Day 1
I arrive in San Jose to your typical travel snafu. My first thought on getting out of the airport is that it is pretty hot here. Then I start waiting for Andreas and Laura. The only critical part of our trip is this connection at the airport, since if they don't arrive we have no way to meet up. For the first 45min I just assume that Andreas is on Greek time and thought he could leave the hotel at the same time he was supposed to be at the airport. After an hour I figure something bad has happened. At 1.5 hours I decide to call using a pay phone to call the states. I'm not sure what the charge is, but I finally get through and find out that we never got the car from the rental agency, which is why I never got picked up. I decide to meet them at the hotel so I get in a car with some random Tican (Costa Rican) instead of a real taxi to go to the hotel. The whole way I'm trying to figure out what is the chance this guy is going to try and take me to an abandoned road and mug me. It turns out he takes me to the hotel where Andreas and Laura have been spending the day trying to get us a car.
Apparently there are no rental cars available in Costa Rico. We had made a reservation but apparently the car we were supposed to get was never returned, nor where 3 other cars that were supposed to be returned that day. The guy keeps saying he'll have a car in a few hours. Finally, he tells us we should probably try to call a different company. We finally get a car at 5:30, some 5 hours after we were supposed to.
So we hit the road to Arenul. This is decent ride, we have to avoid people, bikes and dogs on the side of the road who decide to cross whenever they want, and potholes the size of a small boulder, but for international driving it is pretty good. We find the turnoff to our hotel and have to navigate a pretty torn up dirt road, but finally we arrive. The hotel is lovely cabins on a lush ranch. We unload the car and head over to the restaurant for a yummy meal of steak for Andreas and Laura and tilapia. Desert is a delicious coconut flan.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Arenal
Day 2
We start the morning with breakfast and plan making. We decide to first stop at the waterfall in la Fortuna. This is a 600m walk to a pretty impressive 70m fall. The walk is all down steps through pretty rain forest, easy but likely to be more of a challenge on the way out. The waterfall is quite beautiful and the hike out isn't bad.
Next we head to the ranger station at Arenal to inquire about night hikes. We enter the park and there are a few hikes to go on. We walk through what feels like a corn field and then a forest and then a km of lava rocks to get a close up view of the volcano. On the way back, we take a different route to see a big tree. I think that we pass the 40m tree a few times , but when we finally get to the right tree there is no mistaking it. This has got to be the biggest tree I have ever seen. Having just seen Avatar I think of home tree, but of course that tree was simply ridiculous in size. This tree reminds me of the trees in Lothlórien or on the Ewok's forest moon of Endor (people could easily live in it). We finish the hike, never finding any ranger station and head to the observatory.
We are all starving now and our plan is to eat at the observatory and ask about night hikes. At the gate there is a charge to go up to the observatory and the guard is unsure if we will be able to eat in the restaurant. This causes us a lot of trepidation because at this point food has become much more important to us than seeing the volcano. Luckily, there is no problem and we enjoy a good meal with fantastic views. We also get to see an agouti, which is quite comfortable walking around on the observation deck. We head to El Castillo to see if we can see any lava flows from this vantage point. This is by far he worst road we are on the entire trip and when we get there it is really a small village with little in it. So we turn around and head back to la Fortuna.
Our plan now is to stop in one of the resorts which has hot springs from the volcano and spend the evening soaking our bones. The prices are supposed to drop to 19 a person at 7pm so we drive into town and shop at the supermarket to waste time and keep us from getting hungry on the road. It turns out that the hot springs price has jumped to 45 and that night starts at 6pm now, so there was no need to waste time. Anyway, the hot springs are pretty neat, about 8 pools connected by streams and waterfalls. While clearly there has been some manicuring most of the pools are pretty natural in lava rock. We soak in all the pools and then hang out in the pool which has a bar. At the bar we meet some travelers celebrating a birthday. We get some free cake and talk to them for a while. The pools close at 10pm. Afterwords, we head to la fortuna for dinner at the Lava Lounge. We don't get back to our hotel till 12:30am where we find that the front gate has been locked. We spend a lot of time trying to park off the side of the road, and then we slip though the gate and hike up to the lodge. Luckily there is a guard dog to scare the crap out of us and to waken the night watchman, possibly the owner's father. Once we convince him the we belong he went down with Andreas to open the gate and let the car in.
