The day was finally here, the one that was to be the apex of this journey...(drumroll please)...ziplines! The zipline was actually invented in Costa Rica and for those of you not familiar with this adventure sport, it involves climbing into a harness, attaching said harness to a pulley that is then attached to a galvanized or stainless steel cable, and then falling from a height to a lower location while being zipped along the cable. Wheeee! Once the excitement of falling at 40 mph begins to wane, that's when you may want to introduce a trick or two. There is: swinging one's legs, letting go of the approved hand locations, leaning backward into a prone position, bending further back in an attempt to touch one's toes, spinning in circles, going two at a time to gain speed, flipping upside down, facing backwards, doing the splits while upside down, etc. etc. etc. For those interested in installing a zipline in their own backyard, please see http://www.outdoorfunstore.com/zipline.asp. Would it be too crazy to use a zipline as my means of egress from my 2nd story apartment down to the street?
The day began at 6:30am when the alarm went off. We had decided to attempt to deplete all of our stored adrenaline in one day and had booked a 7:20 canyoning trip and a 1:30 canopy tour. The first thing that I did was, of course, remind the person at the desk to look out for my camera. Then I was free to eat a quick breakfast and head off for a morning spent rappelling down waterfalls. Seriously, we rappelled down waterfalls. This excursion was second only to ziplining on my list of must-do things in Costa Rica. The van drove us a short way down the road to meet up with a jeep which drove us out to the canyoning site. DeLisa, Nicole and I got onto the last jeep in the line and thus were the group that turned back for two late arrivals, but they were nice guys, so we weren't too hard on them. Also, turning back gave us the opportunity to see 3 fabulous mental postcard moments: 1) a 3-4 year old boy trudging barefoot up a hill with a few long pieces of wood held over his shoulder. The tot just seemed to be feeling so terribly sorry for himself, and I can't say that I blame him; 2) a group of 3 cows, one laying on the ground, with the other two standing protectively over the cow on the ground - it was a poignant moment; 3) what had to be the world's fattest turkey - this thing was absolutely huge - HUGE, even I, a vegetarian for 15 years, wondered what it would taste like.
Finally, we were at the spot and were ready to go. The group of 20 or so were all kitted out with harnesses, identical blue jackets, and blue hard hats. Somehow, DeLisa ended up with a white hard hat which came in handy later on. Oh, by the by, I've never been a huge fan of the Meyer-Briggs personality test, which purports to classify people and assist them in forming career and life aspirations by determining if any individual is an: Extrovert/Introvert; Intuitive/Sensitive; Thinker/Feeler; Judge/Perceptive. I sincerely doubt the validity of this personality assessment but all the night before, during dinner, I kept finding myself thinking, "Goodness, I love how DeLisa thinks; this woman is just so clearheaded and rational." Well, as you might have guessed from the lead up, it turns out that we are both ENTJs. Interesting. It was very refreshing to talk to someone who sees the world in a very similar way to how I view it.
Well, all of us lined up at the first rappelling site and prepared to descend a cliff. The order of the tour was a little screwy and so the longest drop was the first one. I guess that it was good to practice on, but it would have been fun to try it after we had done a few other cliffs first. I hadn't rappelled since I was a teenager at Hume Lake summer camp and I worked up quite a case of nerves while waiting my turn to jump off of the cliff. Finally, I was over. Left hand above me, right hand below me, and JUMP! Hmm, this was a bit trickier on jutting rocks than I remember it being on concrete. I made it down in 4 jumps and landed feeling exhiliarated and shaky, always a good time. Next was the trip down a waterfall, right through the water. Unfortunately, the guides waited until we were already trying to rappell to tell us that we should just try to jump straight down. I tried in vain to find something to push off of and ended up ignonomously sliding down the rope. ¡Qué lastima! There were three more sites, all of which were fun, but I really wanted to go back and redo the first two now that I knew what to expect. Instead, we went off for a wonderful lunch and coffee and chance to purchase a CD of photos. Remember that I said that DeLisa's white hat would come in handy? You can pick her out of the photos, unlike the rest of us. There are about 10 photos that I think might be of me, but it's hard to be sure. Maybe when I see them on a bigger screen...
We were bused back to the hostel for a short period of downtime in which to shower, dry off and change clothes for the zipline trip. By 1:30pm, we were back on the road again, this time to hit the canopy with Aventura Mundo. We had to sit throught the obligatory demonstration, but were in a converted school bus being pulled by a tractor (seriously) in a very short time and then were hiking up to the top of the mountain to begin our descent. The first line was fabulous, fast and through a narrow break in the canopy over the rain forest. It was a good chance to get back in the groove for ziplining and I mostly held the recommended position with my knees drawn partly up and my feet crossed, with my left hand in a glove holding onto the rope and two safety ropes attaching my harness to the pulley and my right hand in a thick leather and wood glove-type device behind the pulley on the cable. This device is the brake and allows me to slow down or come to a stop, though some people apparently brake a bit to frequently and get stuck partway along the cable without reaching the next platform. When this happens, you get to pull yourself along the cable, hand over hand. The guide on the platform might come out to help you, but he might not. Oh, just as an aside, other than Noelia, our nature hike guide the first night, every guide I have seen in Costa Rica has been male.
The second line, I rode upside down with my legs split. This was so much fun that on the 3rd line I rode upside down trying to touch my toes in an arched position. This was a not-so great idea because when I came up out of the bend, I was disoriented and was facing backward. I almost put my hand on the cable in front of the pulley , which can be a bad idea when you are going that fast, and only barely turned myself around before reaching the next platform. Whew! That was actually a little scarier than I would like. Geoffrey, the lead guide with whom I had been speaking during the hike up (practicing my Spanish) told me not to do that again, and I had to own up that I deserved the scolding. For the next two lines, I was very sedate, and then, the adrenaline took over my body again. The 6th line is the longest and goes over La Fortuna waterfall. It was stunning, absolutely beautiful, and I'm afraid that it made me do the splits! The next line went back over the waterfall and right through the canopy and I rode that one with Geoffrey so that I could go backward and film the fall. It was awesome. Next, I went upside down with my feet on the pulley, then with my hands off and feet out. My foot actually touched a clump of leaves. Then, it was the 10th line and that was it. I rode it in sedately, but with Andy (one of the guides) shaking the line to add some pizzazz. At the bottom, I was just one of the happiest people in the world. I swear, it was a religious experience for me.
