Costa Rica, November 2006

Summary

Realizing that many of you don’t have the time (or inclination) to read about the nitty gritty of our trip, we offer 4 highlights and 4 lowlights to give an idea of how the trip went. (Damon’s friend Michelle introduced us to this “game” one New Year’s Eve and I’ve really loved playing it).

Highlights:

• Soaking in the water at Tabacon Hot Springs
• Canoeing in an estuary and having a crocodile swim by
• Seeing wildlife like a leatherback turtle laying eggs, a leatherback hatchling making its way to sea for the first time, 3 toed sloths, monkeys (howler, spider, capuchin, and squirrel), a resplendent quetzal, keel billed toucans, rufus tailed motmot, morpho butterflies, and leaf cutter ants
• Waking up and having a clear view of Arenal Volcano from our hotel room

Lowlights

• Arguing about how to get from one place to another/whether or not to get off the bus
• Feeling like we were being ripped off/taking somewhere wrong by taxi drivers
• Bugbites
• Surfing injuries

Also acknowledging that no one will want to see all of the photos – with the possible exception of Carlyn and Jen, we have created a highlights reel on our Smugmug page.
Why Costa Rica?

It all started innocently enough. The day after our wedding my cousin Carlyn (who was a reader in our wedding) mentioned that she was planning on doing a study abroad program in Costa Rica starting in July that would last about 4 months. Funnily enough our friend Shallin had given us a Costa Rica guidebook as a shower gift in March when she missed our shower to do field work in Costa Rica. She had meant for us to exchange the book for a guidebook for wherever our travels might take us. We skimmed a bit of the book, talked some with our friend Jon who went there in June, and decided to go check it out. Two folks I worked with up in Skykomish this summer were also headed to Costa Rica and gave us some good tips.

Heredia, October 29-30, 2006

We flew into Santamaria Airport near the capitol city of San Jose. Instead of heading to San Jose (as some do) or heading straight to the beach or the sights we headed to Heredia- a city of about 50,000 that Carlyn has been calling home. We stayed at Hotel Ceos- not a particularly fabulous hotel, but decent enough for $27. My family has been having a bit of a competition to find the smallest hotel bathroom (although this is by no means on purpose). The unique feature of the Hotel Ceos bathroom was that the door would only close if the toilet seat was up.

Our first full day in Costa Rica Carlyn took us on public bus to Alajuela from where we could catch a bus up to Poas Volcano. We had checked the guidebook (which said that the bus was at 9 am), Carlyn had called the bus terminal (the guy there said the bus was at 9:30 am), and then we were running a little late. We got there at 9:45 and it turns out that the bus leaves at 9:15. Moral of the story- be early and expect to wait.

So, we took a $20 taxi ride (and when we reached the gates to the park the driver nicely pointed out the bus that we had missed, which was just in front of us). The crater was covered in clouds by the time we had walked the 300 yads from the parking area. Fortunately the clouds cleared a bit and we were able to actually see the crater and fumaroles. The sulfur smell was pretty strong and after a little while my eyes started tearing. It was time to check out the trails in the park. Most people combine a trip to Poas with a trip to La Paz water fall or somewhere else- and it turns out that they do this because there is about 2 hours worth of stuff to do at Poas. We didn’t plan to do anything else so instead we watched the rain from the visitor center after checking out the lagoon. One of the drawbacks to traveling during the low season is that not everything is open- for example the restaurant was closed. Fortunately we were prepared with a number of Damon snacks. We did manage to catch the return bus and then embarked on an adventure to locate a Peruvian restaurant that was described in the guidebook. After a bit of wandering we ended up at a different Peruvian restaurant (who knew there could be so many in Alajuela?).

Manuel Antonio, October 31-November 1, 2006

We took a tourist bus from near the San Jose Airport to our hotel in Manuel Antonio, Cabinas Espadilla. We debated on taking the public bus for this leg of the trip since there was a direct bus from San Jose- but the fact that the tourist bus left at 8:30 am and not 6 am seemed worth it.

