Costa Rica Archives - Gainfully Unemployed

August 15, 2018August 15, 2018

San Ramon: City of Poets and Presidents…or Graffiti and Drunken Cowboys?

Apparently, San Ramon, Costa Rica is called “The City of Poets and Presidents” because several Costa Rican poets and presidents were born there. While I was there, I didn’t see any poets or presidents, but I did see plenty of graffiti and drunken cowboys. To their credit, both were spectacular in their own rights.

So why did Elani and I end up there in the first place? Well, because I had a “good idea.” Basically, we had two options for getting from La Fortuna to Samara. We could take the shuttle bus, which would have cost a bit over $100, or take public transport, which would be about $20, the down side being that it was supposed to take a couple hours longer and we’d have to changes buses at San Ramon. So I figured we’d take the cheap bus, and turn the stop into a couple of nights in San Ramon and explore a new city. Win win, right? Well, not really. The public buses were slow and crowded, and on one leg we had to stand up during the bus ride for about 4 hours, not awesome. Also, the bus leaving San Ramon was actually stopping outside the city, and figuring out where it stopped was kind of an ordeal, one that involved our lovely AirBnB hostess making a lot of calls to the bus company on our behalf. On top of that, the one we were supposed to catch never showed up, and we ended waiting another couple of hours on top of the hour early we got there in the first place. Was it all worth saving $80 bucks? Not even close, that had to be the hardest I’ve ever worked for $80 in my life, and I had some pretty crap jobs before heading off to college. Long story short, if it’s a straight shot from one city to another, the public buses work well, but once you need to transfer, it’s probably best just to pony up the dough. Unless your time is really worth a lot less than your money, that is.

Anyways, back to the drunken cow boys and cowgirls. I’m not talking about a couple of dudes in big hats stumbling around after having a few too many, either; I’m talking about hundreds of people on horseback, riding around the city. They were actually about the first thing we saw on arriving, or really before arriving, since our bus had to stop and wait for the parade of equestrians to pass before pulling into the depot. This was around 3 in the afternoon, and they looked moderately tipsy at worst by then. Next, we grabbed a taxi to where we were staying and spent a couple hours relaxing before walking back into town. By this time, the number of riders had decreased but there were still enough to stretch out for two or three blocks and a lot of them were getting pretty hammered by this point. It looked like this for a couple of city blocks:

Now imagine this spreading out for three city blocks
Taken by Elani

On top of that, the horse were pretty clearly getting a bit tired and stressed, and not all of them looked particularly inclined to go where the drunken humans on their backs were telling them to go. Fortunately, everything seemed more or less under control and the whole mob was being followed by some rather sober looking police officers on what looked to be rather calm and well trained horses, at least to my inexpert eyes. After getting tired of following the drunken mounted revelry and the smell of what I’ll generously assume was horse urine, we went off to find a place to eat and were lucky enough to run across a gastro pub (it had been awhile since I’d seen one of them) that specialized in pizza and micro brews. It was honestly one of the best meals we had in Costa Rica.

San Ramon’s finest making sure the cowboys and cowgirls to start too much trouble
Taken by Elani

Well, I didn’t see any poets while I was in San Ramon (at least, as far as I could tell), but their graffiti was stunning. Well, I should really say street art, because this wasn’t the usual “so and so was here” or crudely drawn phalluses, there was some really good stuff, and lots of it. Here are a few of the best ones Elani and I were able to find and photograph:

Judging by the street art, there are some pretty potent narcotics available in San Ramon
Taken by Elani

Sometimes you judge the graffiti – sometimes the graffiti judges you
Taken by Elani

That pretty much covers it for San Ramon. The day we left was mostly spent waiting for a bus and then waiting to get off of the bus. After that, it was time to settle into our last real destination in Costa Rica, the cozy little beach town of Samara.

