Since our last post, we´ve been cruisned from Costa Rica into Panama. We spent one more night at Tommy´s – we had to San Jose´s famous nightlife before leaving. We spent the day shopping and going to museums, and Tori even got a spontaneous $2 haircut. Later that night, we met up with Tommy and Susan at San Jose´s infamous Hotel Del Rey. It is a casino, bar, hotel, and fisherman hang out, but is most famous because almost every woman that walks in the bar is a prostitute. Prostitution is legal in Costa Rica, but only if the woman is over 18, self employed, and carries a card certifying regular health tests. As Tommy says, the girl has to be an ïndependent contractor.¨ It is an interesting system, and totally bizarre to witness several hundred prostitutes converge on a bunch of fishermen in a casino. We tried the slot machines, too, but lost both dollars quickly. We are not high rollers.
The next morning, we bid Tommy and Susan farewell and finally hit the road again. It was great staying with them and we greatly appreciate all of their generosity… In fact, we ended up staying in Costa Rica about three times as long as we had planned as a result.
We had both read parts of this book ¨What Happen,¨ which is a folkloric history of the south east caribbean people´s of Costa Rica, so we decided to visit the places that we had read about, namely a small town called Cahuita. Moreover, the part of the Carribean is known to have beautiful beaches…man that phrase is getting played out in this blog.
Cahuita, it turns out, does not have particularly beautiful beaches, nor is the town ¨cute¨or ïdyllic¨in any way. Maybe it was just the torrential, non-stop, clothes-soup generating rain, but that town was lame. Also, Tori got food poisoning. Thus, we left early, cursing Cahuita as we left.
We passed through Puerto Viejo, a similar town known for bigger parties and (yawn) beautiful, long sandy beaches. It was raining there, too, so we stayed on our bus and kept on toward the border with Panama. Once again, we walked across a busted bridge into another country, paying minute taxes along the way and getting confused between lines. Eventually, we got across, however, in time to realize we had just barely missed the bus to Bocas del Toro and would have to take a taxi with a family of missionaries. Yay, adventures!
Bocas is a series of small islands on the caribeña side of north Panama, discovered by Columbus on his fourth and final voyage. It means ¨Mouths of the Bull¨ for reasons that no longer make sense (to us) and have generated conflicting legends. There are no bulls, much less multi mouthed bulls. There are, however, beautiful beaches.
One of them is called ¨playa de las estrellas¨which means beach of the stars because it is covered in star fish of all colors. It´s pretty cool. We played in the wáter with them and took pictures. Some old tourists went by on a tour and we felt cool because we had gotten there on a local bus and hiked down the beach. For lunch we shared a plate of french fries and chicken fingers (the cheapest thing on the menú at the only restaurant near the beach), but really filled up on coconuts we found on the beach. Stew bought a machete for this very purpose, but had left it in the room. Thus, he practiced his technique of holding the coconut firmly in one hand and smashing it against a tree until it leaks delicious milk. Then, he splits it open with his hands he-man style. Tori finds this process hilarious. The coconut was delicious, but contained so much meat we couldn´t finish it.
The second night, we met some fellow travelers from the United States. Two (Megan and Zack) had just graduated from Indiana University and are doing a similar trip to ours, while the other two (Avery and Brittany) are current students at UGA on Thanksgiving Break. Thus, we had another opportunity to party like college kids, and spent the next few days touring the various islands and bars with our new friends (we never found the Ngobe Bugle, prounounced Nooblie Booglie). Likely, by now, there are already facebook pictures documenting our goofiness. We had to skip a couple of beaches because a girl died going to one recently in stormy weather. The seas were still rough, so we, like responsible travelers, decided that we shouldn´t take such unnecessary risks.
