Friday 30 December 2011

Transition from Monteverde to Cabuya

Well we had our eyes opened to Costa Rican public transportation today.  We were up again at 5:00am to catch the 6:00am public bus from Monteverde to Puntarenas.  It is the size of a grey hound bus (not quite as nice) and extremely full of backpackers making the move from the mountain to the beach.  Bill purchased 4 of the lasts seats on the bus for 5500 colones which works out to be $11 US.  It takes approximately 3 hours travelling down a rough,curvy, narrow gravel road which was only about 32km until we hit an acutal highway that was paved.  First one we have seen all trip.  Because it is public transit we made several stops to pick up the locals including a chicken being transported in a reusable shopping bag.  Once we arrived in Punteranus we grabed a taxi to the Ferry terminal and stood in yet another line.  The ferry was similar to ours with vehicle and foot traffic.  The trip to Paquera took about 70min and by the time we got off the temperature had risen about 30 degrees.  We then hired a taxi to take us to Cabuya instead of taking another bus.  This taxi driver was absolutely insane.  He was flying around corners and pot hole at speeds I don't even want to think about.  We made it to Cabuya safely, however he did not speak any english and following the map I was given was not working.  We finally stopped and Bill and Serena went inside a building (which just happended to be the bakery we were looking for).  A tourist was able to help and we found the place we were looking for.  Cabuya is very small so speaking spanish would have definately been an asset.  Serena is doing very well with her Spanish, she is remembering more and more the longer we are here.  We found our rental house and were given the 5 min tour.  It is wonderful.  It is located deep in the forest about a 5 min walk to the beach.  We have a full kitchen and our own small swimming pool.  Noa, the owner gave us a brief description of where things were and we were left to unpack.

The girls were missing my home cooking so we decided to grab a quick bite to eat at the bakery and then walk to the grocery store to stock up.  Noa and the tourist that helped us earlier recommended the bakery as a place to eat.  So off we went.   When we arrived the whole menu was in Spanish, thank God for Serena and her knowledge of Spanish.  We were able to order cold cafe mochas, cappaccino freia, banano y chocolat con leche de soya and sandwiches and I tried my first Casada.  A casado is the traditional Costa Rican meal at lunch and consists of rice, black beans, salad, fried plantain, and chicken.  The portions of both the meals and drinks were large enough we haven't had dinner tonight.

We stocked up on breakfast and snacks and will find the fresh fish down the road tomorrow right from the fishermen as they come in from fishing.  We were suppose to have naps this afternoon, but that didn't seem to happen so I am surprised we are all still awake, with the early morning, heat and travel.  We are off to explore the southern Nicoya Peninsula for the next week.  That consists of Montezuma, Cabuya, Mal Pais, Santa Terersa and maybe Manzanillo.  To do this we must rent a vehicle either a car or a quad.

Happy New Year to all our friends and family.

La Fortuna - Last Day

La Fortuna- Day 2


Today we awoke to sunshine, yippee and sore leg muscles.  I didn’t think I was using my quads yesterday when we were canyoning, however they are screaming this morning as I went down stairs for a cup of coffee.  We decided, seeing as it was a beautiful day that we would  take a cab to the entrance of the waterfall and then hike down, yes I said down, 500 Costa Rican style stairs to the base of the waterfall.  It was a spectacular 150 ft. cascade of rushing white water into a swimming hole below.  Serena and Alex jumped in but the waves of the falling water kept them close to the rocks.  We then went around the bend to a quieter area on the river and swam amongst the rocks.  The water was a little chilly but the sun was shinning and it was very beautiful.  When then had to hike up the 500 stairs to the top.






 We made it back to the Hostel for a couple hours of relaxation by the pool before we took off on our next tour.  We took a guided hike to the volcano and through the rain forest, then they took us to the Baldi Hot Springs to relax in the hot mineral pools.  The hike was very informative on how to survive in a rain forest.  Our guide showed us how to extract water from moss, what plants to eat and how to comb our hair.  We were lucky enough to see a spider monkey way up in the trees and some real cool red ants marching across the rain forest creating a well maintained path to their nest.  We checked out a sensitive plant that closed up when you touched it and learned about a mint plant and looked up a termite nest to see bats hanging out.  The hot springs where huge, with many pools ranging in temperatures from 93 to 152 F.  We found a couple of quiet pools way up at the top and relaxed as the girls checked out the water slides.  There were three that were completely in the dark and pretty crazy. 
 


