Archive for May, 2007
america’s next top model
Our first day at the beach, aka quepos, started with a lazy early rise to overcast skies. It had poured all day yesterday and we had our fingers crossed the rain would not show its wet face today.
we packed our bags with beach gear and headed to the bus stop to take the bus to Manual Antonio (MA). A heavyset tico was waiting with us. we made light conversation, and he lifted our spirits by mentioning it is going to be a nice day. we were skeptical but since he lived there, he would know best. turned out he was right. we had a great time a the beach. Continue reading »
what a croc!
after the “tours galore” post, the next day was the journey from monteverde to quepos on the pacific coast side of costa rica. from the “today is the best day ever” post, you can already get a sense of how yucky the day was. i think i left out how rocky and bumpy the roads where going down the mountain. there were a few times where i was bumped out of my seat and holding the oh shit handle bar.
tours galore
the next day in monteverde we dragged ourselves out of bed to a morning greeting us with sore muscles and a nice breakfast. it was around 6am and it was already light outside. the sun rises around 5 and sets around 6. this place gets 13 hours of sunlight!
today is the best day ever!
a deviation from the post about each day. i wanna share something with ya that is probably the funniest and most ongoing inside joke we are sharing. i will not name names but while we were on the cloud forest hike, we were very lucky in spotting the quetzal, baby birds, a viper, and many other creatures that the guide said we were very lucky to see. it also didn’t rain while we were hiking around.
so we heard this woman in our group say to her friend, today is the best day ever. this woman is enthusiastic about everything and always so cheery. she drove dee crazy when dee was suffering on the rappelling trip cause she was always laughing and smiling and asking dee do you like it now?
the way to monteverde
The next day it was time to travel to our next stop in the itinerary, monteverde (green mountain). the way to monteverde will be a diverse transport experience as we ride on a boat across Lake Arenal to ride horses and then back in a van to bump ourselves up the unpaved roads to Monteverde.
internet woes
i didn’t expect the internet to be so freaking, incredibly, annoyingly slow. everything is slow. the computers should be in a museum (PIII with USB 1.1) and the connection is a slow ISDN 128 kbps. the usb connection makes transferring the pics to the computer slow and then it is unbelievable slow to transfer to the website.
let’s groove tonight
after writing the last post, the next activity we signed up for was the volcano hike to an observation point where we would eat pizza and drink beer then we would head to the hot springs.
la fortuna
while john and i were having a blast white water rafting, dee was having the exact opposite experience. she went on the canyoneering trip where they hiked up to waterfalls and then rappelled down five 100 meter waterfalls. john and i thought she might return with an injury, but nope, she returned with a look of disgust. she hated being cold, next to the waterfall attached to a rope with it raining on her. she was very miserable. poor girl. i wish i had gone so i could have cheered her up a little or made her more comfortable.
jesus christ lizard!
the next day we woke up and got on a bus to take us to the white water rafting and la fortuna. in the informational section, it said the rapids were a mix of class III and class IV rapids. with the rainy weather, the water was going to be higher and maybe rougher. despite the concerns, i was excited to head out. john and i were going and dee was going to do the rappelling down waterfalls, which i also wanted to do cause of my love for rockclimbing, but white water rafting sounded more fun.
san jose and meeting the group
dee and i walked around san jose and discovered that there isn’t much to this city. the main street looked like monterrey, mexico. there were plenty of people walking around but nothing exciting going on except for when the cops were banging on a metal door to a shoe store. i guess they were saying open up. once they did, a rush of store employees armed with metal poles came out ready to fight. they came out as if they were expecting a fight from someone other than the cops. it was a crazy scene that had us puzzled as to what started it.
we went to the central market or mercado central. they sold all kinds of goods from meat, baskets, shoes, fabric, animals, flowers, etc. unlike the thailand markets where we were trying to decide what to buy, we were trying to find something to buy. we found the pet store that had turkeys
, chickens, rabbits, a really cute dog that made dee miss shiloh, and all kinds of fish.