Costa Rica – The Highlights

1. The Food – We had some really delicious food, but most of all I loved the fresh fruit juices. As Amy put it, this tastes so real! mmmm
2. Travel companions – I really enjoyed traveling with Amy, my rational side. Esther, my little. And Leanne, my hulk. I got to learn more about these great people, bond with them, and see new sides of them. I enjoyed seeing Amy’s eyes light up when she ate/saw/experience something cool, and squeezing her arm whenever I liked something. I miss you guys!
3. The scenery and green-ness of the country – The country is so green and beautiful! There were hills, volcanoes, blue water, white sand, and things I can’t even describe in abundance.
4. The vast adventure options available – nothing like a little adrenaline rush from Ziplining, jumping off a tarzan swing, going into class IV rapids, and riding public buses that teeter on the edge of steep hills.
5. The friendliness of the people – they were always very patient with our Spanish and generally helpful. Compared to my experience in Madrid, where I always felt confused and lost in the bustle, Costa Rica was like a warm mother.
6. Pura Vida!

Costa Rica – Day 10 – Back home…

We said our goodbyes to San Jose and were on our way back to the United States. First stop Hotlanta. The in-flight movie was not nearly as good as Twilight. Instead, we watched The Day the Earth Stood Still which cause me to fall asleep halfway through. One funny part of that movie however, was when Keanu Reeves met an old Chinese man in a McDonalds. They were both aliens, and spoke in Mandarin. I asked Esther if they were speaking Alien-language or Chinese. She said that all Old Chinese Men are actually aliens. Since she’s Chinese I have to believe her.

In HotLanta, Esther and I desperately searched for a Chic-Fil-A, but to no avail. Despite going to another terminal where we believed the chain to be located, we were reminded that Chic-Fil-A is closed on Sundays. Dreams denied. Meanwhile, Amy worked her magic with the Freshen’s man to give her mountains of M&M’s.

The rest of our trip was eh. First, our flight back to Boston was delayed an hour. Then after boarding the plane, we were informed that air traffic control would not let us depart for another hour. Another plane needed the gate, so we had to sit off to the side somewhere. However, the three of us completed an entire crossword (which I have never done before!) in 45 minutes, when someone decided that they did not feel well and had to be brought back to the gate. Our ETD was then pushed back another hour. Finally, we made it back into the skies, and unfortunately, returned to cold Boston and MIT psets.

Costa Rica – Day 9 – San Jose/Heredia

For our last full day in Costa Rica, Amy made the great decision that we should go on a coffee tour. We were driven out to Heredia where Cafe Britt was located. On the way, we drove through Escazú, a wealthy area that has experienced an influx of foreigners in the past decade. It looked like the United States, it was a little scary. There was the Hiper Mas,basically a Wal-mart, a hooters, outback steakhouse, an upscale mall and hotels, and the architecture had completely changed from the small, one-story, corrugated metal roofs and bars homes to familiar multi-story condominiums and buildings with tan facades and tinted green windows.

When we arrived at Cafe Britt, we were welcomed by delicious iced coffee that was pure sweetness of heaven. The tour consisted of three characters, 2 men and 1 women who “worked” at the coffee plantation. They were actually actors, but entertaining and informative. They detailed the growing and processing processes required for coffee beans. At one point they asked for a volunteer. Esther shot up her hand, and was taken into some bushes. She emerged with a giant coffee bean!

Esther found a giant coffee bean in the forest!

We then went into a small auditorium where they asked for 2 more volunteers to help quality test the coffee. Amy volunteered for this one and showed her skills by smelling the beans, slurping the coffee so that it would touch all the taste bud areas, and more. She was a quality tester on a whole different level than the other volunteer. For her mastery, she won a prize, a small bag that said “Yo visite Costa Rica” with a bag of coffee inside. They then went through this absurd skit about how coffee came to Costa Rica-there was a marriage, rolling costumes, and craziness. Needless to say I got a little lost.

Amy, master coffee tester, and slurper!

Next, the three of us were on the special “coffee lovers” tour, where we proceeded to the wet mill where the coffee beans are processed. The fourth stage of this process is where workers rake the beans on a drying patio as Esther demonstrates below.

Esther, master coffee bean raker!

After lunch, we met up with Carla who showed us how to make espresso and specialty coffee drinks. I got to make a layered drink with coffee, foam, syrup, and liquor. Esther and Amy made Espressos, Amy made foam, and Esther went overboard with the chocolate syrup.

 

Julia, master sugary coffee drinker!

Amy, master foam maker!

Julia, master foam pourer, and Esther, master espresso maker!

Full of caffeine and chocolate-covered fruit jelly samples we headed home satisfied.

Costa Rica – Day 8 – San Jose

Return to San Jose

We returned to San Jose on a morning bus from Quepos and decided to grab some lunch and then head to the National Gold Museum.