We made it back to the Hostel at about 9:30 and met the girls' new neighbours.  They were two couples with their kids from Ottawa.  So we spent the next hour explaining what we had done so far and what we like the best.  So far Canyoning has been the best. 






Arenal Backpackers Hostel was a great experience.  The pool and common area/bar was a great place to hang out and by 11pm all was quiet.  The guys at the front desk were super and had an abundance of information and were able to book tours at a 20% discount.  We met a lot of great people and what surprised me the most was the average age and the number of families.  We would definitely stay here again if we come back.  Now we are off to Monteverde!

 Monteverde – Day 1


We travelled from La Fortuna to Monteverde by “Jeep boat Jeep”  Actually it was more of a mini van, ferry, mini van, but that doesn’t sound near as adventurous in the tour books.  The roads are quite amazing here, it’s like travelling our B.C. logging roads, with added pot holes and a whole lot more traffic as these are their main highways from one point to another.  Needless to say it takes awhile.  We arrived in Monteverde at about 11:30 and were able to check into our next Hostel.  Pension Santa Elena is quite different from Arenal Backpackers, but the rooms are clean, the people are friendly and the tourist information unbeatable.  As part of our check in Rand one of the owners sat down with us and explained everything we needed to know about Moneteverde.  It was incredible!

 

By 1:30 we were whisked away on our first tour to a coffee plantation.  We booked through the hostel with the local coffee co-op and were taken to one of the local coffee farmers.  As we drove I’m sure we went through 3 different weather systems.  And that my friends is what Monteverde is known for, It’s eco systems.  It is located right on the continental divide on the pacific side.  So the weather changes quicker and more often than in Canada.  This is their transition season between wet and dry so they get a mixture of both.  It is very windy and when the clouds roll by it’s like being in a coastal mist.  There are also no flat spaces, the whole town is built on the side of a Mountain with very narrow streets and windy curvy roads.  We arrived at the coffee plantation and were greeted by Juan ……  His daughter was a tour guide for the afternoon and her name was Joyce.  We started off by picking and learning about ripe coffee beans and how they are harvested and processed.  Papi (Dad)  owns the land and picks all of the coffee beans himself.  Harvest is from December to February and they harvest as the beans ripen, which is not all at once due to the elevation.  The coffee plants need a balance between sun, shade and rain.  Therefore they grow a variety of trees amongst the coffee plants.  There were banana trees which are cut down after they produce one crop on bananas, orange, lemon and fig trees.  They use a variety of trees to create a balance of shade for the coffee plants.  They only grow one type of coffee in Costa Rica and that is Arabica



The local farmers prefer to let the ripe bean dry with the outer shell on it and then process it.  However this is a far riskier way to process the beans and the crop can be lost.  Therefore they only do this for their own use and the other method is used when they export the crop for sale.

All of this was explained to us as we wondered through the plantation.  We finally ended up at the farmers personal home where his wife had coffee and fresh banana bread waiting for us.  The house was a simply shack by our standards, but they were more than willing to host us for 30 minutes and tell us all their stories.  She was an American who had come to Costa Rica in 1985 to teach English, he was her student but to this day does not speak much English.  They have two daughters and the farmer has lived in this area all his life.  He has no desire to leave.  We then left the farm and went to a coffee shop in town, where we tried three different coffees.  They were all very different but my favourite was the one the farmers prefer,.  Which I course you can only buy while you are here, they do not export it.  The downfall of travelling in a backpack is you can’t bring much home with you, however I did manage to buy a few packages.  On the flip side the girls both thanked us for buying them packs as we were loading from van to boat and back to van again today.  The tourists with suit cases were definitely struggling  up the uneven inclines of the lake shore.  No docks involved you just jump out onto the shore and climb up to the road.  Way easier with a pack.  It was a full day and we finally had some decent food for dinner and I think Alex was in bed at 8pm.  We have a busy day planned for tomorrow and a 5:30 am wake up call to take a bus to the Could Forest and go on a guided tour.  Hence Alex’s face book status.  I keep telling her she can sleep and eat all she wants when we get to the beach house.  She laughed at me when I first told her we were in bed by 10pm each night on these vacations.  She didn’t understand, I think she does now
Monteverde - Day 2

