Two men venture into the land of Paulo Wanchope
Trip Start
Nov 10, 2007
1
Trip End
Ongoing
San Jose, Costa Rica
Saturday, December 1, 2007
The border crossing itself didn't prove too troublesome, although we got our first introduction to the fact that Costa Rican people can be a bit pushy when it comes to queues. Leave more that two inches in front of you and an old lady with 12 carrier bags will be in there like a rat up a drainpipe.
After getting our stamp we got on a bus to Liberia where we would then change to La Fortuna. Unfortunately we missed our stop. We weren't happy. Neither was the bus driver, who insisted we pay a hefty penalty for travelling an extra five miles further than we should have. Lee got angry. So did Nick. I thought for a minute the driver was going to drive off with our bags but Yona, and a helpful taxi driver, helped to clam the situation.
We got our bags but were left at some crossroads in the middle of nowhere. Not the best first impression of Costa Rica! Fortunately the local taxi driver came to our aid and suggested that instead of heading to La Fortuna, which would prove impossible that day, we go to Monteverde and see the cloudforests instead. After a brief discussion over some pizza flavoured pringles, we decided to go with his suggestion.
Off we went on an old and very battered bus for a two hour journey into the cloudforests of Costa Rica. The scenery was fantastic. Rolling hills covered in lush, green jungle. A much better impression than the crossroads where we had first been dumped. To celebrate, Nick and Yona treated us to a jam sandwich (peanut butter in Lees case) and I can honestly say it was one of the best tasting sandwiches I have ever had! After watching a cracking sunset we finally pulled into the town of Santa Elena at about 6.30pm...all in all we had spent a grand total of 9 and a half hours on the road. Nice!
The first thing we noticed was that it was bloody cold. The second was that Santa Elena looked uncannily like an alpine ski resort. A big change from the beach vibe of San Juan. As per usual, as soon as we stepped off the bus we were beseiged by hostel owners. We saw two places and settled on a place called 'Sleepers' which was run by a friendly man called Ronnie. He'd worked at a few hostels himself and then decided to try and run his own. He lived onsite with his wife and three kids. The eldest, a girl of about five, was learning English and sang us a good version of the song 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes'.
We had a nice dinner out the first night. Although it was a bit strange getting out the new currency from the ATM. Basically there were around 1000 Costa Rican Colones to the pound. So it was possibly the only time I'll ever get to draw out 200,000 from my bank account in one go! When we got back to the Hostel we took advantage of the fact we got free tea and coffee. It was the first cup of tea I'd had since I'd left England's fine shores, and it tasted fantastic!
In the morning we got up and decided to walk to a hummingbird garden. I'd never seen a hummingbird before but was soon surrounded by them and they whizzed between the trees. Amazing creatures really and we were lucky enough to get pretty close to them. Lee assumed the role of wildlife photographer and took some good snaps.
That night we decided to do our own cooking and knocked up some mighty fine faijitas. After that we went out on a night tour of the local forests. It was a bit eerie but the guide was really good and we saw raccoons, and a variety of birds and insects. However, the highlight was when he managed to track down a couple of tarantulas! The second of which was massive! You would not want to mess with that.
The following day we all set off to do a canopy tour. This basically involved flying through the tree tops on ziplines that were hundreds of feet long and, at points, hundreds of feet high. A great experience especially when we found ourselves whizzing through clouds as we literally crossed valleys with nothing but a small harness between us and certain doom. Lee got a great video of me disappeering into the mist on one of the longer cables. The tour also included a bit of rappelling straight down to the forest floor, and a tarzan swing where Lee made his claim to be crowned 'king of the swingers'.
In the afternoon Lee and I went off to do a rope bridge tour through the cloudforest. Another great expereince as we wandered through the treetops, hundreds of feet up. That night the cooking dream team created another masterpiece, this time it was spag bol. I for one really enjoyed spending time with Nick and Yona. They're a cracking couple and hopefully we'll get to catch up when we're all back in London. But that's not to say we'd seen the last of them as it turned out we were all heading for the beach resort of Montezuma, on the Nicoya Penninsula. Although Lee and I were heading off a day earlier.
So off we set in the morning, waving goodbye to Ronnie and his family. If anyone is heading for Monteverde in Costa Rica and finds themselves in Santa Elena I highly recommend his place. The bus ride to Porta Aranes (or something like that) where we'd get a ferry across to the Penninsula was suitably bumpy but the scenery again was outstanding. At times we were above the clouds as we wound our way down the jungle covered hill tops. I salute the old buses that trundle up and down these tracks and hope that they continue to run for years to come.
When we finally got to the port we found out the ferry we were hoping to catch wasn't running. Brilliant. Luckily a couple of Swedish girls arrived at the ticket office at exactly the same time and managed to find out that we could still get across but we'd have to wait for two hours. Off to the nearest bar it was then. We found out that they too were heading for Montezuma so we decided to get a taxi together once we got to the other side. We'd had a fair few before getting on the ferry and a few more onboard which helped to numb the pain of a very bumpy taxi ride to Montezuma. We didn't get there till nearly 12 so took the first available hostel we found. Not a great choice though as I was kept awake by some very out of tune bongo playing by an extremely stoned man and Lee was woken up by a cockroach crawling across his arm. Mmmm.
Montezuma itself is a very small beach town, made up of a couple of small streets and that's about it. But it definitely has a certain charm about it. After the bongo playing madness I got up and ventured into town (if you could call it that) and had some breakfast in the sunshine. Very pleasant, although I did get a shock when a large iguana launched itself of the roof above me and landed with a smack in the middle of the road. Unperturbed it then wandered off and started chewing on some nearby plants!
