We left late Saturday night and met the Beeby's in the Denver airport for our connecting flight to San Jose. By the time we saw the Beeby's it felt like our vacation had really began. We didn't land in San Jose until about 5:30 in the morning. We thought that we might be really tired, but we weren't at all.
We had another plane to catch by 9:00....but it was at a different airport. It still in San Jose but just not at the international airport. We had a driver from the airline pick us up. He took us out to breakfast at a little soda on the side of the road. Sodas in Costa Rica are little cheap restaurants, that seem to always be outside, and they only serve "typical food," meaning beans and rice. We ended up having beans and rice for breakfast quite often....and it was actually quite good.
Once we arrived at the airport we checked in, although we tried to do it kinda quietly because they had mass going on in the airport; it was a Sunday. Natalie has a hard time flying, and when she saw how small the airplanes her nerves peaked. She ended up drinking a glass of wine before we took off. I was worried that she might not be able to do it.....but she was a champ. The planes were so small.....you could actually see into the cockpit and no more than 15 passengers would have been able to board.
The flight was beautiful. The windows were so huge that you really could see everything, and it was such a perfect day.
The landing was also amazing. The runway literally starts at the water's edge and as the plane made it's approach it felt like we would be making a water landing. The airport was definitely the smallest airport I will ever fly into; it was a single airstrip, with no buildings, with lots of grass and trees. It reminded me of a movie where people smuggle drugs. It felt like we should be smuggling cocaine or some type of illegal goods.
Our driver Alex picked us up and drove us to Santa Teresa...it was about a 45 minute drive. The second portion of the drive was all dirt. Alex acquainted us to the crazy driving that takes place in Costa Rica. Alex did not speak any English and I was forced to test out my Spanish skills. I was really really worried about my Spanish, because I haven't tried to use it in about 6-7 years, and even when I was Spanish - it was in a superficial method. I only used it during class for a grade. However, I was very surprised how much of it I actually remembered. I had a hard time recalling all the different tenses of conjugated verbs.....but I could remember the verb and that was really important.
I was excited to practice my Spanish. This trip made me realize how much I'd like to finish out my Spanish skills to a fluent level. I was getting close in college.....I could read smaller novels and write papers in Spanish, but I always had a hard time speaking and listening. The people who I spoke with in Costa Rica told me my Spanish was good. Some even said they were impressed, and that I wasn't telling the truth when I would tell people that I only spoke a little. They said I definitely knew more than a little........so that helped out my confidence and I was willing to speak more.
Once in Santa Teresa we fell in love with our hotel. It was a little hotel with only seven rooms, and it was awesome. The owners lived across the courtyard and helped us in many ways. Their little girl Naya, just one month shy of three, was a fantastic swimmer. She didn't need any help at all. I was worried when she first jumped in, but she could really swim. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it.
We saw our first wildlife too. Fireflies. Dogs. Iguanas. Monkeys. And I might add that the first monkeys we saw tried to pee on us. One also pooped and threw it at Robert and Aaron. We all laughed and escaped unscathed.
(This was our pool....we swam in it everyday....sometimes 2x a day)
Day 02
We took an all day trip to Isla Tortuga for snorkeling. We had to take a 45 minute boat ride to get to the island. We left from Montezuma. What was strange about the boat ride was that neither Montezuma or Isla Tortuga had a dock. The just backed to boat up to the shore and you had to load in between big waves. But it was fun. Our driver drove the boat as fast as it could go the whole way. Robert said he felt like he was on Miami Vice.
The snorkeling was the worst I have ever experienced.......but that was to be expected, it rained the night before.
But the trip was still entirely worth it. The beach and swimming were wonderful. We played some beach volleyball with some foreigners from France and Spain. Watched an approaching storm. Saw a wild pig/boar (I'm not quite sure what it was really). Robert and I were both thoroughly cooked by the end of the day. Our sunburns were painful.
