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Personal Blog of Steve Baumber
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Manuel Antonio is a lovely place to find tourists. And resorts. Not the big high rise resorts of Hawaii, or the sprawling beach-front exclusive places like Club Med. But dotting the hillside on the road overlooking the Pacific Ocean between Quepos and Manuel Antonio are numerous resorts, hotels, restaurants and discos. We were staying at La Colina, one of the hotels closer to Quepos. It was a smallish hotel of only about 14 rooms. And rather un soundproof, evidenced by being able to hear at least two different TVs and conversations at any given time. That, and our room overlooked the busy road out front. Hence, we felt it was a bit overpriced for what we were getting, the restaurant at the hotel was very pricey, the pool was miniscule, and the pool bar sold drinks at the same price as a full meal at a soda a short walk up the road, so it was a bit frustrating. Our room was fine, but could not compare to the room we had just left at the Sunset Inn, so we resolved to adjusting our "value for money" meter to match the more expensive locale.
Fortunately, Manuel Antonio is also a national park, protecting a smallish portion of rainforest along the coast, encompassing several points that jut out into the ocean and a few small bird inhabited islands sprinkled off the coast. The compressed nature of the park with ocean on one side and steep hills on the other makes it good place to see animals and find beaches. On our first day we wandered out to the road to catch the local bus to reach the park, and a van pulled over and offered us a lift. More rides from men in vans. We will have to readjust our "men in vans" warning bells when we return to Vancouver. Anyway, we walked into the park, and began hiking the main trail that stretches the length of the park. We met up with two women from Calgary we had met previously, and the four of us hiked to numerous viewpoints and secluded beaches. Along the way we saw howler monkeys, white-faced capuchins, and a crazy band of squirrel monkeys. They were a central attraction at one point on the trail, giving a cirque de soleil perfomance of.. well of climbing all over each other, running to one branch, and then leaping back onto whoever was closest in what appeared to be a good natured version of "king of the tree", except that nobody was winning, and even if you were it was much better to jump off the branch and take someone with you. Very funny! We wandered back to the main beach and sunned ourselves and swam a bit, and then at 4:00pm the park closed and we had to leave.
The next day was our big splurge. We bought a couple of tickets for a sunset sailing and snorkeling expedition. However, weather has been our nemisis on this trip. We chugged out of the harbour, but never had the sails up (no wind). However, lots of rain. We snorkeled at a rock in the ocean - okay fish life but nothing spectacular, and then ate dinner on the boat (fish). Very good meal!! But then the rain really settled in, and without any chance of seeing a passable sunset we chugged back to harbour in the pouring rain. It´s payback for having such great weather on our last traveling forray, I guess.
The next day we wandered to a local beach and had a tasty seafood dinner, and then it was time to pack up and leave the Costa Rican pacific edge.
Inevitably, we have now returned to San Jose. Tomorrow we fly to Dallas to join Wayne for New Year´s Eve and then back to Vancouver, where home, friends, jobs and responsibilities await us. We have had a very mixed trip upon reflection, and I think we've realized that a comperessed trip like this messes with quality traveling. Without the stretch of days before you on a longer trip, each day becomes a now or never moment, and it was easy to have dissapointments (clouds covering the volcano, pouring rain on the sunset cruise). We also found we went directly to the "must sees", and not the usual "get to the must sees but see stuff along the way" pace of traveling. Lastly, traveling during the high season also makes for more tourists, more expensive and less accomodating accomodations, and more tourists. Did I mention there were more tourists?
All in all, though, it was a great trip. We met some memorable people, had adventures, sent postcards and saw some amazing things that one can´t see snarfing back eggnog in your own living room. And it was even restful enough to forget about work for a while.
