Category: Costa Rica

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SAN JOSÉ – San José, CRI

With a scheduled 1PM departure for the nation’s capital – San José, I packed up all my gear in preparation for the 11AM hotel checkout, completed my online check-in for tomorrows early morning flight and then hit the streets of Quepos for one last time. This time I spent several hours exploring the suburbs adjacent to the town centre as well as the area around the natural inlet that harbours the local fishing fleet.

Breakfast was a local affair at the Soda Sanchez, where I thoroughly enjoyed a 4850 Colóns ($8.41 USD) an awesome Empanadas de Pollo (Chicken Empanadas), a breakfast beef burrito and some great coffee, figuring the big breakfast would tide me over until dinner tonight. I have to say, the empanadas was the best I’ve had – period!

With it spitting rain and the heavens threatening to open up I headed back to the Hotel Le Priss Inn, where I met up with Lila, where we engaged ourselves with the “Guess What” quiz with the opening statement of “Guess what I got for you that you were wanting?”

With me not having a clue, Lila says c’mon and I’ll show you We walk a couple of blocks to a locals house, which looks like a Steptoe & Sons yard, and what appears to be the owner seated in the middle of what could only be termed as junk. This where Lila had procured a Costa Rican licence plate for me.

As mentioned previously, I don’t do souvenir/trinket shopping as to me – it’s a complete waste of time and money with the transaction often taking longer than the product lasts. A memento for me to garner a licence plate of a vehicle I’ve driven or driven in that country. Sometimes an incorrectly secured plate falls off the vehicle in which I put it in my backpack for safe keeping and unfortunately forget about it, only to find it when I return home. Sometimes simply asking a local procures a plate or quite often I find them simply lying on the side of the road.

I’d asked the Budget rental agency yesterday if they had any plates lying around, which they didn’t, so I simply forgot all about it. Thankfully Lila didn’t. While she was out walking this morning, she asked several workshops and car deals if they had any plates – nope, no can do. Lila had actually given up and was headed back to the hotel when she came across the aforementioned house and on a whim, simply asked the question. Ol’ mate says yes he has one from his written off vehicle, heads off and come back – mangled bumper in hand, with the plate still attached – Voilà ….. a great souvenir with a couple of great stories attached.

We set off at 1PM in drizzling rain to drive the 5 hours into San José. A couple of hours in, we stopped at El Jardin Souvenir and Restaurant, which for want of a better term is a huge souvenir shop with an ice cream shop, takeaway and toilets attached.

The closer we got to San José, the thicker the traffic got. At one point our driver got off the freeway just before Santa Ana, drove the back streets for a bit before finding the freeway again. I come to find out later that he was avoiding a accident which had turned the freeway into a parking lot.

We actually made good time by arriving at or our accommodations at the Auténtico Hotel – Sabana Norte bang on 5PM, which thankfully for us, was an hour and a half shorter trip than the group who left our hotel at 12:30PM.

At 6PM, the group gathered at the hotel bar in which we all spoke of our two best trip experiences and Siona presented all of us with a small gift. From there it was a couple of blocks over to the Cuban restaurant – La Bodeguita del Medio, where we held the tour farewell dinner.

As part of the dinners festivities, Sonia was introduced as the 6th CEO/Tour Guide and only current female member of the “Aussie Rugby Tequila” crew and was such a great sport about it. After a quick nightcap back at the hotel, I was in bed by 11PM for my 3:15AM transfer to the airport.

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QUEPOS – Puntarenas, CRI

Lila and I headed out around 6:15 AM to grab a coffee and something to nibble on to start the day. As we had our own set of wheels, we decided to drop the “Planning Committee” off at the gates of Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio around 7:20 AM. Upon arrival, the itinerary changed a little to allow access to an ATM and to visit at a nearby breakfast joint. I returned back to Quepos to collect Lila and by 8AM we were strolling through the gates of the national park.

We spent the best part of 4 hours exploring the park from the well laid out and maintained nature trail. We were able to view white face monkeys, lizards and crabs of all shapes and sizes and a huge array of birdlife and insects.

We decided on lunch at Samui Thai, but upon arrival we found out that it didn’t open for another hour or so. No dramas, we up the road to ride the Zip Coaster at the nearby Manuel Antonio Adventure Park, as Lila was dead set keen on the riding the sit up, bicycle style zip line ride, rather than hanging from a line and harness. Just so happens that we hit the site as they were undertaking maintenance on the line and wouldn’t be open for another couple of hours.

