More stories from Costa Rica!

Costa Rica trip more….

Thinking back on some stuff we did that I forgot to mention. There is a restaurant call “Trio” in Monteverde. The food there is EXCELLENT, great steaks and veggies. The owner must be an experienced chef and the food was nothing like any other restaurants here. It’s right when you pull into Monteverde on the left hand side… before the super market.

While in La Fortuna, Arenal make sure you stop by the Lava Lounge Bar ‘n Grill owned by Mr. Scott Bradley… we found out he is a local from Santa Monica! He was very kind in coming up to our table to chat with us. He also helps stray dogs (which are many) by feeding them and taking them off the streets in La Fortuna. Good guy. The food at Lava Lounge is excellent. Good variety and tasty. Anything from salads to steaks, even spicy tuna rolls.

The owner of the Cabinas Las Palmas is Francklin Valerio (I spelled Francklin right that is the way he spells it). These guys know their stuff and the area well as they are locals. They can tell you the history of this area and when using them, as tour guides will go the extra mile to make sure you enjoy the sites.

Soon it was time to say good-bye to our new friends Marthe Fischera and her boy friend Henning, meeting nice people such as these two make any journey away from home nice. We got in our shuttle and headed to Montezuma. The cost was the same $39.00 each person which included the ferry across to Montezuma. The ferry was packed but comfortable. While we were onboard Ronn Savala ran into our friends from Monteverde, Ziggy and her traveling mate. Small worlds when you’re traveling.

Once on shore in Montezuma it was time to find a hotel. Before we left Marthe and Henning suggested the hostel Pargo Feliz that is on the beach. We checked it out but they only had a bottom room left and it was way too small for 3 of use, so walked up the street and sat in a Café that had the internet so we could find another. Ronn had ventured up the street and came back with good news… nice hotel just stones throw! The Luz de Mono Hotel. This hotel was $70.00 per nite for 3 people and had hot water. Oh joy!~ The room was EXCELLENT and the stay include breakfast. Most of the hotels in Costa Rica provide breakfast, which is nice, as you want to start your day with food in your stomach. And the food is good, not donuts, cereal or those packaged tarts they give you in the U.S., but rather a good choice, which always includes their traditional rice and beans.

There is not a whole lot to do in Montezuma itself unless you like surfing. There are tours that take you to various places but we were really tired and just wanted to relax… so we did. Took a short walk on the beach, Ronn ventured 10 minutes down the beach to the resort Lang Lang (I think that is how you spell it). He said it was very nice. A bit more expensive but lots more relaxing things to do there. This small town by the beach is pretty much like being at home and visiting Venice Beach. There are lots of hippies and Rasta’s. EVERY place you hear Bob Marley! Its nice that they love his music so much, but 24/7 gets pretty boring. I wondered why they weren’t playing the native Costa Rican music, would be nice so those that are visiting will learn the sounds of the native. But Bob Marley it was so is it.

Aside from hippies and Rasta’s we saw a lot of critters, monkey’s, geckos, Iguanas, and various birds… one in particular that loved attacking people as they ate their breakfast. I think it’s called a TOUCANCILLO. Bluish bird with a pretty head but very aggressive when it wants your food! There was a couple sitting by us eating, the man had shaved head, I guess the bird thought it was a coconut as it kept landing on his head and trying to peck at it!!!! It eventually gave up… so did the man trying to eat. At some point the Toucancillo landed on Ronn Savala and started to peck and pull his hair! Ouch! Poor Ronn!

