Hello again,
We are currently in San Jose, we leave for home tomorrow. So soon the trip is over!! But I will recap you all on the past few days of activities and travel.
After we were in Monteverde, we took a shuttle, then a boat, then another shuttle from Monteverde to La Fortuna where Arenal Volcano is. The ride there was absolutely beautiful! It was through rolling fields of green grass, foothills and views of the volcano and lake. And there was a bunch of cows too. We stopped along the way at a little rest stop place, and I made friends with a dog by giving him lots of treats. I had a loaf of bread. I have been giving all the doggies treats that I see if I have food because I feel so bad for them and they are all so hungry and I dont have Sadie and Sam to spoil right now.
So we get dropped off at our hostel in La Fortuna and were super excited, this hostel had a pool with a swim up bar, airconditioning, views of the volcano, pretty much an amazing hostel, but....when we got there, the guy said we DIDNT have a reservation. Even though we had the RESERVATION IN OUR HANDS!! He claimed that the site we booked it through (hostelz.com) never sent them the reservation, and they were full for the night and there was nothing he could do for us. I was pissed. Not only had I emailed the hostel directly the day I booked through the booking site, and they replied in the affirmative that they had my reservation, I emailed every place we were staying at a few days before we left and got confirmations from everyone, INCLUDING this one. I got in a huge screaming fight with this guy because he was an arrogant asshole. He said it wasnt his fault, his staff never sent me any emails and it was all the sites fault blah blah blah. At this point, there was nothing that could be done because of the place being full, but he wouldnt even apologize or recognize that his staff screwed up and lost our reservation, or over booked or something, since I had been confirmed twice through email, oh and we paid a deposit. So I told him he had to pay for a hotel for us, he refused and then I just went off screaming at him telling him how horrible a business he runs and blah blah blah Kristina made me leave because she knew nothing was going to be done about it. I have never in my life met such a rude person in the hospitality industry. And keep in mind, he was extremely arrogant and rude prior to the yelling, which is why I did so. He returned to us immediately saying, this isnt my fault, but you cant stay here. grrr. anyways, I calmed down and we walked down the street in the extreme heat with all our crap and stayed in another hotel. I wanted a pool and ac, so we ended up staying in a hotel that was $60 a night, so $30 for each of us, when we were going to be paying $12. But oh well, what can you do. It came with a huge full nice breakfast though, and it was a really nice hotel ($60 gets you a lot here) and we even had a tv and watched some movies with Julia Roberts in them that night (there was a marathon on).
That same day we went to the waterfall called La Catarata. This was absoultely amazing. You walk down this super steep walkway of stairs and trail for about 15 min to get to the waterfall. It is totally undisturbed and beautiful, and there werent that many people there. First we swam up stream in the streamish river thing, the water was SOOO cold from what is has been on the trip, but there were fish in it just swimming on by next to us. After that we went (well I did( and swam near the base of the waterfall. I had never swam near a waterfall, it is extremely hard. The pressure is crazy. But it was such a rush, people afraid of water would not like this, it was definately one of the coolest things I have ever done. After that we climbed up the crazy hill of stairs which sucked and went had dinner and went to bed.
The next day we went to Tabacon hot springs. The hot springs were utterly amazing and beautiful and indescribable unless you have seen them. They are the worlds number 1 rated hotsprings and ridiculously expensive to get into, 70 dollars. But worth every penny. The water in the hotsprings was crazily hot, way hotter then any hottub I have ever been in, you could only be in them for a bit before you felt exhausted. Kristina and I went a little crazy and splurged and got massages in their spa. It is so nice also, there is a hotel on the grounds and both the hotel and spa are both five star places, which if you are farmiliar with the travel industry, there are very very few places around the world rated at five stars. Needless to say this place was the nicest place I have ever been in. We had massages outside in a bungalow, there wasnt even music because there were natural jungle sounds and waterfalls right next to us. It really was amazing. After the massages, we left the hotsprings to go on a volcano hike in the pouring rain. It turned out to be a rainforest hike, where we saw the volcano from a distance at the end, which it was NOT advertised as. Lots of people were upset. It was thundering and lightening and pouring like crazy while we were outside and lots of people had umbrellas, so it was kinda scary. We saw the volcano erupt a little and lava come out, so that was cool. Afterwards, we returned to the hotsprings and had a delicous buffet dinner. Hands down the best buffet I have ever eaten at. We met two guys from Manhattan in the hotsprings that we hung out with the rest of the night, they had both been to Europe so we talked about traveling a lot so that was cool.
