Winding up

I fractured my tailbone. On a waterslide. Who else would come to Costa Rica and break their tailbone on a waterslide. At least I got a glimpse into the medical care in Costa Rica...which is basically the same as the US, except no waiting and cheaper.
We left Manuel Antonio and came to Jaco, which I like to call the Panama City Beach of Costa Rica. 2 days in, I decided my tailbone was not getting any better, and instead of waiting till I got home, where I wouldn't have health insurance right away, I better just get it checked out here. We went to the clinic in town and I was walking out the door 20 minutes later. We walked in and they took me straight to the xray room. The doctor said I had a small fracture and that there wasn't really anything that could be done for it. He handed me the xrays to take with me and said if the pain got worse or doesn't start to feel any better in a few months to come back. Everything came to the grand total of $50. In the states I'm sure I would have been out $500 and 4 hours of my time. And I would not have gotten to keep the xrays of my ass. While leaving the doctor, we saw the dentist's office. We decided to go in and see how much a teef cleaning would cost. $40 for Don, $40 for me, and $30 for Candler. So we got our teefs polished for $110 with the exact same care we'd get in the US. Yet again for cheaper and less time.
We haven't done anything too exciting in Jaco, just beach, pool, and walking around town. We did go on a hike one day up to an overlook that had a view of the whole town and beach. We went further up the road and found a really cool old abandoned restaurant with an amazing view as well. It was all white with huge Greek colums, and was obviously a very upscale restaurant. It appeared as though it was in the process of being transformed into a hotel.
So we return August 12th, and I think Don will have to drag me onto the plane kicking and screaming. I love it here and am no where near ready to come back. I dread the heat and traffic. Here I have no need for a car or cell phone, and dread the expense of them when I return. I do miss my dogs and friends though, but they can all be brought to Costa Rica. So hop on a plane and someone bring me my dog so I never have to leave.

Manuel Antonio

We left Puerto Viejo and drove across the country to the Pacific coast again. This time our destination was Manuel Antonio. Once through San Jose, the rest of the drive was one of the most scenic through the mountains and with great views (second prettiest drive behind our second trip to Arenal when we got lost in Monteverde). We stopped in a tiny town that I don't even know the name of for a quick bite to eat. Quick so we thought. It was in the middle of nowhere and the people didn't speak english. We ordered just fine, but the waiter I guess just assumed we spoke Spanish and we pieced together what we could. It didn't seem like there was an issue with what we ordered. Candler's food came out 20 minutes later. 40 minutes later, Don and I still had no food. There was a window that we could see into the kitchen and there was one woman in there cooking, so we just assumed that she was working on our food. After about an hour, we realized our waiter was gone (it is not uncommon for a server to just leave. Not as in, I quit, but it's meal time, and they need their meal too. A 10% service fee is automatically included on the bill, so service here is not like service in the states.) and the woman in the kitchen was talking with friends. Finally, we just paid for Candler's food and left.
Once we arrived in Manuel Antonio, we met up with a man named Ron that we were going to rent a condo from. Turns out, Ron lived in Virginia Highlands in Atlanta and decided to move to Costa Rica a year ago. Yet another Atlien we've met here. We wound up renting the condo from him and the top picture on this post was the view from the condo. Manuel Antonio was probably the most beautiful place we've stayed...and the hilliest. The main part of town is set up high, and the road down to the beach is spotted with hotels and restaurants all the way down. The road is long, curvey, and steep. We were on the top of the mountain/cliff, and we had no car. Needless to say we got a ton of exercise in Manuel Antonio. We only took a taxi once because it was a downpour. Our legs were sore everyday, and on top of that we had some killer stairs to go up and down to get to the condo. It was great.
We went to the beach everyday and spent one day in Manuel Antonio park. We hiked most of the park which was mostly rainforest, and went to Manuel Antonio beach in the park. The park actually has several beaches, however it was high tide by the time we got to them and they were inaccessable. We saw several critters that I'd never seen before - most of which I still have no idea what they were. One was a possum/raccoon creature, another looked like a black guinea pig/pig mix thing - it was a little larger than a cat and tailless, and when we exited the park there was a group of titi (squirrel) monkies on the roof of a restaurant next to the park. Titi monkeys live in groups of 15-40, and they weren't shy around humans at all. They were running and playing all around. We actually saw another group of them near our condo the following day on our hike down to the beach. We stopped and watched as they tried to cross a gravel road by jumping from tree to tree and across power lines. A baby was left behind and was too scared to cross the power lines, and it sat nervously in the tree crying. The mom eventually came back and tossed it on her back and made the way across. I can't get enough of all the monkeys here. Love it. Another thing I also loved about Manuel Antonio...the caution road signs...

Puerto Viejo

We spent a week in the southern Caribbean coast in a town called Puerto Viejo, and it felt like a totally different country. It was jungle and beach. Literally the jungle went right up to the beach. The waves were crazy and swimming was only safe in limited areas. The area had an afro caribbean vibe and a whole bunch of back packers. It rained...alot. Oh, and the whole town smelled like marijuana.
Hands down, Puerto Viejo had the best food we've had in Costa Rica. We had two restaurants that were our favorites: Bread & Chocolate and hili Rojo. I don't think it is really necessary to explain why Bread & Chocolate was a favorite...they had bread and well, chocolate, what more could you want. This place was our breakfast/lunch eatery. Great sandwiches and actual real salads. In Costa Rica, people don't really eat vegetables. The normal idea of a salad here is some iceburg lettuce (or shredded cabbage) and a slice or two of a half ripe tomato. We ate our first dinner in Puerto Viejo at Chili Rojo and quickly fell in love - a view of the ocean and probably some of the best thai food I've had. Chili Rojo was good for breakfast and dinner. French toast with nutella, banana pancakes, and fresh fruit with yogurt and granola for breakfast, and thai food for dinner. I'm getting hungry just writing this. The afro caribbean vibe = lots of caribbean food, which = flavor. The typical Costa Rican dish is called a casado. A casado is a meat of your choice (chicken, pork, beef, or fish) with black beans, rice, and one of the not so great salads. While a good bargan (all that food for $3), not much flavor, and they quickly lose their appeal. There isn't much spice to the food, it's pretty bland...I hypothesize that it might be because spices are kind of expensive here. The Caribbean coast, tons of spice! A very welcomed change. Seriously, fatty is hungry now. Moving on....









