My Costa Rican Vacation

I know what you're probably thinking about the title...'uh, I thought you already were on vacation..?' Well, you are mistaken. I was working dammit. Thirty hours a week of physical labor, mind you, with the added burden of fending off the farm creeps and pervs. Rest assured, it was no walk in the park.

So when the opportunity came up to leave the farm for a while, it was pretty much a no-brainer.
This is how it unfolded. Toward the end of November I received a very special email. It was from a special person who was a big part of my life while I lived in New York. His name is John. John and I met at work and became friends and occasional lunch mates. As you probably guessed, that friendship eventually grew into something more, as I just became more and more addicted to his delightfully offbeat sense of humor. So we gave it a go and had one heck of a roller coaster ride. Lots of back and forth, off and on, hot and cold. Sure felt like a lot of work. However, being the stubborn person that I am, and seeing an unusual special something between us, I just kept trying. I figured if I was patient enough, it would have to work out. Well, it didn't. We ended up going our separate ways when I left NY for CA in September. He left for a 10 week wilderness adventure, and the following month, I left for Costa Rica.

I just wanted to provide a bit of background. There may be like one stray reader in here that doesn't already know the story :)

Though Costa Rica was treating me very well, I still thought about John quite a bit. Physical labor, especially the simple repetitive sort (raking, weeding, coffee picking, etc.), is very conducive to daydreaming, as you could probably imagine. So I zoned out a lot and thought about John. Suffice to say, I missed him.

One day in late November, I went to the internet cafe and there was an email from him. Without going into details (sorry, he might read this), I will say that it was a incredibly sweet letter about how he missed me and wanted to be with me. I loved it. I actually printed it out and taped it to the wall next to my bed when I got back to the cabin. That's kind of embarrassing, but oh well. I wrote him back a few days later, telling him how much I liked the letter, and then we emailed a bit more and video chatted on Skype. Next thing you know, he's buying a ticket to Costa Rica!

I did a ton of research and planned what I thought was a pretty cool itinerary. I was so excited that I would finally get to start exploring the country (I hadn't really gone very far from Sarchí , just some day trips to towns within a couple hours bus ride). Then John arrived on December 11th and my vacation began!!!

This is a recap of what we did and where we went:

12/11-John arrives. I went to meet him in at Maleku Hostel in Alajuela, very close to the airport, and about a 90 minute bus ride from me. It was my first hostel ever, and I loved it. I got there at 3:30 and just waited outside on a bench, listening to the new reggae music on my ipod (if you've never heard Alborosie, I highly recommend you check him out). His flight was delayed a couple hours, but when he finally arrived, it was oh so nice. We hung out at the hostel a bit and chatted, then went to dinner at KFC (which a bit more fancy and expensive than in the US), walked around a bit, then came back and went to bed fairly early.

12/21-I was the first one awake at the hostel at about 5am, partly out of habit and party out of excitement! I had some complimentary breakfast (they provided coffee, crackers and bananas) and used their computer until John got up. We did some more research on our trip online, hung out at the hostel a bit, then went into town. I had been to Alajuela a couple times, and I love it. It's sort of a smaller version of San Jose, just a lot safer and cleaner and less crazy. We hung out at the main park there (Mango Park, named for it's giant mango trees) for a while, then caught a bus to Sarchí . Back at the farm, I got to show him around, go for a mini-swim in the lake, make some traditional food (rice, beans, plantains, tortilla chips) and introduce him to the farm crew. He got to meet Frank, who was surprisingly normal and, for the first time ever, kind of engaging. Weird. And we got to hang out with Martha, which was really nice.

12/13-12/14-The real adventure begins. First stop, Arenal Volcano. Arenal is like the mother of all volcanoes, and for me it was a definite must-see. So we headed out fairly early to catch a bus to another bus to another bus that would 4 hours later take us to La Fortuna. La Fortuna is the closest main town to the volcano. We went to the hostel where we had reservations, Arenal Backpackers, but had a bit of a glitch there. The front desk guy wouldn't honor the price that was on the website ($12), after I pointed out that I was overcharged, and his manager wouldn't either...so we left. Didn't really dig the vibe there anyway. So we went to another hostel called Gringo Pete's, where we stayed 2 nights. It was only 6 bucks! The ladies who worked there were young and crazy and running around and screaming a lot. That was weird, but entertaining.

