Costa Rica! cross-posted from facebook...
Hey all,
This is my first real chance to sit down and spend some time online... we´ve been moving around a lot and busyyy! It´s been great so far. I´ve been travelling with a group of 4 friends, 2 of them are going to be in the same program (Monteverde Institute for tropical biology/ ecology) as me starting October 1. Most of that time I´ll be in the cloud forest at high elevation, so for now we´re sticking to beach towns pretty much. Here´s what I´ve been up to so far:
Tuesday I flew into San Jose. It´s the capital but really, not a nice city. We walked around downtown in the rain a little, then ate dinner at a soda- the typical casual Costa Rican restaurant, similar to going to a deli or diner in the States. Without really planning it, we found that six of us from the Monteverde program were staying in the same hotel that night... pretty cool to get to talk to everyone, but we all had our own travel plans, so we split up into our different groups again the next morning.
Wednesday we took a bus, ferry, and two more buses to Montezuma, a tiny and fun tourist town on the peninsula. We drove through a lot of the more rural towns, which don´t look that different from rural towns anywhere else... except that they´re in absolutely gorgeous forest! The cows here are very cute, they have big floppy ears and look happy. We stayed on the beach at Hotel Lys, small and dark but with paintings on every wall, a pet kitten, and really sweet owners. For dinner we had excellent casadas at a soda. Casadas are the basic dinner plate: meat or fish, rice, a raw cabbage salad, a boiled (squash? yucca?) salad. At night we explored the tide pools and found a bunch of chitons (like a pill bug but in the ocean and huuuge). We also found red and blue crabs, anemones, and fish.
Thursday we hiked to three nearby waterfalls, with two girls from Israel and a local guide. The climb was difficult, muddy and climbing over roots while holding onto ropes around trees. The falls were gorgeous, and we spent hours there climbing over the rocks, swinging from a rope into the pools, swimming, and jumping from the smaller falls into the water below. Afterward, we made ourselves some sandwiches and I finished my research paper (due Friday... oops) at the internet cafe for most of the rest of the afternoon.
Friday we ate some papaya (the fresh fruit here is amazing! all of the water and fruit here is safe... don´t worry) and took a taxi boat to Jaco. It was exhilirating, and we got a great view of the mountains and clouds. We even spotted a school of flying fish! From Jaco we took a bus to Manuel Antonio and Quepos, more of a resort beach town and a national park. We all shared one big cabin, in a tropical garden with a path to the beach. The beach was perfect, with soft sand and clear water and islands... and easy surf waves. One of my friends surfed a little while I boogie boarded, and then I got a mini surf lesson! I didn´t manage to paddle or catch a wave on my own, but I did stand up on the board and ride some easy waves to shore! Major accomplishment. After that I had a pinapple batido- a smoothie that is literally just the piece of fruit thrown into a blender! It´s good. We found an Italian restaurant, literally the best bruschetta I´ve had ever. I don´t know how it ended up in Costa Rica.
Saturday I did yoga on the beach with my friend, then we grabbed some breakfast fruit and pastries from our hotel and headed into the national park. We walked through the forest and beaches without a guide, and found spiders, birds, iguanas, butterflies, a tiny snake, bunches of howler monkeys, tide pools with crabs and some eels! We did some body surfing later, and took a walk along the huge beach. At night it poured, we watched the lightning from the soda on our beach at dinner. It gets dark here really early (it´s pretty much winter right now) around 6:30 every night, so evenings we usually plan for the next day, read and write.
Sunday and today were mostly travel days... but I´ll update from there on next time I write one of these loooonnnng notes!
Buses are pretty much the way to get around here... if we´re lucky and catch one of a couple directs that leave to some cities, it doesn´t take too long, but mostly travel goes really slow. Taxis are more convenient and pretty cheap, but we´re trying to save money and mostly take buses with locals. It´s hot everywhere, and rains at some point most afternoons. Very very tropical! I´m surprised by how touristy a lot of areas in Costa Rica are, but it makes it a lot easier to get around and to talk to people. The locals are always really helpful, a good number are bilingual but those that aren´t are really patient with our limited Spanish. So far the only issues we´ve run into are mosquito bites, a toad that visited our room one night, being caught in the rain without your jacket, and people who hassle tourists to give them tours/ directions/ transportation for a heavy tip.
