Costa Rica- It'll Costya

Greetings from Costa Rica!

... Or as we prefer to call it "CostYa Rica" $$$

The first thing we noticed about Costa Rica, was the steep rise in living and travelling costs in comparison to the previous countries we had travelled through in Central America. This was evidenced by our shock at the $18 bill for dinner on our first night, and our grocery bills coming to more than $10. “That’s ALMOST as much as what we pay in Australia!!!!” we cried.  At this point we realised we might have adjustment issues coming back to the strong Aussie economy and high cost of living (we’re currently working on coping strategies, in preparation for touch down).

First stop...

MANUEL ANTONIO 

(sorry not many photos as we didn't spend much time here)

Highlights:

-Green instead of dust, yahoo!

-Being told we could drink the tap water

-Discovering an air conditioned Subway Restaurant on our first night (mmm globalisation)

-Leaving Manuel Antonio before Easter (services shut down depending on how drunk the locals get over this weekend)

Lowlights:

-American tourists and locals on mass...

-Realising that we had not completely said good- bye to chicken buses… Although the buses looked newer, they were just as slow, hot and over crowded

-Arriving at the most famous and visited national park in Costa Rica, to discover there was at least a 1 hour wait to even get in (we didn’t bother… close but no cigar)...

-Our hostel having more frequent water supply cut outs than water supply...

-Having to pay $4 for a bottle of water to boil our potatoes (due to water supply cut out)

TENT CAMP, CORCOVADO NATIONAL-PARK

Highlights:

-Very fun and scenic boat ride getting there...

-The trees...

-Seeing the jungle meet the ocean, right at our doorstep...

-Storms... 

-Sunsets...

-Scoring the beachfront tent for our 3 night stay...

 
-Lizards/ Iguanas...

-Seeing a LOT of different monkeys:

-The Benjamin Button Monkey...

-The Stalker Monkey...

-The Spiderman Monkey (aka Spider monkey)...

-The Dieting Monkey... 

-The Show Off Monkey...

-The Binge Eating Monkey...

-The Zen Monkey...

-The Cheeky Monkey...

-Getting our bird watch on...

-Finding a Tapir (apparently extremely lucky to see one in the wild)...

(Picture courtesy of Google*)

-Exotic beaches to ourselves...

-Meeting some lovely Swedish girls who worked in a zoo and mothered a chimp for 18 months in their apartment! Many great stories shared!...

-Spotting dolphins...

 

Lowlights:

-Being stung under the armpit within the 1^st minute of snorkelling by this guy... 

-Snorkelling with poor visibility while dodging jellies and floating debris!...

-Worst snorkel experience ever!...

-Near death experience (by coconut) while sleeping under a palm on the exotic beach...

  ... this wouldn't have tickled!...

-Walking around in a steamy hot jungle for 5 hours to find the Tapir sleeping in amongst some sticks and looked more like a rock than a Tapir... 

*Note the difference between the google picture and our picture

DRAKE BAY

Highlights:

-Having a room with a fan, a view, running water and wifi... fancy!

-Watching the wildlife from our veranda...

-Having a kitchen and making a hearty home cooked meal

Lowlights:

-Extremely slow internet, making uploading our Nicaz blog extremely painful

-Power cut outs = no fan and no wifi

-Hidden view because of the rains

-Succumbing to food poisoning post making hearty home cooked meal (yet another filthy kitchen... we blame the cutting board!)

-Getting the 4 am bus to Bolita's post a hot sleepless night, only to realise 3 hours into the journey, that we were on a bus going in the wrong direction. Suddenly our relatively uncomfortable journey, turned into an exceedingly uncomfortable one

BOLITA'S

-Bolita's is a hostel situated in amongst 150 acres of rainforest, neighbouring Corcovado National Park, ran by a guy named Ron

-After our 6hr journey turned into 13hrs, we arrived at Ron's empty office just as heavy rains commenced. We had to wait, for the rains to lighten, before hiking 30mins up to the hostel... the day just kept going onnnnn....

-But wait, only another 30min hike up the rainforest, including a river crossing... at this point we were hoping the journey was worth it!...

-We arrive at this “hostel”, to discover it was more  like a shoddy cubby house constructed by a twelve year old...  

-Why Bolita's?... Because of the 5 star reviews on Trip Advisor. Oh, and it’s rustic and  very affordable nature...

-Before we dive on into the highlights and lowlights of Bolita’s we thought it important to provide a bit of an introduction about “Ron”... 