Not ones to let such a thing become a setback, we rolled up at the Claro Que Si Seafood & Grill to grab a bite to eat and take in the sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean.

While finishing dining, Lila noticed a Spa treatment at the adjacent Si Como No Resort & Wildlife Refuge and availed herself of the 90 minute treatment with an accompanying 20% discount for dining at their facility.

As no amount of Spa treatments would improve my natural good looks, I headed back to town to try and catch some shots of the “El Hefe” iguana we’d seen by the stream yesterday.

I collected Lila, and while fueling up and returnin the rental car, I received a WhatsApp message to meet with all the “Avocados” at our hotel lobby for a 7:30 PM “Group” dinner at a local restaurant.

As Lila generally does not do dinner, I mentioned that I’d probably go find somewhere else to eat or a local pub to hang out in, as I have done throughout the trip. She’s says really, why would you do that? Because when you’re not there Lila, I am no part of any conversation, my presence barley recognized or acknowledged, except for a couple of sentences with Sonia, which is generally interrupted with others wanting her attention. She says really?? I said yup.

To my surprise and appreciation, Lila turned up at the meeting point and said to me – we’re going to dinner. All six of us bundled into two cabs and headed to the Runaway Grill, a short 2000 Colóns/5 minute cab ride away. I ordered a pretty decent Shrimp Po-Boy and was treated to a spectacular electrical storm light-show, while seated at the covered open air venue.

The “Hummingbirds” had wandered off, all but abandoning Patricia, Lila and myself, so we made our leave and grabbed a cab back to our hotel. Upon arrival Lila and I spoke of the fact that in two hours, other than conversations with Sonia and herself and an offer of someone’s jalapeños that they didn’t want – not a word was spoken to me and barely anything was said to Patrica as well. I said to Lila that this has been the way for a couple of weeks, they’re off in their own little world that is largely self-centred and unless they are wanting something or are in need of assistance, you’re non-existent.

Anyways, I found a local sports bar and got into a shout with a German couple – Wilhelm & Heidi, and a Kiwi – Stevo, and actually had a great time solving all the world’s problems, while blowing the froth of a couple of coldies.

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QUEPOS – Puntarenas, CRI

As stated previously, my day started around 1 or 1:30 AM with the return of the late night revellers to the hotel. Rather than waste the time, I did a bit of research in spending the last couple of days in the Costa Rican capital of San José, instead of the beaches surrounding Quepos.

At our scheduled 7AM departure, we were met with a 24 seat mini-coach to transport the 5 “Avocados” and myself the proposed 5-hour journey to the base of Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio – you farqin beauty!!!’

After stop on the bridge at River Tarcoles to view a shit ton of American Crocodiles, I sought Sonia’s assistance in swapping the two nights in Quepos for two nights in San José. We got a hold a G Adventures customer service representative who informed us that I would lose all ongoing or further services, including accommodation, transport, transfers, meals and all other activities should I chose to leave the tour, by heading to San José. I’m like OK, forget about it then.

Not sure if it was due to traffic or road conditions or not having to was for an extra 18 passengers to complete their 15 minute road stops in under an hour or what, but we arrived in our hotel just on 11, an hour ahead of time. We got squared away in out rooms and as ½ of the “Avocados” we going to spend the arvo on a catamaran, Lila aka Miss Daisy and myself decided we’d rent a car after a bit to eat and go exploring, similar to what we did in Roatán.

I mention all the aforementioned detail as this is where I say that I actually do believe that seemingly random events, can culminate into a life changing moment – read on.

Sonia had sent the group a few recommendations to go visit, including places to grab a feed at. Lila had chosen Tiquicia Delicias where I select the lunch special of Fajitas that were actually pretty good. While eating and chatting, I heard the sound of cutlery and crockery being rattled around on the table next to me. I glance over and see a man face down in his main course, which in all honesty took a couple of seconds to register as being odd and not comical as for some reason the thought of the Monty Python skit in which a patron summons the waiter with “Waiter, there’s a man in my soup”.

I look around his table to see that he’s dining alone and that he’s not moved – that’s when the penny drops that fella’s in trouble. I walk up to him, shake him on the shoulder asking if he’s all right while lifting his face out of his lunch and getting no response at all.

