A whole lot of Monkey business

---

Well... the following day brought lots! We headed out of Montezuma early, no revisit to the waterfalls. We knew we had a long day of travel ahead of us..but we ended up waiting at the bus stop for the first leg of our journey, for an hour and a half beyond when we thought the bus was going to be leaving! That to begin with set our day back a bit. While waiting we were approached by multiple LARGE bluish iguanas! And what we later found out to be a kinkaju? To me it looked like a HUGE reddish squirl with a big black stripe down it´s back. We finally got on the bus, and headed to Paquera to catch a ferry. Once the ferry was loaded with cars and people and trucks... and one ATV that came flying on at the last second, the next leg of the journey began. The ferry took about an hour and a half, and included some screaming loud kareoke that i could have done without. But hey. So we arrived in Puntarenas over 2 hours later than originally planned... where we were supposed to catch a 3-4 hour bus to Santa Elena/Monteverde....but unfortunately we had MISSED the Last bus by 20minutes. I had made us some reservations ahead of time while waiting for the bus, because we knew we wouldn´t make it there before dark, or at least sunset and didn´t want to be without somewhere to go. So now, everyone is INSISTING that we stay in Puntarenas for the night and i´m insisting that we must be able to get closer to the place, where from we MIGHT be able to afford a taxi...which from where we stood wanted over 100 dollars!!! SO after discussion and convincing we got on another bus that took us closer... and then another a bit closer still. But then we were at a gas station at the edge of a town called Sardinal, with the sun just about set... and supposedly This is the place where all the minibuses and people drive through before the leg up to Santa Elena, and people were sure we would find a ride from here. At this point, i wasn´t so sure, but we didn´t reallllly have a choice. So i talked to this attendant who just looked at me and asked me where we needed to go... i told him and he offered to ask people where they were headed as he worked, try and find us a ride, then he asked me if we could pay a little, i said of course we just need to get there. So we also asked a few people, and then i saw a tourist family in an SUV pull up. Perfect. I asked them and with the dad driving and mom sitting in back between two car seats he looked at me then at the front seat, and said hey if you can fit you´re welcome. So we strapped our stuff to the top, i wedged in the SUV trunk with their luggage and ben hopped in front.... thank goodness for that Israeli family (living in New York), two cramped hours later we arrived. Our hostel was glad to see that we made it... and the next morning we were off to our Canopy tour. The Extremo canopy tour microbus picked us up and then unexpectedly picked up our Canadian friends! This was definately an Extremo tour... we Ziplined high over the rainforest, one of the 16 cables was 750meters, and another was 550meters! It was almost too long to be sliding over so high... but it was a beautiful view and an insane rush! The tour also included a tarzan swing that included a bit of a free fall and a repell. It was a great time! Later that night we went on a night walk through Monteverde Cloud Forest... we saw a tarantula, and lots of insects, and a huge wild turkey, and bats... it was so neat to be in the Rainforest at night! It was hard to imagine what it was going to look like to be inside it during the day. The next morning we headed off to the Santa Elena Reserve and hiked all day though the rainforest following the trails. It was amazing, we saw tons of different birds, and humming birds, and butterflies, another huge turkey, lizards, and Coaties. We walked all day through amazing rainforest, over streams, and saw and heard only a few people... it was really perfect. The following day we planned to leave and take a 7am bus for 9hours to get to Volcan Arenal... but our plans were terribly disturbed. Let me try to explain the ongoings of this night....basically our room was located outside of the commonroom and kitchen and bathroom complex... some rooms were located inside. Everyone had a key to both their room and the common space, and you need a key for both. SO... at 1am i wake up to a guy pounding on the common room door trying to get into the area so he can get into his room. He sounded pretty intoxicated, and it sounded like he´d brought someone who was not staying there back with him, because i could hear him offer this extra person a bed. Then about a half hour later, someone is trying to breakin to OUR room! I shoot up, and we pound on our door, and partly open it to find a guy standing outside our room in his underwear. I didn´t recognize him as being from our hostel so i didn´t know what to think. It didn´t make sense for someone who was staying there to leave the common area without a key, it didn´t make sense for them to be trying to find somewhere to sleep, there are couches, none of it made sense but i was FREAKED OUT and pissed. There was noise, this person was climbing the side of the buliding trying to get in etc. We didnt´go back to sleep. And then because we felt an obligation to the owners to tell them what the hell was going on, we missed the bus. The owners ended up collecting the 50 dollar fine from these guys for bringing someone who didn´t belong back to their room (warnings were posted everywhere) and then these guys or whoever they brought back had thrown up everywhere, torn down the shower curtains in both bathrooms... havoc. They were kicked out. And the super hospitable, kind owners made us these reservations for a jeep-boat-jeep transport to Arenal... which would´ve cost us 50 dollars. So though we were exhausted and felt really bad for the crap these nice people had to put up with, we made it to Arenal in only 3.5 hours, rather than 9. Once in Arenal we found ourselves staying at a hostel run by Mr. Lava-lava himself, who garuntees that if you go on a night walk to the volcano with him, you will see lava, or you go again for free. We spent the day hiking through the National Park surrounding the Arenal volcano, and spent the day waiting for the clouds to clear. We arrived at the park by 9am, and finally at 2:45pm we were granted a full though momentary view of Arenal! The clouds seriously parted for 10minutes, maybe... but it was an amazing view. Then that night we did see a Bit of lava... not much. But Mr. Lava-lava was quite a show in himself. From La Fortuna (the town you can stay in around Arenal) we took a bus to San Carlos, and from there to San Jose. We walked around Central San Jose a bit, and the next day headed to the Caribbean bus station to the Caribbean coast. We went to Cahuita, a little caribbean town where almost Everyone speaks english, and the town isn´t run by tourism alone. We spent the last 3 nights in this town walking though the national park of Cahuita that protects one of Costa Rica´s two living coral Reefs and a really nice grey sand beach. There were monkeys in the trees, lizards everywhere and crabholes every 3inches. It was a really nice place to spend a day. Then the next day we walked to the other side of the reef where the sand is black... amazing difference in a kilometer. This beach, unlike So many we´ve seen here in Costa Rica was filled with the local people, not resorts and vacationers...there were lots of surfers and boogieboarders and kids covered in black sand, practically eating it. It was a fun sight... and towns like this proved really difficult to find in this country. That´s what we´ve realized most, Costa Rica does stand apart from the rest of Central America, and not just because it´s more expensive. It´s really hard to find a market, and people who just live and work and play here. It makes it a family vacation spot, easy to traverese and explore... but at times boring for those who aren´t looking for an exotic extension of the U.S. And here we are, back in San Jose for the night, before we head out to the airport tomorrow... this is the only place, it seems that tourists flying and out, and avoid exploring... you really can get away without seeing any of this huge city... and yet it´s the only place we´ve found a market, and lots of people, and stores all but closed on sunday while bars fill to watch the local futbol teams... so for us... what has sounded like an avoidance of this country for so many, is what reminds me that it is still part of Central America.

---