And it ain't over yet. Hello Dallas on New Year's Eve!! Get yer party hat on Wayne...
posted by Steve @
4:47 PM
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12.30.2003  |
The Monteverde Reserve is a private reserve made up of land holdings purchased to protect the rainforest. We had a great tour led by a local naturalist who was also one of the local Quakers, who settled in the area many years ago. The highlight of the walk was a sighting of the elusive, resplendent quetzal! A bird rarely seen, we were fortunate to have two to look at and marvel at their long tail feathers and beautiful plumage. We walked back from the reserve to Santa Elena, stopping off at every gallery we could find, and getting ice cream at the local cheese factory.
We sat and waited in Santa Elena, readying ourselves for the ride out to our Christmas retreat, at the "idyllic and rustic" El Mirador cabinas in the hills 12km outside of Santa Elena, high in the cloud forest.
Idyllic and rustic should not be used in the same paragraph, or in descriptions of places to stay. Or perhaps. more correctly, "rustic" should be explained more fully. For instance, "rustic" could mean "quaint" or "old fashioned" or "historical". Or it could mean "camping with a roof with mice, bed bugs and a wood stove while the rain and wind howl outside your door and the shower is too scary to use". You see what I mean? Our cabina at El Mirador turned out to be a little too rustic to qualify for their $47 US a night price tag. So a few minutes after we checked in, we returned to the main building to say we were changing our reservation and were only staying one night instead of three. Unfortunately, we had arrived during a heated meeting. I suspected it was the local rancheros plotting an uprising against the scores of tourists crawling all over the countryside (vermin!), but Rosemary more wisely suspected a staff meeting. Regardless, our announcement that we were leaving caused a considerable problema, and could not be discussed until after their meeting. So, we played cards and drank beer and waited.
A half hour standoff then ensued between Rosemary and the soft spoken fellow who was the olnly one to speak English, and me looking menacing and glaring at the manager with my "I could snap any minute" eyes. We demanded our money back and they said they couldn't (despite us producing the contract of our booking which clearly said we could change our reservation with no penalty after the first night). After phone calls to the "owner" they finally gave us our money back and arrnaged for transport back to Santa Elena. Okay, they returned most of our money, withholding the extortionary amount of $24 US for "transportation". On their website they advertise "free" transportation. I guess that's only if you like their shanty shacks on the hillside. Ai yi yi!
Our night was a test of courage and stamina. The wind here in Monteverde is constant and unrelenting. If you know what a chinook is, think of a chinook. A relentless wind that gusts and blows, picking up occasionally to a terrific howl that threatens to tear the roof off and blow the trees over. Then for good measure it will blow harder! That is the wind of Monteverde, add in a constant mist from the clouds which likes to blow into your ear, and you've pretty much got it. So, trying to sleep while the wind threatens to tear your roof off, then being woken up by mice getting into your fruit bag, then the constant drip and tap of plants and rain which sound suspiciously like large animal rumaging under your bed, was not that easy. The bed sagged in two places. In the middle which rolled Rosemary and I together like sardines all night, and at the point where one's ass (heavier than one's head) impacts the matress. Makes for a sore back. Throw in a few bed bugs for good measure, and that was our night.
We left Christmas Eve morning, like Mary and Joseph exiled from the inn (except no divine or otherwise pregnancies), exhausted and damp, without having had any dinner or breakfast, crawling slowly down the muddy road in the van, leaving the socked in conditions and rain for the sunny lower slopes, and hoping to find a small manger somewhere to lay our weary heads.
In my delightfully bad Spanish we got the driver to drop us off at the Hotel Sunset, and what a difference! The owner greeted us warmly, made us breakfast with hot chocolate, and rented us the nicest room we have stayed in yet for $40 US per night. Our beaultiful room has a porch which faces out to a stunning view of the Nicoya Peninsula and the Pacific Ocean only 40km away, has a lovely big well groomed lawn, and a horse and dog who visit regularly. Phew. Last night we celebrated our good fortune by walking the three kilometres on the muddy road into Santa Elena (in the gusty rain) to call Pete and wish him and his family a Felis Navidad. Then we hiked back to our cheery, warm, no-mice-allowed room and fell blissfully asleep.
