Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hello Again!! I have returned, safe and sound, from my weekend trip to Arenal and Monteverde. The more time I spend in this country, the more things I see and experience which are so beyond anything I have seen or been exposed to before, but with each new experience I feel like I am gaining an entirely different view of life in general.
My weekend began by leaving on a bus with my group at about 1 PM on Friday. We then rode out of town, towards the town of Arenal, where we would be spending the night. It was really interesting leaving San Jose and getting to see how things are out in the rural parts of the country. While San Jose has its benefits, and is interesting, it doesn't compare in the slightest to the rest of the country. As soon as the bus got out of town, we began to ascend into the mountains and go past all these small towns. The mountains go so incredibly high, and in a lot of areas they are lined with coffee and banana plants, or cows are roaming cliffs and hillsides covered in the most beautiful vegetation I have ever seen. People live very simply in the rural parts of the country, while there is obviously some poverty; people's outlooks towards life are much more relaxed in Costa Rica than in the United States. Their quintessential phrase sums it all up, "Pura Vida". Basically it means, sort of, the good life, or some rendition of that.
Once we got to Arenal, we checked into our hotel at the base of the volcano (which thanks to stupid #@*&ing rain and clouds I didn't get to see), then went to the hot springs. So, the hot springs…I was anticipating something a little bit more like home, sort of a rugged, outdoor rock pool where you could see the volcano and relax. I was instead thrust into a tourist hell-hole. Imagine this, 50 pools different varieties, with little fake waterfalls, waterslides, and bars at the edges of the pool. In any other setting this might have been nice, but not when I was hoping for a Costa Rican experience. This place was full of Americans, and the water didn't even smell like eggs, in my opinion an essential characteristic of a good hot springs. But, I moved past this and was able to relax. The only problem was, it was raining so hard it felt like I was being subjected to a firing squad, which, instead of being allowed to die (as one would from a firing squad), I instead enjoyed hardcore rain for two hours. Another amazing part of that night, I was stupid and left my towel on what I thought was a bench secluded from the rain. Ha, yea right…That towel was so incredibly wet that even after ringing out, drying myself, and ringing it out once more, it still managed to be wet for the next two days.
After eating dinner in the touristy restaurant at the hot springs, we then went to the hotel and went to bed. The next morning, in a slightly apprehensive mood due to the previous night's experience, we set out for La Fortuna Waterfall. Finally, I got my authentic, Costa Rican jungle experience. We rode the buses higher into the mountains where you park, and descend down a staircase from hell cut into the rocks in the jungle, and walk down to where the waterfall came down into a pool, which fed into the river. It was absolutely incredible. Imagine what was most likely a 75-100 foot tall waterfall, dumping enormous amounts of water off a jungle cliff. Then, imagine getting to swim in the pool where it empties. In the United States, I imagine we would have found gigantic fences saying, do not enter pool, very dangerous, potential drowning. But in Costa Rica, no way man, go for it. So we all took our shoes and shirts off (yes we had swimsuits on), and got into the water. It was like swimming in a wavepool at a waterpark, except turned up extra high and much more powerful. The power that the waterfall generates is incredible, even when sprinting as fast as I could I was unable to get anywhere near the waterfall. After swimming for awhile, I got out and walked around taking pictures of amazing vegetation, and watching huge blue butterflies flying around.
After staying at the waterfall for awhile, we left, checked out of our hotel, then went to get lunch before heading to Monteverde. We decided to stop for lunch at a soda, which is a sort of local café equivalent. One of the benefits of eating in these sorts of places is getting to try really local foods and drinks. So, in keeping with that mindset and Anthony Bourdain's philosophy of trying anything and everything, I ordered Chan to drink, and had Lengua con Salsa for my meal. Chan is this sort of fruit drink, which has the seeds of some fruit I don't recognize, and you slurp them up through the straw as you drink. The seeds are very similar in texture to those from a tomato. Now, Lengua means tongue. It was actually really quite good, and I never noticed any tastebuds while eating. It actually tasted a lot like roast beef simmered in a sort of spicy tomato sauce, it just melted in your mouth, absolutely delicious.
