Costa Rican "Adventures"
Friday, April 24, 2009
Hey all,
So I decided to log this trip, because I haven’t done so on the past few trips I’ve been on and even a year later I have a hard time remembering everything we did. Anyway.
I had just worked ten-hour shifts every day for six days, and my first rewarding day off was completely full of travel. The plan was for Hannah and I to go to the hotel my dad was staying at right near Logan the night before we left. Since I had to work until 4:30, we weren’t there until around 10 PM. I got out of work, packed up my stuff at Rose’s, drove to Rhode Island, packed my stuff there, then Hannah’s boyfriend Rob took us to the hotel.
After about four hours of sleep, we left the hotel via shuttle to the airport at 3:30. The flight was pretty uneventful, and we arrived in San Jose at 1:30 CST. Customs, immigration, and renting our car took about an hour, and we all had the feeling that it was way too easy and there had to be more complications… We were right.
Our destination was Tambor, Puntarenas, and we had to drive for an hour and a half and take a ferry to get there. After an hour or so of getting lost within about five miles of the ferry, we finally came within a few miles of our destination. We saw all these signs saying “Ferry 5 km, 3 km, 1 km” etc and assumed we were close… After the 1 km sign, there were no more signs, We ended up asking for directions about five times, where I had to use my broken Spanish to try and find “El barco hasta Tambor”. We finally got there at 4:30 for the 5:00 ferry, but it was full and we were told we’d have to wait until the 8:00 ferry. Awesome.
We drove around Puntarenas for awhile and ate some sandwiches at a little restaurant. After that, we spent awhile looking for a bank to change our currency to Colones, which we found, and a grocery store, which we didn’t. Finally, it was 6:45 and time to go back to the ferry to make sure we’d a spot for the 8:00. We paid, then drove onto a ferry similar to the Block Island ferry except bigger.
We realized on the way that we had no idea how to get to the place we were staying. Dad had thought, when planning the trip, that we’d be taking a cab there, but hadn’t looked up directions after deciding we’d be renting a car. So we decided to just take the first road and follow signs for Tambor, and if necessary we were going to look it up on Google Maps on Hannah’s phone for a bunch of money. Turned out that, around 10:00, we found the place easy enough.
Now, we figured there’d be someone around to check us in and take us to our room. We came to a gat where there was a guard who spoke a small amount of English. He tried to call the people who ran the place at three different numbers to no avail. Already visions of sleeping in the car in the 85-degree humidity were filling my head. After some time, it seemed that our only option was to find a hotel nearby and wait til morning. But fortune finally smiles upon us I suppose, because the guard was able to get in touch with his partner, who physically went to the guy’s house and woke him up. He showed up around 11:00, an hour after we’d gotten there, and we were finally taken to our little villa.
We thought that’d be the end of the complications and we’d finally be able to sleep, but we were mistaken. The maintenance guy, who didn’t speak any English, was having trouble making the air conditioner work. He kept just messing with the dials, walking outside, coming back in, and repeating the process. I kept asking him, “No es funcionado?” and he’d just shrug or say “Espera (Wait)”. Finally he went outside a last time and I decided to fiddle with the dials myself. I turned the temp down a bunch, and it immediately started working… I have no idea why it worked for me and not him, but the guy never came back. So we finally got some well-deserved sleep.
I’m pretty sure my dad had a different idea of this country than the actual reality of it. He likes to go to sunny, tropical places with white sand beaches and beautiful women and lounge around in the sun all day. Well, for starters, no one’s really around here except some locals or maybe some Nicaraguans. The place that we’re staying is a nice enough resort with all the amenities, but it’s in the middle of nowhere. There’s a beach, but it’s way too hot to think about lying in the sun all day. We went to the beach today, and there was literally no one there. The water was probably ninety degrees, and the outside temperature ranges from 85 at night to 95 during the day.
Hannah and I want to do something fun. We want to go repelling down waterfalls, hike in the rainforest, do some zip-lining, but my dad seems to have a different idea of the trip, I don’t know. Today we just lounged around the 95-degree pool for a little while, looked around the store and restaurant in the resort, went to the beach, and came back and watched TV. There’s no way I can do this every day for a week. I mean, we’re in fucking COSTA RICA and we’re doing nothing. Last time I was here we went zip-lining, hiking, went to museums, a serpentarium, and iguana farm, and did all this fun stuff. There’s SO many things to do here, and my dad has the money, and I hope he lightens up about the idea and takes us somewhere cool, or I might lose it. I feel like it’s a complete waste to be in a country that’s known for all this cool shit, only to do things we could easiy go to Florida to do and have more fun.
Anyway yeah, that’s basically what’s goin on. We’re having an okay time, but I really hope we can do some other stuff. I know I sound spoiled, but I mean we’re already here so we should do something other than sit around.
I’ll get back to you all tomorrow maybe. There’s an internet café here that’s only like $2 an hour, but like I said I don’t want to be doing stuff like that the whole time we’re here. I’m actually writing this from our villa, and will just post it when I get to the café. Ok well, see yall later,
Pura vida,
Isaac
P.S. the guy next to me at the cafe is blatantly watching pr0nz lawl.