It rained, and then it rained some more, and then there was a break for yet some more rain, followed by you guessed it...more rain. It didn't seem to slow anyone down, so we didn't let it stop us either...for the most part. We spent one day at the sloth rescue - that I've already written about. One day we drove to a town just north, called Cahuita and walked through the national park there and swam in the ocean. It was about a 7 mile hike through the jungle bordered by the ocean. We saw some sloths, white faced monkeys, and some insanely huge insects. Another day we went for a 16 mile bike ride from Puerto Viejo to a town called Manzanillo. The ride was down the dirt/gravel road connecting the two towns through some more jungley goodness. Other days we went to the beach in Cocles that was considered safe for swimming...mostly. The first day we went, we were quickly stopped by someone that I assume was a lifeguard (there are few places that actually have life guards in Costa Rica. The people that live in Cocles organized to have one on the beach due to the bad rip currents at times.) came up to us and said it was too dangerous to get in the water. When a Costa Rican tells you something is too dangerous...take their word. I haven't gotten the vibe that this is a culture that is too overly concerned with safety, so when they say it's not safe - it's not safe. With that warning, we left the beach, but returned the next day and the beach was marked with red and green flags to signal where it was safe to swim. It is a big surfing area due to the craziness of the ocean.
Despite all the rain, Puerto Viejo was great and is a must if you ever come to Costa Rica.
Oh one more thing, there is a restuarant/hostel place that is absolutely HUGE. We ate lunch there before our bike ride and walked around the place...there is a large area of just hammocks. Like 50 or so, where you can rent just a hammock for the night to sleep in for $5. Or, if you want more privacy, they have tents that you can rent as well for $10. You stay in the tent there, either on the first floor, or they have an upstairs area that are just tents set up for backpackers.

Samara

We were supposed to spend a week in Montezuma, however the condo we were going to rent didn't really work out. We only stayed one night in Montezuma, which was really cool. The town area looked like what I imagine the Swiss family Robinson would have built if they built a town. It was small and compact with lots of vegetation. It sits at the bottom of a steep cliff and is right on the ocean. The condo we wanted to rent wound up being at the top of the cliff and wasn't going to be a good place if we didn't want the cost of the rental car for the week. We wouldn't have even been able to take a taxi from the place, it was in an area that definately would require 4 wheel drive. After our day stay in Montezuma, we then decided to head up to Samara to try to find a place there for a week.
Success. We rented a 2 bedroom for a week from an international massage school. The school was on summer break, and the owner decided to rent the "dorm rooms" out to tourists. The were definately the nicest dorm rooms I've ever seen. They were basically condos and there was a swimming pool as well. Samara was a small little town with an killer beach. The beach was lined with palm trees for shade, the water was great for swimming and beginner surfers, and there were many restaurants right on the beach. It was heaven. We turned the car in and again, just walked everywhere. I took about a 2 hours surf lesson one day and actually got up on the board. Everyday after I attempted to surf, though not as successful as with the instructior there. It's waaaaaay harder than it looks. I'd get really frustrated (and exhausted) fighting the waves to get out. We arrived in Samara at the end of a school break for kids. Kind of like our spring break. The first 2 days in two it was super busy, but on the third day everyone was gone and it seemed like a ghost town from the days before. Many of the restaurants actually closed after that (I guess with it being low season maybe?), so places to eat were quite limited. Our time in Samara was pretty much spent going to the beach and pool, just very relaxed. The town had a good vibe and friendly people.
Three random stories:
1) The place we stayed at had about 6 dogs that lived on the property. One, my absolute favorite, didn't show up until 3 days in. He was some sort of hound mix and was a dark grey color. He followed us everywhere. When we went to the beach, he went to the beach, laid in the shade till we were ready to leave, and followed us home. When we went to dinner, he went with us and laid down next to my chair. Most of the restuarants were open air and we sat outside - dogs are always at restuarnts here and all over the country for that fact, but don't usually beg for food. This dog had originally belonged to a Costa Rican family, and would wonder from his house to the school every few days. The dog had been hit by a car a year before and had a large scar on his right side. Then, 4 months ago, he was hit again, this time by a motorcycle that messed up his back right leg. Apparently he was in a lot of pain and could barely walk. The Costa Rican family basically told the owner of the school that he was always there anyway, and they just couldn't afford to care for him at that point, so they could have him. The school took donations and raised money to have the dog sent to San Jose for an operation to fix his leg. He's all better now, and still wandering the streets.
2) One day after surfing, I was having a drink at a restuarant on the beach and saw a parade. It was a parade of oxen and eleaborately painted ox carts.
3) There were horses here that just kind of roamed the town area. At night they would be on the beach, sometimes in the soccerfield, or just in the middle of the street. They weren't wild horses or anything either.

