Costa Rica: Part 3

Previous Recaps: 
Costa Rica: Part 2
Costa Rica: Part 1

It's hard to believe we were only in Costa Rica for 4 days (excluding travel days) because we saw so much of the local culture and did so many activities.  Vacations are never long enough but we really took advantage of our time down there.

Our third morning in CR we decided to do a tour of Manuel Antonio National Park.  We knew it was going to be another hot, humid day and the rain would probably start around 3 in the afternoon so we had to do an early tour.  We ate the complimentary, freshly prepared breakfast at our hotel (La Posada) and headed out on our tour. 

You can explore the park on your own but using a tour guide is worth the cost (about $10/person).  We had no idea what animals we were looking for while we walked around the jungle.  A big perk of the tour was that the guide had a telescope so we could get a pretty good look at the animals in the distance. 

We saw sloths (which is seriously the slowest moving animal alive), iguanas, crabs, lots of birds, and the most exciting - monkeys!

It took about an hour to get from the entrance of the park to the beach, but we were often stopping to look at the animals so it was probably only a mile.  The beaches in the park were beautiful; much nicer than the public beach.  These were private beaches so you didn't have to worry about vendors come up and bothering you along the beach.  

There were a lot of monkeys hanging out on the beach and if you had any food lying around they were certainly going to join  your party and take your food from you.  

We were starving so we decided to head out of the park to grab food (no food in the park) and then go back to the beach in the afternoon.  You couldn't see any hotels from these beaches and they weren't very crowded so it was much more peaceful and relaxing - paradise! 

After a few hours we walked back to the hotel since the park was closing.  We found a guy that was cracking open coconuts so we bought some fresh coconut water - straight from the coconut!  It was pretty delicious being that fresh but I was definitely not a fan of the jelly like substance on the inside of the coconut.  

The next morning we did a canopy (ziplining) tour through the jungle with Canopy Safari. There were probably a dozen zip lines, a few areas to repel and a tarzan swing.  The tarzan swing was a little frightening!! Overall it was an awesome experience and got the adrenaline flowing!

Later in the day we took the bus back to San Jose and stayed our last night at Gaudy's (same place we stayed the first night we arrived).

It was a quick trip but definitely one we won't forget :)

Costa Rica: Part 2

Previous Recap: Costa Rica: Part 1

Our second day in Costa Rica started bright and early!  I went to bed at 8 the night before so when the alarm went off at 4:30 the next morning I was feeling pretty good.  However, the guys stayed up drinking chicha so waking up a few hours later on a stomach full of the sugar beverage made it a little rough for them.

We pushed out of Zapatón around 6 in the morning thinking it would take us a few hours to get to Manuel Antonio.  After 12 hours of rain, it finally stopped as we were leaving town and we had a beautiful view of the sun rising behind the mountains.  We drove along the dirt road, through the jungle for about an hour.  Once we got on a gravel road it was an incredible feeling.  It was so quiet and smooth.  I've never paid so much attention to infrastructure before!

View from the back of Mason's house at 5am

Sunrise on the drive

Horse in the road

We arrived at the hotel at 7:30 in the morning since the drive only took us 1.5 hours.  We were anticipating closer to 3 hours for the drive since we were unsure of how the roads would be, especially if there were any mudslides from the night before. 

We stayed at La Posada which was less than 10 feet from the entrance to Manuel Antonio National Park.  It was the closest hotel to the park and the rooms all faced away from the street, so the location was great and noise was never an issue.  The walk to the beach was about 5 minutes - there were definitely closer hotels, but we were pretty happy with our location.

We spent the entire day relaxing and exploring the Quepos/Manuel Antonio area.  We were planning on doing a park tour the following morning so we spent most of the day on the public beach.  It got so humid by midday that it became a little bit unbearable so we decided to head for a late lunch and then relax back in the air conditioned hotel room.  

Heading back to the beach for the sunset 

If you ever go to Manuel Antonio, lunch at Sancho's is a must!  There are 4-5 tables and a few bar stools so there is very limited seating.  There isn't air conditioning and it can get pretty hot waiting for your food to come out.  They're known for their wet burritos - we loved it so much we went back two times in three days!

It was super easy to get to Sancho's and the surrounding area by bus.  We relied on public transportation from this point on since we only had a rental car for one day.

We stopped by Cafe Milagro next to Sancho's to get coffee to take home for our families.  Unfortunately we were way too full from our wet burritos to stay at the coffee shop longer than the time it took to purchase the coffee!

Our bungalow at La Posada

Manuel Antonio Park Entrance

Costa Rica: Part 1

I know this blog is about Colorado adventures, but we went to Costa Rica earlier this year and I wanted to document that trip before I forget it all.  The blog is all about adventure, so the category still fits!

We went to Costa Rica over Memorial Weekend 2012 to visit Matt's high school friend, Mason, who is in the Peace Corps down there.  We flew into San Jose, which is the capital of CR. Mason met us at the airport which was super convenient since I speak little Spanish (I can count to 8, tell you my name and order cocktails).  Matt is pretty good at Spanish but since it was 10pm we were tired and just wanted to get to the hostel.  We took a 30 minute bus ride and got off near a grocery store next to the hostel we were staying at.  I wouldn't say San Jose is completely unsafe, but you definitely need to be aware of your surroundings and I would never go anywhere alone at night (at least as a woman).  We stocked up on essentials for the 12 hours we would be at the hostel: beer, water and avocados.

