From Monteverde, we caught the early morning bus to the city of Alejuela, just outside of San Josè. We had been expecting the bus ride to last over 5 hours, but we made it in less than four, which is always a treat. We walked around for the afternoon, and found it to be pleasant and comfortable, if not particularly exciting. There was more William Walker story to fuel my obsession however. The town has a museum and a nice statue of Juan Santamarìa, the young man who is credited with the defeat of William Walker and his filibusters in Costa Rica by setting fire to the building where they were hiding, forcing them out into the open where they were killed or captured (or fled). The statue depicts the young man with a long rifle in one arm and a flaming torch in the other. Though he was killed in his efforts, he is still remembered and venerated today. (In fact, the international airport is also named after him.)
And suddenly, our time in Costa Rica, and Central America, had come to an end. The plan had originally been to go to Panama, but somehow we ended up on a flight to Lima, Peru.
Showing posts with label Costa Rica. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Costa Rica. Show all posts
Friday, June 4, 2010
More Costa Rica fun
[Dangit. This post was supposed to have pics, but we´ve gotten another virus on our memory card. How does anyone survive using a stupid PC?]
After our success at Monteverde, we were content to try something similar the next day. Although rather than paying for an expensive park, we found a free trail to hike up to the top of a mountain where the radio antennas live. We talked to an American couple in our hostel - indeed, it seems like everyone travels to Costa Rica in couples, whether romantic or not, everyone was in pairs - who had taken the hike the day before. They warned us it was very steep and pretty muddy, but we still decided it sounded like a good idea.
It took us maybe a half hour to walk to the start of the trailhead, and right away we started finding good bugs. The terrain was a bit different than the cloud forest, more open and drier, so although there was plenty of overlap, we also found things we hadn´t seen before. And since we were still turning over leaves and peering into holes with our flashlight, our pace was slow enough that the trail, which was in fact quite steep, was hardly a consideration.
In addition to the beetles and caterpillars and such, David´s eagle eyes picked out one of the coolest bugs I have ever seen. It was a variety of stickbug, which is cool enough. You may remember the giant one of those we found back in Guatemala. But all the stick bugs I´ve ever seen look like their name, little brown and grey twigs. This little guy was green! He looked like strands of moss bunched together. He did his best to quiver and shake, imitating a piece of moss just blowing in the wind. I know we are total nerds, but we were thrilled, what can I say? A very exciting day of entomology.
Not long after that, we spotted a couple of white-faced Capuchin monkeys swinging in the trees. They were pretty far off, but coming across wild monkeys never gets old.
As we neared the top, we heard a loud, deep rumbling sound. It is a sound we have learned to recognize, that of an erupting volcano! When we reached the top of the mountain, not too far off we could see the bottom half of what was clearly Volcan Arenal. Unfortunately the top half was covered in clouds, obscuring what must have been a nice big puff of smoke and ash. Central America has not been stingy with its volcanic activity, this was the fourth volcano we´ve seen (or in this case, heard) give a nice little eruption.
That night, nursing mild sunburns (and we were wearing sunblock!) we decided to skip cooking our own dinner in the hostel again, and instead splurged on a restaurant built up in a tree. Actually, instead of paying the high prices of the actual treehouse, we went right next door, where the owner had wisely build his building right next to the big tree so that the branches still overswept the balcony where we sat. There was only a small wrought iron fence sitting between us and another couple that were sitting in the actual treehouse, our food was great and we paid about half of what it would have been. Now that is what I call backpacking with style!
The next day we went to another reserve for yet another hike. This one was much denser forest, so we spotted only a few bugs here and there. But don´t feel too sorry for us. We walked out onto an overlook over a supremely green valley, and I jokingly said "And cue, toucans!" Before I could even laugh at my own silly joke, David looks down and says "Toucan!". Actually it wasn´t one toucan, it was a whole flock of at least seven or eight. This was the Keel-Billed Toucan, a large black bird with a bright yellow face, chest and beak. These were much closer than the ones we had seen in Guatemala, so seemed much bigger to me. A little while later we stumbled onto a troop of coatimundis. While we had seen others in Tikal, this group had three tiny little babies running around in their midst, which were adorable beyond words. It did make us nervous though, because to continue on the trail we had to push through the group. The babies were totally unconcerned with our presence, and kept running up to us to check us out. But each time they did, we noticed the adults giving us the evil eye, and we really didn´t want an angry mother giving us rabies or something. We moved slowly and loudly, and remained unmolested.