Hey all,
So I decided to log this trip, because I haven’t done so on the past few trips I’ve been on and even a year later I have a hard time remembering everything we did. Anyway.
I had just worked ten-hour shifts every day for six days, and my first rewarding day off was completely full of travel. The plan was for Hannah and I to go to the hotel my dad was staying at right near Logan the night before we left. Since I had to work until 4:30, we weren’t there until around 10 PM. I got out of work, packed up my stuff at Rose’s, drove to Rhode Island, packed my stuff there, then Hannah’s boyfriend Rob took us to the hotel.
After about four hours of sleep, we left the hotel via shuttle to the airport at 3:30. The flight was pretty uneventful, and we arrived in San Jose at 1:30 CST. Customs, immigration, and renting our car took about an hour, and we all had the feeling that it was way too easy and there had to be more complications… We were right.
Our destination was Tambor, Puntarenas, and we had to drive for an hour and a half and take a ferry to get there. After an hour or so of getting lost within about five miles of the ferry, we finally came within a few miles of our destination. We saw all these signs saying “Ferry 5 km, 3 km, 1 km” etc and assumed we were close… After the 1 km sign, there were no more signs, We ended up asking for directions about five times, where I had to use my broken Spanish to try and find “El barco hasta Tambor”. We finally got there at 4:30 for the 5:00 ferry, but it was full and we were told we’d have to wait until the 8:00 ferry. Awesome.
We drove around Puntarenas for awhile and ate some sandwiches at a little restaurant. After that, we spent awhile looking for a bank to change our currency to Colones, which we found, and a grocery store, which we didn’t. Finally, it was 6:45 and time to go back to the ferry to make sure we’d a spot for the 8:00. We paid, then drove onto a ferry similar to the Block Island ferry except bigger.
We realized on the way that we had no idea how to get to the place we were staying. Dad had thought, when planning the trip, that we’d be taking a cab there, but hadn’t looked up directions after deciding we’d be renting a car. So we decided to just take the first road and follow signs for Tambor, and if necessary we were going to look it up on Google Maps on Hannah’s phone for a bunch of money. Turned out that, around 10:00, we found the place easy enough.
Now, we figured there’d be someone around to check us in and take us to our room. We came to a gat where there was a guard who spoke a small amount of English. He tried to call the people who ran the place at three different numbers to no avail. Already visions of sleeping in the car in the 85-degree humidity were filling my head. After some time, it seemed that our only option was to find a hotel nearby and wait til morning. But fortune finally smiles upon us I suppose, because the guard was able to get in touch with his partner, who physically went to the guy’s house and woke him up. He showed up around 11:00, an hour after we’d gotten there, and we were finally taken to our little villa.
We thought that’d be the end of the complications and we’d finally be able to sleep, but we were mistaken. The maintenance guy, who didn’t speak any English, was having trouble making the air conditioner work. He kept just messing with the dials, walking outside, coming back in, and repeating the process. I kept asking him, “No es funcionado?” and he’d just shrug or say “Espera (Wait)”. Finally he went outside a last time and I decided to fiddle with the dials myself. I turned the temp down a bunch, and it immediately started working… I have no idea why it worked for me and not him, but the guy never came back. So we finally got some well-deserved sleep.
I’m pretty sure my dad had a different idea of this country than the actual reality of it. He likes to go to sunny, tropical places with white sand beaches and beautiful women and lounge around in the sun all day. Well, for starters, no one’s really around here except some locals or maybe some Nicaraguans. The place that we’re staying is a nice enough resort with all the amenities, but it’s in the middle of nowhere. There’s a beach, but it’s way too hot to think about lying in the sun all day. We went to the beach today, and there was literally no one there. The water was probably ninety degrees, and the outside temperature ranges from 85 at night to 95 during the day.
Hannah and I want to do something fun. We want to go repelling down waterfalls, hike in the rainforest, do some zip-lining, but my dad seems to have a different idea of the trip, I don’t know. Today we just lounged around the 95-degree pool for a little while, looked around the store and restaurant in the resort, went to the beach, and came back and watched TV. There’s no way I can do this every day for a week. I mean, we’re in fucking COSTA RICA and we’re doing nothing. Last time I was here we went zip-lining, hiking, went to museums, a serpentarium, and iguana farm, and did all this fun stuff. There’s SO many things to do here, and my dad has the money, and I hope he lightens up about the idea and takes us somewhere cool, or I might lose it. I feel like it’s a complete waste to be in a country that’s known for all this cool shit, only to do things we could easiy go to Florida to do and have more fun.
Anyway yeah, that’s basically what’s goin on. We’re having an okay time, but I really hope we can do some other stuff. I know I sound spoiled, but I mean we’re already here so we should do something other than sit around.
I’ll get back to you all tomorrow maybe. There’s an internet café here that’s only like $2 an hour, but like I said I don’t want to be doing stuff like that the whole time we’re here. I’m actually writing this from our villa, and will just post it when I get to the café. Ok well, see yall later,
Pura vida,
Isaac
P.S. the guy next to me at the cafe is blatantly watching pr0nz lawl.