Day 3
We get up and have breakfast and get ready to leave our lovely ranch lodge. Checkout takes awhile with some communication issues and Laura goes off to explore the barn. She takes us to see the horses and finds one who is fond of her. Finally we take off for our scenic drive around the lake and then to Manuel Antonio. We first stop in la Fortuna to get cash and gas. We find the ATM fine, but it takes Laura and I circling the town 3 times and asking directions every 50m to find the gas. After we fill it up the gas gauge hardly goes up a fact that causes us some worry on the road.
We start our drive around the lake, it is quite nice, and the pot holes, while large, are not so frequent that they can't be avoided for the most part. We stop at a German bakery to buy some good bread, Gouda cheese with cumin and a ham and cheese croissant. We then continue around the lake till we get to a small town where we get lost for a few minutes, because the signs are half broken off. We take the only other road out of town and it works out just fine. We are now in a dry pasture land that looks like cowboy country. We play 20 questions in the car, a catheter, wheelbarrow and pi are all pretty easy but Andreas and I can't figure out jello for the life of us. We continue on the ocean to Jaco, where Andreas and I have a bet if we can park in a spot where I guy is acting like he is in charge. It turns out that for 500 colons you can do whatever you want. We have some cevice and some cerveza and then drive on to Manuel Antonio.
We arrive at our hotel on Manuel Antonio and go out to experience the beach. While our hotel claims that we are right on the beach, it is a good 50m to a campsite and restaurant and then beyond that a beach. We wander along the beach until we find the town of Manuel Antonio which consists of 4 restaurants and a couple of tourist shops. Along the beach we are invited to a New Year's Eve party on the beach which might be cool or might be 3 guys sitting around a campfire passing around a bottle. We go back to the hotel to rest up and then we go out to dinner and drinks. Dinner is pretty good and Andreas get's an extraordinary toasted coconut margarita. So good that we all get them for a second round. The beach party is a pretty serious affair. There is a dj tent and they are selling beer on the beach. Also, random fireworks are going off, most likely the work of individuals. People are milling around in small groups, no one is really dancing or interacting. Laura decides to get the bonfire going to start conversations, and gives us a hard time for not chatting up strangers. The ocean water is really nice. Some local girls have a straw man who they light on fire next to a tree. As we approach the New Year things start to heat up, fireworks are going off more frequently. The straw man starts to explode, fireworks are shooting out of him, some headed for me. Fireworks are now going off everywhere, people have come together on the beach. As the New Year starts, the party on the beach has totally changed, everyone is dancing together now, and friendly. We meet people from the States and locals. We stay for awhile and then walk back to our hotel on the beach. So starts 2010.
We start the morning with breakfast and plan making. We decide to first stop at the waterfall in la Fortuna. This is a 600m walk to a pretty impressive 70m fall. The walk is all down steps through pretty rain forest, easy but likely to be more of a challenge on the way out. The waterfall is quite beautiful and the hike out isn't bad.
Next we head to the ranger station at Arenal to inquire about night hikes. We enter the park and there are a few hikes to go on. We walk through what feels like a corn field and then a forest and then a km of lava rocks to get a close up view of the volcano. On the way back, we take a different route to see a big tree. I think that we pass the 40m tree a few times , but when we finally get to the right tree there is no mistaking it. This has got to be the biggest tree I have ever seen. Having just seen Avatar I think of home tree, but of course that tree was simply ridiculous in size. This tree reminds me of the trees in Lothlórien or on the Ewok's forest moon of Endor (people could easily live in it). We finish the hike, never finding any ranger station and head to the observatory.
We are all starving now and our plan is to eat at the observatory and ask about night hikes. At the gate there is a charge to go up to the observatory and the guard is unsure if we will be able to eat in the restaurant. This causes us a lot of trepidation because at this point food has become much more important to us than seeing the volcano. Luckily, there is no problem and we enjoy a good meal with fantastic views. We also get to see an agouti, which is quite comfortable walking around on the observation deck. We head to El Castillo to see if we can see any lava flows from this vantage point. This is by far he worst road we are on the entire trip and when we get there it is really a small village with little in it. So we turn around and head back to la Fortuna.
