1/28: The trip out was uneventful, but we were greeted outside the gate with rental car drama. The guy at the desk was trying to trick us into renting with them instead of with Avis. He tried to convince us that the bus to the agent counter wasn’t here and he couldn’t reach them by phone. Lou took care of things by telling him that if we didn’t get satisfaction from our agent we’d come back. Well of course a guy was waiting to take us to the car.
The first thing we noticed on the way to the hotel is that litter is everywhere. Sadly, that’s nothing new. I’ve documented it all over the world: from the water bottles on the pristine beaches of New Zealand to the TV wedged into a cliff in White Rock, New Mexico. Some day I’m going to compile them all and go on a road show to demonstrate the consequences of careless behavior.
Despite the drama with the car and the disappointment with the littering, Lou’s bp dropped 10 points by the time we reached the beach. Even when the power went out several times during our stay his bp remained low.
After dinner the first night we discovered that something had been swimming in our pool. Turns out it was the iguana that hung out on our tree every day. We named it Antonio. We never knew until this night that iguanas were skilled swimmers. Huh! We also discovered the tail end of what we thought (hoped) was a sloth slinking away from our lawn but turned out to be a raccoon. This is despite the resort being host to several hunting cats (and a very quiet dog) who like to dine with the humans.
1/29: After a breakfast which included beet juice (just kidding about the beet juice, though they did offer it), we headed out for a hike at the Rincón de la Vieja National Park, Vector Santa Maria. They do things the old fashioned way in C.R. when it comes to road construction: if you’re the last guy in line at a one lane road construction you get to transport the flag to the other end and hand it over to the flag person who will give it to the next last person in line. The other thing they do old fashioned is their roads. Only the main roads are paved. Secondary roads on down are dirt. Not just dirt, but pitted and bumpy. The kind that will put steps on your pedometer without having to move your legs (this really happened). SNAKE!! Oh my gosh! This was the first time I remembered there are SNAKES everywhere here. And not the good kind! We saw a giant black one in the middle of the road. Even so, I felt compelled to lift my legs off the floor of the car as though that would make a difference. The hike itself was lovely. No snakes or poisonous anything, though there were stinky sulphur pools. They turned Lou’s stomach so we tried to avoid them the remainder of the trip. There was no avoiding the dogs with death wishes on the way back to the main road, however. They were very fond of laying in the middle of the road in the middle of nowhere. I suppose its a fairly safe place for them to be normally, given that only a handful of cars pass by each day. By the time we made it back to the hotel we were starving, so went to the main pool bar and had some decidedly unhealthy appetizers while making friends with a Portuguese man and his son.
Dinner here was very similar to the European style: pasta first, then main course. The main course is very, very tiny. Not quite minuscule, but close. The evenings we needed a little more to eat we chose the restaurant that had the all-you-can eat salad bar. That way, if we were still hungry after our main course we could go back for more salad.
After dinner and retiring to our villa we discovered a raccoon family playing on our lawn and swimming in our pool. They were so adorable and we were somewhat tempted to invite them onto our laps, but wiser heads prevailed and we didn’t encourage them to get any closer.
Tonight was also the night we discovered that despite my paying for international cell coverage it doesn’t work in C.R. Too bad Verizon didn’t tell me that in advance, but we were able to work out a credit for the $500 charge they billed me once I was back in the states.
1/30: We went back to Rincón de la Vieja National Park but to a different sector. The volcano hike was closed due to volcanic activity. During the first half of our hike we had mist falling down upon us, which was nice because it kept us cool on a difficult hike. Within the first hour we encountered monkeys, tapirs, flying turkey, horses, donkeys, and too many bug bites from insects that didn’t take the hint from our head-to-toe repellent. In total we hiked 8.5 miles in about 5 hours. The first part of the hike was to the top of a waterfall. The hike was h-a-r-d and windy. The wind was so strong it brought to mind the stories about people being blown off cliffs on their honeymoon, which led me to climb hunched close to the ground. We didn’t spent much time at the top, and on our way back down we were passed by a young couple who must have been born of billy goats. They were practically skipping down the hill like an episode of Heidi. When we made our way to the bottom of the second water fall we took a cool refreshing dip. It was when I was exiting the pond that I noticed someone stashed a Styrofoam take-out container under a ledge. This is where I ranted about WHY anyone would go to the trouble of hiking all the way to this spot with a takeout container FULL of food and then leave it behind after it was emptied. To make matters worse, on our way back up the hill I saw that another person (or perhaps the same person) tucked a plastic bag into the hole of a tree. If their future generations ever get the good fortune to retrace their steps, those items will STILL be there, marking the passage of their thoughtless ancestors.
Between this day and the previous one we noticed lots of failed high end developments where a beautiful wall is constructed but little else, there are lots of people on bicycles (not the fun kind), and gas stations are full service with attendants who also wash your windows and fresh coconut milk is sold while you wait.
1/31: This was our spa recovery day. We worked out at the small resort gym then enjoyed a beach-side couples’ massage. We hung out the rest of the day at the adults only beach before making our way over to the “fun” side of the resort and the swim-up bar. We met a really fun couple who invited us to share the fishing boat they had chartered for the next day. We were very tempted until we remembered that Ginger gets violently seasick even with meds and we didn’t bring any.
It was during dinner that we discovered the chocolate tastes like wax. We didn’t repeat the experience the rest of the trip.
2/1: We went to Santa Rosa National Park after breakfast. As we were entering the park the ranger told us to be certain not to cross the estuary as there were crocodiles and they were dangerous. It took about an hour to traverse the dirt road to the beach from the entrance, but I never once forgot about that crocodile warning. When we arrived at the parking location and got out of the car we were greeted by the unofficial attendant: a friendly iguana. Nevertheless, I still didn’t forget about that warning. When we approached the swampy area at the start of the estuary I started talking LOUDLY and incessantly. Lou swears I wasn’t annoying him, but I was so nervous about the crocodiles that every noise signified certain death by crocodile jaws. At one point we even debated the difference between the words “cross” and “across” as it pertained to whether we should be walking “in front of” the estuary. Fortunately, we saw zero crocodiles … this day.
2/2: Today we kayaked twice: once with a guide and then once by ourselves. After so many days of intense activity we were worn down so we just laid low the rest of the day after the napping. The hotel was sponsoring a special Super Bowl night at the bar after dinner. We hung out there with the couple we had met a few nights prior and ended up closing the place down, but not before enjoying the spectacle of a half dozen raccoons swimming and cavorting between tables looking for food scraps. When we got back to our room our own little raccoon family came visiting and tried to come into the room. “Oh no you don’t little fellas”, I told them. “That’s how visitors to your country get infections and die!”
2/3: Palo Verde National Park and last full day. Both of us were so tired from the night before we could barely work up the energy to walk less than a mile. I didn’t even bother to turn on my Garmin, though I stayed on my toes in case we ran into crocodiles. Fortunately, the only two we saw were from afar. This trip was so fantastic that of two things we are certain: we want to return some day, and we want to improve our Spanish. In fact, we agreed to start studying it regularly and will speak only Spanish in our house one day per week to force us to get better.
I’m glad you got to see Coatis; they were as rampant as your raccoons when we were there in 2001. The roads are horribly bad, aren’t they? We named every one of them Diablo after our 3rd flat tire due to potholes; we worked hard with the rental company to get replacements. We went out just 10 steps from the back door at our B&B one evening around 10 pm and found a lovely eyelash viper poised about heart-level a few inches from the trail – it was exciting! Good to see all your photos; maybe we’ll go back when you do and meet you in Costa Rica!
That would be awesome, except for the viper part. I would not want to see one of those.