Arenal Part Deaux

We met up with some of the Atlanta crew in Arenal for a couple of days of fun. The first night, Don, Candler, and I stayed at the Baldi Thermal Hot Springs. We checked in around 8 pm and were told we had until 10pm that night and the next day to use the hot springs. Immediately, we took the bags to the room, threw on our bathing suits, and were in the pools. They had about 24 different hot springs on site - set up like pools basically, but with waterfalls, rocks, and vegetation. Each pool was a different temperature. The temperatures ranged from 80-something, up to 153 degrees. 153 degrees? Really? Oh course, by the end of the night we had to check out the 153 degree one. A couple was talking to us, asking if we had been to it yet, we said no, and the guy said he could only get one foot in. He told us where it was, and they followed us to the pool. They wanted to see our reactions to the heat. Yeah, one foot, that's all Don and I could get. Candler, on the other hand decided it would be a good idea to jump in. Oh yeah, screaming commenced. Now, the pool for this one wasn't very deep, I'd say mid calf maybe. Well, Candler wasn't paying any attention to the conversation around him and Don even looked at him standing on the side of the pool, and said, "Be careful Candler, you don't want to get in this one." As the words were coming out of Don's mouth, he was already mid jump. As soon as he hit the water he screamed and jumpped out. All of us just stood there, mouths gaping open. After Candler's scalding bath, Don and I went to one of the pools with a swim up bar and got a banana daquiri while chillaxing in the warm goodness. At 10, we headed back to our room, where I lounged in the hotel white bathrobe and slippers in the huge, cushy bed. I've never actually stayed at a hotel that gives you a bath robe and slippers! Hot springs followed up with bathrobe and slippers. Double awesomeness. The next day, we woke up early to get in more hotspring action. We discovered that the place had 3 huge waterslides. One was underconstruction, so really just two. Candler was super excited by the waterslides, but soon realized they were way too big and fast for him. He stood at the top several times, thinking about going down, but never did. Michael and Alley met up with us mid morning and joined us on the waterslides. They were insanely fast, and I'm sure it is only a matter of time before someone is knocked unconscious or dies. Michael and I both knocked our heads, and I'm pretty sure that's where I got my bruised tail bone from. Yeah, bruised tail bone. It wasn't hurting prewater slide, but now when I sit and shift positions or stand up, I have pain in my tailbone.
I forgot to mention that when Michael and Alley met up with us at the hot springs, they did not pay the entry fee. Also, the rest of the group dropped their luggage (Alley and Michael's) off at the front reception desk of the hot springs. They had checked out of their hotel, but it wasn't check in yet at the next hotel, and the rest of the group were doing other activities. So when we go to leave the hot springs, they go to retrieve the luggage, at which point the staff realizes Michael and Alley have not paid the entry fee. They'd really only been there about 2 hours, but the staff said they had to pay $40 to get the luggage. Michael said he didn't have that much money, so they wound up having to pay $20 to get their luggage.
From there, we grabbed lunch and then checked in at our next hotel, Hotel Linda Vista. The hotel overlooked lake Arenal and had an excellent view of the volcano. That night we were actually able to see some lava coming out of the volcano - so cool. The next day, we all woke up at 6 am for rafting. It was an hour and a half drive to the river - which did not farewell for my bruised tailbone issues. Once there, it seemed like we waited another hour and a half for the rafting company to finally get us in the rafts. Costa Ricans do not seem to care about time and never hurry to get anything done. Once we were finally all loaded up in the raft, we started out down a mild rapid. Candler was not having any of it. He screamed. And he screamed. And then he squealed. And then, more screaming. At the end of the first rapid, we stopped our raft for what seemed like 30 minutes. Apparently there was a raft 5 girls and one man behind us. Several of the women were not in prime physical condition (read: very overweight). I guess going down the first rapid looked like that raft wasn't going to fare too well down the rest of the river, as one girl already had a blood nose - I assume from taking someone's ore to the face. So, several rafts had to stop and they split the group up. We got one of the larger ladies. So in our pictures you will notice some random chick in the back of the raft. The lady was initially behind me and I wanted to smack her with my ore, as she could not keep a rhythm to paddle. She kept smacking my ore with hers. Eventually the guide moved Candler behind me and the dumbass behind Angelyn. So Candler screamed and cried the first half of the trip. So much so, that it became funny to listen to he was pitching such a fit. You will have to ask for an immitaion of his crying, because at certain points he was sticking his tounge out and almost gagging while crying. We stopped at one point where there was a rope swing into the river. Pretty much everyone, well not Candler, went off the rope swing several times. Halfway through, we stopped to have fruit by the river and there was a ledge over the river that we jumped off of. It took me forever to jump. I'm not sure why it took me so long, since I quickly jumpped off the waterfall in Rincon that was higher. After the fruit and water jumps, we got back in the raft and Candler magically decided it wasn't so bad and started having fun. By the time it was over, he wanted to keep going. After that, it was time for lunch and the hour and a half drive back to Arenal (La Fortuna).

