Adios Nicaragua, Hola Costa Rica!!!

Wednesday, December 26.

 

We woke up super early in anticipation of yet another travel day. This one we knew would differ from the others so far as we were going to cross the borders between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. We checked out of our place in San Juan del sur and in broken Spanish asked the receptionist to direct us toward where we could pick up the chicken bus back to Rivas. None of the streets have names here, so with a little bit of hand motioning and picking up small Spanish hints... we knew we had to head a block away from the beach and turn left. In the far distance we could hear someone calling "Rivas, Rivas, Rivas" over and over again. The chicken bus was almost fully packed and ready to go, which normally could take hours to fill. So, we quickly took off our bags and threw them up to the guy on the top of the bus and hopped on. When we got to the Rivas station we were directed to the another bus that would take us to the Frontiero (the border). This bus was also full, so full that there were no seats left. So we threw our bags into the back of the bus and sat on our the bags the whole way there. The ride was super bumpy, it threw us airborne several times but it made us laugh and kept us entertained. One of the Nicaraguans offered to fill out our passport slips for us, not realizing he was later going to ask us to pay him for this generosity. It's a little price you have to pay for not understanding the locals we assumed. When we reached the border we had to stand in line at the Nicaraguan customs and pay them to exit the country.



We then had to walk about 10 minutes to the get to the Costa Rican border and wait 30 minutes before we realized we were going to have a problem crossing as we had no way to prove that we were only travelling through Costa Rica for a maximum of 2 weeks. The customs agent asked for an itinerary, or a bus ticket proving that we weren't planning on staying forever and he wasn't going to take no for an answer! The theme from our initial border crossing into the U.S. seemed to be continuing.  So we turned around and set of in search for a place to purchase a bus ticket out of the country. The lady attending the ticket booth did not speak a word of English and we needed to make sure that it was a ticket that didn't have a specific date on it as we did not obviously have a real itinerary of our next few weeks. We were not making any progress and just as we were getting frustrated we were able to flag down some people that looked like they might speak some English to help us get over this hump. Successfully enough, we booked two $60 (American) Tica bus tickets that would take us from San Jose, Costa Rica to Panama City at anytime within the next year, and by-passed the line back to the customs agent. He stamped out passports and wished us a buena suerte (good trip). We had about 30 minutes to wait for yet another bus that was headed to Liberia, Costa Rica. All we had to eat at this point was 3 crackers each that we had brought with us, we didn't even stop for a coffee. So we purchased a hamburger for $3 at the border food court and scarfed it down passing it back and forth between the two of us, one bite at a time. The ride to Liberia was an hour of luxury compared to the chicken busses we had been used to in Nicaragua. We realized we were leaving a 3rd world country and entering a place much more resembled home. The bus had cushioned seats with recliners and air conditioning, something we hadn't felt since we left the airport in Houston!

The sites along the way were beautiful with mountainous landscapes to our left and lush greenery to our right. When we got to Liberia we switched to our fouth bus of the day that would take us to our final destination, Playa Del Coco. This ride was another local bus with no air conditioning, but it much resembled the TTC busses in Toronto so we didn't mind it much and in an hour we were there. We asked a local guy if he could direct us toward another luxury of the day, the Agua De Lechuga condo's courtesy of David Focs. The man told us to head down a rocky dirt path right in front of the bus station and turn right at the end. Sure enough, there it was, and it was breathtakingly beautiful. We followed David's directions and asked for the worker boy Herman who might have our key. Instead we were introduced to a woman named Irene. Irene was a Russian woman from Toronto who is the mother of the property manager of the complex. She welcomed us with open arms and was so excited to hear that we were sent by her sons friend David.

Being that luxury seemed to be the theme of the day, we quickly dropped our bags into our condo, threw on our bathing suits and jumped into a much needed cool down in the pool. We talked about how we were ever going to be able to afford this place and how crazy we were for even accepting the offer to stay here, discounted price and all. We therefore decided that we would take full advantage of the kitchen over the next few days to make up the money and do some grocery shopping as soon as we had the energy to go.

In the evening, we set out to do some exploring as the main strip looked like it was very happening when we first pulled in. It was a very touristy street, looking as if it could have been somewhere in Florida, with restaurants and bars, souvenir shops and spa's. We found a restaurant/bar that was offering an unlimited pizza, pasta and salad buffet for only $8 and $1.50 beers between "Happy Hour" 3-7pm (the longest happy hour of all time). So, we quickly got our grocery shopping out of the way, dropped it back off at the condo and headed back for our feast. We ate so much so fast, that by 8pm we were so full and exhausted we decided to call it a night as it had been a long and tiring day.

Thursday, December 27.

We woke up to two things that we had not experienced in our travels so far; A real television, and a hot shower.  It was a pleasant reminder of what we had left behind in Toronto.  We made ourselves a breakfast of eggs with sausage and onion, toast, and bananas, also something we would have done in Toronto, only probably not on a Thursday.  We put on our bathing suits, grabbed our towels and books, and headed for the beach.

The beach was a short walk down an a dirt road, and we found it to be similar to the beaches we had already experienced on the pacific coast; hard packed, blackish sand.  We had heard from David Focs, our gracious host, that there was a much nicer beach called Playa Blanca, that was a short hike away.  So we headed that way to see if it lived up to the hype.  After crossing some pretty rocky terrain, we did indeed find that it was a much nicer beach.  We decided, however, to continue walking for a bit, as there were some cool landscapes in the not too far distance that we wanted to see, and also, as the picture should indicate, because we needed the excersize :).

