Back to San Jose

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At the end of our last installment, Martina and I were waiting to go on a night walk, hoping to see a sloth. Well, it was a total washout. The park, recommended by a hostel employee, was near roads and homes and there was nary a mamal in sight. Sure we saw a couple of tarantulas, some glow worms (hot the US kind, but some big beetles with phosphorescent spots on their backs) and the largest ant hill you´could possibly imagine, but no kinkajous, no monkeys and, most annoyingly, no sloths. Just one of those nights.

In the morning we took a 7 hour van ride to Samara, a very small beach town with a few hotels, some restaurants and a lovely stretch of sand. We checked into a hotel called casa del mar, again recommended by the hostel in Monteverde, but this time, it was great advice. Clean rooms, friendly staff, free breakfast and only $29 a night (we had to share a bathroom though). We had an amazing dinner that night- steak, baked potatoe and a baked TOMATOE, all cooked up on an outdoor grill. Martina had a margarita, I had a couple beers and we both ended up drunk. It was the most expensive restaurant we´ve been to here in Costa Rica (the final tally was $40) but well worth it. One of the best meals we´ve had in a very long time.

We spent yesterday on the beach, alternating between the waves and the water and reading our books. I dahsed through a Michael Connely mystery, Martina plugged through ¨Galapagos¨by Kurt Vonnegut and we both ended up with MAJOR sunburns. I´m in pain just typing this. We walked around town and saw monkeys in the tress. We followed that up with dinner at Nacho Villas, a Mexican fast food joint, that was cheap and quite enjoyable.

We had half a day in Samara today, which was spent swimming and laying out on the beach and then took the five hour bus ride to San Jose. Tomorrow, we leave for Ecuador.

We´ve had a great time here- so great, in fact, that we´re already planning on coming back. We wish we could have spent a week in each of the towns (except San Jose) that we visited. Costa Rica´s an amazing place. It feels like an alternate universe- there are mountains and trees and animals, just like in Colorado, but the mountains are volcanoes, the trees are certainly not pines and the animals are monkeys. I can´t imagine growing up in a place where you can look up and see a primate hanging around your back yard.

So good bye Costa Rica, we hardly knew ya. And hello Ecuador. If you don´t hear from us for a few days´it´s cause we´re checking out the turtles and penguinsi n the Galapagos.

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Comments

[Ruth Levisohn]

brings back memories
We felt the same way. People were wonderful and other then the tour bus group we had to deal with it was very special.

[Jessica]

wow!
I’ve really enjoyed reading about your adventure thus far, and and you (Ben) thought the blog wouldn’t be interesting! Your pictures are going to be fantastic! You and Justin must have skipped the same “Avoiding Sunburns 101” course. Be careful and have fun with the turtles.