Last Stop in Costa Rica

After parting ways with Emily and Erin, we tried our negotiating skills with a cabby and sadly ended paying $40 vs. our initially negotiated $10… and ended up at the wrong bus station. We had a 4 ½ hours bus ride to sulk about our rip off and ended up in Puerto Viejo aka “Rasta Rica” on Tuesday, May 18th. We decided to save some money by sleeping in hammocks at Rocking J’s for $6 a night. It was a very cool hostel and the Caribbean ocean was at the back gate. There were mosaics everywhere and paintings done by travelers through the years.

While in Puerto Viejo we rented bikes, hung out by the ocean, and went to an animal rescue reserve. At the reserve we were able to hold MONKEYS; we also got to see snakes, owls, red eyed tree frogs, sloths and jungle cats all for the friendly price of $12. Our friend Jacob told us about a restaurant, Bread and Chocolate, which was just what Chell and I needed. We went several times and befriended the owner Thomas, who invited us for dinner and drinks. The dinner was delicious, we met some fun girls from Holland, and Chell learned how to play Dominos. We went to the “disco” afterwards, where we met a giant Norwegian, Howard. Howard (19) proceeded to make fun of our age, but said “we could dance for having old bodies.” All in all a very fun night.

After 5 nights of sleeping in Hammocks and Chell’s “missing” swimsuit tops and dress, we decided to treat ourselves to somewhere a little more comfy. We ended up staying down the street at Hotel Agapi. We had our own room, t.v. (w/ cable), clean kitchen, and hot shower. Not to mention the beautiful pool and hot tubs running into it. The first of the two nights, Chell forgot to turn off the water in the kitchen and flooded the floor. No worries, we have super absorbent towels. So after cleaning the flood, we took to our lovely BEDS! The next day we hung out at the pool and met a couple guys, Michael and Jonny, who would later prove to be VERY helpful. When we were cleaning up to go to our last dinner in Costa Rica, Chell dropped her itouch down a crack in the wall. Uh Oh. Chell’s mind started turning and off to the mercado she went to get duck tape. After several failed attempts and help from our new friends, we decided to ask the owner for help. She came over to have a look and said she would not be able to do anything until the maintenance man came in the morning, which would have been fine except our bus left at 7:30. Luckily our new friends (who spoke fluent Spanish) agreed to follow up. Jonny recently messaged us and the itouch will be on its way to Fostoria soon. Thanks Jonny and Michael.

We caught our 7:30 bus and said Goodbye to Costa Rica. Don’t worry, we will be back!

Arrived in Peru the 25th and are heading toward Machu Picchu tomorrow on a 4 day trek. We'll let you know all about it... so excited!

We Love Monkeys,
Michelle and Lindsay

Good Food, Great Friends

May 15th: Us and the neighbors from the North packed up the Yaris (Roy Jaris) and headed on a ten hour journey (unbeknown to us) to Volcano Arenal. We successfully navigated our way to Nick and Dawn's with limited road signs, no GPS and maps made by five year olds. Lindsay and I gathered the rest of our things and we continued onward. Through fog and winding mountain roads, we arrived at Essence Arenal where Kelly warmly greeted us and Issac (the chef) had a three course French inspired meal waiting. Lounged around the hostel the next day with Abu (the trail dog), treating ourselves to some spirits at noon. Issac made us the most amazing club sandwich involving avocado, egg and tomato. When our new friends returned from ziplining the good times continued. Dinner was Moroccan themed and, as with all meals, we took part in a small hands on demonstration. It was delicioso! We were greeted with banana pancakes at breakfast and hopped in the van with Kelly and the girls to visit a local swimming hole. On the way we sampled a Costa Rican fruit, guava. Not what we are used to in the states as guava (please refer to picture). We also went to a natural hot spring which felt unbelievable and was as hot as any jacuzzi we've ever been in. It was so beautiful. Kelly treated us to a cup 'o wine while we were taking it in. Sushi night was to follow and boy were we pumped. As we were helping prepare sushi, the lights went out. Dinner by candle light. How romantic for our last night with Erin and Emily. It was a wicked good time. We stayed up drinking wine around the fire before the lights came back on. After parting ways at the airport we continued on our way. We're staying at Rocking J's in Puerto Viejo. We'll catch you up soon.

Much Love,
Lindsay and Michelle

Catching up.... by the Caribbean

Hello, all. We're going to try and catch you up to our current location. We left Nick and Dawn's on May 10th to head for Dominical, a sleepy beach town. Arrived via help from Nick's secretary and friend. They helped ship us on the bus and 4 1/2 hours later we arrived to a favorite new spot. Stayed at Piramyay's, a very chill hostel, and met some new friends who showed us a secret waterfall and taught us to play the game Yaneth. Hung out by the beach quite a bit and took in a gorgeous sunset. Introduced to a new grilled cheese sandwich, involving avacado and tomoato... yum-yum in the tum-tum. Tried another tico favorite, guaro, which is a liquor made from sugarcane.