 

Manuel Antonio is a national park that is quickly becoming an island of forest amidst a sea of development. We hired a guide to show us around the park and spotted all kinds of wildlife- iguanas, sloths, monkeys. The highlight was probably seeing a spectacular caiman fighting with an iguana (I only saw the splash but we’re pretty sure the iguana lost). Another highlight was coming across a group of squirrel monkeys while hiking on our own. These are the rarest type of monkey in Costa Rica … a guide in another park said he’d only ever spotted them in a zoo! We also played on the beach some, sat at the pool some, checked out El Avion, and saw some beautiful sunsets.

A definite highlight here was eating at a soda on the beach. Sodas are local eateries that offer a few dishes- typically a casado (set meal) that comes with some kind of meat, beans, rice, plantains, and salad. This was our first taste of casados- and they had homemade “salsa” also called lizano. Yum!

4 Buses, 2 Taxis, and a Ferry, November 2, 2006

It turns out that public buses in Costa Rica are really good if you are going to or from San Jose. If that’s the case, then there’s a likely a direct bus or two that gets you where you’re going. It probably leaves early in the morning or it arrives sometime after dark. We looked into the tourist bus option (there are a few companies in Costa Rica that do door to door service from popular destinations for about $30 a person) but couldn’t find one that went to where we were headed (Malpais/Santa Teresa). So we embarked on what ended up being an 11 hour adventure that required taking the bus from Manuel Antonio to Quepos, waiting there, then taking a 3 1/2 hour bus to Puntarenas, taking a taxi from the residential neighborhood where the bus stopped to the ferry terminal, taking the ferry to Paquera, taking a bus from there to Cobano, and from Cobano to Santa Teresa. From the cross-roads near Santa Teresa we took a cab to Hotel Milarepa.

The bus rides offered an interesting insight into life in Costa Rica- some people sent packages with the driver to folks who were waiting enroute, one woman had gone to the grocery store and the bus stopped right at her house and waited while her family came out to get the bags. Most of the people on the bus were helpful by letting us know which bus we needed for our connection or telling us where to get off. The roads were pretty hellacious- some of them weren’t paved, most had potholes, some were super steep making you wonder how you would get out of town if it was raining really hard.

The most surreal thing about that day was heading to the neighboring hotel for dinner after we arrived in Santa Teresa. Hotel Milarepa is about a 20 minute walk from “town”. We were pretty hungry so we made our way to the hotel next door (about a 5 minute walk). After spending most of the day traveling the way the average Costa Rican travels, we ended up eating dinner at Flor Blanca, a place that the average Costa Rican certainly does not eat. Flor Blanca opened in 2002 and has been called the most luxurious resort in Costa Rica.

Malpais/Santa Teresa, November 3, 2006
After a lovely dinner we settled down in our private bungalow (complete with garden shower) and fell asleep to the sound of the waves. Around 4:30 in the morning we were awakened by what sounded like a herd of sea lions in distress right outside of our room. It turned out that they were howler monkeys, and based on how loud they sounded that morning they must have been in the trees near the hotel. We didn’t have any grandiose plans for the day so we opened the doors to our room and lay in bed while we watched the waves crash on the shore. Certainly not somewhere you’d want to be during a tsumami, but a great way to spend a relaxing day.

One drawback to traveling during the low season is that not everything is open yet. Fortunately the staff at the hotel were able to make us breakfast but we were left to fend for ourselves for other meals. We walked down the beach until we made it into town but a lot of places were still renovating in preparation for the high season- it was neat to get a behind the scenes look at the area with construction being the main focus instead of tourists (at least for the time being). It was a really beautiful area and very relaxing. We met some folks who’s bag had been stolen while they were lying down next to it on the beach-it served as a reminder that even in the most idyllic settings you need to be aware of your surroundings.

Tamarindo Take 1, November 4, 2006

Tamarindo wasn’t exactly on our list of places to go but it turned out that a tourist bus would take us from Santa Teresa to Tamarindo and that seemed close enough to Playa Grande, where we were to meet our friend Jenkay on the 5th. So it seemed worth going there, doing some laundry, and getting on-line. Tamarindo was super developed and while it allowed us to get our laundry done and go on-line in a fast and efficient manner, it wasn’t somewhere we wanted to spend a lot of time. There was a lot of tourist infrastructure there which was convenient but the taxi drivers were aggressive and there was a strip mall feel to the area. It kind of epitomized the dilemma that tourism creates- you want to see nature and “Costa Rica” but most folks are looking for some creature comforts as well. The main difference between Tamarindo and Manuel Antonio was the density of buildings- and the fact that as you walked down the main street you couldn’t see the beach because hotels had taken up most of the beachfront. At least in Manuel Antonio the development was restricted on the beachside of the road. One highlight was eating lunch at a soda where we were able to watch iguanas eating while we had our lunch.

