Peru: Limalicious

After our first evening enjoying Lima’s culinary treats we slept in, had a quick toast and coffee breakfast and then went off walking in the Miraflores district where we are staying.  We walked over to South American Explorers and joined their organization which gives us access to the club houses in Lima, Cusco and Quito (Ecuador) as well as to planning etc. resources for our trip here in Peru.  We also get discounts with a lot of hostels and such which should help cut costs.  The Lima house is in an old building with a French architecture influence which is quite common here as is Italian and Spanish Colonial (what a surprise).  I suppose some might say it is all Spanish but it just doesn’t look that way.  One of the people at SAE turned us on to a local architect who leads individualized tours in Lima and I am thinking of setting one up since the architecture and culture here is worth it.  We were told by a guide at the Archbishop’s Palace (now a museum) that Lima used to have a lot more interesting old buildings but they have been torn down over the years to make room for skyscrapers and various mid-size condo developments - some things are just the same the world over.

We also wandered over to El Sol, a Spanish language school over near the imaginary (to us) border between the Miraflores and Barranco districts and signed up for a two week intensive to boost our skills.  We have been getting a lot of practice in Lima speaking Spanish as few people do which is very refreshing after Costa Rica.  I have been having fun practicing although I pity the locals who have to listen even though they all protest that I speak well (rubbish but nice to hear).  The staff at the hotel we are staying at speak Spanish mostly except for the owner who is unfortunately (for him) in hospital with a badly infected leg.  This is a bummer for us as apparently he really makes the place (it has been very quiet, too quiet).

We are looking into a home stay for the next couple of weeks which is cheaper than hostels and comes with most or all meals and we will get to practice our Spanish daily.  This will be good for both of us, particularly for Darcie who is struggling with differentiating words let alone interpreting them.  Some locals speak with a strong accent (relative to Mexico for instance) but most speak clearly and make an effort to pace things so we can absorb them.  For instance we had a guide (part of the entrance fee) at the Archibishop’s Palace Museum and she led the whole tour (it was just the two of us and her – very individual) in Spanish after verifying with us that this was ok (she spoke great English, however).  For the most part we got what she said which made us both feel good.  The main problem seems to be that we spend a lot of brain resources in translating and while at the time we understand we don’t remember much of the info later, at least I don’t (not surprising anyway since my memory is a little lousy anyway).  I like to think our brains are spending a lot of time understanding and not so much recording (lol).

We stumbled across the local version of Whole Paycheck (Whole Foods) and it is quite impressive.  The Peruvians, or rather the Limenos, really have good food sources.  Bought some nice cheese, a great salami, a dark whole wheat loaf, bottle of Malbec from Argentina (yay – wine is back on the availability list), salady things and several different types of sausage (our favorite is the Argentine-influenced morcilla which are small blood sausages with rice and spices – extremely delicious).  We have cooked at home a couple of times since and had lazy evenings in front of the babble box just letting our brains rot.

Yesterday we borrowed the hotel bikes (nice, newish Specialized mountain bikes) and went for a five hour wander through Miraflores and Barranco.  Mainly we trolled up and down the sea front which has a really well developed pedestrian path system on the cliffs above the ocean.  The government is in the process of building a sea front park that stretches for the whole Costa Verde section of the beach system but it looks to be a good year off before it is up and running.  In the meantime the ocean front is a wasteland of dirt.  That said one can see that in a couple of years this will be an amazing addition to the neighborhoods.  As it is the cliff-top trails are wonderful and everyone just gets along, pedestrians, cyclists, skateboarders and bladers alike and the views out over the Pacific are great.

   

We watched the local yacht club races for a while although they were a bit tiny and distant.  Not sure where the sailors dock since the nearby harbor was full of big motor-cruisers.