Sloth Rescue

Yesterday we went to a sloth rescue, Aviarios del Caribe. Amazing, and I'm so jealous that I didn't come up with the idea. The woman that started the rescue had a bed and breakfast, and was known around the area as the animal lady. Some locals found an injured sloth and took it to her, and she nursed it back to health. From there on she took in injured and abused sloths, as well as orphaned baby sloths. We started the tour viewing the baby sloths - which we could not touch. God, I want one so bad. We saw the babies again at the end of the tour outside in the grass getting their "exercise", and one was just laying there, splaid out crying like a human baby. From there we went on a 45 minute canoe ride through the jungle to spot sloths in the wild. As about 30 seconds after leaving the dock there was one hanging on a tree just above the canoe. All the pictures by the way have been uploaded to my costa rica photo album. We spotted either two or three on the canoe ride, along with other creatures - including the Jesus Christ lizard that only Don saw. Also during the canoe tour our guide got out of the boat with a knife and ran off into the jungle. He came back with some flowers for me. Flowers and sloths, what more could a girl ask for? Once done with the canoe tour, we got to man handle some adult sloths! We basically just got to go into their cages and pet them - though all I wanted to do was grab one and run - but it was still freakin' awesome. The first sloth we visited was named Millie, and was by far the coolest. She had a hanging basket chair thing in her area that she sat on and as Don says, looked like Buddah meditating. She stuck her tounge out and yawned alot. When we rubbed her belly she just leaned back and shut her eyes. The next sloth was named Toyota. Toyota was brought to the rescue because he climbed on some power lines and was electrocuted. His arm had to be amputated and to everyone's surpise he recovered very quickly - thus the name Toyota because they take a beating and keep on going. Finally we got to see a pair that stayed together. Normally, sloths are solitary animals, but these two were raised as babies together at the rescue and had bonded. They let the babies stay together since they don't get to bond with a mother. The sloths that are raised there as babies are never released into the wild, as they do not have the skills to survive. Since they won't be released into the wild, the staff didn't really see a reason to separate the two adults that grew up together. It was explained to us that even though they aren't brother and sister, since they were raised together they view themselves as brother and sister, and would never mate with each other because of that. Candler and I fed the two carrots, and the female sucked on her fingers like a kid sucking its thumb. A few fun facts that I learned about sloths that I did not know - they do not drink water (they get their water from their diet), they come out of the tree once a week only to poop, the are xenarthrans (meaning their body temperature is dependant on their surroundings) and are related to the anteater as well. Some baby sloth video (not taken by me, but from the sanctuary):

Rincon de la Vieja

We took a day trip another volcano, Rincon de la Vieja, about 30 minutes from Liberia. All and all, it was just over an hour drive for us, which would have been less, if the road leading to the park would have been paved. It was about a 30 minute drive down a gravel/dirt road. We had just planned on staying the night in a hotel near the volcano, because we expected it to be a longer drive.
First, we drove to Buena Vista Lodge and Adventure Center. This is where we had originally planned on staying the night, and they had a long waterslide that Candler wanted to try out.
Well, we drive up and the place is huge...and empty. Creepily empty. At this point we are still planning on staying the night though. I ask if we can go on and get a room since we didn't want to leave our bags in the car, but they told us no. No? I knew they were empty, but they would not let us check in early. We were a bit hungry, and decided to get breakfast before we did anything, so we headed to the restaurant. No breakfast, due to it being low season. I get a can of diet coke, Alberto and Don both get a cheap beer, and Candler gets a Fanta. A guy starts to tell us about their combo deal, where we can do a canopy tour, horseback riding, the waterslide, and some other stuff. He says to ask at the front desk for the prices. We finish our drinks and go to pay. When we pay, we realize Don and Alberto's cans of beer were both $5. What the hell? This place is so out. We are going to leave and ask for directions to another hotel I had looke at online. While getting directions, the guy that was telling us about the combo ticket comes up. He asks if I got prices yet on the combo ticket with them, and I said no. He pointed to a woman that was sitting next to the lady giving me directions, and said she will give you prices if you want. Do you want the prices? I said sure. Silence. More uncomfortable silence. Ok....how much is the combo ticket I ask? She gives me a price, and I say thanks and just walk away. That place was so creepy.
We decide to leave, and drive to another hotel, Hacienda Guachipelin, which is no where near the first. It's on the other side of the volcano and down yet another gravel road. While leaving the first hotel, turn a corner and there are 2 men on horses herding cattle down the street. Once we arrive at Hacienda Guachipelin, we see that they are actually busy and get a little better feeling...but that will be short lived. We are still thinking about staying for the night - so we can do their combo ticket deal and then wake up in the morning and hike. I ask how much for a room, and it's $100...more than we really wanted to spend, but still we are considering it. I then ask about the adventure tours, and they send me down to another building. Once there, the guys don't really know why I've been sent down to their building, because I am to buy the tickets from a woman that was in the reception area. I go back to the reception area and ask for the lady they've told me to buy the tickets from. The people at the reception desk look at me blankly. I send Alberto over since he speaks spanish. They tell him the lady is on the phone and will be out shortly. 15 minutes later, the woman is off the phone, and talking with some other woman with a large breif case. 20 minutes after that, we finally get to buy the tickets. We had already done a canopy tour, so we decided to do a horseback ride to the falls, lunch, tubing down some rapids, and then to the thermal springs spa. We have to leave immediately for horseback riding, if we want to be back in time for tubing. The horseback ride was good, everyone stayed on the horse, but when we came to a stop at the waterfall, Candler's horse decides to rub up against a tree, and Candler starts crying. We quickly get him off the horse and walk to the falls. There were some people already there, and a few of them were jumping off into the pool below. Don of course runs over to do it, and I think I might actually give it a go. I walk to the top and immediately think it is higher than it looked from where I had previously been standing. I make Don go first, so I know where to jump, and because I was getting ready to chicken out. I stood there for about 30 seconds looking down, and knew if I stood there any longer there was no way I was going to do this, and just went for it.
We didn't have long at the falls since we had to get back to leave for tubing. Once we arrived back from the falls, we were told to head to lunch (we still had not eatten anything at this point and my arm was starting to look tasty). Only problem, no one told us where to go. After wandering aimlessly and hungry, we stumble upon the feeding trough - and realize we have 15 minutes to stuff our gulletts. We shoveled our food and I go to find out where we are to go for tubing. When I asked the woman that sold us the tickets, where we were to go, she looked at me as though I told her was fat and smelly - a "how dare you ask me questions" look. She said we had 30 more minutes and were to meet back with her - glad she originally told us we had to be ready to go at 1:30, but changed it to 2. Hooker. I go back and tell the boys we have 30 more minutes, and we enjoy some coconut flan before our tubing adventures.
After some dilectable flan, we board a big yellow school bus that amazingly drives through the jungle to the drop off point for tubing. The drive through the jungle in a school bus felt like the beginning of a horror film. Tubing was awesome! We went down class III rapids in a tube - with helments and life jackets of course. Berto fell in three times, the first time when he was trying to get into the tube, and I fell out once. It was about an hour ride, with the last rapid being a 3-4 foot drop.
After the tubing...heaven. Mudbath and hot springs. Actually, first we went back to the hotel reception to ask my favorite lady where to go next and if we needed a change of clothes for the spa. She said no change of clothes. Yet again, hooker lied. We get to the spa, change into our bathing suits, and sit in a sauna for about 20 minutes...to open the pores for the mud bath. Well, the mud bath, really was like mud painting. Not quite what I had envisioned, but still, I got to play in the volcanic mud. We went to the "mud painting" area, and there were two large rock columns that had a hollowed out bowl shape in the top, filled with volcanic mud. In the mud were large paint brushes, so we basically got to have a mud fight. Once we were all grey head to toe, we let the mud dry and then made our way to the hot springs. The hot springs fed into the bottom of a large jacuzzi, and you just hopped in with the mud still on. The jacuzzi looked like a pool of chocolate milk, warm chocolate milk. We chillaxed in the hot tub/hot springs for about 30 minutes, and realized the fury we felt earlier with the customer service, or lack there of, had faded. When our time was up, we went back to dry off, realized we DID need a change of clothes - but oh well, we were so relaxed we didn't care - and we hopped in the truck back to the hotel wet. We decided very early on that the last thing we wanted to do was stay at the disorganized trainwreck of a hotel, so when we got back, we quickly got into dry clothes and high tailed it out of there. The drive back was so peaceful and relaxing after the spa. I think there were sedatives in the water that seeped into my pores. So all and all, if you ever make it to Rincon de la Vieja, the tubing and spa at Hacienda Gauchipelin is a must - but be prepared for the chaos and disorganization of the staff.