On May 12th, we caught the bus to Manuel Antonio. Stayed at another cool hostel with a pool overlooking the Costa Rican coastline. Hung out by the pool and napped in hammocks the rest of the day. Met a group of friends from Philly and went ziplining the next day. Lindsay and I both loved it. We also got to see a butterfly and serpentine farm. On the way, our tour guide taught us a couple things about the wildlife and flora. We got to see where palm oil and henna ink come from. Along the way we've seen banana trees, coconut trees, bamboo shoots and coffee fields. We also went to Manuel Antonio National Park where we got to see squirrel and white-faced monkies, sloths and land crabs (and lucky for us, a rare sighting of a wounded raccoon). The other rare sighting was of a sloth on the ground, which we later came to find only happens once a week when they have to go #2. Ate a nice dinner at The Aviator, a restaurant inside a repurposed US plane that went down in Nicaragua in the 1980s. The view from dinner was of the ocean and after the sun set there was a crazy lightning storm. Met a couple of crazy Canadians (Emily & Erin)and decided to rent a car with them and drive to La Fortuna the next day.












Will continue the blog from there soon... haven't quite made it to where we're at yet. Pretty pooped. We miss you guys.

Adios amigos,
Lindsay & Michelle

Easy Living in Costa Rica

May 7, 2010

Hello everyone! Chell and I are both going to write in the blog... so we will sign our names after whoever wrote. We Miss everyone dearly. Keep in touch!

We arrived after flying from 8am till 10pm Costa Rica time, to Nick and Dawn (the people we are staying with) promptly at the airport in San Jose. They took us home and showed us our very own bedroom (w/ a tv) and bathroom, and then we passed out.
The next day we spent hanging out trying to catch our bearings, relizing what we are doing. We walked to the Costa Rican Walmart (Hiper Mas). Which definitely felt like home, other than they use colones which is about 500 to $1 , and I still cannot do the conversion. After Hiper Mas we went with Dawn and the kids (Hayden and Arianna) to the Terra Mall and walked around and rented some movies. They have more shoes stores in Costa Rica than I have ever seen. Probably about 5 to 1 in the mall. They love their shoes!.
It has been nice staying with Dawn and Nick because they have lived here for about 4 years and have told us so much about this country, that otherwise just traveling we may have not learned. Oh and the cable television, American phone line, internet, private bath, and priate taxi driver has also been really nice:) So we are not even close to roughing it! Maybe in Peru:)

Love ya
xoxo
Lindsay

May 10, 2010

Hola, friends and family. The easy living continues. Still doing a good amount of lounging at Nick and Dawn's (their hammock is addicting) and getting prepared for a couple trips around Costa Rica. Visited Volcano Irazu, ~11,500 feet above sea level, and walked in the crater. The volcano is no longer active so you can go into the area where lava used to spew. We could see above the clouds at the top of the volcano and not being acclimated to the elevation wipes you out. On the way down, we picked up a little boy who was waving us down with his mother and gave him a ride to school. Our Costa Rican pirate tour guide (Byron) put it well when he said, "This I do not agree with." Also went to Cartago and saw the Basilica, the ruins and a new museum about the town. There was an earthquake 100 years ago (almost exactly- May 4, 1910) with 700 fatalities in 16 seconds. The museum is in the old jail and even though all the info was in Spanish, we could understand the devastating effect of the earthquake. The Basilica in town is built right on a spring with holy water- something about a girl finding a statue of the Virgin Mary on a rock for 7 days and on the seventh day water sprang from the rock. Every year, 1.5 million people make a pilgrimage to Cartago to visit this site.

Some random Costa Rican facts you may enjoy:
-Most homes/businesses do not have addresses and there is no postal system.
-Craig told us about this and we tried it... Coke with rum can be purchased in a can. I liked it... Lindsay not so much.
-10 grams of cocaine is considered personal use.
-Because of traffic issues, depending on what the last number of your license plate is, you cannot drive into San Jose on certain days of the week. For example, Dawn's last plate number is 0 and she can't drive into the city on Tuesdays.

-They turn off the water for ~5 hours while they clean the water storage tank once per week.

-Burial space is rented.

-Public schools have 2 shifts for children so they only go half day. This is due to overcrowding in the schools.

-The common terms for Costa Rican men and women are ticos and ticas, respectively. We're gringos and gringas.

Miss you all. Will keep you updated.

Caio,

Michelle