Seamail No. 11: merry navidad

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12-23-02

It's been a couple weeks since we were back in school, taking spanish at Montana Linda, and we found that we already needed the vacation. So we went to the beach, and took a few days off of everything. Basically, we have done very little since we wrote last, but it has been exciting nonetheless.

I was sick in San Jose at the last writing, and unfortunately, the day we left for the beach, my cold got to liza, and she was sick our first few days at the beach. It was ok though, because we didn't start on the best beach.

The first place we traveled was to a Pacific town called Jaco, which is full of gringos. It is the closest real beach town to San Jose, and carries the title of Costa Rica's original surf town. It feels like California. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our stay. We found a nice apartment for rent with a kitchen a couple hundred meters from the beach, and stayed for four days. We did little in this time. Jaco is a pretty dirty little town, and is definetly feeling the strain of too many tourists, too many hotels. It probably would have been a nice place twenty years ago. We spent some time recouping, and lying on the sand, and, like I said, didn't do much.

On we went after a few days to Quepos, an even more gringified town. This town was maybe dirtier than jaco, and overall not very nice, but it does have it's advantages. It is the closest affordable place to stay to explore Manuel Antonio national park, which is the smallest national park in costa rica, but also one of the most popular - for good reason. We took a morning bus to the park the day after we arrived in Quepos, which was a Friday. This was a bit worrisome, because we'd read that on weekends, visitation to the park is limited to 800 folks, whereas on weekdays it is only 600. We were sort of hoping to avoid the crowds. But you can't always pick the best day to go, and anyway it turned out quite nicely.

We were some of the first people in the park, as we were at the gate when it opened at 8. We got our map and headed out, moving as quickly as we could to get to some deserted area and enjoy the surroundings. Our first hike was around an amazing peninsula of high sea cliffs and jungle that used to be an island before deposited sand formed a land bridge to it. The land bridge is now covered with jungle, and the pennisula's trail makes several stops where vistas of the national park's 12 small islands are visible. A perfect early morning hike. After walking along the beach for awhile, we took another trail through the forest in search of another quiet spot, preferably some deserted beach to lie on for a nap. We found it.

We hiked to the park's smallest beach, and climbed over some rocks onto a tiny, protected, shady stretch of sand where very few would venture. Here we stayed for about 2.5 hours, swimming, sleeping, reading, and watching the amazing number and variety of crabs that seemed to be everywhere. If you sit still enough, they come out in hordes, and the entire beach seems to come alive with them. They dig their holes and go about their crab lives as if you weren't even there.

After a nice nap and lunch, we headed out for another hike, where we met some kiwis who had shared the bus ride with us. We didn't get their names, so I'll call them guy kiwi and girl kiwi. Guy kiwi showed me where a sloth was sleeping, which was really exciting for me, as I had never seen a sloth before. Unfortunately, they don't do much, so it wasn't so exciting as, say, my first monkey viewing. Later on that hike, I spotted a sloth by myself, however, which was much more exciting, because he was facing right at us, and hanging upside down. We also spotted several groups of monkeys, including about 13 spider monkeys, a tiny baby deer, and tons of birds, most of which I don't know the names of. At one point, a huge yelp came out of the underbrush, followed by a crashing sound, we didn't see what it was, but I think I have a bruise on my arm from liza's death grip. It was scary!

The most exciting thing came when we met the kiwis back outside the park to have a batido and a small snack at a restaurant. About 30 (!!) Squirrel monkeys came and invaded the restaurant! They climbed onto the lunch counter, stole bananas, raided the trash and ran all over the place, fighting over food and watching the customers for any dropped morsels. I don't think anyone was eating by that time, though, as all you could do was watch in amazement. A small distance away from the restaurant, guy kiwi and I just stood there and watched as they shook the trees, ganged up on each other, and generally made monkeys of themselves. It was incredible.

we waved goodbye to the kiwis as they headed on an early bus and we stayed to watch a perfect sunset just beyond one of the offshore islands. We found the perfect spot to watch, climbing up on a rock outcropping in the middle of the beach, and the sun reflected off the water like a fire ball before disappearing below the waves.

The next day, we headed south again, this time to Dominical, a much smaller and yet still gringoized beach town. We arrived on Saturday, and the town disco was already pumping at 2:00 in the afternoon. It felt like a frat party. But the next day everyone left, and it became just a quiet beach town. Enjoyable, clean beach, and we found a nice hotel with really friendly people. A big stroke of luck came when our hotel manager found out that Liza is a turtle researcher. A local woman and her young daughter have become turtle aficianados of the area, and when we went to visit them, we were amazed by their friendliness and dedication to our shared cause. The little girl, maybe 9, had put together a small museum of animals that featured turtles, and she was so cute. She had 3 baby olive ridley turtles preserved in bottles, and a small leatherback. She also had a full grown olive ridley shell, and other pieces of other turtle shells. It was pretty incredible, and she just talked nonstop, telling us (in lightning speed spanish) about the different animals she's found, and about going to visit and help at turtle sanctuaries and nesting beaches with her mom. Then we met her mom, and she gave liza and huge packet of info about turtle conservation in costa rica, and talked to us for a while about her observations and her work in turtle conservation. A fascinating little pair, they were, totally unaffiliated, and unsupported by any organization, yet putting so much time and energy into it.

We stayed in dominical for 3 days, and on our last day, I decided to rent a surf board again. This time with no lesson. Unfortunately, the waves were too much for me, and in the two hours, I think I only actually caught about 5 waves. I felt like Forrest Gump. "I only caught five..." "Couple more and you can have yourself a cocktail!" Ha!

One of the more interesting things in Dominical was that a restaurant there had rescued and was raising a baby sloth. It was keeping right in the entrance to it's restaurant!! It just sat there, hung in a makeshift hammock made from a towel hung in a large tree branch in the entrance. Mainly, the only times we saw it move was when it was eating, and it didn't have to move much to do that, as little children fed it leaves right out of their hands! You could pet it and everything! Very cute, but who knows if that's good for the sloth or not.

Today we are in Santa Elena, near the Monteverde cloudforest reserve. it's a nice area, founded by quakers, but there are Sooooo many americans here. it almost feels like english is the first language. it will be quieter, where we go for christmas, though, the San Luis Ecolodge. Merry Christmas, to all, and although Hanukkah is over, so I guess I missed that, Happy late Hanukkah anyway.

there are new pictures up at lizamueller.tripod.com, and as always, airtreks.com. search for liza mueller. enjoy. sorry we're going so nuts with pictures lately, i think you'll deal.

love and sloths from santa elena,

Liza and Jerad     

Music Pick of this week happens to be a tie!!

First and foremost comes Cake's Comfort Eagle, which has a *classic* title, but which I think would be more aptly named 'creating california.' This album says just about as much about modern life as Radiohead, but with a lighter tone. Song four is great, summing up current modes of gender relations perfectly, and really, who doesn't want a girl with a short skirt, and a looooooo nnnnnnngggggggggggg jacket! Anyone?

Secondly comes the Strokes, with Is This It? This is maybe the teeth-clickingest, toe-tappingest album I have gotten since Ben Folds' Rockin the Suburbs. Despite the single, the album doesn't sound much like the white stripes, and a few songs have that great guitar tone you thought you might only hear with Trey Anastasio. The voice is like a relatively (to, say, trent reznor) muted yelling, which makes you want to know all that he says and sing along, but you just can't pick it all out, so you click your teeth and syllabize as well as you can. It's great!

Also, REM announced a tour for next summer, so they deserve their first (and undoubtedly not their last) mention in the annalls of Jerad's music picks. Enjoy!