Eventually we reached Barranco and wandered into the town square which was in the middle of a festival celebrating local food and culture at least that is what the banners proclaimed.  While we were there it was just a celebration of food.  We had dessert only even though the meaty dishes all looked great.  This was mainly as the dessert lady was quite the hustler.  We washed the dessert down with a pitcher of chicha morado, a local fruity drink made with purple corn – it is delicious.  There was also a wandering troop of musicians playing Andean influenced covers which were fun to listen to – they were unfortunately brought to a halt when the roadies setting up the stage for the music portion of the fiesta fired up the speakers.  We hung out for an hour and then pedaled home.

Tomorrow we start our lessons – Let the Flogging Begin.

Peru!

We have been on the ground for less than 12 hours and already we have been amazed by Lima.  We have had the best meal we have had on this entire trip at a great restaurant, Brujas de Cachiche (http://www.brujasdecachiche.com.pe/), where we shared an anticucho de corazon de rez (skewered, marinated, lightly cooked beef heart) which was delicious, followed by a green salad with roasted tomatoes and garlic cloves topped with thinly sliced, cured duck breast, ditto, and then rounded off the savory portion of the meal with a ceviche sampler which was really yummy. 

I sampled a local beer, Cusquena, during the captain beef heart phase and then switched to a Chilean sauvignon blanc for the ceviche.  Both were good and well suited to the task of complementing the meal.  The wine was just a house white really but quite good despite this and the sommelier poured a nice deep glass for only $4.50.

For dessert we sampled two dishes: a “rustic apple pie” which was a heart shaped, scrumptious, deep dish individual pie with an amazingly thin and light crust and topped with crumbly top (think Dutch apple pie you Americans reading this), and a “pumpkin doughnut” served with ice cream and a pumpkin/burnt sugar syrup.  Both dishes were really interesting and delicious. 

We washed them down with the best cafe Americano’s we have had.  They really were true shots of espresso with just the right amount of hot water added to suitably fill the cup but not destroy the essential espresso essence.

I could go on but it might get considered gloating…  but I will finish by saying that the entire meal was less than $60, including tax and tip!

Our hotel/hostal (Albergue Miraflores) is nothing special. We are booked in and paid for through Sunday but there is just no vibe here so we will be moving on.  It is a collection of rooms, somewhat musty/humid with essence of ancient cigarette smoke lingering in the hallways (they need to replace the carpets probably).  Our room comes with two single beds despite having reserved a room with a matrimonial (a double/full bed for anyone not familiar with Spanish). The staff suggested that tomorrow we would get to move to another room with said matrimonial once the current occupants leave!  On the plus side it does seem quiet, no groups of rowdy drunk 18-21 year olds on spring break so far, unlike Costa Rica. Some of the reviews suggested that the place was very noisy due to the traffic on the adjacent streets.  While those streets are major thoroughfares they are only really loud at rush hour and even then not bad, noisier than we have gotten accustomed to in the last 5 months but still not bad.

Our Spanish has gotten a good trial today, talked with the cab driver from the airport, all in Spanish, and got a hint of the lay of the land and the ref to the restaurant!  Our hostess at Albergue Miraflores also spoke with us only in Spanish after we indicated that we could understand.  At the supermarket we went to after checking in I wound up talking with an employee whose job it was to encourage people to buy wine by handing out free samples, generous free samples!  We spent 15 minutes wine tasting and chatting in what was basically a Safeways…but named “Wong’s”!!! Then to finish up we went to Brujas and spoke only in Spanish with the staff.  Feeling pretty good about the Spanish just now.

Tomorrow we will check out the breakfast reputedly served as part of our room rate and then head off to find a language school and South American Explorers to start our planning efforts for our trip through Peru,  mainly just to get a better read on what is happening with Machu Pichu since at the last it was still shut thanks to the January deluges.

Costa Mucha Roundup

We have been in Costa Rica for 6+ weeks and have seen both the Caribbean coast and the Pacific Coast, Northern and Southern ends in the case of the Carib and Northern and Middle in the case of the Pacific.  We have wandered around in the capital, San Jose (a little under a week) and have headed up into the highland rainforests.  We have seen volcanoes, almost always shrouded in cloud.  We have seen the dry North of the country up near Nicaragua, theoretically we have actually briefly crossed the border (I suspect this is a tourist gimmick) and we have taken a lot of buses (usually not air-conditioned).

