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8/17/04 MK We both have been looking forward to Costa Rica as it is a place we have heard many great things about. Famous for it’s eco tourism, Costa Rica is an unspoiled land full of rainforest, cloudforest, active volcanoes, tremendous wildlife, and of course great surfing; a perfect destination for active exploration.
Costa Rica is also the only nation in the world without a military. In the 1940’s their president ended all military operations and put the funding into the environment and schools. I’m not sure what effect this has had on the quality of education here, but it is plainly evident to have had great effect in keeping Costa Rica pristine and natural. In both Peru and Ecuador, we continually were dismayed by the amount of trash strewn all over. They seem to have no system for garbage collection and it all ends up in the streets. Additionally, nobody seems to care very much or recognize this as a problem. In contrast, Costa Ricans are very proud of their country’s natural beauty and work to keep it that way. Costa Rica is also the only Latin American country we’ve traveled in, so far, that does not have a horribly corrupt government. That’s not to say it is entirely without corruption…more on this later.
Not all is as it should be. We’ve discussed it and joked about it, knowing it had to happen eventually. I’m referring to our luggage, or the lack thereof. It’s an uncomfortable feeling when you first notice you are the last ones standing at the baggage carousel when it stops spinning. Your first reaction is to assume you must be standing at the wrong carousel, but a quick glance confirms there are only two choices and the other is not moving either. Next you look around suspiciously eyeing all the luggage being wheeled through customs. Not there. Then comes the sinking feeling in your stomach as you quickly move to assess the damage. What was in our bags? How much did it cost? How long can we survive without it….. After going through the above, we angrily charged the luggage desk ready for a fight. At this point the only comfort is to yell at someone. Unfortunately the attendant was not cooperative. All helpful and full of smiles, I found it impossible to incite a riot. Instead we politely lodged our claim and took our claim ticket with promises that our luggage would be delivered to our hotel promptly. The problem, as we explained to the smiling attendant, is that we are hopping a short flight in the morning and if our luggage is not here before then, how will they get it to us on the other side of the country? Smiley assured us this was not a problem and once again that we would have our luggage promptly.
8/18/04 MK This morning we flew to the coastal town of Tamarindo, which is renowned for it’s white sand beaches, warm water (about 80 degrees), and clean waves great for surfing. I’ve been pretty good about keeping up with my therapy and pampering my back so I feel ready, but ready or not - I’m surfing.
In case you were wondering, no, our luggage did not make this flight either, which means we’re headed for the gift shop. Our jeans and hiking boots won’t cut it on a tropical beach.
By the way, as I write this I am seated by the pool at our hotel. Behind the pool is forest where I just heard a noise and looked up to see where an incredibly colored Macaw Parrot landed in a tree. A black face, white eyes, red head, wings of yellow becoming light blue then dark blue, and a red tail. Mother Nature truly is the world’s greatest artist.
8/19/04 MK After renting surfboards and checking out the beach we were a little bummed to see, or not to see, much in the way of waves. Apparently there was a great swell last week. As the story goes, “you should have been here yesterday”. Regardless of the ankle-biter waves, Lisa and I enthusiastically paddled out. Truth be told, given this was to be the first real test of how well my back has healed since surgery, I wasn’t too disappointed by the small waves.
Paddling for my first wave, I was a bit nervous anticipating great pain when attempting to pop-up into a stance. I am thrilled to report there was none, and with each successive wave my back felt looser and looser. Perhaps a little activity is what I needed. Regardless, I’ll keep popping the Bexstra. Thanks to Pat (mom in-law and pharmaceutical sales rep) for the endless supply.
Since the best surfing is at high tide and that is at 5:30pm, Lisa and I got to watch sunset from the water. We’ve both seen sunsets all over the world. Botswana and Fiji were two of our favorites, but we agreed Costa Rica tops all. The sky was 12 shades of brilliant orange and red, with patches of crisp blue sky, and streaks of wispy white clouds. Shortly after the sun disappeared behind the horizon, we caught one last wave to end a perfect day.
