Livin La Pura Vida in Costa Rica

---

---

The drive to San Jose from Ometepe afforded some very different views to what we had been seeing throughout the rest of Central America. There was quite a lot of modern architecture and less rubble and rubbish along the roads. At one point we even drove past a small housing community like those we have at home with matching houses and paved streets – I had seen nothing like it in the previous countries.
We arrived at the hotel mid-afternoon and went for a quick introductory walk around the city – the first metropolitan city we had seen – which didn’t offer much more than the usual city sights... some nice parks, couple of museums, shop-loaded pedestrian strip.
The next day, faced with not much else to do, I followed Amy and Chrissy to the National Museum which housed a butterfly garden and a lot of local artefacts. There were a lot of stone balls around the place which apparently were some kind of traditional statue but really didn’t make much sense to me.
It didn’t take long to look around or for me to start getting bored (museums really aren’t my thing) so after getting a bit silly and shooshed at a few times, we departed the museum in search for icecream, which we ate in the main square watching some little children be overwhelmed by a billion pigeons that they had been feeding crumbs – quite funny as one little boy got very upset and then quite angry and spent the rest of his time running after them screaming. The rest of the afternoon was spent in leisure and speaking to family which I’m sure they all appreciated immensely, no doubt missing me like crazy.
That night, Amy and I were persuaded by Ben and Ashwina to hit the nightlife with them and we set off to a trendy little section of town which held a cluster of bars. When I say cluster, I literally mean that about 15 or 20 bars were all crammed together on one block with little pedestrian streets running through them like a maze. We bar-hopped a few times before settling in a club filled with too much fake smoke and a barely-dressed girl dancing on stage. With rum and coke in hand – yes, I have been drinking rum! – we watched and deliberated over the necessity of the scantily-clad dancer who seemed to rotate through a mix of approximately 4 or 5 different dance moves whilst looking like she’d rather be anywhere else but there. The night ended with our token vegetarian buying a piece of pepperoni pizza and forcing me to eat the meaty bits in the cab ride home which I swear later on made me sick as a dog. Not the 6 or so rum and cokes....

The next day, we dragged our sorry asses onto the bus for a 6hour bus journey to La Fortuna, a quaint little town situated at the base of the famously active Arenal Volcano. We arranged our activities for the next day and were then set free for some spare time before we hit the hot springs. Feeling so poorly (from the dodgy pizza) I spent the afternoon in bed before scraping myself together for the nights visit to the local hot springs. These were nothing like the springs in Honduras which were actual natural pools in the mountainside – this was a complex within a hotel with about a dozen pools of varying temperatures, waterslides and glories of all glories, a swim-up bar. We pool-hopped for a couple of hours before hitting the all-you-can-eat buffet dinner which I attacked with fervour, and then home to bed.

The next day dawned with an early start for Chrissy and Amy, and a lazy morning of breakfast and shopping for me as I had only booked an afternoon activity. Amy and I were picked up early afternoon and taken to the farm where we would begin our horse-riding tour and introduced to our magnificent steeds who ignored us until we were unceremoniously thrust on their backs and told in Spanish (which neither of understands) how to control the horse. We just nodded like we understood and flicked our reins like experts. Bad idea. Our guides, clearly thinking we had some sort of riding skills or experience, immediately broke into a fast trot which inspired our horses to do the same and cause Amy and I to clutch on for dear life while our horses went wherever they damned liked.
Our guides eventually figured out we had no idea what we were doing and slowed it down for us, but the whole ride was a little nerve racking as we were riding on lots of loose stone as opposed to grass or dirt so the horses were constantly tripping and catching themselves, and then randomly breaking into a surprise trot or trying to crush Amy and I between their two bodies.
We eventually made it to the waterfall which we admired from our viewpoint on the hill, and when our guides motioned us down a track, we followed eagerly thinking we were going to another one. Nope. We climbed all the way to the bottom of that damn hill and then trekked through the river to the bottom of the waterfall, which despite the daunting prospect of the climb back up, was stunning and well worth the effort.
We made our way back up the track, which Amy gracefully danced her way up and I followed behind, gasping and sweating but refusing to take a break. I am proud to say that not only did I make it without stopping, I beat the guides!
After we all recovered from our hike (me and the tour guides), we jumped back on the horses and made our slippery way to a local farm run by one of the few remaining native tribes to educate visitors about their lifestyle and raise money to support the tribes. I was very interested to hear about their affinity with animals which they use as totems, and did my bit by purchasing a mask which is a toucan/butterfly combo - the toucan representing qualities of beauty both internally and externally, and the butterfly representing peace and love.
After our ride, Amy and I were quite late being picked up so I entertained myself by taking photos of an enormous male turkey that was strutting around the yard. Unfortunately, he didn’t quite appreciate me laughing at him and taking photos, so when I realised he was preparing to run me down, I legged it out of there much to the amusement of Amy.

