Costa Rica - Day 8

Going Home!
The hotel I am at doesn't need you to checkout until noon.  But you need to give yourself 2 hours to do all the stuff you need to get done at the airport so I woke up early, had breakfast, finished packing and called for an orange cab.

The ride back was about $26, this is a good place to get rid of a few colones, and I left about $15 dollars for the cleaning lady, though in change, but money is money!

The Airport
When you get to the airport go directly to the very right of the building.  There is a large desk there where the Costa Rican government collects tax from visitors.  You MUST pay this tax.  It is about $26 per person and you can use dollars, colones and even credit cards - you can tell that they really want your money as pretty much this was the only place I was able to use a credit card.  You will get a piece of paper that you will need to keep to move onto the next stage of this.

Next you will go to get your boarding pass.  Have your passport ready because on top of getting your boarding pass you will need to get that piece of paper stating you paid the tax signed off.  Then your passport will be examined by more security guards and finally you will get your boarding pass.

Once you are done you will go through security - remove shoes, place computer outside of the bag, the standard affair.  The only interesting thing is that they will let you go through with bottles of water - but it won't be that interesting in a moment.

The terminal is the same as any terminal, nothing spectacular but just be aware that as soon as you board the plane security will do one last check of your baggage and that water that you were allowed to take with you initially will be kept and then you are allowed to get on the plane and head home!

End

Costa Rica - Day 7

On to Poas!
Since I had to be up for my transportation at 6:30am I slept early and had only a snack in the morning as breakfast was provided.

The shuttle picked me up at 6:20am, a little ahead of schedule but it was worth it as it had to make a few more stops to pick up more people from various hotels and then head off to the volcano.

The tour guide, Max was very chatty as our driving "Rigo" just smiled at nodded at every dumb joke.

Poas is one of the many active volcanos in San Jose, but unlike some other ones it is water and steam that comes out of this one.  No magma but it is still a hot place to be.

Packing for Poas
- water - or don't but if you don't you'll regret it
- sunscreen
- bug spray
- good shoes
- hat
- long pants (convertibles are better)
- camera

The Coffee Plantation
Another hour and a half on the bus we arrived at the coffee plantation.  I know nothing about coffee and honestly the smell makes me sick.  But they had a fantastic breakfast of rice and beans, plus eggs, some various meats, cheese and of course coffee.

The coffee Museum

After eating we went on a quick tour of the plantation.  Max enlightened us on the process of picking the coffee berries and how Costa Rica's infrastructure was built on coffee.  Then we were let loose in the gift shop - the only thing worth buying is the coffee as all the other trinkets are the generic ones you find all over the place.

Poas
From the plantation we left for the volcano.  It was another hour in the bus.  You will have to persevere the anecdotes of your tour guide.  Broken English, bad jokes but they seem to love their job.

Once you get into the national park the walk from the parking lot to the volcano is 10 minutes - 10 brisk minutes.  The altitude will take your breath away because you are pretty high up.  The path is long and the sun will beat down on you.

The path to the volcano

Once you get to the top though it will be well worth it - if you are lucky.  It is next to impossible to predict exactly what the weather will be out there but if you can go on the day after a thunderstorm you will be treated with a clear view of the crater.

Poas Volcano

You will definitely smell the sulfur so I would advise to not take a lot of giant breaths when you see the smog waft to you.  After you take in the volcano you can "hike" up to the lagoon.  The reason I put hike in parenthesis will be explained to you if you decide to trek up to the lagoon - well worth it but what a workout!  It will take you about 15 minutes from the crater and you will travel up a path that is steep but is pretty much covered by tall plants giving you some shade from the sun.

Poas Lagoon

The lagoon is worth it in the end.  It is absolutely beautiful.  And to think that all the water in it is rain water.  But the viewing area is quite a ways away from the lagoon itself so a good zoom on your camera is a must.

After being allowed to wander the park for about an hour and a half the bus will take you to the rainforest which is the final destination and where you will also get lunch.

