Costa Rica Trip Day 7 – Drive San Jose, General Costa Rica Observations

January 1, 2016

We are picked up by a van at our hotel at 6:30am.  We start the drive on a gravel road which goes at agonizing 15mph until we hit pavement around 7am and then start making good time.  We weave through the mountains, heading southeast and arrive at the coast where my Dad and I get out to take a quick picture of the dark sand beach.  It was much warmer than the mountains and it almost seemed like a different country. 

From there it is an easy hour to the airport as all of the traffic is going the other direction to the beach for the holiday weekend.  On this beautiful drive I had some time to ponder some observations I had made throughout the trip: 

·       Many farmers cut up trees on their land and planted the branches as fence posts, connected with barbed wire.  You could see some of the older fences made with this method, and those tree branches had grown into trees over the years.

·       I was bitten by a very large ant, about the size of a quarter, or an awkward looking spider, after our hike to the waterfall on the second day.  The good news is that I killed whatever it was.  At the time there was a bit of poison and the wound stayed swollen a week later to a nickel size bump.

·       There are stray dogs everywhere that roam the towns freely.  They sometimes stay in packs but it many are also lonely and look sad – which made me feel bad to see this.

·       They have a very recycle-minded culture.  At most houses and hotels, they have multiple buckets to place plastic, paper, perishables etc. and every week they take these to a central recycling facility. 

So we arrive at 9am, 2 hours earlier than expected due to no traffic.  Please note when arrive at San Jose airport that many airlines do not open their ticket counters until 10:30am, so no point in getting there too early.  So I wait for my Dad’s flight to leave for Baltimore and say goodbye.  I then wait around another hour or so for my flight back to Miami.  I look out the window one last time at the 3 volcanoes staring back at me, smile and say until next time, Pura Vida Costa Rica!

Costa Rica Trip Day 6 – ATV’s, Oklahoma Football & NYE

December 31, 2015

We were picked up at 10:30am for the ATV tour with a company called 100% Aventuras.  There was one other family of four with us and two guides.  The kids rode tandem with each parent.  My Dad and I each drove our own. 

We trained and practiced in football-field-sized area to get familiar with the 250 cc (large) dynamic machines.  Our guides said that these would be impossible to flip if we stayed on the trail.  So I apparently took this as a challenge in the training, and I made a wide turn, hit the embankment and jolted myself off the ATV.  I assumed the front right wheel would accelerate off of the rocks, but these ATV’s only have rear wheel power, so I ended up just bouncing backwards – oops!

We did this for about 30 minutes in total and then drove the ATV’s out onto a gravel road, to go up the mountain, and we turned off after about 15 minutes.  We start down a muddy trail and it weaves through farm land, crisscrossing the mountain.  There are a few technical parts, but everyone manages to get through without much incident.  The views were beautiful along the way, and we stopped for a bit at the high point where we could see Lake Arenal in the distance and the Arenal volcano on a clear day, but not today.

We drove back down the road and were escorted back to our hotel.  From there, I was a bit hungry and the sun was really strong so we decided to get ice cream for lunch.  I had 3 giant-sized scoops of almond chocolate, cookies and cream and a local blend with caramel and nuts.

We hung out at the room for a bit until the Oklahoma vs. Clemson Orange Bowl (in the college playoff) started.  We found out that the game will be played on ESPN Deportes, which luckily is one of the channels on our hotel room’s TV.  So we just plopped down on our bed and enjoyed the game for an hour and half when we were leading at halftime.  Then we did not enjoy the second half where we were outscored 21-0 and ultimately lost the game in undramatic fashion.  Overall for the season, OU performed well above expectations and I look forward to watching the team next season.

Our last true meal in Costa Rica needed to be a good one so we decided to try the locally acclaimed Café Cabure which is about 10 minutes east of Santa Elena.  They make their own chocolate and have special sweets and savory dishes.  I had an authentic mole (usually spicy chocolate sauce) chicken which is hard to find these days back in DC.

My Dad and I go to sleep around 10:30pm in order to get up early the next morning for our bus ride to San Jose.  However, the people of Santa Elena have other ideas, because we are awoken by dozens of fireworks going off at midnight, at the stroke of the New Year.  We look out the window and can see and hear them going off near and far.  Luckily it all stops within 30 minutes so we can rest.  But it is a suitable unplanned finale to a great trip.

Costa Rica Trip Day 5: Bungee Jump and Night Walk

December 30, 2015

This morning my Dad and I planned separate activities.  He went on a guided hike in a nearby reserve, and the highlight was that there are hanging bridges that connect the paths.  I went on a bungee jump, marketed as the highest bungee in Central America at 143 meters, or about 440 feet.  I had only done previous bungee jumps at 43m and 47m so I was really excited to do a much higher one. 

