Costa Rica July 2009

Well it's been a little over a year since I published something on my blog. I need to stop letting the fact that I don't yet own a digital camera stop me from being more proactive about keeping it up to speed. So I'll be a little more thorough with this post to make up for being so lazy the past year.

So a couple of months ago my friend Eric says to me "Hey do you wanna go to Costa Rica in July?" I say "Why not?" So he starts planning with his sister and brother all the things they want to do; scuba diving, surfing, swimming with sharks, deep sea fishing, scoping wildlife, etc... There were plenty of things about this trip that were going to be "firsts" for me so I was getting pretty excited about it. Plus I didn't have to do much to get ready. I felt like I was working with a tourist agency because Eric and his family took care of everything and all I had to do was renew an expired passport, buy a plane ticket, and contemplate getting scuba certified. In the end I decided not to get certified and just take my chances.
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"Firsts" for me:

1. This was my first time to either Central or South America and my Spanish is practically non-existent. Fortunately, a lot of people down there spoke English and for those who didn't, Eric could manage enough Spanish to get by. I didn't even know what currency they used (Colones by the way), although many places preferred to take dollars. I wrongly thought that everything would be cheaper there since it's a less-developed country but everything was pretty much the same price as here, if not more expensive in the tourist areas. Everything and everyone from books, fellow tourists, and Costa Ricans repeatedly warned us to be careful of our belongings and keep things locked up at all times. So my trip starts with an uneasiness piercing like a splinter in the back of my mind. It will turn out that the only theft we encountered would take place in broad daylight right in front of our eyes. Our beach cabin (I say cabin because that's how "cabinas" translates and because there was no AC) was right on the Pacific Ocean and the sunsets were spectacular.













2. I surfed. The waves just outside our cabin were just like you see whenever you happen to catch some professional surfing on television. These waves turned out to be well beyond what any first-timer should be attempting but I didn't know that because what you see on TV is what you expect when you surf. Well it took a lot of effort just to get past the 6 foot waves and I was pooped. My ribs were already sore and rubbed raw from trying to paddle while laying on my stomach and I had more salt water in my orifices than I was comfortable with. Time to surf. I felt the wave come and was toppled, hitting my back on the ocean floor and washing up completely demoralized. I was ready to give it up when our cabin manager told us about another beach in Jaco, a few kilometers away, where beginners can learn. There, I was able to get up and ride small waves in and it was a ton of fun.













3. I ate some things I've never had before. Empanadas are meat filled pastries. Ceviche is a sea bass based salsa with cilantro that you eat on Saltines. There was lots of weird tropical fruit such as jocotes which are sold by the bag full everywhere you go, which makes you think they are incredibly delicious and/or popular. But I never saw anyone buy any and the few I sampled I had to spit out.

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Funnest experiences:

1. We decided to take a canopy tour of the mountainous rain forest via zip line. It was not so fun sitting through the boring safety demonstration but is was a thrill zipping through forest tops at 30 plus mph. We didn't see any animals like they led us to believe but we did catch some good views.
















































2. One day, looking for something to do, we saw some hand painted signs of a frog indicating where we could see butterflies, snakes, and frogs so we followed them down some dirt road for a few kilometers to a house off in the jungle. In the backyard was a mini interactive tour of some cool native animals in captivity. We saw dozens of poison dart frogs (which are only poisonous if on their natural diet of fire ants), vipers, boas, fighting toothless bird snakes, beautiful tree frogs, hundreds of butterflies, a parrot, and a caged monkey. I had the most fun with the monkey which was so energetic and playful, happy to have people to be social with.







































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Top 10 animals from least to most interesting:


10. Toucan

We saw lots of tropical birds but catching a glimpse of the toucan felt like the prize to be won. By the end of the trip we had seen about 3 in the wild.





9. Iguana

The first sighting felt special but then they were just everywhere. The coolest iguana was one that was foraging and getting closer and closer to where we were sitting. As it got closer we noticed that it wasn't eating the insects that were all around it, but instead seemed to be eating only bits of trash and junk. It took a few tries but it even managed to pick up a rusty washer with its tongue and swallow it. The iguana got close enough that I managed to touch its tail before it sprinted off into the grass.


8. Peccary

I thought this was a boar but we looked it up and it's called a peccary. This one was just lazying around the beach and let anyone come up and pet it. It's hairs reminded me more of porcupine quills that anything else. It would lie down and let us bury it in sand and just when we finally decided to bust out the camera, the peccary took off only showing its rear for the shot.




7. Leaf-Cutting Ants

We visited two national parks. The first one was the only one open on Mondays so we went there. It was practically void of tourists and unfortunately of interesting wildlife too. However we did see several straight lines of marching leaf-cutting ants with their cargo. I seemed to be the one most intrigued by them but probably because I had never seen them before. I spent so much time looking at one chain of them that when I looked up, I noticed I had been deserted by my friends.


6. Coati

Yeah I didn't know what that is either. I called them R.O.U.S until I learned how to say their real name. We saw several of these the first of which was the best part of an otherwise disappointing trip to a volcano summit. The signs clearly indicated that they should not be fed but some locals were feeding them potato chips to lure them in close for pictures. Obeying signs seemed to not be a major concern in this country in general.