Later we came across a large group of those Capuchin monkeys. It was impossible to count them the group was so large, and they were dancing in the trees all around us. A few of them got rather close to check us out, before skittering away, flinging themselves out into the air off the edges of branches only to catch themselves on another tree. The acrobatics were impressive. Eventually though they decided we had worn out our welcome. At first we noticed a few sticks and branches "falling" in our general vicinity. Finally one of the older monkeys swung down, baring his teeth at us silently and creepily. We took the hint and continued down the trail.
We also hiked down the valley to see three waterfalls, and saw a handful of other birds, including the beautiful turquoise browed motmot. On the way home we stopped at a café run by the local cheese factory, and had some of their fresh ice cream. Delicious.
After our success at Monteverde, we were content to try something similar the next day. Although rather than paying for an expensive park, we found a free trail to hike up to the top of a mountain where the radio antennas live. We talked to an American couple in our hostel - indeed, it seems like everyone travels to Costa Rica in couples, whether romantic or not, everyone was in pairs - who had taken the hike the day before. They warned us it was very steep and pretty muddy, but we still decided it sounded like a good idea.
It took us maybe a half hour to walk to the start of the trailhead, and right away we started finding good bugs. The terrain was a bit different than the cloud forest, more open and drier, so although there was plenty of overlap, we also found things we hadn´t seen before. And since we were still turning over leaves and peering into holes with our flashlight, our pace was slow enough that the trail, which was in fact quite steep, was hardly a consideration.
In addition to the beetles and caterpillars and such, David´s eagle eyes picked out one of the coolest bugs I have ever seen. It was a variety of stickbug, which is cool enough. You may remember the giant one of those we found back in Guatemala. But all the stick bugs I´ve ever seen look like their name, little brown and grey twigs. This little guy was green! He looked like strands of moss bunched together. He did his best to quiver and shake, imitating a piece of moss just blowing in the wind. I know we are total nerds, but we were thrilled, what can I say? A very exciting day of entomology.
Not long after that, we spotted a couple of white-faced Capuchin monkeys swinging in the trees. They were pretty far off, but coming across wild monkeys never gets old.
As we neared the top, we heard a loud, deep rumbling sound. It is a sound we have learned to recognize, that of an erupting volcano! When we reached the top of the mountain, not too far off we could see the bottom half of what was clearly Volcan Arenal. Unfortunately the top half was covered in clouds, obscuring what must have been a nice big puff of smoke and ash. Central America has not been stingy with its volcanic activity, this was the fourth volcano we´ve seen (or in this case, heard) give a nice little eruption.
That night, nursing mild sunburns (and we were wearing sunblock!) we decided to skip cooking our own dinner in the hostel again, and instead splurged on a restaurant built up in a tree. Actually, instead of paying the high prices of the actual treehouse, we went right next door, where the owner had wisely build his building right next to the big tree so that the branches still overswept the balcony where we sat. There was only a small wrought iron fence sitting between us and another couple that were sitting in the actual treehouse, our food was great and we paid about half of what it would have been. Now that is what I call backpacking with style!
The next day we went to another reserve for yet another hike. This one was much denser forest, so we spotted only a few bugs here and there. But don´t feel too sorry for us. We walked out onto an overlook over a supremely green valley, and I jokingly said "And cue, toucans!" Before I could even laugh at my own silly joke, David looks down and says "Toucan!". Actually it wasn´t one toucan, it was a whole flock of at least seven or eight. This was the Keel-Billed Toucan, a large black bird with a bright yellow face, chest and beak. These were much closer than the ones we had seen in Guatemala, so seemed much bigger to me. A little while later we stumbled onto a troop of coatimundis. While we had seen others in Tikal, this group had three tiny little babies running around in their midst, which were adorable beyond words. It did make us nervous though, because to continue on the trail we had to push through the group. The babies were totally unconcerned with our presence, and kept running up to us to check us out. But each time they did, we noticed the adults giving us the evil eye, and we really didn´t want an angry mother giving us rabies or something. We moved slowly and loudly, and remained unmolested.