August 10, 2018August 10, 2018

La Fortuna: Rio Celeste – Hands Down the Most Amazing River I’ve Ever Seen (and Swam In)

I want to wrap up the story of my time in La Fortuna, Costa Rica by writing about what I consider the high point of my time there – seeing Rio Celeste. Not that some face time with a sloth and soaking in the hot springs weren’t amazing experiences. But Rio Celeste is a true natural wonder and a river quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Its waters are a brilliant opaque azure blue that looks extra stunning set against the lush green Costa Rican jungle it runs through. But a picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ll save a little trouble:

Rio Celeste running through the jungle
Taken by Elani

To get there from La Fortuna takes an hour and a half by car. We rented one because the public transport there is not great and the tour operators are actually more expensive than the 50 USD it cost to rent a car for the day (no, it wasn’t anything fancy, Costa Rican car rentals are just really expensive). After parking and paying a guy $2 to park and/or watch our car (in all reality probably neither), we set off on a rather muddy path through the jungle. This part of the trip was quite nice in its own right, and had some rather picturesque, if small, residents. There were a couple of varieties of grass hopper that I didn’t find anywhere else. There was even one that had its legs stinking out to the side instead of up, as is the usual configuration:

A weird looking grasshopper
Taken by Elani

A group of brightly colored grasshopper hatchlings
Taken by Elani

There was a little lizard that, if I didn’t miss my mark, is a variety of anole, and whose camouflage was good but not good enough to fool this higher primate:

An anole trying very hard to be sneaky and mostly succeeding
Taken by Elani

And this little guy, a stick insect hatchling, who hitched a ride on me until I spotted him and left him on the some of the nearby foliage after a brief photo shoot:

On the roughly half hour hike to get to the river, Elani and I had caught a few glances of the river through the trees, then we came to the first clearing where we could get a close up view:

Me admiring the waters of Rio Celeste
Taken by Elani

Really, the pictures don’t do it justice. In part, that’s because there are so many enhanced photos out there, but really seeing that deep solid impenetrable blue with my own eyes was quite spectacular. But even though they don’t really capture it, I’m still going to keep including pictures, because they do look awesome:

We continued to follow the trail upstream, crossing the river a few times on bridges that stated rather explicitly that they were for one person at a time. Seeing a sign like always makes my engineering training kick in and I have to wonder, what safety factor did they use? I figure those bridges have to be good for at least one and a half people at a time, probably two if their small. Oh well, I guess it’s not a long drop anyway. The bridges did give me a chance to stare down into the waters. At this point (it turns out we were getting quite close to the source), I could really only see a few inches below the surface, and on the rocks and branches on the sides that I could see, there was a strange colored bluish/greenish algae that was weirdly close to the color of corroding copper.

I’m sure this bridge will hold
Taken by Elani

Continuing on, we came to what was the most remarkable (though I would say not the most stunningly beautiful) spot on the river. That was the place where it turns blue. That’s right, Reo Celeste is a normal looking clear river up to a certain point, but when a tributary flows into it, it turns that amazing milky blue. It’s not a gradual change either, there’s a sharp line in the river where the waters mix and all the sudden – boom, blue water. It’s pretty crazy. So what the hell is going on? Well, there are two explanations, and I like them both for different reasons, so I’ll relate them both. The first is that the main river contains aluminosilicate in suspension. The pH change at the mixing point causes the suspended particles to increase in size. The new larger sized particles now reflect blue spectrum light, giving the river its color. I summarized this off a surprisingly technical, though not well translated, sign in the park, so take it with a grain of salt. Or perhaps a particle of aluminosilicate might be more appropriate. The other explanation may lack a bit of scientific rigor, but it is rather poetic, a heck of a lot easier to remember, and does a nice job of catching the feeling of staring in wonder at those blue waters for the first time. It is that after painting the sky, Rio Celeste is where God dipped his paint brush. Well, either way, the spot where those rivers come together is where the magic or science or whatever happens. And it’s pretty amazing to see:

The mixing point where Rio Celeste turns blue
Taken by Elani

But what is probably most amazing is that the point where the color shifts isn’t even the most scenic part. We back tracked our way down river and took a path leading to a long (and fairly slippery) stairway that leads to a platform overlooking the most ridiculously beautiful waterfall I’ve ever seen:

Definitely one of those spectacles you just have to stand and stare at for a while. Unfortunately, even though those waters look cool and inviting, especially after a hike in 85 degree F heat, there is no swimming allowed in the park. Probably for the best really, not sure I really need to see a bunch of half naked tourists lining up to all get the perfect new profile picture. However, that’s not to say that Elani and I didn’t get a chance to take a dip. A couple miles from the park there is an overpass where you can pull over and head down to the water. In case you’re curious, the water doesn’t feel any different than normal water, but it has a slight metallic smell. The oddest thing about it was that you really couldn’t see more than a foot beneath the water and there were some rather larger boulders down there. But all in all, it was a great way to cool off and wrap up a day experiencing what is hands down the most amazing river I’ve ever seen (and swam in).