Thursday was Thanksgiving. It was hard to be away from our families on this special holiday for the first time. Fortunately we were with new friends. Also, a hostel run by ¨Cosmo¨ an American Harvard gradúate ex patriot, organized an epic feast for only six bucks a person. It was an amazing turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, stuffing, tropical fruit chutney, green bean casserole, Johnny cakes, mac and cheese, gravy, pumpkin pie – the works.. While it wasn´t on par with our families´cooking (no one can beat Liz Clifford at a Thanksgiving blow-out), it was great to get proper American food. In short, it beat all expectations that we had for finding some semblance of American Thanksgiving in Panama.
The next morning, we decided to head out once more after spending way longer than inteded at a beautiful beach. This time, we set our sites on a mountain town in the highlands of Panama. The hiking is supposed to be great, with volcanoes, waterfalls, hot springs, views, pumas, and quetzals. Also, today is Panama´s Independence day and this is the center of the celebration. Who knew? Initially, this was a bit of an issue, as the first 23 hostels we went to were full, but there was one only a two kilometer hike up the hill (not the direction we started in), so everything turned out well. Actually, Tori fell in a hole and twisted her ankle, but it was kind of funny and everything turned out well when the owner gave us roasted pork and vodka tonics after we checked in.
Today, we went to see a garden called ¨mi jardín es su jardin¨meaning it was free. Also, it was expansive, well maintained, free, epic, and free. We took about 200 pictures of pretty flowers, so when we have a good connections, there will be an inundation of photos. We also watched parades and ate meat on a stick. Panama is awesome.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
We have been busy little bees
Since we last wrote, we spent another couple days at Tommy's farm, went to Satya's (a friend of Tommy's) family's farm up in the coldest mountain in Costa Rica, and visited two (or 4) beaches on the Pacific Coast. We have some good stories, but you'll have to bear with us. Also, you'll have to deal with some brevity and infer more from pictures. Feel free to contact us (we love messages!) if you want elaboration. (This is a shameless plea for love)
Tommy took us to see Volcan Poas and La Paz waterfalls. Volcan Poas was really cool, but we couldn't see much due to the fog. La Paz waterfalls were mainly destroyed by the earthquake last year, but are still magnificent and we could barely tell. According to Tommy, we only saw about fifty percent of the falls, but the zoo there was awesome, too.
The above two pictures are of the la paz waterfalls and a sloth there. Tommy also took us out for any amazing lunch at a French restaurant where we had crepes with mushrooms and cheese, bunny in dijon mustard sauce, blackberry refrescos, and chocolate mousse. It was amazing.
The next morning, we left with Satya (her husband works and lives on Tommy's farm) up to her family's farm high in the mountains.
They are ex-pats from the U.S. who left with no money and six kids to avoid the draft during the Vietnam war. It is a great little farm and it is amazing what one family can accomplish together. 
The majority of what they use is generated on the farm, but they also rent out their farm house as a lodge to travelers. Plus, they're really nice and showed us great hospitality. They taught us a lot about how to live and work on a farm...we started by milking cows, then made cheese, butter, sour cream, and whey milk shakes. Yay for efficiency! Here we are making butter:
The majority of what they use is generated on the farm, but they also rent out their farm house as a lodge to travelers. Plus, they're really nice and showed us great hospitality. They taught us a lot about how to live and work on a farm...we started by milking cows, then made cheese, butter, sour cream, and whey milk shakes. Yay for efficiency! Here we are making butter: 
After Las Vueltas, we headed down to the beautiful beach of Montezuma where we camped out with a bunch of hippies on the beach. Luckily, only our flip flops were stolen. We also went on an awesome hike up through a series of waterfalls. There was an 80 ft, 40 ft, and 15 ft. waterfall. We jumped off the last two, which was awesome!
This is Tori jumping off the 40 footer.After a two days at Montezuma, we headed up to Puntarenas to hang out with some exchange students we had met while traveling in Nicaragua. Brian let us sleep on his floor. It was hard, but free. It was fun to party with college students, just like old times. We had a huge bonfire on the beach and tried to watch a meteor shower (it was cloudy).
Now we are back at Tommy's. We plan to head to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica in the next few days, then Panama. The adventure continues!