The day started with a lot of wind with gusts up to 45mph, which is typical for the region this time of year, and some light rain.  A bus came to pick me up after breakfast and we drove about 30 minutes North of town.  We arrived at “Extremo Park” which is the base for a company that does several adventure activities such as a canyon swing and zip lining, and they have a relatively new twist to it where you zip down on your belly like Superman, but today it’s just bungee for me.  I got in a line behind about 50 people to check in and I was thinking it was going to take forever for me to jump after these people.  Then I get to the front, I tell her I’m there for bungee and she literally asks “oh are you a little bit crazy?”  Turns out only about 7 of the 50 were there to do the bungee and the rest were zip lining.  So maybe I am a bit crazy to do this…

So we walk down a path from the office about 2 minutes and we arrive at a sort of cable car hanging out over the canyon.  Two guides come over to us and suit us up with gear and give us a rundown of the plan to not die.  They explain that you have to jump between two cables holding the lift.  So they only really let you do it one way which is a delayed swan dive where you put your arms out after you pass the cables.  Then you are supposed to bounce a few times and before they lower a rope with a cable for you to attach to your waist, which is how they reel you back up to the cable car.  I politely ask the guides if the light rain or gusts of wind will affect the jump and they said “probably not”.

Of our group, I happily volunteer to be the first to go.  I waddle up to the edge of the platform and look down and the trees below seem really far away, so I take a deep breath.  I jump without needing a push and do the delayed swan as instructed, bounce a few times.  After several seconds of hanging upside down, I look all around for the cable about 50 feet away from me—great.

The bungee cord and me are hanging directly below the lift, but the wind has blown the other cable far away from me.  So the guys at the top try to move it around to me, retracting and letting it down again.  In the meantime, I am just hanging there, so I bend upwards from the waist a few times to prevent all of my blood going to my head.  As I am doing this and I notice a beautiful rainbow which has formed about 500m away—and I have a great view. 

I was slightly disappointed that I wasn’t even close to the ground.  I was hanging about halfway between the cable lift and the highest tree, which means the actual jumping distance is about 60m; not 143m.  After about two minutes, I finally am able to grab the rope, and they start reeling me up as I admire the lovely rainbow near me.  I waited on the cable car for the others to go.

I went back to the office and purchased a first person GoPro video of my jump.  A fellow jumper, Robinson, then offered me a ride back into town since he rented his own car.  He was living in Paris and traveling through Central America with friends.  He worked in the oil and gas industry in France and did some research on Costa Rica before traveling here.  He said that the country started a government-directed program with a goal to have 100% renewable energy about 15 years ago and today they sit at 98.3% renewable energy – pretty amazing.  They get energy through many different methods – hydroelectric, wind, solar and geothermal. 

We ate lunch in Santa Elena town center, at a rather bizarre restaurant that was built around a really old and large tree.  The winding staircase circled the thick trunk and at the top are tables which alternate places based on the where the branches reach out over the street below.  I got a sampler meal with a bunch of local goodies such as cheese balls and sugar coated plantains.

While we were resting in our room, we got a call from the front desk that our driver was here to pick us up for a tour.  We had actually booked this for the next day and our voucher said so, but we preferred to do it today so we could watch the OU football game tomorrow and pack without stress.  So we quickly got our stuff together and rushed out the door to seize the opportunity. 

We were placed in a group with 6 other people, and there were about 8 other groups of similar size going out at the same time.  Our guide’s name was Jorge and his English was excellent, so everyone asked many questions.  This is the first tour we did where there were people from all over the world: Canada, France, Germany, Chile and USA. 

As we would pass other groups, the guides would share info on what they had found so that the other group could see the same thing.  We didn’t really expect to find much, but we actually saw several animals: a 3ft boa constrictor high up in a tree, which migrated from the rainforest area; bright green pit viper (deadly poisonous); spider the size of a tennis ball which was carrying a sack of eggs; unassuming bee’s nest right near the office; about 10 of the same brown birds who were sleeping in different trees; a leaf cutter ant colony that was about the same size as my 4Runner; a gecko; a fairy sort of creature in the forest, an Olingo, which is like a monkey; and some tree frogs.  It is unfortunately difficult to take pictures of anything because it is so dark.

The guide stopped at a large tree toward the end to explain that there is no way to accurately determine the age of any of the trees in the forest here because they do not have rings.  Trees normally develop dark rings when they pause from growing in the winter season; however, most of Costa Rica only has dry season and wet season, where the trees continuously grow.

Lastly, we ate dinner again in the commercial center, this time at Sabor Tico which costs about half as much as other restaurants, but we found out why due to the poor service and quality of food.  An unfortunate end to a good day.