Later we came across a large group of those Capuchin monkeys. It was impossible to count them the group was so large, and they were dancing in the trees all around us. A few of them got rather close to check us out, before skittering away, flinging themselves out into the air off the edges of branches only to catch themselves on another tree. The acrobatics were impressive. Eventually though they decided we had worn out our welcome. At first we noticed a few sticks and branches "falling" in our general vicinity. Finally one of the older monkeys swung down, baring his teeth at us silently and creepily. We took the hint and continued down the trail.
We also hiked down the valley to see three waterfalls, and saw a handful of other birds, including the beautiful turquoise browed motmot. On the way home we stopped at a café run by the local cheese factory, and had some of their fresh ice cream. Delicious.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Monteverde, Costa Rica
Santa Elena is a quiet little town, a triangle of three streets full of shops and restaurants that cater to the gringo tourists. It reminds me of several other little towns like this we've been to, although this one has the distinct advantage of being surrounded by lush mountains and views over the Nicoya Peninsula down below. As soon as we checked into our hostel, we were given the (wide) array of tour options we had. Several different reserves for hiking and animal-searching, an aviary, an insect zoo, a "serpentarium", a bat zoo, and an assortment of coffee tours and cheese factory tours and, of course, the canopy zip line tours.
We, being us, remained non-committal and decided to skip the tours and just do our own thing. The next morning, we took the public bus to the Monteverde reserve, which is the main reserve in the region. We had heard lots of conflicting opinions about whether it was really the best, or whether the smaller ones were less crowded so offered a better experience overall, but we decided to just go for it. Places get famous for a reason, and we were arriving early enough (7am as they opened) we hoped we could beat the crowds and have a good time.
The road from town to the reserve is only paved about half of the way. Apparently as the reserve began gaining popularity, the locals were concerned that if access was too easy, so many people would come that the park would be overrun and the very thing people wanted to see would be destroyed. So the roads remain unpaved. We were dropped off about 15 minutes before the park opened, so we walked around and right away began finding totally awesome bugs. Metallic silver beetles, huge hairy caterpillars; we were thrilled before we'd even walked in the gate. Once they did open up, we were the first ones in the door.
The park is actually very well set up for visitors. Right in the gate there are about four different trails leading off in different directions. You tell the attendant how long you want to hike, and they draw you a route through the park, which helps break up any congestion. Not that we had to worry about it, there are definite perks to coming in off-season, and we only saw maybe a dozen other people the entire time we were in the park.
The forest was beautiful. A cloud forest is different from a rain forest, in that while it doesn't get near as much rain, the clouds roll through bringing lots of moisture. The canopy overhead was dense, blocking out a good deal of the sunlight. The relative darkness, combined with the fluctuating mist as clouds rolled through, actually make it difficult to spot much wildlife. We could hear birds now and then, but rarely were able to see them unless they were actually flying around. We soon realized that we were highly unlikely to see any sort of mammal (the park does have a few, such as sloths, but they are mostly nocturnal), and were probably not going to really see any birds either. This was a little disappointing, as this was our last chance to see the infamous Resplendant Quetzal. The Quetzal is the national bird of Guatemala, and was highly prized by the ancient Maya for its unusually long and colorful tail feathers, which they used to dress the king. The birds are today endangered, as they only live in narrow bands of altitude in cloud forests, and quickly die in captivity, so you won't see one in a zoo. For months we had been hoping to see one, but this was our first, and last, real opportunity, and it was pretty clear it wasn't going to happen.
With that realization, we turned our attention from the skies down to the dirt, and started hunting bugs. We were quickly rewarded, and the fun kept coming. We saw bugs and beetles of every color, delicate spiders, colonies of ants, huge millipedes, and all sorts of caterpillars. Under every leaf a new little wonder would surprise us with an unusual shape or color combination. This, of course, meant we were walking very slow. Usually when we are told a hike will take us four hours, with our long strides it means we can cover the distance in two. But turning over leaves and logs meant our four hour hike took us seven. We'd planned ahead though and brought some sandwiches from a little bakery, so we were good.