Monday, November 9, 2009
Havin a blast on Costa Rican farms
When we left off last, we were enjoying the rain in Monteverde after an exhilarating zipline ride through the rainforest. The rain didn’t really let up for the rest of the day, so we spent the afternoon planning and preparing for a feast that night.
The plan was to make steak sandwiches that Stew had dreamed about a few days earlier. And by dream we mean he actually woke up in the morning with the words “steak sandwiches” on his lips. We have been eating rice and beans for almost every meal, and Stew was craving some seriously filling food. Tori also woke up with a craving and was whispering “salami and cheese” before we even got out of bed. After our strenuous day on the lines (we did actually have to hike, which really means waddling because of the harnesses), we decided we deserved it. Also, rice and beans was getting pretty old.
So we hit the grocery store which was strikingly similar to any grocery store in the U.S. and had anything we could possibly want. There was real cheese, Italian meats, tapenades, ranch dressing…all of our greatest desires. We each gathered the necessary ingredients to satisfy our dreams: good hard cheese, fancy peppercorn salami, a pound of steak, a pound of bacon, a bottle of ranch, sautéed pepper and onions, and fresh tomatoes. The meal turned out to be amazing, but we kind of disgusted some French tourists but their pasta carbonara was crappy and they ate their bacon raw. After dinner, we had a little party in the hostel with the owner and a couple kids from the U.S., including a girl that lives in Georgetown.
The next morning, we decided to brave the rain and go for a hike. We had been really excited about hiking in Monteverde, but the constant rain had dampened our spirits. We had bus tickets for 2:30, so we got up at 9 a.m. to get going. The hike turned out to be a lot more difficult than we expected, partly due to the steepness but mainly because of the slipperiness of the mud. The rain had made the path pretty much impassable, and we gave up eventually and walked back to town. Still, we saw some beautiful views from Cerro Amigos and got to walk through majestic forests.
The five hour bus ride turned out to be only three hours, which is the first time a time estimation has erred in that direction. When we arrived in San Jose, Tommy Thomas, a friend of Tori’s parents from the 80s who’s been living in Costa Rica since the late 80s, picked us up and took us back to his cool herb farm in the Central Valley, about 30 minutes outside of San Jose. We’ve been living the high life since!
Tommy’s house is awesome. It’s inside his farm, in the mountains above San Jose. It’s nestled above jungle ravine on his farm, so when you look out from the window it feels like you’re in a forest. After an unfrigginbelivable dinner of homemade Indian food (Tommy worked as Peace Corps volunteer in India during the 60s), we went to sleep in preparation for an early morning trip to Tommy’s buddy Bob’s house. Susan, Tommy’s girlfriend came by in time for breakfast that morning. We left about 9:30, after the best Costa Rican coffee and smokey thick-cut bacon ever. Bob is a motocross racer/surfer who also owns businesses in Costa Rica and spends about 1/3 of his time there. He owns lottts of acres on the banks of a river near the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.
Bob’s house is also totally awesome. Apparently it’s the fashion to have a farm in Costa Rica, because Bob has a business growing ornamental plants for the US, and also leases land to a pineapple grower that supplies pineapple to the largest fruitcake producer in the world. A less bizarre but equally sweet thing about Bob’s place: he uses part of land for a tourist adventure center which runs canopy tours (ziplining through the jungla) and white water rafting trips.
The afternoon we got there, we jumped into duckies, or inflatable kayaks for white water rafting, and headed down the Rio’s class III rapids. Tommy and Bob were each in a kayak, while Stew and Tori took the double. Apparently we still haven’t learned that we are not the best kayak partner pair. To be fair, white water kayaking is a lot more difficult than rafting. You’re on your own, so you’re doing the work.
We started off with Stew in the back and Tori in the front, which was pretty hilarious. We managed to hit almost every single object in the river that we intended to avoid. We managed to get stuck for a solid 45 seconds on a rock, hit the bank of the river, go over the rapids at their most gnarly areas. The ride was a lot of fun, though occasionally painful when we slammed our butts on the rocks, or when wasps attacked stew’s face about ½ through. He powered through, to the amazement of all. When we switched seats about 2/3 of the way down the river at the suggestions of our guide, we manage to do a little better on the directional front – the kayak doesn’t really move where you steer if it’s heavier in the front than the back, according to our guide.