The luggage saga continues. Despite being told our luggage would be here in the morning, we are yet to see it. I just made a call and learned instead of putting it on the morning flight to Tamarindo, as they had promised, our luggage will be taking the scenic route via bus. Given most roads in Costa Rica are dirt, I think we’ll be cleaning our underwear in the sink tonight.
8/20/04 MK The luggage arrived last night at 10pm, which is a good thing as what little clothes we have smell fairly ripe.
8/23/04 MK Today we rented a car and drove south to the town of Montezuma. Within the first hour of our drive, the speedometer on our rental Kia stopped functioning, which means I was barreling along a Central American road with no knowledge as to how fast I was driving. That is until a police officer pulled me over to let me know I was going 85kmh in a 75kmh zone. He then shook his head with a look of great concern and quietly said the fine was a lot of money, 10,000 colones (about $25). He made a face as if to suggest he felt bad and would like to help me out. Both Lisa and I knew what was coming. She whispered that I should offer half, but I just waited and let him make a suggestion. In his best impression of a man offering a great favor, the officer said I could give him 5,000 colones (about $12 US) and we’d call it a day. I briefly considered saying no and asking for the ticket, but knew that would not be wise. Instead, I handed him the money, which he promptly pocketed, and we were on our way. I felt like I had just been initiated into South American travel.
About the fourth hour into our three-hour trip, the pavement turned to dirt. Knowing the vast majority of Costa Rican roads are dirt, we were prepared for this. What we were less prepared for was their condition. Resembling an exploded minefield, we were reduced to a crawl as we zigzagged all over the road avoiding craters. About 2-hours later, with sore kidneys, we arrived at our destination.
Montezuma is a small beach town that has been taken over by backpackers. There are essentially two small intersecting roads comprised of restaurants, shops, bars and tour agencies. Like many of the backpacker towns we’ve been to, Montezuma has a vibe that is a cross between young traveler and middle-aged hippy. We liked it.
8/30/04 MK Our next two stops were inland at the Monteverde Cloud Forest and then on to Arenal Lodge at the base of one of the most active volcanoes in the world, appropriately named Volcan Arenal.
Having been to a number of cloudforests, there is not much to write about Monteverde that is unique. It was a beautiful place and we enjoyed our few days there.
Arenal, however, was a very unique experience. After a four-hour drive on what Costa Ricans call a secondary road, we were both sufficiently bruised and battered. Upon arriving at our lodge, we were immediately awestruck by the scenery. Behind the lodge are rich manicured grounds with forest on either side, and a clear lake alongside a rumbling grumbling volcano; the same volcano that in 1968 killed over 80 people and around twenty thousand head of cattle. The next question was an obvious one, how do we know it won’t blow tonight and bury us under a river of molten lava? We were assured it would in fact blow. However, with numerous small eruptions daily, Arenal releases its energy in small increments and therefore the locals do not live in fear of another major eruption.
In Arenal we hiked on lava rocks, rode horses through the jungle, saw howler monkeys, sloths, enormous brahma bulls and brilliantly colored birds, and we sat on the balcony off our room watching the sunrise.
Perhaps our favorite experience was the evening we spent at the natural hot springs of Tabacon Lodge. Lisa particularly loved these several hours of pampering and I’m sure will tell you all about it. I will only say that luxuriating in the balmy waters of a natural hot spring while sipping rum cocktails and viewing molten lava rocks tumble down the side of an active volcano is truly a sublime experience. If you are so inclined, I highly recommend it.
8/30/04 LPK During our first couple days in Costa Rica, I kept thinking, “how quickly the mighty have fallen!” You see, it is a very subtle and difficult to maintain balance, this staying-clean-while-traveling-the-world thing. In truth, we are only actually able to stay semi-clean. Specifically, I try to maintain a simple just-slightly-more-clean-than-dirty balance while traveling.