Since I was trying to take pictures of the bugs, which was difficult to the low light, David often wandered up the trail ahead of me. Just as I was finishing up with a particularly nice tortoise beetle, David comes running and yells a single word. "Quetzals! Quetzals!" I caught up and we ran back up the trail, running into another couple who were, fortuitously, with a guide. The guide was ridiculous, pointing into the dark tangle of trees after just a moments glance. "There is a female!" He had a great little telescope on a tripod and had it set up in two seconds, and with much grace they let David and I take a look as well. The females aren't as colorful as the males, but we could see her bright red chest and green face and strange little tuft on her head. More strikingly was the gigantic green and wiggling grub she had hanging from her mouth. "She is waiting to take that back to the nest, but is checking things out to make sure the coast is clear," the guide told us.
There were at least four of them flying around, and although the guide pointed out the males for us, they were too quick to get the telescope focused on. Still, we were pretty thrilled and thanked the couple and the guide profusely for helping us out. It was so satisfying, when something you've been wanting and thinking about for months just suddenly happens. We continued on down the trail a bit, chatting happily, when suddenly David looks up and sees another female. This time it was close enough we could use our binoculars. As we admired her, a male comes along and finds the perfect perch to let us admire him. His tail feathers weren't particularly long, but he was still gorgeous. We watched them for about ten minutes before they finally flew away. We continue down the trail, marvelling at our luck, when another male comes along. He was singing away, and this one did indeed have the long emerald green tail feathers. He gave us quite the show, again from a perfect little perch where we could watch him.
We felt like all our Christmases had come at once. The birds were too far away to photograph unfortunately (google one, they are worth it!), but with the binoculars we had quite the performance. For a shy bird that most people don't get to see at all, for us to see that many that well was really unusual, and we feel extremely fortunate.
But don't kid yourself. We still kept looking for bugs.
We, being us, remained non-committal and decided to skip the tours and just do our own thing. The next morning, we took the public bus to the Monteverde reserve, which is the main reserve in the region. We had heard lots of conflicting opinions about whether it was really the best, or whether the smaller ones were less crowded so offered a better experience overall, but we decided to just go for it. Places get famous for a reason, and we were arriving early enough (7am as they opened) we hoped we could beat the crowds and have a good time.
The park is actually very well set up for visitors. Right in the gate there are about four different trails leading off in different directions. You tell the attendant how long you want to hike, and they draw you a route through the park, which helps break up any congestion. Not that we had to worry about it, there are definite perks to coming in off-season, and we only saw maybe a dozen other people the entire time we were in the park.
The forest was beautiful. A cloud forest is different from a rain forest, in that while it doesn't get near as much rain, the clouds roll through bringing lots of moisture. The canopy overhead was dense, blocking out a good deal of the sunlight. The relative darkness, combined with the fluctuating mist as clouds rolled through, actually make it difficult to spot much wildlife. We could hear birds now and then, but rarely were able to see them unless they were actually flying around. We soon realized that we were highly unlikely to see any sort of mammal (the park does have a few, such as sloths, but they are mostly nocturnal), and were probably not going to really see any birds either. This was a little disappointing, as this was our last chance to see the infamous Resplendant Quetzal. The Quetzal is the national bird of Guatemala, and was highly prized by the ancient Maya for its unusually long and colorful tail feathers, which they used to dress the king. The birds are today endangered, as they only live in narrow bands of altitude in cloud forests, and quickly die in captivity, so you won't see one in a zoo. For months we had been hoping to see one, but this was our first, and last, real opportunity, and it was pretty clear it wasn't going to happen.
There were at least four of them flying around, and although the guide pointed out the males for us, they were too quick to get the telescope focused on. Still, we were pretty thrilled and thanked the couple and the guide profusely for helping us out. It was so satisfying, when something you've been wanting and thinking about for months just suddenly happens. We continued on down the trail a bit, chatting happily, when suddenly David looks up and sees another female. This time it was close enough we could use our binoculars. As we admired her, a male comes along and finds the perfect perch to let us admire him. His tail feathers weren't particularly long, but he was still gorgeous. We watched them for about ten minutes before they finally flew away. We continue down the trail, marvelling at our luck, when another male comes along. He was singing away, and this one did indeed have the long emerald green tail feathers. He gave us quite the show, again from a perfect little perch where we could watch him.
