I never imagined I'd enter the country of Nicaragua but apparently it's a fairly common tour for those visiting Costa Rica. We had heard the trip was awesome, not to be missed. The day started out real early. We were supposed to be picked up by our tour guide, Norman in a van at 6:30. Norman is very prompt and it's good to get to the border as early as possible because of hold-ups, inspections etc. As 6:50 rolled around we radioed Mike, the manager of Recreo to make sure we weren't forgotten. (There were others being picked up for the trip as well.) About a minute after we called Mike, the van showed. It wasn't until later in the day that we would realize the reason for the tardiness, and it wasn't Norman.
As we climbed into the van all the others had been picked up already. The group included a group of five women perhaps in their 30's to 40's who I swear thought they were on Sex and the City. They definitely were not dressed at all similar to how I had been dressing in Costa Rica for our eco-travel experience. I don't even think any of them had sneakers on, just flimsy looking sandals that any podiatrist would have admonished them for wearing. One of the girls was holding a People Magazine. As Vic walked towards the back of the van with me he murmured, "typical."
We stopped for breakfast soon after leaving El Jobo and then we were on our way to the border. A fairly short while later we knew we were close to the border. There was a three-mile long line of big rig trucks backed up on the Pan-American Highway waiting to be inspected. Our van got into the left lane (as all other cars did) to bypass the trucks. Norman explained that these truckers would be waiting a minimum of a few hours but up to a couple of days before they could cross the border with their goods. The border was pretty surreal. We were dropped off by our van, driven by Javier (Norman's father) at immigration. It was like a make-shift marketplace with many annoying people trying to sell you their wares. Enter one building, get passport stamped. Use the bathroom.
At this point we literally had to WALK across the border having our passports inspected and stamped again by the Nicaraguan police. It was like something out of a travel documentary. The reason we couldn't cross in the van was because of many taxes and fees and wait time for an inspection. After we had our passports stamped we continued on a dirt path to another van that was waiting for us on the Nicaragua side of the border. We changed some money and were off again. As we drove away from the border, we had to slow for a group of Nicaraguan soldiers doing a drill. I snapped a photo through the window in the van. I swear it looked liked a picture in my social studies text book from the 80's.
Our first stop was on the banks of Lake Nicaragua. This is the second largest lake in Latin America (Lake Titicaca bordering Peru and Bolivia is the largest). Although the lake is freshwater, bull sharks from the Caribbean have somehow adapted and have been seen living in this lake. The Lake is connected to the Caribbean via the San Juan River. This is how Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba founded Nicaragua.
One of the most important cities in Nicaragua is Granada, founded by Cordoba (who by the way the currency is named for) in 1524. Granada is often referred to as the oldest European settlement in the Americas. I wouldn't exactly call the city beautiful, but it was certainly interesting. You can see a lot of evidence of the Spanish Colonial style, albeit weathered. We climbed to the top of the oldest church in the city, La Merced and took in some wonderful views of the city including several more churches and a volcano in the distance. We then visited an area called Central Park lined with venders hawking various things from dolls to jewelry to cashews to sunglasses. We didn't shop for anything here because the BIG market was to come. We got back onto the van that Norman had told us to return to in about 20 minutes. We waited for one girl, the one with the People magazine to return. While we did we listened to her friends talk about how she's always late and sometimes just disappears. One girl told of a trip to Egypt where the girl literally left a bar with some guy not to return until the next day. Egypt! This was only one of several stories like this. Great, this is going to be an interesting day. She returned a little while later having been retrieved by one of the friends. She had left the park and went down some random street to haggle over some jewelry. No apologies from the girl and we were back on the road. It started to become quite clear that it was her world and we were just living in it.
