We are pleased to reveal our first ever guest blog entry...
With the help of Jenny’s boyfriend, Shea, a secret plan was hatched on February 24th that had me up at 5:00 a.m.(!) and arriving in Manhattan at 9:30 a.m. on February 25th. Despite a rotten weather forecast, I felt motivated to spend a day “Down the Rabbit Hole” to welcome Jenny and Kelly back from Costa Rica, enjoy a few hours of their company before they departed again for foreign shores, ferry some excess luggage for Jenny, and to rejoice in good health. (In fact, I was motivated by the potential to earn a guest blogger spot. Success!)
Shea and I exchanged numerous conversations and texts as we cooked up a ruse to get Shea, Jenny and her luggage into Times Square so I could *SURPRISE* her. Boy, was she surprised – and a little concerned about the ease with which Shea delivered the lie. As Shea and I applauded ourselves in the lobby of the Westin Hotel, Jenny spent a few minutes repeating, “I am so weirded out.” We rushed Jenny through acceptance of my sudden appearance (surprisers, be warned that it takes the surprisee a few minutes to catch up) and up to the 23rd floor where I had booked mani/pedis in the hotel spa that promised a panoramic view of the city. We spent the next couple of hours out of the rain, but sadly without a panoramic view as the manicure suite was a dark converted guest room on the 12th floor without a window. No matter, we enjoyed conversations about travels, plans, miracles, surprises, family, and friends as we alternated between the mani/pedi station and a couple of massage tables that were the only other place to sit down. Shea, you’re a great sport!
With lovely nails, and a break in the weather, we strolled to Times Square. More amusing than the spectacle of Times Square was the expression on Shea’s face as he saw NY for the first time, and on Jenny’s face as she adjusted from life on a dirt road in Costa Rica. We set off for our next planned event, lunch with fellow intrepid traveler, Kelly, at Rachel’s on 9th Ave. and 44th St. Did I say break in the weather? About ½ way into our ½ mile walk, the heavens opened and we were treated to one of the heaviest rainstorms I have ever experienced. Even pressed against a building sheltering under scaffolding, we got soaked through. Jenny continued to marvel at the contrast between hot sun and cold rain as we made a break for it and finally arrived at Rachel’s. Any temptation to complain about our wet shoes, jeans and coats (Shea seemed to soak up the most water) was curtailed when Kelly breezed into Rachel’s having experienced the same rainstorm, but without benefit of scaffolding, an umbrella or a hood. Gotta love Kelly!! Despite water dripping from her hair and nose, her smile lit the restaurant. Lunch was a simple chicken salad, a glass of wine, and a much needed warm dry respite. More conversation, more planning, some serious laughs, and it was time to go. Thankfully, the storm had passed and we walked/taxied to Penn Station where I boarded a shuttle back to the airport with Jenny’s excess luggage. Wish I could have stayed longer, but I am eternally grateful for the successful surprise, the enjoyable hours in the “Rabbit Hole,” the comfortable and free flight on Ultimate Jet, and the chance to tell you this story. Success!!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Thursday 24th February – Terminal C, as in Culture Shock
Today we were up at 4:30am and began our long travel day from San Jose to NYC where we would stay until Monday night. We got on an airport shuttle (once again red in the face about how much stuff we had) and made our way to the Delta terminal. First we had to pay a tax of $26 to leave the country which they only accept in cash. We were remarkably high in spirit and energy considering the time and that we had barely slept for 3 nights (late night packing --> tent --> hostel --> early airport shuttle). We cracked each other up as we stood in line with the help of a Tica who clearly took her job of managing the line extremely seriously. She hated the sight of even a few inches between you and the person in front and so she helpfully motioned you forwards until she felt you were all appropriately close to each other. This was hilarious to us, and still is, but the ridiculousness is kind of hard to explain. All went smoothly and we headed through the airport and decided to stop for some breakfast. Choices were limited to Burger King seemed like the breakfast pick. We decided that the BK Classic Breakfast of beans and rice was not quite our style so we opted for a crossainwich, which was surprisingly delicious (maybe we were starving?)
For some reason being in Samara has given us a strange ability to turn any stranger into a friend. A 41 year old guy resembling Chevy Chase (hence our nickname for him, Sparky) opened up to us about the touch decision he was making about turning down some decent job offers for the risky business endeavor of overseeing a project in San Jose. He said he was super stressed and stuck in work mode and was genuinely interested to hear about our adventure and our current perspective of going with your gut and doing what feels best in the present. We hold Sparky near and dear to our hearts and we wish him all the best! And to his girlfriend too (who was not with him but he said calms him down and serves as a stress reliever) – Sparky, if you’re reading this then put a ring on it! And we told you that you were a blog-worthy encounter!
We boarded our flight and headed to Atlanta for our layover. We didn’t sit together on the plane but we both made friends with the people sitting by us who seemed eager to share a lot about their lives with us. Kelly sat next to a very spunky woman from New Jersey who was extremely supportive of our journey and filled Kelly in all about her siblings and family dynamics and her outrageous Obama-loving grandson. Jenny chatted with an extremely nice woman who was born to Missionary parents in San Jose and was now living on some mountain in Georgia – she had been visiting her sister. She was clearly an overprotective mother and offered to switch seats to make Jenny more comfortable and to use her sweater as a blanket...both of which Jenny declined. She then said that she couldn’t watch airplane movies because they were full of sex and bad language which made her disappointed - this made Jenny happy she had kept her sailor mouth to herself during this conversation. To Jenny’s other side was a cursing Irish professional skydiver and filmmaker who had travelled to film a dance documentary in San Jose. He is thinking about writing a book: Dance, Drink, Skydive about his travels to San Jose, to Ireland to see his mother, and to Colorado to improve his skydiving skills. It is amazing how many different people with totally opposite stories are sharing journeys and fleeting moments with one another in life! We continue to try to learn something from everyone we encounter, no matter how different they may be from us.
When we got to Atlanta we were amazed at how different it felt to be in the same airport we had been in only 2 weeks prior. It seems extremely built up with lots of hustle and bustle that we were not used to in our Costa Rica time. Next stop: New York City. All we can really say is HOLY CULTURE SHOCK! We knew it would feel strange to go from our humble home on a dirt road surrounded by small structures roofed with palm to the biggest metropolitan city in the US, but we really were not prepared for the overwhelming nature of this transition. We had been living about as close to nature as possible, rarely riding in cars or even seeing them much. Now we were driving from one enormous highway to the next in NY traffic with skyscrapers looming overhead. Furthermore, we had split up for the first time on our adventure and we were heading our separate ways.
Kelly was going to her dad’s best friend Joe’s apartment on the Upper West Side. She was driven in a black town car he had scheduled for her as her Indian driver discussed his upcoming arranged marriage, but a "progressive" one as they would meet the day before the wedding. All that was missing in Kelly’s experience was a chanel suit.
Jenny hopped into a sketchy shuttle with a Jamaican driver who talked at length about murders, near death experiences, Asians eating cats, and the dangers of getting pregnant, all the while slipping in outrageously discriminatory sentences about every culture possible. Jenny kept her mind off her of potential fate of being dropped off at some scary murder den in the Bronx and focused on the fact that she was heading to a hotel to see her boyfriend, who had unexpectedly decided a few days prior to meet her in the Big Apple.
If anything will ever make you miss the simplicity of a place like Samara, it’s New York City. This was definitely going to take some getting used to!
For some reason being in Samara has given us a strange ability to turn any stranger into a friend. A 41 year old guy resembling Chevy Chase (hence our nickname for him, Sparky) opened up to us about the touch decision he was making about turning down some decent job offers for the risky business endeavor of overseeing a project in San Jose. He said he was super stressed and stuck in work mode and was genuinely interested to hear about our adventure and our current perspective of going with your gut and doing what feels best in the present. We hold Sparky near and dear to our hearts and we wish him all the best! And to his girlfriend too (who was not with him but he said calms him down and serves as a stress reliever) – Sparky, if you’re reading this then put a ring on it! And we told you that you were a blog-worthy encounter!
