Berta’s Travel Shenanigans

So am I currently in limbo, trying to get from La Cruz, Costa Rica to Nicaragua…can´t seem to get more info r.e. transportation strikes…well, ´technically´ I am just trying to get my butt down to the beach.  Ahh, the joys of local buses.   My low level of Spanish still leaves me rather confused over some things, including why I couldn´t get a beer from a fridge full of them at a hotel bar\restaurant by the bus stop…hmmm.  No dramas though…am staying at a lovely inn that has a beautiful view of the Bahia Salinas (a bay) so will be hanging out there probably until tomorrow. 

Joline departed back to Spud-island 3 days ago…her ten days here went by sooo quickly, but we had a fantastic time!  First and foremost, I insisted we go to La Cangreja, where I spent my environmental phase, before hitting the proper Costa Rica tourist circuit.  So I ´dragged´ Joline to a small town called Mastatol…took pretty much all day to get to “La Iguana Chocolat” (email contact is Billy:  billyenfrance@hotmail.com), which is an organic chocolate farm where you can stay for cheap, cheap, cheap (2 people for 2 nights + 3 meals each + 3 beer = $24…WTF!)…and Lydieth makes the BEST chocolate and banana brownies.  She also doesn´t speak any English so it seems a good place to go to really nail your Spanish (her son Jorge does speak very good English if you push him!)…directions, etc. for this place can be found @ www.cabanassiempreverde.com

Right, on Monday (April 29) we got up bright and early to take off to La Cangreja park.  The plan was to walk to the river and then back.  Haha.  Well, it was 1 km from La Iguana to Mastatal –>3 km from Mastatal to the park entrance –>  another 5 kms or so towards the Rio Negro\Santa Rosa Ranger station.  It took about 3.5 hours to get to the river and by that time Joline had fallen in and out of hate with me (more in than out actually…)!  BUT, she was in pretty good spirits at the river because it really is stunningly beautiful and so tranquil.  Then we had to walk back…and it honestly didn´t seem to take as long … thank GOD because I was starting to get into some real trouble.  haha.  And I felt like I was 1-2-1 with a Raleigh venturer on trek :-p. 

The trail did look really, really different due to ´da machine´ (bulldozer) + 3rd Raleigh group that did some work on the trail.  We rewarded ourselves with some Imperial beer at the shop and hit the sack very, very early…not before Lydieth and the rest of the Iguana ´family´ making it quite clear they thought we were absolutely insane for not only walking to the Rio Negro, but back!  I was quite proud of my lil Joline, it being only her 2nd day in the country and all – 18kms!  Plus, there were scorpions, spiders, and snakes creeping about the place + the toilet was a proper outhouse. 

Off we went on Tuesday towards Quepos and Manuel Antonio National park; this required us to take a bus to a junction and sit there for 2 hours on the side of the road.  The bus to Quepos was a little over 3 hours…and unbearably hot – thought I was going to pass out actually.  Alas, we arrived in town and made a move to Manuel Antonio – only a 15 minute bus ride or so.  We completely missed the hostel we had planned to stay at and got off right by the beach and the main restaurants.  A nice local told us that the original hostel was 7 km back towards Quepos (and away from the beach)…after prompting, he directed us to “Costa Linda´s”, the backpackers joint, which was about a 3 minute walk from the beach.  Decent enough, paid $9 each for a private room, though the bath was shared. 

It was apparent that beach time was absolutely essential as we were positively melting from the heat and humidity.  So, we sauntered down to the local beach and were even able to get 2-4-1 massages (40 mins. each) right there on the beach…chickie even did the whole Chinese-standing on your back thing!  All for $20 each…could get that done everyday I thinks.  And once again, happy hour city.  Must point out that it became apparent at this point that we picked the best time to be travelling.  There was barely a crowd and the restaurants that should have been full were only 1/3 so.  As always, could count on Joline to get drunk enough to suggest buying a bottle of wine to be drunk from my plastic mess tin bowl.  Ahhh. 

Next day we had a MASSIVE breakfast for $3 at the hostel.  We´re talking fruit, pancakes, eggs, beans, toast, coffee…ugh, we hit up Manuel Antonio park with very full bellies- almost had a monkey land on Joline, saw some iguanas, other unknown creatures, and mini bat-like things.  The beach inside the park is obviously much, much nicer – and the water soooo warm!  At least by our Canadian/Islander standards…locals didn´t much agree with us though.  Then Jo and I did an ocean kayaking tour with Iguana Adventures – we were the only two so it was kind of neat.  Were supposed to get single kayaks but think that the double was a good idea (mostly from Joline´s side of things we both admitted….teehee).  FINALLY, finally got to see my sloth! as we stopped at a beach for a swim, and then we did some snorkelling.  The amount and variety of fish was really cool and more impressive than I was expecting.  After some confusion whereby we thought our guide and his boss were trying to take us out for dinner and a drink, we clued in that dinner was to be included in the price of the tour…haha. 

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