Very early this morning we were woken up, not by dainty reindeer hooves on the roof, but by a lovely earthquake that rolled us around in bed like marbles. Both waking up and loudly telling the other to "stop rocking the bed" we realized what was happening. Over before we could panic, we flicked the light on and watched the overhead light sway back and forth. Our first earthquake!! What more could we ask for Christmas? We went back to sleep with dreams of tectonic plate shifts in our heads and awoke to our beautiful view and Guava (we have named the horse Guava ever since Rosemary fed it a guava) nibbling grass outside, and Kima the dog (her actual name) ready to take us up to breakfast with her two buddies (whom we have not named). After a lovely breakfast we hiked up to the Sky Walk, a suspension bridge walk in the cloud forest canopy, and had the walkways almost completely to ourselves. What a great Christmas morning!
An afternoon of reading on our porch, casually checking to see if the Nicoya Peninsula was still there from time to time, and then a nap. Now we are looking forward to Christmas dinner at a restaurant here in Santa Elena. Tomorrow, off to Manuel Antonio, and the final leg of our trip at a spectacular beach.
One last note I forgot to mention in the last Blog, we walked over to Ocotal Beach while at Playa del Coco, and it was very cool. A black sand beach, it felt like walking on a wet, sooty fire pit! But without the sooty residue on our feet. The beach is black volcanic sand with scattered sparkly quartz bits throughout it. Not many services there except one major resort, but the beach is beautiful and we're glad we made the hike to see it!
posted by Steve @
3:26 PM
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12.25.2003 |
During our day of doing nothing, Rosemary discovered a unique way to get from Playa del Coco to Monteverde in one day. Without using the exepensive Intrabus service. One simply gets on the local bus at Playa del Coco. We whisk off to Liberia. I was a gentleman and gave up my seat to a young mum. The baby stared at Rosemary the whole way to Liberia, probably wondering what it felt like to be unsuited for hot countries. Then we found the Pulmintan bus station and, zowie, off to Rio Lagarto.
Rio Lagarto is a bridge. Over the Rio Lagarto. A lady at the phone booth asked where we were headed (as Rosemary wandered up the road to see if there was a turnoff to Monteverde close by). When I said "Monteverde" she motioned across the bridge in the direction Rosemary had gone. I collected our stuff and met her at the bar across the bridge, at the turnoff to Monteverde! Yes, in Costa Rica, there is a bar every several feet or so. Lovely country, but I digress.
She had already made the aquaintance of an older fellow who had a van and was heading up the road to Santa Elena (just outside of Monteverde), and he offered us a lift for a very reasonable price. Despite trepidations of getting into strange men's mini vans, rather than waiting for the local bus to show up from Puntarenas or San Jose, we said yippy and piled in! Little did we know we were joining a drunk American and a drunk Pakistani having a loud conversation about who had been there longer and who had more business contacts and all kinds of other loud things. It was entertaining. One thing we could all agree on was that "Forest Gump" is a damn fine movie. Yeesh. Still, what do you travel for? To meet the kinds of people you've already met? And we saved about $78 US using Rosemary's clever detective work. cha ching.
Monteverde is a real tourisita mecca (islamic spanish) where everybody shows up. I guess it's the cooler weather and the chance to see an elusive quetzal. Or something. I mean, we're here right? So far, it reminds Rosemary of Interlocken in Switzerland and me of the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. Each to there own terms of reference! It is very "western" here in a backpacker sort of way, with coffee shops, craft stores, bars, guest houses and tour operators. Maybe it's more like Pai in Thailand? The countryside is beautiful - rolling green hills covered in green trees and shrubs, with trails criss-crossing the ridges. I think Costa Rica doubles its total land area with all the folds in this small part of the coutnry! There is a constant mist blowing through town from the clouds hunched over the nearest hills. So far we've seen two rainbows, neither of which had singing frogs or girls with little dogs. But I digress. It's very hilly through town - no flat stretch of road. The road itself on the way up was windy and rough, unpaved and rutted. A decent road made from pit run and big bolders cemented together by hardpacked dirt. I{d hate to see it in the wet season.