Besides relishing the opportunity to visit with family while we were in New Jersey, I had been strangely excited about doing my own laundry and washing my hair with both shampoo and conditioner. By the time we left New Jersey, I had not only maintained the subtle balance of “staying-somewhat-more-clean-than-dirty” – I had actually surpassed it. I had cleaned everything. Previously hand-washed and half-cleaned tee shirts were without muddy remnants, never-cleaned raincoats were once again shiny, once pink socks were now white, and convertible pants were gingerly hung dry, not to be shrunken. I was on top of the world.
Unfortunately, as you have heard, this “clean bliss” was short-lived. Our luggage was misplaced for almost three days. With limited choices, I bought one pair of lame-fitting surf shorts which doubled as shorts and a bathing suit for two days. Since our hiking boots were a bit bulky, we walked barefoot until we purchased cheap flip-flops from a traveling salesman. Michael’s feet are considered enormous in Latin America and he rarely finds shoes his size. The flip-flops were no exception; his feet hung unceremoniously off the back of his sandals.
In the end, I guess there were no long-lasting effects of our luggage-losing incident. The only real short-term effect was that we disappointedly crossed over from the clean to the slightly-more-clean-than-dirty boundary quicker than expected.
Aside from the aforementioned luggage incident the rest of Costa Rica was really enjoyable. Costa Rica is a small but diverse country with amazingly friendly people. And, aside from the road problem (the roads were the absolute worst we have encountered thus far), the country is a little bit of paradise. The beaches were beautiful and most of the coastline is still surprisingly untouched. You can only just see the beginnings of what looks like an upcoming development boom. We are even flirting with the idea of coming back to Costa Rica to explore potential investment properties when we’re done with the world tour. We happily explored the surf beaches with an eye towards a future family vacation home and even floated the idea to a few family members. Who knows? Could be a lot of fun.
As I mentioned, Costa Rica is a diverse country. After we spent time honing our surfing skills at the beaches we hired a van and headed inland to the rich highlands. We passed beautiful forest landscapes and neat little villages. Our first stop was the Monteverde Cloud Forest. It was interesting to see both primary and secondary growth forest within such close proximity. As it turns out, more than thirty years earlier the Quakers cleared much of the area for farming. In the early 1970’s, the Costa Rican government took back the land and turned it into a reserve. The forest’s relatively quick regrowth is amazing. It stands as a fine reminder about how humans can undo some of the environmental damage we’ve caused if we put our minds to it.
We had a good time exploring the forest. I particularly enjoyed logging more entries to my “nature sightings” list. Before our trip Michael and I would probably have included ourselves in the categories of adventurers, animal lovers and wanna-be naturalists, but I don’t think we would’ve put ourselves on a bird watchers list. Somewhere along the way we have come to truly appreciate the birds and we enjoy looking for them. The Monteverde Cloud Forest was no exception in that we got to see a whole host of exotic and beautiful birds. One highlight was a sighting of the elusive national bird – the Resplendent Quetzal. The guides at the Monteverde Reserve carry with them high-powered spotting scopes that really add to the fun of searching for birds. Thanks to our guide, Ian’s spotting scope, we got a great view of the Quetzal high up in the forest’s canopy.
The Reserve places dozens of hummingbird feeders in a small area at the start of the nature trails. As a result, a constant stream of the delicate and fascinating hummingbirds dazzles guests. I particularly enjoyed watching the hummingbirds at Monteverde because bees did not interrupt my view nor send me squealing for cover. At Monteverde, they boil the sugar/water mixture they use for the feeders. Apparently the nasty little bees are less attracted to this version of the mixture and thus, do not compete with the hummingbirds at the feeders, which they normally do. My favorite hummingbird was the Violet Sabrewing. The largest hummingbird in Costa Rica it has a brilliant violet body and head with dark green wings and black and white feathers on the outside of its tail. If it had slowed down enough, maybe we could have gotten a good photo of it for our website. But, no such luck, hummingbirds flap their wings at a rate of over 70 times per second!
