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Published: April 21st 2009
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Costa Rica is beautiful! Our flight down on Jet Blue was at capacity - what recession! Because none of the streets have signs or numbers we thought it best to rent a GPS for our mini SUV. Unfortunately the GPS could not find our first destination. However, it was able to get us to the right neighborhood, but finding the hotel took some time and required us to ask for directions multiple times. Costa Ricans are not very specific when it comes to giving directions. They basically just point in one direction and insist we will find it. Eventually we did.
If you have never been to San Jose, we would not reccommend spending any time there. It had lots of pollution, small one way streets, and not much to do. If you do find yourself navigating the busy streets there, be aware of the railroad tracks because there are no flashing warning lights or moving gates to stop traffic. Plus, buildings can block your view of any trains passing by. It was a close call, but we made it.
San Jose was just a stop on the way to our destination, Fortuna. The home of the Arenal Volcano.
On our way out of the city we managed to snap a picture of a man running (for exercise) on the congested highway (see photo). The drive to Fortuna is picturesque. Once there, we went rappeling down five waterfalls, horseback riding to La Fortuna waterfall, and swimming in the hot springs. After 3 days we drove to Monteverde Cloud Forest.
The roads up until the drive to Monteverde were paved. Granted, they were very winding and often overlooked steep cliffs, which made for a fun ride, but paved nevertheless. This was not the case with the roads to and from Monteverde, a nature preserve located high in the hills. We spent most of our time in second gear navigation large potholes, rocks and mud slides. Monteverde is difficult to get to on purpose. The Costa Rican government wants to preserve this area from human pollution so they leave the roads unpaved on purpose. Once there, we took a guided walking tour over suspension bridges. Our guide was excited because he thought we would get to see many species of wildlife on this abnormally clear day. Because Monteverde sits at a high elevation it is normally foggy. We did manage
to see a few birds and a poisonious caterpillar, but that was it. We were disappointed to say the least. One cool thing worth noting is the place we stayed, an eco lodge called Arco Iris. It consisted of little cabins carefully built into the hillside. The entire lodge was ¨green¨and virtually self sustaining, a common theme here in Costa Rica.
It is also worth mentioning the Costa Rican culture. The majority of the people are pleasant, well dressed and educated. Because tourism is a large part of the economy here, almost everyone speaks english. I however, still try to speak broken spanish when possble, but am usually responded to in english. The landscaping of most homes we passed, regardless of thier size, some were shacks, was on par or better than what you see in the states. Also, they have universal healthcare, which everyone seems to be pretty fond of. Costa Ricans have better teeth than most Europeans because dental care is taken seriously. That said, in most places we stayed we couldn´t flush paper down the toilet because the sewage system is almost non existant. This brings me to Jaco (pronounced Haco).
We met up with
Julie´s (pronounced Hulie) friend Jackie (pronounced Hockey) in Jaco. Jaco, is a sufer town through and through. By the way, Costa Rica has some of the best surfing in the world. I´ll find out just how good tomorrow at my first surf lesson. Anyway, we stayed in a little motel in the beach right next to a lagoon that was home to many species of lizards, some crabs, a swan, and a bunch of chickens. We saw more wildlife here than in Monteverde. Some of the lizards were the size of house cats! Jaco, beacuse of the surfers I´m guessing, also has a lot of prositution, which is legal here. To earn some extra Colones (the Costa Rican currency), Julie pimped me out at the Beatle Bar, but lucky for me, I´m a tough sell.
Jaco was cool, but I would not recommend it to couples looking for a resort type of vacation unless you stay at the Best Western, we didn´t. Costa Rica has anything for anyone - small inexpensive motels that offer breakfast, have TV (sometimes) and a personal touch, but it also has large resorts that offer much of the same and are 4 times the
price.
Wow that was more than I expected to write. In summation, we are having a great time and looking forward to spending a few more days here in Quepos.
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Diana
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ROCK ON!
Hooray! I am so excited to read that you guys are having such a great time! Julie, I hope that any guilt you might have had is being washed away in various pools, waterfalls, and oceans. I am so impressed that you have packed so much into such a short time! Color me jealous, and keep the posts/pictures coming, Diana