When animals attack

We were down at the beach one day when the dog pictured above ran out to Candler in the ocean and started playing with him.
Sidenote - There are dogs everywhere here - I'm surprised I haven't seen one smooshed in the road yet. Ticos do not keep their dogs in the house, so they just kind of run around and will follow you down the beach. All the ones we have encountered have been really friendly.
Sidenote #2 - The animals here very lean compared with animals in the US. Cows, cats, dogs, horses, everything is just leaner.
On with the story...so this dog starts playing with Candler on the beach, and when it is time to leave, he follows us. Eventually we start getting closer and closer to a pelican that was just standing on the beach, watching to catch fish. The dog sees the pelican and runs up to it. To my surprise it doesn't fly away, it just stands there. The dog stops about 5 feet from the pelican and slowly inches his way closer. The pelican just watches the dog. Then all of the sudden, the pelican starts charging the dog with its beak flapping. This goes on for a few seconds, just long enough for me to get a shot with my camera. Candler and I are standing about 10 feet from the dog on pelican brawl when the pelican has decided he's had enough of our heckling and runs after Candler and I. We both run. I run off barefoot over the hot sand, in turn burning the bottoms of my feet in the process. So, apparently pelicans are mean. Who knew?

While on the subject of Costa Rican animals...the squirrels here look different than the ones back home. I wanted to get a picture of this, and one day walking into town I saw one not too far away in a tree. I took several pictures, and decided to see if I could get closer for a better pic. This squirrel would not move. When I got this close, I started to get kind of scared because it just sat there looking at me, like it was daring me to come one step closer. I really think it wanted to gnaw my face off. Don told me not to get any closer because it looked like it was ready to pounce on me, so I backed off.

Also, today on the way back from the beach we came across a bunch of howler monkeys in a tree. I never seem to have my camera when we find howler monkeys. Howler monkeys are maybe 2x the size of a house cat. To me, they sound like King Kong when they "howl". The first time I heard it when we were zip lining, I couldn't believe that the sound I was hearing was coming from something that small. The howler monkeys here are all black, except the males have white balls. Apparently this way the spermies stay at a cooler temperature. I can't help but giggle everytime I see them. So, Candler and I stop to look at the monkeys for a bit. One starts to poop. Then he pees. The pee is closer to us. Another one moves down the tree closer to us and relieves itself as well. We take this as our sign to leave before we get rained upon by monkey feces. I found this pic on the web, if you look, you can see that this is a male .