All over the world, tour guides are some of the most sexually active people on earth. First you take a tourist out of their native environment, you introduce him or her to some sort of quasi-dangerous activity, and as the Dutton and Aron bridge study in 1974 showed (http://www.psychwiki.com/wiki/Misattribution_of_Arousal_Paradigm), many of these tourists will believe themselves to be aroused rather than merely under the influence of adrenaline. That said, these guides are also typically young, fit, adventurous, English speaking, and guaranteed to have no strings attached. Therefore, I was not surprised when one of the guides, Andy, invited Nicole and me out for drinks that night. I was noncommittal and had no intention of meeting the guides. After all, I'm pretty sure that I know what they would be thinking and I had no desire to mislead anyone. However, Nicole thought that it might be fun and said yes, and then we were committed. After all, just because they would expect one thing, it doesn't follow that we are required to oblige.
After setting up our date, we continued on to a faux Maleku village, which has been built on the site to introduce visitors to Maleku culture, and to sell off their handicrafts. The Maleku actually live a few miles on the other side of town, but this is where they do business. We all said "kapi kapi" to each other and made knocking gestures (this means hello) then we sat on logs arranged around a very smoky firepit while the gentleman in the leather skirt spoke to us in Spanish, which is not his native language, and Geoffrey translated into English. It was pretty boring, mostly because it was painfully obviously that this was just a prelude to sell us the handicrafts which covered every available flat surface in the lodge. The crafts, especially the carved coconuts and balsa masks were actually really nice, but they were just covered in mites, spiders and assorted other bugs. This is not something that I really want to put in my pack.
After the shopping trip, we all mounted up to ride horses back to the main office. At first, this was a bit of a dud, since my horse didn't even seem to want to move, much less pick up the pace, but Geoffrey came through and slapped my horse on the butt with a switch and we were off. We galloped down the road in a 3 person race (one of the other tourists was also running with us), and I was just finding my seat and feeling comfortable when we arrived back at the barn. Qué lastima. Geoffrey then tried to incite me to dismount by grapping hold of a beam overhead and swinging off over my horse´s rump, but I resisted the temptation and dismounted like a sedate adult.
Nicole and I again gave in to the sales pitch and bought the CD of photos. We then jumped on the shuttle back to the hostel and prepared for dinner and our hot date. This is when the curse of the camera struck again. Nicole couldn't find her camera. She was certain that she'd left it either in the bathroom at the zipline office or in the shuttle. We asked the new guy behind the desk at the hostel to please call the office of El Mundo Aventura to ask after it. He called and no one answered. Since this guy seemed a little more together than either Yselia or Alonso, I decided to ask about my camera, too. Now, the story changed. This guy told me that there was a problem, that since I was not the last tourist off of the bus, the driver would claim that another tourist must have stolen the camera and I would not get it back. What he suggested was that Nicole come back down at 7:30am to try to recover her camera before too much time had passed. For me, through the incompetence and platitudes of Alonso and Yselia, he was fairly certain that my camera had already been given away as a Christmas gift to the driver's family, but he did say that I should come down closer to 10am and that he would then call the Gray Line owner and we'd try one last time.
With only my underwater camera left to tell the tale of our adventures, Nicole and I headed out for a subdued dinner with Pietr. We visited a new ATM for cash and then stopped at a Soda Shop/24 hour pizza place that was excellent and very cheap. Then, it was time to go back to Chela's to meet our dates. We did convince Pietr to come with us as our bodyguard by offering to buy him piña coladas. Like a true gentleman, he agreed to come and to protect our virtue. When we had gone to Chela's on Saturday night, the place was about half-filled, with nice music and a chill vibe. We were expecting more of the same. Instead...we got...karaoke night! I regret to inform you that I am no longer a karaoke virgin. I gave in to Nicole's intense peer pressure and belted out I Will Survive. We tried to convince Pietr to join us, but apparently, this song is well known in Holland as a drag queen anthem, and he was worried about his masculinity. Instead, he winced and watched in fascinated horror while we mangled the song.
After we had been at the bar for half an hour, it became apparent that we had been stood up! Can you believe it?? Sure, the evening would have ended in disappointment for Geoffrey and Andy, but they didn't know that! I can' t believe that they stood us up. We stayed for about 2 hours and the highlight of the night was watching an elderly American couple jitterbugging on the dancefloor. Everyone had lots of fun, and since it was Pietr's last night in La Fortuna, we were happy to stay out a little late and chat with him.
We went off to bed with visions of lost cameras and defecting guides dancing in our heads.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Rio Celeste hike with Carlos and sloths!
Day 2 in La Fortuna began with a 7am alarm clock so that we'd be on time for the 8am pickup for our full-day hike. After quickly showering (once I'd figured out the 3-knob system of the shower), I went down to the desk to inquire into the status of my camera recovery mission. Alonso was not working, but Yselia was there and we talked for a few minutes. She called the Gray Line office and it was closed. I impressed upon her how important this was to me and asked if she would be able to keep calling while I was on my hike. She confirmed that she would definitely do this and reaffirmed that there was no problem, this happens all of the time, the company is soooo reliable and the drivers are so honest. I thought about skipping the hike, but we had already forked over $85 apiece when we had pre-booked (nonrefundable) and I really wanted to go. Unfortunately, this was a full day hike and so we would not be back until after the office had closed again.
After a quick breakfast, we set off with Alf (our driver) and Carlos (our guide) along with Pietr, our dormmate; a Japanese-Brazilian couple on their honeymoon; Rita (US); and a couple more people who apparently did not leave a strong impression on me. The drive out took about two hours, though we did stop along the way when Alf, our sharp-eyed driver, spotted wildlife along the road. It was amazing, we saw a 2-toed sloth, which is called Hoffmann's sloth (so cool), actually cross from branch to branch of his tree when Carlos imitated a hawk's cry. Next, we saw a 3-toed sloth which has grey, plush fur (Hoffmann's sloth has long blondish fur), and decided not to move while we were there - maybe he wasn't fooled by Carlos' hawk imitation. The third stop was to see a huge ceiba tree (the national tree of Guatemala) where we were lucky enough to also see a green and black dart frog. It was just gorgeous.
