If somebody would ask me how to summerize Costa Rica, I would say it
is just so green, greener than green. Some would just say paradise.
Of course one shouldn't forget the nice people also.
Montezuma
10/13/2001
After staying the first night in San Jose, Virginia and I plan to go
to one of the remote beaches at the Atlantic coast (a place called
Montezuma). The bus terminals are located a little far in San Jose,
so we need to take a taxi. The first bus we take today goes to
Puntarenas, were we can take the ferry to the Peninsula de Nicoya.
After arriving in Puntarenas, we first try the classic Costa
Rican "casado" lunch, which is usually some meat and rice, beans,
vegetable. It is very good and also not expensive.
Puntarenas does not look like a very friendly town, and after walking
a few blocks we arrive at very crappy looking marine terminal.
Confusing information in the travel guides make us walk to the other
marine terminal of the town, but luckily at a stop at the local park,
we meet an Italian guy who tells us that the first terminal was the
right one. Later, we meet the Italian guy a couple more times -
basically he bought a house in Montezuma, and spends every year 3
months in Costa Rica (based on a special contract with his company in
Italy) - what a life!
The ferry leaves Puntarenas, and we start getting more relaxed. After
the ferry we have to take another bus, which brings us to Montezuma,
if - so the Italian guy - the road allows it. He is referring to the
strong rain falls during the rainy season, which sometimes can make a
road hardly accessible.
However, we are lucky, and the bus ride to Montezuma is more than
beautiful. It goes through the forest, which many plants that only
Virginia knows from Brazil, so she is able to point them out to me
and explain them.
Finally, we arrive in Montezuma and have a good Pizza for dinner
(here are many Italians - why?) before we find a cheap place to stay.
10/14/2001
The choice of our hotel is right - we here the sounds of the sea, and
in the morning we can see the ocean from the porch.
Montezuma is a touristic town, there is not much more here than
tourists, and it is pretty small. Virginia and I have a great huge
breakfast, and some exotic bird that I don't know try to steal some
food from our plate :) Later we see the local waterfall that
disappoints us a little (expected it bigger), but later we find out
that we didn't go far enough!
10/15/2001
Today we do an awesome trip - and we are lucky in the beginning.
After already ordering a taxi for the natural reserve of Cabo Blanco
in the South, we meet a guy at a restaurant that tells us Cabo Blanco
is closed today! The stupid woman of the travel agency confirms this
fact, so we change our plans to hike to one of the waterfalls further
north the beach, 2 hours away.
The hike is great, it goes along the beach, totally empty, then
through the forest, with lots of plants and animals to watch, and
then back to the beach. It is almost as you hike through the South
Carolinean forest, but then stop by at the beach from time to time to
cool down, jump into the water. After some time we reach the
waterfall, which is maybe 10-15 meters high. However, it goes right
into the ocean and the expected swimming hole is not there :( It
takes some effort to climb up the falls, but finally we made it!
The awesome day ends with a great grilled fish in a restraurant close
to our hotel.
10/16/2001
Today we go back to the first waterfall - and hike all the way to the
real big one. It takes some climbing and crossing the river, and we
finally make it. This waterfall is really pretty, the water comes
high down in a pool, however, the pool looks a little dirty for
swimming. A side note - actually later in Costa Rica I met a guy who
told me that there is another waterfall, with clear water and
swimming possible, after this one. I guess we missed that one
Virginia!
This day we already leave Montezuma and go back to San Jose. We
decide not to stay there again, so we take the bus to Heredia, which
is 30 min from San Jose. Heredia is somehow a "small San Jose", but
with many young people, since it has an university.
Heredia
10/17/2001
Today Virginia already has to leave :(. In the morning, we take the
bus to the airport, and arrive there in time. The annoying thing
about the San Jose airport is that they don't allow you inside the
terminal, if you don't have a ticket! And outside, there is nothing
than a little Burger King...
So Virginia is leaving, and I take the bus back to Heredia. On my way
back I really experience what "rainy season" means since due to a big
rain the roads suddenly become to rivers. People stand in the streets
to watch the "show", others help stuck cars, and my bus only moves
very slowly. Finally, I arrive back in Heredia, ready to plan my
onward trip to South America...
10/18/2001 - 10/22/2001
I stay a couple of days in Heredia to organize my ticket to Ecuador.
It is more difficult than thought to find a good price. After
browsing through the streets of Heredia, I find a couple of travel
agencies, and it is really necessary to get as much prices to compare
as possible. Later I also find the good site
http://www.studentuniverse.com/, that has tickets within
Central/South America, and they would ship the ticket via UPS for
$40... They had a ticket to Quito for $200 (plus shipping $240), but
I also found a travel agency in Heredia that sold me a ticket for
$250, which seemed safer to me than UPS.