Rainforest and Cafe
This place is more like a mini zoo then anything else.  The bus drops you off at the top of the establishment, you get a wristband showing you that you belong there and you just wander around for a couple hours until lunch.  After that you will go on a hike to see 4 waterfalls.

You might want a nap after lunch

There are a variety of things to see.  A lot of birds, from hummingbirds to parrots.  Monkeys, jungle cats, snakes, frogs and more butterflies.

When you walk just look out for ox crap.  They use oxen to move things so if you aren't careful you will leave with a stinky parting gift.

After making my way through all the animals it was time for lunch.  Basically it's another buffet with a lot of Western food, so if you haven't had a Montreal steamer, you have all the fixen's there to make one, minus the poutine.

Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls
After filling yourself with all that food you will make your way onto a path that has 4 waterfalls on the route.  The first two are impressive as they are pretty high and you are in good locations to get some nice pictures.

Waterfall 1

The only problem is that after the first 2 you start to loose visibility as the path is significantly higher up then the waterfalls.  So you see the less impressive tops of the waterfalls and then the substantially less impressive highway that follows.

When you are done the little hike you end up at an unfinished building and a green school bus that takes you back up the mountain to your tour bus.  Hold onto your hats as you ride this bus.  I am not sure if school buses were ever intended to go up mountains, but they do it here, and in 3rd gear.

Ride Back
The ride back was exceptionally long.  You will have moved further away from San Jose on your trip so it will take a lot longer to get back.  Plus there is traffic on the way back and a lot of people to drop off to their respective hotels.  Like all tours here you will be given a questionnaire about the quality of service.  It also says that you are encouraged to give tips to the tour guide and the driver.  I left a $10 for them, most people leave a buck, but I figure coming from a customer service background myself, it's a hard life for these guys.

Dinner
I was stuffed from all the food earlier on in the day and too tired from all the walking so just a hamburger from a local place, some encouraging words about how my Spanish was much better and then off to sleep.

Costa Rica - Day 6

I woke up and had a good breakfast at the hotel, got myself squared away and ready to leave by about 8am since my bus didn't leave until 9am and I wanted to get enough time to walk there and get lost a few times on the way.

Packing for the Beach

- towel (just "borrow" one from the hotel)

- swim trunks - make sure you can tie them because the waves will peel them off

- sandals - the sand is mucho hot!

- sun screen

- water - have I stressed that enough?

- lock

The Bus Stop

Across from where you purchased your ticket you will see myriad of busses leaving for various locations. Just look for Jaco on the large sign above the buses or the large sign for Jaco on the bus itself.

Kitten asleep at the bus stop

Trip to Jaco

The trip itself is about 2 and a half hours. I thought it wasn't that far so I left at 9am and got to the beach at about 12pm.

Upon arriving you will be greeted with a number of boardwalk type shops. Very touristy and selling the same things you can get in San Jose just at a beach front price. If you want to take them in get off at the stop next to a huge Drug Store/Ice Cream stand. The actual last stop is right behind the Pizza Hut. This is where you will go to return to San Jose or pick up your bus ticket if you are not returning right away.

The Beach itself is gorgeous. Not a white, sandy beach, but very warm, lots of waves and so I decided to learn how to surf.

Surfing

I went to a hostel that had an outlet for a school called Surf Factory. The lesson was $45 and it was about 2 hours long. I was lucky and I got an instructor named Allan and since there was nobody else I had a private lesson and getting lots of time on the waves.

If you have stuff with you, throw it in one of their lockers located in the back of the hostel. If you don't have one then you can leave your bag with the woman that runs the place or just take it with you. The place you will be surfing is on the South side as the coastline juts out on that side making the waves a little tamer, but not that much tamer.

After an hour and a half though I was dead. I was there around high tide so the waves were getting bigger and I was fortunate enough to get a relatively calm 10ft wave that I rode all the way back to the beach and hopping off my board like a pro.