Well, as far as the volcano goes, we didn't see anything:( It was completely covered in clouds both days. We went on a night tour to see the lava at night, which you can only see from one side of the volcano. These guys picked us up in a van, and some other people along the way, and took us first to a natural hotspring. It was basically just a river off the side of the road, naturally heated by the volcano to the most pleasantly warm temperature. Oh so relaxing. Stayed there about an hour then travelled on to the lava viewpoint. Well, once again we saw nothing:( We all sat there for an hour, but only got to see a couple small sparks of red. The guides were nice enough to share a bottle of cacique (alcohol) with us to at least partially compensate for the disappointment. Arenal, I will see you one day, just you wait.


12/15-16-The plan was to head to Monteverde, home of the famous Cloud Forest Reserve. One way to go is this jeep-boat combo that cuts over Lake Arenal but was a bit pricey, so we tried something else. We thought it would be cool to spend some time by the lake, so we took a bus to a town called Nuevo Arenal, thinking we could either stay there or take a boat across there. I think the deciding factor was this German restaurant we read about in my guidebook. Well, it turned out to be a really small town, not much to chose from as far as accommodations, and no boats across. But the German restaurant was there (called Tom's Pan), and it was sehr gut! Kind of pricey but totally worth it, cause we were totally beat. We also spent some time just chilling by the side of the road overlooking the beautiful lake (we could't find a way to actually access the lake, very strange). We even saw a family of monkeys hanging out in one of the trees. That was amazing. Especially watching the baby monkey swing around. So cute! I absolutely loved that town. It was so peaceful and serene. I remember thinking, 'if I moved to Costa Rica, I would live here.'

Since we knew we wouldn't be able to make it to Monteverde that day, we trekked on to a city that would at least get us closer: Tilaran. Good move. This was such an authentic, non-touristy town, kind of like Sarchí but larger. Another great tip from my book led me to a great hotel called Hotel El Sueño, which was only about $27 a night for both of us. It had a TV too! We were lucky enough to catch most of Mrs. Doubtfire, which was as entertaining as ever:) We had some tasty fried chicken at a place called Super Pollo and hung out in the plaza a bit.

Next morning, I went out looking for an ATM (I was having problems with almost every bank's ATM except one, which I couldn't find there. So I continued to borrow from John). I did find, however, a little fruit shack. Yea! Got a pineapple, which the guy cut up for me and put in a bag, perfect for travelling :)

We headed out soon after that for our shadiest (and most memorable) bus ride ever. (Note: the roads are generally pretty bad all over CR. What looks short, distance-wise, actually takes us several hours, so we spent A LOT of time on the bus.) That was one rough dirt road! At one point we reached a bridge that looked so fragile that I was told by the lady next to me we would all have to get out and walk across first! To top it off, it was raining. Well, luckily, the bus made it across without us having to get out. Gave me a good scare though.

Later that afternoon, we arrived in Santa Elena, the town next to Monteverde. We went to our next hostel, Pensión Santa Elena, which was highly recommended by my book. It was pretty cool, nice layout, nice kitchen, and only $7. Only problem was that the walls were paper thin. Heard some stuff I would have rather not, but luckily I had my ipod handy. Had dinner at a soda called La Amistad that was out of the main touristy area. Pretty good and super friendly service.

12/17-Woke up really early the next morning to take a bus to the Cloud Forest Reserve. I was so excited to finally get to hike and see all the species of mammals, birds, reptiles, etc. that I read about in my book. Adult admission was $17 (I used my ancient Bruin Card to save $8 though), so I figured it had to be good! But sadly, it was pretty lame. I couldn't believe all the hype about this place. All we saw was one cool centipede. No joke. The forest was nice (who doesn't like trees?) and the "cloud" part was cool, but overall, it was a giant letdown. There are more creatures in my backyard.

We hiked all the trails (about 4 hours worth) and then walked to our next destination, the Monteverde Cheese Factory. This is the main cheese producer for the entire country, and they don't export, which is pretty cool. So we got a tour there, which was a pretty interesting (mostly cause I love cheese). We were both hoping for a nice sampling at the end. I had been craving cheese for a while, as I hardly ever had it on the farm because it's so expensive (moreso than the US!). So we were very pleased at the end, when we all sat in a room and the tour guide passed around a platter of cheese. We got to sample about 7 cheeses. My favorite was the Monte Rico, a lighter white cheese unique to Monteverde. The tour guide said whatever doesn't get eaten gets tossed, so John was happy to resolve that problem. After that we headed back to the hostel, chilled out, and cooked up some dinner (pasta and garlic bread, yum).

