Days 14 & 15: Final days in Costa Rica

Our last morning in Sámara we went dolphin watching. We trolled around in large swells for about 45 minutes before we found them. There were mom's and babies, big ones jumping all the way up in the air, and they even swam alongside the boat and jumped as we moved with them. They were so beautiful! The morning weather was perfect too - it was just after 7am and the sun was just coming up and the mist was burning off, so pretty looking back at the bay.

After the dolphins, we trolled around a bit with the fishing poles out, and low and behold we hooked something! I got to do the honors of reeling it in. They set the pole on my lap and I had to reel it in by hand as they gassed the boat to make sure to keep enough tension. It felt like forever, but I'm sure it was less than 5 minutes before I reeled it all the way in (arms straining and panting a bit) and up came a yellow fin tuna! Of course, the boat owner got to keep it, but it was pretty cool to reel in my first ocean fish!

After a long and bumpy 4 hour ride back to Sámara, we arrived at the most american hotel of our entire trip. Big and roomy with bright lights and modern facilities, a restaurant with such american dishes (mom ordered a bbq hamburger with onion ring, I went for my last bit of fresh Costa Rican fruit with a fruit plate and stole a few bites of mom's burger). I went and got my first ever pedicure done. I asked for just a pedicure, but surprise, all the fancy things they were doing was actually the spa treatment so they charged me 3x as much ($40 instead of $16)! I did enjoy the lotions, massage chair, foot spa, being waited on with food and drink, etc though.... not gonna complain about being pampered :)

The next morning I woke up to a great breakfast of pancakes where bananas had been in the mix (amazing), my final plate of rice and beans for breakfast, and some eggs. mmmm I'm still thinking of those pancakes! Then got on my 12 hour flight back to Washington DC.

Now I'm in DC, all settled at Dima's tango house hanging out with Jamaal. Got to go dancing for the first time in nearly 6 weeks (yay! I didn't forget how to dance!) and volunteer with a teenager's summer camp where they are teaching tango to some rebellious kids, but I actually had a great time. Hung out with some high school friends I hadn't seen in 6 years today and checked out the monuments (tourist day: check). Next, either Sunday or Monday I head back to NY for 6 weeks of dancing and hanging at Robin's before moving on to Argentina.

Check back in in a few weeks!

Day 11 & 12: Horseback riding, surfing, and finally found Horchata!

Yesterday was spent relaxing at the beach, and searching for a hotel to switch to. Luckily, our hotel situation worked out once I explained our issues in Spanish to the owner of the place (my mom had previously tried having another girl translate her issues... apparently somethings got lost in translation). The owner straightened the staff out a bit and suddenly they were so much more helpful! Surprise! lol

Otherwise, we enjoyed fruit smoothies and relaxing times by the beach... to the point I was going stir crazy! I've definitely realized that I am more of an active person... one day relaxing at the beach and I'm starting to get cranky from lack of activity.

Today, we definitely changed that. We began our morning with a 3 hour horseback ride, where we galloped on the beach and rode back trails up to beautiful vistas. We rode Criollo horses and had a blast!

Our guide really let us loose, and the horses were well behaved enough that we could really gallop around the sand and water. We appreciated that the horses were in good condition... here there are a lot of problems with owners not taking care of their horses, but these guys were in great shape. They were very cute little ponies... smaller than we are used to, but very hardy guys! My horse was a bit feisty and threatened to buck a bit in the beginning, but luckily stopped that pretty quick. She was always ready to run though! My mom's was very lazy, but as long as I was in the lead she was more than happy to pick up the pace as well. The guide was riding a young horse, and I think he really had a good time getting to actually gallop a bit, which I'm sure is a change from his normal tourist rides. I raced him on the beach at one point, and our horses were going all out across the sand, so much fun!

After the horseback ride, we finally found a place that would make my new favorite drink: the Horchata. Apparently, the place we found it in La Fortuna was the only place in Costa Rica that sells it (or so it seems). I guess it USED to be the really typical drink, but due to its difficulty to make it most restaurants don't have it anymore. However, today we lucked out with a very small little local's spot. They told us they needed 2 to 3 hours to make it for us (really? is it that difficult?), and to come back at 4:30.