This is when all those seemingly wasted mind numbing hours of employer mandated First Aid and First Responder training kicks in and I begin stepping through the Dr ABC (which stands for Danger, Response, Airway, Breathing & Circulation) procedure while I’m lifting the guy out of his chair an yelling for someone to call an ambulance.

I place ol’ mate on his side, tilt his head back, notice his eyes had rolled back in his head, his lips were blue and could feel no breath or pulse. I open his mouth, remove the trapped food and retrieve his tongue, which produced a raspy attempt with inhaling, which stopped after several attempts, but there was no exhaling.

I cleared some other foreign debris from his mouth and was joined by a local guide at which point we made the decision to perform CPR, as he still had no pulse. We had just completed two full cycles when I felt a faint pulse and light breathing and was placing him in the recovery position when two firemen, from the station up the end of the street arrived.

Not long after that, the Ambo’s arrived and found his blood pressure to be 80 over 50, sugar counts really low and decided to cart him off to hospital.

I was talking to the guy to try and ascertain if he had any known conditions, allergies, was on any medications or any had previous incidents – which he said he collapsed two days ago. Lila was a godsend, as she was translating to the responding teams and got hold of the fellas local friend to meet him at the hospital.

I paid the lunch bill and both Lila and I walked slowly around the block in silence and looking at each other, taking in all what just happened. Truth be told, it was an emotionally overwhelming moment where tears were welling up in my eyes and trying so hard not to lose it. Lila made the comment that they said the guy got to the Pearly Gates, but they were not accepting new residents.

Got to say that I’ve been involved in plenty of medical emergencies, first aid or accident assistance and this is the first time I’ve had to go full blown CPR mode.

With somewhat conflicting heavy hearts and happiness, we headed in the general direction of our hotel, running across some of the biggest Iguana’s I’ve ever seen, fossicking around in the garbage strewn local river that runs down the street.

Rather fortuitously, we walked past the local Budget rental agency that was reopening after lunch and enquired about a vehicle for the day. Lila negotiated a fee of $35 for a Toyota Yaris that upon first inspection would have been utilised as the Student Driver vehicle, but hey – sure beats walking.

First stop was Parque Nahomi, where the security guard put us on to a sloth hanging out at the entrance. From there it was a couple of inadvertent laps of the 5 block downtown before locating the entrance to Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio. We swung back out the other side of town with the notion of checking out Dominical, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) away to the south.

Talk about déjà vu – as we passed the local hospital, I noticed they were loading a passenger into a twin engined aircraft and as clear as day, on the stretcher was the fella from lunch. Talk about trippy.

A little further up the road we saw a young lady with her daughter on the road, trying to hitchhike. On a whim, we turned around and picked them up and with Lila’s help, we found out that the woman had travelled the 40+ kilometres (25+ miles) from her home in seeking employment. Felt so much better for turning around.

We got to the beaches of Dominical just before the heavens opened up so decided to head back to see if we could catch a sunset and a feed at El Avion, where the brilliant sunset was accompanied with an equally great meal.

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MONTEVERDE – Puntarenas, CRI

An interesting day to say the least. I awoke to a chilly 20 degrees C and headed the door on my morning walkabout. Breakfast was a savoury pastry and a coffee at a local bakery.

We got picked up at 8:30 for a ½ day meander through the La Reserva Bosque Nuboso Santa Elena (Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve) which was a 30 minute drive away. The reserve is 1600 metres (5250 feet) in elevation at and has 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) of well-maintained trails. The unique part of the reserve, apart from the flora and fauna, is that it’s privately run by the Santa Elena Technical Professional High School and protects over 300 hectares (741 acres) of land, specifically leased to them.

We were all done by12:30 and headed back to the reserve office to catch the 1PM bus back to town. By the time we got back, dropped all the passengers off it was close to two o’clock, which left me no time to go anywhere for lunch as I was being picked up at 2:30 to go ATV riding.

100% Adventura picked me up on time and collected passengers along the 45 minute drive to their mountain operations. I paid my $60 USD and went through the pre-start procedure with them. It was at this time we ran in to a huge issue, more specifically – my head.

They couldn’t find a skid lid to fit my melon as the largest one they could find was a medium. They even went to the trouble of going back to the employee carpark and grabbing a couple off the parked bike, of which one of them smelt and looked like a mob of jungle creatures “snuck a few past the goalie” in it.