Ron is a 48 year old Canadian who bought the property10 years ago (thankfully he stays in the office 30 mins away, which has that river crossing and a jungle separating us). Ron is a nudist. Ron likes to talk about nudity. Ron likes to talk about past sexual encounters and failed and failing relationships. Ron mentions to us on numerous occasions that he will try to keep his clothes on whilst we are staying there in case we give him a poor review on trip advisor ( About the hostel or Ron’s appearance- still not sure…)

Conversation with Ron seemed to follow a similar pattern as follows: Ron says something very personal; Ron is distracted by exotic wildlife; Ron then recommences the conversation.  For example…

Ron: You know a few years ago we had guests here and the wife was naked, the husband was naked, I was naked.

**Scarlet Macaw flies past**

Oh that you see is a Scaret Macaw

Kris and Alice sit awkwardly and quietly

Ron: It was just great. I love being naked.

Ron: I’ve stopped walking around naked since a tourist gave me a bad review on trip advisor

** Green Parrot squawks**

Ahh that you hear is a green parrot.

Kris and Alice sit awkwardly and quietly

Ron:  I get really jealous when people are naked and I am not.

Ron: The divorced lady who used to own this property propositioned me to be her husband but I said no.

** Toucan rustles in trees**

You hear that!! That’s a toucan.

Kris and Alice sit awkwardly and quietly

Ron: I still slept with her though.

Highlights:

-Beautiful Nature...

-Being completely off the tourist trail...

-Hiking to waterfalls...

-Having 150 acres of jungle trails to ourselves...

                           (Where's Wally???)

-Living very basically and cooking camping style. Oh and not getting food poisoning!...

-Hammock time...

-Sleeping to the sound of Howler Monkeys

Lowlights:

-Thirty minute hike up through jungle with backpacks and food supply in the Costa Rican heat and humidity

-Tent on ground in “dorm” (next to storage area)

 

-Finding out our favourite birds, the toucans, are actually evil and eat other bird's babies!

-No electricity

-Isolation (we were the only people on the farm – very scary at night)

-Bugs, bugs, bugs and more bugs

-Fear of snake bites, breaking legs, monkey ripping face off

-Heat and humidity

-Proximity of Howler Monkeys to our open air dorm

San Jose

Highlights:

-King sized bed with clean sheets and no mosquito net required (low risk of bed bugs)

-Hot shower with good pressure and low risk of electrocution

-Irish Pub- (we cannot tell you how god this was after roughing it for two weeks!). We were so excited we drank three beers and ate a beef burger in less than sixty minutes.

-Consistent electricity and internet supply.

Lowlights:

-Taking the eight hour chicken bus to get there

Monteverde

Highlights:

-Hummingbirds

  
-Rain forests and Cloud forests...

-Zip lining over the forest canopies (1560m long!!)...

-Seeing a sloth in the flesh!...

-Night tour...

Lowlights:

-Tarzan swing on zip lining tour; 40 m high, 35m freefall before the swing even started a… the name was misleading (Alice decided not to do it in case she shat her zipline harness… the guides told us that people had done this before… actually the guide himself!)

Santa Teresa

Highlights:

-The view from our accommodation...

-Upgrading to the air con room

-Trying out some short surfboards

-Having a pool!

Lowlights:

-Seeing the pet dogs swimming and drinking in the pool, and a nappy hanging off the pool fence

-Trying short surfboards in terrible, terrible conditions!

-Dust +++ (people wear snowboard goggles and masks on their 4 wheelers for dust protection)...

-Extremely hot and dry

-Stinky drains...

-The expense of our accommodation and it being up a huge hill!

Montezuma

Highlights:

-Relaxed hippy vibe...

-The coastline...

-Watching the surfers defy death on the point break...

-Waterfalls...

Lowlights:

-Finding out it is too unsafe to swim in the ocean during this time of year (the hottest)

-Realising it is going to be a hellish 4 day journey back to Australia. Tomorrow 6 hr public bus/ferry ride to San Jose. The day after a 18hr day in transit to LAX. The day after we plan to shop and replace our disgusting, sour smelling, balling, ripped clothes in Santa Monica before getting our 15hr flight home... no, to New Zealand. Then, we finally board another flight home.

Anticipated highlights and lowlights....

Highlights: 

-Seeing friends and family again

-Guzzling our body weight in wine on the AIR NZ flight home

Lowlights:

-Alice sitting down for long periods of time what we now think is a suspected tail bone fracture (thank-you shitty guide on Day Of Death, in Guatemala!)

-Constipation due to air time, plane food, dehydration and immobility (sorry to the non nurses and dietitians who are reading this blog... also sorry to Glenn-but thanks for your hospitality on Alice's first night in Australia) 

-Waiting in many lines

We thank-you very much for tuning into our blog. We have had such an amazing experience in the past three and a half months. The highlights and lowlights have been unforgettable. However, it has also been a reminder of how much we love our family, friends and home country. We really look forward to catching up (you mean the world to us!) before we move to Darwin in May, 2013. 

Lots of love,

Kralice!