We have seen banana plantations (don’t eat bananas unless they are certified organic, really), pineapple plantations (ditto), mango orchards, papaya orchards, palm oil orchards (great for frying chicken, terrible for your cardio-vascular system), hearts of palm orchards (Darcie has discovered she LOVES hearts of palm), yucca fields (delicious however you prepare it, yucca, not the fields), coffee plantations and finally chocolate plantations (missed the tour though!).

We have seen three types of monkey (Howler, Capuchin and Titi (squirrel)), two-toed and three-toed sloths, some sort of giant rodenty thing (possibly an agouti), coatimundis, raccoons, lizards (leaping and otherwise), iguanas, birds of many stripes including Quetzals (yay), insects, spiders, frogs, bats and so on. 

We have been way too hot and sweaty for comfort many days, we have or rather I have gotten sunburnt a couple of times but not badly, we have swum in the oceans, we have swum in the pools, we have had some very nice (but expensive) meals and we have had some very poor (but expensive) meals.

We have mostly stayed in small hotels or hostels and very much prefer the hostels – they are usually cheaper, have great vibes and cool people, not that the hotels don’t but hotels tend to have people that don’t mingle well or aren’t interested in such.

We have heard at least ten languages other than Spanish and English, mostly from Europe – French, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, German, Swiss German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese and probably a few where I didn’t introduce myself and eventually find out what someone’s home country was.  We have practiced our Spanish a bit although as expected not much since everyone speaks English. 

We have day-hiked in half a dozen forests (longest hike 20k roundtrip), snorkeled in both oceans and seen many fish (Darcie even saw a ray and a small shark in the Carib – it was a “big” shark to her), went diving on the reef in the Caribbean which was murky (15ft visibility) but fun none-the-less,  did a small amount of cycling (would have done more but the bikes are so close to falling apart in many places that we just couldn’t be bothered), swam in both oceans, went ziplining (including a Tarzan swing and a Superman line where you are hooked up to fly like Superman down a 1k zipline – hugely fun) and met lots of interesting and fun people along the way.

We have also had our usual, end-of-trip haircuts, Darcie’s is decent, mine kind of makes me look like I have a fuzzy tonsure, really just need to buzz my head but Darcie likes the idea of a flat top which just isn’t a type of cut down in Mexico or in Costa Rica.  I can tolerate what I have this time and I think she has come around to the idea of a buzz.  I have, though, threatened to take a razor to my scalp and just finish the job and work on tanning my cranium.  As it is I need to rub sun block in.  The funny thing about my cut was the lady trimmed my goatee, quite short!, and trimmed my eyebrows!! without so much as a by-your-leave (lol).  She finished up by giving me a pretty good neck and shoulder massage.  It cost maybe $7 for each of us.

 

So what do we think about Costa Rica?

It is beautiful in parts and decrepit in others and many people live in squalor, particularly in the wetter and/or agribiz parts of the country.  Some of the roads are paved but lots are not which is hard to understand when there is little charm in bumping and grinding down a road for 30k to get to a named tourist destination such as Monteverde.  That tourism has flourished so is more a testament to the desire on the part of tourists and travelers to see monkeys, sloths and volcanoes and jungles or to go surfing.  While it is certainly possible to do this in other Central American countries, Costa Rica has for the most part a low crime rate (against tourists) and a well-developed international marketing program.  There really is no excuse for the condition of the roads, it hampers the locals and local business and it hampers tourism.

The much-ballyhooed “eco-ness”  of the country seems to me more hot air than reality, just another part of the green revolution that is so en vogue these days.  For instance, almost no one recycles glass, plastic and so on and garbage collection is pretty hit and miss so that public waste cans are frequently over flowing.  The beer and soda bottles are recycled but only if you return them to the store you bought them from so you can claim the deposit back.  Little mom and pop stores make this easy (they give you a hand-written receipt with the amount on it) but big stores make a big song and dance, you need a manager, sign this, dot that and so on – it takes 10 minutes and thus almost no tourist or traveler does it because the amount is only about 50 cents anyway.  Almost every sink has no stopper so if you want to shave (and keep you razor clean-ish), wash your face etc you must just run the tap which is impressively wasteful. 