We boarded our flight and headed to Atlanta for our layover. We didn’t sit together on the plane but we both made friends with the people sitting by us who seemed eager to share a lot about their lives with us. Kelly sat next to a very spunky woman from New Jersey who was extremely supportive of our journey and filled Kelly in all about her siblings and family dynamics and her outrageous Obama-loving grandson. Jenny chatted with an extremely nice woman who was born to Missionary parents in San Jose and was now living on some mountain in Georgia – she had been visiting her sister. She was clearly an overprotective mother and offered to switch seats to make Jenny more comfortable and to use her sweater as a blanket...both of which Jenny declined. She then said that she couldn’t watch airplane movies because they were full of sex and bad language which made her disappointed - this made Jenny happy she had kept her sailor mouth to herself during this conversation. To Jenny’s other side was a cursing Irish professional skydiver and filmmaker who had travelled to film a dance documentary in San Jose. He is thinking about writing a book: Dance, Drink, Skydive about his travels to San Jose, to Ireland to see his mother, and to Colorado to improve his skydiving skills. It is amazing how many different people with totally opposite stories are sharing journeys and fleeting moments with one another in life! We continue to try to learn something from everyone we encounter, no matter how different they may be from us.
When we got to Atlanta we were amazed at how different it felt to be in the same airport we had been in only 2 weeks prior. It seems extremely built up with lots of hustle and bustle that we were not used to in our Costa Rica time. Next stop: New York City. All we can really say is HOLY CULTURE SHOCK! We knew it would feel strange to go from our humble home on a dirt road surrounded by small structures roofed with palm to the biggest metropolitan city in the US, but we really were not prepared for the overwhelming nature of this transition. We had been living about as close to nature as possible, rarely riding in cars or even seeing them much. Now we were driving from one enormous highway to the next in NY traffic with skyscrapers looming overhead. Furthermore, we had split up for the first time on our adventure and we were heading our separate ways.
Kelly was going to her dad’s best friend Joe’s apartment on the Upper West Side. She was driven in a black town car he had scheduled for her as her Indian driver discussed his upcoming arranged marriage, but a "progressive" one as they would meet the day before the wedding. All that was missing in Kelly’s experience was a chanel suit.
Jenny hopped into a sketchy shuttle with a Jamaican driver who talked at length about murders, near death experiences, Asians eating cats, and the dangers of getting pregnant, all the while slipping in outrageously discriminatory sentences about every culture possible. Jenny kept her mind off her of potential fate of being dropped off at some scary murder den in the Bronx and focused on the fact that she was heading to a hotel to see her boyfriend, who had unexpectedly decided a few days prior to meet her in the Big Apple.
If anything will ever make you miss the simplicity of a place like Samara, it’s New York City. This was definitely going to take some getting used to!
Wednesday 23rd, 2011 – Get it together Juan!
Today was not so exciting. We were scheduled to be picked up by Interbus (the
shuttle/bus thing) at our hostel at 1 so we decided to chill in our tent and in the hammocks by the pool for the morning. We ate a breakfast meal at the hostel
restaurant and played on the internet. We also realized we hadn’t updated our blog in a serious while so we made the dumb little shoutout vid that we posted.
We went to a tourist shop in town where Jenny bought bracelets for Shea’s little sisters and Kelly bought a great rasta colored headband. 1pm came and went…so did 1:30. A little after 2pm we saw the Interbus pull up and our Tico driver came in to help us with our bags. Upon laying eyes on our ridiculous amount of luggage (it seems more ridiculous each time we see backpackers with their tightly packed loads on their backs) he immediately decided we were not his favorite. He muttered in Spanish to the hostel check in guy about bag charges and was a rather rude Tico if we do say so ourselves! We asked him if he could take us a mile from our set destination to a hostel other than the destination we had scheduled. This was far too much effort for him and he explained that he had to take us to Hotel Berlor as was written on our Interbus reso. We instantly went into “we miss Samara” mode and decided we had no desire to befriend this rude Juan. We piled into the Interbus – not a private ride this time, we were with 4 couples from different places. They all seemed to have soaked up a little too much of Juan’s negative energy and were rather rude also! This travel day was not looking up – until we got the giggles while Kelly bobbed her head to the awful Spanish music that Juan was jamming out with. After about 5 minutes Jenny decided she had to pee (no surprise there) and was super thankful when we stopped and hour later. We also took this time to buy some random souveniers and snack on a great ice cream treat for lunch. Back on Jaun’s bus and into San Jose.
Everyone had told us San Jose was ugly but we were not prepared for what we saw, woof! All the crammed and dirty houses were built surrounded by cages. This was clearly not a crime-free zone like Samara. We pulled up to the San Jose airport and Juan opened the door and motioned for the 2 of us to get out….uuhh, our flight was not until tomorrow morning. We struggled to explain to Juan that he was driving us to Hotel Berlor (he seemed to have lost brain capacity since 4 hours prior when he was insisting the the hostel guy that that’s where he had to drop us off). After a little more persuading he nodded and we were on the road again. Next stop, sketchy looking Hotel Berlor (ugh, nice recommendation Max!) where the army camo adorned woman said she had no space for us. We had kind of seen this on coming, hence our earlier request to go to Alajuala Hostel instead.
Next step, get in a cab. The army camo adorned woman seemed to have never heard of a cab and certainly had no clue how to call one. With the help of 2 other
Spanish woman and about 7 phone calls we were informed a cab had been called.
Where was Hillberto when you needed him!? Next we re-piled our ridiculous amount of luggage in said cab and we were on the road through San Jose again. More luggage dragging down the block to the caged in hostel. We had a room! Success!
We were both pretty certain we had seen enough of San Jose to last a lifetime and we had no desire to leave our hostel, despite the fact our room reeked like a combination of wet dog and cigarette, but a little worse. We found a pizza place with a San Jose view on one of the upper floors of our hostel (which was a reallty strange building with an Alice in Wonderland type of feel – twists and turns, random stairs, flowerboxes on the outside of room windows which looked out into the hallways and into other peoples rooms). Anyway, we paired our pizza with our last Imperial and chatted to the bartender and a random traveler before heading back to our room and trying to do some re-organizing of our poorly packed belongings. We had a choppy and short night of sleep and both dozed off thinking about how much we missed Samara.
Tuesday, February 22nd - La Fortuna in a day
Morning came pretty quickly but we managed to get up surprisingly easily at 6:30am as we threw the last few straggling items into our suitcases. Emma was on time for our 7am breakfast date, we were running a little late of course. We had decided nothing would keep us quite as full as an enormous breakfast at Café Carolas before we hit the road to La Fortuna. Getting there was perhaps our least favorite walk down our dirt road as we had to drag all of our luggage with us – not a pretty sight and the first reminder of many that day that we had massively over packed.
