Costa Rican Adventures, part 2
Well hello there,
Turns out we actually did plan some fun stuff to do this week! First I looked up a bunch of stuff online about things we could do and found out about a wildlife refuge called Curu really close by. They apparently have howler and spider monkeys, pumas, the occasionally mountain lion, and some other cool stuff. I talked it over with Hannah and Dad, and we planned to go the next day around 7.
Well, we woke up at 6 and my dad came up with two reasons why we shouldn’t go that day: one, it was a Sunday and therefore could be really busy, and two, it rained for about four hours that morning, so “All the rivers and streams would be overflowing and everything would be muddy.” Both of these things were ridiculous. There’s no way it would be crowded in the middle of nowhere like this, and there’s no way it’d be flooded because it’s the dry season and it’s always 95 degrees out. When it rains for four hours, the earth sucks it up like a sponge and ten minutes later you can’t even tell it rained.
Oh well. No arguing with DMFR, so we just planned to go the next day (today). Instead, we decided to drive down south to a town called Montezuma and see what kinds of stores and stuff were there.
The town we came to was a small town which was mostly filled with pizza places, bars, and tourist daytrip planners like EcoTours and such. Hannah and I convinced Dad that we should go to one and see if there’s anything fun, so we chose one at random and asked what they had for us. Hannah and Dad particularly wanted to ask about horseback riding, which we ended up booking for Tuesday. For Wednesday, we went with my suggestion of doing a nature walk slash canopy zip-line trip. Apparently it’s eleven platforms and nine cables, which is a pretty good deal. I’ve been zip-lining twice, once actually in Costa Rica, and it’s a LOT of fun. I’m just hoping Dad doesn’t chicken out hah, because he has trouble going on amusement park rides sometimes…
So yeah, just like that, we had our whole trip planned: Curu Monday, horseback riding Tuesday, zip-line Wednesday, relaxing and winding down Thursday, and coming home on Friday. Woot!
We went to the grocery store and came back and hung by the pool for awhile. I don’t know how Hannah and Dad managed to lie in the sun the whole time. I was barely able to stand doing so under an umbrella. It’s SO HOT. Anyway, I started to doze off and was woken up by Hannah telling me that we should go back because it looked like rain. I looked up and damn, she was right. The sky was friggin black.
Went back, watched some TV, blahblahblah. It rained like crazy all night and the thunder and lightening was almost constant. While Dad and I were watching some sort of murder mystery, right before the end, the TV started going on and off to gray fuzziness, and two minutes later the power went out. So much for cooking food that night.
We all went outside to read for at least as long as the sun was up. It went down as it does around 6 and we went in, and the power came back on soon after. That was good, because we probably would have lost like $100 worth of food if it hadn’t gone back on, and we’d have had no A/C for the night.
Rest of the night was kinda uneventful. We watched TV, hung around, Hannah and I went for a walk, then went to bed.
Next day, today, we went to Curu. It was fun, but not as exciting as the website made it sound. First of all, when we got there we couldn’t figure out where to go because no one was around. The first interesting thing we saw was this little crab, about four inches wide, that was a weird combination of orange, red, and purple. It was really cool looking. We then chose a random trail that lead up into the hills. It was very steep and a difficult climb, and as we walked we noticed more of those funny crabs. Then, as we walked up the mountain, they were everywhere. Hannah and I started to get a bit creeped out, but it was pretty funny with them all scurrying about everywhere.
We decided to walk back and try another trail. By then the gift shop had opened, so we asked about some of the trails. The woman recommended a few, and was surprised to hear we had even tried the other one because she said it was way too difficult.
The trail we chose was really nice. We saw a lot of cool lizards, some spider monkeys, some cool birds, and lots of beautiful plants. We heard howler monkeys making their insane barking noises, but never saw any of them. The website may have made this place seem a little more exciting than it actually was, but I guess it depends on the season. Plus, I still had fun. We finished the trail and drove back to the villa, where we are now.
I’m half excited and half dreading tomorrow. We’ll be going back to Montezuma and riding horses through the woods and by a waterfall that we’ll apparently be able to swim in, which should be fun, but the shitty part is we’re going to have to wear long pants, in the 95-degree humidity, on top of horses. It’s gunna be sooo hot. We asked what we should bring, and the guy said, “Long pants, and lots of sunscreen.”
Sooo yeah, should be fun. I guess I’ll get back to everyone sometime tomorrow, or whenever. Hope I’m not boring everyone with these entries, my writing style seems to be kinda bland in its, “We did this, then this, then this. It was cool” aspect, but I hope people enjoy reading ><
All the best,
Isaac