Surfer´s Paradise

We finally made it out of the rainforest...it was a miserable day with nothing to do, cold winds and vertical rain/mist, but we made the best of it and went to one of the only indoor things to do...a snake house. We saw some really cool poisonous and non poisonous snakes, frogs, and even some turtles. I got to hold a snake too, which Matt was too grossed out to do.

After a six hour journey that consisted of a bus, a taxi, a ferry (a party ferry with kareoke at 9am!) and another taxi shared with two Tican boys, we made it to Mal Pais/Santa Theresa. The two towns are so close and are separated by an intersection that it is known as just one town. One rocky and dusty street runs though the town with cabinas/restaurants/bars on one side and the beach separated by a little piece of jungle on the other. This town is just about paradise for any surfers. People tend to visit and never leave. The waves (not that I am a surfer by any means) are constant and someone can surf all day if they wanted to. Matt has been renting boards and he promises that tomorrow is the day that he will catch a wave. I will make sure to video that one!

We actually got to watch the UFC fight last night and the Minnesota/Giants game today while keeping checks on the Bears...too bad they couldn´t pull this one out. We had a bit of a harder time finding somewhere to stay since it´s getting full for New Years. We found a little place right near the path to the beach for $16/night. It´s not bad but I do ¨spider checks¨ each time I enter the room. It´s kinda funny cuz the room has a toilet in the corner separated by a curtain so I know not to enter the room if I see little feet sticking out or I will pay the price! Ever since our ferocious spider, I have been keeping my eye out for them, and let me say that there are some killers along the path to the beach. If I found one of them in our room, I think I may just pass out!!! But with the beach being a 3 minute walk and a bed to sleep in, who couldn´t be happy!

I think we are going to stay put for the New Years since there seems to be a lot of people here and a couple bars on the beach. When we feel motivated we´re gonna rent an ATV and check out the area. The Ticans like to charge outrageous prices for things. $50 to rent an ATV for 7 hours or $55 pp for transport from one town to the other. The transport is what makes me mad. We met a couple that paid $55 pp to get the same place as us when we paid about $30 to just do it on our own. So, tip for the day, if you come to Costa Rica bring double the money that you think you need!

Other than that, the county is beautiful and I can´t wait to spend the rest of my time on the beach!

Me Tarzan...You Jane

Despite all efforts, we did not get to see a glorius eruption from Volcan´ Arenal (I´m sure the locals were happy about that!) but Mr. Lava Lava did stay true to his word and brought us to a spot where we could barely see lil red lava cinders roll down the mountain. It was quite a sight though, about 30 people all from different tour companies standing on a hill next to a river in complete darkenss looking at a volcano that no one can see cause it was too dark and when lava came out, people screamed "LAVA LAVA" and got way too excited. But that was just the end of our fun filled day. In the morning we asked our friend Mr. Lava Lava where we should go for a couple hours and he mentioned the waterfall was just down the street, maybe 1km. SO, we head out to find this waterfall...about 5km uphill and 1 1\2 hours later, we came up to the entrance! We were not prepared for such a hike in flip flops and just a tiny bottle of water, but it was a beautiful walk. To our surprise after already aching from walking uphill on a rock road in flip flops, we had to walk down tons and tons of stairs, but it was all worth it. The waterfall was amazing. It was huge and coming out of a little dip in the mountain. I jumped in the freezing water and swam around for a bit while Matt took pics. We´ll post some pics as soon as we can. The computers are not the best here.

We decided after walking back up all those stairs to cab it back to town and then we left with Mr. Lava Lava to the natural hot springs. He dropped us off on the road and we were climbing though jungle under the road and then there was this tiny river running through down little water falls into pools and the water was sooooo warm. We were real explorers climbing through the jungle following the river to find a good pool to chill in. I didn´t see any creatures, but I am sure they were out there. We spent about 2 hours chillaxin in different pools of jacuzzi temperature natural pools of water and then we set out for the lava adventure that I already mentioned.

On Christmas we woke up sans any gifts from Santa and headed to Monteverde via jeep boat jeep across Lake Arenal and through the bumpiest road to town yet. We got dropped off at a tour office where we walked through suspension bridges so high in the so called jungle/forest. It was cool, but not worth the $15 dollars we paid. But we did get to climb up a hollowed out tree, so that was cool. After that, we went ziplinning through the trees and on top of the canopy and it was scary but so fun. We were true Tarzan and Jane suspended so high in the air over the jungle. A couple of the zip lines were so high and when the wind caught you, it was pretty scary. Matt got stuck in the middle on two zip lines and had to get rescued but the guides...don´t worry, I have one on video!!! Matt also got one of the guides to mess with me and when I was crossing the Indiana Jones style bridge, the guide was jumping on it to shake me and we repelled down a tree and he let me drop so fast I thought I was going to die! We also got to Tarzan swing it through the trees and it was a sheer drop and then it swung you up through the trees. It was so scary but definetly worth it!

We ended our Christmas with a dinner and met up some people we met at a Tico bar and listened to the loud music, watched drunk white guys dance, and watched crazy men dodge a raging bull on TV. We did get to see a few impailments in the behind, so it made it all worth it. I guess bull fighting is the thing to do in the city during xmas and new years here and anyone can get in the ring and taunt the bull and there were about 100 stupid men doing just so.