I went surfing next. The waves were very strong and very big... I got out right before it got good for the pros... not so good for me. I felt like I was surfing white water on the beach because the tide was high. I fought against the very strong and large white water waves for an hour, never successfully getting out far enough to catch it in the good spot (although my surfing was actually quite good! I was feeling really confident and was even getting in some turns on the white water. I was just getting very tired fighting against the big waves coming in, and couldn't ever seem to get past the the white water. If I could have, I'm pretty sure I would have caught the semi-bigger waves pretty easily!). I had a blast though, even though I was exhausted after only an hour from fighting the water. I couldn't seem to dive under or jump over the white water without it pushing me so strongly back... I just couldn't make up ground. Afterwards, I went back and hung out with mom and some new friends we made, Garret and Robin, also recent college graduates, and watched the pros. Apparently, they wouldn't allow Garret (who arrived about 20 minutes after I started) to rent a board because of how strong the waves were, they said it was too dangerous for a beginner-intermediate surfer. That makes me feel better about the difficulties I had been having!

After surfing, we went back to the little Soda and got my Horchata drink. Apparently, they had to cook the rice and mix all of the ingredients very specifically, and it is very difficult. It was absolutely delicious, and totally worth the 2.5 hour wait to get it! I still can't believe they made it for us.... And then only charged us $4 for three large servings of it! Gotta love Costa Rica! Later, we went out for a very long walk circling around the back of town and then walking along the beach front back to town, ending at our favorite restaurant, Lagarto's, where we split a stuffed cheese and mushroom chicken dish with some amazing grilled baked potatoes and cocktails.

Tomorrow is our final morning in Samara; we end with a boat ride out to see dolphins, fishing, and possibly snorkeling if the water is clear. Afterward, we head back to San Jose to fly out on Wednesday morning.

Day 9 & 10: Samara beach, corn row microbraids, surfing, and reggae!

So today we arrived in Sámara, Costa Rica, a very cute little beach town on the Pacific coast. We checked into our hotel and went to the beach almost immediately to try surfing! Per suggestion of our driver, E, we went with Choco's surf company and had a blast. My mom got up on her first try! However, her dismounts weren't nearly so graceful.... Our surf instructor was named Cristhian, a rasta style guy with long dreads and dark complexion, and was good friends with E. After the lesson I continued surfing a bit. The waves were getting huge! They were probably 8-10 feet with tubes; way beyond my level! I was catching the white water afterwards, which was still 4-5 feet above my head. After awhile I was having  a hard time getting out against the force of the waves, and was having to duck under the waves because they were too large to go over. I decided that my surfing ability had been reached and decided to turn in. Christhian is a Reggae DJ and was deejaying that evening at a local club called Tabanucos, and him and E invited me to go.

E is one of the most interesting people I have met - he is young, has dreads, and has the most interesting life story. During some of his upbringing, he had to catch his food for the day. If he couldn't catch a fish to eat, then he might go without eating for the day, because they didn't have enough money to buy it. I think it really made him appreciate the little things in life. He only wants to improve himself as a person and help other people, and possibly has one of the biggest, purest hearts of anyone I have ever met. We got on the subject of dreads and how there is a lot of discrimination in Costa Rica against people with dreads. Many of the locals in Samara are of Jamaican descent, or come from the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, and especially the surfers all have dreads. However, outside of the beach towns, it is very difficult to get a job in Costa Rica and people look upon you as drug dealers or dangerous if you have dreads. Most of the tourist companies make their employees shave them off prior to employing them. I would never have imagined that! Especially after meeting this group of guys here in Samara, they are all some of the most real, down to earth people. It is hard to imagine someone feeling threatened by them.

E came over around 4pm to microbraid my hair. It took 4 hours, yes FOUR HOURS to microbraid my hair. He didn't take any shortcuts! We started out on the beach watching the sun go down (okay, so the light go down, as the sun was behind us) while he worked on my hair for an hour, then moved over the Cristhian's place for the next 3 hours. Cristhian was  listening to his music and getting ready to deejay for the night. It was a nice vibe, and very relaxing to get to hang out with them. However, I'm having the worst time with Spanish here. You know how Jamaican's speak English with a heavy accent, right? Well, apply that to Spanish and you will understand my difficulties. After my microbraids and some cornrow design was done, we made plans to meet at the bar later (I needed to go back to the hotel and get ready, they had to get there to start deejaying).