Don's Costa Rican run in with the law

This picture was taken with our first run in with these policia on June 24th. Don's mom came to visit for a week, and she was flying into San Jose. San Jose is not exactly close to where we are staying, the Liberia airport is much, much closer, but we had no idea what area we would be in when she booked her flight. San Jose is central and cheaper to fly into so that was the best option at the time. The shuttle she was trying to arrange from the San Jose airport to us didn't work out, so we drove the 4.5 hours to San Jose to pick her up. We rented a car to go pick her up, and about 45 minutes or so into the drive I asked Don if he had grabbed the copies of the passports. You don't really have to carry your passport on you, as long as you have a photocopy with the stamp that you've entered the country, you are pretty much ok. Of course as soon as I asked the question I had jinxed us, because the answer was no. 30 minutes later, we are flagged down by the fine men in the picture above. One walks into the center of the road and motions for us to pull over. Shit. The first cop asked for our passport and Don said no passport. He didn't speak much, if any english. He kept repeating passporta, passporta, driver's license? Don just kept shaking his head no. Cop number one then goes to get cop number 2 that speaks english. Cop number 2 asks for passport or driver's license, and we explain that we rushed leaving and left all id (other than a credit card) in our hotel, and we were on our way to San Jose to pick up Don's mom from the airport. He shakes his head and asks where we are from and we tell him the US. He asks again for identification and we explain again that we simply forgot it. He says, "no good, this no good." He then explains that we were speeding and shows us the radar gun that says 96, and the speed limit is 60 kph. Oh and he points out that Don is not wearing his seat belt, which is also illegal. And we don't have any identification on us. "No good, no good. Very big ticket. Like $150, and I hold car.", he explains to us. He stands there shaking his head and eventaully all of us are kind of chuckling at the situation. Candler is asleep in the back seat during all of this by the way. I start digging through the glove box, hoping to find the paperwork from us renting the car as some sort of proof of who we are and thinking they might have a passport # on the paperwork. Eureka! However, no passport # and it says we are from Afghanistan. The cop takes Don out of the car and talks to him on the otherside of the road while looking over the car rental paperwork. I remind Don on his way out of the car that offering me as collateral is not in his best interst. After about 3 minutes, Don gets back in the car. What happened? Are they going to hold the car? The cops told us we could go on, but if we were pulled over by any other cops we were to play stupid and this whole thing never happened. The cop did point out that the paperwork said Afghanistan and basically laughed at that. They didn't want to have to deal with our situation, so they told us to go on.
In the beginning of this story I said the picture was of our first encounter with these cops, because on the way back they stopped us again. Same thing, we were going 96kph. Only this time we know for a fact we were not, because we knew to expect the cops to still be there. The cops come over and start to laugh, and say Mr. Clark, Mr. Clark, speeding again. Passport? They laugh again, and we say still at the hotel. They look at Don's mom and say, this is your mom, right? Don's mom is fumbling for her passport and says that she has hers. The cop then says, very big ticket, $14 and we take care of it. $14?!?!? Where the hell did $14 come from? Don's mom then pulls out a $20 and I tell her to hide that because they are just wanting a bribe, and she will not be recieving any change back. Not wanting to deal with any more, we go on and pay $15. We hand the cop $15, and he says $14, counts it, smiles, realizing we gave him $1 more and then signals for us to go on. As we pull away, Don's mom asks if we know these guys and we explain the whole story. We all just laugh at the ridiculousness.
Basically they stand on the side of the road with the radar gun set to 96kmp and pull over the white people. They say they are speeding and will offer a cash bribe on the spot to not write a ticket. First time around, we said we only had a credit card, so we couldn't exactly give them cash. If they wanted to hold the car, and take us into a station for not having our passports on us, they would have to leave and not collect any bribe money for the day. On the way back, we had Don's mom in the car, so she probably had cash and would pay. I figure the $14 came from them wanting to make a certain amount for the day and it was almost 5pm, so they were $14 short of their goal.
We've talked with several Americans or Canadians that have said if you just let them write a ticket, a) it is usally cheaper than the bribe and b) they usually just rip it up after you drive off because it is more paperwork for them to write a ticket to a non-cititizen. If we would have had our passports we would have just taken a ticket, but since we didn't want to chance it we paid the $14 bribe. Goodtimes with the law.
On a side note, there is a drug den next door to one of the bars we hang out at. Every few days or so, the cops will pull up to it for a couple of minutes, go in, and then leave. Bascially being paid to look the other way. That's pretty much the way cops work here, if they are paid, they will look the other way. Being a cop here doesn't pay that great in relation to the job, so taking bribes or working after hours as a security officer is how they make money. DUIs here are pretty much a joke, if you actually are written a ticket, it's like $50 and they don't do anything further. That's probably the reason I have heard Costa Rica is #3 in the world for alcohol realated deaths. per capita. *though I'm not sure if that is an accurate statistic or not, I've tried to find info to back that up, but havent' come up with anything yet.