We stayed at Gaudy's Backpacker Hostel which was perfect for the night.  We had plans to get up early and get the rental car so all we needed was a common room to have a few drinks, a bed and a hot cold shower.  The one thing that was unusual to us was that all of the windows in our room were open and there were no screens or windows. It was SO humid there so the windows had to be open to get some air flowing since there is no AC.  The humidity in Denver the week we left was in the single digits and it was almost 100% in CR so it was quite an adjustment.

Looking out our hostel room window, tin roof after tin roof

Friday morning the guys walked a few blocks to pick up our rental car.  It's hard to find a SUV for 5 people that also fits luggage in CR.  Thankfully we found one and had no problems with it! We started our journey out of the capital city around 9 in the morning.

We drove from San Jose to Puriscal to Zapaton.  Puriscal was the closest grocery store so we stopped there since we had a car (typically Mason has to walk and take multiple buses, which takes several hours yet it is less than 50 miles).  We stocked up on more beer, more avocados and more water.  Plus some bananas this time.

Bus Stop 

The drive was beautiful yet very uncomfortable.  CR does not have the best infrastructure.  Most of the roads we drove on were all dirt and considering the rainy season started a few weeks before we arrived, there were many mudslides from earlier in the week that made it difficult to drive on some of these roads.  There are no lanes; two sides of the road do not exist.  You just drive.  If you look on a map, Zapatón, Mason's town, doesn't even exist.  According to google maps there isn't even a road near it.  I can assure you there is a road, although it is made of dirt, is steep and has many potholes.  Improving the infrastructure in Zapatón was Mason's main goal of living in the town for 2 years with the Peace Corp.

Pulled over on the side of the road near Zapatón to take in the scenery

Mudslide in the road

Driving up to the town was such a cool experience.  Zapatón is a small indigenous town of about 700 people.  Driving up in a SUV on the dirt road was shocking to the locals.  The children were so excited to see a car in the town, they were smiling and shouting. 

We got to Mason's by mid afternoon and decided to take advantage of the few remaining hours of sunshine before the rain came.  It typically rains pretty hard from 3-4 in the afternoon until sunrise. There is a large waterfall a few miles away from the house, so we drove most of the way, parked on the side of the road then hiked/climbed down about 100 feet to the bottom of the waterfall.  It was straight out of a movie - by the time we got to the pool of water at the bottom of the waterfall, the storm rolled in and it just started pouring.  I wish we had pictures of it but since it was so wet we decided not to bring the camera with us.

Once we got back to Mason's house, I took a nice cold shower to cool off.  Since the humidity was so high, it was nearly impossible to get my hair and bathing suit to dry entirely.  I swear things must get moldy before they are totally dry!  I was completely exhausted so I decided to go to bed at 8pm (hey, we were getting up at 4am) while the guys played a board game on the ground and drank chicha.

Side note: chicha (chee-cha) is a corn based alcohol that was homemade by a guy in Zapatón   It's super thick and has a lot of natural sugar in it.  I had a glass and it was good, but almost gave me an instant headache at the same time.  I have no idea how the guys went through 2 liters that night!

Side note 2: Zapatón is also the  name of the indigenous reserve in that area of Costa Rica

Aspen Trees

Fall is always a wild card in Colorado.  I moved here on September 30th, 2011 when it was 90 degrees.   Four weeks later the metro Denver area had 6+ inches of snow.  September in the midwest was my favorite time of year but I'm slowly learning Colorado fall is a bit different.  So far this year it has been very pretty and quite warm, but we are expecting snow at the end of this week (Loveland even opened today for the ski season!).  You can never be over prepared for the weather out here! 

In mid September we decided to drive from Estes Park to Nederland along the Peak to Peak highway.  We've heard this was the best time to see the Aspen Trees in the fall.  They were all beautiful yellows and oranges scattered between the evergreens and snow capped mountains.  

We had driven parts of the highway when we hiked Ouzel Falls earlier in the year but we had never been to either of these towns.

Looking South from Lake Estes (possibly Long's Peak?)

We started with a stop to the visitors center in Estes Park (more of a potty break) which was actually impressive.  I don't think I've seen a visitor center in CO that big. We saw buses that would shuttle you to the popular hiking areas from the visitor center but we didn't try these.  We didn't stay for too long, just enough time to snap the above picture.

We started driving south on the Peak to Peak Highway (Highway 7 then Highway 72) and pulled over whenever we saw a good view to take pictures, which happened every few miles so this part of the drive took about 2-3 hours.  

I'm not a huge fan of car rides but this was so fun! Driving through the mountains is such a different, beautiful drive (in good weather, I hate mountain driving in bad weather).

We ended in Nederland and drove around to get a feel for the town.  We didn't get out because it had been a long morning.... and we had an OSU game to get back to. We definitely have our priorities right in this house.  

On our way out of Nederland we stopped by the reservoir for our last photo op of the day.  It was so refreshing to see a body of water nearby; it's something we miss so much in CO.  

We thought about grabbing lunch in Nederland but Boulder was on the way back home so we opted for a quick lunch on Pearl Street.  I'll save Boulder for another post though!

Next year's autumn to do list: another drive through the Aspen trees and hopefully a pumpkin patch!