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Published: February 19th 2008
Volcan Poa
Active CraterOnce again this may be a long one, sorry but there is a lot to recap.
I arrived in Costa Rica three days ahead of the rest of my family, because of course I wanted to make sure that everything was good to go. This is more or less how I spent the first day in Alejela, calling hotels along with the epic journey to San Jose to buy our bus tickets. This was a giant fiasco, but in a days time everything fell into place. With my well earned free day I visited the Volcano Canoa, which was interesting as you can actual walk to a look out and look into the active crater. I also was lucky to see the crater as it gets cloudy fast, but I checked it out, walked all the paths, and then walked a couple hours off of the mountain to have coffee with a friend of Eduardo, the owner of my hostel. The day when everybody was set to arrive I mainly just relaxed as I needed too, had a great lunch followed by a fabulous dinner that Edaurdo cooked up, some giant prawns and lots of wine, then with the edge
Volcan Poa
Old Crater well taken off I got on the bus to the airport to anniouxley wait for my family. They arrived on schedule, so we caught a quick visit and sleep before we had to head for the bus in the very early hours of morning.
The day heading to Drake Bay started of course with our early bus, and aside from one slightly car sick mother of mine went pretty smooth. We then caught a cab from our stop in Palmar to our boat in Sierpe. Here we had a nice relaxing lunch by the river and awaited our boat ride to El Mirador in Drake Bay. The boat ride itself was ment to be a taxi service, but proved to be quite scenic, as we followed the mangroves of the river to the outlet on the Pacific. We then had a slightly adventourous ride to the beach in front of our hotel where we were greeted by another Bob who hepled out at our hotel The Mirador. The rest of the day was getting settled in to the atmosphere of beach/jungle, and a nice little walk around the village, beach, and a little jungle that was led by our
Hotel Cortez Azul
Amazing dinner, sorry parents you just missed it. new buddy Bob.
We started our first full day in Drake strong, with an early morning to go diving and snorkeling. I ended up being the only diver as Clint no longer bears a certification card. So I headed out for my first dive in about four years or so since I was in Australia. This went fine, just the normal bit of anxiousness that you would expect as you plunge yourself deep into the ocean. The visibilty was nothing amazing, but things to see abundant. Around almost every corner was a white tipped reef shark, a good number of rays, we spotted some small morae eels, and of course lots of fish. After the first dive we went to have lunch on La Isla de Caño, which is the island that brought me to look at this area. On the island the rest of the family arrived shortly after me and we explored a little of this protected area, which was where they filmed the opening of Jurassic Park. After lunch I headed out for one more dive and again saw lots of sharks, a good sized morae eel, giant lobster, two octopus, and loads more fish and
Mangroves
The boatride to Drake Bay rays. On the way back the driver of my boat let our dive guide drive as he fished by hand with a some very heavy line and a bug damn lure. I could hardy believe it when he brought in the tuna, which I would say wieghed about 10 pounds, by hand and had just a couple marks to show. It was well worth it though, as me and my diver buddys had fresh raw tuna in a spicy sushi sauce with beers after returning. Other than the usual couple beers with the family, making fun of the cat that always watched us eat, and the usual good conversation, this ended the first full day in paradise.
To keep the strong theme going we headed out on our other full day trip to El Parque de Corcovado early the next morning. This started with a wierd awakening as I went to try my boots on and a flood of ants came pooring out of the second one. Once my boot was rid of ants we headed out on bit of a boat ride to the beach near Sirena station. We then went with our guide and hiked to the
Say Goodbye
Last view of a crappy mustache. actual station, passing some spider monkeys along the walk. After signing in at Sirena we did another nice long hike through the jungle, spotting many jungle turkeys, squirrel monkeys, an ant eater, and other random birds. Of course the walking was interesting with a very muddy path, heaps of plant life, insects, and large primary rain forest trees. We made a loop and went back to the Sirena station so we could escape the rain and have lunch. We had a slight snooze and started the trail to the beach where we left the tired crew, mom and Clint, and the three remaining hiked one more trail. We managed to luck out with the last trail and spotted a family of Pecaries (jugle pigs), lots more monkeys, and of course some random birds. We met up with the others on the beach, had some fun pulling hermet crabs out of thier shells, spotted one more ant eater, and headed back. The boat ride back was especially rough, I loved it, the others probably not so much.