I was ridiculously nervous going out to Reggae dance! It is just way out of my comfort zone... but I ended up having a great time! I just hung out with E most of the night - we made a nice connection - sipped on a Smirnoff, and eventually I worked up the courage to try dancing a bit. I think I got it a little bit, but only when I could dance with E as a partner. I can't solo dance! Let me follow and I'm much happier. E was a big confidence booster though, and I really had a great time. I kind of want to try it again now! It was pretty entertaining to watch the local guys making the circuit with the foreign girls, who were all getting progressively more wasted. People watching is quite fun, lol, especially when large amounts of alcohol is involved.

Before and After

The next day, Saturday, we went kayaking in the morning. This was NOT the same quality of tour as we had previously experienced. We miss Desafio! We were expecting a relaxing float down a gentle river getting to spot wildlife. What it turned into was a white water kayak trip without helmets (the one time we felt we really needed them!). One girl fell out and smacked her head right in the beginning. It was a pretty interesting experience... although we did get to pull over and see some monkeys just sleeping in the tree right next to the river!

The afternoon we went shopping a bit and relaxed for the most part. We took a nap, then enjoyed the most amazing dinner at a place right on the beach. My mom and I enjoyed our first ever legal mom-daughter cocktails together! On the way back to the hotel, we got to see some horses, some mares and their foals, just standing around around near the main street in town.

Day 8: Monkeys and Quetzals and Army Ants!

Okay, so our hotel is all forgiven for its bugs, for this morning we got to see monkeys! Right here at our hotel, they came right up wanting fed! They were so cute. There was even a mother and a tiny baby clutching her back. They were White Faced Capuchin monkeys

Today we went to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and took a hike through the rain forest with an excellent guide. We got to see Costa Rica’s very rare bird, the Quetzal! (click here to see Google search images, this photo above was taken from my camera and is not very good.) Apparently, this bird is so rare that many bird watchers travel to Costa Rica with the only intention being to get a glimpse of the Quetzal. It has brilliant plumage, and is very endangered, with only about 50 couples on 10,000 acres of protected forest, It was the bird of the ancient Mayan empire, and many know it better as the Phoenix. We saw the female today, which is slightly less glorious than the male (missing the 2 foot long emerald green tail feathers), but was still an amazing site. She not only sat quietly while we were able to get photos and look at her in the tree with our binoculars, but then took flight in all of her glory to put on a show for us.

We also were lucky enough to see a yellow striped viper up in a tree (very rare to be able to spot due to its nocturnal nature as well as its blending capability), and happened across a slowly widening path of army ants. Apparently, army ants travel in groups of 10s of thousands, and really do eat anything in their path. If we had waited another hour or so, their 4 inch wide path across our trail might have been 5 or 6 feet wide. If you kill one of them, it secretes a chemical alerting the rest of the tribe, which WILL attack you. They can devour entire animals in a matter of hours. Apparently, if they enter a person’s home, you must leave the home (you cannot kill them, chemicals or otherwise, because they willl secrete their chemical and only draw 10s of thousands more to the rescue, invading your home for days rather than just hours). After about 4 hours, they will have cleaned out every food in your home, as well as any termites or rodent infestations you might have had. After they leave, you can return to your home. Apparently, the army ants' jaws are so powerful that Indians once used them to suture wounds: the tenacious insect was held over a wound and its body squeezed so that its jaws instinctively shut, clamping the flesh together. The body was then pinched off.

Me in the roots of a giant fig tree

Today for lunch I ordered a banana, strawberry, blackberry, mango smoothie with yogurt. It was so sweet and delicious that I just knew they had to add sugar to the mix, but I asked the waiter and he said no – just fresh fruit and its natural sugars. Wow!

Photo looking over Monteverde very near our hotel

Tonight I was planning on going out Salsa dancing again, alone this time. However, after looking around at the locals and not having the most welcoming experience in Monteverde, I don't want to push my luck.  Maybe I'll try my luck in a beach town with surfer-style salsa dancing Ticos.... 


Tomorrow, off to Samara and the beach to finish out our trip til the 30th!

Day 7: Bugs, Canopies, Snakes, Fruit, oh my!