The trip out to Monteverde Saturday afternoon was certainly an incredible, and nerve-racking experience. We started out by taking some vans from the town of Arenal to the edge of El Lago de Arenal, which is an enormous lake at the foot of the volcano (which again was obscured by clouds and fog, apparently a common feature in the rainy season), where we took a big pontoon boat across the lake. It was beautiful, looking up the steep jungle cliffs, seeing cormorants sitting on logs in the middle of the lake. After getting to the other side, we loaded into a different set of vans, and road up into the mountains to go to Monteverde. Now this was both the most incredible views I have ever seen, and also some of the worst roads and passes I have ever seen. Now living in Alaska one sees their fair share of bad roads, and hair-raising passes, but nothing compared to these. Imagine for a moment a poorly maintained dirt road. Then add cliffs going off both sides of the road descending into mist and darkness, and heavy rain, thus creating a mud/sludge quagmire of a road. Then go fast, and drive like a Costa Rican, with lots of honking around corners, passing ox-pulled carts, and huge inclines and descents. The views were incredible, but I'm pretty sure I left a permanent indent in the handles on the walls of the vehicle. Two hours of this experience led us up to San Elena, the town we stayed in next to Monteverde cloud forest.
Upon arriving, we again checked into our hotel and reorganized ourselves prior to going to dinner. But, waiting in my room to greet me to the jungle, was the one of what I am sure was the first of many visitors to welcome me to Costa Rica. Sitting on the dresser, looking right at me, was a 4 inch cockroach. We looked at eachother for a moment, sized eachother up, then stood there in silence and fear. Who feared who more, I am not so sure, but I was definitely not going to let that little intruder stay in my room. The thought had crossed my mind to catch it in a cup and fling it from the window, but the thought of getting it anywhere near my hands was out of the question. Plus, when I moved towards it, it bolted, causing me to panic like a little girl. So…I stomped on it…once…then twice…three times…Why oh god why won't it die?!?!?! Three stomps from my mega Teva sandals was not enough to finish him off, and the nauseating crunching was enough to send me over. Thank god on the fourth assault from my shoe I managed to catch him between me and the wall, finally finishing him off. Hurray for bugs…and welcome to Monteverde.
After a paranoid night of trying to not think about the possibility of more cockroaches and possibly their arachnid pals joining me in my bed, we went to go up to Monteverde Cloud Forest to do some morning zip-lining. If you have ever gone ziplining, or even rockclimbing, you know how amazingly attractive, and also comfortable the harness can be. Yum, tight straps around the waist, and around each leg, smashing my boy parts up in a very undesirable fashion, also causing my butt to look even more gigantic than it already is (look at the photos and enjoy). After being strapped into this contraption, we were run through the proper technique for ziplining, and ascended the tower to the first of 28 lines. I'm sure these first lines were meant to get us accustomed to the technique and feel of ziplining, and were rather short between some pretty large trees. The sense of freedom and adrenaline while flying between trees is indescribable. What I was not prepared for was the parts of the canopy tour which were yet to come. After going along some faster lines deeper into the forest, we came upon what they call, the Tarzan Swing. Basically what it consists of is an enormous tower which you climb to the top of overlooking the canopy and are strapped to a rope which extends to a gargantuan tree, and just like it sounds, you leap off and swing like a monkey would on a vine. If you are still more curious and can't seem to visualize this, I have posted or will soon a video of some of my friends doing it. The best part of the canopy tour was the last two lines that we got to do. Now we had to do some intense hiking to get to the starts of some of the lines, which were high up in the mountains of the forest. I was sweating like a pig, but surprisingly, was not complaining at all because I was having an incredible time, and pretty much everybody sweats like a pig in this climate. The last two lines stretch across an entire valley, you probably travel up to at least half a mile on the zipline, and are up hundreds of feet in the air (I have posted a video I took while going across). What a rush.
After finishing our canopy tour we rode the bus back to San Jose, and I am now back in my homestay for another week of classes. Part of the struggle for a lot of us was that we were not thinking about how this was actually school, we all focused on the trip aspects of it. So having homework, and being in class 8 hours a day is really quite brutal. But I am adjusting and working hard to get everything done and do well. I hope everyone enjoyed this entry, and will be posting more blogs throughout the week until Friday when I will again be going on a trip, this time out to Manuel Antonio National Park, a place which has both monkeys, sloths, crocodiles, and parrots, but also some of the most beautiful beaches in the Pacific Ocean. If anyone is curious about anything, or has some pictures they'd like to see, just put a message up and I will do my best. Until then,
Hasta Luego!
- comments