That night at dinner, we discovered that Bob makes a mean pina colada and tenderloin steak. We had fun hanging out with Tommy, Bob, Susan, and their friend Maria.
The next morning it was time to zipline again! The course was totally different from the course at Monteverde: instead of going through cloud forest, we went over a river and through the jungle in a big loop. We also got to pass over a garden that Bob is starting. The garden has many of the same plants as Tommy’s, but they look different here because of the wildly different altitude levels.
Bob was heading back to the U.S., so we had to close up his house before we could leave. Apparently, people will steal just about anything if he doesn’t secure it. Someone broke in and stole some guitars so he put bars over the windows. Then, someone used a crow bar to remove the house siding and broke in that way. Now, Bob goes so far as to remove the ceiling fans. Pretty hilarious, but I guess necessary.
Back at Tommy’s, we had another party before Bob flew out in the morning. We got to stay in Tommy’s tree house, which is pretty much the coolest place in the world. There are three rooms: one with food, fridge, and hot plate, a bathroom, and a three walled bed room with a great view of the central valley and San Jose’s lights. With plumbing, electricity, a comfortable bed, and a nice view, we were as happy as could be.
The next day, Tommy and Susan gave us a tour of the farm. We got to see all of the herbs which he grows and sells. There is an amazing variety and more basil than you can dream of. Even more impressive than the herbs is his personal garden. There are plants from all over the world, some exotics, some natives, fruits, cacti, gingers, bamboos, and a thousand gorgeous varieties of each. It really is impossible to even describe how great the garden and its well maintained paths.
After lunch, we decided to make dinner for Tommy and Susan in appreciation for all of the wonderful meals and hospitality they had given us. Lasagna is our specialty and something we haven’t made since California. Plus, access to an herb garden makes cooking really fun and delicious. In the end, we wound up with red pepper, artichoke heart, hearts of palm, spinach and goat cheese lasagna, along with a caprese salad, and garlic bread.
Today, Tommy took us to Zoo Ave, where we got to walk through a jungly area filled with ever specie of animal in Costa Rica, and a few others. Maybe they don’t have absolutely everything, but darn near. The birds are especially impressive, but caimans and mountain lions and monkeys are pretty cool too. We really can’t list every species that we saw, but they were all pretty cool. Evidently, there was an artist on staff, too. All around were well done paintings in various styles (cartoons, dark/trippy/creepy, realistic) warning against the harms of eating turtle eggs or buying endangered animals or advising children of the importance of conservation. It was a great zoo and it really made us miss our camera (which had been destroyed the day before in unfortunate circumstances.)
Afterwards, we went out for pizza and bought a new camera at the mall. It was kind of a pain and they screwed up the purchase. After some awkward arguing in Spanish and a long wait, we eventually walked out with a wad of cash and a camera, and all we had to do was sign this little receipt. Tommy took us to see his spice warehouse, his factory, his office (Tommy runs a spice import/export/processing company in addition to the herb garden), and the storeroom where Susan keeps all of her imported furniture from Indonesia (a business she runs). It was the first time we’ve seen a proper factory and it was really cool. Plus, it smelled great.
Now we’re going out for Peruvian food. Tommy is great and really generous. We’re having a fabulous time and this is one of the most amazing places we’ve been. We posted a photo album on Stew’s facebook. They should be available for anyone to see, but if you can’t find them let us know and we’ll figure something out.
The plan was to make steak sandwiches that Stew had dreamed about a few days earlier. And by dream we mean he actually woke up in the morning with the words “steak sandwiches” on his lips. We have been eating rice and beans for almost every meal, and Stew was craving some seriously filling food. Tori also woke up with a craving and was whispering “salami and cheese” before we even got out of bed. After our strenuous day on the lines (we did actually have to hike, which really means waddling because of the harnesses), we decided we deserved it. Also, rice and beans was getting pretty old.
