Costa Rica - Rain, Rain and more Rain

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Of all the countries within Central America my next stop, Costa Rica, was the one that really excited me the least. From a backpackers perspective it is expensive (the price of dorm rooms tripled on crossing the border) and it is filled with American tourists looking to have an American experience outside of America. The country is literally packed with MacDonalds, Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts and KFC´s, basically everything that I am not missing from home. It didn´t help that it rained virtually every day I was in the country and that Facebook was filled with the October heatwave in the UK.


The first stop we had planned was a town in the Northern Highlands called Monteverde. According to the Lonely Planet this was one of the easiest journeys we would have to do; simply jump off the bus at Liberia, stand at the cross roads and the bus will pick you up and an hour and a half later you arrive in Monteverde. However we didn´t count on the Hurricanes disrupting the roads as much as they did. At this point there were 5 of us travelling together and we successfully got as far as the Libertad junction, unfortunately we were informed by a local man that the bus to Monteverde had not been running for 5 days as the road was impassible to buses. I would like to say that he was helpful but in reality he told us the bus wasn´t running then jumped into his mates car and drove off. In my head I can still picture the 5 of us and all our bags standing at the corner of the road next to this bus stop that was filled with bee´s nests who were understandably not that impressed we were in there territory. We also weren´t entirely sure if he was joking or even if we were in Libertad or not.

Suddenly out of nowhere this taxi driver arrives and offers to drive us to Monteverde, initially we thought it was a scam particularly as he wanted $70 to drive us to Monteverde. As we had no other option though we eventually agreed. When we looked at the car though we realised that there were only 4 seats inside the car and someone would have to sit in the open topped trailer. Well the two guys decided that they would both sit in the back to keep each other company and the 3 girls got the four seats in the back of the car. Unfortunately about 5 minutes after the taxi started moving it started torrentially raining and continued for the entire journey. The guys got soaked, every so often I would look out the back window and see the two of them just staring at the empty seat in the back of the truck. In all fairness neither took the seat and abandoned the other but by the time we got to the hostel iPod´s and phones had broken as they were so wet. The only good thing was the hot showers in our hostel were incredible (this was only my 2´nd hot shower of my trip so far, I was in it for a long time).


Monteverde is known for one thing....ZIPLINING. For those of oyu who have been to Go Ape it is like an extreme version of that. Except the vast majority of the time you are not climbing up anything but sliding down wires attached only with harnesses and I can´t describe how high these wires actually were. There were 5 of us who started out but due to a slight fear of heights we lost one at the first zip wire. The added complication to the day was that not only was it torrentially raining it was also incredibly misty, the only instruction you are given is to "Stop when you see someone waving at you", well that would be fine but considering I couldn´t actually see my hand in front of me there was no chance on seeing that all important wave. The day became carnage with people just flying along wires and having to be stopped by the emergency breaks (Yes, luckily they did have them!).

I had two favourite ziplines: the first was called "The Tarzan Swing" and it wasn´t so much a slide as a 50m high kids swing. It was unbelivably high, I was the 3´rd one of our group to go. My confidence wasn´t high as the first guy got stranded on the swing as they hadn´t managed to catch him on his way past to pull him onto the platform and the second guy screamed the whole way down. Then it was my turn, I walked onto the platform and then before I realised that I had actually been hooked up I was pushed off the edge. The beginning you free fell for quite a bit before the swing caught your weight and swung you miles into the air on the other side. I actually thought they had pushed my off without attaching my harness, I was terrified! My second favourite one was the "Superman" zipwire, it was 1km long and with the mist you couldn´t see the end of the wire or actually the ground miles below. You were harnesses face forward as if you are lying on your stomach and attached to the wire so it felt like you were flying. It was an amazing feeling, even with the driving rain in your face. I would definately recommend Extremo Zip Lining to anyone going to Costa Rica.

The only other thing that Monteverde is famous for is the hiking but with the weather being as bad as it was there was no way we were planning on going outside, so the day following the zip lining we moved onto a town called Arenal. The journey itself was stunning as we had to take a Jeep and then a boat to get out of the highlands. The boat docked at the bottom of the active volcano that Arenal is situated below, it was a gorgous arrival. However Arenal itself was a disappointment, it was a strange combination of American fast food restaurants and a western film. There wasn´t really a lot to do there and it was expensive, having said that though we did manage to fill 3 days here mainly playing Banagrams and swimming in the hostel pool (it had a swim up bar, what more does a backpacker need?). I think we were putting off the inevitable next stop San Jose.