Our driver Alex shared a sad story with us that day. We drove by a cemetery on the way to Montezuma and we noticed that there were workers digging a grave. Natalie mentioned the word death, one of the Spanish words she knew. Alex then told us about his friend, who was also a cab driver, who had been shot and killed the night before. His friend had three Nicaraguans in his taxi and they held him up for $70 and shot him head. He left behind a wife and two children, 8 and 10 years old. The funeral was to take place the next morning. He said all the taxis in the area would be present. It was a sad story. It was a moment when I was thankful for my Spanish skills. I was able to listen and respond with care......we were able to offer our condolences and it felt important to be able to do that. Our driver was such a wonderful person. One of our most favorite people we met.
Day 03
This day was one of my favorites. Early in the morning Robert and Aaron decided to go surfing.....Malpais is supposed to some of the best surfing year round. I wouldn't know.......I never tried. I don't think I swim well enough to try surfing.
Aaron went down to the beach with all the gear, while Robert and I walked into town to take care of some errands. Afterwards instead of going straight back to the hotel I decided to walk to the beach with Robert to watch them surf for a little while. As we were walking up to the beach we saw two guys in the water with a huge fish of some kind. We actually thought it might even be a baby shark.
As we walked closer we realized it was Aaron and some other guy we don't know with a dolphin. Aaron found it on the beach. Him and the other guy were trying to take it back out to the ocean. Robert and I ended up helping too. The poor dolphin was bleeding. He washed up on a rocky portion of the beach and rolled along the rocks. We tried to get him back out to the ocean about five different times.
He would swim out and would always get hit really hard by the last wave. He always looked so close clearing the surf. And then he would wash back in. It was sad. He had to be sick. Some local ended up calling a marine biologist in the area. I left to go tell Natalie where we were, because we had been gone for awhile.
Aaron and Robert ended up coming back to the hotel as well once the marine biologist showed up. They had spent at least an hour down there keeping the dolphin from getting beaten up by the rocks. We all hoped the best for our dolphin friend, but also knew we could do no more for him. We wanted to stay, but it seemed like the marine biologist needed to have some room. By the time Aaron and Robert left they said the area had become crowded and they didn't feel like they were helping.
So we continued on with our day, ate some lunch, made some plans, and rented some bikes. The bikes were super old and rusty.....I was amazed the chain stayed on. We rode our bicycles to the end of the road in Malpais because we wanted to explore the area further.
There was a pretty beach a the dead end with a mellow surf. We sat and enjoyed it. We were the only people there. We all commented that the beach would have been an ideal spot for our dolphin friend. And in that moment a red truck pulled up, backed up onto the beach, and in the back was our dolphin friend.
It was so cool to see him again. And know that things were getting better. It's hard to put into word how it felt to be one of the first to find the dolphin and worked to help him, and then to be the only people there when the marine biologist showed up with him. It was like bookends and a wonderful ending to the story.
On our way home we ate at a wonderful cheap place right on the beach. We climbed on the rocks for quite some time and found few fossils, and a nice old bike someone burned in a fire. Robert thought it was funny.
That evening we made saw the biggest bug ever. It was a cicada. He hung outside our rooms for the night and we named him Tank. He was huge.
Our last day in Santa Teresa. We worked in a little bit more exploring and ate some of the best falafel we have ever at a tiny outdoor Israeli restaurant. Now that I think about it.....we always ate outside everywhere we went. Alex took us to the airport. There was no security, no building, and only one worker.
(the airport and our taxi driver Alex)
We flew back to San Jose for the night in order to be picked up by the rafting company the next morning. We spent hardly any time in San Jose, but from what I saw it's a crowded and dirty city.
Day 05
We had to drive a long ways to start our rafting trip. I believe we were able to see the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean within a 24 hour period. It was neat.
We met our guide Albert at the river.