We were up at the crack of dawn today  5:15am so that we had a chance to see the wildlife in the Cloud forest.  We hired a guide to take us through the Monteverde Cloud forest and explain all of the aspects.  It is different from a rain forest in that it’s not actually raining it is misting from the clouds.  The northwesterly air flow comes up the Atlantic coast’s rain forest and as the air rises and hits the continental divide it forms clouds.  These clouds pass over the mountains creating a light mist and then evaporate as they descend down the other side on the way to the pacific coast.  It was quite amazing to watch the clouds actually disappear before your eyes.  Our guide was very informative and we were extremely lucky to spot a rare Costa Rican bird called the kitzell.  It was beautiful will a lime green back, red breast and poofy hair.  Our guide Juan Carlos had a telescope so we were able to look through and see it up close.  He then put our camera lens into the telescope so that we were able to capture the picture.  I never imagined bird watching to be this exciting.  We then went further down the trail and spotted white faced monkeys and then howler monkeys. They were moving fast from branch to branch so it was difficult to get pictures.  This girls climbed into a strangling fig tree that had destroyed it’s host tree and was now hollow inside.  We strolled through primary and secondary protected forest and then made it back to see the hummingbirds.  They are quite a bit bigger than ours and have the most amazing colours.
 



 
 This afternoon we got our fix of adrenaline rushes.  We took the girls on their first canopy tour.  We zip lined through about 10 towers and approximately 3 km of line.  The highlight of this tour was the superman line and the Tarzan swing.  Both were very cool.  For the Superman line they hooked you up so you were facing downward and flying through the air like superman.  No breaking with your hands as you couldn’t reach the line.  You came flying into the platform face first and the break on the line caught at the last minute to stop you. 

 

The next stop was the Tarzan swing.  On this one you walk down a suspension bridge for about 100 ft and then they hooked you up to a swing line told you to bend forward and kneel down as they opened the gate and let you go.  It was a straight free fall 150 ft. down until the rope caught and then swung you out like a pendulum.  You got to swing for a couple of times until they caught you with another rope and brought you too the ground.  What an extreme sport.  Way better then bungee jumping in my mind.  Although I think I might have left it (my mind that is) at the top of the platform.  We made Bill go first so he wouldn’t chicken out.  By the time it was my turn they had convinced the guide at the bottom to video the whole thing with our camera.  To see the video go to my face book page it is posted there.  This was definitely the highlight of the tour.  Over half our group chickened out and missed the best part.  If I could add the superman and Tarzan swing to the Thailand zip lining it would be amazing.  Both are very different but a lot of fun just the same.


We are off to the beach tomorrow and have decided to take the 6:00am public bus from Monteverde to Puntaranus and then to our beach house just outside Montezuma.  They tell us that the public bus is good and it should only cost us $6 each, plus a ferry ride and then a taxi.  Could be an adventure.  Then we are going to relax in the sun and sand for a few days before we start on a new activity. 

Our hosteling experience has been fun.  We have met a lot of great people.  Today we met a lady from Korea who has been travelling on her own around the world for the past 10 years on and off every 4 months.  She is 63 years old and did the Tarzan swing right before Bill.  Incredible lady, too bad we didn’t have more time to spend listening to her stories.  She stays in hostels everywhere she goes.  What an inspiration.   












Monday 26 December 2011

Canyoning, what a blast!

