COSTA RICA - New Years 2014

 

E Espaniol click aqui.

Photos for this log are here . Trip Preview Video link is here, and here (if you have facebook) and here is another. Others may be added later.

December 19th, 2013, Seattle Washington;
Its getting a little late to plan a trip but work is closed for a few weeks and I have some points to use or lose. Looking at far away places I hadn't been, Costa Rica looked appealing and reasonable. I talked with a few friends who had been around and found a great deal, then booked a flight.

December 26th;
Looks like the trip is all planned and off to San Jose, Costa Rica early, arriving in the evening. I arrive and all is good. Go to the car rental at the San Jose airport and even with a reservation, all cars are gone. I see so many people upset but they ask me to call in the morning so I knew of The Maleku Hostel in Alajuela just 5 minutes from the airport and take a taxi to there for the night where the stay in $12.

In the morning I call Alamo and even with a reservation, no cars for at least 3 days! I find a business card of Jose, and he has one Honda CRV to rent to me, and shows up with the car. I was very lucky and the car was a great deal. It was also very good to have 4WD for the trip and I set off!

My route roughly had a few more stops then shown (map runs out of pinpoints).

First day, Friday, I try to get lost from San Jose to Dulce Numbre as much as possible till the evening checking out the side of the volcano at Alajuela, exploring neighborhoods in San Jose, Cartago and eventually in the small towns. I ask around for a hotel and eventually find in the middle of nowhere, Las Orquideas Hotel next to Jardin Botanical Gardens. The room was extremely nice. The receptionist was in the room (a port in the wall). You just drove in, parked the car in the garage, closed the door and into the room for the night.

The next day, I lost myself in the jungles and canyons in the area, then made my way to Paraiso, winding mountain roads past Juan Vinas, Turrialba, Siquirres and eventually to Cahuita National Park. I really loved the views and talking to a few people in the high mountains where they were growing coffee on the hillsides of the volcanoes.

Cahuita, on the Caribbean was very hot compared to the drive through the high mountains. I got a hostel room and enjoyed the beaches and people but it was a tourist area. Dinner was good and the town had live reggae music going in the center. It was fun to mingle there. In the morning I hiked the 8 km through the park along the beach which was wonderful. There was all kinds of animals in the jungle along the walk. Eventually getting near the road again, some locals asked me to join them for lunch which was meat, squeezed oranges and other wonderful food and I hadn't ate so this was great. I walked out of the park and took a bus back to Cahuita, then headed to Limon.

Limon is a port town with so many trucks. The roads out of town were interesting to navigate to say the least. I drove through town not knowing that the native language is closer to English then anywhere in Costa Rica. It was still very interesting but I moved along, Eventually ending the afternoon in Guapiles where a local recommended cabins (cabinas) by the highway and the restaurant there which was wonderful, except for the fact they made me sing Karaoke "Imagine" by John Lennon just because I didn't speak Spanish. I met a few great people again and crashed for the night. Guapiles is about the center of banana country.Regarding Spanish music and the language, it is beautiful. During the Kareoke, people sang so great there in spanish with wonderful voices. It was an experience to hear this and much appreciated.

Driving from Guapiles the area seemed more beautiful with more jungles, hills, rivers and volcanoes. I stopped in Puerto Viejo and talked with people while a storm blew through. I almost stayed since the people seemed so nice. From Puerto Viejo to Aguas Zarcas, the drive was wonderful and I wanted to explore more. This was all a transition area from the flats to the volcano side towns, starting to get cooler and very pretty. I found a place to stay and settled in Aquas Zarcas to try to slow myself down and just walk around and enjoy the area.

Next day or two, I stayed around Aguas Zarcas enjoying the company of new friends especially and exploring new places. I took a trip to La Fortuna by Volcano Arenal and relaxed for a day in the hot springs of Baldi resort. The people, the water, food, views and sounds were very pleasant. I had to stay close, so wondered back to Aquas Zarcas for New Years Eve, but spent it relaxing. Watched a few local fireworks. Again, the local people there were very kind and I enjoyed meals with a few people I met.

In the morning, I pointed myself toward the pacific coast. It was a long drive around Lake Arenal and very windy but beautiful. I very much enjoyed a local spot where people parked and hiked down to a hot spring river coming down the mountain. It was soooo very nice here! I could have stayed there for days, but spend an afternoon in the water and talking with people.

Eventually, I drove to Canas and stayed the night at another hotel. I had a great pescado dinner and met met Augusto Silva, a law teacher from San Jose, in town centro where we went for a cerveza and talked about life while watching the powerful movie Apocolypto . Funny, how I was spending so much time just wishing I could speak better Spanish, then a movie comes on with no words but so easy to understand. Seems most of the trip I'd been able to communicate almost anything I wanted without even speaking Spanish. I still have a very strong desire to learn Spanish but this was an interesting concept to think about. Everything so far, had been such a great adventure and its hard to say how much a trip like this can make us appreciate out lives and the things we do and learn. I still will learn to speak Spanish better. While walking back to my hotel, I met some guys playing guitar and hanging out who were fluent in English and, again, we talked about some of our life journeys and adventures. It was very nice to meet with them also. I may find their names again.