Our stay in Montezuma was only 2 days. The second day we booked a speedboat to take us from Montezuma to Jaco where we would take a shuttle down to Antonio Manuel. The packaged cost us about $72.00 per person. This was (once again) well worth it, as we didn’t have to take the public bus and is much faster. The trip didn’t get off as expected though. We all wrapped our stuff in plastic bags so they won’t get wet and hopped aboard ready for the trip. About 10 mins into the voyage another boat flagged our ship down… it was the Costa Rican Coast Guard! They pulled along side of us and started talking to the operator of the boat. Basically he was being sited for not having a number on the boat but soon came other citations such as him not make us wear life jackets amongst other stuff. It was a long wait while this guy was citing him and the smoke from the Coast Guard exhaust started making us sick! Thankfully I didn’t barf but wanted to several times! The sun was blaring down and when we put on our life jackets it got even hotter! There were three others on the boat, a young local woman and two French Canadian women. The Coast Guard asked us our Nationality and if we wanted to driver to follow him towards the North or have him take us back… we all said BACK.

When we got back to shore we were told that another boat would pick us up in 25 minutes… it was more like 2 hours and 25 mins! But the wait was fun. We sat on the beach in front of a local bar/hotel and drank some beers… the two French Canadian ladies made us laugh as they started to sing the theme from Gillian’s Island! We happily joined in. Finally the replacement boat came and we all boarded. This boat was a little bigger and went MUCH faster. Mainly because they were behind schedule and a rainstorm was catching up with us. The ride was really fast and bumpy. Sometimes harsh on one’s back. About 45 minutes later we landed in Jaco.

Our crew helped us to shore and gave us our luggage still wrapped in plastic bags. We left it in the plastic until we boarded our shuttle as the sand was not really clean and there was dogs taking dumps and peeing everywhere. It was amazing to see all these people lying around and dogs doing their thing right next to them! Icky. Locals in the other places we visited told us the Jaco was no a pretty place. Mainly tourist, Casinos, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Mc Donald’s, Ladies of the nite (which is legal in Costa Rica) and some pretty interesting characters. It looked nice but nothing at all like the rest of the places we have been. A place I guess that people go for drinking and picking up the ladies of the nite.

The shuttle ride to Antonio Manuel was nice. Lots of green all around you and a smooth road. We were actually 3 days early arriving and the condo we rented (Casa Azul) was not yet ready. We found online a nice place called Hotel Flor Blanca, a moderate hotel on the main drag and were $55.00 for a room with private bathroom/shower with 3 beds. This included breakfast. We stayed there 2 days as we got a hold of the condo owner and made arrangements to stay at the condo 2 extra days. Ironically we found while sitting at poolside at Hotel Flor Blanca, that our condo was right behind us on the hill behind the hotel!!!!!! That was pretty good luck!

OK more soon, time to enjoy the sun and then head down to the beach!

Costa Rica... A trip of a trip

It’s day 9 of our 15-day adventure to Costa Rica.  I must say so far the first part was pretty much the most fun.  We started our vacation by realizing the Ronn’s passport was under his DBA name and not this birth name…. I realized that the day before we were leaving and then ALL of us realized that we were leaving on MONDAY morning at 12:40 a.m. NOT Monday!  Sounds crazy, well we thought we were leaving on Monday and then realized it was Sunday nite forgetting that the day changes after midnite! Boy what a start.  We landed in San Jose (that was an adventure within itself!).  At first they were not going to let Ronn in Costa Rica as they said he had no return ticket back.  That was not true and thanks the powers that be I had the itinerary to prove he did.  So we got passed that.  We then too a taxi to the bus stop in downtown San Jose to purchase a bus ticket to Monteverdi (that cost us a whole $5.00 bucks each).  The bus did not leave until 2:30 p.m. and it was about 10:00 a.m. so we decided to talk a walk down beautiful San Jose.  Well much to my surprise the part that we were walking down was a little shabby and much like being on skid row.  But once we found the center of town it was pretty nice.  We found a little place to have a bit to eat and a beer.  We then ventured back to where our bus was to take off.