The hike was up to a waterfall and to some fumeroles and then to a natural volcanic hot spring. It was an out and back trail and was challenging enough to be interesting without being really tough at all. The Celeste river is amazing. The volcanic minerals in the water give it a milky turquoise appearance that I have never seen before. The falls were beautiful and we also were lucky enough to see a couple of white face monkeys (capuchins) along the trail. Nicole and I could have driven out by ourselves, but we definitely saw more wildlife with Alf and Carlos, so that made it worth doing the hike as part of a tour.
We went to the waterfall first, on Carlos' prescient recommendation, 'cause it did start to rain later in the day and the water doesn't have that fab color when it's muddy. Next, we climbed up to a fumerole to feel the hot gases venting out of the mountain and then hiked back to the fork where we picked up the trail out to the hot spring. By this point, we were passing many other hikers on the trail and when we got to the spring, it was pretty full. Nicole and I had both brought bathing suits, but decided that we didn't really want to be chafing for the rest of the day and we just put our legs in. The water was interesting, with cold and very hot currents drifting in different places. At the recommendation of a Columbian American man from Utah, we sat in the spot where the water was juuuuust right. While the rest of the group waited fairly patiently, we enjoyed the water and a conversation with a couple of Americans who just happen to be good friends with a few of the people that Nicole went to law school with. It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all...
After that, we hiked out, seeing various birds and butterflies and then stopped for lunch at the trailhead. The lunch was actually very good, which was shocking. Usually, the vegetarian lunch on a tour is chicken broth soup, yes they think that chicken broth is vegetarian, salad that I am afraid to eat, and rice. Yum. This was rice and beans and a jicama salad and pineapple and a lovely side of macaroni with tuna. Yes, with tuna...on the vegetarian plate. Oh well, they almost hit the nail on the head and I didn't actually swallow it, just chewed it for a bit and then compulsively rinsed my mouth out with water.
Back at the hostel, Alonso was working. I asked about my camera. He looked panicky and then said, "I'll call right now....brrrring, brrrring...oh, sorry, they must be closed." At that point, it became clear that I needed to impress upon him the gravity of the situation. I explained that I had taken video of my 87 year old grandfather at Christmas and that the information on that memory card was irreplaceable. I asked if he understood this. I reinforced the message, making absolutely sure that we were clear on how important this was to me and that he would definitely be calling first thing in the morning.
With even less hope of recovering my camera, we set off for dinner. Pietr, DeLisa, Nicole and I went to the ATM and luckily, Nicole was able to pull out 100 dollars, so her ATM situation was resolved after a mere 48 hours of frustration, emails, live chats, and hair pulling. In the meantime, my credit card stopped functioning. Nice. There was a short period of time in which I supplied cash and Nicole supplied credit and we limped along in a three-legged financial situation, with neither of us being able to do without the other.
After grabbing some cash, we started checking out the local dining options. Finally, we decided to splash out a a nice little Italian place with photos on the wall of the Lippizaner stallions at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Considering how much I loved it, this seemed like an auspicious sign. The food was great, though Nicole ended up with spaghetti marinara rather than the penne bolognese that she ordered - the tip was adjusted accordingly. Nicole and DeLisa were enjoying a nice glass of wine with dinner and decided to have a second. Pietr and I lingered for a bit and then left the ladies to their wine and headed home. I think that Pietr was eager to escape the grilling he'd been getting about his love life and the three-woman consultation that we gave him regarding life and love. I say this with some certainty due to the fact that once back at the hostel, he immediately jumped into a conversation about cars with Fredrik from Sweden. Manly.
Fredrick and his girlfriend Maulin were from Gottland, an island in Sweden. Maulin and I were chatting for awhile about her home and traveling, etc. when Nicole and DeLisa returned with styrofoam cups filled with wine. Apparently, after finishing their 2nd snifter glass of wine, the waiter brought over 2 complimentary glasses of wine, each being about half a bottle's worth of wine. What is anyone supposed to do with free wine? Well, DeLisa started pouring hers out on the street, and so Nicole was really morally obliged to drink it. Remember, there are children all over the world going to bed without wine...it'd be a sin to waste it.
After a bit, DeLisa went off to bed and Pietr, Nicole, Maulin, Fredrik and I stood around in the lounge talking and laughing and having a language exchange. It started with Maulin explaining to me that her dialect in Gottland is a little different from that spoken in the rest of Sweden. For example, they say jo rather than ja, or as it's pronounced, yo! Then, Maulin started telling us that puss in Swedish means kiss. It was all downhill from there. I´m sorry to say that the dirty words really are the most fun to learn and the most likely to stick in one's mind. Ashlet. ;)
Then to bed; perchance to dream...
After a quick breakfast, we set off with Alf (our driver) and Carlos (our guide) along with Pietr, our dormmate; a Japanese-Brazilian couple on their honeymoon; Rita (US); and a couple more people who apparently did not leave a strong impression on me. The drive out took about two hours, though we did stop along the way when Alf, our sharp-eyed driver, spotted wildlife along the road. It was amazing, we saw a 2-toed sloth, which is called Hoffmann's sloth (so cool), actually cross from branch to branch of his tree when Carlos imitated a hawk's cry. Next, we saw a 3-toed sloth which has grey, plush fur (Hoffmann's sloth has long blondish fur), and decided not to move while we were there - maybe he wasn't fooled by Carlos' hawk imitation. The third stop was to see a huge ceiba tree (the national tree of Guatemala) where we were lucky enough to also see a green and black dart frog. It was just gorgeous.
The hike was up to a waterfall and to some fumeroles and then to a natural volcanic hot spring. It was an out and back trail and was challenging enough to be interesting without being really tough at all. The Celeste river is amazing. The volcanic minerals in the water give it a milky turquoise appearance that I have never seen before. The falls were beautiful and we also were lucky enough to see a couple of white face monkeys (capuchins) along the trail. Nicole and I could have driven out by ourselves, but we definitely saw more wildlife with Alf and Carlos, so that made it worth doing the hike as part of a tour.