This is my first real chance to sit down and spend some time online... we´ve been moving around a lot and busyyy! It´s been great so far. I´ve been travelling with a group of 4 friends, 2 of them are going to be in the same program (Monteverde Institute for tropical biology/ ecology) as me starting October 1. Most of that time I´ll be in the cloud forest at high elevation, so for now we´re sticking to beach towns pretty much. Here´s what I´ve been up to so far:
Tuesday I flew into San Jose. It´s the capital but really, not a nice city. We walked around downtown in the rain a little, then ate dinner at a soda- the typical casual Costa Rican restaurant, similar to going to a deli or diner in the States. Without really planning it, we found that six of us from the Monteverde program were staying in the same hotel that night... pretty cool to get to talk to everyone, but we all had our own travel plans, so we split up into our different groups again the next morning.
Wednesday we took a bus, ferry, and two more buses to Montezuma, a tiny and fun tourist town on the peninsula. We drove through a lot of the more rural towns, which don´t look that different from rural towns anywhere else... except that they´re in absolutely gorgeous forest! The cows here are very cute, they have big floppy ears and look happy. We stayed on the beach at Hotel Lys, small and dark but with paintings on every wall, a pet kitten, and really sweet owners. For dinner we had excellent casadas at a soda. Casadas are the basic dinner plate: meat or fish, rice, a raw cabbage salad, a boiled (squash? yucca?) salad. At night we explored the tide pools and found a bunch of chitons (like a pill bug but in the ocean and huuuge). We also found red and blue crabs, anemones, and fish.
Thursday we hiked to three nearby waterfalls, with two girls from Israel and a local guide. The climb was difficult, muddy and climbing over roots while holding onto ropes around trees. The falls were gorgeous, and we spent hours there climbing over the rocks, swinging from a rope into the pools, swimming, and jumping from the smaller falls into the water below. Afterward, we made ourselves some sandwiches and I finished my research paper (due Friday... oops) at the internet cafe for most of the rest of the afternoon.
Friday we ate some papaya (the fresh fruit here is amazing! all of the water and fruit here is safe... don´t worry) and took a taxi boat to Jaco. It was exhilirating, and we got a great view of the mountains and clouds. We even spotted a school of flying fish! From Jaco we took a bus to Manuel Antonio and Quepos, more of a resort beach town and a national park. We all shared one big cabin, in a tropical garden with a path to the beach. The beach was perfect, with soft sand and clear water and islands... and easy surf waves. One of my friends surfed a little while I boogie boarded, and then I got a mini surf lesson! I didn´t manage to paddle or catch a wave on my own, but I did stand up on the board and ride some easy waves to shore! Major accomplishment. After that I had a pinapple batido- a smoothie that is literally just the piece of fruit thrown into a blender! It´s good. We found an Italian restaurant, literally the best bruschetta I´ve had ever. I don´t know how it ended up in Costa Rica.
Saturday I did yoga on the beach with my friend, then we grabbed some breakfast fruit and pastries from our hotel and headed into the national park. We walked through the forest and beaches without a guide, and found spiders, birds, iguanas, butterflies, a tiny snake, bunches of howler monkeys, tide pools with crabs and some eels! We did some body surfing later, and took a walk along the huge beach. At night it poured, we watched the lightning from the soda on our beach at dinner. It gets dark here really early (it´s pretty much winter right now) around 6:30 every night, so evenings we usually plan for the next day, read and write.
Sunday and today were mostly travel days... but I´ll update from there on next time I write one of these loooonnnng notes!
Buses are pretty much the way to get around here... if we´re lucky and catch one of a couple directs that leave to some cities, it doesn´t take too long, but mostly travel goes really slow. Taxis are more convenient and pretty cheap, but we´re trying to save money and mostly take buses with locals. It´s hot everywhere, and rains at some point most afternoons. Very very tropical! I´m surprised by how touristy a lot of areas in Costa Rica are, but it makes it a lot easier to get around and to talk to people. The locals are always really helpful, a good number are bilingual but those that aren´t are really patient with our limited Spanish. So far the only issues we´ve run into are mosquito bites, a toad that visited our room one night, being caught in the rain without your jacket, and people who hassle tourists to give them tours/ directions/ transportation for a heavy tip.