatching time, but it was still super super neat to see the sea turtles laying eggs! Haha what shocked me most was how big they were! Absolutely amazing :)
Friday, August 5, 2011
Manuel Antonio National Park
We woke up early this morning to blue skies!!! Yay! After a breakfast of rice and beans (again, very much like Jamaica), we jumped in the car and drove to Manuel Antonio National Park. We were greeted by some spider monkeys in the trees along the road!! So cute!
Although Manuel Antonio is Costa Rica's smallest national park, the diversity of wildlife in its 6.83 sq km (3 sq mi) is unparalleled with 109 species of mammals and 184 species of birds.There are also four beaches contained within the limits of the park.
When we arrived, we found a guide to take us through the park. The awesome thing about the guides is that they have big binocular telescopes to help you view the wildlife. I'm really glad we did this, as our guide had a much better eye for spotting well-camouflaged iguanas and lizards than we did!
We saw the large black spiny-tailed iguana and the green iguana, which both looked really cool! There were large purple and red crabs hanging out on the forest floors, and lots of little hermit crabs on the beaches. Green walking sticks, cute little green tree frogs, and spiders the size of your hand hung out in the low leaves. Turkey vultures and red-headed woodpeckers soared above. We even saw white-faced spider monkeys playing and eating in the tree tops! It was so neat to watch them jump from branch to branch and hang by their tails. The BEST part though was seeing sloths, both the two-toed and three-toed species!! Seeing a sloth in the wild was something I never thought I'd see in my life!
When we parted ways with our guide, we continued on to do a loop hike on one of the points for some neat lookouts over the ocean. Then we enjoyed some peanut butter and jelly on corn tortillas for lunch on the beach (yummy, yay backpacker meals!) before swimming and cooling off in the Pacific Ocean. Being on this beach reminded me of The Phantom, an old movie from my childhood about a superhero in a purple suit that takes place in a jungle. The beach we were on had white sands and turquoise blue water, but the best part was that the jungle was surrounding us and came right up to the shores of the beach!
After our day at Manuel Antonio, we jumped in the car to head out of Quepos. We stopped in Jaco the surf town on the way out for dinner, where I had a delicious (and cheap!) tuna steak and spinach salad! We stayed in Jaco to watch the sunset at the beach. It was totally worth it because we not only got a vividly colorful sky, but also a fully arched double rainbow! Whoop! We continued our drive in the dark over the mountains, and luckily our route was clear and paved. We still have yet to experience any terrible roads (knock on wood). We stopped in Carari for the night at kind of a sketchy hotel... after we checked in and got in our rooms, they came up and asked if we had an alarm on our car. Yeah apparently this isn't the safest of towns....
Our plan tomorrow is to head to Tortuguero, a village on the edge of a National Park that can only be accessed by boat or by plane. Travis studied the area for school seven years ago and has always wanted to go. So, we've decided to make the trip. We'll see where it takes us!
Although Manuel Antonio is Costa Rica's smallest national park, the diversity of wildlife in its 6.83 sq km (3 sq mi) is unparalleled with 109 species of mammals and 184 species of birds.There are also four beaches contained within the limits of the park.
When we arrived, we found a guide to take us through the park. The awesome thing about the guides is that they have big binocular telescopes to help you view the wildlife. I'm really glad we did this, as our guide had a much better eye for spotting well-camouflaged iguanas and lizards than we did!
We saw the large black spiny-tailed iguana and the green iguana, which both looked really cool! There were large purple and red crabs hanging out on the forest floors, and lots of little hermit crabs on the beaches. Green walking sticks, cute little green tree frogs, and spiders the size of your hand hung out in the low leaves. Turkey vultures and red-headed woodpeckers soared above. We even saw white-faced spider monkeys playing and eating in the tree tops! It was so neat to watch them jump from branch to branch and hang by their tails. The BEST part though was seeing sloths, both the two-toed and three-toed species!! Seeing a sloth in the wild was something I never thought I'd see in my life!
