Monteverde

Yesterday morning we flew out from the Drake airport. And by airport, I mean a lean-to with a small landing strip.

From Monteverde

Our plane landed a few minutes before take-off, and I snagged a photo of it before we got in.

From Monteverde

I think there were about 15 seats on the plane, and it was actually quite comfortable inside. The flight lasted about 30 minutes, and it was relatively smooth. This is the smallest plane I have ever been on, Christie has taken some small planes around in northern canada before. I was able to take some cool photos out the window, including this beach that looks like a whale tail.

From Monteverde

We landed in San Jose and grabbed a taxi to get on a four hour bus ride to Monteverde. Here is a map showing you where we are:

From Escritorio

The roads here suck, really bad. I couldn't believe the bus was able to navigate the rutted out dirt roads, but it just went really, really slow. As we were crossing a bridge, there was a pack of howler monkeys in a tree right next to the road and they were screaming at the bus. If you have never heard a howler monkey, they are ridiculously loud, and their screams can be heard up to 3 miles away... These ones were about 10 feet away and all the windows were open on the bus, and it was LOUD!

We got into town and grabbed a bite to eat at a restaurant called the Tree House. It is clearly geared toward tourists (this whole town is actually), but it's kind of cool because it's outside and built around a 100 year old fig tree, and you literally have to duck under its branches to get to your table. After dinner we checked into our bed and breakfast, which has a kind of creepy bates motel vibe (at least in the dark). It is set into the cloud forest and is mostly pretty nice, save the shower. This is our hot water system (they call them suicide machines..notice the ground wire hanging loose):



Today we went out for a hike in the Santa Elena cloud forest reserve. A cloud forest is, well, a forest in the clouds :) But you are surrounded by actual clouds all around you, and its constantly wet from the mist. Mist drips off the leaves and makes it seem like it's raining. Every single surface is covered by moss, and it gives the whole place a sort of ancient, mystic feel to it. I will show you a couple of photos here, but be sure to check the slideshow at the end for all of them.

From Monteverde

More trees and vines

From Monteverde

At the end of our three hour hike we came upon some hummingbird feeders, and I was able to get up super close and just stand still and wait until they came up and get a good picture of them.

From Monteverde

As we were leaving, a group of people were gathered around a spotter's scope looking at a Quetzal in the trees. We took a peek, and it was really beautiful, but I couldn't really take a picture as it was through a telescope. Here is a picture of what they look like, for reference.



We turned to finally get in the van to go back, but then I saw a Coatimundi (pronounced quatimoondi) pop out of the woods and sniff around. They are basically raccoons with longer tails, but we thought he was a lot cuter than the ones that dig through trash back home.

From Monteverde

Here you can see the rest of the photos:

San Josecito

This morning we took a boat ride to a large, beautiful beach called San Josecito. The boat dropped us off with 4 of our friends we met at Finca Maresia, a couple from chicago and a couple from switzerland. It was about 45 minutes to get there, and the plan was to hike the way back along the beaches and trails to return to Drake. The pictures pretty much tell the story, it was a long hike. When we sat down to eat lunch, one of the dogs from the tent camp next to our cabin trotted up. He must have come several kilometers to meet us there, and he took us the whole way back to town.

From Hiking from San Josecito

We found a big moth who did not mind being photographed

From Hiking from San Josecito

Later on, Juan invited a band that was in town and a bunch of his friends over for a barbecue. He fired up a big grill and whipped up some salads to go along with all the meat. He was nice enough to cook me some fish and Christie got some grilled mushrooms, which she actually enjoyed quite a bit. We mostly hung out and talked with our friends from Switzerland and drank a few beers on the house.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Monteverde, which is in the north and is a high altitude cloud forest. Too bad I left my only sweatshirt on the bus :(

Kayaks

Today, we woke up late (like 7) and had a lazy breakfast with our host Juan. As usual, it was gallo pinto (beans and rice) and eggs, with a big plate of fresh fruit. Even though we have eaten the same thing each morning, its a great way to start the day when you are going to head out and do stuff in the morning.

We decided to rent a couple kayaks and explore the beaches around the area. After walking down from our cabin, we crossed a somewhat rickity hanging bridge and found the place that rents kayaks.

