Playa Playa

Flower on the dirt-path
see all photos »

Pura Vida!

Managed to get to Manchester last Friday without too many delays on the train and arrived at the airport in good time on Saturday morning. 8 hours, 3500 miles, Little Miss Sunshine and a foil-wrapped fried chicken meal later I found myself in Newark Liberty airport, where I had to struggle through an even more ridiculous number of security checks than I encountered in Manchester, including 2 sets of finger-printing and photos. Though you can appreciate why it´s neccessary, it made for a very long day in transit - I´ve never had to work my way through so much bureacracy, even when travelling through communist states.

"Do you know Jesus?"

Playa Espadilla
see all photos »

I had better company on the 2nd flight to San Jose, Costa Rica. Sitting next to Miguel (a native of San Jose who works as a technician for a coffee bean company) and Rowee (an enthusiastic architecture student from the Phillipines).

I was able to pick up ample tips on what to do both in San Jose and Costa Rica in general, not to mention the opportunity to practise my Spanish which was a little rusty for lack of use.

After doing a 22 hour day, arriving in SJ at 10:30 local time at least we´d finally arrived and I could just get to the hostel and crash out right? Not quite. Our delayed flight had coincided with no fewer than 3 other arrivals, and the queue for passport control and baggage was quite horrendous, taking about an hour to work through.

High-tide at Playa Espadilla
see all photos »

Finally exiting the airport not long before midnight, I was met outside by a rep from the hostel who led me to the wild-haired, eccentric Arturo (picture a hybrid cross between Borat and Kramer from Seinfeld and that´s your man!) who taxied me to the hostel. It was as well that I´d warmed up on my Espanol by speaking to Miguel on the aeroplane because Arturo didn´t speak much English. The ride through downtown San Jose wasn´t pretty as the place looked quite run-down, dirty and full of, as Arturo put it, "locarios" - madmen! I never had much intention of spending much time in the city anyway, even less so now. Finally checked into the hostel and crashed out instantly.

Sunset at Manuel Antonio
see all photos »

4 hours and 20 minutes of diluted shut-eye later I found myself wide-awake (damn jetlag!)with the realisation that I´d get no more sleep until the evening. Originally I´d planned to get the 12 noon direct bus to the town of Quepos (a relaxed coastal town some 150 km away) but since I was already awake at 5 I decided to go and catch the 06:00 bus (yep, the transport schedules are pretty infrequent around here, often with only 2 buses a day, 1 ridiculously early the other really late).

Getting to the bus-station just before 06:00 I was gutted when the driver told me there was no more room on the bus! With 6 hours til the next one, nothing open yet and with my backpack in tow, I was unsure what to do. I asked around the station, talking to a few other drivers in broken Spanish...

White-faced Monkey at Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio
see all photos »

"Is there an indirect service to Quepos"?

"Yes, this one here." [he points to the bus right behind me]

"But what time does it leave"

"In 2 minutes"

A Howler Monkey snoozes away at Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio
see all photos »

My luck had come in big-time on this one and I paid the $4 fee and jumped into the dusty old bus. As we moved further and further from the city the scenery improved immensely, such a green country and the tropical scenes whizzing past the window were a world away from the storms I´d experienced just a few days before.

The heat started to kick in by about 08:30 (so that´s why the buses start so early.) and then we arrived in Quepos by 09:30, from where I took the short bus ride to the beach town of Manuel Antonio, home of a small national park which offers hiking trails through tropical forest which hugs the various beaches making up a vast coastline.

Playa Manuel Antonio
see all photos »

From here I checked into La Casa Buena Vista (the last of my pre-booked accommodation), where I had the run of a spacious bungalow on the hill, with a huge balcony affording a fantastic view of the ocean. The sun beamed down powerfully in a cloudless sky and we´re so close to the equator here that the sun can be quite brutal. Even with sunscreen on you can sometimes feel yourself burning. Temperature here if anything is a little too hot - peaks at around 35 degrees during the day and still mid-twenties at night.

Sunset in Quepos
see all photos »

After all the busy travelling around, I was glad to just relax and enjoy a few lazy days around the public beach, Playa Espadilla, the largest beach in Manuel Antonio, although it´s the busiest too. Things are not cheap in this town but I´m saving money by skipping lunch or just eating some fruit (no change there then) - to be honest the hours just while away lounging and I rarely notice when it´s time for lunch anyway.

I didn´t realise that the national park was closed on Mondays, which meant that instead of going there I´d have to have another lazy beach day instead (bummer hey), checking out the hermit crabs and iguanas that frequent the beach area. There´s rumours of a 7-foot crocodile that swims in these waters too, but fortunately I didn´t get any sightings!

By this point I´m now more confident with my Spanish than I ever remember being, and it really makes a huge difference not having a language barrier to deal with, as I can just ask one of the locals. The people here are fantastic - really firendly happy people and they´haven´t given me any bother at all (yet, touch wood), really easy to chat with and always willing to help. As expected, the food here in hardly anything to write home about - or maybe it´s because I´ve only been to coastal places so far, I don´t know. I´m not aware of a Costa rican national dish, but if there was one based on what I´ve seen so far it´d have to be ... fried chicken. KFC-style chicken places are absolutely everywhere, and always heaving too. I´ve avoided it so far but I´m sure I´ll run out of alternative food options soon.

Yesterday I could finally visit the national park, opting to shell out the 20 dollars to hire a guide rather than go-it-alone. It turned out to be a smart move - about 80% of the animals I saw in the national park were animals which the guide pointed out. With 9 years experience, Fram has very keen eyes and was able to spot evn camoflauged animals hidden up in the trees. It also helped that he carried a telescope, enabling us to get right into the action. When I could see nothing with my bare eyes, he set-up the telescope and turned to me and said "Do you know Jesus? Jesus Christ?". "Um, yeah", look through the telescope and you can see him". Just when I thought I´d accidentally hired the world´s most expensive Jevoha´s witness, I looked through the scope and saw this small lizard with a colourful fan-tail, getting its name from the fact it can walk on water! It was well-hidden amonst the wood but this is what Fram does for a living.

It was a great day in the national park, as we were able to spot all sorts of creatures from White-faced and Howler monkeys to bats and butterflies and sloths. The Howler monkeys make the most horrendous groaning noise at night, which can be really intimidating when you´re walking up a dark path and don´t know what it is. After all the hiking through the park, it was back to the playa playa (beach), but this time actually a beach within the national park - much calmer waters and quieter too.

When afternoon came it was time for me to move on back to Quepos, where the cheaper prices were a welcome relief as I was able to negotiate a room for the night for $9. Headed off before dawn today, catching a 05:00 bus along a bad bumpy road to the city of San Isidro del General, where I´m currently at, trying to while away the 5 hours I have to wait here before my bus to San Gerrardo de Rivas rolls into town, hence the extra long blog! I´m now into part of Costa Rica´s mountainous interior and am heading to San Gerrardo hoping to climb Mount Chirripo, at 3800m it´s the country´s tallest peak and won´t be an easy one, but at least I´m well rested now and ready for it. Of course it may yet not be possible - I don´t have a reservation and am hoping there´s a spot I can take, as there´s only 35 ppl allowed in the park per day. I´ll head there and see what arrangements I can make, if not then I´ll head back up north. Until then, take care and adios,

Jase