I have not seen a single solar panel, even on the “eco-lodges” or the big chain hotels (even the brand new JW Marriot for which you see signs all over the country).  There is at least one wind farm for electricity but it is small, on the other hand I haven’t seen any big generating plants using coal or whatever to produce electricity since a lot of the power seemingly comes from hydro-electric plants.  Of course a big chunk of the electricity thus-produced is actually sold to Panama and Nicaragua so the better-off people and big businesses have gas or diesel generators for the inevitable power outages.

The country as a whole is very expensive – pretty much on a par with the US.  Accommodations run from the low hostel-end of things where you can pay about $35 a night for two people but you stay in a pretty low key room without a bathroom in many cases and usually quite stuffy (bear in mind that a Motel 6 can be had for not much more and you usually get a reasonable sized room with AC (that works), your own bathroom and total cleanliness) all the way up to $1000+ for deluxe shag palaces in gated resort communities.  Food, even “local” food, is frequently exorbitant particularly for anything with the taint of Europe or America.  You can certainly eat for about $10 a person at a local soda (not the drink, a local greasy spoon) give or take but we have had a hard time eating for less than $20 even when we are sharing and I only have one beer.  This has been the most commonly heard story from people we have met along the way.  How the locals live is beyond me.

If you come to Costa Rica with the idea that there is ancient culture to enjoy you will be sorely disappointed.  While there was obviously an indigenous population, the climate here was such that not much has survived the sands of time and certainly no big edifices like Teotihuacan, Tikal or Machu Pichu were built.  The draw is the country itself: the forests, beaches and wildlife and they are very nice.

Final thoughts:  Costa Rica – nice place to visit for two or three weeks, maybe four, for a concentrated vacation where money is no object, rent a car, enjoy everything the country has to offer.

Costa Rica: It’s amazing what you can see on a walk in Manuel Antonio.

It generally is not advised to walk along the main road in Manuel Antonio since there are no sidewalks and the cars like to zoom along at ridiculous speeds.  However, we did find that quite a lot more is observed when walking rather than riding the bus (for 50 cents).

One evening Nick and I were walking to a nice restaurant called Agua Azul at about sunset.  We noticed, as we did each day at sunset, that there was this amazing humming and whirring in the air that sounded like some sort of mechanical device failing.  We later learned that the cicadas make that sound during this time of the year in Manuel Antonio.  Don’t know if this is actually the species of cicada that makes the noise, but here’s a picture of one we saw. Also, as we walked towards the restaurant I spotted what looked like a squirrel crossing the road on a bright blue rope.  After looking more, we realized that the tail was far too long and far to unbushy to be a squirrel and that the front legs were very long and were in fact the arms of monkeys.  It turns out that a family of squirrel monkeys was crossing the road on one of the many “monkey bridges” that were strung up for just this purpose.  They were making quite a chittering racket as they talked and hurried each other along the rope in hopes of catching the sunset.

Another day we were walking along the road with our friend Emma and we spotted a family of toucans flying across the road.  Emma was able to get some wonderful pictures but we unfortunately did not have our camera at the time.  While Emma was taking her photos, Nick noticed that Luna, the 3-legged beagle (from a car accident, she walks quite well with only 3) that we’d met at the Backpackers Hostel was running up to greet us.  Not quite Costa Rican wildlife but she’s fuzzy, bubbly, friendly, and that’s good enough for me. Anyways, Nick and I pet her for a while and then Emma joined in.  After a few minutes, Luna picked up something along the roadside and began to excitedly play with it.  The dialog sounded something like this…

“Oh look she’s found something to play with.  How cute. What’ve you got there Luna?  What is that?  It looks like…  I think it’s a… Is it a?  I think it’s a dead bat.  Yes it is, you can see it’s little teeth.  That’s quite disgusting.  Luna, stop rubbing your ears into that thing.”  