Carolas was super delicious, just like the first time we had it. We ate piece after piece of fresh baked German bread with homemade jams, scrambled eggs, cheese, & meat. And we got to enjoy Carolas delicious coffee one last time - Starbucks will never do the trick quite like Carolas. Once we were sufficiently stuffed and 9am (our bus pick up time) was minutes away, Carola bossed us, and her very obliging husband Victor, around and made us put all of our luggage in her awesome super old red LandRover insisting that she would drive us to the bus stop. She was also driving a young German girl down, who we presumed to be her daughter. Thank God we didn’t have to drag our luggage down the rest of the dirt road - We were so grateful to Carola, the crazy German mother we have never had. We stood with Carola and her German daughter, whose name we can’t remember and who turned out not to be her daughter at all, we don't think, until the Interbus pulled up. Two guys hoisted our bags onto the top of the roof and tied them on. In the U.S. this wouldn’t be so scary but in Costa Rica everyone drives as if they have a passenger in labor. Breaking before a sharp turn is a totally foreign concept to them so you constantly find yourself thrown out of your seat as you whizz along the poorly paved roads weaving around mountains, lakes, etc. We both made a silent wish that our luggage would make it to our destination. We had hoped to sit together and fall fast asleep but for some reason a tall scary Russian man who smelled like he had just run with the bulls in Pamplona had decided to occupy the only 2 seats that were together and rudely said he would not move soo Jenny sat next to him. This was not our favorite bus journey and we were in for a bumpy, hot, smelly, crowded journey. After about 2 ½ hours we got off to switch to another bus to take us to La Fortuna where we would stay for the night. This bus was much better, a smaller shuttle for just the 2 of us! Our driver Jonathan got us there in no time but is very lucky that Jenny didn’t throw up all over his shuttle considering he drove like a total nutzo. Before dropping us off at our hostel, his absurd driving was quickly forgotten when we pulled over to show us a natural hot spring- or river, really. He waited as we took our sneakers off and walked through. It was really hot- we knew right then this was going to be a cool experience. So all in all it had been a 2 ½ hr drive with Jonathan, which we should have spent napping but we accidentally spent chatting. The drive was beautiful and from pretty far away we could catch glimpses of our final destination: the Arenal volcano. Almost all of Costa Rica is grass, trees, rainforests, and natural bodies of water. 40% of land here is protected for wildlife conservation. It is so amazing to drive for so long on a single road seeing virtually nothing manmade. The structures that are manmade are humble and more often than not roofed with palms.
We arrived at our hostel, Arenal Backpackers Resort, appropriately named as it was unbelievably nice with a pool, a grassy area with palm trees and hammocks, a restaurant and a wifi lobby. We were given the option to book a bed in a dorm or a tent, and obviously we picked tent. That’s right, we said tent -this is an adventure after all. Our tent was pretty much nicer than our apartment in Samara, we loved it except for the fact it was practically an oven inside, until night when we would learn it can also serve as a freezer. By not we were very used to our 2 temperature choices: sweaty or shivering.
No sooner had we put our bags in a tent and split a delicious chocolate chip cookie for lunch than we were back on a bus! Time for the most cost effective and action packed tour we could find. Our timing was working out perfectly, quite unusual for an unplanned travel day. Also on our tour were 2 crazy young French girls without a care in the world except themselves – they spoke French to each other, English to us, and Spanish to the Tico tour guide William; Debbie the German…her name was actually Sondra but Debbie would have been more appropriate for this total downer who didn’t seem impressed by anything we were doing and had been traveling the world by herself for a few months already; a quiet but sweet couple from Dayton who had met on Match.com 3 months prior and were now traveling in Costa Rica together for the one week that they were able to get off work.
Our tour guide, William, a self-promoting Tico bird enthusiast whose avid excitement over tiny plants and animal prints was very Steve Irwin-esque, took us to Arenal Volcano Lodge for our first stop. We drove for a long while down a super bumpy dirt road, a Costa Rican massage according to William. We got onto the volcano observation deck and the view was unreal! We were unbelievably close to the Arenal volcano, one of the world’s 10 most active volcanoes. It is usually pouring lava 24/7 but had mysteriously stopped 3 months ago. Now the crater was smoking, which we could see through a telescope set up by William. William told us about 100 times about how he had been living in La Fortuna during Arenal’s ferocious 1968 eruption that buried over 5mi² in rocks, lava and ash and killed many people. Arenal volcano has been active ever since and at 5,437 feet in height and it a truly epic sight.
After taking in the view, spotting a mystery animal, and a serious amount of bird watching, much to Kelly’s dismay, we were off and ready for a jungle hike. This was a pretty serious hike and we were deep in the rainforest away from any real trails. We hiked to an amazing waterfall and got to watch as a guy on another tour was taught to climb to the top and jump off of the waterfall – clearly he chose the better tour because William was more concerned by plants that had been used as natural medicine than thrill seeking waterfall jumps. We would have been happy campers hanging out by the waterfall all day – it was unbelievable. On with the hike, which lasted several hours, and over a suspension bridge in the rainforest which was really cool.
We saw plants that were used for bengay, citronella mosquito repellent, natural birth control (a plant that men or women could drink in a tea 3 times daily) and a tree that’s illegal in Nicaragua because people smoke it as a drug that William says is much stronger than weed. We saw every kind of bird in Costa Rica, which was really exciting to William, whose favorite birds were giant wild turkeys and a species whose males build the nest before the females inspects them, leaving the poor sucker if the construction is not good enough. The crazy French girls were clearly more interested in themselves than any kind of tour and they dragged 10 minutes behind the entire time so we kept having to stop and wait for them to catch up. William was clearly infuriated by this but to our secret disappointment he kept his cool. Next we headed back to the observation deck to see yet another amazing sunset. We anxiously waited for dark hoping that the volcano was spewing lava, which it sadly was not (guess you have to be careful what you wish for though!) We hopped back on the bus and were off to our next destination, until William spotted the fourth most poisonous snake in Costa Rica so we piled out and stood dangerously close to it. There is no concern for safety in Costa Rica and from kayaking in the choppy ocean to a far out island, learning to surf, hiking rocky paths down to a waterfall, and standing feet away from venomous animals, we have never seen a single contract or signed anything. It makes you realize how caught up the US is with liability.
William sat next to us and told us about his experience learning to speak English. He was having a conversation with a pretty girl one day who happily engaged him for hours as he practiced his speaking skills. He said he was so grateful for her help that he wanted to say something nice about her pretty smile and dimples. He said to her “thank you for your help, you are a nice girl with a pretty smiles and 2 very nice nipples”….haha apparently not quite when he meant but a compliment nonetheless we suppose.
We arrived at Baldi Hot Spring Resort, the strangest resort/spa/water park/jungle experience we have ever and the most touristy place we have been in Costa Rica. We were met with a HUGE buffet dinner with plenty of carbs, Jen’s dream meal: the deadly beige plate. Then we were set free for 2 ½ hours to run from hot spring to hot spring naturally heated and ranging in temperature from 40 – 135 degrees F. We braved the 116 degree pool but that was about as toasty as we cared to be. We had so much fun running around Baldi like 9-year-olds on a summer day. We realized we were totally carefree and living in the moment – a feeling that we have started to take for granted but is pretty rare in the life of most people. We have every intention of holding onto this wonderful childlike embracing of the present.
We got back to our Hostel after this whirlwind day at around 11pm and found groups of young people hanging out and enjoying the music that was playing by the pool. We were way too exhausted to be social and meet people but this did make us excited for all of the hostel experiences we will have in Europe. We are really looking forward to making connections with people from all over the world who also have the travel bug.
Suspension bridge in La Fortuna rainforest
Arenal volcano
Baldi hotsprings
Our room for the night!