Elani enjoying a swim in Rio Celeste
Taken by Geoff

July 31, 2018

La Fortuna: The Nature Reserve

After skipping ahead in time to discuss my current adventures with the “king of fruit” it’s time to get back to the story of my time in La Fortuna, Costa Rica. There are quite a few parks around the area, and Elani and I decided to check out Mirador el Silencio. It’s a private reserve just outside of town in the jungle at the base of Arenal Volcano. As one might expect, the views of the volcano were quite good, although of course the peak was covered in clouds. I think we saw the peak about twice in the two weeks we were there.

Arenal Volcano with its typical cloud cover
Taken by Elani

The trails in the reserve lead up to the remains of the lava flow from the 1992 eruption. The flow itself isn’t a flat slab of rock like some, but rather a boulder field slowly being reclaimed by vegetation. In a few more decades, I imagine the whole thing will look pretty much like the rest of the jungle at the base of the volcano, but now it’s an eerie mix of short, bright green shrubs poking out between jagged black rocks.

Lave fields from Arenal’s 1992 eruption
Taken by Elani

Of course, being a nature reserve, there was plenty of flora and fauna. The forested parts were filled with huge trees whose branches serve as hosts to ferns, bromeliads and a slew of other plant life. Closer to ground level, we spotted orchids and some wonderful looking berries that I didn’t recognize, but I think we can assume were either delicious or deadly poisonous. I decided the safe option was not to find out

Every tree is basically its own aerial garden
Taken by Elani

Delicious or deadly poison..hmm
Taken by Elani

As is typical for Costa Rica, the bird life was in fine form. We spotted several of these large black birds that look like some sort distant relative to turkeys. Even the parking lots had some great sights, with a colony of Montezuma Oropendolas and a couple of Keel Billed Toucans.

What I like to refer to as a “proto-turkey”
Taken by Elani

A Montezuma Oropendolas – try saying that three times fast
Taken by Elani

However, the most exciting wildlife sightings had to be the monkeys. They were much too high up to photograph, unfortunately. But we saw two species, the howler monkey which we’d definitely heard before but only seen once, and spider monkeys, in the only sighting we would ultimately have of them. The spider monkeys were by far the most impressive. A small group of about half a dozen went swinging through the treetops way above our heads. Spider monkeys are athletic and fearless even by monkey standards, and watching a group swinging through the treetops at speeds I’d be hard pressed to match sprinting on flat ground was something to behold. After all that, we hopped in our rental car and headed off to unwind with a relaxing dip in the hot springs before heading back to town for dinner. It was a great way to spend a day exploring.

July 5, 2018

La Fortuna: Getting Around On Two Wheels

One of the major problems with Fortuna is that, other than going to restaurants and shops, there’s not that much to do in town, which means walking isn’t that great of an option for transport when sightseeing. That leaves three options: renting a car (which thanks to some shenanigans with rental agencies and insurance, starts at $50 a day), taking a cab (great for short distances), or renting a scooter. The latter is a bit more affordable for short trips, since it came in at $30 a day including a full tank of gas, and really, unless you’re a hardcore scooterist, you’re pretty likely run out of stamina before you run out of gas. During our time in Fortuna, Elani and I tried all three, but when it comes to the actual experience of traveling, the scooter was the most memorable.

Our first outing was a trip to one of the local waterfalls, then out to the free hot springs. We rented a scooter with an automatic transmission and 125cc of raw power. We were given reflective bandoliers and helmets that, let’s just say, would not have passed Department of Transportation standards, and off we went. Carrying two full size adults, a scooter that size didn’t accelerate or stop particularly well, but we got along well enough, and after a couple of trips around the block for kicks, it was off to the waterfall. After a long ride up a rather steep hill (during the steepest part, I had to completely open up the throttle to keep speed up), we made it to a park with a lovely little orchid garden and, of course, a rather stunning waterfall.