He had a white boat. We were the only white boat on the river and we liked that; everyone else had yellow boats. He taught us some basic things, made sure we were comfortable, and then we pushed off. This was my very first time rafting ever. It made me nervous, especially since I am not a confident swimmer. Our first day of rafting didn't include any of the class four rapids. It was nice to get a warm-up day prior to the big rapids.
Once we arrived at the jungle lodge, where we would be staying for two nights, we had to help carry up our gear, luggage, and food. Everyone was supposed to help. There were two groups: Us and Justin (a guy who we met rafting and we were in the same raft) made up one group and Euros made up the other group. We were the only people there. And guess what those Euros did? They didn't help carry up anything. They walked up and started smoking right away. There were probably six of them and they watched me and Natalie carry up three loads a piece and just watched. Natalie told them that there was more to carry and a few of them went down to help. While Natalie and I were carrying up the gear the boys were hauling the rafts up. Only one of the Euros helped. It was the weirdest thing ever. By the time we were finished carrying up all the stuff we were joking about starting a fight at dinner with the Euros, who we found out were from Italy.
The lodge it a really cool place. You can only get there by rafting in, and only leave by rafting out. There is a trail that you can take to get to a dirt road, but that takes three hours for even the quickest hiker, and once you hit the dirt road you are still miles from the nearest home. It's a very remote place. There are no windows, just screens, and the electricity is from a generator and is used only during certain hours. It is turned off by 9:00 p.m. But we always went to bed before then. It gets dark in Costa Rica by 5:00.
We got to know our other guide better that night. His name was Ronald. He was in a boat all by himself for the day, carrying all our gear. It looked like a tough job. He hung out with us the whole time we were at the lodge.
Day 06
The jungle is a loud place. The bugs go all day long, and then continue all night long. But somehow I still found it all very peaceful. The Euros left to continue rafting and we were glad that they left. Once they were gone......it was just us and Justin. So it was even more peaceful.
We zip-lined and hiked a lot that day.
We hiked to a couple of different waterfalls that you could swim in.....we also went to a waterfall that was a water slide. It was so much fun. We were all really tired by the time we arrived back at the lodge. It felt like we went on a fitness vacation.
That's me and Robert on the waterfall-slide.
At night I would be really excited to write in my mini-journal, but I would quickly get sleepy as shown. I was very sleepy the last night in the jungle. We hiked so long that day, and then swam for hours. I slept pretty well.
Day 07
We did our final exploring and left for our big day of rapids by about 11:00. We rafted for about 20 minutes and stopped at another waterfall for some more swimming while we waited for more rafters but more importantly for the safety kayakers.
In order to go through class IV rapids you must have a safety kayaker go first. Just in case anyone falls out there will be someone there to help you out. It made me feel much safer. Robert fell out once while we were surfing. Surfing in a raft is when you row upstream into a rapid and make the front end go down. It essentially blasts you with a lot of water and you just get stuck for awhile. I didn't necessarily think it was fun. I think it's more fun for people in the back of the boat.......because the only people who really seemed to like it was Albert, the guide, and Justin, our new rafting friend, and they were both in the far back.
Anyway, while we were surfing......the boat was about ready to flip and we were all supposed to move to the right, because the left side was being sucked in. Robert and I were on the left side. So we had to let go of the rope and reach pass the people on the right and grab that rope. Well when Robert let go of the rope to move he got hit with a lot of water. He said it felt like Andre the Giant shoved him in the water. He said it's hard to describe. But he was ok.....because we surfed right above a mellow spot. So he was safe.
The class IV's were intense, but a lot of fun. To be honest, I was scared sometimes, especially after we made it through one of the biggest rapids. Albert told us the rapid had a big hole at the end of the rapid and that it would be really important to keep paddling. And let me tell you, it was a huge hole.
We were the first raft to go through, and I think that was a
ctually helpful for me. Because if I would have watched the other rafts go through I think I would have been terrified and probably would have screwed up. In the mellow water at the end of the rapid we watched other rafts come down the rapid. Tons of people fell out of the other boats. One of the boats lost everyone but the guide. We had to help rescue three people out of the water.