Gold Museum

Lunch was interesting because it was the most I had felt confused when speaking to someone in Spanish. We went to a family restaurant and asked for a menu, but they didn’t have one! I tried to order Casado with Chicken but I didn’t understand how it was cooked, so I asked for it a la plancha, or grilled, but then there was more confusion. It turned out fine, and the meal was good, so it was off the gold museum!

The museum had 3 different sections. The top floor was about the history of money in Costa Rica. The second floor had a contemporary art exhibit and section about the theory of color and how light waves work. The third floor was about gold in pre-colombian Costa Rica. There were some really neat frog and turtle gold pieces as seen above. I would say my favorite exhibit was definitely the light wave and color exhibit, even though it had nothing to do with gold! It reminded me of my conceptual model project for senior design. Plus, color is awesome. I think in my next life phase I’m going to design things.

Costa Rica – Day 7 – Manuel Antonio

We started off by heading into Quepos to buy our bus tickets, some souvenirs, and snack supplies for the beach. Leanne bought some cool boxes, Esther bought a panda ice cream bar that reminded her of the motherland, Amy bought a bag of fritos, and I tested out all the musical frogs possible. Now I must explain more about the musical frogs, which I first saw in Monteverde.  They are wooden frogs with a ridged back which you pass an included wooden stick over, and they make a frog noise!  I found these frogs endlessly amusing and ended buying 5 of them as gifts.  I plan to keep a trifecta of these musical frogs, one of each wood color.  Off to the beach!

Manuel Antonio National Park

 

After a 15 minute hike on a dirt road, we were suddenly at the beach!  The water was blue, the sand was white, and the trees were so vividly green.  We planted ourselves under a shady tree, laid out our towels, and plopped down for a day at the beach.  We all ventured into the water, enjoyed a swim, a nap, light beach reading, and eating fritos- for a while.  I was sitting on my towel turning my head back and forth to enjoy the view, when I spotted a raccoon right beside Esther and Amy’s head.  I screamed. The raccoon grabbed the bag of fritos in its teeth and ran off.  It dumped the bag out right next to the trail and started eating them about 15 ft away.

That’s when I noticed monkeys hanging out in the nearby trees.  They were adorable, picking insects off eachother, sliding down the branches, and splaying out across the branch just chilling out.  Then they spotted the fritos, shooed the raccoon away, and ate them.  I think the excess sodium in the fritos made the monkeys more aggressive because then they got closer and closer to our stuff.  One monkey was hovering in the tree, right above my bag which didn’t even contain any food, staring at it.  Below is a picture of a different monkey, and how close it got to me when attempting to steal my stuff.  Yes, it was right at my feet as shown in the below pic.  That was not the only animal that got close to my feet however.  Earlier in the day I had been laying down, and felt something brush my foot.  I sat up, and it had been a small iguana!

 Agua Azul

We decided to go to a restaurant owned by two Americans called Agua Azul that we overheard a girl recommended to another group of Americans on the bus.  Leanne and I got the Panko-crusted Tuna, Amy got the Coconut encrusted mahi mahi with an avocado/pineapple slaw, and Esther got Mango BBQ Ribs.  They were all delicious and went well with our fruity margaritas.  When they tried to take away Esther’s ribs, Leanne and I said “NOOOOoooooooo” and finished them off for her.  For dessert, three of us got the Brownie Sundaes and devoured them.  When the busboy tried to take Amy’s unfinished plate away, she said “NOOOOooooooo,” and he backed off.  It was that good, no bites left behind. mmmm.

Costa Rica- Day 6 – Manuel Antonio National Park

Another early morning…our first bus took 3 hours from Monteverde to Puntarenas. After a 2 hours layover in Puntarenas, a hot, dirty, polluted port city, we were off to Quepos, a city very close to the park, which took another 3.5 hours. Since we couldn’t make breakfast, the people at La Mariposa were

Our hotel, Hotel Mimos, had a swimming pool, so to cool off after the sweaty bus rides, we jumped into the pool. There were noodles, kickboards, and it was fun to just kick back and relax and play like kids again.

For dinner, we went to Gnam, and Italian restaurant recommended by our Italian hotel owner. Leanne and I ordered pesto gnocchi, Esther a sandwich, and Amy spaghetti with vegetable sauce. The owner of Gnam was a very enthusiastic Italian man. I tried out my very rusty Italian and made some mistakes with him, and reverted back to Spanish. Amy made her happy face and said that her dish was so much better than the North End. For dessert, Amy and I got gelato, also very delicious!