We went to the waterfall first, on Carlos' prescient recommendation, 'cause it did start to rain later in the day and the water doesn't have that fab color when it's muddy. Next, we climbed up to a fumerole to feel the hot gases venting out of the mountain and then hiked back to the fork where we picked up the trail out to the hot spring. By this point, we were passing many other hikers on the trail and when we got to the spring, it was pretty full. Nicole and I had both brought bathing suits, but decided that we didn't really want to be chafing for the rest of the day and we just put our legs in. The water was interesting, with cold and very hot currents drifting in different places. At the recommendation of a Columbian American man from Utah, we sat in the spot where the water was juuuuust right. While the rest of the group waited fairly patiently, we enjoyed the water and a conversation with a couple of Americans who just happen to be good friends with a few of the people that Nicole went to law school with. It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all...
After that, we hiked out, seeing various birds and butterflies and then stopped for lunch at the trailhead. The lunch was actually very good, which was shocking. Usually, the vegetarian lunch on a tour is chicken broth soup, yes they think that chicken broth is vegetarian, salad that I am afraid to eat, and rice. Yum. This was rice and beans and a jicama salad and pineapple and a lovely side of macaroni with tuna. Yes, with tuna...on the vegetarian plate. Oh well, they almost hit the nail on the head and I didn't actually swallow it, just chewed it for a bit and then compulsively rinsed my mouth out with water.
Back at the hostel, Alonso was working. I asked about my camera. He looked panicky and then said, "I'll call right now....brrrring, brrrring...oh, sorry, they must be closed." At that point, it became clear that I needed to impress upon him the gravity of the situation. I explained that I had taken video of my 87 year old grandfather at Christmas and that the information on that memory card was irreplaceable. I asked if he understood this. I reinforced the message, making absolutely sure that we were clear on how important this was to me and that he would definitely be calling first thing in the morning.
With even less hope of recovering my camera, we set off for dinner. Pietr, DeLisa, Nicole and I went to the ATM and luckily, Nicole was able to pull out 100 dollars, so her ATM situation was resolved after a mere 48 hours of frustration, emails, live chats, and hair pulling. In the meantime, my credit card stopped functioning. Nice. There was a short period of time in which I supplied cash and Nicole supplied credit and we limped along in a three-legged financial situation, with neither of us being able to do without the other.
After grabbing some cash, we started checking out the local dining options. Finally, we decided to splash out a a nice little Italian place with photos on the wall of the Lippizaner stallions at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Considering how much I loved it, this seemed like an auspicious sign. The food was great, though Nicole ended up with spaghetti marinara rather than the penne bolognese that she ordered - the tip was adjusted accordingly. Nicole and DeLisa were enjoying a nice glass of wine with dinner and decided to have a second. Pietr and I lingered for a bit and then left the ladies to their wine and headed home. I think that Pietr was eager to escape the grilling he'd been getting about his love life and the three-woman consultation that we gave him regarding life and love. I say this with some certainty due to the fact that once back at the hostel, he immediately jumped into a conversation about cars with Fredrik from Sweden. Manly.
Fredrick and his girlfriend Maulin were from Gottland, an island in Sweden. Maulin and I were chatting for awhile about her home and traveling, etc. when Nicole and DeLisa returned with styrofoam cups filled with wine. Apparently, after finishing their 2nd snifter glass of wine, the waiter brought over 2 complimentary glasses of wine, each being about half a bottle's worth of wine. What is anyone supposed to do with free wine? Well, DeLisa started pouring hers out on the street, and so Nicole was really morally obliged to drink it. Remember, there are children all over the world going to bed without wine...it'd be a sin to waste it.
After a bit, DeLisa went off to bed and Pietr, Nicole, Maulin, Fredrik and I stood around in the lounge talking and laughing and having a language exchange. It started with Maulin explaining to me that her dialect in Gottland is a little different from that spoken in the rest of Sweden. For example, they say jo rather than ja, or as it's pronounced, yo! Then, Maulin started telling us that puss in Swedish means kiss. It was all downhill from there. I´m sorry to say that the dirty words really are the most fun to learn and the most likely to stick in one's mind. Ashlet. ;)
Then to bed; perchance to dream...
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
The adventure continues...Arenal...Ziplines...Loss
Dear friends, I have suffered a most grievous loss (this line is to be delivered by a voice-over while slowly zooming in on the hand of a lady writing with a quill pen). Being a silly silly person, I left my beautiful camera (Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 with 10x optical zoom and 9 megapixels) on the shuttle from San Jose to La Fortuna. Being an even sillier person, I believed Alonso, the receptionist at the hostel in La Fortuna, when he assured me that there was no problem, he would just call the driver and because they deal with the company all of the time; because this has happened before; because the company is super reliable; because the drivers are so honest; and because Costa Rica is a paradise upon earth, I should go ahead on my volcano tour and trip to the hot springs and my camera would be there when I returned. Hmmm.
Well, to start over, Nicole and I got up early, bade a fond farewell to our new chums, Monica and Tarah, met our Israeli roommate, had a very hurried bfast, as in: we ordered a yogurt and poured cups of the free coffee offered in the rooftop bar/restaurant, and then our shuttle arrived. We had booked a ride on the Gray Line up to La Fortuna. It cost us $35 per person and is supposed to be fast reliable door-to-door service. We ended up being in an underbooked van and spent a good hour to an hour and a half cruising around the SJ hotels while our driver tried to get more passengers. Nicole and I were holding our breath at each stop, since we each had grabbed a row of seats to ourselves and were hoping for a nap. Finally, we hit the road with plenty of space to spread out and relax.