Next stop, a boat ride on Lake Nicaragua to find the monkeys. We got ourselves onto the boat that was waiting for us, but we had to wait yet again for the People magazine girl. She had actually gotten back on the van and CHANGED HER CLOTHES! This was starting to get unbelievable! And her friends don't seem to mind. It was pretty cool out on the lake, looking at volcanoes in the distance and several of the over 350 islands. Some of these islands are privately owned with beautiful homes built on them. One island in particular they call "Monkey Island". A veterinarian placed several monkeys on this island and he monitors them. This is where I hoped to hold a monkey as I had seen in pictures of this same trip. Unfortunately they didn't come onto the boat but I did get some great close up photos. I also got to feed one by hand. Turns out they like Oreo cookies and Norman had brought along several for the trip. I held out the Oreo to the monkey I think named Panchito. He grabbed the cookie from my hand, our fingers touching. Just like a person, he opened the cookie and licked out the cream! Then he discarded the cookie! Vic snapped the camera at just the right time and got a pic of me feeding Panchito. Another one of the Sex and the City girls "London Tipton" as we liked to refer to her (those of you with small children know who I'm talking about, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody is one of the only kids shows I can tolerate), sounded and looked just like the dumb-witted character. In the beginning of the trip I thought perhaps the looks and voice were the only similarities to London. It became quickly apparent that the comparisons wouldn't end there. She asked Norman how large the lake was. He replied "over 5000 square miles." To this "LT" as I will now call her responded, "wow, that's like the ocean!" I could hardly contain myself. I had to turn away to look at Vic and stifle my laughter.
After our boat excursion, we headed to Masaya Volcano. As we drove up to a higher elevation you could see black rock on either side of the road and sure enough it was what I thought. There was an enormous amount of volcanic rock from the lava flow from an eruption in 1772. This was cool in itself but I never imagined what I was about to see. After we parked, from behind a rock wall we actually looked INTO the crater of the active volcano. Sulfur dioxide gas rose out of the abyss. We then climbed up a ton of steps to an even higher point on the volcano. This gave a slightly different vantage point of the crater but also caused everyone to begin coughing. Actually the coughing began on the hike up. Those gases are powerful!
After a decent lunch of steak, plantains, rice and beans, we headed into the market in Masaya. The crafts and other Latin American inspired items were myriad. We haggled and bought several interesting things for our new house including a wooden leaf-like platter thingy, a carved wooden box and a ceramic, vibrantly hand-painted dome to house a votive candle. We also bought a few other items such as key chains (I have a ridiculous key chain collection), a purse and wooden box in the shape of a monkey for Little Jess, and a t-shirt for Vic. After the hour that we were allotted at the market we headed back to the van. We knew this could be a problem for People magazine girl and we were right. Her friends trickled into the van one by one in a relatively decent, non-offensively late amount of time but where was their 'friend' who doesn't give a crap for anyone but herself? This was going to be bad. 20 minutes go by, 30 minutes...Norman went out to find her. Another 15 minutes went by before he was able to get her back to the van. During this time Vic and I could barley contain our anger and we didn't give a shit. We started showing her friends just how pissed we were with snide comments here and there. At one point "LT" was talking with another girl about their plane ride down to Costa Rica and I blurted out, "how'd you make your flight??" to which she responded they took separate flights. 45 minutes after our due back time at the van (with which we could have continued shopping ourselves) People magazine girl entered, again without apology. The smoke coming out of our ears felt like it rivaled the gases of Masaya Volcano. It was a long, hot day and we had to be back at the border by a certain time.
As we drove towards the border in relative silence, several of us fell asleep. "LT" came out of her stupor and asked "did we cross the border yet?" to which her friends replied, "um no, don't you remember getting out of the van and walking across??" Oh good lord. Another great line that Mike told us about later from the girls, "The Nicaraguan border is nothing like the Pennsylvania/New York border." God help us.
Also on the way back, Norman played a little trivia game with us to make the trip back more fun. After each answer, he awarded each of us with a hand-crafted personalized maraca with our names on them. Very cool, Norman. Thank you!
Finally, we were back at our villa after a long and eventful day. Oh and remember how I said the van was 20 minutes late in picking us up in the morning? Yeah, well I guess now you can figure out why. All that said though, what a great day. Another experience I never imagined I would have! And Norman, our guide was wonderful too. He had a lot of patience for the girls and gave us an unforgettable day!
