Good-bye!

IMG_8317, a photo by Brayo on Flickr.

After our night of revelry, we didn't get off to much of an early start. We found a nice cafe near our hotel, with this strange old abandonded mansion across the street. After a quick breakfast, we got a taxi to the airport.

getting ready to say good-bye

my hand!, a photo by Brayo on Flickr.

For our last night in Costa Rica, we returned to San Jose and the same Holiday Inn where we'd spent our first night. We had dinner at a really good restaurant (Cafe Mundo, I think?) that reminded us both of the kind of places that are popular in Austin-- a big old house, with a few tables in each room, plenty of outdoor seating, and a casual, but imaginitive menu. Lots of Ticos, no tourists. Joan took a nap, and around midnight, we went out to El Pueblo, a complex of restaurants, shops, bars, clubs, etc. Here we finally got a chance to put those salsa lessons to good use. The more traditional dance hall was winding down so after a few dances, we went to some of the more young-hormone-oriented discos. And that was a lot of fun, too.

daytrip to Cahuita

IMG_8237, a photo by Brayo on Flickr.

For our second full day at the coast, we rode our bikes to Cahuita, a small town we’d seen briefly from the bus and that was described by several other people as a “relaxed” alternative to the “party” atmosphere of Puerto Viejo. We only had about an hour and we spent it on the beach of the National Park abutting the town. The grocery store next-door had yogurt and diet coke. The fruit seller had bananas and custard fruit. And the best part of the trip was getting there and the places we stopped along the way. As opposed to the road connecting Puerto Viejo, which passes small hotels, beach bars, and café’s, the area going north to Cahuita is inhabited by local families. Light industry—for instance, a lumber yard—is also there. We stopped at a cocoa farm, and although we didn’t go for a tour, we tasted delicious fresh chocolate. It had a fruity taste and a nutty consistency, not from anything added, but from the cacao fruit itself.

the beach

IMG_8130, a photo by Brayo on Flickr.

Our first full day on the coast, we walked most of the 4-5 km to town along the beach, stopping occasionally to splash in the water, but mainly just walking. As we got closer to town, the beach got a little more crowded, but everyone still had room to not only lay out a beach towel but also—if they’d had the resources—to build a large suburban home with a fenced backyard. We ate lunch at a “soda” in town, a casual, locally-owned place serving traditional Caribbean food, flavored with coconut. We rented bicycles and rode them back to our hotel. We took a nap, then went to dinner at an open-air French restaurant. The chef professed hurt feelings to the American honeymooners who had asked for box to take home their leftovers. After dinner, we took another walk on the beach and then got a taxi to Puerto Viejo for a night out. They tried. A nice Caribbean couple explained that it was Ladies Night at the disco and that they were already allowing Ladies to enter the disco and enjoy free cocktails until midnight when the men would also be allowed to enter. Few ladies partook. Brian was not the only lonely man on the dancefloor.

on the bus

IMG_8032, a photo by Brayo on Flickr.

It was a long day going between Santa Elena and Puerto Viejo. It gets warmer and drier very quickly as you come down from Monte Verde, with corresponding changes in vegetation. The population density also increases, but it still feels very rural until you are 10km outside San Jose in a massive traffic jam. We might have spent an hour there if we weren't in the bus lane. We changed buses in San Jose and in our trip to the coast, we once again passed through rain forest. One side of the road was bordered by cliffs, and we frequently passed waterfalls, some were gushers, and some were like lace curtains. We passed through some flat land and then arrived in Limon, a medium-sized town on the coast. The last hour or so along the coast got us very excited about the time we'd be spending there. The beaches stretched on and on, shaded by palm trees, and with very few people. Our hotel, about 3km south of Puerto Viejo, is in the middle of the jungle, just barely visible from the muddy track that leads off the main road. We had a nice simple dinner at outdoor café, spent some time on the moonlit beach, and fell asleep to the sounds of cicadas, monkey, and frogs. And woke up to the sound of howler monkeys! We never saw them, but heard them frequently—the sound of someone with a bad cough gasping for breath.