First view of Fortuna Falls
Taken by Elani

After going down WAY too many steps, we were treated to closer views of the waterfall and a chance to have a swim in the pools downstream.

Swimming downstream of the falls
Taken by Elani

Then it was off to the hot springs. I’ve already written about them here, but suffice to say it was a very relaxing time. The drive out there was a bit longer then I thought. A 10 minute car ride turned into a 15-20 scooter trip, but it was a nice day, so no biggy. On the way back however, it was twilight and it started raining. A 20 minute drive on a heavily loaded scooter on a major road, in dark and rain with no windshield (no idea why they thought that was a non-essential piece of equipment) was pretty much “exciting” enough to undo all the relaxing I had gotten in the hot springs, though on the plus side, it was the first time I’d felt too cold since I’d left the mountain town of Monteverde. But despite a bit of white knuckling it on the way back, it was quite lovely day of scootering.

I evidently hadn’t had enough, because a couple days later, I rented another little bike to keep myself amused while Elani was working. This one was a still a 125cc, but it was a proper little motorcycle with a manual transmission and everything. Still hardly a power house, but I did get it up to 80 kph (or 50 mph if you’re into that kind of thing) before I decided that was probably faster than is really necessary on a contraption like this. I decided to head out to the town of La Tigre, because it sounded cool. Lovely drive, but I was hoping for a bit more out a town named for one of the fiercer land predators on earth. Well, what’s in a name, anyway? The most excitement probably came for crossing a bridge. Here’s a picture of me by said bridge:

Me and my “trusty” steed
Taken by the dude at the roadside restaurant

Doesn’t look too bad, right? Well, the driving surface was a steel grid that shifted unnervingly and had a few slats missing. Not enough to drop a tire into, but with skinny little tires, I didn’t want to find out how much that would disrupt my path. But I crossed twice without incident and stopped for a snack at the restaurant where that picture was taken. I ordered a “cheese snack,” which turned out to just be two thick slices of cheese on two store bought tortillas, so not exactly fine dining. But hey, it was cheap, and the proprietor offered to take a picture of me with my trusty steed.

Well, it was nice to get a chance to try out the one the most popular local form of transport, and even with a few rough roads, nerve racking bridges, and rain storms, it left me having a few fond thoughts of my own poor neglected motorcycle patiently waiting for me back home.

July 3, 2018

La Fortuna: Soaking in the Hot Springs

One of the main tourist draws to La Fortuna is the abundance of thermal hot springs to soak in. There is a pretty wide range of development, luxury, and of course cost to choose from. Everything from a free trip down to the river by the bridge to $85 for a half day (and dinner of course) in carefully built and maintained pools at the high end luxury spas. We mostly stuck to the free hot spring, though we did spring for an evening at one of the fancier places just to see what all the fuss was about.

I’ll start with the fancy place. It was $70 for a half days with dinner. Drinks were not included, although to my surprise, they weren’t overcharging for them (though I think they could have been a bit more generous with the pours on the mixed drinks). We chose this place because it was supposed to have some of the best natural surroundings, and it didn’t disappoint. It was a few miles out of town and set into the jungle – they did a great job of landscaping and building the pools so that it fit nicely into the surroundings. I don’t remember how many pools it had, but there were plenty. They started at the top with a waterfall that was really too hot to spend more than a few minutes in and flowed through the rest of the resort with more pools in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and temperatures all the way down to unheated river water. So we spent the few hours trying out the different pools, getting a little too hot, then cooling off and going back again, with the cycle broken up by a trip to the poolside bar for drinks. After dinner (which I think I’d call fine, not mind-blowing), it was getting pretty dark and it was a good time to head to the farthest downstream pool, which was a great place to watch the fireflies buzzing around in the treetops. All in all, it was a great way to spend the evening. However, at the end of the day, the luxury and convenience of this place made it feel a bit canned. Everything was safe, secure, and taken care of. The people there were all tourists, the food was a bit “institutional,” the grounds themselves were too man-made. Basically the only thing that really felt local was the water. Which is why at the end of the day, I think I enjoyed going to the free hot springs quite a bit more.