5. Sloth

We were looking for sloths the whole time since Eric, Katie, and especially Jeremy all seemed to know which trees they preferred the most. We didn't see our first sloth, however, until we entered the second national park of our trip at Manuel Antonio. We wound up seeing about five of them including one in motion, albeit slow motion.




4. Sea Turtles

I am under the impression that sea turtles are not very abundant so catching them in the wild is a lucky thing in and of itself. But we happened to not only cruise by one sea turtle while on our way to go scuba diving but we cruised right by two sea turtles caught mating ..... even rarer to find I am guessing.





3. Deer

I was not all that excited to see deer in the rain forest since we see them in abundance all over the U.S. But the two deer we saw in Costa Rica were different. There must be totally accustomed to humans because as we approached they trotted right up to us and wanted to be pet. One deer was trying to push me over and kept ramming its head between my legs. This made me a little nervous but I sensed it just wanted to play.


2. Monkeys

We all wanted to see the monkeys. The first one we saw was in captivity and was so energetic and excited to see us when we came to visit. It was grabbing through the bars for anything to play with and managed to rip a rubber band off my wrist which it promptly started to chew on. I had a moment of concern when I realized this may not be good for it but we were able to get most of the rubber band back from it. We saw dozens of wild monkeys in the Manuel Antonio national park and they had no reservations bringing the action to the trees right by us. We saw white faced capuchin monkeys mostly but also a family of the "vunerable" (just a hair above being endangered) squirrel monkeys, and some saw a howler monkey off in a distant tree.














1. Crocodiles

And the winner is the crocodile. We were driving along not even looking for them when we decided we'd stop at a bridge on the off chance we may see something interesting. As for me, it seemed like a long shot but as we were walking across the bridge I noticed that there was not just a few, but dozens of large crocodiles in the waters below. It wasn't long before lots of people were stopped to catch some pictures. One crocodile was just chilling with its mouth wide open and someone decided to throw a piece of raw chicken and it was a money shot..... landed right in the open mouth. A few more pieces of raw chicken got the otherwise lazy lizards into a frenzy. It was quite the sight.




























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Biggest Disappointments:


1. Scuba diving required the most preparation (for those who got certified) and the most money to do but sadly it was the most disappointing. Don't get me wrong, it was an experience but it just didn't live up to our hopes when we set out. Visibility was no more than 15 or 20 feet, just slightly better than when I scuba dived in the English Channel. We all imagined clear waters beaming with life and hopefully white tip sharks but, unfortunately, I only glimpsed a few fish and some star fish. The Japanese mafia and others have practically obliterated the shark population in these waters, taking only the fins for the prestige of shark fin soup. It's sad. One perk was that in order to meet up with the dive master, we got to take a small cruise liner to Tortuga Island. There was live music and plenty of festive tourists to keep us entertained during the 90 minute boat ride. Another perk was that it was during this boat ride that we saw the sea turtles doing their thing.














2. Our first day in Costa Rica we decided to kill some time near the capital San Jose, which is next to the airport. We had a few hours while we waited for Eric's cousin Krissy to arrive. So we drove up to a nearby volcano. It happened to be the highest volcano in the country and was blanketed in a thick cloud. We paid our national park entrance fee and stepped out of the car and it felt freezing. None of us were prepared for even chilly weather and so it wasn't exactly pleasant to be in the windy wet cloud which also prevented us from being able to see the volcano's crater. I may just as well have paid to be put in a refrigerator for half an hour wearing nothing but wet underwear. However on the plus side, we did see some large leafed fauna that made me feel like I was in Jurassic Park and it was here that we had our first encounter with an R.O.U.S. The saddest part of it all is when we got word that Eric's cousin, who we were waiting on, would not be arriving since she accidentally bought a plane ticket to San Jose, CA. Oops!














3. Whenever exposed to new environments I run the risk of allergic reactions. Shortly into the trip, I started developing a rash on my left hand that reminded me a lot of my horrific childhood experiences with poison ivy. I was concerned as the rash spread across all my fingers and knuckles and then to my right hand. I also started to feel its presence around my mouth, nose, and eyes. I prayed that it would stop there and fortunately it did but it was still uncomfortable. I also burned my back our first day surfing which was painful for most of the trip. I also had some scraps along my back when my first attempt at surfing ended with me being slammed to the ocean floor. And to top it off, my top bunk was near the ceiling fan and I managed to stupidly put my hand up once and my right pinkie took a shot which I am glad only took off skin, but could easily have broken it. The sun set at 7:00 pm every night so after dinner we would take cold showers and I would lie in bed in our humid room with no AC with a burned back and an irritating rash that I feared would spread to my face overnight. It was only at these times that I wished for the comforts of home.


4. We were careful to always hide valuables and lock our rental car and cabin door. And nothing was ever taken from us without our knowing it. The only true robbery can be attributed to those whom we should be trusting the most, the Costa Rican police. On our last day Eric was pulled over for speeding, which is debatable. We had seen the police pulling over tourists all week and I guess it was only a matter of time. They pretended to not speak any English and Eric had to fumble his way through an explanation. In the end, the told us that if we paid them $40 now in cash, then we would not need to pay a larger fee later and would avoid any trouble with the law. Of course that's what we did, but it certainly felt like we were robbed right before our eyes.
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Just so I don't end on a negative note, let me just remind all who read this that I had a great time with great friends and I'm glad I went. Matt Weber signing off. Until I blog again......