Our plan now is to stop in one of the resorts which has hot springs from the volcano and spend the evening soaking our bones. The prices are supposed to drop to 19 a person at 7pm so we drive into town and shop at the supermarket to waste time and keep us from getting hungry on the road. It turns out that the hot springs price has jumped to 45 and that night starts at 6pm now, so there was no need to waste time. Anyway, the hot springs are pretty neat, about 8 pools connected by streams and waterfalls. While clearly there has been some manicuring most of the pools are pretty natural in lava rock. We soak in all the pools and then hang out in the pool which has a bar. At the bar we meet some travelers celebrating a birthday. We get some free cake and talk to them for a while. The pools close at 10pm. Afterwords, we head to la fortuna for dinner at the Lava Lounge. We don't get back to our hotel till 12:30am where we find that the front gate has been locked. We spend a lot of time trying to park off the side of the road, and then we slip though the gate and hike up to the lodge. Luckily there is a guard dog to scare the crap out of us and to waken the night watchman, possibly the owner's father. Once we convince him the we belong he went down with Andreas to open the gate and let the car in.
Day 3
We get up and have breakfast and get ready to leave our lovely ranch lodge. Checkout takes awhile with some communication issues and Laura goes off to explore the barn. She takes us to see the horses and finds one who is fond of her. Finally we take off for our scenic drive around the lake and then to Manuel Antonio. We first stop in la Fortuna to get cash and gas. We find the ATM fine, but it takes Laura and I circling the town 3 times and asking directions every 50m to find the gas. After we fill it up the gas gauge hardly goes up a fact that causes us some worry on the road.
We start our drive around the lake, it is quite nice, and the pot holes, while large, are not so frequent that they can't be avoided for the most part. We stop at a German bakery to buy some good bread, Gouda cheese with cumin and a ham and cheese croissant. We then continue around the lake till we get to a small town where we get lost for a few minutes, because the signs are half broken off. We take the only other road out of town and it works out just fine. We are now in a dry pasture land that looks like cowboy country. We play 20 questions in the car, a catheter, wheelbarrow and pi are all pretty easy but Andreas and I can't figure out jello for the life of us. We continue on the ocean to Jaco, where Andreas and I have a bet if we can park in a spot where I guy is acting like he is in charge. It turns out that for 500 colons you can do whatever you want. We have some cevice and some cerveza and then drive on to Manuel Antonio.
We arrive at our hotel on Manuel Antonio and go out to experience the beach. While our hotel claims that we are right on the beach, it is a good 50m to a campsite and restaurant and then beyond that a beach. We wander along the beach until we find the town of Manuel Antonio which consists of 4 restaurants and a couple of tourist shops. Along the beach we are invited to a New Year's Eve party on the beach which might be cool or might be 3 guys sitting around a campfire passing around a bottle. We go back to the hotel to rest up and then we go out to dinner and drinks. Dinner is pretty good and Andreas get's an extraordinary toasted coconut margarita. So good that we all get them for a second round. The beach party is a pretty serious affair. There is a dj tent and they are selling beer on the beach. Also, random fireworks are going off, most likely the work of individuals. People are milling around in small groups, no one is really dancing or interacting. Laura decides to get the bonfire going to start conversations, and gives us a hard time for not chatting up strangers. The ocean water is really nice. Some local girls have a straw man who they light on fire next to a tree. As we approach the New Year things start to heat up, fireworks are going off more frequently. The straw man starts to explode, fireworks are shooting out of him, some headed for me. Fireworks are now going off everywhere, people have come together on the beach. As the New Year starts, the party on the beach has totally changed, everyone is dancing together now, and friendly. We meet people from the States and locals. We stay for awhile and then walk back to our hotel on the beach. So starts 2010.
Manual Antonio
Day 4
New Year's day starts out slowly. We check into our new hotel, the Blue Monkey, and have breakfast. Then we kick it at the pool for a little while and find out about scuba diving options in town. After setting up our dive for tomorrow we drive back to Manual Antonio to go to the beach at the national park. We arrive pretty late and supposedly only have 1.5 hours in the park, but we decide to go for it anyway. As soon as we enter the park we encounter an entire troop of monkeys, Titi or Squirrel monkeys, one of them throws a nut at my head. Then we see White-Faced Capuchin monkeys and a deer. We continue on the path untill we come to the beach. There we saw a sloth in a tree and another troop of Titi monkeys. These monkeys are so close to people you can almost touch them. One guy tries to and the monkey pees on him. We take a swim in the ocean and the ranger blows his whistle telling us the park is closing. Luckily, everybody is exiting in the opposite direction then we had come in so we were able to get about 45 minutes more of hiking in the park. Exiting the park is kind of interesting, you follow a path until it hits the water and then you have to ford a stream until you get to the Manual Antonio beach.