The free hot springs in Fortuna are right before the big lines of huge resorts on your way into town. You park on the side of the road just after a bridge (usually giving the guys directing traffic and parking, probably unofficially, a couple of bucks) and wander down to the river. Once at the river you can either head to a number of little pools downstream or, like I usually ended up doing, head upstream under the bridge and find a comfortable spot to sit among the rocks. The water in the river wasn’t really hot, just warm, but considering that the air temperature was anything but cold in Fortuna, that was fine with me. Unlike the high end hot resort hot springs, this place has a nice mix of locals and travelers, and though it was crowded enough at times that you’d have a wait before you could snag one of the most choice spots, there was always somewhere decent to sit, and the scene was friendly and vibrant. However, the social scene wasn’t what made it stand out to me. There were two striking details that made this place completely different from any hot spring I’d been to either in Costa Rica or elsewhere. The first was that it was just a river, no walls or benches or any of the other niceties you’d expect to find a in even a semi-constructed hot spring. It was just rocks and sand, and it was up to you to find a comfy spot to sit. The second was that being a river, the water was flowing. I’ve never really felt anything quite like being in water flowing just a little cooler then body temperature, it is EXTREMELY relaxing. One of my favorite parts was finding a little rapid I could sit under and wedge myself against a rock so I could almost completely relax. It was pretty much like getting a whole body massage. The couple of time Elani and I were able to stay at the hot springs until twilight, we were rewarded with sightings of bats and fireflies in the darkening treetops.

While the resort hot springs were certainly nice in their way, when it came right down to it, the free hot springs had what I really look for when I’m traveling – the chance to experience something truly unique to the place I’m visiting.

June 13, 2018June 13, 2018

Off to La Fortuna – Sorry, I Mean Fortuna

After our stay in the land of expats – Arenal – it was time to jump right back into a major tourist destination with La Fortuna, or just Fortuna, as it is pretty much always called, much like Nuevo Arenal is almost exclusively called Arenal. I was corrected for calling both Arenal and Fortuna by their full names, so Costa Ricans (or Ticos for short) seem to take not saying more words then is strictly necessary fairly seriously. There’s probably a good lesson for me there, I’m at a hundred words and I haven’t even told you much about the town yet. Alright, back on track.

Anyways, the most obvious feature of Fortuna is Arenal Volcano, usually half covered in clouds, which juts into the sky just a few miles outside town. Until relatively recently (2010, I believe) there were almost nightly displays of lava flowing down the sides of the volcano, which is really what built Fortuna up as a tourist destination. Since the flow suddenly stopped, tourism has taken a bit of a hit, and the town has a bit of a “not at capacity” feeling, but there is still plenty of natural beauty, thermal hot-springs, and adventure activities to keep folks coming.

I got a chance to have a little preview of Fortuna for an afternoon even before moving out of Arenal. A former coworker of mine was vacationing in Costa Rica, and I took the bus over to meet up with him while he was staying in Fortuna. With a couple of nice folks he met at his hostel, we went for a walk around Arenal National Park and then hung out at the natural hot springs. The park offered a few great views of the volcano and wild life (including my first, but not last, sighting of monkeys). Here’s a shot of me taken in front of the volcano:

The hot springs were basically thermal vents feeding into a river, which is pretty awesome, I must say. Warm (but not really hot water) flowing over you is a pretty great way to relax.

It was only a couple of days later that Elani and I headed over to Fortuna from Arenal (the town, to be clear) for our two week stay here. We got a nice little place through AirBnB that was a few blocks outside of the main downtown, which has a nice little park and church at its center. As with most places in town there was a pretty great view of the volcano to be had there – when the clouds weren’t in the way:

Elani Posing on the fountain in the park in Fortuna
Taken by Geoff

The town itself wasn’t particularly large, but here there were plenty of decent places to eat, including an honest to goodness sushi joint, which was a nice change of pace. Not the best sushi I’ve ever eaten, but perfectly edible and they certainly didn’t skip on the portions:

Really why would you put sushi in anything except a boat?
Taken by Elani

After a few quiet days of chilling out and eating too much sushi it was time to get out and take in what Fortuna has to offer, starting with meeting a new fat little flower-eating friend.