We finally got a good night sleep last night and I think I will be good for the next week or so. We are staying in a Tican families home that rent out 2 rooms. Our room is really nice despite the killer gigantic spider crawling on our wall today. Matt heroically smashed the killer spider only letting out a tiny scream! And today we are rained in this little town with nothing to do, it´s been constantly raining for hours now. But we are heading to the Pacific Coast tomorrow morning in search of an awesome beach with waves so Matt can perfect his surfing skills and I can perfect my tan. Hope you had a Merry Xmas, I know we did!

Pura Vida

Well, it´s that time again - Time to start up the trusty travel blog. Matt and I arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica on December 18, 2008 on a packed flight full of camera slinging, fanny pack wearing tourists. We were a bit concerned, but hoping they were all flocking to their resort destinations and will leave the cheap stuff to us. I will use the word cheap loosely since nothing in the country seems to be cheap...well, the internet is quite cheap, but I think that is about it!!! Mom, if you are reading this, send money quick!!! Just kidding, kind of. It is more expensive than we thought and researched, thanks Lonely Planet. But, we are doing well and trying to conserve our money although the Imperials (local cerveza) are just too good to pass up on a hot and sunny day.
Well, we arrived in crowded and conjested San Jose and immediately wanted to leave. We decided on the plane about 5 minutes prior to landing to hit the Carribean coast first and chill out at the beach for a bit but no more buses were headed that way for the rest of the day. So, we were forced to grab a cab and sit in traffic for an hour to find a hostel. The hostel we found seemed cool, $10 each for a bed (expensive if you ask me!), but our room so conveniently placed next to the communal area with two open windows right next to the big table where people played cards all night. We also bunked with a few surfer dudes who were in and out of the room all night and one talked in his sleep. Needless to say, I´m not getting any younger and after a 4am wake up call and two long flights, I was ready for a good night sleep, which was not obtained and has not been possible since.
We got the hell out of there in the morning, never to return again. We headed on the bus to a town on the Carribean coast called Cahuita. By the way, the scenery is absolutely beautiful here. It´s so green and colorful...sorry to the folks back home where most things are brown or white from the snow! Cahuita was a really small rasta town. People were so laid back and at first we thought no one was there at all! I am used to arriving to a town and having people try to sell me a room at their guesthouse or even a tour...nothing here. No one cared where we went or what we did. Until we met George of the Jungle, which is how he introduced himself, and he brought us to some Cabinas (Tican name for a room) that Ticans (Costa Ricans) stay when they come to town. It was a bit cheaper than most room, $20 a night, and had a fridge, fan, and our own bathroom, so we jumped on it. We didn´t see the family of 20 drunk men that moved in to the rooms all around us yet. So, we headed out to explore the town and find the beach. It seems to be a running theme for us...finding the beach as they are not always the beach right in town. The beach was located in Cahuita National Park which is a huge jungle and has tons and tons of wild animals, none of which we saw personally, but there were pictures at the welcome station and Matt decided it would be funny to tell the ranger that he´s going to cover me with monkey blood at night and follow me with the video camera to capture the moment when we see a leopard or cougar...or I get eaten! We walked through the tiny path which has the ocean on one side and the jungle on the other. The beach was very long, but not very wide and by the time 1pm hit, the palm trees hide the sun from sun lovers like me. Pictures to follow. That is about it from that town. We of course found ourselves a little local establishment for the rest of the day and made some friends.
We headed about 30 minutes south to Puerto Viejo the next day, which is more rasta like and much bigger than Cahuita. After wandering around, we rented some bikes and headed down the bumpy and potholey rode to find a better beach than what was in town. Cocles beach which was a couple miles down is a surfers paradise. The beach was moderately big and tons of surfer dudes and dudets were out on the water. I was of course scared of the waves, but I am easing up a bit. We also biked about 10 Kilometers out of town the next day and found even more secluded, beautiful beaches. I watched a whole family of monkeys cross the tops of the trees while laying on the beach! I think that is the key, you have to work to find the good beaches. Matt also took a surf lesson while I played photographer and videographer...pics soon to follow. He got up on a few waves, but I couldn´t help but laugh at his perfect surfer pose...just wait for the pics. We also rented a scooter and headed down to Manzanillo Beach. I have to admit I was very nervous about being on the back of the scooter; one because Matt was just learning how to drive the thing and two because the roads are soooo bumpy and bad, but we both wore helmets and looked like nerds since we were the only ones doing so. Safety never takes a holiday as I learned from my fellow Jax trekking the jungles of Borneo!! On a side note, we again stayed in a place that was home to many loud people, domestic disturbances in the room next to us, and thieves. Matt decided to give the noise makers a sly glance out of our door at 6am when they wouldn´t shut up and they retaliated by stealing his swimming trunks that were drying on a ledge outside our door.
We ended our trip in Puerto Viejo by finding a nice establishment to watch the Bears game...man was it cold out there!! But it was really nice watching the game in an open air bar next to the beach. The slogan for the bar was ¨A sunny place for shady people¨ so I hope that explains the other customers who frequent the joint.
After three buses and about 10 hours, (one bus was so full that we had to stand the entire time) we ended up in La Fortuna, home of the famed and active Arenal Volcano. We are on the hunt for lava tomorrow with Mr. Lava Lava who runs our hostel. He guarantees lava spotting, so I will make sure to take pics and try not to get thrown in. Hopefully, cross all your fingers and toes we will get a good night sleep and not getting waken up by drunks, ticans, monkeys, or anything that makes noise!
Sorry for the long post, I think that is it, I will try to update more often.