The one thing that really surprised me about Manuel Antonio was how developed the road from Quepos to the Park is. It was the most American and Spring Break-esque place I did seen all trip. It wasn’t actually that bad at all, considering the extreme of Cancun 2 spring breaks ago, but it was still more than expected. I expect it will only get worse in the future. Currently, it takes 4 hours to go to the beach from San Jose. They are building a new road that will make it take only 1 hour.

Costa Rica - Day 5 – Monteverde Part II

Monteverde Cloud forest

After lunch, Leanne and I headed back to the cloud forest, this time during the day while Amy and Esther headed into town. While we didn’t get to see many animals, we did see a millipede, monkeys, and birds. Hiking through the trail was cool because it would be dark and shady, then super bright, and then all in-between. The various trees and plants made the light come in all different amazing ways. We then made our way up to the continental divide and got a nice view of the mountain and Nicoya gulf. Another highlight was getting to walk on the hanging bridge and stand above canopy layers that would normally be walking beneath. To cap off our journey, we walked to a small waterfall, and then headed home. All in all, it was a very productive and eventful day.

Our evening consisted of a stop at the Ranario (a frog zoo that I really wanted to go to), dinner in town at a Pizzeria, and standing beneath the nightsky gaping upwards in amazement at how many stars we could see.

A highlight of the night was when there was a giant cockroach, like the size of 2 quarters, in our room. Leanne and Esther started freaking out and screaming, but nobody would sacrifice their shoe. Amy procured a ziploc bag, and I gently captured it, sealed the bag and threw it on the floor. Esther stomped on it and all was peaceful once again at La Mariposa.

Costa Rica – Day 5 – Monteverde Part I

By this point in the trip we were beginning to have enough rice and beans and were yearning for more traditional breakfast foods. La Mariposa hit the spot with pancakes and fruit.

Ziplining

While planning our trip Amy and I hypothesized all the ways we could die. We could drown in the river while rafting, 3rd degree suburns, bad food, and fall off a zipline and plunge to our death in the forest. All very unlikely, but still. When choosing among the vaiours ziplining companies I chose a company that had a tarzan swing.

Essentially with a Tarzan Swing you jump off a platform and swing on a long rope through the jungle. We were a little scared of the swing, but did it anyways. Overall, the ziplines were really awesome. It took me a little bit to get a hang of ziplining without twisting, but after that it was smooth sailing. The lines were a combination of shorter and longer ones that were so extensive you couldn’t even see the other end!You go really fast on the lines, but I still made sure to take the time to enjoy the beautiful views while gliding over the forest and peer out at the hilly landscape.

Costa Rica – Day 4 - Monteverde

We ate a delicious breakfast of gallo pinto, tortillas, eggs, fruit including ripe mango, and juice.  It was my favorite breakfast of the trip tied with the rios tropicals rafting breakfast.

Jeep-Boat-Jeep

I was really excited for our transfer to our next location, Monteverde because we were taking a jeep-boat-jeep shortcut across Lago Arenal to cut down on the long driving time.  Sadly, there were no jeeps driving down rustic paths, but just the typical turismo vans driving down twisty, unpaved, bumpy roads that made Esther look like a bobblehead in the row in front of us.

La Mariposa

We finally arrived in Monteverde to our wonderful hotel – La Mariposa B & B.  The man at the desk, Esteban, was so kind and helpful and spoke very clear spanish that I could keep up with. 

Monteverde Cheese Factory

We got to learn all about how cheese is made at this factory!  The best part was the end when we got to taste the different types of cheese made at the factory!  There was a Gouda, Swiss, smoked provolone, Emmental, and dulce de leche mmmm.  Beforehand, we all had also gotten different flavors of ice cream at the factory store.  I got Guanabana and Orange-Pineapple.  Delicious.

After the tour we headed back to the hotel where the four of us proceeded to share stories and bond.  aww, it was a lot of fun.

Night Walk

The Monteverde Cloud Forest offers a night walk tour where you get to see different animals than you would during the day.  There was a giant cricket that as Esther put it, looked like a grasshopper crossed with a shrimp.  We also saw a few drogs, other insects, and larvae.  The coolest part was when Leanne and I got to squeeze inside of a gigantic tree that was hollow inside and peered up into the top of the inside of the tree with our flashlights.  At the end we also saw a chinkachu (sp?) in a tree, or rather its beady red eyes staring back at us.

It was a lot colder in Monteverde than I was expecting to get on the trip so Amy and I huddled for warmth.

Costa Rica – Day 3 - Arenal

Another early morning wake up to transfer to our next location- Arenal. We took a taxi to the bus station, and asked several people where we could buy tickets and if we were in the right bus station. We got affirmative responses, however, apparently Ticos will tell you a wrong answer and respond positively even if they don’t know the answer! We were not at the right station or in the right line as we found out 20 minutes later. We took a taxi to the right station, got in another wrong line, but finally made it onto our bus to Arenal.