June 13, 2018

La Fortuna: Making Friends in High Places

Well, first of all, let me apologize for the joke in the title. It is very dumb and really should be beneath me, but clearly it’s not – I’m sorry. But that’s all in the past now, it’s time to move forward. Ahem, anyways, one of our first adventures out in Fortuna was to check out a “sloth experience” run by a local farmer. Basically, he found an abandoned baby sloth, fed it, gave it a place to stay in his garden, and now he’s got a permanent house guest.

So the experience started by learning a little about his farm and how to make juice out of sugar cane, and a sample of fresh sugar cane juice. Then we took a walk out to the garden and stood around awkwardly with several other tourists and our guide waiting for our star to make her entrance:

Badoke making her entrance
Taken by Elani

A little late but, you know she is a sloth after all. Her name is Badoke, which basically means chubby. Which may not be the kindest nickname, but it was fairly accurate. I guess life is pretty easy when all you have to do for your supper is hang around and be adorable. So, after a bit or waking up and a proper amount of scratching herself, it was time for breakfast. What else, flowers eagerly handed to her by her adoring fans. Here’s Elani feeding her one her favorites, avocado flowers:

Time to get some breakfast
Taken by Geoff

More eating and posing, she makes breakfast look good:

What doesn’t everyone look this good when they get up in the morning?
Taken by Elani

And a bit of working the audience:

Making friends
Taken by a helpful person who’s name I’m afraid I didn’t get

The camera loves you, Badoke:

She calls that look “fluffy steel”
Taken by Elani

After 20 minutes or so of showing off for the tourists she made her way off to her favorite avocado tree to finish up breakfast – which I imagine rolls neatly into lunch – in peace. It was a pretty great experience. It wasn’t the last time we saw sloths in Fortuna, there were actually some wild ones living a few blocks from our apartment that our host kindly showed us, but it was certainly the closest look we got of one. Meeting a chubby new tree-climbing friend was definitely one the highlights of our stay here.

May 11, 2018

Nuevo Arenal: Live the Life of a Retired Expat

Do you dream of retiring and moving somewhere warm and tropical, where people live a slower, more deliberate life? Well, come to Nuevo Arenal, and you can see what that looks like every time you walk by a bar or café. Now, you’ll find expats littered all over Costa Rica, but what make them stand out in Arenal (I’m going to save myself the trouble of writing Nuevo every time and just call it Arenal – like everyone else in the area) is that there’s not much else there. So what you have is a town that, if left to its own devices, would be a place for local farmers to buy groceries and supplies and for travelers to get a tank of gas and a bite to eat. But the weather is pleasant and the views of the lake and volcano (both also named Arenal) are decent, but not good enough to attract significant tourism – so a bunch of old gringos moved in and brought with them enough restaurants and shops to keep them happy.

A view of the hills at sunset behind some typical houses in Arenal
Taken by Elani

So, why did me and Elani end up there for 12 days? Because there’s kiteboarding in the area. Bet you didn’t see that coming. Also, it looked a like a nice place to chill and relax with enough restaurants and good enough Internet to keep us happy and Elani working. It was a good place to settle in for a few days and change gears from being in tourist mode in Monteverde to living at a more sustainable pace while traveling.

Getting there was pretty straight forward. We took a public bus to Tilaran (what, you’ve never heard of Tilaran?), the closest city to Arenal, and our AirBnB host offered to pick us up there, partly as an excuse to runs some errands. He was, as you probably could have guessed, a mostly retired ex-pat who owned an apartment building that was built by another old ex-pat, and rented mainly to other old ex-pats. It was a nice little apartment, nothing fancy, but with everything we needed to be comfortable for a couple of weeks.

The town itself was cute, with two main roads formed an “L” and had most of the shops bars and restaurants. At the end of one of the roads was a nice looking little church that overlooked the soccer fields – you know, exactly want you might expect from a pleasant Costa Rican town.

Arenal’s church and soccer fields.
Taken by Elani

It was pretty common to see views of Arenal Volcano from spots in the town – it didn’t have the commanding presence that it did in our next stop, La Fortuna but it was quite picturesque.