So we hit the grocery store which was strikingly similar to any grocery store in the U.S. and had anything we could possibly want. There was real cheese, Italian meats, tapenades, ranch dressing…all of our greatest desires. We each gathered the necessary ingredients to satisfy our dreams: good hard cheese, fancy peppercorn salami, a pound of steak, a pound of bacon, a bottle of ranch, sautéed pepper and onions, and fresh tomatoes. The meal turned out to be amazing, but we kind of disgusted some French tourists but their pasta carbonara was crappy and they ate their bacon raw. After dinner, we had a little party in the hostel with the owner and a couple kids from the U.S., including a girl that lives in Georgetown.
The next morning, we decided to brave the rain and go for a hike. We had been really excited about hiking in Monteverde, but the constant rain had dampened our spirits. We had bus tickets for 2:30, so we got up at 9 a.m. to get going. The hike turned out to be a lot more difficult than we expected, partly due to the steepness but mainly because of the slipperiness of the mud. The rain had made the path pretty much impassable, and we gave up eventually and walked back to town. Still, we saw some beautiful views from Cerro Amigos and got to walk through majestic forests.
The five hour bus ride turned out to be only three hours, which is the first time a time estimation has erred in that direction. When we arrived in San Jose, Tommy Thomas, a friend of Tori’s parents from the 80s who’s been living in Costa Rica since the late 80s, picked us up and took us back to his cool herb farm in the Central Valley, about 30 minutes outside of San Jose. We’ve been living the high life since!
Tommy’s house is awesome. It’s inside his farm, in the mountains above San Jose. It’s nestled above jungle ravine on his farm, so when you look out from the window it feels like you’re in a forest. After an unfrigginbelivable dinner of homemade Indian food (Tommy worked as Peace Corps volunteer in India during the 60s), we went to sleep in preparation for an early morning trip to Tommy’s buddy Bob’s house. Susan, Tommy’s girlfriend came by in time for breakfast that morning. We left about 9:30, after the best Costa Rican coffee and smokey thick-cut bacon ever. Bob is a motocross racer/surfer who also owns businesses in Costa Rica and spends about 1/3 of his time there. He owns lottts of acres on the banks of a river near the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.
Bob’s house is also totally awesome. Apparently it’s the fashion to have a farm in Costa Rica, because Bob has a business growing ornamental plants for the US, and also leases land to a pineapple grower that supplies pineapple to the largest fruitcake producer in the world. A less bizarre but equally sweet thing about Bob’s place: he uses part of land for a tourist adventure center which runs canopy tours (ziplining through the jungla) and white water rafting trips.
The afternoon we got there, we jumped into duckies, or inflatable kayaks for white water rafting, and headed down the Rio’s class III rapids. Tommy and Bob were each in a kayak, while Stew and Tori took the double. Apparently we still haven’t learned that we are not the best kayak partner pair. To be fair, white water kayaking is a lot more difficult than rafting. You’re on your own, so you’re doing the work.
We started off with Stew in the back and Tori in the front, which was pretty hilarious. We managed to hit almost every single object in the river that we intended to avoid. We managed to get stuck for a solid 45 seconds on a rock, hit the bank of the river, go over the rapids at their most gnarly areas. The ride was a lot of fun, though occasionally painful when we slammed our butts on the rocks, or when wasps attacked stew’s face about ½ through. He powered through, to the amazement of all. When we switched seats about 2/3 of the way down the river at the suggestions of our guide, we manage to do a little better on the directional front – the kayak doesn’t really move where you steer if it’s heavier in the front than the back, according to our guide.
That night at dinner, we discovered that Bob makes a mean pina colada and tenderloin steak. We had fun hanging out with Tommy, Bob, Susan, and their friend Maria.
The next morning it was time to zipline again! The course was totally different from the course at Monteverde: instead of going through cloud forest, we went over a river and through the jungle in a big loop. We also got to pass over a garden that Bob is starting. The garden has many of the same plants as Tommy’s, but they look different here because of the wildly different altitude levels.