We could’ve done without the dead bat, but overall, sometimes it’s worth it to walk.

Costa Rica: Final Four

Final four days in Costa Rica and we are still in Manuel Antonio since we just couldn’t get up the energy to trek over to the Nicoya Peninsula.  The heat, humidity and mellow vibes taking their respective tolls.  That and I am developing a nice tan and the pools at El Mono Azul make it easy to lounge about after a day at the beach.  Going to be hard to shift gears in a few days when we get to Peru and actually have to do something other than just eat, sleep and repeat.  God help us when we get back to the US, lol.

We tried another restaurant or two and finally found one we really liked, La Hacienda, which prepares good, well-flavored meals for the usual 8000 or so colones per main.  We have had a couple of other recommendations, Tango La Guacha which is an Argentine grill down the street and Bambu Jam – a bar/restaurant with live music every night.  Haven’t tried either yet and probably won’t at this point.  We also tried the fried chicken down at Senor Pollo and it was muy delicioso – an un-KFC FC experience.

We also upgraded our  living accommodations to a large room with AC (makes all the difference) and a kitchenette (yay) so now I can make our meals and Darcie gets a break from listening to me gripe and moan about the high prices for mediocre meals.  The extra cost of the room is more than made up for by the huge savings realized by preparing our own meals.

We immediately headed into Quepos to the supermarket and bought a delish steak, a large piece of tuna and a pile of local fruits etc.  The following day we discovered that there was a farmer’s market so we headed back in and bought more veggies and fruits and fish (red snapper or pargo as it is locally known). 

We were able to buy fresh hearts of palm and pejibayes (prounounced peh-he-bah-yays) which are the fruits from the same palm from which hearts of palm come from. Darcie is a huge fan of both of these products.  The fruits taste a bit like chestnuts and butternut  squash, have a slightly waxy/chalky texture, are a rich orange color and are delicious and best eaten raw although soup is an option.  The hearts are prepared in one of two ways typically: 1) if they small in diameter sprinkle them with salt and lime juice and let them sit for a bit then devour or 2) if they are the diameter of your thumb or more, parboil in salty water for 10 minutes more or less and then salt and lime them and devour.

I have been swimming in the ocean every day, a couple of hours of swimming/bobbing, which is really wonderful.  Would love to do this back home but the water is just too chilly or maybe I am just too much of a wuss.

Finally, we have taken a couple of surfing lessons and have both actually managed to stand up after only an hour and a half of paddling about and getting coached.  We have had two, one-hour lessons, one yesterday (Friday) and one today and have had a good giggle each time.  We will probably rent boards tomorrow and fiddle around again for a while until fatigue and the sun take their respective tolls.  The water is so lovely and warm that it is easy to get in and try surfing – I have always been pretty resistant to the idea in Northern CA due to the chilliness of the water.  Might finally have to let Marc talk me into going with him once we get back…

Costa Rica: Manuel Antonio and the Monkey Mafia

We took the 6am bus from Monteverde to Puntarenas and thence to Quepos and finally to Manuel Antonio.  Three buses, 9.5 hours total, 8 hours of sweating and stickyness.  Apparently air conditioning is against the principals of eco-something and so unless you have your own car you will be sweating your way around the country.  I would like to say that travelling in a group sauna results in weight loss but no, simply sweaty and stinky. 

Puntarenas is located at the tip of a very narrow peninsula in the Golfo de Nicoya and is the port city of the Pacific side.  There was a cruise ship docked 100ft off the shore against a pier but thankfully no hordes of boaties milling around.  Either they had already left for their various enhanced-package tours or were still at the trough (it was only 9am).  While walking from one bus stop to the next we met a young couple visiting from Maine on their spring break.  Turned out the man was none other than the nephew of my friend Don Taylor!  It really is a small world.

We spent the rest of the day with them on the buses, winding up with cocktails and dinner in Manuel Antonio at El Avion which, as the name implies, is built around the hulk of a plane.  A C126 to be exact, that was once used to ferry supplies and weapons to the Contras in Nicaragua!  Food was ok, beer was cold, company was great.

