Libby_or_Bust

Only 5 days left until I come home. I can´t believe it´s been over 5 months here in Central America. This trip has been amazing. Though I am a person prone to absolutes, I honestly have never felt so independent and in charge of my own life. I came down here thinking I would find out what to do with my life, and ended up realizing that I was doing what I was doing with my life. Does that make sense?
I climbed the highest mountain in Costa Rica. It´s called Mount Chirripó, and it´s really freaking big, over 10,000 feet. And I climbed it, lost my voice and a toenail, and proved that I could.
I went to Panama, and now I´m in Nicaragua. By myself. Not scared. People ask if I`m travelling alone and I say yes. When you´re travelling solo, you´re more open to other people, so you´re never really alone unless you want to be, and even then it can be tough. In the last 5 months I´ve met countless people from all over the world, lots of them awesome, some of them real assholes. Some I´ll keep in contact with for a long time and others I won´t; they all have been important in my trip being what it is.
The food I´ve eaten and the places I´ve stayed! Any way you cook a plantain is good, from maduro to patacones, and there´ll always be a place in my heart for gallo pinto. Copos are shaved ice with powdered milk, sweetened condensed milk and flavoring. Nothing short of a gift from heaven on a hot day (which is every day). Sometimes your colón will get you a beautiful room with a balcony and clean communal kitchen, and other times all it gets you is a dirty room and someone else´s pubic hair on the sheets.
I´m also really tan. Bioluminescent plankton kicks ass. A Nica asked me yesterday what part of Spain I was from because of my accent. Last night I walked around the park in León sipping coke out of a plastic bag with to guys from Canada who had biked (as in motorcycle) down here from Whistler. Four days before that I was hanging out with a Tico sculptor whose work will be on display in Alajuela´s newly remodelled Juan Santamaría park. Two weeks before that I was on a zip line tour in Monteverde, spotting a pair of very resplendent Quetzals and then flying over the canopy in the pouring rain. A month-and-a-half before that I was in the San Blas Islands in Panama, eating fry bread and learning how to sew Molas with a group of indigenous women who kept trying to call me Carolina.
Now I´ve only got 5 days left. No sense in spending it in an internet cafe!

Tortuguero is in the upper right-hand corner of Costa Rica, the closest big city to Nicaragua on the Carribbean side. It`s reachable only by boat, so it´s a bit of a ride to get there, but totally worth it. Elizabeth and I made it there last week, parking the car in Cariari and then taking a bus and boat to the coast. We stayed in the cheapest digs in town, a place called Cabinas Meriscar, for $5 a night. It wasn´t dirty, but it wasn`t clean either; it was to be expected. If you don`t have low standards — something I have come to cultivate in myself, as it aids immensely in one`s enjoyment of communal hostel areas — then you won`t want to stay there, but for any budget traveller, it´s worth it. The owner, and exuberant Nicaraguan named Tony, is half the fun of the place, attempting to learn every language his guests know. I helped him with the pronunciation of the phrase, ”Do you have a ticket for the boat to Limon or Cariari?” and he would pop up at random times and eject the comment at me. ”Doo jou haf aye tikeht te boht too Limon o Cariari!!?” as I was cutting up watermelon for breakfast, walking back to my room, washing my hands after using the bathroom. As they say in Spanish, tiene ganas de aprender.
Tortuguero village is situated in between the river and the ocean, on a thin strip of land. The weather is humid and hot, but if you stay by the ocean there`s always a breeze, and most days it rains for at least a little while. It smells like how mornings used to smell when I went to camp when I was a kid. Kind of wet and earthy, but fresh, and the sunny day ahead is like a promise to be kept. El parque nacional Tortuguero is to the south of the village, and you can hike a short, muddy loop trail into it or take a boat into the canals of the river. The first morning we were there, E stayed in bed and I went with a German woman named Verena on a canoe tour of the canals with a guide at 6am. Richard, our guide, was quiet in general, but had great eyes and could spot a green parrot sitting on a green-leafed branch from 20 meters away. Amazing. I have trouble spotting wildlife until I step on it– in which case I render it immobile and can get a closer look — so it was definitely worth the $10 for over three hours of animal spotting. We saw spider, howler and capuchin monkeys, river turtles, a caiman, lots of birds (my favorite being what the guide called ”virtual tiger ‘eron”). Richard`s English was pretty good, but he did say that snowy egrets like to nest in the vegetarians at the edge of the river.
Because I had taken the guided tour, I was able to rent a kayak and paddle through the canals the next day to try to spot my own jungle animals. Tooling around for about three hours I spotted a river otter, spider monkey, more birds, a river turtle and the neatest fish-like things, long and thin and neon yellow striped. I really enjoyed paddling and drifting and stifling my fears of being attacked by a giant crocodile that could so easily just tip over my flimsy vessel and stuff me under a log somewhere to soften. Was that too graphic? Blame Animal Planet.
Anyway, there`s not a ton to do in Tortuguero because it´s so small and the surf is too rough to swim, so I took a lot of walks on the beach. It`s nice and cloudy most of the time, so I could walk and not roast.
The last night we were there we had another wildlife encounter, this one of the serpent variety. Walking through town after dinner, we came upon a crowd of people staring at the awning of a diner. The diner, aptly named La Culebra, was sporting a meter-long boa constrictor, struggling with how to get down to the ground after falling from the tree above. The best part of the situation was how the locals all reacted to the snake: scared as hell. You would think that living so close to nature would make them less jumpy, but apparently not. A person leaning a bit too close would inevitably fall victim to the fake push or snake bite pinch from a friend, illiciting a loud reaction. It didn`t get old until the snake finally found a way out, onto the ground and then up the wall studs.

Recommendations: In San Vito: 1) Hotel Cabinas Rino. Pretty clean, hot water (!) shower, great location, friendly staff, really good included breakfast (gallo pinto with eggs or cheese or natilla. Go for the natilla), only $12 per person per night, super cheap ... [Continue reading this entry]

So I've been thinking about how I ended my last post, and I don't really like it at all. I try to have some kind of finality at the end of my entries, but "And I love them both" is ... [Continue reading this entry]

Both Panama and Costa Rica have had quite a bit of American influence, but it`s interesting to see how each has absorbed American culture in thier own unique way. Panama has giant stores, like Walmart except without groceries, whole city ... [Continue reading this entry]

Before I begin my story, I want to give a bit of context. First, many Costa Ricans speak English. At times it feels like everyone speaks English. Men will approach you and start talking to you simply to practice their ... [Continue reading this entry]

Even though that title brings to mind that Staind song that I now feel slightly ashamed that I liked, I felt it was fitting. My last post was over 20 days ago. It´s possible that many of you reading this ... [Continue reading this entry]

I arrived in Quepos on Wednesday, after a intestinally tumultuous 4 hour bus ride. I don't know exactly what it was that I ate on Tuesday that made me feel as though I was moving a raccoon-sized spiky ball of ... [Continue reading this entry]

Well, I´m back in the city. I returned to Alajuela last night for my third dentist appointment -- it went very well, thanks for asking -- and came back to cars and electricity and noises that now strike me ... [Continue reading this entry]

Things I´ve noticed since staying at Sue´s: 1) Roosters really do crow at dawn, and sometimes, if they´re confused, crow before dawn. 2) Dawn is a bit before 5:00 am here. 3) Roosters don´t have a snooze button. 4) Roosters are hard to catch ... [Continue reading this entry]