After a short nap, we arrived at a rest stop cum tourist crap vendor and our guide, Albarro, gave us 15 minutes to use the facilities and to donate some dollars to the local economy in exchange for lovely magnets in the shape of turtles or parrots. Nice. We stocked up on water and I deeply admired the shaped leather wall sculptures that resembled cow hide full-body reliefs of beautiful women - have you all heard of Ed Gaines? One of the fun things that I´ve learned about Costa Rica is that you can spend dollars all over the country. All prices are offered either in dollars or in colones. The exchange rate varies from location to location, but everywhere I´ve been, the people are happy to accept either currency or a blend of both and they carry handy calculators to more easily show you the amount left in either currency. Very handy and it makes me wish that I had accepted the $20 that my dad tried to give me before my flight. I just didn´t think that I needed any dollars in Costa Rica. Hah!
Anyway, back to the Gray Line. We rode for another hour or so and saw some breathtaking scenery and some very charismatic cows. It was the cows that screwed me. I just thought that they were so cute. So, like any camera-happy tourist faced with an animal and a landscape, I whipped out my camera, opened a window and took two blurry photos of Costa Rican cows. Then, I proceeded to set down my camera and pick up my book. Unfortunately, the place where I set down my camera was apparently not in my backpack.
The shuttle dropped us off at Arenal Backpacker´s Resort which is at the end (volcano side) of the main road in La Fortuna. The hostel is actually a gated compound with grounds, landscaping, a bar/restaurant, a tour desk, a free internet room, and...A POOL!!!! I kid you not. A lovely pool with lounge chairs and palm trees and it is all just amazingly gorgeous. When we arrived, Alonso was super friendly and immensely helpful in setting us up with tours, even getting us booked with a tour that was less than two hours away, to go hiking; view the volcano at night; and then visit Baldi hot springs. We forked over cash and credit card numbers and trotted away to our room, thrilled to bits with our agenda.
While meeting our new roommates, Pietr (Holland) and Caroline (Ireland), and unpacking our bags, I suddenly thought, "Oh crap, where´s my camera?" At first, I almost laughed at myself for panicking, because, of course, my camera must be around somewhere. Then, I couldn't find it and I felt a wash of cold sickness start at my hairline and wash through me, settling first in my stomach and then radiating out to my extremities. By the way, it would be interesting to learn how to replicate that sensation with some sort of pharmaceutical aid. I ran down to the reception area and told Alonso that I had left my camera on the shuttle and asked him to please call the driver, who had spent the whole drive up chatting away on his cell phone. Alonso assured me that there was no problem at all, that this happened all of the time and that he would call right away. He called...busy...he called....busy...he called...no answer. At that point, it had been about 30 minutes since I had come downstairs and over an hour since we had been dropped at the hostel. Alonso told me that he thought that the company was shut down for siesta and that I should come back a little later. I was starving and our tour was leaving in an hour, so I went off to lunch with Nicole and Pietr.
We had a lovely burrito/wrap at the Lava Lounge and made a fruitless visit to the ATM, where Nicole discovered that her card wasn't working. Back at the ranch, Alonso told me that the Gray Line still wasn't answering, but that I should go ahead and go on my tour because he would continue calling and my camera would most likely be waiting for me when I got back. I was starting to have my doubts, but I went off on the tour secure in the knowledge that Alonso was doing everything that could be done and that there was no problem.
We were picked up by a shuttle and drove to the other side of Arenal Volcano. There, we were dropped off at a trailhead on private land that has great views of the volcano and that offers good wildlife sightings. Our guide, Noelia, gave us some great information about the area, and the history of the eruptions of Arenal, I guess that the last one was in 1968 and over 80 people are confirmed as having died and over 100 are missing, presumed dead and disintegrated into ash. The locals are prepared for the volcano to go off again at any time and lava continually flows partway over the crater lip, with frequent pyroclastic activity. The gases are very strong and the volcano can not be hiked without gas masks and a portable air supply. We decided to give that one a miss.
We started our hike off with a sighting of two chestnut mandibled toucans, which was fabulous! Then we stopped to watch some leaf cutter ants carrying their little leaf hats along their own trail. I had been wondering why so many plant leaves had holes in them, I mean, some of these leaves look like lace, there are so many holes; well, after seeing the shapes of the leaf sections carried by these ants, I understood the local flora much better. We later discovered that the leaves are not taken for food themselves, but are carried to a composting station upon which yummy mushrooms will sprout and grow. Our next sighting was of a rubber tree, which is also pretty cool. Noelia pulled off some rubber and we all oohed and ahhhed over how much it seems like a rubber band straight off of the tree.
The next sighting was the best, in my opinion, we actually saw three spider monkeys. They were fabulous. My personal favorite was the one who decided that the next tree branch over was a bit too far to jump, though her chum had no problem with the leap, and instead swayed the tree back and forth until it was close enough for him/her to make a short hop. I just love watching animals perform actions that are so full of knowledge within their sphere. It does make one wonder about the true level of thought that animals, particularly primates, are capable of.
The hike was far too short and we ended up in a carpark waiting for who knows what before leaving to go view the volcano. There, we met up with James (England) who had come over from Monteverde by boat and would be heading back to town with us. We talked him into joining us at Baldi and set off for the hot springs. Yippee! We had been disappointed to learn when we arrived in La Fortuna that both of the natural hot springs, Eco Termales & Tabacon were fully booked in the evenings for our entire trip, but we were able to get bookings for Baldi. At the springs, located in a large hotel complex, Nicole and I went off to have our dinner (yes, we were suckered into buying the awful, overpriced, buffet dinner - I blame the adrenaline 'cause Alonso pushed it on us after booking us on zipline and canyoning tours). It turned out that another woman on the tour, DeLisa, had also fallen for the buffet sales-pitch, and so we all sat together to consume our rice, beans, chocolate covered strawberries (???????!!!!!!!) and coffee. DeLisa actually enjoyed the meal, mostly because she hadn't eaten in 13 hours, but Nicole and I were underwhelmed. After rushing through our meal, we ignored doctors' orders and jumped into our bathing suits and into the swim-up bar. Whoohoo! Time to get this party started!