The next day we hooked up with Adrian and his friend Stephanie who were just coming down from the Nicoya Peninsula where they had spent the last few days sunning at Playa Del Cocos.  Adrian, in his short-termers quest for a tan (he originates from Washington DC) was impressively sunburned.  We spent the day at the beach down in Manuel Antonio, had a mediocre meal with massively expensive glasses of what was billed as sangria but tasted like blackberry punch ($8 a glass! much to our collective horror as we had had 6 glasses in total), splashed in the waves, swam for several hours and had our usual great time.

9am the following morning saw Adrian, Darcie and myself at the entrance to the Manuel Antonio Park for three+ hours of hiking.  There were hordes of guides exhorting us to take their services or we wouldn’t see anything ($20/per person) which we declined gracefully much to their annoyance, rudely so in one instance.

Despite the lack of a guide we still saw hordes of capuchins, two sloths, a bunch of iguanas, crabs, little lizards, spiders, great views and lots of sweat.  This was by far and away the sweatiest we have been the whole trip.  You could literally wring out our clothes, it was disgusting.  While we were sweating, Steph had wisely chosen to go on a mangrove tour by boat and was enjoying herself immensely.  The capuchins by the beach have been named the Monkey Mafia by the guides since they have become very adept at stealing food from inattentive tourists, (“Hey!!! That monkey stole my banana”).

We had lunch, picked Steph up and went off to the harbor for our most expensive tour of the trip so far, a $75 per person catamaran sunset cruise (no wind as usual so no sailing) for sight seeing, swimming and snorkeling.  The cruise provided drinks (rum or vodka mixed with your choice of sugar drink) and a nice, fresh marlin kebab lunch/dinner cooked on board while we were snorkeling.  The boat has been equipped with a swim-up bar which many people availed themselves of after snorkeling.  After our meal we motored back out of the cove we had been snorkeling in and watched the sunset.  Lots of fun, met a group of people studying Spanish for two months or so at one of the local schools (CR is not the place to do this as it is VERY expensive) and no one got seasick (perhaps a little queasy but not bad).

 

We wrapped the night up making a tour of the hostels in Manuel Antonio and having a few beers along the way at each of the hostels.  The hostels are all full of vacationing American college students on spring break so we have had to settle with a hotel, El Mono Azul, which is nice but lacks the convivial ambiance of the hostels.  There are pools though so we can cool down when we are not at the beach.

Adrian and I dropped the ladies off early next morning (hah! 10:30am) at Manuel Antonio so they could have a guided hike while we went off to Playa Hermosa for some big wave/beach time.  Adrian of course was working on his tan (sunburn) since this was his last day.  His haole rot is impressive and too disgusting to show in this venue (although I have a photo for future blackmail).

After Hermosa, we picked up Darcie and Steph, had a slowish, expensive and lousy lunch at a tourist trap on the Manuel Antonio/Quepos road and then headed south down the newly paved, fantastic road towards Dominical in search of another beach.

We came across a dirt road leading towards the coast which we followed bumpily down, dodging cows and such until the “road” opened up onto what turned out to be Playa Matapalo.  This is a fantastic beach, blessedly uncrowded, really only populated by locals, verdant jungly edges, nice waves, really great.  We also discovered that there was a nice paved road which we totally missed!

We spent three hours there having a great time splashing, swimming and body-surfing. And then there was the obligatory sunset, yet another amazing sunset.  Dinner was at a local steak joint, a few last beers with Adrian and we parted ways, us to return to our hotel and Adrian to pack and then head back to San Jose for his 2pm flight the following day.

Costa Rica: Monteverde Rainforest

After our long and adventurous journey from Puerto Viejo back to San Jose we returned to our favorite digs, Hostel Pangea for one night.  We had not made reservations as usual but luckily we met a couple (from Manitoba) on the bus who had one but weren’t going to use it since they were going to stay near the airport instead.  I say this was lucky in as much as it turns out it is spring break in the US and Costa Rica is currently very crowded at the budget-end of accommodations.  No reservation = no room in a budget location.