At first the thought that we saved so much money taking the local bus up to Monteverde was the bargain of the century… how cheap! But as the bus headed outside of San Jose the roads became more rural and a lot rougher! Along with way the bus driver would stop every now and then a pick up someone that was selling food or drinks then let them off a few stops down.  As we got more into the country part of the trip the stops were less and the roads narrower.  Then it got dark and pretty intense as the winding road to Monteverde barely enough room for the big bus let alone the cars coming from opposite direction to pass.  Well 6 hours later came rolling into town.  When the bus stopped and let us off and local was there offering $10.00 a nite hotel stays!  We were all tired and at first the idea sounded good but then our heads where placed back on us and we decided to check it out first.  It was a Hostel and actually VERY nice!  The name of this place is “The Tucan” and for $10.00 each we got a huge room with 4 beds and the restroom right next to it.  After putting our stuff in the room we went to eat dinner at a very nice joint called “The Tree House” where the is an actual tree growing out of the place!  The food was very nice and inexpensive. Soon we were settled for the nite and happy to lay our heads down on a nice soft bed.

The next morning we took a walk (which is not far as the town is pretty small) and decided to spend one more nite so we can take the canopy walk which was $25.00 each (that included the ride up to the site).  I wished we had done the zip line but next time.  The canopy walk was very nice and the sites were so amazing.  If you do this you will get wet and it will rain so come prepared! 

We soon headed back to our bargain hostel were we met some really fun people.  I don’t remember all their names but Ziggy (nice German girl) and Mark E. Russell (nice British chap) I do remember.  Ziggy and her girl friend (both in their early 20’s) were finishing up a school project, which they were traveling for 6 months through South America.  Mark had just sold his home and decided to see the world with his earnings…. A brave man and I tip my hat off to him.  There was a young man from Israel who also was traveling through Costa Rica.  We all shared a beer or two and since I had my wonderful laptop I showed the German girls some HEDWIG from you tube… I don’t know if they got it but I tried to explain it to them the best I could.

So day three and we are off to our next venture…. The Arenal Volcano.  The guys at the Tucan gave us a package deal for that part of the trip.  For $89.00 you got the jeep-boat-jeep deal!  Which is a ride to the lake, a boat trip across the lake and then a jeep ride to La Fortuna (the jeep is actually a shuttle van) and to top it off this included the hotel for the nite AND a day at the hot springs and a volcano hike!!!!   This took about 3 hours.

When we got to the hotel Cabina Las Palmas, we were amazed that the hotel was actually new had a nice big room with a private bathroom.  Our host at the hotel was also our tour guide for the rest of the day.  He gave us the option of going at 1:00 p.m. to the hot springs then at 3:00 they would pick us up and take us to the volcano walk and then back to the springs… OR leave at 3:00 to the volcano then to the springs where we would stay for about 4 hours and that included dinner!  Well of course we choose the latter. 

We met some really nice couple at the Cabinas Las Palmas, Henning and Marthe, two Bulgarians backpacking it through Costa Rica for the Holiday.  We had a most enjoyable time with them as they were on our same tour for this part of our trip.  The volcano hike was great.  It was very humid and wet but still very nice.  We hiked down to a waterfall.  Along with way our tour guide explained many things about the nature here and what kinda wild life was in this part of the rain forest.  He also showed us craters where the past eruptions had thrown large parts of earth to the ground thus leaving its mark forever in the ground below. 

As we finished are hike to the waterfall we stopped at the volcano observatory to rest and kicked back to view the Arenal volcano itself hoping to see some lava flow (as it is still active) but nothing… less the moon rising was beautiful.  We then headed to the springs for a long evening of some good food and lots of soaking in hot water!

Once inside the springs we found there was all kinds of unusual pools to try and even some pretty crazy sides.  I went down the 2^nd scariest, it was a long twisted tunnel of pouring water that shoots you out on the other end like a flying rocket!  I then thought that since that was not so hard to try the not so hard one (which was just a slide without the enclosure) that was a mistake!  I was doing fine until the last drop…. It spit you out into the water but what I was not aware of was the force of the entry into the water, I had my arms spread and because of that it when I hit the water, it felt like my arms were being torn off!!!!!!  It still hurts this being the 9^th day!

More soon I am tired and ready to hit the hay!