[I know I’ve shamefully neglected this blog, but I vow to fix that by getting you up to date with my travels of late and by writing more in the future. Here’s the run-down of how I spent Spring Break ’09.]
Spring break was absolutely phenomenal. It was so nice to relax and be with friends all week long. But, alas, I’m back to the real world now. Or at least as real as life in Costa Rica gets.
My amazing week started on Saturday morning when I woke up bright and early (7am) to pick up my friend Kristyn from the airport. I met Kristyn in a linguistics class last year. Originally she and another friend from Binghamton, Jenna, were going to come together, but it didn’t work out for Jenna. Luckily, though, Kristyn had caught the travel bug over the summer when she spent 8 weeks in Morocco studying Arabic, so she convinced her parents to let her come visit me.
In order to get to the airport, I had to take the bus to Alajuela from Heredia. Our plan was to start our trip as soon as Kristyn’s flight came in, so I met up with Jessica in Heredia in front of the Palacio de los deportes so we could take the bus to the airport together.
We got to the airport way early since both Jess and I believe in “better safe than sorry” and we didn’t want Kristyn to get off the plane and have no idea what to do next. So we waited for about an hour and a half for Kristyn to come in. While we were waiting, we saw a young girl also waiting for a visitor. True to Costa Rica form, she had an iguana perched on her belly and was just standing there like it was the most normal thing. I was hoping she’d still be there by the time Kristyn arrived, but we weren’t that lucky.
Finally, after what felt like the longest wait ever, Kristyn, with her giant backpacking backpack appeared behind the big windows at Juan Santamaría airport. We both started jumping up and down in excitement and my fantastic spring break adventure had officially begun!
We wasted no time and immediately got on a bus to San Jose where we planned to take another bus to Puerto Viejo. The original plan, the day before, was to travel to Tortuguero first, but the rest of our gang started traveling on Friday and called to let us know that the last boat to Tortuguero left at 2pm everyday which meant that we wouldn’t be able to get there in time to catch the boat. So we changed up our plans and started off in Puerto Viejo first. Once we got to San Jose Central, we had a general idea of where the bus terminal was (this terminal was specifically for the Caribbean, so it was a different from the other bus terminals I’d been to) so we started walking around and asking for directions. But after walking for 20 minutes and getting four completely different sets of directions, we hailed a tax—the failsafe way of getting where you need to go in a country that only uses landmarks for directions. It turned out we were just a few blocks away.
When we got to the bus terminal at 12:15 we saw that we had just missed the 12pm bus and had to wait until 2pm for the next bus. In the U.S. this would have led to a royally pissed off Natalie, but in Costa Rica, I have done an exceedingly good job of adopting the Pura Vida attitude, so we decided to kill some time by eating lunch and patronizing the internet café. The two hours went by very quickly and soon enough we were on our first of many modes of transportation of the week.
It was so nice to catch up with Kristyn and hear about life at Binghamton and how it hasn’t changed much—tons of rain and snow and cold weather. We chatted, snoozed, and I ate a mango in the messiest way possible: peeling it with my teeth and then digging in. If you ask me, it’s really the only way to eat a mango.
By around 6:30 we made it to Puerto Viejo! Puerto Viejo is a fabulous town on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. It’s a beach town, and as such, has an incredible friendly and laid-back atmosphere. In addition to that, it also has a Caribbean flair to it. I thought it was a fantastic place and can’t wait to go back. Mom and Dad – if you come visit me, we’re definitely going there!
So once we arrived in PV, it was dark so we made our way towards our hostel: the amazing Rockin’ J’s. It had been recommended by Laura, another American studying abroad this semester. We didn’t really know where in PV it was, so we just started walking and lo and behold, we found it right before we started to get nervous that we had been walking for too long.
We checked in and got our assigned hammock and locker. Yes, you read that right, we stayed in hammocks! Rockin’ J’s has many different types of accommodations. There are two huge pavilion-like areas that have rows and rows of hammocks and lockers to keep your belongings safe in. There are also several open areas where you can set up a tent of your own or one that you’ve rented from RJ’s. Then there are also several cabinas of assorted size, including the “Pimp Suite.” We decided to keep it simple (and super cheap – $5 a night) and stay in the hammocks. It turned out to be lovely, although I was a bit hesitant at first. It was quite relaxing to fall asleep as your hammock rocked you.
