Montezuma was full of morning exploration to several deserted beaches: exploring tide pools, picking up shells, and meeting nice people. During the heat of the day, I packed lunches and went and sat in the cool rivers or played in the waterfalls. Or headed to the soda that served guanabana juice, as well as less typical small side of pasta salad and roasted beets in their typical plate meal (casado). There was no diving due to the high waves and strong current, but my hotel, Hotel Montezuma Pacifico, was a great, quiet, much needed retreat. It was set behind a church on a dead end road close to the small town center. Afternoons could be spent on the balcony overlooking the church, listening to children play music, and watching the wildlife that wandered through the church yard. The owner of the hotel was extremely kind and took great care of me. An enjoyable last night was spent chatting with him about his daughter who is doing her Master's in Public Health in Mozambique, hearing him excitedly talk over his business plans and design ideas of opening a bar and restaurant, and exchanging menu and recipe ideas over tequila and cervezas.
After a few days in Montezuma, I decided to head to Monteverde. I took the bus back to Paquera and caught the ferry to Puntarenas. I walked the 1 km to the bus stop and found the bus to Monteverde. The bus ride was bumpy, packed, and dusty. But the scenery was fantastic as we climbed the hills to get up to the cloud forest. You could see all the way out to the Nicoya Peninsula, and kids would excitedly wave to the bus from their small houses beside the road as we passed. The bus arrived in Santa Elena at dusk and I found a cheap hostel the first night called Hostel Tranquillo. It was anything but tranquil, so I got up around 5am to watch the sun rise over the mountains and search for a new place.
I was quickly joined by a small dog, who I named Corgi (since I assume that is what kind of a dog he was). Corgi followed me EVERYWHERE. Occasionally he would chase a cow down the road, but would quickly come back. If I went into a shop or bakery, he would sit outside and wait. If I sat down for a rest, he would sit by (or on) my feet. The mountain roads are narrow and winding with blind corners, so if I walked on the wrong side of the road, Corgi would cross to the other side and look at me until I crossed to the safer side.
Corgi and I found a new hotel for me that was quiet at Hotel Don Taco. Splurged a little, but got a great deal on a large, clean superior cabin room set far off the road with a huge balcony. I chatted with the person running the hotel, and then Corgi and I took off and spent about 6 hours walking the different little towns. I finally had to shoo Corgi away, and he looked at me sadly. That night, after a beautiful sunset, I decided to go on the Hidden Valley night walk tour. Dismayed by the large number of people, the manager who picked me up at my hotel put me in his group that had fewer people and made sure I was right behind him the whole tour. Got to see a variety of night insects, bats, a two-toed sloth, a sleeping motmot, tarantulas, scorpions, two pit vipers, and after walking/stumbling in complete darkness for several minutes...the bioluminescent fungi.
The next day, I got up early and headed for the bus to Monteverde Reserve so I could be there before anyone else when the park opened. I walked about 20 feet and heard something behind me. Turning around, there was Corgi-- smiling at me and following along. We walked to the bus stop and waited. He seemed a little sad that he couldn't come with me. The bus broke down on the way there, but luckily I was on the bus with all the locals that were headed to work in the park. So they took me with them and we walked a different route and flagged down a school bus that took us the rest of the way. There were only a few of us there for the 7am park opening and I chose a different path than everyone else. Got into the park for half price, since I remembered my school ID (if you travel and have an old school ID, many parks offer discounts to students... now that I actually am I student, I can use the current one, but I have also used old ones from University of Arizona and University of Washington and they have worked just fine). I spent the entire day hiking, walking almost all the trails in the park. It was nice to have the head start over everyone else so I could walk as quietly as possible and go as slow as I wanted to see as much wildlife as possible. Saw lots of birds (which really aren't my thing since, well, they aren't monkeys). Hummingbirds all around, little lizards, beautiful flowers and just lots of peacefulness... just what I needed.
Headed back to town and guess who met me moments after getting off the bus? Yup, Corgi found me again. We walked around for a bit and I ran into Miguel, the guy from my hotel who also worked at a hostel in the town center. We chatted for a bit and walked around town for a bit after he got off work. We decided to go grab a drink. Miguel seemed to know everyone in town (partially why I agreed to go for a drink with him-- my general rule of walking around with someone in a small town and seeing everyone's reaction to them can give you a pretty good idea if they are trustworthy or not). Someone in the bar he knew introduced me to another traveler who was heading back to San Jose the next day and had a rental car. She wanted company for the drive and so she invited me along, saving me some money, time, and a very early bus departure. That allowed me to stay up a little later for a late bite to eat made by Miguel's mother at his house before he dropped me back at the hotel.
The next morning, I ate breakfast and said my sad goodbyes to Corgi. Dropped a few shells I collected off to Miguel (as he mentioned he had a collection) and a get well wish for his father who was starting chemo in the nearest hospital 3 1/2 hours away in Puntarenas. Uneventful drive back to San Jose and got dropped off at my hotel. All in all, Monteverde was just what I needed.And now I am back! It is nice to be able to flush toilet paper again and have regular showers (the older hotels had the good old Latin American Suicide Showers that combine electricity and water). Costa Rica was beautiful in the rainy season, but no offense to those who love it-- I can't say I would go back. Granted, it was not the optimal situation to enjoy a new place, but it seemed pretty expensive, touristy, and just not for me. It also probably didn't help that the rainy season made it more difficult to get to some of the less touristy areas or areas I would have enjoyed more, but I am beginning to think I am more of a South America girl. But hopefully, next summer will be Jordan and Egypt as I will only have one quarter left in school...that is, if I don't fail out this year ;). Trip photos are up or you can view them as a slideshow.
Love,
Betsy
P.S. - Sorry for those awaiting postcards. I finally bought them, but then never felt up to or had time to write them. I'll figure something out. In the meantime, come over for some Costa Rican coffee... or rum!
Met an old college buddy in San Jose after first arriving. It was nice to see her and catch up after about a decade and she and her girlfriend gave me a tour of the city. City itself was okay, but couldn't have spent much time there. The National Theater was very pretty, but most interesting thing to me was the massive crowds outside the public hospitals of people waiting to get seen.
The rest of the week, my travel mate surfed and I explored and relaxed or we took little trips on the ATV he rented. Even though it is the green season, the rains seem pretty well timed (often late night/early morning) and don't seem to stop you from doing much. I enjoyed just sitting and watching the wildlife (iguanas, butterflies, hummingbirds, a flock of wild parakeets, some kind of cute chipmunk thing, bats every day), cooling off in the pool, laying on the beach and watching the surfers, and playing in tide pools. We took trips to Montezuma to jump off rocks into a waterfall pool, tried to find a snorkeling beach for me, viewed the countryside, and ventured up to a lookout of the area apparently close to Mel Gibson's house.
As far as the food situation, typical Tica food is pretty basic (rice and beans with chicken/beef/or fish) but there is a large variety of food in Santa Teresa. I had fun trying to grocery shop (I found you had to hit up several shops to find ingredients you needed as one would have coconut milk and cilantro and the other would have meat or something else I needed) and make food without my usual ingredients. My second attempt at green curry (first needed chicken and broth) using avocado and cumin was not too horrible. On the last day, I found a great reading spot at the next beach over with big rocks and a shady tree to read under and ran into a family of howler monkeys on the way home.