Breakfast at Carola's - not quite as glam as breakfast at Tiffany's
Carolas was super delicious, just like the first time we had it. We ate piece after piece of fresh baked German bread with homemade jams, scrambled eggs, cheese, & meat. And we got to enjoy Carolas delicious coffee one last time - Starbucks will never do the trick quite like Carolas. Once we were sufficiently stuffed and 9am (our bus pick up time) was minutes away, Carola bossed us, and her very obliging husband Victor, around and made us put all of our luggage in her awesome super old red LandRover insisting that she would drive us to the bus stop. She was also driving a young German girl down, who we presumed to be her daughter. Thank God we didn’t have to drag our luggage down the rest of the dirt road - We were so grateful to Carola, the crazy German mother we have never had. We stood with Carola and her German daughter, whose name we can’t remember and who turned out not to be her daughter at all, we don't think, until the Interbus pulled up. Two guys hoisted our bags onto the top of the roof and tied them on. In the U.S. this wouldn’t be so scary but in Costa Rica everyone drives as if they have a passenger in labor. Breaking before a sharp turn is a totally foreign concept to them so you constantly find yourself thrown out of your seat as you whizz along the poorly paved roads weaving around mountains, lakes, etc. We both made a silent wish that our luggage would make it to our destination. We had hoped to sit together and fall fast asleep but for some reason a tall scary Russian man who smelled like he had just run with the bulls in Pamplona had decided to occupy the only 2 seats that were together and rudely said he would not move soo Jenny sat next to him. This was not our favorite bus journey and we were in for a bumpy, hot, smelly, crowded journey. After about 2 ½ hours we got off to switch to another bus to take us to La Fortuna where we would stay for the night. This bus was much better, a smaller shuttle for just the 2 of us! Our driver Jonathan got us there in no time but is very lucky that Jenny didn’t throw up all over his shuttle considering he drove like a total nutzo. Before dropping us off at our hostel, his absurd driving was quickly forgotten when we pulled over to show us a natural hot spring- or river, really. He waited as we took our sneakers off and walked through. It was really hot- we knew right then this was going to be a cool experience. So all in all it had been a 2 ½ hr drive with Jonathan, which we should have spent napping but we accidentally spent chatting. The drive was beautiful and from pretty far away we could catch glimpses of our final destination: the Arenal volcano. Almost all of Costa Rica is grass, trees, rainforests, and natural bodies of water. 40% of land here is protected for wildlife conservation. It is so amazing to drive for so long on a single road seeing virtually nothing manmade. The structures that are manmade are humble and more often than not roofed with palms.
We arrived at our hostel, Arenal Backpackers Resort, appropriately named as it was unbelievably nice with a pool, a grassy area with palm trees and hammocks, a restaurant and a wifi lobby. We were given the option to book a bed in a dorm or a tent, and obviously we picked tent. That’s right, we said tent -this is an adventure after all. Our tent was pretty much nicer than our apartment in Samara, we loved it except for the fact it was practically an oven inside, until night when we would learn it can also serve as a freezer. By not we were very used to our 2 temperature choices: sweaty or shivering.
No sooner had we put our bags in a tent and split a delicious chocolate chip cookie for lunch than we were back on a bus! Time for the most cost effective and action packed tour we could find. Our timing was working out perfectly, quite unusual for an unplanned travel day. Also on our tour were 2 crazy young French girls without a care in the world except themselves – they spoke French to each other, English to us, and Spanish to the Tico tour guide William; Debbie the German…her name was actually Sondra but Debbie would have been more appropriate for this total downer who didn’t seem impressed by anything we were doing and had been traveling the world by herself for a few months already; a quiet but sweet couple from Dayton who had met on Match.com 3 months prior and were now traveling in Costa Rica together for the one week that they were able to get off work.
Our tour guide, William, a self-promoting Tico bird enthusiast whose avid excitement over tiny plants and animal prints was very Steve Irwin-esque, took us to Arenal Volcano Lodge for our first stop. We drove for a long while down a super bumpy dirt road, a Costa Rican massage according to William. We got onto the volcano observation deck and the view was unreal! We were unbelievably close to the Arenal volcano, one of the world’s 10 most active volcanoes. It is usually pouring lava 24/7 but had mysteriously stopped 3 months ago. Now the crater was smoking, which we could see through a telescope set up by William. William told us about 100 times about how he had been living in La Fortuna during Arenal’s ferocious 1968 eruption that buried over 5mi² in rocks, lava and ash and killed many people. Arenal volcano has been active ever since and at 5,437 feet in height and it a truly epic sight.
After taking in the view, spotting a mystery animal, and a serious amount of bird watching, much to Kelly’s dismay, we were off and ready for a jungle hike. This was a pretty serious hike and we were deep in the rainforest away from any real trails. We hiked to an amazing waterfall and got to watch as a guy on another tour was taught to climb to the top and jump off of the waterfall – clearly he chose the better tour because William was more concerned by plants that had been used as natural medicine than thrill seeking waterfall jumps. We would have been happy campers hanging out by the waterfall all day – it was unbelievable. On with the hike, which lasted several hours, and over a suspension bridge in the rainforest which was really cool.
We saw plants that were used for bengay, citronella mosquito repellent, natural birth control (a plant that men or women could drink in a tea 3 times daily) and a tree that’s illegal in Nicaragua because people smoke it as a drug that William says is much stronger than weed. We saw every kind of bird in Costa Rica, which was really exciting to William, whose favorite birds were giant wild turkeys and a species whose males build the nest before the females inspects them, leaving the poor sucker if the construction is not good enough. The crazy French girls were clearly more interested in themselves than any kind of tour and they dragged 10 minutes behind the entire time so we kept having to stop and wait for them to catch up. William was clearly infuriated by this but to our secret disappointment he kept his cool. Next we headed back to the observation deck to see yet another amazing sunset. We anxiously waited for dark hoping that the volcano was spewing lava, which it sadly was not (guess you have to be careful what you wish for though!) We hopped back on the bus and were off to our next destination, until William spotted the fourth most poisonous snake in Costa Rica so we piled out and stood dangerously close to it. There is no concern for safety in Costa Rica and from kayaking in the choppy ocean to a far out island, learning to surf, hiking rocky paths down to a waterfall, and standing feet away from venomous animals, we have never seen a single contract or signed anything. It makes you realize how caught up the US is with liability.
William sat next to us and told us about his experience learning to speak English. He was having a conversation with a pretty girl one day who happily engaged him for hours as he practiced his speaking skills. He said he was so grateful for her help that he wanted to say something nice about her pretty smile and dimples. He said to her “thank you for your help, you are a nice girl with a pretty smiles and 2 very nice nipples”….haha apparently not quite when he meant but a compliment nonetheless we suppose.
We arrived at Baldi Hot Spring Resort, the strangest resort/spa/water park/jungle experience we have ever and the most touristy place we have been in Costa Rica. We were met with a HUGE buffet dinner with plenty of carbs, Jen’s dream meal: the deadly beige plate. Then we were set free for 2 ½ hours to run from hot spring to hot spring naturally heated and ranging in temperature from 40 – 135 degrees F. We braved the 116 degree pool but that was about as toasty as we cared to be. We had so much fun running around Baldi like 9-year-olds on a summer day. We realized we were totally carefree and living in the moment – a feeling that we have started to take for granted but is pretty rare in the life of most people. We have every intention of holding onto this wonderful childlike embracing of the present.
We got back to our Hostel after this whirlwind day at around 11pm and found groups of young people hanging out and enjoying the music that was playing by the pool. We were way too exhausted to be social and meet people but this did make us excited for all of the hostel experiences we will have in Europe. We are really looking forward to making connections with people from all over the world who also have the travel bug.
Suspension bridge in La Fortuna rainforest
Arenal volcano
Baldi hotsprings
Our room for the night!
Breakfast at Carola's - not quite as glam as breakfast at Tiffany's
(Peep her awesome old school LandRover)
Monday, February 21st: Part 2 – ...It Does
...Continued
Once it was totally dark, we headed back to Samara from Carillo. Gerald dropped us off at Casa Esmerelda, so that he could go home and shower (he had come straight from work) while we had dinner. We immediately placed a bet against Max that our bff was not coming back due to his great disappearing act prior to today. After we ordered the fish with avocado sauce that the TEFL grads always raved about, Emma and her friend Betty showed up and sat down to eat with us! Yay!
