Rich Coast

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The day after I surfed, I tried my hardest to get the Monteverde, Costa Rica, to meet some friends before nightfall. I was unsuccessful and got stuck in a small town called Tilaran. Costa Rica is so different than all the Central American countries I have visited so far. Even the small towns were so modern, clean, and organized. My utensils in restaurants were in plastic bags, the taxis were identical and had meters, most people spoke english, and there were public recycling receptacles. I experienced a very drastic change because I had just left Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in Central America.

After one night in Tilaran, I caught a 4am bus to Monteverde. The ride there was absolutely beautiful. The land in this area was so lush with green, complete with large rolling hills. Belize is very green as well but Costa Rica is ten times more breathtaking. After meeting my friends, we ate breakfast and went on our much-anticipated canopy tour. It was fantastic. We completed 11 zip lines, which together, had an approximate length of 3 km. The longest zip line was 770 meters and the tallest was 130 meters. On one of the lines, I reached a speed of 60 km/h. It was crazy!! At times, I even got a bit freaked out because I was going so fast. The view was amazing as well. We are zipping through the world famous cloud forest of Monteverde. After the canopy tour, we explored 6 different suspension bridges in the forest on a self-guided tour.

The next day, we visited a butterfly garden where we not only learned about some gorgeous butterflies but other interesting insects such as spiders, beetles, and stick bugs. I got to touch a gigantic hercules beetle. This thing was huge but really cool-looking. It was literally the size of a computer mouse!! At first, I thought it was a plastic model but I noticed it move and discovered otherwise. In the evening, we went on a night tour to hike in the dark to see animals in the forest. We got to see some animals such as a wack load of tarantulas, a porcupine, an amadillo, a giant tail-less rat, and tiny frogs but overall it was a pretty boring tour because our guide was so soft spoken and monotone. Not my favourite tour at all.

Our next stop was La Fortuna, a city near a huge volcano called Volcan Arenal. Here, my two friends and I got into some really cool adventures. During our first evening, we went to an incredible hot springs resort. We totally felt like rich people just being in this place. It was like Splashdown but for adults, since most of the time the big kids are usually soaking in the jacuzzi at rugrat-infested water parks. This water paradise had 17 water pools at different temperatures ranging from luke-warm to way-to-pipin-hot and tons of hot waterfalls. They even had 2 bars built right in the center of two of the pools. Life was definitely super good that night.

Our next adventure was driving ATVs the next morning through a large farm. It was sooo fun!!! Mini off-roading!!! We were going up and down steep hills, into mud pits, mogel-like trails, and getting a bit of air at some points. At one spot, I had to go down a really steep hill and accidentally pressed the accelerator instead of the break and lost control. I drove right into a ditch where I fell of the vehicle and it rolled on its side onto my foot. Luckily, there was not enough weight on my foot to hurt me but it was a bit scary. We ended the tour with some straight dirt paths where we could really burn up some speed and drove through a river. Hella cool!! The best part of the entire tour was saved for last!

On our last full day, we spent the morning on a canyoneering tour. Basically, what this entailed was repelling down 5 different-sized waterfalls in a large canyon with ropes and rock-climbing harnesses. We got really wet and had a blast! It was really cool how I was able to control my own speed going down. As I got more used to ascending, I went a lot faster as the tour continued. Sometimes, I would just stop myself in mid-air and just dangled beside or even underneath the raging wateralls. The largest waterfall was 210 ft.

Next we traveled for 8 hours to a beach on the pacific coast called Manuel Antonio. Here, we did an hour long jungle hike to a beautiful beach. During the walk, we saw tons of small crabs that lived in holes throughout the jungle, monkeys, and a giant tail-less squirrel. We were so satisfied when we jumped in the water at the beach because the jungle was so hot and humid. For dinner, we ate at a restaurant called El Avion. This place was very cool because it was built inside and around an actual fighter plane. After our main course, we had some drinks in its fuselage.

My last beach side stop was Puerto Viejo which was located on the opposite coast of Costa Rica. It was on the Carribean Ocean. This place had gorgeous white-sand beaches with crystal blue waters and waves. It was a perfect combination. We spent our first day on the beach frolicking in the waves, tanning, and eating fruits. The next day, we rented bikes and rode to a beach about 25 minutes away to do some snorkeling. We were a bit disappointed with the animal and plant life. The reef in this area was not as impressive in comparison to Belize and Mexico. At night, we sat at a restaurant and listened to live acoustic guitar music.

Catching a bus to San Jose, we arrived in the city by the late afternoon. We checked into a beautiful hostel called Hostel Pangea. The place was equipped with immaculately clean rooms, bar, restaurant, outdoor pool, patio and a great view of the city. All this was included for $10 a night. It was a steal for Costa Rica. After a nice dinner, we went to go party at El Pueblo. This place basically had a tiny gated village that housed only bars and clubs. I imagined it would be something like the redlight district of Amsterdam minus the XXX joints. We settled at a club that charged 6 dollars for cover but we received 4 free drinks. We danced until 4am in the morning and drank heaps. I even found myself on a stage doing some solo freestyle to a Sean Paul song. I was rewarded with a free tequila shot. A fine way to celebrate the end of my travels.

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