Off to the Monteverde reserve tomorrow to hike around (the bus leaves at 6 am) and see the sights of that portion of the area, then off to our cabin in the woods for Christmas, close to the Santa Elena reserve (same forest, two doors as one travel guide has told us).
Two things I've forgotten to mention in previous blogs: we visited the Baldi hotsprings near La Fortuna and it was lovely. Discussed politics in steaming pools with an Australian and an American, until I loudly announced no more politics. We then all agreed that "Forest Gump" was one heck of a movie. Okay, that part never happened but it's funny. I had my first local cervesa, an "Imperial". very much like Corona. Second, the women here (not just the girls) wear the tightest jeans ever invented. I mean tight. Painted on. Really snug. Fashion .
Now, to go get our laundry (will I be missing a sock?)...
posted by Steve @
4:58 PM
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12.22.2003 |
If getting sunburnt felt like putting your hand on the stove, I think there would be less people getting sunburnt. But no, it sneaks up on you until, at some point relaxing on the boat after snorkelling you think, "Hey, are my feet a little pink? And is there a tightness to my shoulders? And gee, my thighs are kind of, well, warm." By then it's too late. I should know.
Here we are in Playa del Coco and I got sunburnt. Tomorrow is our day for suntanning and doing nothing. Today was for snorkelling. I always try to do everything at once. Stupid me. Rosemary just slowly bronzes and wonders what all the fuss is about. It's because she grew up further north where the ozone is weaker and her skin is two inches thicker. This will make suntanning tomorrow sweetly excrutiating, but a plan is a plan. I will soldier on.
Cano Negro was excellent and we saw lots of wildlife as promised - sloths (Rosemary's second expereince seeing a sloth. The first was seeing one "helped" off the road by a farmer as we passed by in the bus. She swears it was not dead, but gleefully hanging on to a shovel handle and thankful for being pulled from the road by the farmer, as a sloth on the road makes a very easy target to the big buses), 3 types of monkeys, birds galore, and caimans. We left La Fortuna and Volcan Arenal (which we never did really see) and made it to Playa del Coco yesterday. We're staying at an "upscale" B&B which is destroying our traveler status with the local backpacking crowd, but we thumb our noses at their unwashed hovels and laugh in their general direction while we sip pina coladas by the pool and tsk tsk about the poor. Sort of. It is a more exepnsive place than we usually go to, but hey, we're not travelling, we're on HOLIDAY!
Playa del Coco is a fine beach, but limited in what it offers. Not mch hiking around to be done, and the beach itself is so-so. However, the waves crash in making that whoosh sound, and the sun is hot, and it's possible to wander up from the beach and get lunch at a soda, or sit and have a cool beverage. More than I can do at home! There are lots of the usual brightly lit bars and restaurants and caft stalls you see the workd over at these beach destinations. Fortunatley, no high rises or jet skis, so still a feeling of "undeveloped". We wandered away from the beach and over in to the local fishing village of El Coco and bought water and said ola to lots of kids on bicycles. This to us was better than the beach in many ways. We may be on HOLIDAY but traveling is still traveling, and we can't help but want to see the country, and not just enjoy the location!
Laundry day tomorrow if we can muster the Spanish, and soon off to Monteverde and Santa Elena. Get my burned limbs back into the forest where they belong. Stupid beach. The snorkeling was good though, but not as good as elsewhere we've been. Nuff said of Playa del Coco. Off we go!