We felt like all our Christmases had come at once. The birds were too far away to photograph unfortunately (google one, they are worth it!), but with the binoculars we had quite the performance. For a shy bird that most people don't get to see at all, for us to see that many that well was really unusual, and we feel extremely fortunate.
But don't kid yourself. We still kept looking for bugs.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Leon, Granada, San Juan del Sur, and at long last, Costa Rica!
We spent three days in Leon (I'm using a hybrid American/Spanish keyboard and can't figure out how to make the accent mark dangit), mostly near the pool in our hostel as the heat was intense. We saw a lot of churches, and had some truly excellent pizza, the best we've had since we were in Xela. We did go to a terrific museum, that had some Picasso and Chagal and Matisse, and a lot of great pieces by Central American artists. I generally have a pretty low threshold for enjoying museums, but I really enjoyed this one.
We stayed at the Lazybones hostel, which overall was great (did I mention the pool?) however we did get some visitors in our room at night. It was hot, so we weren't using the mosquito nets because they blocked the fan. The first night David felt something crawling on him, which in his half asleep daze he thought seemed like a cat, although it was too small and there was certainly not a cat in our room. I'm thinking it was a mouse, as there were some nibbles to some food we had. The next night something hit my face. Something fast and leathery. A bat! I actually think bats are pretty cool, but getting slapped in the face by one while you are trying to sleep is decidedly uncool. Anyway, we used our nets after that, guess they were there for a reason, cause we didn't see any mosquitoes.
From Leon, we jumped in bus to the capital, Managua, where we stayed just long enough to get off the bus and get on another to Granada. We sat next to a local guy named Alan, who is a medical student and spoke pretty good English. He was getting ready to go to Germany to get his PhD, and was nervous because his german wasn't very good. Can you imagine going to college in a third language? But he got a scholarship, so that was his best option. We asked about the weather, wondering if it would be as hot as it had been in Leon. He said not as hot, but he promised it would be very dry. "We only get rain maybe twice a year." Cue rain for the next three days straight.
Granada is a lovely colonial town, making comparisons with Antigua, Guatemala hard to avoid. But it hasn't yet had quite as many coats of polish, and still retains a slightly grittier feel, in the good sense of the word. It has had more coats of paint however, making it quite pleasing to look at. We holed up at the Oasis, a sister-hostel to the Lazybones, also with a pool which we enjoyed. I even met a friendly Peace Corps Volunteer who was taking a little vacation from her rural outpost, and I think I may have talked her into going to nursing school in Albuquerque when she finishes. It is hard to resist such a great path!
Granada is on the shores of Lake Nicaragua, a huge freshwater lake. The lake used to have maneating bull sharks in it, the only freshwater shark in the world. But a lucrative trade in shark fin saw the quick decimation of the species, which supposedly still exist in small pockets down the river that leads to the Caribbean coast. We rented bicycles and rode several miles down a peninsula. It was raining a bit, and we got splattered with mud from the tires. But at the end of the road we saw a family of howler monkeys, much bigger in size than the ones we saw in Guatemala, and a beautiful species of jaybirds that we've been coveting since we saw their picture in a bird book in Honduras. It was a great ride.
From Granada we decided to head to the beaches of San Juan del Sur. Though still overcast, our luck held and it didn't rain, giving us one last chance to get some sun. You know how sometimes walking the beach you will see some dumb little fish washed up on shore? Here we saw three pufferfish (still puffed up!) and a large parrot fish with a huge set of teeth on him.
We were up early the next day to head to the Costa Rican border. We had been warned this would likely be our most difficult crossing, and indeed it was. By far. Approaching the border we passed miles and miles of semi-trucks, which were stopped along the side of the road, single file, inching so slowly toward the border that the drivers were wandering around the street in little groups. I can't even imagine how long it takes them to get through, but I can't see how they would all get through in a day.