Costa Rica Trip: Day 4 Mountain Biking Nightmare

December 29, 2015
Day 4, Transfer to Monteverde and Mountain Biking

My Dad and I were picked up by a small van and driven about 20 minutes beyond the town to Lake Arenal.  There were about 6 or 7 covered boats of varying sizes waiting on the bank by the parking area.  I would estimate over a hundred people were being offloaded from many buses, and spread out among the boats with their luggage.

Then we set out for a 2+ hour ride across the short eastern side of the lake.  The lake was very quiet with only a few fishing boats and almost no wind or waves.  We were traversing the eastern part of the lake, so we had the volcano in our rear view most of the way which made for nice pictures.  We were met on the other side of the lake at a very informal "dock" with no structure to set foot on -- it was literally just mud beneath a tree.  There were about a dozen vans of various sizes and colors parked along side the road and it was a very chaotic scene.  We waited for someone with a clipboard to yell out a name and the van number, but the vans did not have any numbers displayed.  We eventually figured it out but had to wait for one of our fellow riders who had lost track of suitcase in the chaos.  We then proceeded on about an hour long ride with a pit stop at a restaurant in a town called "Florida".

We arrived at our hotel, Poco A Poco which is on the south side of Santa Elena.  Santa Elena is the central hub of the Monteverde region, and if you ever travel here, understand that there is no actual city called “Monteverde” – which confused us.  Note that is can also be very windy in this area, especially where our hotel was situated on the mountain, which resulted in wind gusts of well over 30 mph.  We grabbed a quick lunch at the restaurant in our hotel’s restaurant and it was pretty good.

We then got picked up at our hotel around 230 to go on our mountain biking tour and were driven about 2 minutes down the road to a very small bike shop with three bicycles sitting outside.  It took us a while to find the right sized helmet as apparently my large head size is abnormal in Costa Rica.

We met our guide who spoke English very well and asked us what sort of ride we wanted to go on since we were the only riders.  We reiterated that we wanted to ride on the trails in the forest as it had shown on the website, which is why we booked it in the first place.  We preferred to stay away from steep inclines, as my Dad and I are intermediate riders but are accustomed to flat street riding.  I had specified to Pacific Trade Winds, our booking agent, that we did not want to ride on a road, especially not a busy road, because that would not be enjoyable for either of us.  So the guide said there is no real trail that goes through the forest as that is all private or protected land, but would try to accommodate us.  He then said he would try to take us on a route that was not too challenging in terms of inclines.

We agreed on the plan and set out traversing a back gravel road through part of town and immediately hit a very steep hill with about a 40-degree grade incline, which is very steep.  My Dad and I got about ¾ of the way up and had to hop off to walk our bikes the rest of the way.  We stopped at the top of the hill to catch our breath and then jokingly asked if the rest of the 14km would be the same, and of course our guide said yes – yikes.

Minutes later, we reach the main road that runs through this region.  Now, this is technically a highway in Costa Rica, but it is a two lane gravel road with slow moving traffic, so it’s not the traditional US highway.  We proceeded down this road for a couple kilometers, going up and down hills while having many cars and buses pass us, leaving us in the dust and inhaling fumes.  At this point I am leading so I stop on the side because I am thinking I might have missed the guide’s signal to turn to actually go off road somewhere.  So I ask the guide when we are leaving the main road and he says he didn’t really plan for us to do that.  And my Dad and I both give him incredulous looks.

Why would anyone find this sort of mountain biking enjoyable?  We weren’t training for a race.  We explained that we weren’t enjoying any scenery, it was overly challenging and not at all what we signed up for.  So we proceeded hoping to making the most out of it but about two hills later when we were walking our bikes up the hill, we said enough.  Our guide was sympathetic and could see we were not having a good time.  So he suggested we stop the tour and ride to a coffee shop a few minutes down the road.  We agreed and made it there where our guide then called a van to come pick us and our bikes up.

He was nice enough to buy us coffee and we actually did get to sit on a nice porch overlooking flowered trees and a creek.  The van arrived about 20 minutes later and took us back to our hotel and the whole ordeal was finally over.  I will definitely be contacting our booking agent to let them know this was not as advertised.

About a 2-minute walk from our hotel, there is a commercial center with stores, restaurants and a grocery store.  Here we ate at a 5-star-rated restaurant on TripAdvisor called The Green Restaurant, which was pretty tasty but not that exciting. While we were walking around town, we noticed a video ad for a biking tour back where just came from in Arenal.  This tour is on a sort of elevated bobsled track through trees in a forest – note to self – try this one next time.

Fun observation - I would say most, over 80%, of the tourists in Arenal and Monteverde have been American, which is a huge shift from my other travel experiences.  A few have been from Latin America and a few from Europe.   Today on the boat tour was the first time I had seen tourists from Asia (two Japanese couples).  Compared to my other international travel adventures, usually less than 10% are American tourists, so this has had the least diverse set of travelers, and by far the least amount of Asian tourists.