Bob was heading back to the U.S., so we had to close up his house before we could leave. Apparently, people will steal just about anything if he doesn’t secure it. Someone broke in and stole some guitars so he put bars over the windows. Then, someone used a crow bar to remove the house siding and broke in that way. Now, Bob goes so far as to remove the ceiling fans. Pretty hilarious, but I guess necessary.
Back at Tommy’s, we had another party before Bob flew out in the morning. We got to stay in Tommy’s tree house, which is pretty much the coolest place in the world. There are three rooms: one with food, fridge, and hot plate, a bathroom, and a three walled bed room with a great view of the central valley and San Jose’s lights. With plumbing, electricity, a comfortable bed, and a nice view, we were as happy as could be.
The next day, Tommy and Susan gave us a tour of the farm. We got to see all of the herbs which he grows and sells. There is an amazing variety and more basil than you can dream of. Even more impressive than the herbs is his personal garden. There are plants from all over the world, some exotics, some natives, fruits, cacti, gingers, bamboos, and a thousand gorgeous varieties of each. It really is impossible to even describe how great the garden and its well maintained paths.
After lunch, we decided to make dinner for Tommy and Susan in appreciation for all of the wonderful meals and hospitality they had given us. Lasagna is our specialty and something we haven’t made since California. Plus, access to an herb garden makes cooking really fun and delicious. In the end, we wound up with red pepper, artichoke heart, hearts of palm, spinach and goat cheese lasagna, along with a caprese salad, and garlic bread.
Today, Tommy took us to Zoo Ave, where we got to walk through a jungly area filled with ever specie of animal in Costa Rica, and a few others. Maybe they don’t have absolutely everything, but darn near. The birds are especially impressive, but caimans and mountain lions and monkeys are pretty cool too. We really can’t list every species that we saw, but they were all pretty cool. Evidently, there was an artist on staff, too. All around were well done paintings in various styles (cartoons, dark/trippy/creepy, realistic) warning against the harms of eating turtle eggs or buying endangered animals or advising children of the importance of conservation. It was a great zoo and it really made us miss our camera (which had been destroyed the day before in unfortunate circumstances.)
Afterwards, we went out for pizza and bought a new camera at the mall. It was kind of a pain and they screwed up the purchase. After some awkward arguing in Spanish and a long wait, we eventually walked out with a wad of cash and a camera, and all we had to do was sign this little receipt. Tommy took us to see his spice warehouse, his factory, his office (Tommy runs a spice import/export/processing company in addition to the herb garden), and the storeroom where Susan keeps all of her imported furniture from Indonesia (a business she runs). It was the first time we’ve seen a proper factory and it was really cool. Plus, it smelled great.
Now we’re going out for Peruvian food. Tommy is great and really generous. We’re having a fabulous time and this is one of the most amazing places we’ve been. We posted a photo album on Stew’s facebook. They should be available for anyone to see, but if you can’t find them let us know and we’ll figure something out.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Pura vida en la lluvia
We spent a couple days hanging out lazily on the beach in San Juan del Sur. We decided to delay our departure from Nicaragua in order to take part in the many Halloween (Noche de las Brujas) festivities. San Juan del sur is a big gringo town so even though the holiday is not generally celebrated among latinos (and is considered a great sacrilege by many), there were countless parties and costumed fools advertising in the streets.
On the day of Halloween, we saw John and Kim from Chicago in the streets and they invited us on a deep sea fishing trip with them. Tori had never been fishing before, so we snapped at the hook. It was advertised as a booze cruise, but today was half price and no booze. Probably a good deal over all given that alcohol is cheaper than water in Nicaragua. We did bring our own bottle of rum, however, which proved useful given the slow fishing day. We only had one bite the entire afternoon, but John managed to reel in a great big black tuna. If that is the name of the tuna, great. Otherwise, it is merely descriptive.