Once we got to the border, the usual group of "helpers" attached themselves to us hoping we would change money with them. But they proved quite useful in navigating the maze to the immigration office. After paying three different sets of "fees" (all of which were supposedly legit, according to our guidebook), we got flustered and jumped on an international bus. These busses are far more comfortable than the chicken busses, and also far more expensive. But we were confused and decided just to splurge for the convenience. After waiting a bit for the people who came through on the bus to finish at Nicaraguan immigration, the bus drove us over to the Costa Rican side and we got in line. Luckily the rain had stopped, because we were standing outside in line for over two hours. At one point, there was a mass movement as 50 - 75 people in line ahead of us suddenly left the line and walked away. I have no idea what they were doing or where they were going, or why they all decided to leave at once. But it probably saved us another hour of waiting, so we were grateful for the mystery. Once we finally made it into the building, we saw that there were exactly two officials moving people through. They were friendly and efficient, but hopelessly backlogged. There must be some rhyme or reason to why the Costa Rican government doesn't just hire a few more people, as this crossing is notorious for being long and awful, but I can't imagine what the reason is. We made it through, the officials making a show of everyone on the bus getting their bags out to be inspected, but then just waved all the backpackers through without checking anything on us, though they did a cursory check of the locals.
Next came the intrigue of us finding our stop. The bus was express to San Jose, but we wanted to get off before that at the turnoff to the cloud forest reserve of Monteverde. The guy who sold us our ticket said it would be no problem, but of course he was now nowhere to be found. We talked to who I thought was the driver and one of the assistants, but we didn't know the name of the place we wanted to be dropped off, and that seemed to be confusing them. We weren't even really sure what would happen when we got dropped off on the side of the road, we just assumed that we would be able to find another form of transport to the reserve. The drivers sort of smiled and nodded and blew us off, so as we took off we were stressed that they might not stop where we needed to go, but were also stressed that they would, because we weren't sure what we would do then. Then the rain started, which is never a friend to a backpack.
But, as usual, it all worked out. They dropped us off at the right place, just after the rain stopped. A cabbie tried to get us to pay $50 to take us direct, but he also admitted the public bus would be by just over an hour later. We waited (and looked at bugs, natch) until the bus came, and we paid about $3 for the ride to Santa Elena, the town outside of the reserve.
Sorry there are no pictures on this post (and I got a great one of the parrotfish!), but this afternoon I was checking out the camera and the bus hit a bump and I managed to format my camera card. groan. I'm pretty sure I will be able to recover the pics once I get home (at least I hope!), but there is no doing it from here. Technology is the best thing ever, until it isn't.
We stayed at the Lazybones hostel, which overall was great (did I mention the pool?) however we did get some visitors in our room at night. It was hot, so we weren't using the mosquito nets because they blocked the fan. The first night David felt something crawling on him, which in his half asleep daze he thought seemed like a cat, although it was too small and there was certainly not a cat in our room. I'm thinking it was a mouse, as there were some nibbles to some food we had. The next night something hit my face. Something fast and leathery. A bat! I actually think bats are pretty cool, but getting slapped in the face by one while you are trying to sleep is decidedly uncool. Anyway, we used our nets after that, guess they were there for a reason, cause we didn't see any mosquitoes.
From Leon, we jumped in bus to the capital, Managua, where we stayed just long enough to get off the bus and get on another to Granada. We sat next to a local guy named Alan, who is a medical student and spoke pretty good English. He was getting ready to go to Germany to get his PhD, and was nervous because his german wasn't very good. Can you imagine going to college in a third language? But he got a scholarship, so that was his best option. We asked about the weather, wondering if it would be as hot as it had been in Leon. He said not as hot, but he promised it would be very dry. "We only get rain maybe twice a year." Cue rain for the next three days straight.
Granada is a lovely colonial town, making comparisons with Antigua, Guatemala hard to avoid. But it hasn't yet had quite as many coats of polish, and still retains a slightly grittier feel, in the good sense of the word. It has had more coats of paint however, making it quite pleasing to look at. We holed up at the Oasis, a sister-hostel to the Lazybones, also with a pool which we enjoyed. I even met a friendly Peace Corps Volunteer who was taking a little vacation from her rural outpost, and I think I may have talked her into going to nursing school in Albuquerque when she finishes. It is hard to resist such a great path!