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Saturday, August 6, 2011
la escuela
We visited the local school two days ago in the sleepy, little fishing village of El Jobo (we are staying in this village). We picked up a bunch of little toys and school supplies before we left the states to bring them. El Jobo is VERY impoverished and the school does not have much. Thanks to our friends Bill and Anne, we also had several kick balls to bring down to the kids as well. You can read a little about the school here: http://www.costaricarecreo.com/?p=37
The school is called, Escuela Gil Tablada Corea. There are 104 students and it is K-6. The children in El Jobo almost always never continue school after this age. The village is so poor and very uneducated. They are very secluded and fairly cut off from the rest of Costa Rica. The road that takes you into the village is 14 miles of dirt and gravel and gigantic holes. Most people here do not own cars. Once kids finish grade 6 they are expected to be home so they can work and help the family. On the rare occasion that a child is encouraged to attend high school, they must receive a scholarship and find transportation to a city some distance away.
Although it looks very poor from the outside, once you enter you immediately see how rich in compassion the teachers and staff are in regard to the children. They were also extremely gracious to us and thankful for the things we brought them. Our friends Bill and Anne also gave us several kick balls to bring down. Upon entering, the kids became pretty curious. They began following us around to see just what we had brought and who we might be. They smiled and we said 'hola' to one another. Many were very shy. Several boys and girls began playing with the kick balls and were so happy. All I could really stay was 'como estas?' but it was enough to break the ice with the few who played with the balls. I tossed one back and forth with a little boy. Our new friend (and manager of Recreo) Mike helped us communicate with two teachers. One was an English teacher (whose name was unusual and I can't remember it) and one a kindergarten teacher named Grace. She showed us around her classroom. It was so organized. Even though she doesn't have much and some of what she has has definitely seen better days, she was certainly making the most of what she had. In one corner she had a little house that was made out of 800 (I think) milk cartons. It took them 30 hours to make out of the cartons and rubber cement. It even had a window with a curtain. When you have to, you make due with what you have. It was really impressive. Each area of the room was dedicated to a different subject: science, math, music, home skills, hygiene and several more. Although some of the toys were old, they were in tact. That is much more than I can say for many of the students I teach. Each year so many of my books are not replaced or ruined. I'm afraid to leave things on my desk for fear they will be taken. I constantly have to clean up piles of ripped up paper and candy wrappers. These kids in El Jobo have little and I think they know it. They and the teachers, really do their best to take care of what they have.
The teachers showed us an art project the kids were working on for Mother's Day (celebrated at a different time here than back in the States.) The kids had cut out hearts and flowers out of cardboard and glued some kind of white paper onto the front. They were planning on decorating them in various colors. In the center, a hole cut out so a picture could be glued in.
We spent about an hour at the school and we made new friends. I exchanged email addresses with the two teachers. Grace invited us (through Mike's translation) to her home the next time we visit Costa Rica and called us her friends. It was extremely touching. I felt honored. The English teacher spoke a bit of English but expressed that she is lacking in materials to teach the children. It was very clear that these two women cared very much about their jobs and the children and have a great desire for education in El Jobo to improve.
Even though the conditions were different, the language different, the buildings very different, there were still several similarities that the two women as teachers experience that Vic and I experience as teachers back in the States. We shared in the frustration for the lack of parental encouragement of education. There are just some things that are universal no matter how developed your country is.
I plan on keeping in touch with the teachers and sending more things their way that they might need, (if anyone is interested in doing the same, let me know.) This was one awesome experience that I will never forget!
The school is called, Escuela Gil Tablada Corea. There are 104 students and it is K-6. The children in El Jobo almost always never continue school after this age. The village is so poor and very uneducated. They are very secluded and fairly cut off from the rest of Costa Rica. The road that takes you into the village is 14 miles of dirt and gravel and gigantic holes. Most people here do not own cars. Once kids finish grade 6 they are expected to be home so they can work and help the family. On the rare occasion that a child is encouraged to attend high school, they must receive a scholarship and find transportation to a city some distance away.