In general I try to minimise my time in the Capital cities, there is normally little to do and they are actually quite dangerous. However Sarah and Guido were flying out of San Jose and we wanted to say Goodbye to them and I needed to buy a couple of things that you coudn´t really get anywhere other thana large city. Having spent 2 days in San Jose, its not a pretty town and it is highly recommended that you don´t leave your hostel at night. In fac on our first night there the man in reception told us we had 45 minutes to go out and get food before it got dark. With warnings like that it doesn´t fill you with confidence in a city, in fact most of the hostels have bars, nightclubs and restaurants attached to encourage you not to leave the hostel (I suspect this is a bit for our security but more extra sources of income for the hostels). It worked each hostel was almost like a little community.

On arriving in San Jose I opened my backpack to a smell like nothing I have ever experienced before, it was foul. After all the hiking and rain my walking shoes were absolutely stinking and to my horror the smell was starting to spread through my dorm. I was mortified so I moved them outside the room so my poor dorm mates dídn´t have to sleep with the smell. Considering how bad it was imagine my surprise when the morning I left San Jose I went outside the room to discover that someone had stolen my walking shoes. For a start I can´t imagine why anyone would want to touch them (I certainly didn´t and they were mine) let alone put them into their bags and walk out the hostel with them. The really sad thing is that I think (and I have had many an argument about whether this is true or not) the most likely candidate to steal my shoes was another backpacker, it has been suggested that they were taken by a local to sell but I can´t imagine anyone would get anything for them and I would personally be to embarrassed to even try.

By the time that Sarah and Guido left Costa Rica myself and Sue were sick of the rain so we decided to skip straight out of Cost Rica and head towards Panama where we heard rumours of beautiful sunshine. To get the bus to Bocas del Tor (our first planned stop) we had to get up at 4.30 am and head off to catch the only direct bus into Panama. As we sat on the bus heading towards the East coast of Costa Rica it got sunnier and sunnier until eventually we arrived in a town called Puerto Viejo and it was stunning. Well that was it we jumped off the bus at the next bus stop (to the disgust of the bus driver who had to unload the bus to get to our bags) and found ourselves completely unplanned in the coastal tourist town about 9am in the morning after a spur of the moment change of plan. It was a good feeling!

Puerto Viejo is a beach town and our first day it was beautiful and sunny. Unfortunately due to our 4am start we both got into hammocks and slept all afternoon missing the only sunny day in Puerto Viejo, saying that it normally only rained for a couple of hours in the afternoon and although it was grey we didn´t really mind that.

We stayed in Puerto Viejo for 3 days and it was fun, the hostel was friendly and quite a few people we met there we met up again with in Panama. The days were pretty relaxed with our most energetic day being a 15km cycle along the coast "beach hopping". I almost died on my bike as they had no gears, no brakes (you had to peddle backwards to stop) and a green bucket nailed to the front instead of a basket.

Puerto Viejop was nice but the town itself did have a seedy side to it, drugs were common and despite the strictness of the penalties in Costa Rica it was common to see locals taking drugs in the street. This seedy side was evident on our last night in the village we decided to spend our last night in one of the local bars. About 20mins after sitting down Sue went to the bathroom, when she came back ske told me that she thought she saw something in the corner of her eye. I wasn´t really that sympathetic and thought she had just imagined it. Later on that evening I went to the bathroom and when I was in there I remembered her saying it and looked up to my left, to my surprise a man had squeezed his head through this tiny hole in the ceiling and it was suspended there, what made it funny was he still had his baseball cap on. Well I started shouting and swearing and pointing at him, he looked absolutley petrified and was desperately trying to squeeze his head back through the tiny gap without losing his baseball cap, while I was rushing out the room to hunt him down. I dashed into the next room which was the men´s bathroom much to the men using its surprise but unfortunately missed him. As you can imagine I was furious and managed to find the owner of the bar to complain about it (how British am I?), when I think back on it he didn´t act surprised so there is a good chance he was aware it happened. He was more annoyed that I had caught someone doing it. About 20mins later I left the bar and on my way back to hostel I saw the guy, the idiot was still wearing his baseball cap. I went back and told the owner who the culprit was but I don´t think he believed me.

The next morning we left Costa Rica and headed to the final Central American country, Panama.

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