                                                      CANYONING IN COSTA RICA




Today we manoeuvred our way down waterfalls, over creeks through Costa Rican showers and dropped 200ft straight down over the last waterfall.  It was a rush to say the least.  We were picked up at about 10am (had to let the princesses sleep in) by a air condition van with comfy seats and were taken to the bottom of the mountain.  We then boarded at Costa Rican, mountain limo (reminded me of the red truck cabs in Chaing Mai Thailand.  We travelled up the dirt/rock road for about 20min to the base camp.  Once there we were equipped with our harness, helmets and safety instructions.  Alex had to keep reminded them she was left handed as she was set up opposite to the rest of us.  They had three rules. 






1.  Stay Safe
2.  Have Fun
3.  Get wet




And we definitely did all three.  Good thing Costa Rican rivers are not glacier fed or we would have frozen.  In fact they are ground fed from under ground springs and run off from rain water.  Quite warm by Canadian standards.  We started off slow and worked our way to 200ft.  We had great fun learning how to use the break with your strong hand, lean back and bounce off the rocks.  Bill took this a little literally and really bounce off the rock.  He was busy talking to the guide not watching where he was going and dropped from one rock to another within the creek.  Reminded me of skiing at Big White when he flew off the rock cliff and did a garage sale.  Thankfully it was only a skinned shin and overstretched calf muscle.  His first thought when we stated was he hoped no one got hurt, guess he forgot.  It should be all on the go-pro if we can get it figured out.  Our guides were fantastic with Defacio Adventures.  We had five of them taking care of our group of 14 throughout the adventure.  Half way down the first repel the guide filled his helmet up with water and threw it down on top on you as you attempted to get your barrings and figure out what you were suppose to be doing.  The jungle was amazingly beautiful and full of strange foliage.  We were able to see a small green and blue lizard that was climbing on the rocks.


No wild life but that was to be expected given the number of people that go through the canyon on a daily basis.  About half way through our guides told us we were going to have a Costa Rican shower.  This entailed one guide lying his body across the creek blocking the water flow, about 15 feet below the next guide did the same thing.  We hiked below them and positioned ourselves in the creek like we were going to ride it like a waterside.  Once we were all in position the first guide let his water go and then the next....... all we heard was a roar of water cumming from above and then it hit..... it was like sitting in the middle of a class 5 white water in B.C.  only the water was warm.  It just flew over our helmets and into the creek below.  their only instruction was to press your hands against the rocks so you weren't swept away.  We have it on DVD but i don't  have the ability to upload it until I get home.  Stay tuned and I will update pictures.


  The final drop was over a platform that you couldn't see the bottom.  You just trusted the guide hung on for dear life and free felled 200fr. down.  I thought Bill would scream louder than i did but he said his heart was still at the platform when he left and couldn't even manage to let out a peep.  What a trooper, for someone that is afraid of an 8ft roof.  Serena and Alex were super sports, they followed the instructions and were pros by the end.  I think they were quite impressed with their first adrenaline junky extreme sport tourism.  After we were finished we had to climb what felt like 500 stairs out of the canyon back to base camp.  We then showered and changed into our dry clothes and were fed a delish Costa Rican meal.  No cold cerveasa though.  Thailand has one up on them.  I guess I should have put that on my review sheet.  As we boarded out Costa Rican Jungle Limo for our trek out it started to down pour, but it was all good we were under a canopy and it was warm.  We met some great people and the girls heard some amazing travel stories from Irland, to the Galapagos, to the Great Barrier Reef and an African Safari.  Fried bananas were a hit today and now they figure we should learn how to make them ourselves when we get to the beach. 

Sunday 25 December 2011

Day 1- La Fortuna

Welcome to Costa Rica!  Now I have figured out how to change the blog commands back to English instead of Spanish we are good to go.  Thought I was going to have to take a crash Spanish course, which wouldn't hurt but short on time.