In the morning, I headed out on my tentative way. Before the trip, intended to spend some time on the pacific coast and learn to surf for a few days. Time was running out so I didn't get to do this plan but instead, trying to explore the small towns and maybe some waterholes and rivers. I ended up in Puntarenas and exploring the side streets of this area. I eventually found myself at the river on the south side of town where locals were swimming. I spent a few hours swimming and enjoying company. The locals were helping me out, communicating and making sure I was OK and that the rental car was far enough away as the river rose quick a few times. I got a hotel there somewhere near the airport, and enjoyed walking around the town by the beach. Back at the hotel I realized my flight out of Costa Rica was past....bummer? I changed plans to go to San Jose in the morning, to United at the airport and figure a new flight home.

Arriving near San Jose at the airport, I was able to change my flight for cheap but because of the cold snap in the USA, flight were full, so Jan 7th was the new date. Off I went on part II of my trip.

This was Saturday, I had a few days and still wanted to visit Manual Antonio National Park, so I headed again to Cartago and over the mountains to San Isidro de El General, the long way to the park and from what I hear, the highest road in the country. Looking at the topography, I was cruising the mountain tops driving around 10,000 ft to San Isidro. It was very pleasant! I decided to keep going down to the Pacific and stay in Quepos next to Manual Antonio Park. Had some great fish, stayed in the local Best Western on the beach in town front, and enjoyed the evening and the beach. In the morning, I drove to the park entrance and played in the ocean at the beach. It was about 90 degrees F there. I met some very nice people from Alajuala and Limon but it was so hot. I wanted to get back to the mountains so decided to head back toward Aguas Zarcas and maybe see some of the people I hung out with previously.

The drive was an adventure from Quepos to Aquas Zarcas. First, the highway was blocked off as most traffic was returning home (Sunday) from the weekend at the beaches to San Jose, so crazy driving, all traffic, heading citybound! I fit right in, passing sometimes on the left of the left traffic. It seemed crazy to me but maybe normal to the locals. Eventually, I got on small road to head over the hills to Zarcero and Quesada. Google images of these mountain towns and see how picturesque they are!

Sochell, Olga and Olga's family, Julie, Juan Gabriel, Heilyn Juan Gabriel's wife and his kids Jose Pablo and Camilla were all so gracious. They took me in! All the friends were also great to me. We had a wonderful time at Juan Gabriel's birthday party, dinner and cake. I stayed in the kids room for the evening at their house. Everyone there was so special. we had great meals and communicated as best as we could. I feel so lucky to be around people like this. It was very special to me.

Juan Gabriel made tentative plan with his brother, Sigifredo, to meet and go fly in the morning. We had another wonderful breakfast at Olga's house and headed to the La Fortuna airport to meet Juan Gabriel's brother. The airport had a fix base operator to run the flights but there were only three planes there and one was recently damaged. They said it blew a tire, ran into the bushes and bent one of the propellers and the gear so it would be down for a while (see photos). It still had grass in the wingtip that hit the ground obviously.

We opened the hangar to Sigifredo's Cessna 206 and got it ready for flight. Sigfredo wants to start a flying business so keep his name in mind if heading that way. It was a very nice plane. I would say there is maybe less than 100 small planes in the country of Costa Rica so this was a real privilegeand coincidence to go fly. We enjoyed the views around San Carlos, the mountains and the flat lands with beautiful cumulus clouds and many birds thermalling around. After the flight, we debriefed, said goodbye to Sigifredo and headed back to Aguas Zarcas. We had a little to eat then it was time for me to head towards San Jose for my flight to Seattle the next morning.

Juan Gabriel joined me for the drive to the other side of the mountains. This time, we drove further east between Poas Volcano and Barva Volcano, through Vana Blanca and Carrizal and taking small shortcut roads to Alajuela, where I made a hotel reservation for the evening and taxi plans for the morning. Juan Gabriel and I had a great dinner in town, returned my rental car to Jose without any problems then to the airport in the morning where I flew home to Seattle. I received a text from Juan Gabriel that he met a friend and got a ride home to Aquas Zarcas that morning.

I will miss this great adventure in Costa Rica and all the great surprises along the way. I have so much to write about this trip but as far as reflections, going somewhere helps learn more about home and of course, appreciating life. Meeting great people and seeing great country opens your mind so I hope to keep it as open as possible and try a few new things that I learned. I do need to learn languages, but yes, Hispaniola. It is a beautiful language so I need to find a way to learn. I've said this before....I'm open to ideas, but have a few. I would like to go back, but have many things to take care of at home too. Again, a great experience.