In the end we just said shit happen, got me money back and was parked up at my hotel with a cold cerveza, all in under 20 minutes. On the positive note, I hadn’t been back ½ an hour and the heavens opened up in a torrential downpour that lasted a good hour. Those poor buggers on the ATV’s would have been soaked.

As it was still raining at the allotted 7:20 departure time, we cabbed it over to Pizzeria Natsha were supposedly they were putting on a BBQ for two G Adventures groups. The place was empty except for two diner picking at their plates that looked t have no appeal at all. I left for the toilet to have a slash and while finishing up, an employee emerged from the thunderbox, went past me and I followed him out, watching him head straight for the kitchen – hopefully washing his hands.

While the kitchen door was open, I noticed pets congregated around the prep and cooking area. Hmmm, not good I’m thinking. Sonia must have noticed me and came up asking what’s wrong. I’m not real comfortable was the gist of the discussion, so I legged it over to town and eventually settled on Restaurante Don Luis.

I had pretty good Chicken & Cheese quesadilla followed by a brilliant Blue Cheese and onion salsa burger that was probably in the top 3 burgers I’ve ever wrapped my laughing gear around.

I was in bed checking my eyelids for holes until 1 or 1:30 when a herd of startled un-domesticated wildebeest decided to head home and make on hell of a racket on the stairs, walkways and upstairs floors. On the positive side – it gives me more time to complete this Blog.

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MONTEVERDE – Puntarenas, CRI

We set off for our next stop – Monteverde around 8:30 this morning and rather than making the 7 hour trip around Lake Arenal on windy switchback mountain roads, we pulled into a boat ramp roughly 22 kilometres (14 miles) from Los Fortunas and climbed aboard one of Adventuras El Lagos’ twin hulled people movers.

The 45 minute manmade lake crossing in to the Río Chiquito area shaved off nearly 4 hours of road travel and had us arriving at our accommodations – Hotel los Jardines, just on lunchtime.

Lunch was hosted at the nearby Pizzería y Restaurante D’kary, where it was “bring your own waiter day”. The restaurant is owned by the hotel and when we asked about eating options, it was the only venue within easy walking distance. We said OK, so the hotel owner roused some fella out of his room and had him walk us over the restaurant and then serve us. Are rather unique and fun circumstance don’t you think?

A couple of “Avocados” got collected at 2:30 to go zip-lining, while the rest either chilled out or went exploring the town, which is exactly what I did. Maybe its me, or my directional compass was playing up, but I swear I was walking uphill everywhere I went.

We all met up around 5:30 to partake in the included two-hour Kinkajou Night Walk with our guide Donal, who was both informative and knowledgeable. Admittedly there wasn’t a huge amount of animals to get the crowds oohing & aahing, but the animals we did see were quality none the less. Highlight for me was the juvenile two toed sloth who seemed to put on a show for us.

We got dropped off in town and settled on Taco Taco Taqueria for dinner where the selection of crafted local brews got a bit of a workout and the 6 tacos had me as full as a fat lady’s sock, all be it that the chicken, pork and beef fillings were extremely dry and chewy. The accompanying salsa selection was awesome with the highlight being the roasted onion, capsicum and jalapeno concoction.

 A few of us parked up at the hotel bar for a couple of Margaritas and then hit the fart sack just before the pumpkin coach arrived.

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LA FORTUNA – Alajuela, CRI

With today being the day of the Sabbath and all, I stayed in bed reading my book with no real intention of doing anything much at all and may have over-achieved in those endeavours.

Around lunchtime I ventured out into the brilliant sunshine and took a bit of a stroll around La Fortuna. With the worms definitely biting, I settled on Snapper’s House for a lunch consisting of a fried Calamari starter and the Blackened Snapper fillet. The feed was great with the starter being brilliant.

More of the same “slack attack” time in the afternoon, as a comfy bed and a great book was too great a temptation. Around 5 PM the heavens opened up which basically saw the town become deserted in short fashion.

As I hadn’t heard from any of the “Avocados” all day, for dinner I took a stroll out to Restaurante Cafe Mediterraneo as Trip Advisor rated in La Fortuna’s Top 10 restaurants. The best things I can say is the Imperial cerveza stubbies were ice cold and the bread rolls were interesting, which speaks volumes for what they served as a seafood marinara.

Bit of an early night tonight as we’re off to Monteverde, a major eco-tourism area about 4 hours drive from here.