For such a small place there was plenty to do. So Lee and I organised some horseback riding on the beach and a snorkelling trip to a nearby island of Tortuga. That afternoon we bumped into Nick and Yona and told them about the new hostel we'd moved to which was much quieter and right on the beach front. As luck would have it they got a room there too.
Had a few nights out in Chico's bar and actually met Chico himself who now runs Chico's tours right next to the bar. He had to give up running the bar cos, in his own words, 'he got carried away with women, drugs and partying.'
The snorkelling trip to tortuga wasn't fantastic, we'd been spoilt with some great snorkelling in Belize. But we got to see a load of dolphins on the boat ride and Lee 'David Bailey' Cutter even managed to capture a few of the speedy characters on camera. Not a small feat I can tell you. We met up with some more Swedes on the trip and even joined in a game of beach volleyball. Not quite the U21 Swedish Women's beachvolleyball team that we'd been hoping to met up with at some point, but it was a start.
The next day we decided to hire out an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV). It's a bit like a quad bike but bigger and faster. Our aim was to take a look at some of the surf beaches we'd heard about a little bit further down the coast. I hung onto the back as Lee got to grips with the beast between his legs. The thing was pretty quick and we reached speeds of up to 50kph! Which, let me tell you, feels awfully fast when you're hanging on by your fingernails as Lee goes all Dukes of Hazard over the bumps.
We eventually made it to Mal Pais and Santa Elena, the two beaches we'd heard about, and they didn't disapoint. Loads of surf dudes and dudettes wandering around with their boards under their arms. (including Nick and Yona!). It looked a cool place and with hindsight maybe we should have stayed here for a night or two but ce la vie.
After a spot of lunch we decided to push on to the beach of Manzillo, which apparently had some cracking sunsets. I took over the role of driver. And then swiftly relinquished it again after nearly crashing and then stalling the bike in a stream! Nevermind. Onwards we pushed and reached Manzillo for sunset. And what a cracker it was. Lee hooned up up and down the deserted beach on the ATV while I took in the beautiful scenery. Stunning, simply stunning. By now it was getting quite late so we made a dash for home. Unfortunately the road signs in this part of the world are fairly non-existent. So after a fair few wrong turns we found ourselves driving in the dark, unsure of where we were going. Lee was getting battered by flies so I gave him my sunglasses. Not ideal considering the lack of light, but hey.
After what seemed like an eternity we finally rolled back into Montezuma, dusty, tired but unbowed. Another experience of our trip that I won´t forget in a hurry!
Beach horseriding was next, which was fun if a little slow. My horse seemed to be quite stubborn in terms of going where I wanted him to go. But I guess I'd be a bit grumpy if I had to carry tourists on my back up and down a beach for three hours at a time. The end destination of the trip was quite a cool waterfall, which Lee took a dip in. I abstained as I was suffering from an almighty hangover and still had cuts on my feet from the previous day's snorkelling. Of course it had nothing to do with the fact that Lee almost had a heart attack getting into the water because it was so cold.
The following morning it was off to San Jose where we had a flight booked to take us to Ecuador. First we had to run the gauntlet of various bus and ferry journeys, finally rolling into San Jose at around 11pm. On the journey we met a girl called Rebecca who used to be a professional dancer (she'd done various pop videos and even a world tour with Sarah Brightman of all people!) but now taught English in Germany. She was really cool and told me how she'd gained her teaching qualification in Prague and then stayed there for a few months teaching. For some reason it struck a chord with me and I'll definitely follow it up as a possible option once we're done galavanting around the world.
San Jose wasn't the nicest place to arrive after dark. The bus terminal seemed to be in the middle of the ghetto and it didn't help that our taxi driver didn't have a clue where our chosen hostel was. But we got there in the end. Not the most welcoming sight though, all the windows and doors had bars across them but the place itself seemed nice enough. And to be honest at that time of night we'd take anything! All they had were doem beds for the first night and we were woken up by a couple of drunken twats at around 5am. But luckily we switched rooms the next morning and set about doing a bit of shopping.
The malls in San Pedro (a suburb of San Jose) were a bit streange at first considering we'd just come from small beach towns but we stocked up on a few things and even treated ourselves to a trip to the cinema. We saw Sharkwater a documentary about the plight of sharks across the world and it's well worth seeing if you get the chance.
Next up was some whitewater rafting. When we got to the site Lee took one look at the river and knowingly said 'We'll do well to fall out of the boat on that. It can't be more than a grade three.' However on the first corner his words came back to haunt him as we lost a member of our crew - a tiny American girl who couldn't have been more than six years old. Out she flipped but, bless her, she stayed calm and was quickly hauled back onboard. Then as we rounded the next corner we saw the boat in front of us flip up in the air and dump all it's crew in the water!
We stayed upright however and Lee and I were drafted into another boat to help steady some nerves. Professionals indeed! In fact we even took a boat down one stretch on our own after some of the golden oldies decided the rapids were a bit too much for them. Pah!
The following day we set off to catch our flight to Ecuador, where we'd start our South American part of the trip. This was something I was definitely looking forward to as it meant we'd soon be visiting the Galapagos Islands! At the airport I had to make a small purchase, a new camera. I managed to break the other one in Belize. Now I know what you're thinking Mum but at least I didn't lose it : )
Hope you enjoyed this blog, sorry it was so long. The next time you'll hear from me will be from South America!
Until then...adios amigos