When we parted ways with our guide, we continued on to do a loop hike on one of the points for some neat lookouts over the ocean. Then we enjoyed some peanut butter and jelly on corn tortillas for lunch on the beach (yummy, yay backpacker meals!) before swimming and cooling off in the Pacific Ocean. Being on this beach reminded me of The Phantom, an old movie from my childhood about a superhero in a purple suit that takes place in a jungle. The beach we were on had white sands and turquoise blue water, but the best part was that the jungle was surrounding us and came right up to the shores of the beach!
After our day at Manuel Antonio, we jumped in the car to head out of Quepos. We stopped in Jaco the surf town on the way out for dinner, where I had a delicious (and cheap!) tuna steak and spinach salad! We stayed in Jaco to watch the sunset at the beach. It was totally worth it because we not only got a vividly colorful sky, but also a fully arched double rainbow! Whoop! We continued our drive in the dark over the mountains, and luckily our route was clear and paved. We still have yet to experience any terrible roads (knock on wood). We stopped in Carari for the night at kind of a sketchy hotel... after we checked in and got in our rooms, they came up and asked if we had an alarm on our car. Yeah apparently this isn't the safest of towns....
Our plan tomorrow is to head to Tortuguero, a village on the edge of a National Park that can only be accessed by boat or by plane. Travis studied the area for school seven years ago and has always wanted to go. So, we've decided to make the trip. We'll see where it takes us!
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Welcome to the Jungle!
We woke up in the morning and we blessed with beautiful blue skies! So pumped! It's rainy season in Costa Rica right now, so we were all expecting it to be raining and wet the whole time, so this was a pleasant surprise that we definitely wanted to take advantage of this morning.
Since Manuel Antonio is closed today, we asked the workers at our hostel what they recommend we do today. So... today became an "Off The Beaten Path" day where we took advice and directions from locals to find spots that are not listed in guide books. We were definitely in for an adventure!
Our first decision was to hike into the jungle and find "the waterfall" that the locals mentioned. We hiked up a mountain along a paved road (and risked getting hit by cars zooming by or bitten by dogs barking at our heels), and then turned off of the paved road into the... jungle! We were told to follow the river to the waterfall, so we found the river and walked along it for about an hour and a half. Sometimes we were walking along the right bank, sometimes the left bank, and sometimes we had to walk right in the middle of the river.
Following the river deep into the jungle was such a neat experience. It was fun picking our way through the rocks and vines along the banks of the river to find our way among the plants and insects that we'd never seen before. I had "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses stuck in my head the whole time, except that the only line I could remember at the time was "welcome to the jungle!", so that got a little old after a while ;) My favorite quote from the hike in was from Ag... "Ouch! Don't grab THAT tree! There's spiky things on it!!"
Since we were literally in the rainforest, it was super hot and humid and moist. We sweated up a storm. Beading, dripping, pouring, sticky grossness. I don't mind sweating, but this kind of sweating... in the heat and humidity... there was just no break from it. Nothing ever dries either because it's so humid. Let's just say we were looking forward to finding this waterfall so we could go swimming to cool off!
We were pumped when we found the top of the waterfall! There was a rope tied to one of the trees and hanging down a rock face that we used to climb down to the bottom. We didn't waste any time throwing our bags down and jumping in for a swim.
This place was gorgeous! I couldn't believe that we were here on our first full day in Costa Rica! We were in the middle of the jungle, at a secluded waterfall that pooled into a deep lagoon, shaded by the rainforest canopy with sunlight poking through the trees and dancing on the surface of the deep green water. It was picturesque! One of those places that you see in the movies :)
We swam around the lagoon in the refreshingly cold water, swam underneath the waterfall with the water pounding on our heads, laid out on the sunny rocks, and the best part- climbed up the rock face and jumped from the top of the waterfall! Exhilaratingly wonderful! (Though admittedly I was a bit scared of climbing up the slippery rock... I didn't want to slip and fall).
