APRIL 2 - 16

2 – 6:  SANTA ELENA AND MONTEVERDE, C.R.

Again: sea level to cloud forest, from sweating profusely and seeking refuge in the pool, to cringing when the wind blows, and cowering in thin nylon cycling jackets! 

Bussing from Quepos up the West Coast to Puntarenas:

We struggle out of bed for an early bus… to meet an obnoxious, loud Italian gentleman waiting at the bus stop, chain smoking cigarettes and expressing his 10 disgruntled years in Costa Rica!  His tirade worsens on the bus, which is filled with Costa Ricans starting their workday, in low wage jobs, 6 days/week, serving tourists and foreigners.  He clearly and loudly expresses how ‘really bad the Costa Ricans are, a terrible people… can’t trust any of them…’ jeez - what a way to start the day!

The first 2 hours is a feast: beautiful ocean and surf, white sand beaches and lush vegetation by Jaco and Hermosa.

We say ‘this is gorgeous’ and ‘we had no idea’!  Then.. we arrived in Puntarenas.  Buildings run down and deserted, those inhabited appear dirty and neglected. The place has a very unappealing vibe, if not downright dangerous.  Even at mid-day our intuition screams:  get out of here and stay alert! Then the bus stops in the middle of the block, the driver indicates this is the end of the road.  6 of us travelers are somewhat taken aback.  This is a major hub to move people in all directions, PANIC! Where is the bus station????  Actually we only have 2 blocks to walk, but once again the imagination does weird and wonderful things! So off we go dragging the wheelit beasts through dirt, sand and potholes.

Quepos – Santa Elena 4.5 hours with 2.5 hours at 15 kms/hour climbing up, up and more up, on a dusty, pot holed, narrow, and steep ‘road’.  The scenery is superb, with rolling hills and mountains, flowering trees, palms, and pines.  We are so far, in every way, from grungy Puntarenas it seems a surreal experience.  In the middle of all these hills we cannot imagine finding any community, us 30 people on the bus will just stay suspended in time on this never ending slow road to nowhere!

Then da-dah-da!  We are in a bustling community thinly spread over 10 kms, with a healthy population of independent hostel-dwelling travelers and a disturbing amount of the more affluent Air-con, 10 seater mini-bussers. Jealous?  Maybe just a tad, as we try to get the ½ inch layer of dust off our Wheely Beasts, and out of our lungs, ears, and eyes! Never mind, after a good shower, dinner, a cold fruit shake/cervasas, 8 hours sleep we are almost as good as those soft whimps settled into 5 Star Inns and eco resorts!   

We liked it – a lot, could be because of cooler temperatures that motivate us to move faster than sloth-speed.  Tons to see and do, including

Two Cloud Forests:  Reserva Santa Elena and Reserva Biologica Monteverde. We spend one day in Monteverde, and relish the first  2 hours of cool mist and rain – compliments of Cloud Forest! Gigantic ferns, palms, vines, many varieties of wild orchids and who knows what… can’t identify much of what we see, just ‘ooh and ah’, and focus the trusty Lumix (camera)trying to capture a portion of this lush mountain jungle. We see birds, Howlers aka Congos (monkeys), tarantula, centipede, but ignore the ‘attention-getting, prima dona’ Quetzels (WE’VE  become rare-bird snobs after Panama, after all!). An example: one medium sized tree supports 40 varieties of orchids, several species of frogs who live their entire lives in the upper canopy, and multiple ferns and other flowers! Our “medium” size tree exceeds 100 feet in height.

·        The Quaker Community: established in the 1940’s after the US incarcerated 4 members who said ‘screw u!’ to being drafted into the Korean war.  We walked 5 kms to attend a Sunday morning meeting, and were warmly welcomed. Very impressive and we feel a bit more knowledgeable about the ‘Friends’. 

·        Coffee Plantations: Did a one on one tour and even met patriarch Don Juan himself, know more (as opposed to ‘nada) about …. Yep you guessed it! The COFFEE production process.  I NOW KNOW how to take care of my coffee at home – keep it fresh for months – and not going to write my secret here.  This is a trick – those who are reading our lengthy blog tirades word for word – and motivated to respond, will be the lucky people we share this simple but highly classified secret info with! Also, Jim got to experience for the first time the sweet taste of freshly cut sugar cane.MMMMMM

·        Cheese Factory, established by the Quaker community – Jim loved it.Who would think standing and watching 10 people make cheese (work) for an hour and a half would be fun.