After settling in, we were pretty starving, so we stayed close and ate at the Rockin’ J’s restaurant. Kristyn and I got the Saturday night Mexican grill special and mango margaritas. Both were scrumptious!
By the time dinner was done, it must have been about 10pm and Kristyn was exhausted from all the traveling and Jess and I were pretty pooped ourselves. So we hopped into our hammocks (not all that gracefully, I must add. It takes some getting used to) and drifted off into the land of hammock dreams.
The next morning we woke up early and ventured out into town to get some breakfast. We happened upon an adorable little café that ended up being my favorite food establishment in PV. Homemade whole wheat bread and the most amazing coffee ever were the highlights. After the delightful breakfast, we walked into the middle of town where there were lots of opportunities to shop and observe the locals. We scoped out a nice spot for swimming, walked back to the hostel to get beach-ready and returned to a gorgeous spot on the beach. We relaxed and swam in the gloriously warm Caribbean. I even stood on a coral reef a ways into the water.
As we were on our way back to RJ’s, we were lucky enough to bump into the rest of the gang, Alyssa, Liz, Laura, Max, and Ryan, who had come from Tortuguero. In our new group of 8, we walked back to the hostel again so they could get settled in. Later on we ate dinner then returned to home base.
At Rockin’ J’s we somehow met 3 super-friendly Ticos who were our age and studying at Universidad de Costa Rica, the other big university here. We hung out with them for a while, playing cards and just chilling out until we decided to go out in search of live music and dancing. At the first bar, we were entertained by an amazing magician who actually scared the crap out of me by doing amazing tricks that I couldn’t wrap my head around. Then we basically just stood around, talking to each other. I felt pretty bad for Kristyn at this point, since it was all in Spanish, but when I asked her later, she said she followed pretty well.
When we got bored of that bar, we walked a little farther to find some music and dancing. But before we walked into the place we found, we somehow started talking about slang. We ended up in two circles of people, each circle with one Tico ringleader. Nacho was the leader of one group, and Carolina was the leader of the other. And this is how it went: Nacho would think of a funny curse word or phrase in Spanish, run over to Caroline and ask if she told her group that one, and then run back excitedly to explain it to our group. Looking back on this now, it seems so funny how it all turned out. We just stood there, on the street, learned slang for almost 3 hours. After a while, Nacho, Carolina, and Cesar decided that they wanted to learn some English slang, so we switched languages. That went on for the rest of the night until we decided to head back to Rockin’ J’s and get in hammock. (Get it? Get in hammock, instead of get in bed, haha.)
The next morning we got up bright and early (6:15) to go snorkeling at a nearby beach called Playa Cahuita. We had booked a tour the day before, so we walked into the center of town to take a 20-minute bus ride to the next town. There we were met at the bus station by a nice guy named Jose, our snorkeling guide. Together the big group of us walked with him to the beach where his motor boat was waiting for us. We all hopped in and started for what seemed like a random spot in the middle of the ocean. Obviously, though, Jose knew exactly where we were going. Once there, Jose handed out flippers and masks, gave us brief directions, and we were off! I plopped off the boat completely un-gracefully, but like a scuba diver. Cahuita is known as a really great snorkeling local because of the coral reef. Our tour basically followed a long corridor of reef. I saw all kinds of gorgeous fish and tons of spiky sea urchins. At one point, I even saw a nurse shark about the size of the length from fingertip to fingertip with my arms stretched out! When we reached the end of this section of reef, we got back in the boat to motor over to another spot that’s known for having big schools of fish. This spot ended up being even cooler because we saw two sting rays and another nurse shark. This time Jose was close by when we saw the shark and since I remembered learning that nurse sharks are very docile, I asked him if it was safe to touch it. He said yes, so after counting to three, Max and I dove down to the bottom to touch the shark. I got her tail before Max could touch her. We meant to both touch her at the same time, but I got a little excited and jumped the gun.
After some more swimming around and seeing the gorgeous under water world, we got back in Jose’s boat to drive over to Cahuita National Park where Jose served us an incredible pineapple and melon. There in the park were tons of monkeys who were constantly trying to steal our fruit. But Jose was adamant that we made sure they did not get any of it because there has been a problem in Costa Rica with tourists feeding monkeys food that is not good for them which leads them to develop stomach problems and sometimes die.