Arenal Volcano seen over over Neuvo Arenal.
Taken by Elani

In town, there honestly wasn’t a lot to do other then taking a walk, eating, and drinking. But those were pretty worthwhile activities, since the scenery was pleasant and sightings of keel billed toucans (for the uninitiated, those are the ones that look like Toucan Sam), vultures, and other birds were fairly common, and Arenal definitely punches above its weight with respect to the food scene. There were several good options for pizza (which is pretty much the second option you’ll find in Costa Rican after Costa Rican food), local, and American-ish. We had some admirable burgers and pasta at a place right next to the lake.

Lake view restaurant in Arenal
Taken by Elani

But the real standout restaurant was the “Gingerbread.” The chief was an American-trained Israeli chief with a gregarious attitude and a rather foul mouth. We ordered a 5 course chief’s menu and were by no means disappointed or underfed. The first two courses were a roast duck quesadilla and a wild mushroom cream with fresh bread. They were followed by a Greek salad, fish, and fillet minion. Which were then followed by a multi element desert with ice cream, cake, passion fruit seeds, and some things I’m sure I’m forgetting. Everything was great, but I think the first two courses were the winners.

Roast duck quesadilla and creamed wild mushrooms at The Gingerbread restaurant
Taken by Elani

I’m writing this a bit after the fact, so now that it’s been a couple months, I’d say the most memorable part was – not surprisingly – the kiting. On Lake Arenal, there’s really just the one launch. It’s run by a nice Brit who’s been running it for the last 19 years that it’s been a vacation spot of sailboarders and, more recently, kiters. It was probably still a bit more of a sailboarder spot then a kiter spot, but there wasn’t any of the silly rivalry that sometimes pops up between the two groups. Everyone was very friendly, so there was always someone to shoot the shit with on breaks between sessions or when waiting for the wind to pick up. Since I didn’t have a rental car, the trip out there was a bit of a slog on the public buses with all my gear. On top of that, there wasn’t really a stop where I needed to get off (which is fairly typical for Costa Rican buses) so on the return trip, I had to wait until the bus went by (which could vary quite a bit) and flag the driver down. Oh well – after a couple times, it was pretty much routine.

The conditions on Arenal aren’t perfect, and I can see why it hasn’t become one of the kiting meccas of the world. The launch was tricky, the wind is fairly gusty and variable, and the water is fairly choppy, but not choppy enough for wave riding. On the other hand, the wind was certainly a fair sight tamer than at Playa Copal (a welcome change, I must say) and there was pretty much always enough of it. Also, the temperatures were warm enough to never even consider a wetsuit, the scenery had excellent views of Mount Arenal in the background, and as I mentioned, there was a nice contingent of friendly sail- and kiteboarders around. One particularly friendly sailboarder – Ted – was taking pictures between outings and was nice enough to send some of me along and let me use them here. This one does a great job of making me look awesome and showing off the views of the mountain:

Kiting on Lake Arenal
Taken by Ted the sailboarder

March 30, 2018

Monteverde: Time at Home

I thought I’d end my series of Monteverde posts by writing a little bit about where Elani and I stayed for the last five days there. It was a little place we found on AirBnB called Cabinas la Montana. A wonderful local family had built three little cabins on their property, and it was somewhere on the spectrum between a bed and breakfast and a homestay. Usually, I’m not too invested in where I’m staying while traveling. It’s a place to sleep, maybe do a little writing or reading, and sometimes cook. Nowadays, it needs Internet and a workspace for Elani. As long as it has the stuff we need, I don’t think much more about it. But this place ended up being one of my favorite parts of the trip.

