Jaco, cars, monkeys and home

Well, I no longer sit in the warm tropical weather writing this blog. No, I am in flannel pajamas sitting on the couch watching TV. Definitely strange (and cold!) to be at home, but good at the same time.

In Montezuma, we survived the crazy monkeys, but with hardley any sleep...stupid howling monkey. We later found out that the monkey just howls like that all the time and is not related to the monkey who plunged to death. The woman who owns the place says the monkeys are all really protective, so it could have been a bit louder, but the thing never shuts up I guess. And, it's about 3 feet long, not big at all. SO much for spending more money for a good room. It was nice, but doesn't help if you can't sleep...and we had ear plugs in!

We trekked over to the Montezuma Waterfalls in the morning and we should have kept out flip flops at home this time! Since it was free to go, there was no path and we had to stumble and climb over rocks in the river, up steep inclines and over trees. It was quite hard to do and people were bringing little babies over there. It took a good 30 mins to get to the second tear of the waterfall and didn't even try to go further up to the third tear. Many people die there and now I know why. One of the friends we made in Mal Pais told us the first time he went to the falls, they were identifying a body of a Canadian or American...So, we didn't push our luck and once we ended up at the waterfall, we didn't even go in. It was pretty, but not worth the trek over in flip flops. Anyhoo, we wondered around the town and went to the beach for a bit and then on to the pool at our cabinas. We chilled there and had a sporatic night out on the town with good people we met at the bar. The next day, not so hungover, thank goodness, we took a taxi boat over to Jaco. It's a one hour bumpy, wet, and fast ride over to a town known for being very Americanized. Once we made it out of the boat in one piece, we had no game plan, so we decided to check out this so called Americanized town. We found a nicer place run by a French guy and his wife. It was sorta weird and cult like there, but we didn't care...we had AC and a TV, so after checking out the town, we checked in for the night at about 6pm and watched the TV we had been so missing.

The next day, after checking out some prices we decided to rent a car for our last three days and explore the coast a bit. We got a good deal and it wasn't much more than it would cost to get to the airport. We took of in our little Yaris to Playa Hermosa, which is renowned for it's huge waves and crazy surfing. If you are not an experienced surfer, it is best to stay away and from the looks of the waves, we agree! Matt was thinking about renting a board, but upon closer look, he opted out and thank goodness he did. We watched for a bit and then headed down to Manual Antonio National Park, next to a little town called Quepos. The drive was nice and we stopped at a grocery store and I am now a proud member of the local grocer establishment preferred card club!! Once we got to Manual Antonio, we realized it was actually closed on Mondays and we passed by a hostel that was right near the park and the beach, so it was perfect. We parked the car, checked in and headed for the beach. The beach is known as the disneyland of beaches and it had everything! Surfboards (even though there were no waves to surf!), jet skiis, parasailing, chairs and umbrellas to rent, and bars/restaurants on the beach. It was the perfect ending to our trip, we didn't mind the stereotypes!

The next day, we headed into the National Park. It was $10 pp to get in, but only $2 for Ticans, go figure. There were way too many tour groups with guides for us, but we did see some cools things, mostly insects and my beloved monkeys. There are five beautiful beaches throughout the park, so we mostly checked those out while getting some needed exercise. Other than that, we chilled at the beach all day, taking in our last day before we head back to the city to catch our flight.

The trip home was a long one, but not without funny moments. Matt driving our little 5 speed Yaris through the narrow roads of the mountains was sorta funny, but mostly scary. I was glad when we found the car rental place after getting a little lost since we missed the turn, but we headed for Denny's (Yes, there is a Denny's there!) for our last meal. Once we got to Ft Lauderdale, everything was shut down except for Dunkin Donuts, so we got our $20 sandwiches and headed for a corner that Matt called the Caribbean to set up camp. We had little clouds on the walls and a straw awning, it felt quite nice, but I was just waiting for someone in the airport to take out their camera and take a picture of us, with our sheets out and earplugs in. We ended up getting a bit of sleep before out 6:30am flight and made it back to the cold and dreary Chicago. Now I sit on the couch posting pictures on Facebook, eating tons of food, and getting ready for the next adventure tomorrow. In about 24 hours I'll be heading for the airport again, this time with 13 other girls (yikes, I know!) and two professors heading to Guatemala for 8 days. I have to write a daily journal, so I am deciding how deep I am going to get and I may write it on here, so my next postings may be a bit more deep and cultural since I am writing for an A in the class.