Well, the bugs didn’t stop last night. Around 8pm when the internet decided not to work any longer (very sketchy in this hotel), I suddenly realized that there were bugs all over the floor. I grabbed my flip flop and managed to murder multiple ants, a inch or so long cockroach, along with some of those strange jumping flea like things our neighbors had warned us about. Ewww! I like visiting the rain forest and all of its creatures, but please don’t come visit me!

We went on the sky trek today, where we got to go on a tour through the rain forest crossing hanging bridges, followed by ziplining. The guides were downright terrible – it was the first tour we had that our company, Desafio (whom we have had all good experiences with), had to outsource for.  However, despite learning nothing about nature, we did have a good time on the zip lines. The longest zip line was 800 meters, or about 2500 feet long. It was very fun! Plus, the rain forest canopy was amazing – and there was just enough of this misty fog to make it seem so heavenly! Absolutely beautiful to see first thing in the morning.

Later in the day we went to a Serpentarium, and got a tour of a zoo like snake house. It was actually pretty interesting to get to see a lot of the local poisonous and non poisonous snakes and reptiles they have – many are donated by locals that find them in their homes or properties.  At very least, we learned what to watch out for during our hike for tomorrow!

While we were there, they decided to feed a live rat to a non-poisonous, but very aggressive snake. It was called a black tailed something (slipping my mind). It was non a constrictor, and so instead it was the type to chase down its pray fairly aggressively (rather than lie in wait) and then bite it with its very sharp teeth and try to pin it to the ground. It turned into a very bloody affair, with the snake slamming its head against the glass of its enclosure and wounding the rat with many missed bites that only managed to tear flesh. It was pretty awful to watch. I used to own a snake, a ball python, and we fed it a mouse every week. However, that was much less of an ordeal, no blood, just a clean grab, squeeze for a bit, then gently swallow whole. This was a very aggressive bloody ordeal that I think I’d rather not ever watch again… It totally would not have been allowed for customers to watch in the US. There was a kid there, maybe 8 years old that got to watch. I can only imagine that he will never ask his parents to get a snake as a pet…

Later we walked around the town (more like hiked up and down hills) and just checked the city out. At dinner, mom and I split a hamburger (tired of chicken, rice, and beans that are the staple dishes here) that was actually pretty darn good. Very home made tasting and big, with lots of peppers and onions in the meat mix! Plus, we got a fruit plate on the side with yogurt and granola, and got to eat some more amazing Costa Rican fruit. I don’t think I will ever be able to eat fruit elsewhere again, as the flavor is just so great here! The platter consisted of fresh guava, star fruit, banana, pineapple, and apples. Mmmmmm fruit!  

Day 6: Horseback riding and our not-so-nice welcome to Monteverde

Day 6 started out horseback riding! We took a boat ride across the lake to meet our horses under some trees at the trail head. They were definitely “rent a horse” type of horses… but we ended up having a great time. The guide figured out that we knew how to ride horses, and he let us move on ahead of the rest of the group, all of which had no experience. We trotted ahead on the trail riding through the rain forest, spotting lots of different birds (more Tucans) and tons of beautiful vegetation. We never got too far ahead, and the guide would gallop up to check on us, but the extra freedom really made the difference. It was about a 2.5 hour horseback ride, and was getting very hot by the end.

We switched to a van and received out complementary Costa Rican massage (seriously, how do the vehicles hold up on these roads?) and continued the last 2 hour drive to Monteverde, stopping for lunch along the way. 

Monteverde is a cute little town in the top of the rain forest, really up in the clouds, and everything is on a hill. Luckily, our hotel is very close to the center, and so it is only a few minute walk down and up another hill to get to all of the shops. Some of our travel companions were not so lucky, and were either going to have quite a hike or a taxi ride to get anywhere.

Our hotel is really interesting and cute. It is all separate little houses with beautiful wooden interiors. Bad thing is, there are adorable little paths to all of the homes that are dotting the mini hillside owned by the hotel, and all of the little paths are up STEEP hills, and they wind everywhere. I think we need a map to find our little house again.