Costa Rica Trip: Day 3 Rappelling and Rafting

December 28, 2015

Day 3, Rappelling and Rafting

My Dad was sick in the week leading up to the trip but felt good enough to go on the trip.  However, after yesterday's ziplining activity in the rain, he got a chill and regained his cold symptoms.  So he decided to forgo any tours today in an effort to get better so he could do the remaining activities on the trip.  So today, I go solo.

I was picked up at 7:30 am by Pure Trek Canyoning and driven about 20 minutes outside of town.  There were about 30 other people there and we all walked down to an outdoor pavilion and got rappelling gear - gloves, helmet and leg harness.  I was then put in a group of about 12 at the front, because all of us would be doing the rafting trip afterward and they did not want us to get behind.

The entire group walked down some muddy steps about 10 minutes and arrived at a platform that straddled a waterfall.  The head guide went over the techniques to be safe and have fun today.  The course would include 4 rappels and a surprise activity in the middle.  The first one was an 80m drop, and once you reach the bottom, a guide moved me into the waterfall to get me wet and shook me around a bit for effect.  We were given instructions on how to control our descent, but the rope is wet so it’s very difficult to manually control anything.  The guide above had a safety wire which he controls and essentially does 90% of the control for everyone. 

I then climbed up about a 30 feet rope ladder which clung to a rock wall.   We then walked down a bit and came to a long ledge beyond where the platform is and I’m told to “just hold on” and not try to control the descent.  I say “okay I guess?”, and I am then jerked out about 30 feet from the ledge, just suspended about 50-60 feet in the air above the ground.  Two guides below yell something inaudible, and I instantly drop 40 feet in one second.  I am relieved to look down and find my feet dangling about 10 feet from the ground.  This is apparently called a “Monkey Drop” which I am later told they added this year to the tour, and was not in the tour description – a surprise to everyone.

The rafting-destined group waited at the bottom of this one for a guide to come thru and set up the next rappel.  We then proceeded to rappel 3 more waterfalls in the canyon.  This included one where we had to jump off the ledge to avoid a 15-foot gap.  Not everyone jumped far enough, and some swung back into the gap to bump up against the rocks below and to the side. No real damage done though.

The twelve of us hike back up about a quarter mile’s worth of mud steps to a hut where we take off our gear.  We then board a couple flatbed 4WD trucks which have been retro-fitted with bleacher seating on the truck bed.  They gave us a snack of mixed nuts, water and peanut bar on the way back to La Fortuna.  About 10:30am, they drop us off at a different company’s downtown office, Wave Expeditions, to go rafting.

Here I boarded a bus of about 20 people, with some from the rappelling group and some from elsewhere.  We then proceeded about 45 minutes outside of town.  We arrived along with several other buses at a river embankment.  Everyone gets their own life vests, helmets and paddles and then heads down to the river.  As we walk down to the water, we see boat after boat arrive from upriver, solely with the guide in them, pull up right in front of us.  There are about 6 people per boat plus the guide, and in total there were 15 boats going down one after the other.  I was with a family of 5, with 3 kids between ages 4 and 11 from eastern Pennsylvania.  We talked for all of 30 seconds before jumping in the raft, so we became quick friends.

This river is normally very calm, but every other afternoon, the controllers of a dam upstream release some of the water.  This release gives the river a very strong current and rapids of grade 2 to 4, but we only rafted up to grade 3 rapids.  The rapids weren’t particularly scary but we saw several people fall out along the way; no one seriously injured.  I have rafted other places but what made this different is that the first 3 km had CONSTANT rapids of the full course which is around 6 km.  Most rivers I was on before gave us some breaks between rapids sections, but not this one.

Our guide navigated very well and only got us in trouble twice where people were jolted in the air but no one fell out.  We saw a few animals along the river, such as egrets, vultures, a sloth and there were allegedly piranha native to the river but didn’t see any.  We then loaded up our gear, dried off, grabbed a beverage (beer for me) and headed to our next activity.

By now it is about 2:30-3pm and we are driven by bus 15 minutes away to a local coffee and moonshine farm/restaurant.  They had buffet style meals awaiting us of rice, beans, chicken and beef.  They grow sugar cane here, and use an indigenous method to brew coffee which was interesting to observe.  They then gathered everyone around to see how they make the moonshine after which they allowed us all to take some shots, which certainly cleared the sinuses.

Then we headed back to La Fortuna and we were dropped off at our hotels.  I met up with my Dad back in the room to take a breather for a few hours.  We decided to eat at the highly rated Don Rufino restaurant, less than a block from our hotel.  It was a little different from the norm – my meal came wrapped in banana leaves which is also how it is cooked.  Then we went to bed early for a much deserved rest!