Day after that, we hopped on the bus again and were off to Santa Elena, home of the Monteverde Cloud Forest. After a quick tour around the town and lunch, we were off to zipline through the forest, one of the most popular activities in Santa Elena. Unfortunately, when we arrived, there was an hour and a half wait until the next group could go, so we were offered to walk the hanging bridges through the forest to kill time. Well, I’m not much one for walking trails, but hanging bridges sounded like fun so I paid my US$20 and off we went.
Worst. Money. Spent. EVER.
The trail was 95% crap pavers and 5% hanging bridges which hardly even moved when you jumped on them, not to mention they were painting them so we all got green paint on our shoes. On top of that, it had to be the most BORING trail I have ever been on in my life, with these ridiculously shaped pavers that meant you had to watch where you were putting your feet the whole time to ensure you didn’t trip and fall flat on your face. I was pretty shitty when we finally made it back, but the prospect of ziplining cheered me up as I enjoyed it so much the last time I did it.
False hope. Our group was at least 40 people strong so the guides did nothing but shunt us all through the course as fast as possible. The most fun part was the 1km long line which sent you hurtling through the air above the forest at speeds up to 80km/hr. It was an unreal experience but even though I got paired with a guy and between us had about 140kg’s of weight, we were too light and didn’t make it to the end of the line and had to be pulled in. Annoying but it happened to most of the group so we didn’t feel too bad.
All in all it was a bit of a disappointing afternoon but I suppose I will get that from time to time in this trip – not everything can be totally amazing and incredible experiences!
Disheartened by my time in the Forest, I passed on the visit to the National Park the next morning which required a 6am start and slept in instead. This was apparently a massive fail on my behalf as the group had a rare sighting of a quetzal, which just happens to be the national bird of Costa Rica and very few people ever get to see them. But nope, our whole group did EXCEPT me. DAMN YOU, CLOUD FOREST!
The rest of the day was spent shopping, lunching and saying our goodbyes to Ashwina and Ben who were leaving a day early. I know I have made some life-long friends there and fingers crossed that they have the opportunity to move to/work in Australia! That night we had a lovely little wine and cheese party with everyone as it was Chrissy and I’s last night, making enough noise to wake the dead, and the next morning had a very long-winded good-bye breakfast as the rest of the group was moving on to the coast while we were going back to San Jose.

Chrissy and I hopped on our long bus ride back to San Jose, enjoying the beautiful Costa Rican countryside which cannot be described or captured in pictures, it is so stunning. We stopped mid-way and picked up another couple, one of whom had hurt his back and moaned and cursed everytime we hit a bump (which in Costa Rica is about every 3 seconds as their roads are total crap). We were very glad to finally be dropped at our hotel and not have to endure any more of his grouching.

After our final dinner together (very lovely, just the two of us) we headed back to attack the packing. Chrissy very nicely had offered to take some of my things home with her so together we managed to re-arrange her bags to accommodate all of our crap. I did have to brutally throw out 2 of her 3 bags of toiletries to manage it, but we got there in the end.

February 16^th dawned and we made our way to the airport where we said our final goodbyes and parted ways – Chrissy back to Australia, and me off to new adventures in South America, flying solo.

---

Photos

I can dance too!
But really, I'm imitating those people who consider jumping around like a puppet with its strings cut dancing...

Comments

[JhonShine]

Movers San Jose
I have veray Blogs The next day, we dragged our sorry asses onto the bus for a 6hour bus journey to La Fortuna, a quaint little town situated at the base of the famously active Arenal Volcano. San Jose Moving Companies