Berta’s Travel Shenanigans

(Continued from: Dawson sister reuinion: surviving La Cangreja & hitting the Pacific) Then to Monteverde…unfortunately for Joline, I still had at this point more than a month of travelling – soooo, I outright refused to agree on taking the nice, air-conditioned shuttle bus for the 4-5 hour journey.  Hmmm, $5 for the local bus or $50 for the shuttle….hmmm, what to choose, what to choose?!  So despite getting some dagger shooting glances on each of the two buses, we made it quite happily from M.Antonio –> Quepos –> Puntarenas –> Monteverde.  Joline even managed to order herself some jello instead of ice cream in my absence…very funny to come across that sight. 

After being bombarded with a few hostel ´recruitors´, we got ourselves organized over a good drink or two and decided to head to a hostel called “Sleepers”  (http://www.sleepershostel.blogspot.com/ ); though tempted to stop at a hostel only slightly closer to town, more expensive, and no breakfast Sleepers was worth moving onto.  Ronnie, who runs the office, is so helpful with setting up tours and getting discounted rates.  And the bfst was very yummy and filling, which was good because we had a busy few days in front of us.  First, the zip-lining.  Now there were a ton of different options, depending on what you wanted (e.g. extreme zipping was one choice).  We decided we wanted to be in the proper cloud forest (versus secondary forests) so we went with Slevatura – they also had suspension bridges to do a little walkabout afterwards.  The zip-lining was SO MUCH FUN!  We did 15 different cables (longest being about 800m long I believe) and there was a ´Tarzan swing´ which was very AWA (awesome, wicked, and amazing), especially watching everyone go.  That night we went to the ´local´ Bar Amigos to watch the locals dance…shite, they´re good!  Joline and I have decided we have been shamed into never pulling out our North American, let alone East Coast!, style of dance every again…ok, I bit much, but Joline was searching the stage to see the ´sliders´ that the singers were using to look so smooth.  haha.  Left for the ´American´ bar where we received the most massive of glasses of white wine…swear there was 1/2 bottle in each of our´s. 

This therefore left us, ok well mostly Joline, in great shape for our journey out of Monteverde. We went via taxi-horse-boat-taxi … and it was really amazing.  The company picked up and tranported our bags for us to La Fortuna.  We took the Castillo trail (http://www.monteverdeinfo.com/horseback__monteverde_arenal_volcano.htm), which takes 3 hours and brings you down into the valley from 1500m…absolutely stunning.  The weather was good enough to take this route so we didn´t have to take the (lamer) route by the lake.  I also may have taken the term ´experienced´ as being a very loose term – tried to copy the more experienced chicos as the horses broke into cantering and borderline galloping.  So different from the lame trail rides you get around home! 

We were pleasantly surprised/relieved when we arrived at “Arenal Backpackers” and find out they had some dorm beds…this is a really, really nice hostel complete with a pool, bar/restaurant, and hammocks.  It felt more like we were staying in a make-shift resort, it was fantastic especially since we were still getting the weather from the dry season and it was mundo hot.  Set out for some grub that night…at “La Parada” soda and pizza, I had a huge casado with steak (rice, beans, pasta salad, plantains, coleslaw, & salad) for $4.  Love the prices of the local spots, so cheap and so delish! 

As if we didn´t have enough horseback riding the day before, we signed up, via the guide right at the hostel, for yet another tour to go to La Fortuna waterfalls via horse.  I knew my chances of convincing Joline to walk the 2 hours or so to get there was pretty much out of the question.  The horses that we took this time around we not nearly as strong or in shape as the ones taken from Monteverde…they seemed to struggle even going up a small hill!  Regardless, we made it to the waterfalls after a 40 minute or so walk down a decent enough path.  Gorgeous falls…Joline, the guide Jeffery, and I were the only ones out of our group to actually get in and do some swimming.  Quite a bit colder than the water on the Pacific…haha.  We were able to swim all around and behind the falls…except our guide had never done that before so when he didn´t see us come out of the same side we went in on he thought he had lost us.  Here we are, Joline and I, commenting on how he must be planning on jumping off some of the rocks into the water…instead, he was looking for our bodies…which is sweet and all!  But we had a great time trying to swim to the centre of the falls (water was too strong to swim against though). 

That night, we linked up with a group and headed to a viewpoint of the volcano at night to see the lava.  You couldn´t get very close but, it being a clear night, you could see the red lava flowing down the volcano – pretty cool, looked like fireworks almost.  Plus, one guy brought some beer so it was like a regular field/bush party – locals with coolers, hanging out, watching the lava.  Made me giggle.  Didn´t make it to the hotsprings, quite expensive.  But pretty sure that, if there again, can take a local bus to get close to the Tabacon springs – but across the street, you can get into a local spot for free.  Well worth some more investigation. 

We left the next morning for San Jose and spent the night at Toruma hostel – very nicely converted old mansion.  Only quip is they wanted to charge Joline and I $5 each for leaving our bags in storage after 1pm…when the hostel was all but empty.  I claimed a misunderstanding and paid only $5 for the 1 locker we used, which I thought was clearly more fair :-).  Regardless, Joline took me out for a very nice meal at ¨Ompi¨, which was just down the street from us.  They make a potent Long Island Ice Tea – just ask Joline.  We met 2 Americans who came across the restaurant via the same travel guide as us…they were siblings, though Joline managed to miss that, and were making some funny jokes about being at each other´s throat come the ending of their trip.  Joline was very confused when the guy was talking about seeing more gorgeous men and women than them at the Arenal hotsprings. 

Spent the Tuesday in San Jose, at the markets and spending money on souvenirs, etc.  Actually don´t mind SJ too much…maybe because all I´ve heard are the horror, ´I hate it there´ stories that it was easy to be impressed from that level.  Had very yummy veggie food at a restaurant called Vishnu and managed to figure out the wierd street arrangements/layout of the city.  After nearly being killed by our cabbie that took us to the bus stop for Alajuela…not after trying to twist us into saying we wanted the cab to take us the whole 45 minutes to this other city…and we headed back to Maleku Hostel.  And then that was it – Joline left (with a big bag of my extra stuff…thanks!) at 6 AM and there I stayed for a few days, trying to make a plan for the rest of my trip.

Stocking up on some books (used bookstore in Alajuela is definitely worth the visit), mulling over a borrowed ´Central America on a Shoestring´ whilst drinking a yummy $2 iced mocha at the cafe down the street from it, and booking a ticket back for June 4th took up some of my time. 

Am going to hit up Ometepe tomorrow I think´s, though I am tempted to head down to “Blue Dream and Spa” (http://www.suntoursandfun.com/index.htm) hotel and take a kite-surfing course on Play Santa Domingo.  We´ll see.  Am going to recreate the yummy mango salsa I made last night and probably just absorb the view from the Inn am staying at.  Keep you posted and hopefully have some pics up shortly! 

Tags: 1, Alajeula, Arenal, Costa Rica, La Fortuna, Monteverde, San Jose

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