We ended up forming a group of five: yours truly, Nicole, DeLisa, James & Gabriel (French Canadian), and set off to sample the waters. We tried a number of pools, slowly making our way up the hill and to the back of the park. The most notable pools were: the super hot pool, which only Gabriel was able to enter; the waterfall pool, where we took silly-sexy photos; the perfect temperature lagoon which also had a cold pool inside it the way that Lesotho is inside South Africa; and the water slide pool. We had heard a rumor from Tarah that there were waterslides at Baldi. However, a distinct lack of advertising and/or signage convinced us that this was merely a backpackers' legend similar to the one about the tourists who wake up sans kidneys in Mexico; though a little less gruesome. Well, to our delighted surprise, this one turned out to be fact, and what a fact! Those slides were the fastest I have ever been on. I remember slides in my youth going so slowly that I would have to push off a second time halfway through the tube. Not these puppies. James, Gabriel and I scouted out the slides while Nicole and DeLisa were at the 2nd swim-up bar and were up the metal scaffolding faster than you can say, "wheeee!" At the top, I waited to see if the slide would collapse under the weight of the two gentlemen before beginning my own descent. Upon ascertaining the relative safety of the slide, I assumed the position (legs straight, back down, arms crossed) and gave myself a mighty shove, in anticipation of a slow slide. Whoops! At one point, I caught 4 feet of air and ended up shooting off the slide a foot above the water before skipping once and then sinking with my bathing suit in complete disarray. Thank goodness that the water was deep and mostly opaque.
After that, we had to change and meet up to get our ride back to the hostel. James and Gabriel were at different hostels, but they agreed to meet us in 20 minutes and head out to a local bar. By the time we got back to the hostel, Alonso was gone, and the girl at the counter knew nothing about my camera. I told her the whole story and she said that the Gray Line office was closed and that she would call in the morning. I thanked her, told her how important this was to me and headed off to Chela's with Nicole, James and Gabriel - DeLisa decided to get an early night.
Chela´s is a fantastic local roadhouse that has a tourist-Tico ratio of about 1:10. It was nice to see actual Costa Ricans in Costa Rica, crazy. We had a couple of drinks (piña coladas for me), talked about life, love and the price of cheese, and headed off to bed in love with the world.
That was our first day in Arenal.
Well, to start over, Nicole and I got up early, bade a fond farewell to our new chums, Monica and Tarah, met our Israeli roommate, had a very hurried bfast, as in: we ordered a yogurt and poured cups of the free coffee offered in the rooftop bar/restaurant, and then our shuttle arrived. We had booked a ride on the Gray Line up to La Fortuna. It cost us $35 per person and is supposed to be fast reliable door-to-door service. We ended up being in an underbooked van and spent a good hour to an hour and a half cruising around the SJ hotels while our driver tried to get more passengers. Nicole and I were holding our breath at each stop, since we each had grabbed a row of seats to ourselves and were hoping for a nap. Finally, we hit the road with plenty of space to spread out and relax.
After a short nap, we arrived at a rest stop cum tourist crap vendor and our guide, Albarro, gave us 15 minutes to use the facilities and to donate some dollars to the local economy in exchange for lovely magnets in the shape of turtles or parrots. Nice. We stocked up on water and I deeply admired the shaped leather wall sculptures that resembled cow hide full-body reliefs of beautiful women - have you all heard of Ed Gaines? One of the fun things that I´ve learned about Costa Rica is that you can spend dollars all over the country. All prices are offered either in dollars or in colones. The exchange rate varies from location to location, but everywhere I´ve been, the people are happy to accept either currency or a blend of both and they carry handy calculators to more easily show you the amount left in either currency. Very handy and it makes me wish that I had accepted the $20 that my dad tried to give me before my flight. I just didn´t think that I needed any dollars in Costa Rica. Hah!
Anyway, back to the Gray Line. We rode for another hour or so and saw some breathtaking scenery and some very charismatic cows. It was the cows that screwed me. I just thought that they were so cute. So, like any camera-happy tourist faced with an animal and a landscape, I whipped out my camera, opened a window and took two blurry photos of Costa Rican cows. Then, I proceeded to set down my camera and pick up my book. Unfortunately, the place where I set down my camera was apparently not in my backpack.
The shuttle dropped us off at Arenal Backpacker´s Resort which is at the end (volcano side) of the main road in La Fortuna. The hostel is actually a gated compound with grounds, landscaping, a bar/restaurant, a tour desk, a free internet room, and...A POOL!!!! I kid you not. A lovely pool with lounge chairs and palm trees and it is all just amazingly gorgeous. When we arrived, Alonso was super friendly and immensely helpful in setting us up with tours, even getting us booked with a tour that was less than two hours away, to go hiking; view the volcano at night; and then visit Baldi hot springs. We forked over cash and credit card numbers and trotted away to our room, thrilled to bits with our agenda.
While meeting our new roommates, Pietr (Holland) and Caroline (Ireland), and unpacking our bags, I suddenly thought, "Oh crap, where´s my camera?" At first, I almost laughed at myself for panicking, because, of course, my camera must be around somewhere. Then, I couldn't find it and I felt a wash of cold sickness start at my hairline and wash through me, settling first in my stomach and then radiating out to my extremities. By the way, it would be interesting to learn how to replicate that sensation with some sort of pharmaceutical aid. I ran down to the reception area and told Alonso that I had left my camera on the shuttle and asked him to please call the driver, who had spent the whole drive up chatting away on his cell phone. Alonso assured me that there was no problem at all, that this happened all of the time and that he would call right away. He called...busy...he called....busy...he called...no answer. At that point, it had been about 30 minutes since I had come downstairs and over an hour since we had been dropped at the hostel. Alonso told me that he thought that the company was shut down for siesta and that I should come back a little later. I was starving and our tour was leaving in an hour, so I went off to lunch with Nicole and Pietr.
We had a lovely burrito/wrap at the Lava Lounge and made a fruitless visit to the ATM, where Nicole discovered that her card wasn't working. Back at the ranch, Alonso told me that the Gray Line still wasn't answering, but that I should go ahead and go on my tour because he would continue calling and my camera would most likely be waiting for me when I got back. I was starting to have my doubts, but I went off on the tour secure in the knowledge that Alonso was doing everything that could be done and that there was no problem.