On our hike back from the waterfall, we were told to continue down river and then turn left and head up the mountain. When we emerged at the top and came out of the trees, we were rewarded with a stellar view of... the jungle! Green mountains everywhere, and we still had blue skies! It was beautiful! Well... except for the heat, intense sweating, and fact that we didn't know where to go from here... It made me a little uneasy, especially because we were low on water, but after picking around the hillside for a while, we eventually found our way to a paved road where we found a person to ask for directions. Turns out that we weren't that far off! Awesome!
We stopped at a market, bought some peanut butter and bread for snacks and jumped in the car to find more "off the beaten path" locations. We drove and then hiked to a lookout tower on the backside of a hotel called Hotel California, haha. When we got there though, some construction workers told us that it wasn't a safe structure to climb... so we didn't climb it :(
We continued driving and then pulled over on the side of the road and hiked to a local beach called Playa Bisanz. It ended up not being that great... it was small and dirty and smelly and at this point, I was just hungry and hot...
So then we tried to find a "secret path" to another lookout. It was getting later in the evening and the sun was beginning to set, so we wanted to get a good view to see it, but since we are in the jungle, there are always trees in the way. We were up on a mountain overlooking the Pacific Ocean, so we were pumped to see a sunset. Well... It took us some time, but we found the path! It just so happened that the path was behind a guardhouse to a resort, and the guard saw us and wouldn't let us go to the lookout :(
Well, we were all still determined to see the sunset, so we drove all of the way down the mountain and back into town. We parked alongside the beach and were rewarded with an INCREDIBLE sunset!!!! So beautiful and so worth all of the trouble we went through trying to get a good view. Reds, oranges, and yellows changed to pinks, purples, and blues. Travis's quote of the evening-"This is the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen without a sun" (because our angle down on the beach front didn't exactly show the actual sun setting, but we still got to see the awesome colors)!
The sun sets really early in Costa Rica, between 5:30 and 6:00 pm. This really caught me off guard since back home the sun sets at 9 pm this time of the year. The early sunset also means an early sunrise... at 5 am. Because of this, I am finding that most businesses here open at 6 am and close at 7 pm. For example, after the sunset we went to have dinner, and the place where we ate was out of almost everything on their menu.
The hostel we're staying at doesnt have hot water or air conditioning. In fact, most hostels, hotels, restaurants, shops, etc. do not have hot water or air conditioning. I understand not having hot water because it's so darn hot here year round, but air conditioning? That's going to be something tough to deal with this week... sweating while trying to sleep... BUT there's just something absolutely glorious about a cold shower at the end of the day! Nothing like scrubing off sweat, sunscreen, bug spray, and dirt while getting a break from the heat. The break doesn't last long though... as soon as you turn off the water, you're back to being sticky and sweaty. Looking forward to the cold shower reminds me of the mission trip I went on to Jamaica in high school.
Looking forward to Manuel Antonio National Park tomorrow! Praying for clear skies and little rain!
Since Manuel Antonio is closed today, we asked the workers at our hostel what they recommend we do today. So... today became an "Off The Beaten Path" day where we took advice and directions from locals to find spots that are not listed in guide books. We were definitely in for an adventure!
Our first decision was to hike into the jungle and find "the waterfall" that the locals mentioned. We hiked up a mountain along a paved road (and risked getting hit by cars zooming by or bitten by dogs barking at our heels), and then turned off of the paved road into the... jungle! We were told to follow the river to the waterfall, so we found the river and walked along it for about an hour and a half. Sometimes we were walking along the right bank, sometimes the left bank, and sometimes we had to walk right in the middle of the river.