Playa Grande, November 5-6, 2006

Playa Grande is only a 30 minute cab ride from Playa Tamarindo but it was world’s away. Most of the area along the beach has been set aside as a national park to protect the nesting grounds of the leatherback turtle. Most development was away from the beach and any development that was there, like Hotel Las Tortugas, shielded their lights so that they weren’t visible from the beach. On the 5th we met up with our friend Jen who just finished her PhD at UW.

We had a fabulous time in Playa Grande- canoeing in a nearby estuary where we saw a crocodile, crabs sitting on tree trunks, birds flying by overhead. We got rained on but fortunately it wasn’t too bad. In the afternoon Damon and I took a surfing lesson which was really fun and full of good pointers. Unfortunately I made the mistake of not keeping my board perpendicular to the wave front as it came in and I got a pretty nasty bruise from the fins on the board when a wave threw the board at me.

If that wasn’t enough of a great day, we had reservations to visit the park at night to see leatherbacks nesting. The previous night they hadn’t seen any turtles so we were expecting to spend a long night waiting. We got extremely lucky and before they even showed us the informational introductory video we were carted off to see a turtle laying eggs. It was pretty amazing to stand there as the turtle finished digging her nest and laid her 69 or so eggs. Seeing a newly hatched turtle making it’s way to the sea for the first time was the icing on the cake.

Tamarindo Take 2, November 7, 2006

After Jen’s positive experience taking the water taxi from Playa Grande to Playa Tamarindo on the 6th we decided to get a ride from Brittany (Hotel Las Tortugas) to the water taxi. After a quick,somewhat stressful walk through an estuary area (storm clouds were rolling in and we were worried about getting caught in the rain) we caught a water taxi, walked to the helpful tourist center, booked our bus out of Playa Tamarindo to Arenal, and found a hotel. We spent the afternoon taking care of e-mail, running some errands before having a tasty dinner at a local soda.

Tabacan Hot Springs, November 8, 2006

 

We had toyed with the idea of going to some other less expensive/fancy hotsprings while near La Fortuna. As it turned out, other passengers on our tourist bus were heading to Tabacan Hot Springs and Resort . We decided that was easiest, stored our luggage at their front desk and headed to the springs. It turns out that since the 2006 Lonely Planet came out the price to enter the springs had gone up quite a lot. We paid the $45 entrance fee and got ready to spend the day relaxing in the hot springs. We walked around first to get a feel for the place and then took some photos while sipping drinks from the swim-up bar.

 

There were basically 2 types of folks at the hot springs- honeymooners and retirees. There were a handful of families and other 20 somethings but they were definitely in the minority. We were lucky and during the 5 minutes we had our cameras out Arenal decided to come out from the clouds. As we were putting the cameras away the skies opened up and it started pouring rain. It was pretty cool to sit in warm water and not have to worry about getting cold in the rain.

There were a series of pools that were different temperatures- some secluded, some large, some were part of a river, some were fed by waterfalls. They had done a good job of blending what was landscaped and what was natural. As darkness fell we were able to see incandescent rocks rolling down from the volcano while we had our beers sitting in the pool.

Arenal, November 9, 2006

We made our way by taxi out to the Arenal Observatory Lodge at the suggestion of my aunt. We splurged for a Smithsonian room that had views of the volcano- we were on the lookout for more incandescent rocks rolling down the flanks of the volcano but it was too cloudy and it turns out that the majority of the rocks roll down the other side of the volcano. In retrospect we were glad that the lava did not come down the side of the volcano that we were staying on- even though the observatory is considered in a safe zone we weren’t entirely sure what the basis of that designation was.

We went on the complimentary guided hike that the Lodge provided which went to the 1992 lava flows and had some great views of Arenal. In the evening we went on the guided Silencio hike. Our guide was amazing at spotting wildlife and we spent a lot of our time looking at wildlife along the road from the Lodge- howler monkeys, keel billed toucans, red lored parrots. The hike was pretty neat- we spotted some other birds and monkeys while we were out. From there we went to a lookout to see if we could see any incandescent rocks. The lookout was crowded with other tourists who were also headed to the hot springs. Clouds obscured the view of the volcano so the tours went to the hot springs- and then the clouds cleared and we were able to see some of the rockfalls through our guides telescope.