We have to take a break to tell you about Betty. We think we told you how Emma had spent 3 weeks volunteering on an organic farm somewhere in Costa Rica before coming to Samara for TEFL. Her great new friend Betty had worked at the farm with her so they had only met a month prior. Betty is 66 years old (that is not a typo). Emma had told us all Betty her weeks ago with a huge smile on her face building her up to be quite the character and amazing woman. Well, as usual, Emma was right. Betty was incredible. Her husband had passed away unexpectedly a year ago and she decided she needed to heal and rediscover herself, her independence, and her inner-little girl, so she was traveling around doing just that. She was soft spoken but full of insight and had such a light to her. We listened to her story and shared ours. In that moment, I think we realized how much our interactions with the people that we had met were impacting us. Betty had no ego, or condescending tone; she was just as ready to learn and share with us and we were with her. This town is pretty young and we honestly had not had much interaction with anyone a bit older. It put things into perspective for us. Life is a journey, and you have to seek it out as you want when you want. Your age doesn’t really matter, which Betty re-assured us by telling us that she truly believed her best days are yet to come. Society makes our life seem like a linear timeline but Betty made it seem like a circular journey of learning and experience with no end date in sight. What a lesson to walk away from.
Ok ok, sorry for the reflective hippie moment….keep in mind who the authors of this thing are.
Back to our thrilling adventure of our last night in Samara. Oh and P.S. in case you hadn’t noticed, we never got around to packing earlier and we were scheduled to catch a bus out of Samra at 9am the following morning. We made a quick priority list which went something like this…
Priority 1: Fun
Priority 2: Friends
Priority 3: Adventures
Priority 4: Goodbyes
Priority 5: Packing and Organizing
Perfect! Now down to business to accomplish the first 4 priorities – everyone knows it doesn’t make sense to worry about the lowest priority on your list.
Max accompanied us to Aribba to meet the TEFL’s and whoever else we could drag out on a Monday for our last big hoorah. We left Emma and Betty to finish off their bottle of red, quite the feat for Emma the lightweight whose wine buzz was increasing by the sip. We walked out of Casa Esmerelda and straight into Gerald, looking clean and showered but a little tired, most likely because of the extremely long walk he took from home into town so he could get his buzz on and not have to drive, safety first. We were actually kind of surprised by this choice since Tico’s are usually such reckless drivers. Max won his bet and we went on our way.
When the four of us arrived at Arriba we saw Jessica, Amanda, Kristen, and Aryan – all a little tired and tanned from their fishing adventure that morning, well except for Aryan who didn’t go for whatever reason. We were so happy that they had managed to put some party pants on to help celebrate our last night! Glen, the young Nebraskan hippie musician and owner of Aribba was adamant that we were going to have a great last night and he pulled out a stack of cups and made sure everyone had beers before starting a huge flip cup game at the super long wooden table that seemed like it had been made just for that…and knowing Glen it probably was. If you are sitting there scratching your head and wondering what flip cup is then you are seriously missing out and maybe kind of a dudder...not necessarily though, you could have just been grounded a lot in your senior year of high school and missed the flip cup glory days…or perhaps a germaphobe that has no desire to drink out of a most likely reused plastic cup. Anyway, if this is you learn how to play immediately (click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_cup) and start practicing every morning with a splash of OJ in a plastic cup. You will be a flip cup champion, or a “one-flip wonder” like yours truly (it’s not bragging if it’s true) in no time at all!
Raffa, the flirtatious and slightly creepy Tico bartender at Arriba let Jenny borrow his iphone to attempt to skype that boyfriend of hers (which failed because it is Costa Rica after all) and she noticed his last google search was “flip cup” so we were happy that our game could enlighten him. Betty and Emma showed up and both joined our flip cup game, along with a group of people we didn’t know. The tunes were great, the company was awesome, and the competition was pretty rowdy. We had a great time as team “sweaty messes” took on the team that was too lame to make up a name. After our night of flip cup and hanging out with everyone we decided to walk home with Max and Emma and finally get around to the last priority in our list. We said our goodbyes and all talked a lot about friending each other on facebook. So funny that we live in a world where you never have to lose touch with anyone completely. We walked home and said bye to Max, who told us we were more than welcome to come for free rafting where he works in Kentucky any time.
It was 2:30am when we got home and we may have flipped one cup too many. We had been up and moving since 7am and packing sounded pretty terrible. Thanks to Kelly’s ihome we managed some motivational theme music and we got it done before collapsing into bed for a few hours. What a phenomenal last day and night in Playa Samara. We really do lead charmed lives and we certainly are living them to the fullest.
With Emma and the Arriba owner, Glen
Flip cup champs: team sweaty messes
Betty leading the ranks in flip cup
With our new inspiration and friend, Betty
Once it was totally dark, we headed back to Samara from Carillo. Gerald dropped us off at Casa Esmerelda, so that he could go home and shower (he had come straight from work) while we had dinner. We immediately placed a bet against Max that our bff was not coming back due to his great disappearing act prior to today. After we ordered the fish with avocado sauce that the TEFL grads always raved about, Emma and her friend Betty showed up and sat down to eat with us! Yay!
We have to take a break to tell you about Betty. We think we told you how Emma had spent 3 weeks volunteering on an organic farm somewhere in Costa Rica before coming to Samara for TEFL. Her great new friend Betty had worked at the farm with her so they had only met a month prior. Betty is 66 years old (that is not a typo). Emma had told us all Betty her weeks ago with a huge smile on her face building her up to be quite the character and amazing woman. Well, as usual, Emma was right. Betty was incredible. Her husband had passed away unexpectedly a year ago and she decided she needed to heal and rediscover herself, her independence, and her inner-little girl, so she was traveling around doing just that. She was soft spoken but full of insight and had such a light to her. We listened to her story and shared ours. In that moment, I think we realized how much our interactions with the people that we had met were impacting us. Betty had no ego, or condescending tone; she was just as ready to learn and share with us and we were with her. This town is pretty young and we honestly had not had much interaction with anyone a bit older. It put things into perspective for us. Life is a journey, and you have to seek it out as you want when you want. Your age doesn’t really matter, which Betty re-assured us by telling us that she truly believed her best days are yet to come. Society makes our life seem like a linear timeline but Betty made it seem like a circular journey of learning and experience with no end date in sight. What a lesson to walk away from.
Ok ok, sorry for the reflective hippie moment….keep in mind who the authors of this thing are.
Back to our thrilling adventure of our last night in Samara. Oh and P.S. in case you hadn’t noticed, we never got around to packing earlier and we were scheduled to catch a bus out of Samra at 9am the following morning. We made a quick priority list which went something like this…
Priority 1: Fun
Priority 2: Friends
Priority 3: Adventures
Priority 4: Goodbyes
Priority 5: Packing and Organizing
Perfect! Now down to business to accomplish the first 4 priorities – everyone knows it doesn’t make sense to worry about the lowest priority on your list.
Max accompanied us to Aribba to meet the TEFL’s and whoever else we could drag out on a Monday for our last big hoorah. We left Emma and Betty to finish off their bottle of red, quite the feat for Emma the lightweight whose wine buzz was increasing by the sip. We walked out of Casa Esmerelda and straight into Gerald, looking clean and showered but a little tired, most likely because of the extremely long walk he took from home into town so he could get his buzz on and not have to drive, safety first. We were actually kind of surprised by this choice since Tico’s are usually such reckless drivers. Max won his bet and we went on our way.
When the four of us arrived at Arriba we saw Jessica, Amanda, Kristen, and Aryan – all a little tired and tanned from their fishing adventure that morning, well except for Aryan who didn’t go for whatever reason. We were so happy that they had managed to put some party pants on to help celebrate our last night! Glen, the young Nebraskan hippie musician and owner of Aribba was adamant that we were going to have a great last night and he pulled out a stack of cups and made sure everyone had beers before starting a huge flip cup game at the super long wooden table that seemed like it had been made just for that…and knowing Glen it probably was. If you are sitting there scratching your head and wondering what flip cup is then you are seriously missing out and maybe kind of a dudder...not necessarily though, you could have just been grounded a lot in your senior year of high school and missed the flip cup glory days…or perhaps a germaphobe that has no desire to drink out of a most likely reused plastic cup. Anyway, if this is you learn how to play immediately (click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_cup) and start practicing every morning with a splash of OJ in a plastic cup. You will be a flip cup champion, or a “one-flip wonder” like yours truly (it’s not bragging if it’s true) in no time at all!