Following the river deep into the jungle was such a neat experience. It was fun picking our way through the rocks and vines along the banks of the river to find our way among the plants and insects that we'd never seen before. I had "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses stuck in my head the whole time, except that the only line I could remember at the time was "welcome to the jungle!", so that got a little old after a while ;) My favorite quote from the hike in was from Ag... "Ouch! Don't grab THAT tree! There's spiky things on it!!"
Since we were literally in the rainforest, it was super hot and humid and moist. We sweated up a storm. Beading, dripping, pouring, sticky grossness. I don't mind sweating, but this kind of sweating... in the heat and humidity... there was just no break from it. Nothing ever dries either because it's so humid. Let's just say we were looking forward to finding this waterfall so we could go swimming to cool off!
We were pumped when we found the top of the waterfall! There was a rope tied to one of the trees and hanging down a rock face that we used to climb down to the bottom. We didn't waste any time throwing our bags down and jumping in for a swim.
This place was gorgeous! I couldn't believe that we were here on our first full day in Costa Rica! We were in the middle of the jungle, at a secluded waterfall that pooled into a deep lagoon, shaded by the rainforest canopy with sunlight poking through the trees and dancing on the surface of the deep green water. It was picturesque! One of those places that you see in the movies :)
We swam around the lagoon in the refreshingly cold water, swam underneath the waterfall with the water pounding on our heads, laid out on the sunny rocks, and the best part- climbed up the rock face and jumped from the top of the waterfall! Exhilaratingly wonderful! (Though admittedly I was a bit scared of climbing up the slippery rock... I didn't want to slip and fall).
On our hike back from the waterfall, we were told to continue down river and then turn left and head up the mountain. When we emerged at the top and came out of the trees, we were rewarded with a stellar view of... the jungle! Green mountains everywhere, and we still had blue skies! It was beautiful! Well... except for the heat, intense sweating, and fact that we didn't know where to go from here... It made me a little uneasy, especially because we were low on water, but after picking around the hillside for a while, we eventually found our way to a paved road where we found a person to ask for directions. Turns out that we weren't that far off! Awesome!
We stopped at a market, bought some peanut butter and bread for snacks and jumped in the car to find more "off the beaten path" locations. We drove and then hiked to a lookout tower on the backside of a hotel called Hotel California, haha. When we got there though, some construction workers told us that it wasn't a safe structure to climb... so we didn't climb it :(
We continued driving and then pulled over on the side of the road and hiked to a local beach called Playa Bisanz. It ended up not being that great... it was small and dirty and smelly and at this point, I was just hungry and hot...
So then we tried to find a "secret path" to another lookout. It was getting later in the evening and the sun was beginning to set, so we wanted to get a good view to see it, but since we are in the jungle, there are always trees in the way. We were up on a mountain overlooking the Pacific Ocean, so we were pumped to see a sunset. Well... It took us some time, but we found the path! It just so happened that the path was behind a guardhouse to a resort, and the guard saw us and wouldn't let us go to the lookout :(
Well, we were all still determined to see the sunset, so we drove all of the way down the mountain and back into town. We parked alongside the beach and were rewarded with an INCREDIBLE sunset!!!! So beautiful and so worth all of the trouble we went through trying to get a good view. Reds, oranges, and yellows changed to pinks, purples, and blues. Travis's quote of the evening-"This is the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen without a sun" (because our angle down on the beach front didn't exactly show the actual sun setting, but we still got to see the awesome colors)!
The sun sets really early in Costa Rica, between 5:30 and 6:00 pm. This really caught me off guard since back home the sun sets at 9 pm this time of the year. The early sunset also means an early sunrise... at 5 am. Because of this, I am finding that most businesses here open at 6 am and close at 7 pm. For example, after the sunset we went to have dinner, and the place where we ate was out of almost everything on their menu.