El Coco

We have been in a town called El Coco for the past month. It is a decent sized fishing town on the Northern Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The beach here kinda sucks, it's dirty. Although, apparently it was just awarded the blue ecological flag (which means it's a nice, clean beach). I have no idea who paid off what official for that to be awarded, because it's definately not worthy. The north end of the beach is decent for swimming, but towards the town center and south it's icky. I have more pictures of our tip posted here. Coco is convenient in that there are two supermarkets now (one when we first got here, but a new one just opened a week ago), a bank, plenty of bars and restaurants, and we can walk pretty much walk where ever we need to go. Hermosa beach is a $10 cab ride north and Ocotal beach is a $6 cab ride south of us, both of which are nice beaches.
We are staying in a large condo complex about 1 km from the main part of town. We were originally looking at a 2 story 2 bedroom condo, but the leasing company that condo was through was pretty frustrating. We met with a woman from I & M Realty at 9am the morning we got into Coco. The condo we looked at was owned by a man in NY , and this company was handling the rental of it. We liked the condo and when we went back to the office to attempt to rent it, the office power was out. The woman in charge said she had to get in contact with the owner of the condo before she could rent it to us, but since the power was out she could not call or email him. We asked how long she expected it to be out and she said that it would be after 3pm, so it'd be best to just come back tomorrow. This was frustrating because they were the only place in the area with the power out (we later found out it was disconect day for those that hadn't paid their electric bill, so that's why the leasing office's power was out). We were able to contact the owner of the condo by going directly next door to the internet cafe (where you could also make an international call), but she wouldn't even make the effort to attempt contacting the owner that way. Not wanting to pay another night in a hotel and move our stuff again, we went to several other rental companies in the area and found another 2 bedroom condo in the same complex for the same price. Finally, settled in one place of a month.
Honestly, the first week I was in CR I felt pretty stressed out. Things were more expensive than we had expected and I was trying to find affordable places with internet access everywhere we went. I was also kind of disturbed by the extreme lifestyle difference between the ticos and tourists. The tico houses were very shack like, and then next door you'd have a multimillion dollar condo complex or house (often with high walls with barbed wire). Below are your typical tico houses:
The first 2 weeks Don and I were thinking that we couldn't see ourselves moving here - it just didn't seem worth it worth it with costs similar to the US and having fewer conveniences. You have to drive to a fairly decent sized city for a hospital, to buy clothes or household items, and throughout the country there are rolling black outs. Where we are at there is a water sharing system, so the water will be shut off for hours at a time, and they are working on upgrading the electricity system, so that goes out too quite often.
Now, however, we are kind of just going with the flow and are reconsidering the idea of being down here. There seem to be more personal freedoms here, people are more laid back, and not driving 2 hours a day for work is pretty good. The weather is awesome. We are further south than Atlanta, yet its cooler and not as humid. Definately not sad to be missing out on the Atlanta summer heat. The rain isn't as bad as I expected for it being rainy season - although it is still the beginning of rainy season. The mornings are awesome and sunny, and you might get some rain midafternoon, though not every day. The rain is starting to pick up though, and seems to be heavier thunderstorms than when we first got here. One thing I do greatly miss about America though...EMISSIONS TESTING. Apparently they do have that here, but so many cars have been grandfathered in that I can't tell that they do. We drove to San Jose to pick Don's mom up from the airport and both Don and I had a raging headache from all the black smoke from the buses and clunker cars. Dust in Coco is just as bad as the smoke from cars also. The coastal areas are being so built up, and there is constant construction, which even though it's rainy season, there is constant dust (unless it just literally rained), oh and add in the exhaust from construction trucks. Black lung. Blech.

Potrero

After our canopy tour, we headed to the volcano hotel, packed up and drove for 4 hours to Potrero beach. We pulled up to hotel Isolina to see if they had a room for the night. They did, so we checked it out before paying and negotiated a cash discount for our two day stay. We were literally the only guests at the hotel and practically had the beach to ourselves since it's low season. The beach was pretty nice and had good swimming. This was the first time I've ever been in the Pacific and I was shocked at the undertow. Way more than the Atlantic or Gulf that I've been accustomed to. It wasn't so bad that Candler couldn't swim or anything, just stronger than I expected. Potrero was a quite town with not much there.
We had an awesome lunch at this local hole in the wall (the best meals we've had here are at the hole in the walls). We had asked the woman in the hotel office for a good place to eat, and she suggested many "Americanized" resturants, we said that sounded great and all, but we wanted to go where the locals eat. She told us about this good soda (sodas here are places where you grab small, cheap eats) not too far from the hotel, but warned us getting there seemed kinda dubious since it was down a dirt road, that looked more like a walking path, through a mini trailer park. That's definately where we wanted to go. I had fresh fish with rice and beans and a salad right on the beach. It was amazing, and cost like $4.
One day we went to the next town south of Potrero, Flamingo, because Alberto needed to go to a bank - there wasn't one in Potrero. Flamingo was really nice. Expensive houses, beautiful beach, windy roads up cliffs with awesome ocean views. If we had $3000 a month to spend on a mansion, it would have worked out great! This picture was taken from one of the cliffs we drove up to in Flamingo.
We originally went to Potrero because there was a house I had found on craigslist that we were thinking about renting for a month. The house was nice and had a pool (that we would have to keep up - I know nothing about pool maintenance), but as far as everyday convenience, being in Potrero for a month didn't seem like the best idea. We'd need a car and little was within walking distance as far as shopping. Rentals in Costa Rica in a beach town proved more expensive than we expected. I found another affordable ($750/month for a 2 bedroom) place on craigslist that was in a town 45 minutes north of Potrero. We packed up the car and off we went down a road called monkey trail. Monkey trail was not advised during raininy season in the Costa Rica travel book I was using for directions and hotel recommendations. Well, we were in the beginning of rainy season so I thought, no biggie, we have a 4x4 and the roads we've been down haven't been that bad. Monkey Trail was definately the worst road we've been down now in Costa Rica. Though, it was passable. It reminded me of when we went off roading with our dad when we were kids. Very bumpy, muddy, and I think we crossed 3 large creeks, and I'd advise on not traveling on it with a full stomach. Picture to the right is monkey trail.