So far I haven’t had the greatest welcome to Monteverde. We went out in search of some coffee and found a cute little Coffee bar. It was only 100 colones (.20 cents) more to have a flavored latte, so I decided to give their caramel flavor a try. Big mistake! The guy put like 2 inches of pure caramel in the bottom of a fairly small glass, foamed some milk (I’m not entirely sure if there was even any coffee in there…) and served it to me. When we first arrived, he asked if I wanted here or to go, motioning that here would be nice. I decided to sit and enjoy my coffee (of which was disgustingly sweet, almost unbearable, I’m kind of sick at the thought of how much caramel I probably consumed in that one cup of something). Next, I got the bill to find that it was considerably more expensive than I thought, realizing that he had charged me a service fee for sitting at the table rather than taking it to go! I made my surprise and disgust clear (I hate getting tricked into paying for something!), and a few minutes later he offered to give back the tip and service charge. I ended up leaving it for him, as it was the thought that counted more than anything for me, but next time I hope he will warn someone before charging them 30% the price of their coffee for wanting to sit and enjoy their cup of coffee for 5 minutes.

Then, to make matters worse, there were so many bugs! It was like a locus swarm of moths! We couldn’t walk without them trying to fly in our mouths or down our shirts. There were thousands of them swarming everywhere! Next, walking back to our hotel my mom stopped to take a picture of a flower, and me, unaware of the ants swarming the ground around my flipflops, got the unpleasant discovery that not only had they switched their path to be over my feet, but that they also BITE and it STINGS like a mo’fo! It felt like my toes got stung by bees…. Ouch! Now that I think about it, I hope those flying moths aren’t really flying ants…… ahhhhhhhhhh. Next, walking back to our hotel our neighbors warned us about the jumping flea like green bugs that bite, and that they will try to get under our room door. 

Bienvenidos a Monteverde! Ahhhhhh! 

Day 5: Salsa club!

Day 5 was much mellower in terms of tours, with just a morning hike in the rain forest to a viewpoint for the volcano, which was too covered in clouds to see anything anyway. We did get to spot some beautiful birds, and swing on vine Tarzan style, which was really fun!

In the afternoon we went shopping for gifts and Costa Rican memories. I was really excited to find some nice earrings made of some of the local woods, as well as some other hand blown ceramic earrings made by local artists. We picked up some aloevera to cover our sunburns (especially mom's).

The evening we went back to our favorite little Tico restaurant in La Fortuna, Tico Viquez. The owner of the place, who we met the first day in La Fortuna, walked up to us and greeted us by name! I decided to try a very typical Costa Rican drink, called the Horchata, which was made with rice, corn meal, milk, cinnamon, and "other things". It was AMAZING. Possibly the best, most refreshing, desert type drink I have ever had. I only hope that the next one I try will be anything similar.

Later that night, I went out with the Costa Rican guide, let's call him "Z" we had met the day before for our caves tour, and whom we had also had for our morning hike. He showed me some basic salsa, cumbia, and merengue dance moves, then we went out the Las Chelas bar for some dancing. Let's just say the Costa Rican boys have very direct intentions with the foreign girls, and I was being very openly stared at... I was pretty glad I had dressed conservatively. Z explained that something with my skin and eyes makes me stand out... I didn't think so, but the guys were pretty aggressive about trying to convince me otherwise. It was flattering and overwhelming at the same time, and I'm still not quite sure how to handle some of the attention.... let's just say that I was really glad that I went with Z because it kept some of the guys at bay, and Z was very respectful toward me.

While sitting and having a drink while they finished up singing Karaoke with all the tourists, I got to chat with Z and the DJ for the night, who was then behind the bar. He was very sweet and we got to chat a lot. Apparently when he was 15 years old he met a girl who was studying abroad there, and they fell in love. When she left at the end of the three months, they didn't have good enough technology at the time to be able to stay in touch. He has never seen her again, but he said that I reminded him of her from back when he was a teenager in love. Ahhhhhh

After about an hour the DJ got the salsa music started.  I have never felt like such the center of attention....  While I was dancing with Z, the DJ kept making comments directed at us! I didn't catch them all, but something about the dancing and how Z was going to have to follow this pretty girl to Argentina. I didn't quite know how to handle it, and it was making me very nervous because most of the locals knew who the DJ was talking about (me!!!!)! I had a blast though, and successfully danced salsa and merengue in Costa Rica! I'm just glad they didn't make me sing Karaoke...

Z brought me home around 1am and I crashed out.... having to wake up at 6am the next morning to get ready to leave for a horseback ride to Monteverde.