 

 

After a nice little hike, we decided to head back to Playa Blanca, and we made it right as the sun was coming out from behind the clouds.  We laid our towels down, and were just getting comfortable, when we were attacked by thousands of little sand bugs.  They were particularly attracted to Alice, as she is "sweeter".  After attempting to fight through the annoyance for all of 10 minutes, our inner snobs got the better of us, and we headed back to the condo pool.  We did, however, get a chance to dip in the pacific, both to cool off, and wash off all the bugs.

 

We spent the remainder of the day tanning by the pool, reading, and napping.  And went into our room around 5:00 to start working on dinner.  We made lemon pepper sea bass with some mixed vegetables, and garlic bread, and it was delicious.  At around 10 pm, we ran out of bottled water, and being too lazy to walk back to town, we decided to boil our own water. True backpackers.. in a condominium.



Friday, December 28.

Friday was almost an exact replica of Thursday, including what we ate, with the exception of the fact that instead of going back to bug beach, we decided to stay on the main beach, which was nice enough, and bugless.  We didn't stay for long, and ended up going back to the pool again, as we wanted to take advantage of the luxury while we still had it. 

Saturday, December 29.

Saturday was a travel day, and was one that we were apprehensive about, as our research told us that this bus trip was going to be somewhat complicated.  We were travelling to a place called Monteverde, which is a rainforest high in the central mountains of Costa Rica.  What made this bus trip complicated, was that there was no direct bus from the terminal in Liberia.  What we would have to do was make a transfer at some random intersection, and hope one of the two busses from San Jose to Monteverde actually showed up on time.  We asked a few people for help, to make sure we were getting on the correct bus to begin with, and they said we were, but that we would have to ask the driver to stop for us at said random intersection, as this was not a normal stop for him.  Thankfully, the bus driver spoke English pretty well, and was very helpful.

 

We made the right connection, and the entire trip took 3 busses, and a combined total of 8 hours.  Driving up the mountain was nice though, as the views were beautiful, and we got to witness large busses dancing around each other on a steep, single lane road.  We also ran into a nice French Canadian couple who we had met in Nicaragua, and we spent some time comparing stories.

We finally arrived in Monteverde around 5:30, and checked into our new hostel, "Sloth Backpackers".  It was very nice and quaint, and we made friends with not only the other travellers, but also the hostel keepers Yorle and Diego who turned out to be very friendly.  We also met our new favorite travel dog, Leeeenda (or, Linda), an adorable little Chihuahua.  At first she wouldn't let us pick her up without biting us, but after a few days of coaxing, and bribing with food, she would not only let us pick her up, but she insisted on coming into our room for cuddles.

We ate a dinner consisting of... you guessed it.. chicken, beans, rice and coleslaw, but also had a seafood soup for variety.  It was nice, and we took a little walk around the mountainous town.  It was a nice, quiet place, and very friendly.  The stray dogs there were even pretty civilized, as they usually travelled in groups of two or three, and would come up to you for a friendly pat.  The exception, though, was a group of seven males who were following one poor female, who was in heat and you can imagine the rest.

Sunday, December 30.

Sunday was a day we had been waiting awhile for, as we had signed up for ziplining! It was $45 per person, which was bit of a stretch to the budget, but apparently it was a "must do" in Costa Rica.  The tour included a shuttle to the "adventure park", and it picked us up at 10:30.  As chance would have it, we were on the same tour as our frenchie friends; Marie and Carl. 



After getting suited up in harnesses, helmets, and gloves, we received a quick safety lesson on ziplining, and headed for the first line.  The first couple were short, quick, and just around the top of the treeline.  |The third one gave us our first idea of why they called it "extreme ziplining".  They hooked Dalice up together for this one, and sent us on our way.  After a few seconds, we had zoomed out of the forest, and were now looking down at a valley 400 feet below!  It should be noted here, that David gets nervous looking over 3rd floor balconies.  So this was quite the experience.  They had 3 ziplines that were close to a kilometer long, and passed over the same deep valley, and about 10 other shorter ones through the forest.  They also had a "repelling line", which was more a straight drop of about 100 feet, and what they called the "giant tarzan swing".  The swing was another 100 foot drop, only you would swing, instead of being lowered down slowly.  The first half second was freefall, and the whole experience was terrifying, even for Alice who isn't afraid of heights.  The final zipline was one of the 1 km, 400 foot high ones,  but this time they sent us down "superman" style, for the full effect.  Also terrifying.. But what an exhiliriating experience.  At the end of the superman line, the guides actually hid from view, so it looked as if there was no one there to catch you as you come screaming in face first.  They did jump out at the last second though, and everyone agreed that the entire day was amazing.


We went to the grocery store to stock up for the next couple of days, and made a tuna casserole that we ate for lunch, dinner, and would eat again for lunch the next day.  We turned in early, and turned on a movie (we ordered Netflix by the way), and fell asleep before the opening credits were through.

Monday, December 31.

We woke up to the sweet smell of banana pancakes and coffee, made by Yorle. We were trying to make it a cheap day as we went over budget with the previous days excitement. So after breakfast we took a walk into town again and stopped into the bookstore for some new/used books. We spent a few hours reading back at the hostel and after lunch, set out on a hike up to the infamous ficcus tree Diego had promised to take us to. Unfortunately Diego decided not to show up to work that day, but that didn't stop us. We grabbed Sherri, one of our hostel mates and set out on a steep inclined trek toward the tree. It took us about an hour to get there, and about an hour and a half to get back as we got lost on way. But we made it back eventually, and after a little nap we started on dinner. We cooked a garlic/pepper fish dish with veggies and gathered into the kitchen with all of our other hostel mates for cocktails and champagne for a pre-celebration new years party. At 11:15pm we set out for the only place in town that was throwing a new years party, and danced in the new year there. Happy 2013!!!