Monte Verde

IMG_7914, a photo by Brayo on Flickr.

For zipling, you get into a harness with a couple of lopps on your chest. You climb up to a platform high in a tree with a connecting that tree to another a few hundred meters away. One of chest-loops hooks onto a pulley that slides on the wire. As a back-up, the second chest-loop is also connected, by way of a c-clap, to the wire. (Don’t break the wire.) You ride sideways with your left shoulder leaning, your right hand lightly holding the wire behind you for balance and braking. We didn’t see animals while ziplining, but it’s fun crossing the thick green valleys at high speed and so close to the treetops. And after the tour we saw monkeys and a small mammal resembling a capybara. Besides the canopy tour (i.e. ziplining) we also went hiking in the Santa Elena Forest and then took a guided night hike in a private reserve. It was a great kind of tired that we felt at the end of the day. It was still very windy outside, but there was plenty of hot water.

Lake Arenal, Costa Rica

IMG_7852
Originally uploaded by Brayo

The most reliable way to get to Santa Elena and Monte Verde from San Jose is to get a bus to La Fortuna (4 hours to go maybe 100 miles) and then a boat across Lake Arenal for about an hour, and on the other side of the lake, overland on a good earth road for another hour. The hardest part of the journey was the bus ride from San Jose, mostly just because it was so long. It’s fun to stop in various small towns and watch people get on and off. La Fortuna is a popular tourist destination, and Costa Ricans use the route for gong between towns along the way.
Lunch in La Fortuna was very good. We ate at a coffee and sandwich shop in front of the town square, with a view of the church, and behind it the cloud-covered volcano. Lots of people around, both tourists and Ticos.
Lake Arenal was created by damming a river in a deep valley. (I think?) and there’s little human activity except on the narrow side with the dam. We only saw one other boat on the lake, and one house on the shore. Otherwise it was jungle or steep cliffs covered with grass. The air was misty and the water shiny gray like mercury. On the other side, the road was dirt, and the winding road passed only the occasional farmhouse. This part of the country feels different from San Jose, although it might be mainly a factor of human habitation. Even San Jose was misty and mountainous. Maybe the difference is that here’s just more so.
Santa Elena is plain cold. Or more than that blustery. Our lodge is comfortable and clean, but the roar of the wind outside is near constant. It’s a little calmer down in town, but we were still wearing our down jackets with T-shirts underneath.

San Jose, Costa Rica

IMG_7764 Originally uploaded by Brayo

We had our first breath of warm outdoor air from the gangway in San Salvador. We changed planes there and had an hour to buy something for Joan’s chapped lips and watch a young woman in a Luigi costume try to get people to play Wii. It’s about an hour’s flight from San Salvador to San Jose, and besides filling out our customs cards, we played sodoku. Neither of us had ever played sodoku before, and we had to do SOMETHING that we couldn’t do when the boys are around. There should be some other things, too. Our hotel has a very nice, warm, waveless pool. It’s indoors, which is probably the right choice since San Jose is in the mountains—the city is warm but the breeze is cool. The hotel is downtown, with multiple parks nearby. When we arrived, a brass band was playing in the park, and later there were acrobats. One unexpected highlight was the 10-block walk to the bus station to buy tickets for our trip to La Fortuna tomorrow. The airplane meals were fine, but small, and even if we’d been well-fed, the smell of the bakery would have pulled us in. It was tiny, and so stacked up with bread-goods that the propieter had to peek at us over the top. I think this was the first time we learned that it’s simply not true that “Everyone in Costa Rica speaks English.” And our little bit of Spanish was enough to avoid Pollo, and read the signs well-enough that she understood what we wanted. All the same, when it was time to pay she pointed at the cash register rather than say the numbers.