The cabins were a bit out of town, about a half an hour walk or a $3 cab ride, and at the end of a full day, we pretty much always took the cab ride. It was set off from the road in a nice chunk of forest, with several paths to explore on the rare days when we had free time during daylight. It wasn’t quite the stunning lush greenery of the nature reserves, but it was fun to explore nonetheless. There was a pretty amazing ficus tree:

Me in front of a epic ficus tree
Taken by Elani

And hosts of leaf cutter ants making lines all through the forest as they carried leaves back to their hives:

Leaf cutter ants hard at work
Taken by Elani

The most impressive animal sightings we had were the birds. They had figured out that after breakfast, there would pretty much always be fresh fruit scraps added to the compost pile. That meant that we got great views of the little emerald toucans almost every day, and some motmots made an appearance one day as well:

An emerald toucan preparing to raid the compost pile
Take by Elani

A motmot waiting for scraps
Taken by Elani

But the things that really made our stay a memorable experience was the time spent with the other guests and our host family. The day started out at with breakfast, which was a great home cooked spread of coffee, fresh fruit, sausage, plantains, eggs, pancakes, and gallo pinto. Gallo pinto is a mix of beans and rice, and it’s in pretty much every Costa Rican breakfast. It’s usually just the sum of its parts, but Terri’s (the mother of the host family) gallo pinto was above and beyond, and I was excited to eat it every morning. This was also a great time to talk to the other guests, a Germany couple traveling with their 4-year-old and a nice middle-aged American couple. All of them were great folks, and it was fun to compare our adventures around the Monteverde area. Our host family was amazing. They did an excellent job of making staying there more like a homestay then a hotel, while still giving us a private cabin to retreat to at the end of the day (that’s a very nice feature if you’re an introvert like me). As I mentioned, Terri was the mother of the family. While everyone pitched in and were very helpful and friendly, Terri took on most of the running of the bed and breakfast, so she was the one me an Elani got to know best. She was also one of the most mom-ish moms I’ve ever met. Her daughter described her mothering as “extra”, which was said with a fair amount of teenage exasperation, but was apt none the less. She cooked a hearty breakfast every morning, put up with Elani’s limited and my even more limited Spanish, helped us navigate Costa Rican transportation, did a load of laundry and refused money for it, tried (unsuccessfully) to pay us for moving some computer files around for her, took a morning to teach us the secrets of cooking her amazing gello pinto, and was just generally kind and caring towards us. When we left, Elani said she almost teared up. I of course didn’t, why would you even think that (sniff).

Watching the sunset at a spot a short walk from our cabin
Taken by Elani

March 24, 2018April 2, 2018

Monteverde: the Deconstructed Mocha Tour

It’s actually a coffee, chocolate and sugar tour, get it? Well, I laughed, at any rate. That aside, with all the wandering around nature reserves and zip-lining, it was nice to take a chill afternoon and work on getting a pleasant sugar/caffeine buzz.

The tour was mostly what you might expect. You wander around a plantation with a guide who explains the process of making coffee, chocolate, and sugar. The view from the coffee fields was pretty impressive, I must say:

View from coffee fields with the Nicoya Peninsula in the background.
Taken by Elani

Then the guide shows you the machines that are used and explains the processes. I’m not going to go into that, since if you actually want to know, I’m sure Wikipedia can do a better job than I can. Of course, they’re generous with the samples throughout the tour. It was the first time since our trip to Bali that me and Elani got eat raw cacao, a favorite of both of ours. The bean themselves are quite bitter and not great to eat at this stage, but they are surrounded by a sweet pulp that tastes more like lychee then chocolate. It’s very good, and a rare treat (for us at any rate).

Cacao pods on on the bush
Taken by Elani

Cacao pods and beans set out to ferment
Taken by Elani

My favorite section was probably the sugar. We got to taste raw sugar cane, which was very tasty, sweet with a taste sort of like how fresh cut grass smells. They gave out samples of the Costa Rican version of moonshine – made from sugar cane juice. It was…um…bracing. They showed us the pressing machine, both the new high-tech water wheel type, and the old school oxen powered one. Then they had us try mixings the boiled-down syrup into sugar. To do that, you stir the hot syrup with a wooden paddle until it cools and crystallizes. The warm sugar was my favorite sample, it basically tasted like molasses, but fresher and sweater. Awesome!

Me turning syrup into sugar
Taken by Elani

Finally they gave us a cup of coffee and for some reason a taco filled with a root vegetable called aracha – which was very good, Elani’s favorite actually. Then they drop you off in the gift shop where they have more coffee samples. At the end of the tour we were thoroughly satisfied, if a little over caffeinated.