Brief visit to Arenal

On day 4 we left San Jose and rented a car to drive to the Pacific coast. We decided to drive through Arenal and stay for a night to check out the volcano and do a canopy tour. Renting a car here can get quite expensive due to the required insurance each day. The insurance cost per day can often be more than the car rental itself. I think we had to pay $20/day just for insurance, and the 4x4 we were originally going to rent was $16/day. When Don got to the rental company he decided the 4x4 I picked out online was not large enough for 4 people and the luggage. Thank god he made that call, because the next size up(Daihatsu Terios) just barely fit everything. Alberto was hit in the head several times with the suit cases. The roads definately were not as bad as I had read about, there was the occasional pothole, but nothing the size of a car. The road to Arenal was really curvey and definately sucked to get stuck behind a slow moving vehicle. You didn't want to go around the car/truck since you didn't know if someone would be coming around the curve on the opposite side of the road, so you would be stuck behind it for 30 minutes until the road straightened out enough to pass. Often it was a slow truck with lots of exhaust that we were stuck behind.
It was about a 4 hour drive from San Jose to Arenal. Actually, we stayed in the town of La Fortuna. La Fortuna had a park and church in the the middle of town (which is common for most towns in CR) with plenty of restaurants, bars, and shopping. I had picked out two hotels to possibly stay at, but neither worked out. The first hotel did not have internet and the second hotel had no vacancies. Since it is green season (low season), we only made a hotel reservation for our stay in San Jose. It's pretty easy to just drive up to a hotel and get a room for the night in low season, and at many places you can get a discount when paying for the room in cash - they basically take off the 13% sales tax. Arenal was the only place so far that we've had an issue with just driving up and hoping to get a hotel room. It's the busiest tourist spot in Costa Rica. We finally found a hotel within walking distance to restaurants for the price we wanted. The hotel was called El Volcan, and it felt like we were actually staying IN the volcano. There were no windows (well there was one tiny window in the bathroom), and the AC was broken. Sweating bullets. We had already paid for the room and didn't want to bother driving around anymore, so we decided to just tough it out, it was only for one night. The hotel did have a view of the volcano, however since it is rainy season the volcano was covered by clouds, so we couldn't see any lava flow at night. The picture above is from our hotel the next morning. After unloading the car, we ventured out for the night in La Fortuna. We had dinner and drinks a the Lava Lounge and went into a few touristy shops. We came across several shops where people were selling packages for hot springs, canopy tours, ect. and bought a package for a canopy tour with Ecoglide the next day. Since we were to be picked up at 8 am the next morning for our canopy tour, we went back to the inferno to attempt to sleep. I say attempt because it was virtually impossible to sleep in the furnace that was our room.
After an attempted night's sleep we were up at 7:30AM to wait for a van to pick us up at 8 to go on our canopy tour. As we were waiting in the volcano hotel's parking lot for our shuttle, we noticed this sweet black van that said "A-Team". Turns out, this guy was a huge fan of the tv show, and actually purchased this from the set once the show was over. Hells yes. Anyway, our shuttle finally arrives and we go on our canopy tour. The canopy tour was awesome, and though I'm scared of heights this didn't bother me at all. It was a zip line through the jungle high in the air from tree to tree. We saw some howler monkeys and toucans along with awesome views of the Arenal area. The highlight of the tour was the "Tarzan Swing". Basically you sit in this harness and there is a rope attached. It's suppose to be like swinging from a vine. So you get in this contraption on a platform that has a gate. Once they have you hooked in, they open the gate and you are supposed to just step off. I didn't really pay much attention to how high up we were before I was strapped in...well they opened the gate and instructed me to step forward. I looked down, um, no thank you, I'm good where I'm at. This is when I started to panic. The heart began racing, got an ill feeling in my stomach and I started to protest that I didn't want to do this. As I tried to force myself further back on the platform, I fell off. Below is the video...the cackling you hear in the background is Candler, who was too scared to go, but took pleasure at laughing at me.

San Jose

We stayed our first 3 nights in Costa Rica in San Jose. San Jose had great weather - it was about 75 degrees each day, much better than the 90 + in Atlanta over the summer. There was an occasional shower or two in the afternoon. Usually light, but one day there was quite a downpour for about 3 hours. So, our first 3 days we stayed at a cute bed and breakfast called Casa 69. Yes, Casa 69 was really the name of it. The prices were good, the rooms were clean, and the staff was great. If you are coming to see us and you need to stay a night in San Jose, I highly recommend there. San Jose though as a whole, I did not like. It was dirty. I've never been to Detroit, nor do I ever plan on visiting, but I envision San Jose being a tropical Detroit. I felt like my lungs were black after the first day from all the exhaust. I don't really have too much to say about San Jose, other than the veiw from atop our hotel was of mountains and that's where I wanted to be.
We were going to rent a car from an ex mechanic from the states, but things started getting kind of sketchy so we bailed on that idea. We figure we will just rent a car when we need one and take taxis if we can't walk somewhere. The driving here is pretty crazy. Riding in the taxis in San Jose was kind of like a roller coaster. I never felt unsafe, but it was definately crazy and I was glad I wasn't the one driving. If you don't know where you are going and are driving in San Jose, good luck. The potholes were not as bad as I had expected, but lanes...what lanes? You make your own. Merging? As long as it's not a bus, you force your way over- eventually one of you will have to give, so just assume it will be the other person and keep going. Oh and if you are driving, the pedestrians will stop for you. Crossing a street on foot? Run. Also if you are behind the wheel please note that it is required to use your horn at least once every 3 minutes, not I say at least once...more is strongly encouraged.

Finally blogging

Ok, so I will finally start my Costa Rica travel blog. Don and I have had some computer issues since we have been here. Apparently my computer's wireless card is allergic to Costa Rica internet, I think it's got a VD. Don's sound card decided to die, which meant our phone # didn't work. I was confined to stealing Don's computer for internet when he wasn't doing work or better yet, an internet cafe where the computers were loaded with spyware. We are now settled at a condo in El Coco, and my computer has decided to start working again. So all systems are a go and you can now call us - if you email me, I'll send you the number.
With my excuses out of the way...

Where we've been...