Santa Elena/Monteverde, November 10-12, 2006

The most popular route to take from Arenal Volcano/La Fortuna area to Monteverde/Santa Elena is a jeep/boat/jeep combo. It is a bit of a misnomer in that the “jeeps” are actually airconditioned tourist vans. The trip takes about 3 hours and costs about $25. It was a cool way to check out Lake Arenal (a lake that was created when a dam was put in for hydropower).

We settled in at Pensione Santa Elena, a hostel that came recommended by both the guidebook and my friend Hillary. We got a private room with private bath for $30 for 4 people. While it wasn’t the cleanest place I’ve ever stayed, it wasn’t the dirtiest either. And for $7.50 a night we couldn’t really complain. Damon and I decided to go on a twilight walk thorough the Children’s Eternal Rainforest. You may remember when kids were raising money to save the rainfoests in the late 80’s. In case you were wondering if anything ever happened with that spare change, it did- they bought rainforest in Costa Rica. We didn’t see many animals on the walk as it started raining shortly after the walk started- but it was cool to see birds sleeping up in the trees and we saw some cool spiders.

We had one full day to spend in the cloud forests and we decided to go to Monteverde. We woke up and caught the 6:15 bus to the park and got a guide for a few hours. While we were waiting for the bus we met Mike, a fellow North Carolinian who lives near Carlyn. Our tour group was fairly small, the 4 of us, Mike, and a Danish couple. Our guide told us a lot about the flora which was cool since many of our guides have focused more on the fauna. This could be because the areas of Monteverde that are accessible by footpath to the public are a small fraction of the overall cloud forest. This leads to animals staying away from the more public area of the park. That being said, we did see a resplendent quetzal. These birds which were once common are now endangered. They used to be caught for their long tail feathers that were used in headdresses. Oddly, the head of the quetzal looks like a stuffed animal.

After the tour we hiked out to the Continental Divide from where we could see clouds forming on the Caribbean side and we could catch glimpses of the Pacific on the other side. We hit the local creamery for some ice cream before going and having what might have been the best coffee in the region at the Monteverde Coffee Coop. We did some Christmas shopping at CASEM, an artists’ coop, before heading back to the hotel.

From there Damon and I headed to check out the frogs at the indoor frog pond. I didn’t realize how much I had forgotten from high school biology (do you remember what happens to tadpoles’ tails?). They had some pretty cool frogs there- some blue jeans frogs, poison dart frogs, and the red eyed frog that shows up on all the postcards. Those guys were a lot smaller than I thought they would be- about 2 cm. There was a pregnant frog and pair of mating frogs (for some species the female has to carry the male around for several weeks while they’re mating?!).

Our last day in Monteverde we decided to go for a “walk”. Our little trek ended up being basically straight uphill for the full hour that we hiked out. We got to see lots of cool morphos butterflies and we made it up to the clouds before deciding to head down to eat lunch. We had a fairly uneventful bus ride home to get back to Heredia.

Heredia, November 13, 2006

Jen woke up early on the 13th and took off for Seattle. Damon and I decided to take the local bus the couple of miles to Cafe Britt, a coffee roaster just outside of Heredia. They had a guided tour which although a little hokey was interesting. We certainly learned a lot about coffee (it has to be picked by hand because the beans on the same branch don’t all reach maturity at the same time, it needs to be processed the same day or it will ferment, and a good cup of coffee has the same taste regardless of whether or not it’s hot). We finished out our Christmas shopping at the gift shop, had lunch, and then walked back to our hotel.

That afternoon we had the pleasure of having coffee with Carlyn’s host family. They were a super friendly family- it didn’t seem to faze them that we could barely speak Spanish (although I could understand them) and that they knew very little English. We then joined them on a shopping excursion in preparation for Carlyn’s host sister’s first communion which was coming up before going home with them, helping them out with some Christmas decorations, and having dinner. It was really neat to see how a middle to upper class family in Costa Rica lives and fun to put faces with the stories Carlyn had been telling us of her family.