Budget locations are usually hostels with a mix of dorms and private rooms, some with and some without private bath.  Most of these places have a really fun vibe with a wide range of interesting people from all over the world so you hear an amazing mix of languages although English is definitely the lingua franca.  We have been lucky to come across several really great hostels and have enjoyed them immensely, in fact the enjoyment of a location itself in some degree hinges on the hostel and the people therein.

By the time we got to Pangea we were sweaty, sticky, stinky and hungry (it had been 10ish hours since we last ate).  We ate immediately after dumping our stuff in our new room (yet another charmless box), I even caved and had a cheeseburger, my first in four months.

After a casual morning we wandered to the bank (had to try several until I found one with any money in its ATM). Then over to the bus terminal for Monteverde where we found lots of buses and people but no ticket agent for buses to Monteverde!!!  We were told to return just before the bus left at 2:30pm and there would most likely be someone there selling tickets.  This seemed pretty loosey-goosey but if we wanted to go that was the plan.  Since we had four hours to kill we went back to Pangea and looked into a shuttle buses ($35 per person no seats left for Sunday).

While pondering the imponderables and posing further questions to the Pangea guys about how to get to Monteverde, Adrian (a fellow guest) offered up that he was about to rent a car and he would be happy to go with us.  We accepted and next thing you know we are in the lap of chauffeured luxury in a 4x4 jeep.  We left at noon and arrived at 3pm even with coffee breaks and countless miradors along the way.  The road to Monteverde by the way is 30k of bumpy dirt. The hills above Monteverde were fully cloaked in cloud and there was a howling gale trying to strip us from the cliff road and spitting rain/cloud bits which of course made for some fantastic rainbows.

 

We checked in to Pension Santa Elena (http://www.pensionsantaelena.com/index.html), recommended to us by fellow traveler and friend from Belgium, Alessi.  Really great place, amazing vibe, incredibly friendly and helpful staff, nice rooms, great coffee all day every day (grown and roasted by Ken at Common Cup).  If you go to Santa Elena/Monteverde stay here.

The following day was busy.  We went to Monteverde Rainforest in the early morning and hiked for four hours.  We didn’t see much except for drippy trees and cloud-obscured views, pretty much what you would expect from a rain forest.  The following day the clouds pulled back for a day and a half and we were told the views were stellar. 

After a the hike and a brief taco lunch we joined a group from PSE and went to Extremo Ziplines for an afternoon of swooping through the trees and hiking.  Load of fun particularly the long runs and even more so when the guides doubled us up for added zip.  The highlights were really the Tarzan Swing, a 100ft or so pendulum swing hanging from a tree – you launch into space and after a brief plummet the rope catches and whoohooo.  The other highight was the final 1k long run done superman-style which I highly recommend.

Adrian and Emma (another new friend) left shortly after and Darcie and I had a light dinner and turned in early. Despite going to bed early we still managed to sleep late and miss the first bus to Santa Elena, the other/sister rain forest in the Monteverde area.  This turned out to be a pity since early, i.e. before the clouds rolled in, there were amazing views out to the Nicoya Peninsula and over the nearby Arenal Volcano, usually wreathed in clouds, which is currently vigorously erupting.

We paid for a guide this time and while she tried hard to show us things there really wasn’t much moving in the middle of the day.  We did see a couple of the elusive Quetzals while on our own at the end of the day while scurrying back to catch the last shuttle.  They move so fast that there was no chance to get a photo.  Very nice forest with nicely developed trail system.

The next and final day was spent hiking up the now dripping wet and slippery road to the Bat Museum which Darcie really wanted to see.  For me it was an expensive and very small exhibit and not worth it at all.  For Darcie (and a handful of other ladies back at the hostel) it was fantastic.  So guys - skip it, ladies – go for it.  The building also has a restaurant at the top floor with great views.  They make all sorts of chocolate goodies and we treated ourselves to a Death by Brownie which really was very good.  They also made chocolates so we bought a 1/2lb or so which unfortunately we didn’t get around to eating much of and the whole bag became one giant lump on our hot and sticky bus ride to Manuel Antonio (9hrs by bus).