Our first challenge of this trip was getting into the U.S.  We were pulled over and given the 100 question session with US boarder services.  Yippee what fun.  Guess they didn't like Bill's answers the first time, funny thing his answers were the same the second time round.  I suppose they match and they figured he was telling the truth.  If the US didn't have such cheep flights I would swear I wouldn't cross that boarder ever again!  I'm not sure we even crossed at the right crossing as the I5 was no where to be found.  So I put my trust in our GPS and we eventually made it to Seattle, however not in time to enjoy the Pike Place Market.  It was closing as we pulled up and the guys were so tired they were just counting down the minutes until they got to go home.  Oh well what can you do.  We walked around downtown Seattle and eventually found the Crab Pot restaurant we were looking for.  The seafood pot looked yummy but we were not hungry enough to order it so we had the most amazing chowder, calamari and Serena even liked her Salmon pasta,  She is expanding her palette.

So the adventure begins.  Our flight to San Jose was uneventful as there were no movies, food or free drinks.  I guess you get what you pay for.  (note for next time).  Our hotel in San Jose was clean and quaint. We arrived Christmas Eve at about 8pm so we were lucky enough to find sandwiches to tide us over.  We fell asleep to Christmas Eve fire works and awoke to a group of travellers chatting outside our room at 7am.  Apparently they were chatting all night but I had my ear plugs in.  The girls were in the back and slept through everything.  They thought it was pay back that Bill was up all night as he had slept the night before and kept all of us awake with his snoring.  We had a lovely Christmas breakfast and then headed up north of San Jose to La Fortuna.  Our driver was quiet as he was concentrating on the curvy narrow mountain road complete with one lane bridges. 

We checked into our first ever Hostel (Arenal backpackers)  It's quite amazing, the girls comment was it's even nicer than the hotel in San Jose.  So far I've only seen one unwelcome friend, which I haven't told Serena about yet!  It ran under the bed before Bill could squish it and we have no idea where it went.  Great, he tells me they like cold damp dark places so it shouldn't crawl into my bed!!!!

It's not as warm as I thought it would be, however we are still sitting in our shorts and tank tops in the hostel bar.  (air conditioning doesn't turn on until 10pm so the room is rather humid and the windows have no screens so opening them at night is not an option).

The volcano is inactive and under cloud cover, therefore no night lava flows :(  We did some shopping in town this afternoon and had an amazing dinner.  Tomorrow we start our first adrenaline rush Costa Rician style.  We are canyoning.  This entails getting strapped into a safety harness and repelling down a 200ft water fall into the canyon below.  Should be exciting.  Bill is going to wear his new go-pro video camera so we should get a great view and hopefully some awesome videos.

The next day is a waterfall hike, volcano hike and then soaking in the hot pools.

Merry Christmas from La Fortuna!

Saturday 17 December 2011

6 days to go!

The girls are both done final exams and seem to be still somewhat sane.  They are now working the retail rush at their respective jobs experiencing their Dad's life and counting the days until we leave. 

I thought by going away for Christmas we would skip all the traditional activities we usually do.  Boy was I wrong.  Truth be told I just couldn't do it.  The house is completely decorated, baking was done, and we are celebrating Christmas Eve tonight complete with eggnog and our old time tradition of snacks for dinner in front of the Christmas tree picnic style.  Tomorrow we are having Christmas dinner with all the fixings.

I have just spent a fabulous morning listening to Christmas carols, and baking my mom's famous cinnamon buns.  My kitchen smells divine and Riley hasn't complained once about the music! (everyone else is at work)

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas while we are away.  We hope you enjoy our adventure in Costa Rica as we try and keep in touch.

The itinerary

We fly into San Jose on Dec. 24th and spend the night.  Christmas morning we have a shuttle booked to take us from San Jose to La Fortuna.  We spend a few days exploring an active volcano, canyonering (this is a downward repel over a 200ft waterfall into a canyon), soaking in the hot pools and shopping.  Then we take a Jeep-boat-Jeep transport to Monteverde.  This is home to Costa Rica's Ziplinning.  Bill thought this was such a rush in Thailand that it would be fund to do it again with the girls.  We see who can out scream me.  There are also cloud forest tours and night jungle tours.  Then we are off to the sourthern tip of the Nicoya Peninsual to Montezuma.  We have rentad a beach house for the week and our main adventure will be to learn to surf!  There is lots to explore in this area but I've decided to leave most of the itinerary open and we will decide when we get there.  Then we make our way back to San Jose and fly home.