Friday, October 12, 2007

Costa Rica

Costa Rica seems to be the country that everyone thinks of when Central America comes up in a conversation. It has been more stable than its neighbors with a long history of free elections and also has the highest rate of literacy and life expectancy in Central America. But more than that, its popularity is probably due to its many national parks and wildlife refuges and the eco-tourism and adventure-tourism industries that these places make possible.

When we crossed the border from Panama, we got a bus to San Jose. This was the first time that we found ourselves with no other option other than using an 80´s era Canada Blue Bird bus. If you already know what I´m talking about, you know how awesome these are. They´re more commonly known as ¨chicken buses¨, although they usually don´t have too many chickens on them. Anyway, the ride from the far eastern border of Panama to San Jose was not too bad. We got to the capital and headed northwest directly to a little town about 30 minutes further down the road. Apparently, although it is supposed to have some nice points of interest, most travelers just pass on through and never spend much time there. We stopped in a town called Alejuela to hang out for a day and visit a coffee plantation that Jane had looked into. It was fun with explanations of the history of coffee, as well as, their growth and production processes. And just like any tour of that kind, you get fed way too much of whatever the product is. So we left pretty loaded on caffeine and very enthusiastic about wherever our next stop was- which was probably just the hostel. At some point during this time, I started having some skin problems under my arm and we had no idea what it could be. After becoming somewhat painful I went to a clinic and talked to a doctor. He said that the lymphnodes were swollen and it was nothing serious, and thereby squashed all talk of armpit cancer.

Our next destination was the Arenal volcano, which is supposed to be the most active in Central America. It is in the middle of the jungle and attracts enough tourists to support a nice town. Of course, the jungle itself attracts tourists as well that come to take wildlife viewing walks, raft and horseback ride. Arenal smokes a lot during the day and when the fog lifts you´re able to see lava come down the side at night. We took a tour that included a jungle hike and a chance to watch the lava. On the hike, they split us up into English and Spanish groups and we got a few awkward looks of betrayal as we chose the Spanish group because it was smaller. The walk was really interesting and we were able to see howler monkeys and many species of birds. Watching the lava come down the volcano was great as well, but it only lasted a few minutes before they herded everyone into the bus to head off to an area of hot springs created by the underground activity of the volcano. A local hotel has a huge hot springs park where you go and try out tubs of varying degrees. They ranged from something like 95 to 156 Fahrenheit. Yeah 156. We were happy in the 105 and hit a few other pools. We tried the 113 and it was way too hot. The 156 must just be a sick joke.

From Arenal we went by boat and jeep to the Monteverde Cloudforest Reserve that protects the last sizeable tracts of primary cloudforest in Mesoamerica. Other than taking a guided jungle walk and seeing the legendary quetzal (long tailed bird in the pictures), we did a canopy tour. These are made up of a network of suspension bridges streching from the ground to different hights up in the tree tops. From up there you´re able to get really good views and see many species that only live higher up in the trees. The agency that we went with also had a zip line course that allowed you to harness up and slide down cables from platform to platform in the canopy. It was a real experience and I think the pictures are able to capture it to some degree.

While we enjoyed Costa Rica a lot, it definitely put a dent in ole budget. The exchange rate from dollars is around 500 colones, but you´re still usually paying 4000 colones for lunch. Also, Costa Ricans seemed to have much more drive and vision than we ever saw in Peru and that was really refreshing. I have been able to upload a few photos, so go to ofoto.com and sign in with my gmail address and then the password is legrand01. Hope you enjoy them.



Total bus hours- 32.3