Our third full day was a much needed free day, so we slept a little longer, watched in rain during breakfast, watched the
Isla de Caño
Rocky Picture toucans and monkeys during breakfast, and decided to hit the beach when the rain stopped. Now the beach we walked to was a bit of a stroll and I of course had been dieing to go at the sea kayak again. So I rented a kayak and we made a plan to meet at the beach. Once in my craft I decided to explore and test her out on the nice river where I rented the vessel. This proved nice as I paddled up the clear blue water, ducking a tree, paddling up the tiny rapid, finding the stopping point (small water fall), capsizing and doing it again until I could turn around without capsizing. Then onto the ocean, which was mainly work, paddleing over the waves on the way to my family and the beach. Once at the beach I messed up my first time trying to surf the waves, then I showed dad how to launch the kayak out, and I messed up the surfing bit again. Then I gave dad a turn which went well until he capsized about 100 meters out and couldn´t seem to get back on. I thought mom was going to have heart
failure, but I remained confident in my fathers abilities as he finally returned to shore. So I gave one more attempt at this kayak surfing thing, and yes great success!! So with one last be careful from mom I headed back to port as they walked back. We met at the swimming bridge then at the dock, where dad had one more very successful go at the kayak. Then after everyone had bought their souvenirs from the vendors nearby we searched out lunch. This was very nice as we were dieing for seafood and they did not seem to serve any at the Mirador. So with our bellies nice and full we went to check out the actual mirador (lookout) at Mirador and had some beers in hammocks.
Our last full day in Drake Bay we started with what would prove to be the most daring trip for at least one of us. Today was the jungle zip line, and yes it is pretty much how it sounds. We show up, put on harnesses and helmets, and strap into a wire line that zips you through the canopy. We were joined by a British couple that managed to make
it a little more interesting as the woman was deadly afraid of heights. But everyone remained strong, we zipped along, mom with excellent form I might add, and we saw the canopy at a monkeys eye view. Once finished we had another half day as this trip was a short one. So dad and I went for another small jungle hike and Clint and mom explored the village and beach a bit. On the hike we saw a couple macaws, toucans, found lots of shells, and I got another swim in. And as always we ended the day strong with a couple beers.
The following day was our bus ride to Puerto Jimenez, this started out with lots of waiting and then a small shuttle van picking us up for the first leg. This was good as it gave the family a chance to see the country side and how people really live in these countries. We got to the end of the line of our shuttle and again waited for a bus to Puerto Jimenez , which was your basic local bus and got us in town just at dark. After a bit of hunting we found our
hotel, and after a bit of talking I finally got a room as they were overbooked. That night we had brothers night out as Clint and I, found a bar, found a new friend who had some friends, found the local discoteca (club), found a little more drinking and dancing, and found ourselves back at the hotel a little later than normal, oh and lots more good bullshitting.
We used our next day to sleep in a bit, of course, and to explore the town. We found the airport and a plane ticket out, a nice souvernir shop with lots of advise, and a seafood lunch. We then checked out the croc/kayman pools and were followed for a while by a dog we dubbed "croc bait" as he swam around in the kayman infested waters. Ah yes and did I mention good seafood, I believe this was the night for shrimp ravioles and seafood pizza.
Dad and I started the next day very bright and early as we had booked a half day of kayak fishing, and we did not want to be disappointed. And being the mighty fishermen we are, we were not disappointed, catching mackerel and
a tuna. Dad was the mightiest/luckiest, but we all caught fish and we had it fresh for lunch. The afternoon we again did the kayaking bit, but this time as a mangrove tour, this prooved interesting and quite up close and personal as we weaved in and out of mangroves and once again the kayak got the best of dad. He was again lucky/mighty though as some how he did not lose anything that was strapped to the kayak and only got a refreshing quick swim right before we stopped at the swimming spot and had pineapple. In the evening we had our fancy Christmas Eve dinner as the best place in town was to be closed on Christmas. This was probably about the nicest meal we have had that some family member or friend did not cook. I had giant coconut shrimp, and we all got a little spoiled that evening, thank you dad (and Clint for the wine).