We were picked up by a shuttle and drove to the other side of Arenal Volcano. There, we were dropped off at a trailhead on private land that has great views of the volcano and that offers good wildlife sightings. Our guide, Noelia, gave us some great information about the area, and the history of the eruptions of Arenal, I guess that the last one was in 1968 and over 80 people are confirmed as having died and over 100 are missing, presumed dead and disintegrated into ash. The locals are prepared for the volcano to go off again at any time and lava continually flows partway over the crater lip, with frequent pyroclastic activity. The gases are very strong and the volcano can not be hiked without gas masks and a portable air supply. We decided to give that one a miss.
We started our hike off with a sighting of two chestnut mandibled toucans, which was fabulous! Then we stopped to watch some leaf cutter ants carrying their little leaf hats along their own trail. I had been wondering why so many plant leaves had holes in them, I mean, some of these leaves look like lace, there are so many holes; well, after seeing the shapes of the leaf sections carried by these ants, I understood the local flora much better. We later discovered that the leaves are not taken for food themselves, but are carried to a composting station upon which yummy mushrooms will sprout and grow. Our next sighting was of a rubber tree, which is also pretty cool. Noelia pulled off some rubber and we all oohed and ahhhed over how much it seems like a rubber band straight off of the tree.
The next sighting was the best, in my opinion, we actually saw three spider monkeys. They were fabulous. My personal favorite was the one who decided that the next tree branch over was a bit too far to jump, though her chum had no problem with the leap, and instead swayed the tree back and forth until it was close enough for him/her to make a short hop. I just love watching animals perform actions that are so full of knowledge within their sphere. It does make one wonder about the true level of thought that animals, particularly primates, are capable of.
The hike was far too short and we ended up in a carpark waiting for who knows what before leaving to go view the volcano. There, we met up with James (England) who had come over from Monteverde by boat and would be heading back to town with us. We talked him into joining us at Baldi and set off for the hot springs. Yippee! We had been disappointed to learn when we arrived in La Fortuna that both of the natural hot springs, Eco Termales & Tabacon were fully booked in the evenings for our entire trip, but we were able to get bookings for Baldi. At the springs, located in a large hotel complex, Nicole and I went off to have our dinner (yes, we were suckered into buying the awful, overpriced, buffet dinner - I blame the adrenaline 'cause Alonso pushed it on us after booking us on zipline and canyoning tours). It turned out that another woman on the tour, DeLisa, had also fallen for the buffet sales-pitch, and so we all sat together to consume our rice, beans, chocolate covered strawberries (???????!!!!!!!) and coffee. DeLisa actually enjoyed the meal, mostly because she hadn't eaten in 13 hours, but Nicole and I were underwhelmed. After rushing through our meal, we ignored doctors' orders and jumped into our bathing suits and into the swim-up bar. Whoohoo! Time to get this party started!
We ended up forming a group of five: yours truly, Nicole, DeLisa, James & Gabriel (French Canadian), and set off to sample the waters. We tried a number of pools, slowly making our way up the hill and to the back of the park. The most notable pools were: the super hot pool, which only Gabriel was able to enter; the waterfall pool, where we took silly-sexy photos; the perfect temperature lagoon which also had a cold pool inside it the way that Lesotho is inside South Africa; and the water slide pool. We had heard a rumor from Tarah that there were waterslides at Baldi. However, a distinct lack of advertising and/or signage convinced us that this was merely a backpackers' legend similar to the one about the tourists who wake up sans kidneys in Mexico; though a little less gruesome. Well, to our delighted surprise, this one turned out to be fact, and what a fact! Those slides were the fastest I have ever been on. I remember slides in my youth going so slowly that I would have to push off a second time halfway through the tube. Not these puppies. James, Gabriel and I scouted out the slides while Nicole and DeLisa were at the 2nd swim-up bar and were up the metal scaffolding faster than you can say, "wheeee!" At the top, I waited to see if the slide would collapse under the weight of the two gentlemen before beginning my own descent. Upon ascertaining the relative safety of the slide, I assumed the position (legs straight, back down, arms crossed) and gave myself a mighty shove, in anticipation of a slow slide. Whoops! At one point, I caught 4 feet of air and ended up shooting off the slide a foot above the water before skipping once and then sinking with my bathing suit in complete disarray. Thank goodness that the water was deep and mostly opaque.
After that, we had to change and meet up to get our ride back to the hostel. James and Gabriel were at different hostels, but they agreed to meet us in 20 minutes and head out to a local bar. By the time we got back to the hostel, Alonso was gone, and the girl at the counter knew nothing about my camera. I told her the whole story and she said that the Gray Line office was closed and that she would call in the morning. I thanked her, told her how important this was to me and headed off to Chela's with Nicole, James and Gabriel - DeLisa decided to get an early night.
Chela´s is a fantastic local roadhouse that has a tourist-Tico ratio of about 1:10. It was nice to see actual Costa Ricans in Costa Rica, crazy. We had a couple of drinks (piña coladas for me), talked about life, love and the price of cheese, and headed off to bed in love with the world.
That was our first day in Arenal.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Onward and Southward! Costa Rica
Well, I've battled the evil forces of inertia & married bliss and have set off once again to explore the world. This time, I headed off to Costa Rica, adventure sport locale extraordinale!
Honestly, this trip really came about because I entered into the frenzy of wedding planning and singlehandedly planned a James Bond themed wedding in Las Vegas with accompanying bachelor and bachelorette parties, spa day and reception, and then a 2-part honeymoon in Moorea, French Polynesia, and Harbin Hot Springs in Northern California. After the planning was over, I was still revved and wanted to carry on with the frenzy; thus I planned a trip to Costa Rica!
However it came about, it was a fab idea. I spent Christmas eve with hubby and the in-laws, including our adorable nieces, and then flew down to Redondo Beach on Xmas morning for a day with my fam. At 10:30pm, my dad dropped me off at LAX to catch my 12:45am flight to Guatemala and then San Jose, CR. The trip did not start auspiciously. First, the interior of LAX closes down at 11pm. By the luck of the German-Czech-English-Scottish-and Irish, I managed to be the last person allowed in line at Starbucks, which was the last place still open to sell water. Hordes of thirsty travellers tried to form a line behind me, only to be turned away by the barrista. Inevitably, someone decided that it was pointless to opportune the barrista and that they should focus on me. I ended up buying 10 bottles of water and giving them out as Xmas gifts to the poor thirsty masses.