From Kayaking around Drake

Along the way we saw a big iguana and a scarlet macaw in the trees. I asked the lady if we could rent two boats, she asked for 20 dollars, we paid, and then she pointed to the dock. We hopped in and left, no deposit and no waivers or anything to sign. Heading out from the bay we immediately were overrun by a big wave and got totally soaked. No worries, we had the camera in a baggie, but it was sort of uncomfortable to be sitting in a pool of water the whole time. I was not brave enough to try to take any photos out on the ocean, but we found an empty beach pretty quick.

From Kayaking around Drake

Since we still have yet to find someone to teach us how to surf, Christie suggested I surf in the kayak on the waves breaking onto the beach. Good idea

From Kayaking around Drake

We laid around for a while, ate a snack and headed back into town for some lunch. Sodas are little food stands or shops and they sell typical set lunches of beans, rice, salads, and meats. People seem to disastrously overcompensate on the food because we are vegetarians, so we always end up with a massive pile of food for lunch. Today was no different, and I definitely needed some time in the hammock to digest.

Here are the rest of the photos from the day




Speaking of hammocks, here are some photos of Finca Maresia, as promised.

Shower:

From Maresia

Dog:

From Maresia

Juan and Claudia:

From Maresia

Hammock:

From Maresia

Here are the rest

Corcovado National Park

Today we woke up at 4:00 am to leave at 5 to visit Corcovado National Park. It is billed as the last huge stretch of pacific coastal rainforest in central america, so we hoped it was worth the ridiculous hour. As you might know, 4 am is more likely to be my bed time than wake up time, but its easy to fall asleep early here since the sun sets around 5:30 and there is not a lot to do at night besides have a couple beers and listen to the howler monkeys.

We hopped in the boat and were treated to a nice sunrise en route.

From Sirena

After a boat ride of a little over an hour, we pulled up to the beach to start our hike. Our guide, Carlos, warned us not to swim because of the bull sharks that frequent the area. We strapped on our boots and set to it, hiking for several hours through secondary forest. Apparently this area had families living on it with the forest cleared for pastures, until the government took it back around 1980. So, that means all the trees are only 30 years old maximum. Carlos mentioned that ranchers leave one or two massive trees for shade for the cows, and these 100 plus year old fig trees stuck out like a sore thumb alongside the rest of the smaller (but still big) trees.

From Sirena

We managed to find a Currasow, which is a huge turkey-like bird that walks along the ground and then half jumps half flies into a tree when threatened. The one we found was right in the middle of the path, then flew up in a tree when it saw us.

Carlos stopped to show us a termite mound (hive?), and explained that a teaspoon of them has as much protein as a steak. Of course I had to eat some... They had a minty flavor to them. After arriving at the first ranger station, we went looking for Tapirs, but were unsuccessful in finding any. We found a pack of squirrel monkeys, one with babies on its back, running around in the trees around us. These are pretty endangered, so this was a rare sight. Other monkeys we found included the howler monkey and the spider monkey, although the squirrels were the only ones that were close. We also saw a few pair of scarlet macaws high in the trees (sorry I don't have a nice SLR to get shots of them), along with leaf cutter ants and a variety of birds.

From Sirena

En route to the next ranger station, Carlos just jumped in the water when the boat slowed down. Not to be shown up by his display, I tossed off my shirt and hopped in after him. We swam under a small natural bridge and saw some Boobies (the birds) nesting in the side of the cliff.

From Sirena

Our second stop was another ranger station which our host Juan described as being "for old people". I guess this means its more accessible and less strenuous hiking. Right on the beach there was an anteater sleeping in a tree, which was pretty cool.

From Sirena

Carlos took us down some trails to a small waterfall you could swim in, and although it was packed with tourists, we didn't care. On a side note, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a german tourist anywhere we have ever been, and this holds true even here.

After swimming we headed back on the boat and ate lunch on the way to Drake. We were lucky enough to have some dolphins swim beside our boat, and somehow I snagged a (blurry) photo of one popping its head out of the water.

From Sirena

Once again, our host Juan was waiting with ice cold beers and inviting hammocks, just what we needed after a long day full of hiking.

Tomorrow I will post some more pictures of our room at Finca Maresia, since its basically the nicest place either of us have ever stayed, by far.

Here are the rest of the photos from today.