We didn't lose anyone until the last class IV rapid of the day. Justin the guy behind me was launched out. I didn't know he was in the water until I hit him in the head with my paddle. Robert and I helped pull him back in.
The Pacuare River was amazing. Supposedly, the Pacuare River is one of the best rafting river's in the world according to National Geographic. Robert thinks it's because the river always has some type of rapid. There aren't very many spots to actually take a break. If there was a slow spot it was very long.......maybe the length of a football field at the most. We ended up rafting a total of 20 miles. After a whole day of hiking followed by a whole day of rafting, we were exhausted and completely depleted. But it was all worth it.
Day 08
The Beeby's flew home in the morning and that left me and Robert all by ourselves. It felt weird not having the Beeby's around. We headed to Quepos and enjoyed the scenery of the long drive.
We were told that Quepos was a sketchy place....but everything turned out just fine.
Once we arrived and settled into our place we had the most lazy day of our vacation. After all the adventure and tiring jungle treks it felt good to just relax. We explored town and got acquainted with our daily walk to town.
Robert also had a fever, so I think it was important for us to rest. We even started a puzzle, and I hate puzzles. But somehow sitting there on the floor putting a puzzle together felt just right.
Day 09
We explored the city of Manuel Antonio, but not the national park......because the parks are closed on Mondays.We checked out a butterfly farm and animal refuge, because some people told us that I would be able to see the blue morpho butterfly at the refuge.
I fell in love with the blue morpho butterfly in the jungle. It was so pretty. It was also very hard to get a picture of, mostly because of it's irregular flight pattern. It always looked like it was going to run out of steam and crash to the ground. Something about it was elegant, fragile, and klutzy looking. I can't quite describe it, but I was mesmerized by it. I watched them in the morning for about an hour each day in the jungle. They fascinated me.
The butterfly farm was perfect to see them up close. They were everywhere, and they loved Robert. They landed on Robert all the time. I loved it.
We also looked at the reptiles and learned a lot about caimans and crocidiles.
We ate at an airplane resturant called El Avion. It's a major touristy kind of a place, but I was interested in it because of it's history. I don't think anyone else even cares about the history. They just think it's cool because it's a plane. It's a plane
from the Iran-Contra affair in the late 1980's. It was a cargo plane that the U.S. sent to help rebels fighting against the Cuban allied Nicarguan government. It's a cargo plane the US only sent two cargo planes. The second cargo plane is the one that made the news when Eugene Hasenfus was shot down over Nicaragua. At that point the US had a huge cover-up created and the other cargo plane sat in San Jose until around 2000 when it was purchased and transported to Manuel Antonio for the resturant. It's an interesting story.
Day 10
We finally went to Manuel Antonio National Park.
We saw lots of wildlife and swam at the beach.
We loved the monkeys. We sat and watched them for a really long time. We were able to get so close to them. And they were so cute. I also really loved the sloths. They always looks like they are smiling and I like that.
Day 11
We relaxed until 1:00 and finished our puzzle. Then we caught a bus to San Jose to spend the night because our flight was early the next morning. We met the only super annoying guy during our whole trip on the bus. He just wouldn't stop talking and complaining. We were glad to say goodbye to him.
Day 12
Good-bye Costa Rica. Hello Denver.
We had a 10 hour layover in the Denver aiport. It's the price to you pay to travel cheaper. While the layover sucked......it essentially is the reason why this trip ended up being something we could pay for. But it didn't turn out too bad. The Denver Airport is huge, and just exploring it keeps you occupied for quite sometime. They have wonderul pictures of Native Americans spread through out the airport. Robert was also able to meet up with an old friend from high school who took us around downtown Denver (Adam). So it didn't feel too long.
Finally, we made it home. There is nothing like your own bed, a pizza, hot tamales, and a bowl of cereal.