On the flight, I was fortunate enough to be seated both behind, before, to the right and to the left of infants! Wow! How do I get so lucky? Well, the 7 hour flight passed, though not comfortably. I also had the wonderful experience of being told by the parents of two of the crying infants that I was unbelievably inconsiderate to use my reading light and that I needed to turn it off. Rather than inform these poor deluded people that contrary to their apparent belief, they were not in fact my ideal traveling companions either, I shut off my light and rethought my resolution to procreate. :)
All was well once we landed in SJ. I snuck off the plane ahead of the childer and breezed through Customs and Immigration without a hitch. My bag was one of the first off the plane and my shuttle was waiting for me where they said that they would be. After a 20 minute ride through SJ, I arrived at my lovely lovely hostel.
About that ride, I have to say that this city is a bit shocking. There are blondes riding around in new Jeeps on streets that are partially blocked by impromptu rubbish heaps. The rubbish heaps each tend to have one or two people picking through the garbage for anything usable and scrawny looking dogs are roaming throughout. The houses are small and made of cement, with painted cement floors. The windows and doors, and often the entire front of the house, are covered with metal bars. It is a powerful sight and a good reminder to be grateful for all that I have and to be as generous as I am able to be.
The hostel is one of the best I've ever stayed at. There are loads of great, fast computers with free internet; a rooftop restaurant/bar; a pool; murals; a pool table; Xmas decorations; a tour desk; a TV room; and fun fabulous people!
I wanted to try traveling with a friend this time and my friend Nicole Farrar decided that she wanted to visit CR, too. Yay! My flight got in much earlier than hers, so I chilled and took a nap 'til she arrived and then we got together with our two dorm-room-mates, Monica Aguilar and Tara Rudolf, and hit the town. We rambled toward the main square and did some shopping before stopping for dinner at a really nice little cafe where we lingered for at least an hour and a half, being attended to by a cute waiter. Nice. I had my first Costa Rican Costa Rican coffee (as in, not imported) and it was yum yum delish!
Next was going to be dancing, but after stopping off at the hostel to drop off/pick up some stuff, we decided to check out the rooftop bar and found it hopping. We settled in with beer, tea and fresh pineapple with rum (that one was mine) and chatted about life, careers, world affairs, and...what else would four ladies discuss? Oh yeah, MEN!
All in all a wonderful day and I can't wait for tomorrow and our trip up to La Fortuna and Arenal. I really am a traveling stone. :)
Honestly, this trip really came about because I entered into the frenzy of wedding planning and singlehandedly planned a James Bond themed wedding in Las Vegas with accompanying bachelor and bachelorette parties, spa day and reception, and then a 2-part honeymoon in Moorea, French Polynesia, and Harbin Hot Springs in Northern California. After the planning was over, I was still revved and wanted to carry on with the frenzy; thus I planned a trip to Costa Rica!
However it came about, it was a fab idea. I spent Christmas eve with hubby and the in-laws, including our adorable nieces, and then flew down to Redondo Beach on Xmas morning for a day with my fam. At 10:30pm, my dad dropped me off at LAX to catch my 12:45am flight to Guatemala and then San Jose, CR. The trip did not start auspiciously. First, the interior of LAX closes down at 11pm. By the luck of the German-Czech-English-Scottish-and Irish, I managed to be the last person allowed in line at Starbucks, which was the last place still open to sell water. Hordes of thirsty travellers tried to form a line behind me, only to be turned away by the barrista. Inevitably, someone decided that it was pointless to opportune the barrista and that they should focus on me. I ended up buying 10 bottles of water and giving them out as Xmas gifts to the poor thirsty masses.
On the flight, I was fortunate enough to be seated both behind, before, to the right and to the left of infants! Wow! How do I get so lucky? Well, the 7 hour flight passed, though not comfortably. I also had the wonderful experience of being told by the parents of two of the crying infants that I was unbelievably inconsiderate to use my reading light and that I needed to turn it off. Rather than inform these poor deluded people that contrary to their apparent belief, they were not in fact my ideal traveling companions either, I shut off my light and rethought my resolution to procreate. :)
All was well once we landed in SJ. I snuck off the plane ahead of the childer and breezed through Customs and Immigration without a hitch. My bag was one of the first off the plane and my shuttle was waiting for me where they said that they would be. After a 20 minute ride through SJ, I arrived at my lovely lovely hostel.
About that ride, I have to say that this city is a bit shocking. There are blondes riding around in new Jeeps on streets that are partially blocked by impromptu rubbish heaps. The rubbish heaps each tend to have one or two people picking through the garbage for anything usable and scrawny looking dogs are roaming throughout. The houses are small and made of cement, with painted cement floors. The windows and doors, and often the entire front of the house, are covered with metal bars. It is a powerful sight and a good reminder to be grateful for all that I have and to be as generous as I am able to be.
The hostel is one of the best I've ever stayed at. There are loads of great, fast computers with free internet; a rooftop restaurant/bar; a pool; murals; a pool table; Xmas decorations; a tour desk; a TV room; and fun fabulous people!
I wanted to try traveling with a friend this time and my friend Nicole Farrar decided that she wanted to visit CR, too. Yay! My flight got in much earlier than hers, so I chilled and took a nap 'til she arrived and then we got together with our two dorm-room-mates, Monica Aguilar and Tara Rudolf, and hit the town. We rambled toward the main square and did some shopping before stopping for dinner at a really nice little cafe where we lingered for at least an hour and a half, being attended to by a cute waiter. Nice. I had my first Costa Rican Costa Rican coffee (as in, not imported) and it was yum yum delish!
Next was going to be dancing, but after stopping off at the hostel to drop off/pick up some stuff, we decided to check out the rooftop bar and found it hopping. We settled in with beer, tea and fresh pineapple with rum (that one was mine) and chatted about life, careers, world affairs, and...what else would four ladies discuss? Oh yeah, MEN!
All in all a wonderful day and I can't wait for tomorrow and our trip up to La Fortuna and Arenal. I really am a traveling stone. :)
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