We stayed the Arenal Oasis Ecolodge in a rustic cabin. Esther was fascinated by domestic bunnies hopping around. I was fascinated by ants walking across paths carrying large leaf chunks.

Casado at Soda

Casado is a typical meal in Costa Rica of rice, beans, plantains, meat, and perhaps some salad or fruit. A soda is a family-run diner. They are everywhere in Costa Rica, and provide delicious and cheap meals. Everyone loved their meal at this soda. Amy’s eyes lit up when she tried her orange. “It tastes real!” she exclaimed. This is also where Leanne first discovered the glory of the Guanabana fruit. We first thought that the drink would be a combination of guava and banana. It turned out to be a white-ish color with a sweet flavor. Esther and Leanne’s casado also had a unidentifiable but delicious shredded meat/cabbage/orange colored pile.

Arenal Volcano

The main sight at our destination was the Arenal Volcano. We took a tour of the area, went to a viewpoint of the volcano, hiked through forest with monkeys and baby monkeys on their backs, birds, defensive plants that closed up when you touched them, and went to another viewpoint where we got to see sparks of lava coming out of the volcano.

Baldi Hot Springs

After the tour we went to the Baldi hot springs. We jumped into comfortably warm pools, stood under pounding warm waterfalls, and transitioned ourselves up to hotter pools. There was a pool so hot that I could only stick my hand in for 2-3 seconds before I had to pull it out. After the springs, we headed home all relaxed and ready for a good sleep.

As seen, we constantly woke up very early in Costa Rica to transfer to the next destination or to go on adventures. By the end of day 3 we felt like we had been there for a long time already!

Costa Rica - Day 2 – White Water Rafting

Esther’s Birthday!

Esther’s Birthday started off nice and early when we were whisked away from our hotel to go rafting through class III-IV rapids on the Río Pacuare. I’ve been rafting a few times before, but this was definitely the most fun I’ve had for various reasons.

1) We had an awesome rafting guide. When he found out it was Esther’s birthday he splashed her about 20 times with his paddle and 2 minutes into the expedition he pushed her out of the raft, dunked her, and pulled her back into the raft. He also made her go sit in the front of the raft and lean forward so that the rapids would douse her completely. It was hilarious.

2)He was also awesome because he knew we wanted to have fun, and did different things like have us all turn around and paddle backwards into rapids which was a very interesting sensation. Also cool, half the raft sat backwards, half forward, and everyone paddled forward which causes the raft to spin in the circles in the rapid, which threw Amy and I across the raft.

3) Towards the end of the journey, Leanne and I both did the same thing Esther did earlier and sat at the front of the raft, got covered in waves, and loved it.

4) There was this beautiful part of the river where it narrowed into a canyon-esque area, and we were able to jump out and swim around.

5) Our guide was also really good at telling us more about the trees and animals were passing on the side of the river, more about the country, etc.

6) One the rafts got wrapped around a rock in a rapid zone, right before a drop and there was a cool rescue scene. I thought we might flip as our guide was yelling at us to paddle harder. We paddle right into a wall, bounced off, went into the drop…just as an indian guy fell out of the wrapped raft. We plunged directly on top of him, he re-emerged seconds later, and we pulled him in. It took around 20 minutes for the whole team of guides to unwrap the raft from the rock, and rescue the fallen. These guys were awesome, they were swimming upriver into rapids!

7) There were a couple guys in kayaks from the company to take pictures and rescue people. This one guy leveraged himself and flipped his kayak up into the air, did a 360, and landed back in the water! He also did this through rapids. I was amazed.

8) The breakfast and lunch they provided were delicious. Mmmm platains, yucca, and potatoes in this red sauce. Leanne and I could not get enough.

Sadly, due to the nature of our trip, there aren’t any rafting pics :(

For dinner, we went out for Esther’s bday, enjoyed fruit juices, and cake!

Costa Rica - Day 1 - Beginnings....

The beginnings of Costa Rica 2009!!! started with Amy, Esther, and I departing from Boston Logan airport on Friday afternoon. We connected in HotLanta, searched for a chic-fil-a (but were not successful) , and were on our way to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. Esther and I watched Twilight on the second leg of our journey and laughed at the ridiculous of the movie. Finally, we were in the great country of Costa Rica! We met up with Leanne at the luggage carousel...well more like my eyes got all big and excited when I saw my orange bag on the luggage carousel and I ran over to get my bag when I felt a those oh so familiar arms wrap around me to give me a big hug! Leanne and "Big Green" aka her new backpack made the quartet complete, and we were off to the hotel. Our Hotel, Hotel Aranjuez, was this cute hotel made up of old costa rican family homes connected and converted into a homey living situation. Soon we were off to bed, dreaming of our great White Water Rafting adventure the next morning!