Although it looks very poor from the outside, once you enter you immediately see how rich in compassion the teachers and staff are in regard to the children. They were also extremely gracious to us and thankful for the things we brought them. Our friends Bill and Anne also gave us several kick balls to bring down. Upon entering, the kids became pretty curious. They began following us around to see just what we had brought and who we might be. They smiled and we said 'hola' to one another. Many were very shy. Several boys and girls began playing with the kick balls and were so happy. All I could really stay was 'como estas?' but it was enough to break the ice with the few who played with the balls. I tossed one back and forth with a little boy. Our new friend (and manager of Recreo) Mike helped us communicate with two teachers. One was an English teacher (whose name was unusual and I can't remember it) and one a kindergarten teacher named Grace. She showed us around her classroom. It was so organized. Even though she doesn't have much and some of what she has has definitely seen better days, she was certainly making the most of what she had. In one corner she had a little house that was made out of 800 (I think) milk cartons. It took them 30 hours to make out of the cartons and rubber cement. It even had a window with a curtain. When you have to, you make due with what you have. It was really impressive. Each area of the room was dedicated to a different subject: science, math, music, home skills, hygiene and several more. Although some of the toys were old, they were in tact. That is much more than I can say for many of the students I teach. Each year so many of my books are not replaced or ruined. I'm afraid to leave things on my desk for fear they will be taken. I constantly have to clean up piles of ripped up paper and candy wrappers. These kids in El Jobo have little and I think they know it. They and the teachers, really do their best to take care of what they have.
The teachers showed us an art project the kids were working on for Mother's Day (celebrated at a different time here than back in the States.) The kids had cut out hearts and flowers out of cardboard and glued some kind of white paper onto the front. They were planning on decorating them in various colors. In the center, a hole cut out so a picture could be glued in.
We spent about an hour at the school and we made new friends. I exchanged email addresses with the two teachers. Grace invited us (through Mike's translation) to her home the next time we visit Costa Rica and called us her friends. It was extremely touching. I felt honored. The English teacher spoke a bit of English but expressed that she is lacking in materials to teach the children. It was very clear that these two women cared very much about their jobs and the children and have a great desire for education in El Jobo to improve.
Even though the conditions were different, the language different, the buildings very different, there were still several similarities that the two women as teachers experience that Vic and I experience as teachers back in the States. We shared in the frustration for the lack of parental encouragement of education. There are just some things that are universal no matter how developed your country is.
I plan on keeping in touch with the teachers and sending more things their way that they might need, (if anyone is interested in doing the same, let me know.) This was one awesome experience that I will never forget!
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Pura Vida!
Pura Vida seems to be the catch phrase here in Costa Rica. Along with "Feliz Mama' or something like that. They are celebrating Mother's Day this week.
This trip has been amazing to say the least. Let's start with the house...
Wow! The house (and all the houses in the development) are built into the mountainside, right there along with nature. As I'm sitting on a lounge chair at the pool, that each of the houses have, I feel like I'm practically sitting in the rainforest itself. My view is in a word, magnifico! In the distance is one of the many coves that lets out into the Pacific. The water is several shades of blue and green. To my left, the jungle. To my right, the jungle. Mountains and volcanoes in the distance. Awesome.
The food has been incredible. With our package, we have a cook, one of the locals. Haiti is wonderful. We can't really communicate beyond buenos dias and mucho gracias, but she can cook up a storm! Each day she creates a new fruit juice concoction for us and I'm pretty sure we've been eating cut up mangos, papayas and guavas...just had to stop and look up at the massive hawk hovering over us...
We've had to become one with nature in this house. Many parts of it are open to the elements and there have been some pretty crunchy looking, large bugs in various places as well as there being geckos everywhere. Something woke us out of our sleep two nights ago. It was loud and weird sounding. It was about 3am and it sounded like there was a monkey in our midst. Lights on, no monkey. 3am, bleary-eyed we looked around the room for the culprit. Nothing. We were told the next day it was probably a gecko. They are some loud buggers!