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LA FORTUNA – Alajuela, CRI

I was up and exploring La Fortuna way before dawn as we had a 7:30 PM pick up for a day trip with Desafio Adventure Company.

After a quick coffee and a sandwich from the bakery, I joined all the “Avacados” on the Arenal Highlights Combo: Hanging Bridges, Volcano Hike & La Fortuna Waterfall tour that was scheduled to last 9 hours with Francisco our guide and Roy the driver.

First stop was the Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges Park where we spent a couple of hours exploring the 3.2 kilometre (2 mile) dense jungle walk, on well-maintained paved pathways and hanging bridges, some of which were a hundred meters up in the canopy of the rain forest.

A short 20 minute drive and we were at Arenal Volcano National Park, which last erupted in 1968 with devastating effect. The 2 kilometre (1¼ mile) walk to the 1992 lava flow was a whole lot less strenuous than the Pacaya Volcano walk in Guatemala and you are reward with views of steam billowing from the top, but no lava flows.

Lunch was a near vegetarian affaire at the tour company’s facilities in the city, where took the time to walk next door to the local waterfalls of El Salto.

Our final stop of the day was 75 metre (250 foot) La Fortuna Waterfall, located at the base of the dormant Chato volcano, about 5½ kilometres (3½ miles) outside of La Fortuna. I was a leisurely 15 minute, 500 step walk to the base of the waterfall. I spent the best part of an hour exploring both swimming pools before deciding the head back up the stairs. I’ll be first to admit that I struggled on the ½ hour return accent and thought to myself that carrying an extra 14 kilogram backpack full of camera gear, is probably not the best decision I’ve made in a while.

We grabbed a feed at the Lava Rocks Café who charge you 50 Costa Rican Colones per US Dollar they give you back in your local currency change – good work if you can get it.

From there it was up to the La Fortuna Pub for a few sherbets and a couple rounds of house brick Jenga before calling it a night.

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LA FORTUNA – Alajuela, CRI

With today being our last day in Honduras, I headed out of the hotel to walk the West Bay beach just to see what was out there. A quick coffee and bite to eat at Bean Crazy, before collecting my gear and heading to the airport at 9:30 AM.

Avianca flight AV483 departed Roatán on time at 12:10 PM and took just on a hour and a half to reach the San Salvador International Airport in El Salvador. A relative short transit time of an hour and we were back in the air on the hour long Avianca flight AV630 to San Jose, Costa Rica. The day ended with 3½ hour night time drive through the mountains to our accommodations at Hotel Las Colinas in La Fortuna, with a quick stop at Desafio Adventure Company to pay for the coming days optional activities.

With no activities of note to speak of today, this might be the opportune time to relay to you one of the negatives with travelling over extended periods and that is the feeling of being alone, even though you’re travelling in a group. In my particular case, it manifests itself by me withdrawing into myself, putting the shutters up so to speak, seemingly somewhat irritable or negative at times.

How did someone as outgoing and fun loving as myself get into this position, as travel is meant to be all about fun, exploring the world, meeting new people and taking it easy. In my particular case, I believe that I ran into a perfect storm of several distinctly different elements culminating in to how I’m feeling.

  • The trip started out with a different itinerary that what I paid for, so even though there was nothing I could do about it, it was lingering in the back of my mind when having to fork out for stuff all the time and contained activities that I have no interest at all for.
  • I am the only male in a group of 6 and the age demographics mean that we have virtually nothing in common other than travelling together.
  • I’m the only native English speaker in the group. Spanish, German and French are the first languages, which makes it really hard to drop in and out of general conversations as English not always English.
  • Similarly, when decisions on activities planning, language, age, sex and interests have played a part in me having to do a considerable amount of my own research.

It’d be fair to day that I’ve done a fair bit of soul searching the past week or so, in trying to break through the funk I’m in. I’ve asked myself if it is me? Is it a control thing? Is it a social interaction problem? Sonia and I even spent an hour or so tonight discussing the situation and I’m grateful to see a different perspective.

At the end of the day it is me and for me alone to resolve, but I’m struggling with working out the how – hence withdrawing into myself. It’s not any of the “Avocados” fault per se that the dice have been rolled and came up snake eyes.

Its not that I haven’t enjoyed most of this leg of the trip, far from it, it’s been an amazing and at times eye opening walkabout through tropical Central America. I’ve had a great time for the most part.

I’ll get it sorted, I have no doubt about that, as there’s always sunshine on a rainy day – you just have to look for it.