We have drinks and a snack across from the beach and discover that they do not know how to make nachos in Costa Rica. They have all the right ingredients, but they put cheese on the beans with salsa and lettuce and leave the chips on the side. To me this is not nachos, bean dip, but not nachos. We go back to our bar from New Years to get another toasted coconut margarita. That night we go to El Avion, a restaurant around a large cargo plane that was formally owned by the Contras. There is some information about the Iran Contra scandal and the food is pretty good, but the service is painfully slow.
Day 5
After breakfast I get picked up to go to the dive shop to learn how to scuba dive. Andreas and Laura just stay at the hotel and plan to meet me when we actually go for the dive. There is one other woman on my class. We start by watching a pretty basic video, with instructions like don't tease the dish, and then we go to practice in a hotel pool. Basically it takes a little while to really trust that you will be able to breath with the regulator, and not to want to take your head out of the water, but otherwise is pretty easy. The hardest part is moving your body which is awkward and slow and it really hard to control your depth. We play a couple of games on the pool and practice a few skills and then we are good to go.
We have about an hour break before the dive so the other student and I go out and have lunch at a place called the Joker. We return to the dive shop and get our gear ready. Andreas and Laura join us as do 4 others. We take off in a van to the pier, load our gear and head off in a boat. We head out to our first site and prepare to dive. I go down with the instructor and the other student. He constantly keeps a check on us and I return the OK sign. As we start moving off from the line, I have trouble maintaining my depth. They add another weight to me and that helps some, but I still find it is really hard. I float around with my instructor, the other student needs more help so he mostly just checks that I'm OK and tells me to correct my depth. The visibility is really bad and I can hardly see Andreas or Laura the whole time. We see some cool fish, and a little sea creature that pops out of a small hole. Eventually we go up, by which time I'm tired and ready for it. Apparently we go up early because I am running out of air. After a bit of rest in the boat, I'm not sure I can go for a second dive. My chest feels really constricted and I feel a little panicky. I get out of my wet suit and that feels a lot better then I jump of the boat with Andreas and swim a little which helps. The second dive is mostly different because the other first timer doesn't come. So it is just me the instructor has to look over which means less on checking on us and more on looking for fist. However, the conditions are not great. We do see an eel and a couple big schools, but not much more. I see a lot more of the others this time. When we finally go up we are in time for a great sunset over the sea. We deal with everything at the dive shop and then we go back to our hotel for a rest. For dinner we go to La Cantina. We are all starving at this point so we order a large amount of food. Appetizers, salads and main courses. It is all really good and we stuff our selves till Andreas and I have trouble walking out. We roll into bed and pass out.
Day 6
On our last morning in Manual Antonio we decide to go on a canopy tour. A bus picks us up and then takes us through some plantations to the canopy tour. The bus ride is not good for Laura, and not great for our guide who tries his jokes on the group, but just has a hard time getting much of a response. We do learn that teak can be used as a dye like henna. Before we start the zip lines there is a small butterfly house with some snakes that we take a quick tour of. Then we suit up and get on the zip lines. We zip around from tree to tree with some repelling and Tarzan swing and some hiking in between. I can never get my carabiner on the zip line and the guides grow to hate me. After the tour we have a delicious lunch, which is only sides for me cause the main dish is chicken, but the plantains are yummy and I eat my fill.
After the tour we drive down to the Osa peninsula. One the way we pass a police checkpoint where they ask us if we have arms. We are about to them of course we do, when we realize they mean guns. The road is very good till we turn off to the peninsula, then it is dark and has parts that are unpaved. To find our hotel we are supposed to follow the signs with a deer's footprint on it. This seems challenging but turns out to be easy and we arrive at the Osa Lodge without incident. This place is really cute, wood carvings everywhere and Andreas and Laura have a hut that is open to the jungle except for mosquito netting. More importantly there bathroom is totally open to the elements except for a bamboo wall. Dinner is served communally and is very pleasant. We look at the various hikes and tours for tomorrow and try to plan our day.
New Year's day starts out slowly. We check into our new hotel, the Blue Monkey, and have breakfast. Then we kick it at the pool for a little while and find out about scuba diving options in town. After setting up our dive for tomorrow we drive back to Manual Antonio to go to the beach at the national park. We arrive pretty late and supposedly only have 1.5 hours in the park, but we decide to go for it anyway. As soon as we enter the park we encounter an entire troop of monkeys, Titi or Squirrel monkeys, one of them throws a nut at my head. Then we see White-Faced Capuchin monkeys and a deer. We continue on the path untill we come to the beach. There we saw a sloth in a tree and another troop of Titi monkeys. These monkeys are so close to people you can almost touch them. One guy tries to and the monkey pees on him. We take a swim in the ocean and the ranger blows his whistle telling us the park is closing. Luckily, everybody is exiting in the opposite direction then we had come in so we were able to get about 45 minutes more of hiking in the park. Exiting the park is kind of interesting, you follow a path until it hits the water and then you have to ford a stream until you get to the Manual Antonio beach.