Raffa, the flirtatious and slightly creepy Tico bartender at Arriba let Jenny borrow his iphone to attempt to skype that boyfriend of hers (which failed because it is Costa Rica after all) and she noticed his last google search was “flip cup” so we were happy that our game could enlighten him. Betty and Emma showed up and both joined our flip cup game, along with a group of people we didn’t know. The tunes were great, the company was awesome, and the competition was pretty rowdy. We had a great time as team “sweaty messes” took on the team that was too lame to make up a name. After our night of flip cup and hanging out with everyone we decided to walk home with Max and Emma and finally get around to the last priority in our list. We said our goodbyes and all talked a lot about friending each other on facebook. So funny that we live in a world where you never have to lose touch with anyone completely. We walked home and said bye to Max, who told us we were more than welcome to come for free rafting where he works in Kentucky any time.
It was 2:30am when we got home and we may have flipped one cup too many. We had been up and moving since 7am and packing sounded pretty terrible. Thanks to Kelly’s ihome we managed some motivational theme music and we got it done before collapsing into bed for a few hours. What a phenomenal last day and night in Playa Samara. We really do lead charmed lives and we certainly are living them to the fullest.
With Emma and the Arriba owner, Glen
Flip cup champs: team sweaty messes
Betty leading the ranks in flip cup
With our new inspiration and friend, Betty
Monday, February 21st: Part 1 – Just when you think it can’t get any better…
Our last day in Samara arrived so quickly that we really weren’t prepared for
it! We came to the conclusion that we should spend some time on the beach, shocking, we know. Arriving at the beach at 9am was a nice contrast from the days we have been arriving in the busier afternoon hours. The tide was extreeemely low and there were very few people out. We did some reading, which may come as a surprise to those of you who didn’t take us for bookworms, and had a lot of quiet time while soaking up some vitamin D…or should we say overdosing on it? Sunburned pics to come. One of our buddies from Tico’s Surf School, Pablo, walked over and sat with us for a while. Well actually he walked by silently while we were lying there with our eyes closed and stealthily swiped up the beach bag that was in between us. Don’t worry, Pablo is not a sociopathic clepto or anything, he was just demonstrating that we were getting a little too comfortable in our environment and reminded us that petty theft is something we will have to be cautious of everywhere we go – what a wise old owl. We chatted about lots of things, like how people in the town think Pablo is an asshole because he can’t keep his opinions to himself, his adorable son with the messy long hair, and how he was mad at us for leaving so soon. Pablo is kind of hilarious and talks really fast with zero filter about what he is saying. He is our kind of guy so it was good to spend some time with him before we left. He offered to take us to a waterfall about 30 minutes away in the afternoon but we knew we probably needed to pack instead.
Then the most epic thing ever happened. Max sauntered up and declared himself to
be our favorite Kentucky boy ever, we weren’t exactly convinced yet (don’t worry
BD, you’re not that easily replaceable). Remember Gerald? Our hilarious and
studly Tico guide from our Wing Nuts zipline tour? Refresh your memories at
blog entry “aaaahhh!” Gerald was our number one favorite Tico amigo. He had mysteriously, and rudely, vanished after our canopy tour, except for one brief glimpse when he hung half is body out of a moving car that was passing us as he shouted “Henniferr” and threw up a peace sign. Jenny had told Gerald that no one calls her Jennifer except her dad when she has done something disappointing, which is very rare obviously. During out treetop picnic Gerald had promised to take us to Carrillo, the nearby beach. Christian and Sandro, our surf instructors, had beat him to it when they took us to a bonfire there. But the fact remained, Christian was no Gerald.
Max (our friend who is studying Spanish at Intercultura) was staying in Samara with a local family, a stern Tico dad who rarely spoke but made lots of noise each morning, and his wife who stuffed Max with Costa Rican food at every meal and line dried his clothes for him who had 3 older children – the youngest of whom was Gerald! The idea of Gerald had become such a joke to us, that we always made sarcastic comments to Max about giving Gerald a piece of our mind if he saw him. We (of course) thought we were quite hilarious but didn’t think Max was really paying attention to our weirdness.
Anyway, back to the gripping story…Max told his “host brother” that it was our last day in Samara and Gerald was surprised to hear we were leaving sooner than expected. He told Max he would take us to a sunset in Carillo that evening! Our first Samara sunset on our last night with a long lost Tico friend - talk about a cosmic occurrence. It all felt so full-circle, we knew it was epic and meant to be. Of course, plans around here are pretty hit and miss so we didn’t get our hopes up too high (yeah, that’s a lie…we were stoked).
Jenny, Max and Georgia (the Canadian we met yesterday) went surfing for a little while Kelly relaxed in a nearby hammock and chatted in Spanglish with Sandro They cracked each other up as usual and both only spoke in their native language ranting away and not understanding each other until they somehow broke into a little rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “My Sherie Amor”. Music really is the universal language.
Being the chemistry-eyeing matchmakers that we are, we foresee a great romance
between Georgia and Max (who we hope are not reading this) so after surfing we walked home with Max and gave him some helpful and most likely undesired dating tips. We convinced him to be a gentleman and invite Georgia to our sunset adventure. Whether or not he wanted to listen to us, he did… duh. Oh and during this time Christian showed up and was in a mood… we presume that Kelly handing him off as her Tico boyfriend to Georgia yesterday probably didn’t help any matters. But we said our “see ya laters” and headed home around 3 to shower and start packing. About 4:30, Kelly was just starting to think about packing and Jenny was making an egg, both of us in bathing suits (you would be too if your un-air conditioned apartment was 95 degrees!) when Max came barging in our door to get a move on. We raced around trying to figure out what on earth we were doing so we asked Gerald if we needed to keep the bathing suits on, his response was “well there’s a pool and an ocean so you decide”. We threw on some clothes as quickly as possible since the boys were yelling at us to hurry up, and then hopped in Gerald’s little red car. Naturally, we reprimanded him for not being a more available friend. He was un-phased by us and quite the smart ass, so it goes without saying he was back to the #1 spot for our favorite Tico. He told us he had come by and sat outside trying to figure out which apartment was ours and asked the guys at the mechanic where the 2 “loco gringas” (crazy American girls) lived. And he came by again on a 4-wheeler but we weren’t home - which he had to mention since Kelly had been wanting to 4-wheel around town all month. We stopped by Iguna Verde to get beer and pick up Georgia. After jokingly yelling at Max about his new gal pal, he let us know she was an isle over (insert foot in mouth here)…luckily she was way too distracted to notice and came rushing over to show us why. She was beet red and dragged us into the produce isle (one of only about 4 isles in the store) where she had accidently dropped a watermelon which had totally exploded and was now making a nice pink fruit paste all over the floor and nearby walls of Iguana… it was hilarious, and looking back we realized we just laughed and walked off. So, hopefully she got that one figured out – if you are reading this then sorry for being less helpful Georgia! She said she was tired and going to go home and was not easily convinced so we parted ways and headed to Carillo. We were still pro-Georgia for Max, but Gerald didn’t like her “vibe” and Max was not impressed with her ditching so as of now we are guessing that love story is over before it begun.
Driving into Carillo during the day was so gorgeous- it is a much less populated
area and really beautiful. We were driving over a bridge and saw a few people leaning over taking pictures. Gerald yelled at us “Get out! Quick! And get your cameras!” So we jumped out while he parked the car a few feet away. In an estuary off of the ocean we watched people trying to feed a huge (no seriously huge, 8ish feet) crocodile! Luckily we were above him on a bridge because next to birds, Kelly does not do crocs. (R.I.P. Steve Irwin who did help cure this fear enormously during Kelly’s childhood). We had walked through an estuary in Samara a few days prior and Kelly said it seemed like a creepy spot where crocodiles hang out and Jenny had called her an idiot. Obviously Kelly’s croc knowledge was far better than Jenny’s (sorry about the idiot comment Kelster. Anyway, after seeing this huge crocodile lunge most of its body out of the water to snap its giant fangs at the dead chicken on a string that a brave tourist was dangling, we were pretty relieved we didn’t have any prior croc run-ins.