On Christmas day we managed to book a tour at the organic chocolate growing farm that is outside of town. We tried for a bus, which we found did not work on Chirstmas, then settled for a very full
cab ride. Once at the farm (Kobo is the name of the place) we had an interesting tour of the area which grew lots of things besides cocao for chocolate. We sampled different fruits, saw some birds, learned alot about the fall of the industry in Costa Rica due to a fungus that the farm to this day fights, and sampled some interesting things. Moms favorite being termites, yes termites, we had termite for Christmas and loved it. Our guide was showing us a hive and telling us how people have survived in the jungle on the little protien packed morsels. So we all had a taste and I must say, for a bug they are a little spicy, but I could definantly survive on them. The raw cocao itself was also very interesting as well as the process of harvest to chocolate. Of course at the end we had a nice picnic lunch with a large bowl of natural amazing ooeey gooey chocolate. I took advantage of the fact that dad and Clint are not particularly fond of chocolate and had pretty much half the bowl with all of the nice dipping fruits, veggies and bread for lunch. Ahhhhhhhh
chocolate. After the best Christmas lunch imaginable we arraganged for a cab to pick us up. This was interesting as there were not a lot of cabs running on Christmas of course, so we got into a cab that yes was in bad shape, but we figured no worries. The excitment came when we where heading back and the rear driver side tire came shear off. So we all searched, found the tire and four of five lugs, and headed down the road. Once again the tire almost came off, but we stopped just before and found three of the four remaining lugs. This got us to Puerto Jiminez and God bless the kid as he had to drive back to the other town that he came from to get home. To finish off Christmas we found a nice river side restaurant to have a nice seafood dinner. I some how managed to not only have chocolate for lunch, but to have Christmas dinner with no shirt on, best Christmas ever! And the food we had was great, so good we went back the next night and had the iron skillet of seafood two nights in a row.
For
our last day in Puerto Jiminez we had a lazy day and decided to walk to the beach that was down the road. This was a bit of a walk but nothing to crazy as we arrived at the beach with lots of time to enjoy. Did some good wave jumping and mom and clint decided to leave first. Of course this was a mistake as dad and I decided to walk to beach back instead of the road to see something new. This was a great walk, we had nice beach, good conversation, saw some fishermen that caught a stingray, and got to the river mouth crossing. Problem was the tide had come in and the water was well higher than the low tide where it is easy to walk across. As men we first tried to walk it, no too deep, then we thought about turning back, until dad found a nice large stump. We found one more even larger peice of drift wood and decided to try an adventour. This invovled binding up our shoes and belongings in our towels and swimming across with our driftwood buoys. So we started out, dad got in the current first
and was swiftly taken into the mangroves as I walked a little farther before swimming. After getting stung by some sort of jelly fish and second guessing the whole thing I went for it as well, and as my log proved to be very resistant to my swimming I got swept even further down into the mangroves. So here we are, wadding chest deep or in my case neck deep and swimming, in the mangroves, with the crocs and everything. The trick now is to not think about it and go, which we did as we where greeted and not helped by our kayak guide from the other day and a large group. Persistence prevailed though and we finally made it to the shore and out of the mangroves, and I got my full days swim in. Afterwards was just enjoying the last evening together with the good food, warmth, and smell of all of our beach and jungle stuff in one room together, ahhh family bonding.
We had breakfast and went basically to the airport (dirt strip with an office) the next day. Bought last minute souvenirs and got on our tiny 12 passenger plane. I sat behind
Parque Corcovado
Pretty Flower or something the pilot so I could watch and make sure he was flying right, as we enjoyed the ride back to Drake Bay and then back to the city. We did well though, and no one got sick, found our hotel again and did some souvernir shopping and I showed the family around the market and had the three dollar seafood spaguetti. Other than that we nursed our sun burns, chilled out and enjoyed the last night together.
Last day, kind of sad and boring, had a typical breakfast and went to the airport. Here we raided the duty free (got some new years booze) and hung out until I had to go board my plane. I love yous, see you laters, and I was on my way to Guatemala, for the next chapter of this little blog of mine.
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