So far haven't seen a monkey. Or a snake (thank god) or a shark (thank god). I'm starting to think the Discovery Channel shoots their documentaries in a zoo and just tells you it's places like Costa Rica or Kenya. We've been told we will definitely see monkeys tomorrow on our trip to Nicaragua...
Onto other adventuras...
Our first full day, we kayaked in the Pacific and rode horses on the dirt road and on the beach. Awesome. Didn't see any sea life from the kayaks, pretty sure sting rays only exist in aquariums. Actually we have seen some evidence of them out there with a little splash of the water with possibly a fin. Horses were cool until we rode through a swarm of mosquitoes, and into a thorn tree that I had to grab with my hand to keep it fromm hitting my face (had to dig a lovely splinter out later with a needle and tweezers).
Yesterday was the best day so far. We went to Rincon de la Vieja which is a national park with a volcano. We ziplined over canyons, repelled down into them, climbed back up the wall (I struggled about half way up, legs were jelly, they had to pull me the rest of the way...Muy embarrassing.) They seemed to help all the women while they let the men flounder. Vic was very impressive. After zip lining we did white water tubing that I'm fairly certain would never be allowed in the U.S. We went down the Rio Negro in tubes over, between and around boulders that churned up that water something fierce! We saw a few people wipe out but luckily Vic and I managed to stay in our tubes. This was not something for the faint of heart. There was a liittle boy, about 4 or 5, who was led by a guide in another tube. How he managed to get this boy down the river through the rapids I just don't know! All of the workers and guides were awesome. All the while during this part of the day we just kept thinking to ourselves as we looked at the jungle around us, wow. This ain't your ordinary canyon river rapids ride on some track at Six Flags! Next was horseback riding to a waterfall. Apparently horses like guavas. I could smell the sweetness as he chomped away. The waterfall was beautiful. It came down from a "cliff". I put cliff in quotation marks because by many standards, it's not really a cliff, but by my standards...it was a cliff. It was maybe about 10 feet up. The two young boys with us jumped before anyone could even tell them where to stand. Then Vic went and I walked with him. Then I became a chicken shit. There were rocks below. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to jump out far enough. Vic jumped and I stood up top. For a loooong time. The kids started chanting for me to jump. They came back up to guide me and show me where to stand. Vic tried to instill confidence. Legs were jelly, literally shaking. I was scared I wouldn't be able to push off to jump out far enough with jelly legs. Finally (probably ten minutes later), I did it. Water up the nose, but glad I did it. Would have regretted it if I hadn't. We ended the day with the hot springs that are naturally heated by the volcano. Seriously cool. A man covered me in mud and we soaked in the natural hot tub.
Great day...
This trip has been amazing to say the least. Let's start with the house...
Wow! The house (and all the houses in the development) are built into the mountainside, right there along with nature. As I'm sitting on a lounge chair at the pool, that each of the houses have, I feel like I'm practically sitting in the rainforest itself. My view is in a word, magnifico! In the distance is one of the many coves that lets out into the Pacific. The water is several shades of blue and green. To my left, the jungle. To my right, the jungle. Mountains and volcanoes in the distance. Awesome.
The food has been incredible. With our package, we have a cook, one of the locals. Haiti is wonderful. We can't really communicate beyond buenos dias and mucho gracias, but she can cook up a storm! Each day she creates a new fruit juice concoction for us and I'm pretty sure we've been eating cut up mangos, papayas and guavas...just had to stop and look up at the massive hawk hovering over us...
We've had to become one with nature in this house. Many parts of it are open to the elements and there have been some pretty crunchy looking, large bugs in various places as well as there being geckos everywhere. Something woke us out of our sleep two nights ago. It was loud and weird sounding. It was about 3am and it sounded like there was a monkey in our midst. Lights on, no monkey. 3am, bleary-eyed we looked around the room for the culprit. Nothing. We were told the next day it was probably a gecko. They are some loud buggers!
