Beach Bummin'

Warning: if you are currently a) stuck in an office somewhere, bored out of your mind and wishing you were relaxing on a beach somewhere, b) living in a place where cooler temperatures/early snow are depressing you and making you wish you were relaxing on a beach somewhere or c) both of the above, you may not want to read any further. That said...

I am currently in Puerto Viejo, on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. Today's weather is about 80 degrees and sunny with a light breeze, and while I'm not actually relaxing on the beach at this very moment, I am relaxing on the shaded patio with a frozen tropical drink, taking in a gorgeous view of the beach and listening to the waves lapping the sand. Life is good. My original travel plans for CR had not included Puerto Viejo, but after several reports that the Osa Peninsula has recently been drenched in rain causing road closures, knee-deep mud on walking trails and the temporary shutdown of Corcovado National Park, I decided that I could be flexible and detour North, saving the Osa for a future visit to CR. And while the Caribbean coast can be a little iffy in terms of weather at this time of year, my 4 days here have been marked by glorious weather. Sigh.

I'm getting ahead of myself, though. I last posted from the Rio San Juan, on my last night in Nica, and was anticipating a big day of travel including two boat rides, a border crossing and a 5-hour bus ride. I'm happy to report that I made all of my connections and got to San Jose, despite a rather inauspicious start to the day. I had asked the staff at the hotel in El Castillo to provide a 5 a.m. wake-up call so that I could catch the 5:30 a.m. express boat to San Carlos; however, the wake-up call was delivered at 5:28 a.m. and I was still frantically tossing belongings into my backpack when I glanced out the window to see the boat pulling out of the dock. To be certain that that was indeed my boat and possibly in a dramatic effort to make a point, I ran down the stairs and hurriedly asked the woman at the desk if the express boat had just left, to which she replied with a flat 'yes'. When I then tried to explain in Spanish that I had requested a 5 a.m. wake-up call that had arrived 28 minutes late, thus causing me to miss my boat, I was greeted with a blank stare, at which point I decided to cut my losses and simply turn around and walk back upstairs to properly pack. I fumed about the incident for the next couple of hours, but ultimately I still arrived in San Carlos (barely) in time to catch the boat across the border, although my status as the absolute last passenger to board the boat guaranteed that I spent the ride perched on the corner of a bench with someone's knees resting on my back.

Despite my positioning, the boat ride down the Rio Frio was pleasant enough and took only about an hour. When we crossed over from Nica to CR, the Nicaraguan flag was taken down and replaced with that of Costa Rica. Entering Costa Rica was a breeze and involved only a brief bag search and a bit of paperwork, although the town of Los Chiles leaves much to be desired. Having arrived with about 3 hours to spare before my bus to San Jose, I took the opportunity to explore the town and quickly realized that I had way too much time on my hands. Roughly 3 blocks by 4 blocks, the town consists of a small park, a couple of hotels, a few tiendas and supermarkets, and the bus stop. I was doubly glad that I had not missed the boat from San Carlos, as a night in Los Chiles would have been a joyless endeavor, I feel certain. I did enjoy some yummy empanadas at the little soda next to the bus station, and although I was horrified minutes later when I went to use the facilities and found them to be the most disgusting I had encountered in years, it appears that I escaped without contracting giardia (knock on wood).

The bus ride to San Jose was uneventful and I easily caught a taxi to my hotel, where I enjoyed what felt like the most luxurious, decadent experience I had had in weeks: a hot shower. I would almost recommend that you forgo a hot shower for a week or two so that, upon having one, you can experience the feeling of utter bliss that I experienced in that moment. Que rico! The next morning, I chilled in San Jose for a bit before catching a bus to Monteverde, despite some a**hole taxi driver's efforts to convince me that I had missed the last bus of the day. Honestly, I'm not sure what his intentions were - did he think I would pay him a fortune to drive me 4 hours north? - but it's a moot point, anyway. The bus ride was smooth except for the last hour or so where we climbed a bumpy road at a snail's pace, and I made it to my hotel without incident.

The next morning, I headed out for some ziplining! Zipping above the treeline was a blast and I even tried the 'Tarzan Swing' at the end, which involved jumping off a platform and swinging freely from the harness, although the guides did have to give me a little push off the platform at the last minute. I also met a new friend thru ziplining who turned out to be my travel companion for the next 2 days, a woman from Colorado named Allison. We went out to a terrific dinner that night including mojitos and seafood chimichangas and then hiked to a gorgeous waterfall the next day. Also, it turned out that we both needed to pass through San Jose on Sunday, so we traveled from Monteverde together and spent an afternoon together in the city. We both commented on how glad we were for the company because San Jose, while not known for having a lot to offer the tourist crowd on a regular day, is absolutely dead on Sunday! We were actually hard pressed to find an open restaurant where we could enjoy a nice dinner. We ultimately found a place that served great food although we felt a little underdressed in jeans and casual tops in a restaurant where the servers were wearing suits and the server:customer ratio appeared to be about 2:1.

