Pura vida

Lately, I have ended up taking more shuttles than I wanted to. Sometimes, just to get me to the place where I want to be and other times because I feared it won’t work with public transportation. Anyway, we start off in Tortuguero…

After arrival with boat in Tortuguero and walking into the hotel I saw a sign “for sale”. I was considering it and even talked to the owner. The only hickup being that the price was not 40.000 USD like the guide said but 10 times that. I’m out…back to being a tourist 🙂
That same evening I made a night walk with that guide (yes, the one who confuses numbers…but not animals). In the beginning, it seemed like half the village had that idea. But after some time we were quite alone. I did see the red-eyed tree frog and thought how imaginative the English language is. I mean, yes, it has red eyes and yes, it lives on a tree 😉
Unfortunately, the turtle hatching season was almost over. We did not see any little ones making it to the sea. Next evening, I saw some track in the sand but must have been minutes too late. That day it had beautiful weather but I managed to do nothing. I was just exhausted.
The good thing was that the next morning it rained during my kayak tour 😉

With the public taxi boat I left the island and took a bus towards San José. The road passed through Parque nacional Braulio Carrillo and the sights were fantastic. Again, I wished I had a car.
San José – like in so many cities it smells like piss, decay, garbage and people are lying in the streets.
I spent 2 nights there and the second one I could have missed. Not much to see in this town.

One bus later I was in La Fortuna. This is home to the Parque nacional vulcano Arenal. A vulcano that was active until 2010, after surprisingly erupting in 1968. You can do all kinds of things here. Especially adrenaline filled stuff, like zip lining etc. I am not into that stuff and not willing to pay 60 USD for it anyway.
Instead, I managed to waste a whole day. The story goes like this. During the night and in the morning it was raining heavily. Also, the forecast for the complete stay said rain. That pissed me off so much that I got angry and demotivated. As stated in other blogs, I then move in a Rollercoaster thinking why those things always happen to me. The funny part (now) is that at 9:30 am the rain stopped and didn’t come back until after the sunset. Well done, Matthias. At least, I managed to go to a sloth trail, just to see one very far away.

The next day, I went to the national park. There are no public buses. Either you have a car, join a tour or, like me, take a taxi (10 USD). Fortunately for me, there was no electricity at the entrance station so no credit card machine worked and they didn’t accept cash. I got in for free under the “promise” to pay later (which I didn’t).
It’s a nice hike and I was especially blown away by one tree. It was gigantic. The sign said it’s 30 meters high and 400 years old. And it survived all the eruptions so far. From 2 lookouts you can see the vulcano and also the (man-made) Arenal lake.
Right beside the national park is the 1968 trail, where you can see the old lava flow. They wanted 19 USD just for the entrance. Fuck off.
I still was not back in La Fortuna and still had no car. Today was not the day for hitchhiking…I wasn’t in the mood. So, I made my way to the El Silencio trail and the entrance of 8 USD seemed reasonable. A long trek, lots of good views (also towards the 1968 lava flow) and as the name promises: silence. I met 2 Canadians, who gave me a lift back to town 😀

To get to Monteverde you have to take a shuttle. It’s actually a bus-boat-bus as one part goes over lake Arenal.
Monteverde is one of the top coffee growing areas in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is only producing Arabica. So, a coffee tour was obligatory. Yes, it was quite touristy and professional but still a nice enough experience. In case you don’t know the process. The beans are picked when they are red. The guy gets between 1 and 2 USD per basket. And it takes a good while until you fill one. Then the shell is removed and the beans washed. Drying is next and then sorting according to size. Roasting happens at the client’s place.
I was rather shocked the next day. I walked to the Reserva biológica Bosque Nuboso Monteverde. But the shock was not the walk, neither the forest but charging 25 USD for the entrance. Insane. But they can do it. When there, you will do it anyway…like me. In the end, it was like another girl said, an expensive walk in a forest. Of course you can take a guide and that should increase your chance of seeing wildlife. But I had the imagination that Costa Rica is bustling with wildlife and it is not. Another tourist confirmed that 20 years ago it was different. No idea what the reason for this is.

Yet another shuttle later and I am in Montezuma. Originally, I wanted to go to Sámara first. But since it seemed so difficult I didn’t want to move there and then again to Montezuma. It’s off the list.
I had another low point yesterday morning. I was already tired from the 2 nights in Monteverde as it felt like the street was going right through my room. I booked a (for me) quite expensive hotel in Montezuma because I wanted to enjoy the sea view and quietness. I didn’t count on it being Saturday night and it took until 3am that the music stopped. An angry Matthias awoke at around 5:30am as other people decided to play some more music. I wanted to leave. But before, a trip to the Reserva Absoluta Natural Cabo Blanco was on the list. With 2 other fellows I took a taxi and we started our hike to the beach. The trail was muddy and not really enjoyable. I mean, I was a bit disappointed by the beach there. I’ve seen better ones and with an easier approach 😉 But the day was really good and I enjoyed being out there and not in my head all the time. Moods change!
My complaining worked and I got another room. I’m happy to report that I slept much better 😀

Why Pura vida in the title? It’s an expression, a way of life, used often here…bordering on overusing it. They use it for hello, goodbye, thank you…whatever. I think the picture explains it better: