We landed in San Jose and our friend Federico was waiting for us at the airport. We spent to nights at his parent's house and we loved the home made food and how they took care of us. Thank you Fede!
The first night we went to a typical costarican bar called "El Picadero" where people were dancing veeery good and singing with the karaoke. We were giving a farewell to Fede's cousin who was going to Amsterdam.
The next day we went to Cachi, which is a natural rock that you can climb, but it really looks like a gym.
After the good exercise we ate at Bocadito del Cielo where we tried the famous tortillas de queso, tortillas con queso and queso empanizado. That area is know for the Turrialba cheese and we had cheese for the entire week. That same day we celebrated Fede's dad birthday going to an italian restaurant. We found out that San Jose is like a town because Fede's family knew everybody in that restaurant!
The next day we took a bus to Tortuguero. Before getting on the bus, the driver warned us that there were thieves, and actually 4 police men got on the bus and tried to arrest a guy that looked very suspicious, but they finally didn't do it. When we arrived to Cariari, that same guy run away with the bags of two poor spanish tourists with their money, cameras and passports.
We took another bus to la Pavona and there we had to take a boat to get to Tortuguero. The boat ride took about two hours because the water level was very low, but we enjoyed the views. We saw crocodiles and Jesuschrist lizards that are able to walk on the water.
In tortuguero we slept in Casa Marbella, a hotel owned by Daryl, a Canadian guy who also runs tours. The town is only one street without many restaurant options but we were able to find Budda Cafe, a very nice restaurant with views to the river.
Tortuguero has a conservational program to protect the sea turtles. Visitors can watch turtles nesting at night, but organized in shift to avoid disturbing the turtles. Your time and location is assigned with a lottery. We had the first shift and we had to wait for more than one hour until the first turtle came. Visitors are only allowed to watch turtles once the process of nesting has started because at this point there is no risk that the turtle will leave.
We were able to see the entire process: laying eggs, covering the hole with the back fins and camouflage the area with the front fins. A courious fact that we didn't know is that sea turtles can't hide their arms and head inside the shell.
The next day we started a tour at 6 am by boat through the channels of the national park. Our guide wasn't a good spotter and he was following the other guides. He was only good at imititating the noises of the monkeys and some birds. However, we were able to see caymans, a snake winded on a branch with a tarantula on top of it, and lots of birds.
After finishing the tour we jumped into a private van to go to La Fortuna. Right after leaving, the driver got distracted with the american girl next to him and we almost flip over. The car got stucked with two wheels on the curb and two on the road. Luckily, two cars stopped to help. One with a strong strap and the other one with a powerful engine and a fat guy to counterbalance the van. Precisely everything what we needed!!! The fat guy was very happy that his extra weight useful and was able to save our trip!
La Fortuna is the town next to the Arenal volcano, which used to have lava explosions but had been dormant for the last 10 months. The night we arrived there was an electrical storm with huge lightnings. Beatufiul and scary at the same time!
The next day we made a tour to the volcano with one of the best guides we have had so far, Leo from Eagle Tours. The best moment was when he put his finger in a termite nest and almost ate some of them. There was also a funny girl from New York who was putting in her purse all the plants that the guide said had medicinal qualities: The insect repelent fruit, the anti-itch stem, and the anti-headache leaf. She had remedies for everything!
We also went to the Baldi thermal baths at night. It was awesome because it was low season and we had all the pools for ourselves. The hottest pool was 47ºC!
The next day we went to Monteverde. The fastest way to get there is to hire a jeep-boat-jeep tour. We had the luck of having again Leo, the same guide we had in the volcano. We stayed in Pension Santa Elena, a hostel with very nice rooms if you take one of the new ones. Monteverde is known for its cloud forest and for having the longest canopy tours in Costa Rica. Victor did one of these tour, with 13 zip lines, one of about 600m and an 8m tarzan jump at the end. We only stayed one day in Monteverde because we thought we could have some relaxing days at the beach in Manuel Antonio.
We took the public transportation from Santa Elena to Manuel Antonio and it was veeery long and tiring. We took the first public bus at 6am to Punta Arenas and got to Punta Arenas at 11am through a dirt road. In this trip we saw a group of three guys that stole two bags. We felt very impotent because the only thing we had guts to do was to warn the victim after that happened. The thiefs got off in a previous stop but we saw them again in the last stop with different t-shirts ready to steal again.
In Punta Arenas we had to walk for 15 min to get to the bus that would get us to Quepos. Punta Arenas felt a bit dangerous with some people wanted to take advantage of us by giving us wrong directions and information. From Quepos to Manuel Antonio we had to take one more public bus.
Once we got to Manuel Antonio, lots of commissioners were following us trying to point us to the hostels they wanted. We were able to get rid of all but one that was very insistent. We walked directly to the National Park backpackers and told to the receptionist that the commisioner didn't help us find that place, because we didn't want to be charged for that. The commisioner got very angry at us but finally left.
National Park Backpackers was managed by Marc, a guy from Sants, Barcelona, and his wife from Colombia.The place is very new and they are still adding new services such as restaurant and additional rooms, but we felt very comfortable. They show movies everynight with a huge screen in front of the pool!
The next morning we went to Manuel Antonio park which is literally 1 min away from the hostel. There we hired a guide, Mario, because they help you finding animals with their telescope. You can even take pictures through the lens. We saw many animals and plants, but the ones we liked the most were these frog larvae:
The park is known for the sloth and the white face monkeys. It's funny because the first ones are very slow, but the second ones are very fast stealing food from tourists who are enjoying the beach.
Mario convinced us to take a night tour through the mangroove. His friend Masha is a former crocodile hunter and he catches them with his bare hands so that tourists can see them closer. We saw many crocodriles and Masha spent a lot of time walking in the dark river full of crocodiles, but he wasn't able too catch any :(
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| Masha caught a fish with his hands! |
And Next Stop: Panama
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