Probably won't be ableto email or phone call on Christmas from our cabina in the cloud forest, though, so mucho apologies to those we can't say FELIS NAVIDAD to on that day. You'll all be in our thoughts.
posted by Steve @
5:27 PM
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12.20.2003 |
Ola mes amigos! We arrived in San Jose safe and sound (after leaving a lengthy phone message for Wayne during the lengthy stop-over in Dallas-Fort Worth), and took a Taxis Unidos from the aiport to the Hotel Aranjeuz. The taxis are prepaid at a counter at the airport which is very handy for those not ready to bargain en español! Our driver was from Cuba, and so we listened to merengue and practiced our Spanish in the traffic jam on the highway.
The Hotel Aranjuez was true to its pictures on the website, with a lovely garden. However they hadn´t quite captured the noisy floor boards that creaked under every foot as weary travellers tried to sleep off the late nights and plane flights prior to arrival! However, we were glad to have booked ahead.
We explored San Jose the next morning, stopping off at the Jade Museum and also finding a Banco to get colones and dolares amricanos. San Jose is the usual bustle of honking cars and noisy buses along winding streets. Our hotel was in an older part of town, and some of the buildings were reflective of Spanish architecture and peublo design (arches, stucco, tile rooves). Lots of big concrete blocks and tin rooves as well. Tidier than many asian streets, the traffic is still "damn the lights and signs, go if you can". A pedestrian must keep their calbessa firmly in the game.
After a warm look around we hiked across town to the estacion Atlantico Norte and got on the bus to Ciudad Cesada (also called San Carlos). Of course, not before we stopped off at a Soda for a bite to eat. San Carlos is a smaller town, and we had thought of finding leather shops there, but they were not easily evident amidst the usual collection of cheap clothing and houseware stores. We decided that our time here was short and to push on to La Fortuna to see Volcan Arenal.
Right now, Volcan Arenal is hidden behind a lot of clouds and rain. Part of the dissapointments in travelling is that you can´t control the weather. So much for the dry season! We have both realized that traveling this time is very different when you have a definite time limit. We could have easily spent a day in San Carlos exploring, or lingered here in La Fortuna to see if the clouds lift from Arenal. But it´s onward - to Los Chiles and Caño Negro tomorrow to see widlife (if we can). And then the beach. Ahh, la Playa Coco...
posted by Steve @
9:31 AM
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12.17.2003 |
Via condios muchachos! We leave in 9.25 hours. We are packed and hopefully ready. I will make a decent attempt to Blog along the way!
posted by Steve @
9:47 PM
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12.13.2003 |
Blogger wasn't working properly in my browser - I'm not getting the "post" button. Dammit. If you can read this I figured it out.
From daily to weekly to monthly. My Blogging skills suck.
Got rear ended on the weekend, but t'was not my fault. Toodling along the Oak Street bridge, the car in front of us brakes, we brake, they brake harder, we brake harder and !WHUMP! we get nailed. Rosemary, her mum and myself all have sore backs from the incident. Went through the ICBC claims process today and they agreed t'was not my fault so no deductible. The damage, although not extremely visible, is about $2,000. Yikes. anyway, we drop the car off at an approved repair shop and it all gets looked after. Who says public insurance doesn't work?
We will have to leave the car off before we head on to.... COSTA RICA! Yes indeedily do we are going to the warm Central American heart land. Habla espana muay poco, pero mucho bonita! Donde es los banos, por favor? Etc.
Looking forward to time away from work! The newest recruiter is on the road to being a functional employee - she is doing well despite my guidance. The trips to the Sunshine Coast, Kelowna and Nanimo went very well, but I'm glad to be home. Hard to get anything done when you're not here.
Got paid for my commercial. Hope the Puerto Ricans love it. Gotta get a copy. no plays on the horizon but Mike P and I suspect we will be in the Vancouver Fringe next year. If we apply.
Word to Anna and Tris on the road in Krakow these days. An amazing trip you're having - thanks for the updates!
Hello to Dad in Laos! Hope your solo effort in teaching the Laotian masses clinical skills has not worn you out too much.
Christmas is coming. Again. We leave in 1.5 days. I assume it will still find us.
Happy holidays y’all!!
posted by Steve @
5:38 PM
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12.12.2003 |
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