We jumped back in the car for another 5 minutes or so until we pulled up to this beautiful resort… there was an enormous deck with a bar overlooking the ocean and nearby mountains. We were thrilled. The four of us sat at a table and Gerald’s American friend, also named Kelly, joined us. This Kelly lives in Samara with his family for about 3 months of the year, and while he is away Gerald lives in his elaborate home for him. Not a bad deal. He was a good guy with some interesting stories about living in Italy, being a retired professional bike rider, and living in a place where many of his friends have died in avalanches, kayaking accidents, or other thrill-seeking accidents. The death stories made for a morbid turn in conversation for a little as Max chimed in about finding a dead body as a raft guide on summer…ew! Anyway, Kelly left as the sun set and we all enjoyed another Imperial as the sun faded completely out of sight. There is really nothing like watching a bright orange sun disappear directly into the ocean water as it reflects all of the vibrant colors in the sky. A picture can really never capture how amazing it is to witness the natural beauty of a great sunset. We wish we could properly explain how happy, relaxed, and at peace we were in this moment, but it will just have to be left as one of those times you can’t put into writing. Good company, amazing view, great memories of our time in Samara, and the spirit of adventure driving us forward… it all felt right and it was the perfect way to end our last day in Samara.
To be continued...
Sunset at Carillo
(from left: Kelly, Kelly, Gerald, Jenny, Max)
The resort that Gerald took us to for our sunset
Amazing view
Gringa love
Enormous croc!
it! We came to the conclusion that we should spend some time on the beach, shocking, we know. Arriving at the beach at 9am was a nice contrast from the days we have been arriving in the busier afternoon hours. The tide was extreeemely low and there were very few people out. We did some reading, which may come as a surprise to those of you who didn’t take us for bookworms, and had a lot of quiet time while soaking up some vitamin D…or should we say overdosing on it? Sunburned pics to come. One of our buddies from Tico’s Surf School, Pablo, walked over and sat with us for a while. Well actually he walked by silently while we were lying there with our eyes closed and stealthily swiped up the beach bag that was in between us. Don’t worry, Pablo is not a sociopathic clepto or anything, he was just demonstrating that we were getting a little too comfortable in our environment and reminded us that petty theft is something we will have to be cautious of everywhere we go – what a wise old owl. We chatted about lots of things, like how people in the town think Pablo is an asshole because he can’t keep his opinions to himself, his adorable son with the messy long hair, and how he was mad at us for leaving so soon. Pablo is kind of hilarious and talks really fast with zero filter about what he is saying. He is our kind of guy so it was good to spend some time with him before we left. He offered to take us to a waterfall about 30 minutes away in the afternoon but we knew we probably needed to pack instead.
Then the most epic thing ever happened. Max sauntered up and declared himself to
be our favorite Kentucky boy ever, we weren’t exactly convinced yet (don’t worry
BD, you’re not that easily replaceable). Remember Gerald? Our hilarious and
studly Tico guide from our Wing Nuts zipline tour? Refresh your memories at
blog entry “aaaahhh!” Gerald was our number one favorite Tico amigo. He had mysteriously, and rudely, vanished after our canopy tour, except for one brief glimpse when he hung half is body out of a moving car that was passing us as he shouted “Henniferr” and threw up a peace sign. Jenny had told Gerald that no one calls her Jennifer except her dad when she has done something disappointing, which is very rare obviously. During out treetop picnic Gerald had promised to take us to Carrillo, the nearby beach. Christian and Sandro, our surf instructors, had beat him to it when they took us to a bonfire there. But the fact remained, Christian was no Gerald.
Max (our friend who is studying Spanish at Intercultura) was staying in Samara with a local family, a stern Tico dad who rarely spoke but made lots of noise each morning, and his wife who stuffed Max with Costa Rican food at every meal and line dried his clothes for him who had 3 older children – the youngest of whom was Gerald! The idea of Gerald had become such a joke to us, that we always made sarcastic comments to Max about giving Gerald a piece of our mind if he saw him. We (of course) thought we were quite hilarious but didn’t think Max was really paying attention to our weirdness.
Anyway, back to the gripping story…Max told his “host brother” that it was our last day in Samara and Gerald was surprised to hear we were leaving sooner than expected. He told Max he would take us to a sunset in Carillo that evening! Our first Samara sunset on our last night with a long lost Tico friend - talk about a cosmic occurrence. It all felt so full-circle, we knew it was epic and meant to be. Of course, plans around here are pretty hit and miss so we didn’t get our hopes up too high (yeah, that’s a lie…we were stoked).
Jenny, Max and Georgia (the Canadian we met yesterday) went surfing for a little while Kelly relaxed in a nearby hammock and chatted in Spanglish with Sandro They cracked each other up as usual and both only spoke in their native language ranting away and not understanding each other until they somehow broke into a little rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “My Sherie Amor”. Music really is the universal language.
Being the chemistry-eyeing matchmakers that we are, we foresee a great romance
between Georgia and Max (who we hope are not reading this) so after surfing we walked home with Max and gave him some helpful and most likely undesired dating tips. We convinced him to be a gentleman and invite Georgia to our sunset adventure. Whether or not he wanted to listen to us, he did… duh. Oh and during this time Christian showed up and was in a mood… we presume that Kelly handing him off as her Tico boyfriend to Georgia yesterday probably didn’t help any matters. But we said our “see ya laters” and headed home around 3 to shower and start packing. About 4:30, Kelly was just starting to think about packing and Jenny was making an egg, both of us in bathing suits (you would be too if your un-air conditioned apartment was 95 degrees!) when Max came barging in our door to get a move on. We raced around trying to figure out what on earth we were doing so we asked Gerald if we needed to keep the bathing suits on, his response was “well there’s a pool and an ocean so you decide”. We threw on some clothes as quickly as possible since the boys were yelling at us to hurry up, and then hopped in Gerald’s little red car. Naturally, we reprimanded him for not being a more available friend. He was un-phased by us and quite the smart ass, so it goes without saying he was back to the #1 spot for our favorite Tico. He told us he had come by and sat outside trying to figure out which apartment was ours and asked the guys at the mechanic where the 2 “loco gringas” (crazy American girls) lived. And he came by again on a 4-wheeler but we weren’t home - which he had to mention since Kelly had been wanting to 4-wheel around town all month. We stopped by Iguna Verde to get beer and pick up Georgia. After jokingly yelling at Max about his new gal pal, he let us know she was an isle over (insert foot in mouth here)…luckily she was way too distracted to notice and came rushing over to show us why. She was beet red and dragged us into the produce isle (one of only about 4 isles in the store) where she had accidently dropped a watermelon which had totally exploded and was now making a nice pink fruit paste all over the floor and nearby walls of Iguana… it was hilarious, and looking back we realized we just laughed and walked off. So, hopefully she got that one figured out – if you are reading this then sorry for being less helpful Georgia! She said she was tired and going to go home and was not easily convinced so we parted ways and headed to Carillo. We were still pro-Georgia for Max, but Gerald didn’t like her “vibe” and Max was not impressed with her ditching so as of now we are guessing that love story is over before it begun.
Driving into Carillo during the day was so gorgeous- it is a much less populated
area and really beautiful. We were driving over a bridge and saw a few people leaning over taking pictures. Gerald yelled at us “Get out! Quick! And get your cameras!” So we jumped out while he parked the car a few feet away. In an estuary off of the ocean we watched people trying to feed a huge (no seriously huge, 8ish feet) crocodile! Luckily we were above him on a bridge because next to birds, Kelly does not do crocs. (R.I.P. Steve Irwin who did help cure this fear enormously during Kelly’s childhood). We had walked through an estuary in Samara a few days prior and Kelly said it seemed like a creepy spot where crocodiles hang out and Jenny had called her an idiot. Obviously Kelly’s croc knowledge was far better than Jenny’s (sorry about the idiot comment Kelster. Anyway, after seeing this huge crocodile lunge most of its body out of the water to snap its giant fangs at the dead chicken on a string that a brave tourist was dangling, we were pretty relieved we didn’t have any prior croc run-ins.
