Week 69: Costa Rica

I was hoping that my sister took better notes about what we did in Costa Rica, so that when I decided to write it up, it would be all blanks.  Maybe its a good thing that we didn't.  Probably means that the blog entry will be shorter.  I'm one vacation behind, so I'll write down what I remember, from the photos we took.

So we arrived in Costa Rica, San Jose Airport, which is a little ways away from our actual hotel.  We were travelling to La Fortuna, a town with a big volcano near it.  The drive was a pretty brutal 2 hours, but we had good company.  We just so happened to be on the same bus ride up as our flight crew that brought us over on the plane.  They were definitely a rowdy bunch, and were there for only a few days, so we had some fun chatting, and trying not to get too carsick.  The ride itself was bumpy, but the fog and the blind curves definitely made it scary.

We stopped at the grocery store first, and bought the necessities, junk food, chips beer and rum.  Once we got to the hotel, the room wasn't ready, so we went for a little hike, and got our bearings of where we were.

 We saw some leaf cutter ants, and it started raining, so we went back to the lobby, but the rooms still wasn't ready.  We then we to the hot springs for the one of many times to relax.  

So eventually we got a room, we changed, and then headed out again to get dinner.  The pilot folks gave us the name of a cool restaurant, we had some good food, quesadillas, amazing ceviche, and then headed out to the local shady bar.  We had just arrived, and all we saw was a bleeding guy, and all the pilot folk around.  We were five minutes late to a guy getting sucker punched.  Well, weird, didn't think too much of it.  We had some more drinks, I guess margaritas aren't common there, or the bartender didn't know how to make one.  My sister said it was gross.  She got a pina colada instead.

We saw the cute bartender get hit on sequential by all the people at the bar.  She was 25 with 3 kids or something like that.  Normal.

 Next day was white water rafting.  Breakfast was included in all meals, and it was rice and beans with all meals, fresh fruits, omelettes and something pork.  I was quite happy. I was also glad because of the special sauce that people poured on everything, "Salsa Lizano."  It was a slightly sweet, and spicy.  Strong flavor of cumin.  An did not like it one bit.  I absolutely had to have it on my rice and beans.

White water rafting was just a completely fun experience.  It was a bit of a drive still, but at this point, we all recognized to take a dramamine wherever you go, just in case.  The rapids were almost all from easy to medium, but still provided just enough challenge to make sure that you were paying attention.  The hardest part was when you're riding the front, just to make sure you have a fair pace that people behind you can follow, as well as not being frantic about falling out of the raft.  I did not do that very well.  I fell out.  The guide said that he got bored, and got me out on purpose, but I'm not so certain.  In either case it was fun, and the water wasn't too cold.  We should have gotten the photos though, a shame now that I think about it. 

Something like that.  But not that.  

We were supposed to do some rappelling down a waterfall at the halfway point, but it just so happens that the guy who got sucker punched the other day was the rappel guy, and of course he called in sick that day.  Small world!  It's ok, the pineapple was delicious.  Fresh of course.  Plus no real trash, you just threw the leftover into the woods, and mother nature would take care of it.  Probably within the same day.  It's a very fertile environment.  Lunch was served at an organic farm, cooked by the folks who ran it.  Fresh, and tasty.  No doubt about it, everything came from there, including the fish, and of course the vegetables, and even the coffee.  We then went through a tour of the farm, they went over how manure and a biodigester works, and the methane that is created from it, which powers certain things on the farm.  Pretty neat.  We also learned about how pineapples grow.  Only one per pod.  Then you dig it out, and plant another.  That's just nuts, think about that next time you eat a pineapple.  That took years to produce.  Especially if its organic.  The tour ended on a how to make moonshine out of cane sugar.  they use a manual press to get all the juices out, the women got the first pass, and the men had to press the second and third pass.  Kinda hard.  Pretty funny.  And spicy.  And barely cut.  Maybe 100 proof?  It was funny watching all the people make terrible faces.  I of course didn't :-).  

We were all exhausted for the night, we met up with our white water rafting guide from the morning for dinner, he was the trainer for the Women's Olympic team, which is pretty impressive, really nice guy.  

The next day was zip-lining Costa Rica style.  The standard friction blocks that do all the work for you weren't all there.  You had to brake yourself using a leather glove that was provided.  But it's tricky.  Too much braking too early and you're stuck in the middle of the line, and you have to crawl back to the other side by yourself.  Brake too late, and well, you'll hit a tree.  No pressure . It was fast.  Very fast.  Faster than any other zipline I did, and I was glad we did it.  

We each had our own person behind us to help us "superman."  That's not me behind my sister, I assure you.  

The zipline area was right next to a hot spring that we would visit afterwards.  Within the hot spring was a really neat flower garden, with a butterfly pavillion.  We only had a couple hours before we went on the "short tour" of the volcano.  

The short tour was a bit later in the afternoon, so we were afraid of possible rain, or something that would eat us.  Not really though, the weather held, it was cool enough that the hike was quite easy, and we got to see a few animals, and some amazing views of the volcano.  The problem that we kept on running into with the volcano was that the clouds in the sky would constantly cover the top, so you wouldn't see the steam coming out of the volcano.  We were lucky enough to see that.  Oh, and an ant eater too.  Pretty neat!

Our feet of course were sore after all the walking, and our guide wasn't allowed in the "fancy hot spring," so he showed us the hot spring river that the hotels collect from.  It was a big tunnel that you can just play around it.  Water is very fast though, so we had to be careful.  Otherwise, it was pretty neat.  

It was nice that we got to go to the actual nice hot springs to relax and heat away anything that was sore.  It was more of a pool than a spring, with a hot water source.  Also, and slide.  Very fun.  There were also hot springs if you wanted to lounge around, some cold water spots, so you could get shock your system if you were so bold.   A very busy day.  

The next day was another hiking day to "Rio Celeste," which is known for it's striking baby blue water.  Sulfur + limestone = Baby blue water.  We saw one of the oldest / largest trees, and I got to see a poison dart frog!  

 It was a 3 hour hike, and it rained a little bit, and oh boy was it muddy.  I really should have brought the right shoes, and swim trunks.  In reality I just packed very poorly for this hike.  But it was gorgeous.  You could totally smell the sulfur, but beautiful. 

On the way back, our guide knew of a not so poisonous hot spring/river spot that you could actually hang out in.  He then proceeded to give us all mud facials.  Yup.  My face did feel softer I suppose. 

So we then forgot that all the booze that we had purchase had not been drank.  Thus, the critical point of the night was to get more time in the hot tub, and to ensure that all the drinks that needed to be drunk, were drunken?  Mission complete.  We almost solved world peace too, but not quite.  

The next morning was not pretty

This was the last day of the trip, before we had to leave, and we had a trip to one of the many caves in Costa Rica for some introduction to spelunking.  It was wet, wild, slimy, and terrible if you're even remotely claustrophobic.  There were a couple of climbs and holes that I didn't think we'd be able to make, but surely enough, with a little bit of hope, some grip, and prayer, we were able to get through the whole cave.  Oh, and bats, and gross bugs.  Not for the squeamish, but awesome anyway.    

Aww crap. 

We came back, bought souvenirs, had more ceviche, my sister got a very expensive fish, and hit the hot springs one more time.  Our drive was pretty late, and we really didn't sleep during the night.  My sister got a little carsick, and I left my sunglasses in the van.  Anti-climactic for sure.  But overall, a great country, unbelievably kind people, very eco-conscious, and a great place to go see.