On our way down we had the amazing good fortune to be invited by Ken at Common Cup to stop into his brand new to him in-town roastery, coffee shop and chill-zone.  He plied us with free shots of espresso (for me) and cappuccinos (for Darcie) and then turned on his micro-roaster for a very hands-on demonstration/lesson in the arts of roasting coffee.  This was a whole lot of fun and I highly recommend this adventure.  It was free, taught us a lot about roasting and in the end we bought a lot of coffee that in theory is in the process of being shipped home while we continue or wandering.

And that was that.  Next stop Manuel Antonio.

Costa Rica: Pecked to Death by Mosquitoes

We spent the last two weeks on the Southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica where the weather was hot-ish and humid.  We took the bus from San Jose after a nice few days staying at Hostel Pangea which is highly recommended if you like meeting people, hanging out and drinking Imperial (the local beer) – we loved it.  The bus was uneventful although incredibly sweaty since the bus driver refused to turn on the AC, apparently the locals think this saves fuel!  Getting pretty tired of being endlessly sweaty by the way.

Our first Caribbean village was Cahuita (pronounced “kah-wheat-uh”) which had a couple of roads, a lot of hotels and restaurants in various stages of disrepair and a pretty laid-back vibe.  We spent one day walking through the local park which has one trail that parallels the coast about 20 feet from the ocean and runs 10k from end to end with a great restaurant at the far end where we had one of the best fish dishes so far.  We saw five! sloths, a handful of Capuchin monkeys (one making a huge begging effort) a group of howlers Our very first night we were wandering around and saw a restaurant that showed movies every night, so we went back had cocktails and dinner (more yummy fish) and then watched Avatar with a bunch of other travelers from all over. We also went snorkeling and Darcie saw a shark and a ray and I saw a whole lot of random but frequently quite beautiful fish.

We met a lovely mother/daughter couple from Belgium, Bieke and Alessi who kindly offered us a ride down the coast to the next village, Puerto Viejo.  It was nice to ride in a car – it has been a long time.  PV is probably 10 times as big as Cahuita and has been totally over-built for tourism but none-the-less is a fun and chilled place to hang out.  We wound up being there for 8 nights.  Our original plans had been more adventuresome but we just got stuck in and had a good time, swimming, scuba, walking, cycling and so on.

The scuba was a little disappointing in as much as visibility was down to 5m (~15ft). Even so we saw some huge crabs and lobsters, a raft of lion fish and I had a remora latch on to my leg in the vain hope that I was a shark with parasites.  Darcie had much fun at my expense with the parasites…  It was fun to dive even so and the water down at 60-70ft was still a delightful 81F!

We had some very nice meals (not cheap though), our favorite places being Salsa Brava and The Beach Hut.  The latter has a weekly pig roast (whole pig on the spit) which was amazingly tasty and only 7000 colones (about $12) for a huge meal that can easily be shared by two people.  Salsa Brava had the best ceviche.  Then of course there was Caribbeans that had great coffee and ice cream (mad on the premises).

Our final two days we were subjected to an impressive heavenly deluge, so much so that the local road out of town got severed when the approach to the bridge got damaged and there were big landslides up in the mountains on the main road from the coast to San Jose.  Upshot of this was it took 9.5 hours to get back to SJ (it had taken 4 to get to Cahuita).  The trip was amusing.  The bus company (we had already bought our tickets) chose not to tell anyone that the bridge was out until we were 5 minutes from the bridge!  We wound up sitting around sweating badly for about 4 hours before we could cross over on foot and pick up another bus that turned out to be more of a local bus dragooned into service for the run to SJ.  very noisy, not particularly comfortable but at least the windows opened and every body was in a good mood despite the fact that 6 people wound up missing their flights home.

 

We wound up back at Pangea for a night before heading off the next day to Monteverde.

For the enquiring minds, there are mosquitoes in the southern Carib but not swarms.  Darcie was munched on a bit as was I until we learned the tricks – clothing and bugs spray to be precise.