Granada is on the shores of Lake Nicaragua, a huge freshwater lake. The lake used to have maneating bull sharks in it, the only freshwater shark in the world. But a lucrative trade in shark fin saw the quick decimation of the species, which supposedly still exist in small pockets down the river that leads to the Caribbean coast. We rented bicycles and rode several miles down a peninsula. It was raining a bit, and we got splattered with mud from the tires. But at the end of the road we saw a family of howler monkeys, much bigger in size than the ones we saw in Guatemala, and a beautiful species of jaybirds that we've been coveting since we saw their picture in a bird book in Honduras. It was a great ride.
From Granada we decided to head to the beaches of San Juan del Sur. Though still overcast, our luck held and it didn't rain, giving us one last chance to get some sun. You know how sometimes walking the beach you will see some dumb little fish washed up on shore? Here we saw three pufferfish (still puffed up!) and a large parrot fish with a huge set of teeth on him.
We were up early the next day to head to the Costa Rican border. We had been warned this would likely be our most difficult crossing, and indeed it was. By far. Approaching the border we passed miles and miles of semi-trucks, which were stopped along the side of the road, single file, inching so slowly toward the border that the drivers were wandering around the street in little groups. I can't even imagine how long it takes them to get through, but I can't see how they would all get through in a day.
Once we got to the border, the usual group of "helpers" attached themselves to us hoping we would change money with them. But they proved quite useful in navigating the maze to the immigration office. After paying three different sets of "fees" (all of which were supposedly legit, according to our guidebook), we got flustered and jumped on an international bus. These busses are far more comfortable than the chicken busses, and also far more expensive. But we were confused and decided just to splurge for the convenience. After waiting a bit for the people who came through on the bus to finish at Nicaraguan immigration, the bus drove us over to the Costa Rican side and we got in line. Luckily the rain had stopped, because we were standing outside in line for over two hours. At one point, there was a mass movement as 50 - 75 people in line ahead of us suddenly left the line and walked away. I have no idea what they were doing or where they were going, or why they all decided to leave at once. But it probably saved us another hour of waiting, so we were grateful for the mystery. Once we finally made it into the building, we saw that there were exactly two officials moving people through. They were friendly and efficient, but hopelessly backlogged. There must be some rhyme or reason to why the Costa Rican government doesn't just hire a few more people, as this crossing is notorious for being long and awful, but I can't imagine what the reason is. We made it through, the officials making a show of everyone on the bus getting their bags out to be inspected, but then just waved all the backpackers through without checking anything on us, though they did a cursory check of the locals.
Next came the intrigue of us finding our stop. The bus was express to San Jose, but we wanted to get off before that at the turnoff to the cloud forest reserve of Monteverde. The guy who sold us our ticket said it would be no problem, but of course he was now nowhere to be found. We talked to who I thought was the driver and one of the assistants, but we didn't know the name of the place we wanted to be dropped off, and that seemed to be confusing them. We weren't even really sure what would happen when we got dropped off on the side of the road, we just assumed that we would be able to find another form of transport to the reserve. The drivers sort of smiled and nodded and blew us off, so as we took off we were stressed that they might not stop where we needed to go, but were also stressed that they would, because we weren't sure what we would do then. Then the rain started, which is never a friend to a backpack.
But, as usual, it all worked out. They dropped us off at the right place, just after the rain stopped. A cabbie tried to get us to pay $50 to take us direct, but he also admitted the public bus would be by just over an hour later. We waited (and looked at bugs, natch) until the bus came, and we paid about $3 for the ride to Santa Elena, the town outside of the reserve.
Sorry there are no pictures on this post (and I got a great one of the parrotfish!), but this afternoon I was checking out the camera and the bus hit a bump and I managed to format my camera card. groan. I'm pretty sure I will be able to recover the pics once I get home (at least I hope!), but there is no doing it from here. Technology is the best thing ever, until it isn't.
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