So far haven't seen a monkey. Or a snake (thank god) or a shark (thank god). I'm starting to think the Discovery Channel shoots their documentaries in a zoo and just tells you it's places like Costa Rica or Kenya. We've been told we will definitely see monkeys tomorrow on our trip to Nicaragua...
Onto other adventuras...
Our first full day, we kayaked in the Pacific and rode horses on the dirt road and on the beach. Awesome. Didn't see any sea life from the kayaks, pretty sure sting rays only exist in aquariums. Actually we have seen some evidence of them out there with a little splash of the water with possibly a fin. Horses were cool until we rode through a swarm of mosquitoes, and into a thorn tree that I had to grab with my hand to keep it fromm hitting my face (had to dig a lovely splinter out later with a needle and tweezers).
Yesterday was the best day so far. We went to Rincon de la Vieja which is a national park with a volcano. We ziplined over canyons, repelled down into them, climbed back up the wall (I struggled about half way up, legs were jelly, they had to pull me the rest of the way...Muy embarrassing.) They seemed to help all the women while they let the men flounder. Vic was very impressive. After zip lining we did white water tubing that I'm fairly certain would never be allowed in the U.S. We went down the Rio Negro in tubes over, between and around boulders that churned up that water something fierce! We saw a few people wipe out but luckily Vic and I managed to stay in our tubes. This was not something for the faint of heart. There was a liittle boy, about 4 or 5, who was led by a guide in another tube. How he managed to get this boy down the river through the rapids I just don't know! All of the workers and guides were awesome. All the while during this part of the day we just kept thinking to ourselves as we looked at the jungle around us, wow. This ain't your ordinary canyon river rapids ride on some track at Six Flags! Next was horseback riding to a waterfall. Apparently horses like guavas. I could smell the sweetness as he chomped away. The waterfall was beautiful. It came down from a "cliff". I put cliff in quotation marks because by many standards, it's not really a cliff, but by my standards...it was a cliff. It was maybe about 10 feet up. The two young boys with us jumped before anyone could even tell them where to stand. Then Vic went and I walked with him. Then I became a chicken shit. There were rocks below. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to jump out far enough. Vic jumped and I stood up top. For a loooong time. The kids started chanting for me to jump. They came back up to guide me and show me where to stand. Vic tried to instill confidence. Legs were jelly, literally shaking. I was scared I wouldn't be able to push off to jump out far enough with jelly legs. Finally (probably ten minutes later), I did it. Water up the nose, but glad I did it. Would have regretted it if I hadn't. We ended the day with the hot springs that are naturally heated by the volcano. Seriously cool. A man covered me in mud and we soaked in the natural hot tub.
Great day...
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
We made it...
Up at 4 am yesterday, we geared up for our trip. We departed Newark relatively on time; a nice change from LGA and JFK. The flight was smooth into San Jose. As we got closer to the ground I could see the lush, green hills/mountains of Central America. Very cool. I'm also pretty sure I saw a volcano. There are 122 volcanoes in the country. Now I can't be sure, but it was a large black triangle and if I had been asked to draw a volcano in third grade, this is exactly what it would have looked like. So therefore, volcano.
We landed in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. Um, where's the runway? I see trees, hills...no runway. We got our rental car and asked in very broken Spanish for directiones to La Nueva Carretera. (The New Highway). We had been told (and I had researched online) that this "new highway" was going to save us a ton of time on our trek up to the Guanacaste Province near the border of Nicaragua. Well, let's just say, they apparently don't believe in street signs or street names in this country and it took us probably more time finally getting to the new highway than it was supposed to save us. Along the way we traveled narrow, precariously winding roads through the jungley (new word?) mountains, passed lots of shanties, and some REALLY poor towns. We stopped several times to ask for directions to find out if we were at least headed in the right direction. It was fun trying to communicate with the locals, albeit daunting being as tired as we were and frustrated about the lack of signage. By the time we got to this New Highway, there wasn't too much of it left, and then we got our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean, ever. Cool.