Our madre at the house where we were staying had been cooking us meals every day and we thought she would be willing to show us how to cook a fish Nica style. Also, John and Kim did not have a kitchen, so it was kind of necessary that they share with us. Sweet. Our madre jumped at the fish and slashed it into dark red slabs of delicious in just moments, while ordering us to chop vegetables. The fish turned out amazing and even Stew liked it, which is remarkable because Stew hates all fish. It was such dark meat that it didn´t have any of the stinky fishiness he objects to. Madre sauteed it in garlic and made an onion, tomato, and green pepper sauce to go on top.
Afterwards, all four of us went out for drinks to celebrate Halloween. We meant to dress as zombies because one bar was giving away free drinks for zombies, but we had no makeup. Thus, we went as gringos. We spent most of the evening at a bar having a surf competition of sorts. It started raining so hard that we couldn´t leave and spent a couple hours watching people try to balance a mini surfboard on a log.
The next morning, we decided it was time to hit the road and made our way down to the border at Peñas Blancas. While waiting for the second bus, we made friends with a super nice Costa Rican kid about our age who was studying tourism at university while working at a bar. We think he must have been excited to try out his tour operator skills because he helped us tremendously in navigating across the border and on the other side in Costa Rica. He even went through a map of Costa Rica with us, circling the coolest places to see and discussing the cheapest ways to get there.
Liberia was our first stop in Costa Rica. We had hoped to make it a little further, but by the time we hit this big, dirty city we were exhausted. The last night`s partying was catching up to us, and it was time to crash. Our buddy walked all over the city with us looking for the cheapest hotel. It still proved a little pricier than we had hoped, but apparently that is just how it goes in Costa Rica. The next morning we were back on a bus on the way to the Parque Nacional Rincon de La Vieja (Corner of the Old Lady) via Curubande (spelled Corobunda in our wretched guidebook).
When we got to Curubande, we set out on the 10 km hike to the park. This is where the skies opened up. It rained, and poured, and rained, and poured...and promptly stopped raining as soon as a car slowed down to give us ride. By this point, we had been walking for about 45 minutes in a torrential downpour. Our clothes and packs are still wet. When we finally got up to the park, we found out that it is closed on Mondays. It would have been useful if our guidebook had mentioned this. Weve decided to burn it when we finish with Panama.
The upshot of all this is that we ended up staying at ritzy hotel instead of camping in the park. Our first plan was to camp right outside the entrance, but we (Tori) was frightened by tales of roaming jaguars in the night. This ended up being a fantastic move. The hotel was running a promotion for the month of November: 29 dollars per person per night, including breakfast, sauna, volcanic mud baths, and hot springs. Plus, there was a waterfall on the hotel property. So, we got to stay in an awesome hotel with real Amuurrican style hot showers and a buffet breakfast, plus do everything we had wanted to do in the park (hot springs and waterfall), and sleep in by far the best bed we have slept in thus far. The mud bath was especially sweet. We painted ourselves in volcanic mud bubbling out of a pit below us and then laid in the sun as it dried. We looked like monsters from the deep! Stew looked especially bizarre in a creature from the blue lagoon sort of way.
After Rincon de la Vieja, we headed South for Monteverde, a small town in the midst of Costa Ricas last remaining Cloud Forest. We found a sweet hostel with free, delicious coffee and breakfast, as well as free internet. Score.
This morning we went on a canopy tour, which entails ziplining from platform to platform through the cloud forest. It also included a tarzan swing and superman free fall. Pura Vida, as they say in Costa Rica. We had a great time despite perma-wedgies from the super tight harnesses. Stew strongly resembled a grizzly bear in bondage gear. Now, it's pouring rain yet again. I guess we really have solidly entered the rainy season in the rainforest.
On the day of Halloween, we saw John and Kim from Chicago in the streets and they invited us on a deep sea fishing trip with them. Tori had never been fishing before, so we snapped at the hook. It was advertised as a booze cruise, but today was half price and no booze. Probably a good deal over all given that alcohol is cheaper than water in Nicaragua. We did bring our own bottle of rum, however, which proved useful given the slow fishing day. We only had one bite the entire afternoon, but John managed to reel in a great big black tuna. If that is the name of the tuna, great. Otherwise, it is merely descriptive.