After we got back to shore where we started, we parted ways with Jose and walked to Playa Negra, which is a cool beach with really dark sand (Negra=black). There we just relaxed and swam, and accidentally got very sunburned. Once we had our fill of beaching it up, we called Carolina to meet up with her and her friends. They picked us up in the middle of Cahuita where we squeezed 10 of us into the back of a pickup truck and drove back to Rockin’ J’s. Our plan for the night was to buy hotdogs and the makings for smores so after showering and hanging out at the hostel, playing cards and stuff, we went across the street to the pulperia (corner store kinda thing) to buy our dinner ingredients. Once the fire was made, we started our cook-out extravaganza.
The only annoying part about cooking in a fire on the beach was the presence of evil fire ants. For some reason, I seemed to be the only person that the ants felt like attacking, so I was flipping out and cursing every 10 seconds because they were crawling up my legs and biting me all over. Those little buggers are tiny, but they are seriously painful. But eventually that crisis was averted when I found a fire ant-free zone and got them all off of me. Then Kristyn and I went hunting for palos (Kristyn would be very proud to tell you the English translation of that word – stick) for our hotdogs. Grilling hotdogs on sticks over a fire on the beach was shockingly successful and our dinner was delicious. Smores also worked out pretty well, although the only marshmallows we could find were strawberry flavored. After dinner, I had my first taste of Costa Rican liquor – Guaro, which is apparently made from sugar cane. Although it has a low alcohol content in relation to other alcohol, it’s still quite strong, so I got a little silly after that. But I had tons of fun playing cards with the Ticos and hanging out by our beautiful bonfire. [Don’t worry, Mom (and other mom-like figures that read this blog) I did nothing regrettable!]
The next morning I woke up at 5:30 with Kristyn to see the sunrise. It was disappointingly cloudy, but I was still able to take a few nice pictures. Then I got back in hammock until everyone else started to get up. Once the whole gang was awake, we went back to our favorite little café, Café Kiré. I ate fantabulous crepes with nutella and the always-amazing coffee. After that, Kristyn and I took advantage of our last day at Puerto Viejo and walked around town for a while. Kristyn bought a really cool bracelet, and I bought a beautiful Sarong. I found an awesome Imperial hat, but it was too expensive, so I just took a picture with it. The things cheap college kids, do, eh?
The rest of the (extremely hot) afternoon was spent relaxing and reading at the hostel until that evening when we rented bikes. We decided that we wanted to bike to the next town over, called Punta Uva where there was another very nice beach. Unfortunately, the uber-cheap bikes we rented were only worth what we paid for them, so the chain on Jessica’s bike fell off approximately every 15 minutes during the 8-mile bike ride. But eventually we got to the beach. It was a particularly pretty beach because the shore was in a horseshoe-shape which made it quite private and nice. And on one side of the beach, there was a dense forest that looked like it came straight out of the book Where the Wild Things Are. Jess, Laura, and I enjoyed the calm waves while perfecting our British accents (don’t ask) while the rest of the gang lollygagged on the beach or went exploring down the shore until it got dark enough that we realized we really had to be getting back to the hostel. It turned out to be a mistake that we didn’t leave earlier because by the time we were halfway back to Rockin’ J’s, it was pitch dark. That made the bike ride over treacherously pothole-laden roads quite scary, but also quite an experience. Suffice it to say that I was very relieved to see the Rockin’ J’s entrance.
Back at the hostel, I took one of the most glorious showers of my life after being completely caked in mud and sweat from the bike ride back. We were all starving by this point, so we opted to eat at the hostel’s restaurant. It turned out that it would have been smarter to walk somewhere else because service was so slow, but even after a 3-hour meal, the delicious food was worth the wait. I am sad to say that I can’t remember exactly what I ordered, but I remember eating delicious roasted chicken and the traditional “Rice and Beans” (not arroz y frijoles) of Puerto Viejo. Instead of traditional rice and beans, this version is made with coconut milk. I also drank two delicious ice coffees.
By the end of the longest meal of my life and after we spent half an hour figuring out how to split the bill between Laura, Jessica, Alyssa, Kristyn, Max, Ryan, Liz, Jane, Katie, her brother, and I, everyone was beyond ready to hit the hay. That is everyone besides this smart girl who drank two ice coffees. So while everyone else went to bed, I spent my time trying to convince some other (quite inebriated) fellow lodgers to keep it down. Although they made a valiant effort to be quiet, they nevertheless failed, so I convinced them to go to the bonfire on the beach so my friends could sleep. I hung out with them and was quite amused by their shenanigans until they decided to go out to a bar and I decided to go to bed.