The hostel we're staying at doesnt have hot water or air conditioning. In fact, most hostels, hotels, restaurants, shops, etc. do not have hot water or air conditioning. I understand not having hot water because it's so darn hot here year round, but air conditioning? That's going to be something tough to deal with this week... sweating while trying to sleep... BUT there's just something absolutely glorious about a cold shower at the end of the day! Nothing like scrubing off sweat, sunscreen, bug spray, and dirt while getting a break from the heat. The break doesn't last long though... as soon as you turn off the water, you're back to being sticky and sweaty. Looking forward to the cold shower reminds me of the mission trip I went on to Jamaica in high school.
Looking forward to Manuel Antonio National Park tomorrow! Praying for clear skies and little rain!
Pura Vida
So let's see where we are... I have one week left of my self-proclaimed "life break". Yes, it's time to enter the "real" world and start my job in business consulting. I put "real" in quotes because I consider myself having been experiencing the real world all along, just not the corporate world I suppose. I'm not sure if I'm prepared for that beast, but the clock is, indeed, ticking.
So what did I decide to do? Jump on a trip to Costa Rica with three friends from Georgia Tech Swimming (Agatha, Travis, and Courtney) and one of Travis's friends from Ohio (Tiffani). We will be returning to the states on Sunday, August 7th, just in time for my start date on August 8th! Whoop!
I was definitely looking forward to the trip (and hoping to do some serious zip lining through the rainforest canopies), but my feelings upon leaving Atlanta were a bit uneasy. I'm not sure what it was, but I think it was a combination of my lack of planning for this trip and my impending job. Let's just say that I was researching information about Costa Rica on the flight there.
So here's what I've got: the Republic of Costa Rica is located in the Central American isthmus. Costa Rica (meaning "Rich Coast") is bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the south, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the Caribbean Sea to the east, boasting 800 miles of coastline. "Pura vida" is the local phrase, literally meaning "pure life" and referring to the relaxed mindset of vacationers and locals alike. Colones are the currency, Spanish is the official language (yay!), and it's currently the rainy season! Oh boy! Costa Rica is also known for its biodiversity, possessing the greatest density of species in the world!! Now that is just plain cool!
When flying into San Jose, the capital city, I definitely got the feeling that I was landing in a jungle. The landscape was beautiful! Rolling hills below and high mountains in the distance covered in dense, lush trees and deep green rainforest. Rust red roof tops dotted the landscape, and dirt roads weaved their ways through the hills.
We were all arriving at the airport at different times. About 30 minutes after I arrived, I found Agatha in the bathroom! Her comment: " We know each other faaaaar to well!" Travis was the last one to arrive, coming from his study abroad in Peru, so he had quite the welcoming committee outside of customs!
We took a shuttle over to the Thrifty to rent our car. It ended up being twice as expensive as we were quoted online, and we ended up paying more for full insurance coverage too (the roads are in awful condition in Costa Rica). We got a white Toyota Prado SUV that has seven seat belts, but it really only "comfortably" fits five people and their luggage. It takes diesel fuels, and it has 4 wheel drive too, so we were happy about that!
We decided to drive out of San Jose today as we had heard there was not much to it. We drove south through Jaco, a popular beach and surf spot, and stayed the night in Quepos, a small town right outside of Manuel Antonio National Park. Driving in Costa Rica has been good so far. Prior to our trip, we had all heard and read that the roads in Costa Rica are awful- mostly unpaved and loaded with potholes. We haven't ventured into any of those yet, but we are planning on going to some remote areas, so we'll see.
What I can say is that driving in Costa Rica has been fun so far! On our way out of San Jose, the sun was setting and the sky cloudy and rainy. On both sides of the road there were hills covered in deep green jungle! The vines, thick canopies, and big green leaves combined with the low, dark clouds and fog hanging in the trees made it feel like we were in Jurassic Park and that a velociraptor was going to jump out and eat us at any second! Fun fact: La Isla de Coco is off of the coast of Costa Rica and was the inspiration for Jurassic Park, so in a way, we ARE in Jurassic Park!