Our madre at the house where we were staying had been cooking us meals every day and we thought she would be willing to show us how to cook a fish Nica style. Also, John and Kim did not have a kitchen, so it was kind of necessary that they share with us. Sweet. Our madre jumped at the fish and slashed it into dark red slabs of delicious in just moments, while ordering us to chop vegetables. The fish turned out amazing and even Stew liked it, which is remarkable because Stew hates all fish. It was such dark meat that it didn´t have any of the stinky fishiness he objects to. Madre sauteed it in garlic and made an onion, tomato, and green pepper sauce to go on top.
Afterwards, all four of us went out for drinks to celebrate Halloween. We meant to dress as zombies because one bar was giving away free drinks for zombies, but we had no makeup. Thus, we went as gringos. We spent most of the evening at a bar having a surf competition of sorts. It started raining so hard that we couldn´t leave and spent a couple hours watching people try to balance a mini surfboard on a log.
The next morning, we decided it was time to hit the road and made our way down to the border at Peñas Blancas. While waiting for the second bus, we made friends with a super nice Costa Rican kid about our age who was studying tourism at university while working at a bar. We think he must have been excited to try out his tour operator skills because he helped us tremendously in navigating across the border and on the other side in Costa Rica. He even went through a map of Costa Rica with us, circling the coolest places to see and discussing the cheapest ways to get there.
Liberia was our first stop in Costa Rica. We had hoped to make it a little further, but by the time we hit this big, dirty city we were exhausted. The last night`s partying was catching up to us, and it was time to crash. Our buddy walked all over the city with us looking for the cheapest hotel. It still proved a little pricier than we had hoped, but apparently that is just how it goes in Costa Rica. The next morning we were back on a bus on the way to the Parque Nacional Rincon de La Vieja (Corner of the Old Lady) via Curubande (spelled Corobunda in our wretched guidebook).
When we got to Curubande, we set out on the 10 km hike to the park. This is where the skies opened up. It rained, and poured, and rained, and poured...and promptly stopped raining as soon as a car slowed down to give us ride. By this point, we had been walking for about 45 minutes in a torrential downpour. Our clothes and packs are still wet. When we finally got up to the park, we found out that it is closed on Mondays. It would have been useful if our guidebook had mentioned this. Weve decided to burn it when we finish with Panama.
The upshot of all this is that we ended up staying at ritzy hotel instead of camping in the park. Our first plan was to camp right outside the entrance, but we (Tori) was frightened by tales of roaming jaguars in the night. This ended up being a fantastic move. The hotel was running a promotion for the month of November: 29 dollars per person per night, including breakfast, sauna, volcanic mud baths, and hot springs. Plus, there was a waterfall on the hotel property. So, we got to stay in an awesome hotel with real Amuurrican style hot showers and a buffet breakfast, plus do everything we had wanted to do in the park (hot springs and waterfall), and sleep in by far the best bed we have slept in thus far. The mud bath was especially sweet. We painted ourselves in volcanic mud bubbling out of a pit below us and then laid in the sun as it dried. We looked like monsters from the deep! Stew looked especially bizarre in a creature from the blue lagoon sort of way.
After Rincon de la Vieja, we headed South for Monteverde, a small town in the midst of Costa Ricas last remaining Cloud Forest. We found a sweet hostel with free, delicious coffee and breakfast, as well as free internet. Score.
This morning we went on a canopy tour, which entails ziplining from platform to platform through the cloud forest. It also included a tarzan swing and superman free fall. Pura Vida, as they say in Costa Rica. We had a great time despite perma-wedgies from the super tight harnesses. Stew strongly resembled a grizzly bear in bondage gear. Now, it's pouring rain yet again. I guess we really have solidly entered the rainy season in the rainforest.
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