I would suggest spending at least a night there. The hostels are cheap and there are a lot of girls visiting internationally so there are lots of things to look at and fun conversations in multiple languages.

Ride Back

Because I had no idea it would take that long to get out there I made my return bus ride 3pm. After my surfing lesson I had 30 minutes to get a cab ride from the school to the bus station. And from anywhere in Jaco it is about $1 to the bus terminal by cab.

The ride back took quite a long time and when it started to rain you could see lightening strike the ground as you leave the beach area.

Dinner

I just threw something in my stomach, showered to get all the sand out of everything and then I went to sleep!

Costa Rica - Day 5

Today was a nothing day, but there were several errands I had to complete before the end of it.

Jaco Beach

To get to the beach you can take a cab or a tour or just take the regular bus. You will need to make your way down to Terminal Coca-Cola (like the soft drink). It is located North of Averinda 1 and Calle 18 on Averinda 3. The reason I would suggest looking for Averinda 1 is because Averinda 3 doesn't start until Calle 16 and it's a tiny street, easy to get lost so start with the larger intersection and walk North from there.

As you do you will see a booth on Calle 18 selling tickets to Jaco beach. It is a good idea to get your ticket the day before just because there is a chance they could sell out all the tickets. It will be just North of a strange pet shop that sells chickens, ducks, pigeons, rabbits, ducklings and chicks - though I'm pretty sure, with the exception of the pigeon you will be eating these guys.

The first shuttle leaves at 7am and leaves every 2 hours. The return buses leave in the same durations, the last one leaving at 5pm.

Tickets for the bus are about $5 for a round trip. But if you are planning to stay in Jaco, you can always buy a return ticket there.

Volcano Tour

I walked back to the intersection near the Rainforest Adventures agency to another tour agency across the street next to the Radio Shack sign. I signed up for a package that would take my whole Friday, starting at 6:30am, going to a coffee plantation, then to Poas volcano and finally through a rainforest zoo/hike. I found out that for those who booked this package through their hostel or through the internet paid an extra $10 as I paid $82 instead.

Costa Rica - Day 4

I had to wake up early so I didn't do anything the night before. I woke up in time for breakfast as I was being picked up by the tour group at 9am.

Things to take Zip-Lining

- small backpack

- water, you can never have enough of this on hand

- sun screen

- bug spray

Things they will provide

- harness

- helmet

- gloves

They say that it is mandatory to wear closed-toes shoes and you definitely should. But also wear something with decent traction and easy to clean because you will be hiking up the side of a mountain between some of the lines and it can be a little muddy if it was just after a rain storm.

The ride itself was about an hour. I fell asleep on most of the ride but if you decide to take a nap, buckle yourself in tightly as the roads are bumpy and you will get thrown around like a whale taking down a seal.

The Park

The park itself is up in the hills. It is private property and had all the trams and zip-lines put in over the last 20 years.

You will initially pass over a small river but if it is covered by rain water, then you will have to take a hanging bridge (see image) across the river to another bus waiting for you to take you from there to their main building.

From here I was loaded up with all my gear, signed a waver and then piled into the bus to take us to the beginning of the zip-lines.

You will get a bit of information about the park and the local fauna from your guides. But I don't suggest talking too much because you are going to be climbing some rather steep hillsides to get to a few of the lines on the course.

I had two instructors named Marvin and they were both excellent. I was told that each of them had to attend a year of schooling in which they learned about the area they worked and English. This way if you want you can have a conversation in English. I tried to use more of my Spanish here, but it was nice to not have to flip through a dictionary to have a conversation.

The lines get progressively more challenging and vary with more speed or more distance. As a teaser I will include a short clip from one of the zip-lines. I won't upload the longest or the best because they are things you should experience first hand!

After you are done the entire course you will be taken back to the main building and let loose at the buffet to have some lunch. I suggest the palm heart - the ones they server are specifically grown for consumption as you kill the plant when you take out the heart (which is the fruit).