The next morning we woke up bright and early again (6:15) because all the girls that had already been to Tortuguero were leaving for a rafting trip at Río Pacuare. The boys decided to stay a bit longer and then travel to Bocas Del Toro in Panamá, while Kristyn, Jess, and I left at 8am for our odyssey to Tortuguero. Before leaving, Kristyn and I visited our favorite Café Kiré for our last cup of coffee and some delicious homemade bread.
The trip to Tortuguero was quite ridiculous. First, we were picked up in a van by a lovely driver who took us to Moín, a port city. The van ride was lots of fun since our driver played awesome music for us, and Kristyn entertained us with her excellent dance moves. Once we got to Moín, we waited while guessing what kind of boat we’d be in for our 4 hour-ride. Finally, our boat, named Angel, arrived and us three chicks got the front seats. This turned out to be not quite the best thing because about and hour into the boat ride, it started pouring rain. Since we were in the front, we got hit with all the water first. Furthermore, we were delegated to pass out the “ponchos” that were stored in front of us. Now I put ponchos in quotes because as you can see in the photos, the ponchos were actually tarps with head holes. But they were better than nothing, so I didn’t complain. If you think the 4-hour, in-the-rain trip couldn’t get worse, think again. A little while later, the boat stopped and we found out that there was something wrong with the motor. So from that point until we reached our mid-way point, we went excruciatingly slow. Luckily it stopped raining after not too long and when we got to the mid-way point, we got off at a strange restaurant place and hung out until the boat operator got the motor working again. Luckily for us, it started pouring even worse about an hour later, so I spent the rest of the ride hiding under my poncho, enduring the freezing cold rain. When we finally got to Tortuguero, I was shocked because I couldn’t see anything from under the tarp.
We were ecstatic to reach land after the 6-hour boat ride that was supposed to be 4 and practically ran to our hotel, Cabinas Princesas, to take warm showers. Once we were refreshed, we wandered around the island. Tortuguero is quite an interesting place. It’s technically a peninsula, but has the feel of an island. It is also surrounded by a network of canals that make you feel like you’re at the Amazon. Another noteworthy fact: there are no cars on Tortuguero and the only way to get there is by boat or plane. Once you get there, you just walk wherever you need to go – it’s that small. So we ventured around, bought real ponchos for our canal tour the next day, and got dinner. There’s pretty much no night life on Tortuguero, so once there was not enough light to continue exploring, we relaxed in the hotel.
The next morning we woke up early (again!) for our 6am canal tour. The tour was incredible. It was us three girls, our tour guide, Bony, and 3 other folks in a canoe. For four glorious hours, we slowly drifted through the canals and saw all kinds of amazing wildlife. We saw tons of birds, cayman crocodiles, an anteater, and Jesus Christ Lizards. My favorite part was just sitting and listening to the jungle sounds, so I took a bunch of videos that I can listen to whenever I want.
Back on the island, we roamed around a while longer until it was time to get on another lovely boat ride, this time to Cariari where we were supposed to get a bus to Limón and then another to San Jose. We were successful in getting a boat to Limón, but when we got on that bus, the driver informed us that since it was Semana Santa (holy week) there were no busses running to San Jose. Woo-hoo, we thought, what luck we have with transportation this week! There were quite a few other people on the bus to Limón with us who also needed to get to San Jose, so we contemplated renting a car and driving together, or sharing a taxi. In the end we decided to share two taxis and went straight to Heredia. That ended up costing a whopping $25 per person, but it made it possible for Kristyn to catch her flight back to the states on Friday.
Once back in Heredia, (this is Thursday afternoon now) I realized that I didn’t have the key to my house and my host family was away camping. I desperately hoped the guard at the front gate would have an extra key, but alas, he did not. We ended up climbing through the window into my host parents’ room that was luckily left unlocked. (Please keep that between you and me, dear blog readers.) To add to that, poor Kristyn was greeted by a gecko behind the hand towel when she went to dry her hands in the bathroom. That girl is a trooper!
The next day we woke up around 8:30 and walked around Heredia Central until we had to leave for the airport in Alajuela. I insisted that Kristyn get some ice cream from POPS, the best ice cream chain in Costa Rica. Sadly, after that, I had to say goodbye to Kristyn (and my spring break) at the airport. And so ended my amazing Spring Break ’09. I doubt I’ll ever be able to top it.