12/18-19-Ahhh, it's already Thursday, and we haven't made it to the beach! We got up very early again and caught an 8 am bus headed to the coast. Well, we had a bit of a mishap on the way (sorry again, John). We were supposed to get off to change buses at a stop in Chomes, which I had never heard of. It was just some small town along the highway which would lead us to Playa Samara. It wasn't clear which stop was which and I was hoping the bus driver would say something, but we ended up missing it.

Luckily I had a backup plan:) We took the bus to its end at Puntarenas (a super muggy port town), then took a ferry across and then another bus, and ended up at a different beach called Malpaís. The town basically runs along one street, a very dusty dirty road, and is quite touristy. The beach, though, is absolutely gorgeous. And once again, we found another great hostel to stay in, Casa Zen. Thank you again, guidebook. It was buddha-themed and colorful and, best of all, steps away from the beach. The beach was something else. The shoreline seemed to have no end. Just miles and miles of gray sand and beautiful crystal blue water. The highlights of my time there were swimming in the beautiful warm water at sunset and sitting under the palm trees at night looking up at a sky full of stars. Also worth mentioning is the food we made. I was craving some rice and beans, so we bought dry beans, which I soaked overnight in our room (weird, I know) and cooked up the next day. Quite time consuming but totally worth it (so much better than a can!). We made so many beans that we had them for every meal. I just cannot get sick of beans!!!

12/20-Got some good beach time in before we left Sunday afternoon for San José. Our bus left around 2 and got into San José around 9 (we stopped, waited for the ferry, etc.). I thought maybe we should spend a little time in San Jose, which would mean less travel time the next day. Plus, it's the capital, and that has to be worth something. The only disadvantage of this plan is that it's dangerous. I've heard a lot of bad things from the people I've met, so I was really scared about arriving at night. Also, we weren't really sure 1) where the hostel was or 2)if they even had room for us! I was about as nervous as I ever get. But we walked through a main street and played it pretty cool, so thank god, nobody bothered us.

At the end of our risky walk, we were greeted at the most wonderful hostel by the most wonderful friendly guy named Johnny. I was so relieved at that point to be safe and warm, that Johnny seemed like our angel. God bless him and that amazing hostel. For real though, that hostel, Costa Rica Backpackers, was definitely the best of our entire trip. Too bad we got there so late and didn't get to spend more time there. It had a pool, a bunch of hammocks, a big kitchen, free unlimited internet 24 hours a day, hot showers, complimentary coffee, movies every night in the TV lounge, and of course an angel of a host named Johnny.

12/21-This place was also the reason I left Costa Rica. Yep, in case you didn't already know, I am back in CA. I was so excited about the internet access that I spent all morning looking for a last minute flight home for Christmas. John was leaving the next day. My friends at the farm were in Nicaragua for Christmas. I was planning on going to another farm but the host told me rather last minute that he couldn't pick me up as planned, which would have meant travelling all day on the bus with my big duffel bag. A giant hassle and dangerous to boot. Put all those factors together, and I felt compelled to leave. I found an amazingly cheap flight to LA that left the very next day. Just under $200. Frontier Airlines and Costa Rica Backpackers are the reason I'm here right now.

To wrap the vacation up...we spent the afternoon checking out San José. Just okay, a bit too chaotic for me, reminded me of New York. We saw a couple of the more noteworthy attractions: the National Theater and the Central Market. But overall, I was happy to move on from there. We took a bus back to Sarchí , where the rest of my stuff was, said goodbye, and headed to Alajuela, so we would be close to the airport. Went to one final hostel, Mango Verde, which was nice (though I was too tired to remember much), and we had one final date together. A hamburger and a beer at a nearby restaurant. Yum.

12/22-Bright and early the next morning, we took a cab to the airport, where we parted ways. I had a wonderful time travelling with John and it was really sad to leave him :( As far as Costa Rica goes, my heart is still there. I miss it so much. They just had a 6.1 earthquake and I feel bad that I'm not there. I wish I could have stayed longer and just seen everything. I am sure there will be many chances to return, and I am already dreaming about it. (Actually, Angel is going to let me know when Frank's in the US, so I can come back and stay there.)

After a whirlwind trip and an abrupt departure, I found myself back in the US, wondering if I can find some small piece of that lifestyle here. Perhaps I'll find a bit of it in Hawaii, where I'm off to next. I leave tomorrow, believe it or not. And so the journey continues. Off to another coffee farm, where I will continue to write and hopefully, this time, truly learn a lot about coffee.

Since I still have to pack, I better wrap this up. Check in with me next week, when I'm a coffee farmer in Captain Cook, Hawaii!!! :)