As a general observation, I'll say that Costa Rica lived up to a lot of the expectations that I had based on conversations with travelers I met in Nica. It's beautiful, expensive and lots of people speak English. On the one hand, I'm enjoying the access to more amenities and the fact that businesses (e.g. hotels, restaurants, outfitters) seem much more attuned to the needs/desires of tourists, but I also find myself falling back on English, which I had hoped to avoid. Hopefully, I'll be able to pick up again quickly once I get to Panama.

For Monday, I had made arrangements to go whitewater rafting while en route from San Jose to Puerto Viejo. A local tour outfitter offers an outing where they will pick you up at your hotel in San Jose, take you to the Pacuare River to raft, and then deliver you to your hotel in Puerto Viejo. Surprisingly enough, having grown up in Maine, I had never been whitewater rafting before this. So, I made arrangements with the hotel staff in San Jose for a 5:45 a.m. wake-up call...and it never came. Fortunately (or unfortunately), I had had a fitful night's sleep and was awake anyway, but when I mentioned to the front desk that I had requested a wake-up call that didn't come...blank stare. I'm beginning to think that the attitude here is, if you're so foolish as to want to subject yourself to the constraints of a fixed schedule, you shouldn't be surprised if you don't find a willing partner in places as laid back as Costa Rica or Nicaragua. And while I could appreciate the sentiment behind such an attitude, surely it gets a little touchy when people have flights to catch...?

Whitewater rafting was awesome! I got knocked around quite a bit by the waves and managed to fall out of the boat once, and loved every minute. Our guide was a Costa Rican guy named Ricky who kept referring to himself as "Ricky Bobby" and saying things like "Shake 'n Bake", which I suppose I would get if I had made it through more than the first 10 minutes of Talladega Nights. Anywho, after a great day on the river, I jumped the bus to Puerto Viejo where I've been relaxing ever since. I'm staying at a beautiful hotel called the Banana Azul where my accommodations include a little cabina with French doors that open to a balcony where I have a hammock and a birds' eye view of the beach. Not too shabby.

Here's a quick synopsis of the past few days in PV:

Day 1 - Lounged on the beach, swam for hours in the luxurious Caribbean waters, strolled to town long enough to get an ice cream cone and stroll back to my beach chair. Knocked out one whole book.
Day 2 - Took my first surfing lesson ever. Awesome, although my whole upper body is still sore 2 days later. I managed to stand up on the board and ride a couple of waves and rode several other waves on my knees. Had a blast, felt ultra cool with a leash around my ankle, slightly less cool falling a hundred times with my limbs splayed in every direction, and definitely want to try it again once I've gotten into a regular routine of push-ups. Spent the afternoon recovering, alternating between floating on the surface of the water and reading/dozing in a hammock. Met some really cool folks at dinner and made plans to hang out the next day.
Day 3 - Spent the morning hanging out with my new friend Meghan. Drove to Punta Uva, a nearby beach that was basically deserted except for some local fishermen, and then went to the Animal Rescue Center, where we saw lots of monkeys (including the little one that took a nap on my head), toucans, two types of sloth, caimans, a hawk, two spectacle owls, a marguay (wildcat) and more snakes than I'd care to recall. The center takes in all kinds of injured animals and cares for them, releasing as many as possible back into the wild. For those of you who missed this photo on Facebook:

Spent another afternoon chillin' on the beach and then went out to dinner with my new group of buddies, including the aforementioned Meghan from Washington state, two guys from NYC and a newlywed couple from L.A. We had a marvelous dinner of sea bass and good wine followed by a nightcap(s) at the bungalow where the newlyweds are staying, and voila! I have my first hangover of this trip. Three months is a pretty good stretch, though...
Day 4 - today. Despite headache, awoke at 7:30 since I am apparently no longer able to sleep past that hour. Fortified myself with awesome hotel breakfast and have spent the morning/early afternoon in a chaise longue reading a semi-trashy crime novel. Thinking about motivating to take a little stroll on the beach after I post this, but not ready to commit to anything yet.

Believe it or not, my time in Costa Rica ends tomorrow! In what promises to be a fairly long day of travel, I'll take a bus in the morning to the border town of Sixaola, from where I walk across a bridge into Panama, catch a taxi to Changuinola and then a 4-hour bus to David, where I'll be picked up by someone from the Spanish school where I'll be taking classes for a couple of weeks. From David, I'll be whisked to Boquete to meet my new host family and hopefully have a little time to check out the town.

So that's the scoop! I feel like I've skipped over lots of little details in this post, but that's what I get for going 10 days without writing. Will be back in the States in just under 4 weeks now, in time to go wedding dress shopping with one of my favorite people in the world - actually, a few of my favorite people, although only one is looking for a dress...

OK, back to the beach!