We arrived in Quepos late at night. We got a couple rooms at the Wide Mouth Frog Hostel and had some casado for dinner haha. Casado is a typical Costa Rican meal of rice, black beans, potatoes, salad, fried plantains, and a meat (fish, beef, or chicken). I laugh because in Spanish, "casado" means "married". Our plan was to go to the Manuel Antonio National Park tomorrow, but... surprise! It's closed on Mondays! So, we've got to wait a day, but we should be able to find some awesome things to do tomorrow regardless.
So what did I decide to do? Jump on a trip to Costa Rica with three friends from Georgia Tech Swimming (Agatha, Travis, and Courtney) and one of Travis's friends from Ohio (Tiffani). We will be returning to the states on Sunday, August 7th, just in time for my start date on August 8th! Whoop!
I was definitely looking forward to the trip (and hoping to do some serious zip lining through the rainforest canopies), but my feelings upon leaving Atlanta were a bit uneasy. I'm not sure what it was, but I think it was a combination of my lack of planning for this trip and my impending job. Let's just say that I was researching information about Costa Rica on the flight there.
So here's what I've got: the Republic of Costa Rica is located in the Central American isthmus. Costa Rica (meaning "Rich Coast") is bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the south, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the Caribbean Sea to the east, boasting 800 miles of coastline. "Pura vida" is the local phrase, literally meaning "pure life" and referring to the relaxed mindset of vacationers and locals alike. Colones are the currency, Spanish is the official language (yay!), and it's currently the rainy season! Oh boy! Costa Rica is also known for its biodiversity, possessing the greatest density of species in the world!! Now that is just plain cool!
When flying into San Jose, the capital city, I definitely got the feeling that I was landing in a jungle. The landscape was beautiful! Rolling hills below and high mountains in the distance covered in dense, lush trees and deep green rainforest. Rust red roof tops dotted the landscape, and dirt roads weaved their ways through the hills.
We were all arriving at the airport at different times. About 30 minutes after I arrived, I found Agatha in the bathroom! Her comment: " We know each other faaaaar to well!" Travis was the last one to arrive, coming from his study abroad in Peru, so he had quite the welcoming committee outside of customs!
We took a shuttle over to the Thrifty to rent our car. It ended up being twice as expensive as we were quoted online, and we ended up paying more for full insurance coverage too (the roads are in awful condition in Costa Rica). We got a white Toyota Prado SUV that has seven seat belts, but it really only "comfortably" fits five people and their luggage. It takes diesel fuels, and it has 4 wheel drive too, so we were happy about that!
We decided to drive out of San Jose today as we had heard there was not much to it. We drove south through Jaco, a popular beach and surf spot, and stayed the night in Quepos, a small town right outside of Manuel Antonio National Park. Driving in Costa Rica has been good so far. Prior to our trip, we had all heard and read that the roads in Costa Rica are awful- mostly unpaved and loaded with potholes. We haven't ventured into any of those yet, but we are planning on going to some remote areas, so we'll see.
What I can say is that driving in Costa Rica has been fun so far! On our way out of San Jose, the sun was setting and the sky cloudy and rainy. On both sides of the road there were hills covered in deep green jungle! The vines, thick canopies, and big green leaves combined with the low, dark clouds and fog hanging in the trees made it feel like we were in Jurassic Park and that a velociraptor was going to jump out and eat us at any second! Fun fact: La Isla de Coco is off of the coast of Costa Rica and was the inspiration for Jurassic Park, so in a way, we ARE in Jurassic Park!
We arrived in Quepos late at night. We got a couple rooms at the Wide Mouth Frog Hostel and had some casado for dinner haha. Casado is a typical Costa Rican meal of rice, black beans, potatoes, salad, fried plantains, and a meat (fish, beef, or chicken). I laugh because in Spanish, "casado" means "married". Our plan was to go to the Manuel Antonio National Park tomorrow, but... surprise! It's closed on Mondays! So, we've got to wait a day, but we should be able to find some awesome things to do tomorrow regardless.
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