·        An awesome art scene, yoga and meditation classes

·        ‘Ecotourism’ focus and prices, and amazing attractions like: 

·        The Frog Pond – engaged sherry for 5 hours! ‘The Tour’ consisted of me and a small Illinois family Mom, Dad, ‘ever-bored, eye rolling, attitude saturated’  16 yr old daughter, and 14 year old geekish son Sam, who loves anything that crawls, hops, bites, and skitters.  Sam and I bonded quickly with the passionate frog lovin’ guide and our enthusiasm got us a 2.5 hour tour well beyond the 1 hour scheduled one.  Guide said: ‘most people just want to take photos and leave  asap’. As Jim has reminded me’a little bit of frog data goes a long, long ways’ so I will just say to you… anything you want to know about frogs I am happy to share with you – especially those exotic and very, very smart Poison Dart Frogs… do they ever know how to raise  their babies…… then there is the Blue Jean Frog….oh! then one that leaps, and zig zags at same time..:)

·        Bat Jungle (Jim) ..very interesting

·        Butterfly Gardens (sherry)..even in a greenhouse I fail to capture the taunting, beautiful, gigantic, blue one on film.

LIBERIA AND PARQUE NATIONAL RINCON DELA VIEJA 

Nothing much to say about Liberia as it’s primarily a transportation hub to grab a tour or bus to close by attractions, including 3 National Parks and many Pacific beaches. Hot – very hot. So hot we don’t even get into the pool but hide in the hotel with our best friend – the Air Conditioner.  We choose Rincon National Park as our last CR excursion, which is a full day trip. We paid $20 each for return transportation. 

Turns out to be a very good day, and the park is very different than all the parks we’ve explored to date. Rincon is a perfectly cone shaped, active volcano that has been expressing itself in unpredictable ways (almost) daily since a huge explosion in 1968.    

We have a choice of 3 trails: 1) a hot, tough climb to the top of the crater (an all day venture),  2) an easy 6 km hike through bubbling cauldrons of mud and steaming streams and ponds; cactus; spiny, dried/petrified trees, and 3) a 5 km waterfall hike, difficulty and terrine unidentified.

We do Hike #2 and it takes us forever – ok truth be told 3 hours! The fascination of boiling mud and water, creatively formed trees and cactus, birds, Howler Monkeys, iguanas and lizards, and relentless heat and sun had us moving < 2 kms/hour. 

Lunch break then we start Hike #3. Thirty minutes into it I am, for once, smart about my foot strength and ability, and bail out. Jim continues and reaches the waterfall but tells a tale of a ‘hike from hell’ 90% in blazing hot sun and a very steep up and down trail. I find a cool blue-green river off the main trail, with a nice secluded pond for swimming and big boulders perfect for lounging like a lizard, I MUST take care of myself afterallJ!

APRIL 9 *****NICARAGUA*****!!!

A 1.5 hour ‘special bus’ (we pay 3X the price of local chicken busses to get through the border from Liberia, CR to Rivas, Nicaragua! 

Hot, dry, rolling hills and fincas is pretty much the scenery along the way. 

Sapoa – Penas Blancas is the ONLY official border crossing from C.R. into Nicaragua.  Note: The seasonal Nica workers  don’t bother with passports or customs and just swim across the river that divides the 2 countries. Costa Rican’s prefer to work easier jobs, in offices or in tourism rather than the hard labor and low wages of farm work.

Most Costa Rican’s have a very low opinion of Nica’s, but the country depends on Nica labour to  pick fruit, harvest coffee and veggies for $2 – $4/day. They are provided with basic accommodation resembling a cement cell block, often without shade.  The whole family works, including toddlers and children who pick what they can reach.

The commercial truck line started about 10 kms before the border, at a dead stop.  Many semi’s had 1 or 2 hammocks strung under the trailer, with drivers snoozing in the sweltering shade. 

To clarify: The Transamerican HWY is NOT a freeway, but 1 lane each way with varying shoulder widths and steepness.  So, picture this:  the trucks are totally taking up our North bound lane.  The oncoming traffic is still… oncoming.  We need to pass the trucks for several kms, requiring us to drive into oncoming traffic.  This means the bus driver has to a) judge how far he can go before heading for the left hand shoulder/ditch, b) identify if there will BE a shoulder/ditch that will take the bus and c) place said bus off the road just enough so the oncoming semi’s don’t remove one side of the bus, but not so much as to slide into the ditch… worse case scenario rolling bus and the cowardly travelers.   

The stories about the crossing were not exaggerated, and we were lucky it only took 2 hours vs. 4 or 5 hours to bumble our way through a confusing mass of other hot and frustrated people, venders, scammers (with photocopied Customs forms they say we must buy for USD $1 to get through the border, however these are free at the customs counter!), semi’s, busses, and various unsigned or poorly signed buildings scattered hodge-podge around a very large area! And only new crisp twenty dollar bills are acceptable to Nicaraguan Customs Officers. We had to get out of line after a ½ hour wait and go find a bank in the 100 deg. heat, go back to the end of the line and start all over because our $20 was wrinkled (no good).

Once again, as soon as we are through the border it is very obvious this is an entirely new country!