We continued heading north to get to our destination, a tiny village called El Jobo (check it on Google Earth), that some Costa Ricans hadn't even heard of. Great. On this stretch of the journey we encountered a ton of cows, chickens and chihuahuas. Seriously. They run free and wild here like squirrels at home. I kept half expecting to see Juan Valdez riding a donkey on the road, but no such luck. We did see a lot of people walking along the Pan-American Highway and kept asking ourselves, "where are they coming from? And where are they going?"
HOURS later, were only in Liberia...this would be where the other major airport is but it was more money and not a direct flight. In hindsight it probably would have been a better decision, especially since we were now paying $600 for the rental car (don't ask...). We figured we were between 1-2 hours away from our destination. We were exhausted and needed a five minute break so we stopped at the McDonald's in Liberia. The Golden Arches were a welcome sight!
Then the rainforest lived up to its name. The monsoon-like weather really added to the experience. People were still walking on the road and we still asked, "where are they coming from and where are they going?"
Back on the road again, it started getting dark. The sun sets here a bit after 6 all year round. Several more wrong turns later and very broken Spanish spoken to very local people, we finally found the dirt road that would lead us to El Jobo. This was no ordinary dirt road. It was pitted with pot holes and gravel and I felt like we were on a ride at Disney. Thank goodness we didn't blow a tire out!
6 1/2 hours after we landed in San Jose we found the "wooden gate" (no sign of course) that we were to be looking for. We were welcomed by a nice, young American guy named Mike who graduated from the same college as Vic. He welcomed us by saying, "We have a nice warm dinner waiting for you." Ah, those were the best words I've heard in a long time!
More to come...
We landed in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. Um, where's the runway? I see trees, hills...no runway. We got our rental car and asked in very broken Spanish for directiones to La Nueva Carretera. (The New Highway). We had been told (and I had researched online) that this "new highway" was going to save us a ton of time on our trek up to the Guanacaste Province near the border of Nicaragua. Well, let's just say, they apparently don't believe in street signs or street names in this country and it took us probably more time finally getting to the new highway than it was supposed to save us. Along the way we traveled narrow, precariously winding roads through the jungley (new word?) mountains, passed lots of shanties, and some REALLY poor towns. We stopped several times to ask for directions to find out if we were at least headed in the right direction. It was fun trying to communicate with the locals, albeit daunting being as tired as we were and frustrated about the lack of signage. By the time we got to this New Highway, there wasn't too much of it left, and then we got our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean, ever. Cool.
We continued heading north to get to our destination, a tiny village called El Jobo (check it on Google Earth), that some Costa Ricans hadn't even heard of. Great. On this stretch of the journey we encountered a ton of cows, chickens and chihuahuas. Seriously. They run free and wild here like squirrels at home. I kept half expecting to see Juan Valdez riding a donkey on the road, but no such luck. We did see a lot of people walking along the Pan-American Highway and kept asking ourselves, "where are they coming from? And where are they going?"
HOURS later, were only in Liberia...this would be where the other major airport is but it was more money and not a direct flight. In hindsight it probably would have been a better decision, especially since we were now paying $600 for the rental car (don't ask...). We figured we were between 1-2 hours away from our destination. We were exhausted and needed a five minute break so we stopped at the McDonald's in Liberia. The Golden Arches were a welcome sight!
Then the rainforest lived up to its name. The monsoon-like weather really added to the experience. People were still walking on the road and we still asked, "where are they coming from and where are they going?"
Back on the road again, it started getting dark. The sun sets here a bit after 6 all year round. Several more wrong turns later and very broken Spanish spoken to very local people, we finally found the dirt road that would lead us to El Jobo. This was no ordinary dirt road. It was pitted with pot holes and gravel and I felt like we were on a ride at Disney. Thank goodness we didn't blow a tire out!
6 1/2 hours after we landed in San Jose we found the "wooden gate" (no sign of course) that we were to be looking for. We were welcomed by a nice, young American guy named Mike who graduated from the same college as Vic. He welcomed us by saying, "We have a nice warm dinner waiting for you." Ah, those were the best words I've heard in a long time!
More to come...
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