We left for Arenal Lodge after a few relaxing days at the quiet Monteverde Lodge. We had hired a private van to take us to Arenal so that we could spend the morning in the Reserve. We had gotten up really early that morning and I was tired, so I was looking forward to stretching out in the van. Then I remembered that we were in Costa Rica. The roads to Arenal, while mostly paved were still quite a mess. Our driver was a young guy who clearly knew how to drive but the job of avoiding the huge craters in the pavement, the occasional herd of cows crossing the road, stray dogs and the sudden rainstorm prevented the smooth ride that I had hoped for. Nonetheless, our driver got us to our hotel sooner than expected and in one piece.
We were surprised at the beauty of the grounds surrounding the Lodge. We could see Volcan Arenal from our room (when the fast-moving low hanging clouds were not obscuring it). By the end of our stay, we had seen everything that we came to see. One day we saw the Volcano in the daylight while on horseback on our way to a powerful waterfall. The next day, while hiking near the volcano, we heard a loud explosion and saw an enormous light-brown mushroom cloud rise up out of the Volcano’s core. Over the next thirty minutes of so, we were sprinkled with floating volcanic ash. The next night at Tabacon Resort and Spa, we indulged in some pampering getting Volcano mud facials and massages while a tropical storm raged outside our open windows. After our pampering, we explored the various hot springs all connected by lush walkways and rushing waterfalls. I liked the little pool closest to the Volcano (don’t worry, the pool was still over 10km from the volcano itself) because it was the hottest, around 40 degrees Celsius (around 104 degrees farenheit). We ordered drinks from the swim up bar in the largest pool as the sun set. After a short while, we saw our first molten red boulder fly out of the volcano. The boulder was so bright you could see it tumble down the volcano’s steep side. Back at the lodge later that night, Michael heard a loud explosion just as we were about to turn out the lights. He whipped out the tripod and set up the camera on our little deck. As you can see from his fantastic photos, Volcan Arenal treated us to quite a show.
So as not to waste our last few hours on the farm, we arranged for another horseback ride before our bus picked us up for the return trip to San Jose. I rode a male horse, the blonde and lovely Tequila. Michael’s ride, also a male, was named Allapaloosa. We are glad that we squeezed in this extra ride as it turned out to be our best ride yet. It was a clear day and from our vantage point, the green fields seemed to meet up with the bright blue sky somewhere on the other side of the earth. We cantered into the forest and onto a muddy path that neither Tequila nor Allapaloosa enjoyed. Both horses gingerly smooshed their way through the mud, narrowly squeezing by branches and leaves from elephant ear palms and banana trees. Michael made the nature spotting of the day when he saw a very large sloth hanging up in a tree just above us. Our guide had a powerful set of binoculars so we were able to see the sloth in great detail as he lumbered around the branch. Tequila turned out to be a competitive horse, never allowing Michael and Allapaloosa to pass us or to get ahead. Sometimes, he thought he’d take a short cut off the trail. He was pretty headstrong and I had a hard time getting him back on course. Our guide said, “Tequila es un poco loco.” We left the forest and spotted a large male Howler Monkey with two smaller females. We continued our ride on the farm, passing beautiful vistas and fields of cacao or chocolate, banana, pineapple, sugarcane, yucca, heart of palm, and ornamental plants. Luckily, we saw yet another sloth hanging in a tree above the banana plants! It was rare to see even one sloth and here we were lucky enough to see two! Clearly, I had a lot to write on my nature list that day…The ride ended perfectly after we tied up the horses. We heard the bellowing cry of a male Howler not too far away. We followed the sound and found a large male sitting in a tree within a few feet of our hotel. When we looked closely we could see a whole colony of females, some sitting in the crooks of branches, carrying babies or walking from branch to branch. We continued to watch the monkeys in action from our window as we ate lunch. It was a perfect ending to a perfect few days.
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