Drake

Today (2/16), we set out from Sierpe for Drake, which is a small town of about 500 people in the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. Let me tell you about the weather for a second, its hot.... really hot. Remember the angry sun from Mario 3? The one that sits up top and then gets real mad and comes down to burn you to death? Well, he is here... and trying to kill us.

From Escritorio

Getting to Drake from Sierpe involves hopping a boat for an hour and a half through a mangrove forest down the river, as there is no direct road in from this area. Josh was nice enough to give us a lift into town on his motorcycle.

From Traveling to Drake

As we pulled away from the dock, we were hit with some sage advice

From Traveling to Drake

The boat stopped at some random beach and a guy waded out to his knees to give us someone´s cell phone which needed to be repaired... We were also carrying lots of supplies bound for Drake, as most of the stuff needs to come in by boat.

The boat ended up landing on the beach and we hopped off to find our ride waiting to take us to our cabin, and some kids playing in the sand.

From Drake Kids

There is one road in Drake, and its a nasty gravel affair that goes almost straight uphill. The 'taxis' here are just locals who have cars and will take people around if you call them. It turns out my spanish is pretty good, and lots of people start rambling on in spanish very fast when I start speaking to them. Unfortunately, I can pick out about every fifth word when they are speaking too fast, but I can talk alright. We had a nice guy named Arrones take us up to our new place, Finca Maresia (more on this tomorrow)

From Traveling to Drake

San Jose to Sierpe

Today (2/15), we arrived in San Jose after our overnight flight and hopped a bus to the south. Many people had said that San Jose is not a good place to be and to leave as soon as possible... We thought "how bad could it really be"... Well they were right, it really does make you want to leave as soon as possible. Everywhere you look there is razor wire, electric fences, and police with big guns. Luckily our taxi driver knew where we were going, even though we did not. Costa Rica has a variety of bus systems and each has their own set of stations, so we were very confused. We arrived in time to get a bus and get rolling.

The buses here stop anywhere along the way to drop people off or pick them up, just on the side of the road. Sometimes a vendor will hop on selling drinks and chips and stuff, then get off up the road, presumably to get on the next bus. Our bus was slow going through the mountains, as the highway is only 1 lane in each direction and passing was very difficult. Once we arrived in the town of Palmar, we were able to get some money from a bank and continue to Sierpe, a sleepy river town an hour's boat ride from our final destination. The final bus leg was on an old yellow school bus and it was completely packed with locals making grocery runs, since the village in Sierpe is really small. It was really hot and sweaty, with people in every seat and standing throughout. Bumping along the dirt road, we came upon a police blockade. The bus had to stop and men with large assault rifles came on and asked everyone for identification and searched their bags. By this point, we were feeling exhausted, hot, and we did not smell very good at all. Christie had to remind me not to try and take a photo of them, lest they take my camera, or something worse.

Finally we arrived in the village, only to realize we had missed our stop for the cabin we were staying in that night. Back up the road we walked for about an hour in the sun, finally arriving in a stinky wet mess. Nonetheless, our hosts were really happy to see us. Josh and Ashley, a couple from Canada, had moved here two weeks ago to run these cabins with their son Trevor (he was about 6 or 7 I think). We took a much needed shower and came to chat with them. They explained they were just getting started, and still doing a lot of work on the place. It turns out we were their first guests, and Trevor was very excited to have someone who spoke english around, since all of his new friends at school only speak spanish.

From Sierpe

For dinner, Josh and Ashley prepared a traditional Canadian favorite, poutine. It is basically french fries covered with cheese and gravy, along with rice and beans. They couldn't believe we had never tried it before, and it was really good, if a little salty for our tastes. We stayed up and chatted with Trevor until his bedtime and then we retired to read for a bit and crash for roughly twelve hours. Tomorrow we are heading to the remote village of Drake to stay for four nights.

Here are the rest of the pictures from Sierpe

Confusion about Japan posts

Yesterday I uploaded our old emails from Japan in 2006 so they would all be in the same place, and one of them appeared as if it was from yesterday - sorry about that :) Sadly, we are not in Japan again.

Coming Soon: Costa Rica

Sunday night we are heading to Costa Rica for 2 weeks - follow along as we hike our way through the jungle and.... Well you will have to wait and see for the rest :)