Also if you haven't had a chance to indulge in a lot of veggies, this is a good place to stock up. They also have a lot of great fruit as pretty much it is in season all year long.

The gift shop is something I would pass on. Everything here is generic and you can get the things they sell for cheaper in the city.

Once all the groups are back together you will be shuttled back to the city and dropped off at your respective hotel.

Dinner

I was too tired to adventure for food so I just walked across the street and had a sandwich and an empanadas.

Costa Rica - Day 3

Today I was a little tired. I took in the nightlife so I didn't wake up until around noon. Too late for the breakfast but I wasn't hungry and I had a number of snacks to tide myself over till lunch.

The Hotel

The nice thing about where I was staying was that it was right in the heart of the city. I had everything at my fingertips. But I figured the first thing I should do was to go for a swim and just do some exercise.

The water was nice and warm and since there didn't seem to be a lot of swimmers while I was there I enjoyed the pool for myself for about an hour.

Lunch

For lunch I just took a stroll around and I decided to partake in some of the local foods. You will easily find chicken everywhere. They do fried chicken, an un-battered kind of "pop corn" chicken and pork rinds. All of which are very cheap. Wash it down with some of the water you bought earlier and you will have spent about $2 on lunch.

Zip-lining Tours

Today I decided to also go looking for tour guides for various things. In my initial post I put the location of one of them. I found the physical location of Rain Forest Adventures and purchased a ticket for a day zip-lining. It was about $85 for transportation, zip-lining over 15 lines and lunch.

Dinner

Exhausted I went to a local Chinese restaurant that I was never able to find again and had some good chicken, rice, a lot of veggies (I felt like I was lacking them in my diet), fries and a beverage for about $5.

Costa Rica - Day 2

Today I made sure to wake up on time to get some breakfast. Rice and beans with eggs, sausage, toast and a fair share of fresh fruit.

Then I took a walk to Central Park through the pedestrian only paths on my way to the National Museum. En route you will notice that there are a good number of clothing stores, mostly for women, but I was surprised by the sheer volume of shoe stores.

They even had clowns on microphones trying to get the attention of would-be customers. The other things you will notice as you walk around is that on almost every intersection there will be a metal shed. It is about 5 feet wide and about 2 feet deep. These are small vendor locations and they sell varieties of different things.

There are also numerous fruit and veggie sellers just on the street since mangoes and strawberries grow plentifully out there.

Museum of National History

The museum is located just West of Calle 17 and the International Highway (1). In the front of the building you will see the original structure in a warm yellow.

It sits atop an open courtyard and a series of steps. This is the old entrance for when it was used for military purposes. Now it is closed off and the entrance is located to the right behind a sphere made of glass and metal.

The museum will cost you about $8 USD to visit and it features a butterfly garden upon entry, a nice collection of pre-Columbian artwork and history of the building.

If you have a large bag you will be asked to place it into a locker that they will provide for you for no cost.

Like any museum, you should remember to turn off the flash when taking pictures.

Around the Museum

If you are looking for souvenirs, just outside of the museum beyond the steps is a gallery of tented shops. There are numerous vendors selling the exact same thing so if you are looking to haggle you definitely can go for it.

In the courtyard in front of the museum I was fortunate enough to take in some live performances for a pride concert. The people were very friendly, there were a number of tourist police on hand but they also seemed to be enjoying the music and the atmosphere.

Dinner

I would suggest for at least the first couple days taking in food you would generally eat at home, such as western fast food. You will be walking a lot and sweating tons to help burn the calories if you are worried. But the more familiar foods will help your body adjust to the local cuisine. It will also help if you are just learning to order food because it is as simple as:

"Me gustaria [combo number]"

And if you want to take the order out you can say:

"Para llevar" (is to go) or I used "Tu-Vas" for take-out

*Please note I am not a Spanish teacher, this is what I was told to say by locals.

The other benefit for me was to get used to converting the money in my head because I know the cost of a McDonald's hamburger and I can compare how to gauge how much I should spend for food.