We have drinks and a snack across from the beach and discover that they do not know how to make nachos in Costa Rica. They have all the right ingredients, but they put cheese on the beans with salsa and lettuce and leave the chips on the side. To me this is not nachos, bean dip, but not nachos. We go back to our bar from New Years to get another toasted coconut margarita. That night we go to El Avion, a restaurant around a large cargo plane that was formally owned by the Contras. There is some information about the Iran Contra scandal and the food is pretty good, but the service is painfully slow.
Day 5
After breakfast I get picked up to go to the dive shop to learn how to scuba dive. Andreas and Laura just stay at the hotel and plan to meet me when we actually go for the dive. There is one other woman on my class. We start by watching a pretty basic video, with instructions like don't tease the dish, and then we go to practice in a hotel pool. Basically it takes a little while to really trust that you will be able to breath with the regulator, and not to want to take your head out of the water, but otherwise is pretty easy. The hardest part is moving your body which is awkward and slow and it really hard to control your depth. We play a couple of games on the pool and practice a few skills and then we are good to go.
We have about an hour break before the dive so the other student and I go out and have lunch at a place called the Joker. We return to the dive shop and get our gear ready. Andreas and Laura join us as do 4 others. We take off in a van to the pier, load our gear and head off in a boat. We head out to our first site and prepare to dive. I go down with the instructor and the other student. He constantly keeps a check on us and I return the OK sign. As we start moving off from the line, I have trouble maintaining my depth. They add another weight to me and that helps some, but I still find it is really hard. I float around with my instructor, the other student needs more help so he mostly just checks that I'm OK and tells me to correct my depth. The visibility is really bad and I can hardly see Andreas or Laura the whole time. We see some cool fish, and a little sea creature that pops out of a small hole. Eventually we go up, by which time I'm tired and ready for it. Apparently we go up early because I am running out of air. After a bit of rest in the boat, I'm not sure I can go for a second dive. My chest feels really constricted and I feel a little panicky. I get out of my wet suit and that feels a lot better then I jump of the boat with Andreas and swim a little which helps. The second dive is mostly different because the other first timer doesn't come. So it is just me the instructor has to look over which means less on checking on us and more on looking for fist. However, the conditions are not great. We do see an eel and a couple big schools, but not much more. I see a lot more of the others this time. When we finally go up we are in time for a great sunset over the sea. We deal with everything at the dive shop and then we go back to our hotel for a rest. For dinner we go to La Cantina. We are all starving at this point so we order a large amount of food. Appetizers, salads and main courses. It is all really good and we stuff our selves till Andreas and I have trouble walking out. We roll into bed and pass out.
Day 6
On our last morning in Manual Antonio we decide to go on a canopy tour. A bus picks us up and then takes us through some plantations to the canopy tour. The bus ride is not good for Laura, and not great for our guide who tries his jokes on the group, but just has a hard time getting much of a response. We do learn that teak can be used as a dye like henna. Before we start the zip lines there is a small butterfly house with some snakes that we take a quick tour of. Then we suit up and get on the zip lines. We zip around from tree to tree with some repelling and Tarzan swing and some hiking in between. I can never get my carabiner on the zip line and the guides grow to hate me. After the tour we have a delicious lunch, which is only sides for me cause the main dish is chicken, but the plantains are yummy and I eat my fill.
After the tour we drive down to the Osa peninsula. One the way we pass a police checkpoint where they ask us if we have arms. We are about to them of course we do, when we realize they mean guns. The road is very good till we turn off to the peninsula, then it is dark and has parts that are unpaved. To find our hotel we are supposed to follow the signs with a deer's footprint on it. This seems challenging but turns out to be easy and we arrive at the Osa Lodge without incident. This place is really cute, wood carvings everywhere and Andreas and Laura have a hut that is open to the jungle except for mosquito netting. More importantly there bathroom is totally open to the elements except for a bamboo wall. Dinner is served communally and is very pleasant. We look at the various hikes and tours for tomorrow and try to plan our day.
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