The other problem was that Ecuadorian immigration officially require
a return/onward ticket to make sure that you leave the country. In
practise this is not really enforced, but most travel agencies did
not even want to sell me a one-way ticket. Finally I choose to risk
it, and it was a good choice as you will see later.
Of course looking for a ticket was not the only thing I did - I
walked through Heredia, which is a pretty lively but also loud city.
Heredia has a university, which I also visited. I also spend time in
the internet, updating my travel reports, searching for tickets,
getting information about language courses I want to take in Ecuador.
So all in all, a more boring time of organizational things.
One daytrip I did was to the vulcano Irazu, which is close to San
Jose. I was able to drive with the bus all the way up to the craters,
and actually already the drive there through the valley up the
vulcano was an impressive site - from mountains surrounded, touched
from clouds. Unfortunately, in the rainy season, there are too many
clouds on top of the vulcano such that there was no good view down
the valley. However, the craters were impressive, one with a green
lake in it. On the way returning to San Jose, I also visit a tropical
garden with many exotic plants and flowers in it.
Puerto Viejo
10/23/2001
To spend some last days at the beach, I take the bus to the Caribbean
coast, more specifically, Puerto Viejo. At the first impression,
Puerto Viejo is really beautiful, with a beach that goes along a
forest of palm trees and other exotic plants.
A second look shows that Puerto Viejo is one of these typical,
strange towns that are almost artificially made for tourism. The
crowd here is mixed, lots of surfer/hippie/party people, but also
more and more classic tourists come here, and the place booms (I meet
a German guy who actually wanted to quit his job and everything and
live a simple life, but now he started a big hotel).
The town is still pretty small, so while I walk around to get to know
the place, I meet all 17 dogs of the town, a guy asks me to buy him a
beer for a joint, and I meet the local prostitute two times (with
meet I mean I pass by ;))
My "hotel room" is very cheap ($4), but the room looks more like a
prison cell... Well good enough for a night, ready to go to the beach
the next day!
10/24/2001
It's a good idea to rent a bike in Puerto Viejo, since it is very
flat and a couple of nice beaches are very close, but too far too
walk. There is only a small beach in Puerto Viejo that is not stoney
and were you will cut open your feet. The nicest beach is the
furthest away, called "Punta Uva".
10/25/2001
11:00: I'm leaving Puerto Viejo today, since I want to do one more
vulcano before I leave Costa Rica. While the bus is already moving
towards San Jose, a certain image comes into my mind - the image of
my glasses being in the drawer of my hostelroom, and also the
complete certainty that I didn't take it out of there when I left.
Since my glasses are a pretty important thing to me, there is no
choice - After 1.5 hours busdrive, I leave the bus in Limon to go
back to Puerto Viejo...
12:30: Of course the bus terminal back to Viejo is at a completely
different place than the once I arrived. After asking around a
little, a very nice Tico (the people in Costa Rica are called Ticos)
just walks me through half of the city to the right bus terminal. I
catch the bus that is leaving in 15 minutes, and, totally sweaty, I'm
on my back to Viejo.
2:00: Back in Viejo, I really get back my glasses. The next bus to
San Jose now goes at 4, so plan to spent some time at the beach.
However, I meet an American guy and a Tico, which is a little crazy
surfer type of guy. I join them drinking a couple of beers and Vodka
close to the busstation. Finally, I leave at 4pm, the second time to
go to San Jose!
So instead of arriving early in San Jose and being able to get my
ticket that is ready for pickup today in Heredia, I arrive at around
9pm.
At least the day ends very nicely: The hostel (Hotel Backpackers
Costa Rica) is a great place, I ended up there because I saw one of
their flyers. Two French guys just started that place 5 days ago (!),
everything new, free Internet, swimming pool, kitchen, very pleasent.
San Jose
10/26/2001
Actually today I wanted to go to the Vulcano, but I miss this chance,
since I have to go to Heredia to pick up my ticket. The rest of the
day, I spend in San Jose for organizational stuff and to see the city.
10/27/2001
Finally I manage to call friends from Costa Rica that I met briefly
in Clemson. They invite me to come by their place before my flight
goes in the afternoon. So I pack my stuff and stop by their place,
which is very nice. We talk a lot and have a really good time. They
are so nice that I regret not having stopped by earlier. After a
great lunch, they drop me at the airport, and I'm ready to leave
Central America, ready to finally reach South America, Ecuador, Quito!
Not much too see on the flight to Quito, it is late, dark and
cloudly. However, the plane stops in Panama City on its way, which
allows to give me an interesting view - Many lights of many ships -
in the Panama Channel!
On to Ecuador...