We jumped back in the car for another 5 minutes or so until we pulled up to this beautiful resort… there was an enormous deck with a bar overlooking the ocean and nearby mountains. We were thrilled. The four of us sat at a table and Gerald’s American friend, also named Kelly, joined us. This Kelly lives in Samara with his family for about 3 months of the year, and while he is away Gerald lives in his elaborate home for him. Not a bad deal. He was a good guy with some interesting stories about living in Italy, being a retired professional bike rider, and living in a place where many of his friends have died in avalanches, kayaking accidents, or other thrill-seeking accidents. The death stories made for a morbid turn in conversation for a little as Max chimed in about finding a dead body as a raft guide on summer…ew! Anyway, Kelly left as the sun set and we all enjoyed another Imperial as the sun faded completely out of sight. There is really nothing like watching a bright orange sun disappear directly into the ocean water as it reflects all of the vibrant colors in the sky. A picture can really never capture how amazing it is to witness the natural beauty of a great sunset. We wish we could properly explain how happy, relaxed, and at peace we were in this moment, but it will just have to be left as one of those times you can’t put into writing. Good company, amazing view, great memories of our time in Samara, and the spirit of adventure driving us forward… it all felt right and it was the perfect way to end our last day in Samara.
To be continued...
Sunset at Carillo
(from left: Kelly, Kelly, Gerald, Jenny, Max)
The resort that Gerald took us to for our sunset
Amazing view
Gringa love
Enormous croc!
Sunday, February 20th – Monkey business
After yesterday’s slight beach fail with the overwhelming surf competition, we decided to have a totally quiet, isolated, relaxing beach experience. It was pretty overcast, which we actually really dig because it means we aren’t constantly gulping down the sweat pouring down our faces, gross but all too familiar to us. We both zoned out and did some reading. Later we walked down the beach toward Tico’s Surf School, our new favorite spot. We stopped and chatted with Jessica, Kristen, Aryan and Max at the beach and informed them that tomorrow would be our last full day in Samara. We were suddenly shocked by how soon tomorrow seemed – funny how those things sneak up on you.
Jenny embraced her wannabee surfer girl and attempted to hit the waves for a little but the tide was super high and she washed up looking pretty bedraggled after about 10 minutes. Shortly after, super athletic Amanda was dragged ashore by a wave agreeing this was not our kind of surf day (and by our kind we mean people who suck). We stayed on solid ground and hung out with Christian and Sandro (the Ticos that took us to a bonfire at Carillo the week before…well Sandro is actually Nicaraguan). If any of you surf and don’t know what to do with your life we highly recommend heading to Samara and opening a surf school, it seems to be a pretty legit life choice. Christian who was set on being Kelly’s Tico boyfriend, attempted to woo her by asking “what can I do to conquer your heart” - which is only charming when a Tico says it, don’t try this at home American boys.
Jenny met 2 other struggling surfers, Georgia and Tonya, 2 girls traveling from Canada. They were doing a homestay with a local family and teaching English at a school nearby as volunteers with no TEFL certificate. We were kind of bummed we hadn’t met them earlier because the school was looking for additional volunteers and that was right up our alley. We also met a loudmouthed blonde woman from Ontario, well rather she was eavesdropping and gave her 2 cents on our conversation. She has a friend who teaches in Thailand with no TEFL certificate and in her opinion TEFL was simply a way of “separating you with your money.” We have heard so much back and forth about TEFL that we really don’t know what to make of it. In a nutshell we think that you can teach without a TEFL certificate, but that you may make more money teaching with one.
Max sold us on the idea of going on an expedition to find the sunset and said he would lead the way on a hike to a neighboring beach with an awesome view. The beach we live next to is in a cove so there is no view of the sunrise or sunset. We set off with Max, up the dirt road past La Verde Iguana (our grocery store). Eagle-Scout-Max turned out to be not quite so eagle scouty (no offense Charles Maxwell) and we got lost pretty much immediately. Even though we could tell it was getting dark and we were missing any kind of sunset view because of the mountains in front of us, we did get to see some awesome rainforest and....half a dozen HOWLER MONKEYS!! You hear these guys before you see them and they get their name for their serious set of lungs, they are loud!! Not really a noise we can explain but you should google it. We were so excited to see all these monkeys that we totally forgot we were on a failed sunset mission. On our walk back, after admitting total defeat since the sun was totally down, Christian drove by heading home from work and said he would take us to a nearby beach to see the sunset tomorrow so it turned out to be a win-win.
We seriously can’t believe tomorrow is our last full day in Samara. We are really sad to leave this place as it is such a wonderful community with great values and such kindhearted people. We are so happy to have started our travel experience with this. It put our hearts and heads in the right place for the rest of our trip.
Howler monkeys hanging out in the trees
Rainforest in Samara
Jenny embraced her wannabee surfer girl and attempted to hit the waves for a little but the tide was super high and she washed up looking pretty bedraggled after about 10 minutes. Shortly after, super athletic Amanda was dragged ashore by a wave agreeing this was not our kind of surf day (and by our kind we mean people who suck). We stayed on solid ground and hung out with Christian and Sandro (the Ticos that took us to a bonfire at Carillo the week before…well Sandro is actually Nicaraguan). If any of you surf and don’t know what to do with your life we highly recommend heading to Samara and opening a surf school, it seems to be a pretty legit life choice. Christian who was set on being Kelly’s Tico boyfriend, attempted to woo her by asking “what can I do to conquer your heart” - which is only charming when a Tico says it, don’t try this at home American boys.
Jenny met 2 other struggling surfers, Georgia and Tonya, 2 girls traveling from Canada. They were doing a homestay with a local family and teaching English at a school nearby as volunteers with no TEFL certificate. We were kind of bummed we hadn’t met them earlier because the school was looking for additional volunteers and that was right up our alley. We also met a loudmouthed blonde woman from Ontario, well rather she was eavesdropping and gave her 2 cents on our conversation. She has a friend who teaches in Thailand with no TEFL certificate and in her opinion TEFL was simply a way of “separating you with your money.” We have heard so much back and forth about TEFL that we really don’t know what to make of it. In a nutshell we think that you can teach without a TEFL certificate, but that you may make more money teaching with one.
Max sold us on the idea of going on an expedition to find the sunset and said he would lead the way on a hike to a neighboring beach with an awesome view. The beach we live next to is in a cove so there is no view of the sunrise or sunset. We set off with Max, up the dirt road past La Verde Iguana (our grocery store). Eagle-Scout-Max turned out to be not quite so eagle scouty (no offense Charles Maxwell) and we got lost pretty much immediately. Even though we could tell it was getting dark and we were missing any kind of sunset view because of the mountains in front of us, we did get to see some awesome rainforest and....half a dozen HOWLER MONKEYS!! You hear these guys before you see them and they get their name for their serious set of lungs, they are loud!! Not really a noise we can explain but you should google it. We were so excited to see all these monkeys that we totally forgot we were on a failed sunset mission. On our walk back, after admitting total defeat since the sun was totally down, Christian drove by heading home from work and said he would take us to a nearby beach to see the sunset tomorrow so it turned out to be a win-win.
We seriously can’t believe tomorrow is our last full day in Samara. We are really sad to leave this place as it is such a wonderful community with great values and such kindhearted people. We are so happy to have started our travel experience with this. It put our hearts and heads in the right place for the rest of our trip.
Howler monkeys hanging out in the trees
Rainforest in Samara
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