The following day we headed on a 6 hour van ride from La Fortuna to Manuel Antonio, which is on the Pacific Coast. 6 hours in a van is fun. not. We met some cool people though, and I took lots of dramamine and even sat in the front seat, so i didnt get sick at all. the driver spoke no english so I got to talk to him in spanish a lot of the way, so that was really cool for me, and he even had me do some translating. There was this older couple in their 70s on the van that traveled a ton and acted like newlyweds, they were really cool. Very inspirational. They even ziplined in La fortuna. We got to Manuel Antonio and checked into our hostel, it had an amazing view of the ocean. There was the cutest puppy, I am forgetting the name of the kind of dog, it was white and fluffy and tiny and my Aunt Stacey has one. Anyways, it was super cute and wiggly. Her name was Miga, meaning crumb in spanish, she was so cute! We headed to the beach and just shopped around from the outdoor vendors and just laid on the beach.
Our second day in Manuel Antonio we went white water rafting! It was a little intense. The safety briefing was like 20 or 30 min, so I knew we were in for a crazy experience. As soon as we got on the raft, we literally went down a rapid like 15 seconds later and all I thought was oh my god what have we gotten ourselves into this time.... The first couple rapids were insanely scary, but also gave you a crazy rush, you get totally covered in water, its like you are underwater, and depending on the slope you sometimes go in the air. It was pretty intense. Half way through we stopped and walked to a water fall. They wanted us to walk under it and then pose for a picture. There was a crazy guy on a kayak chasing us getting pictures. So walking under the waterfall was kinda crazy. It felt like you were getting beaten. I wasnt sure where I was supposed to exit it from, but I saw people getting out so I stepped backwards but the current caught under my foot and swept me up. I couldnt stand up or even stop myself because the water pressure was so strong. I was tumbling down the waterfall pooling area hitting rocks not knowing how I would stop. Well I eventually stopped. I saw a group of four guys posing in front to get their picture taken and I knew I couldnt stop myself, so I just crashed into them. They stopped me, haha. Thankfully they were these like buff body builder guys so they didnt also get knocked over. Their picture was really funny, I saw it later, it had me rolling into them, haha. Kristina, well and everyone else, saw me and were like are you ok, are you ok! I was fine, just a little shaken up and embarrassed. Thankfully I have no fear of water, otherwise it could have been a bad experience. Kristina said she started panicking under the waterfall and felt like she couldnt breath, she has a mild fear of water, so lets just be thankful it was me tumbling through the rapids, haha. After that we got back in our rafts and went down a bunch more rapids. Once you got the hang of it, it was just amazing. Our last rapid was called the widow maker, the scariest one. Our raft almost flipped on that rapid, but our guide was able to stop it. It would have been kinda cool to flip, or at least for me haha. Rafting gives you such an adrenaline rush, I would definately reccommend it to anyone. I want to do it more now. After the rafting, we went to the beach and I went swimming. The water was soooo warm and nice. I also got another massage on the beach because my back was in severe pain from my first ridicilously expensive massage! This one was 20 bucks for about 45 minutes and was hands down, the best massage of my life. And I have had at least 20 professional messages. It was kinda weird towards the end though...the lady massaged me with her feet. But whatever. When in Rome, right. Our hostel had hammocks out on a deck overlooking the ocean and I got lots of reading done, it was very relaxing.
On our last day in Manuel Antonio, we went to the National Park. We hired a guide and so tons of animals. It was really awesome. We even saw a mommy monkey carring a baby monkey! It was soo cute and cool. We saw lots of monkeys, white faced monkeys, howler monkeys and squirrel monkeys, tons of iguanas and lizards, frogs, birds, a raccoon and I am sure more that I am forgetting. Oh, and Kristina and termites there. haha. I passed. Afterwards we had planned on going to the beach, which we did, but it was raining. We were hoping it would let up, because it usually rains every early afternoon for about an hour, so we rented beach chairs and an umbrella and waited out the storm. Well, it never let up. It just got continually worse. Since then, it hasnt stopped raining in Costa Rica. They have insane amounts of rain here, the rain pounds so hard, and just opens up and starts dumping without any warning, it is kinda insane. Seattle has nothing on Costa Rica.
Today, our last full day in Costa Rica, we took a shuttle up to San Jose. The same old couple was on our shuttle again! And I forgot to add that we saw them twice and hung out with them once. They were really awesome people. The lady had traveled through Central America 35 years ago, impressive huh? There were some other cool people on the shuttle that we talked with. One of which that just finished medical school and is interested in the peace corps, so it was a nice ride. But in the beginning I thought it might be a repeat of my bad van ride, but thankfully the dramamine eventually kicked in. At one of the stops, I saw a ton of crocodiles under a bridge, Kristina saw them on our way down, but I had been in one of the shops. They get huge when they arent in captivity. Its crazy. So we arrived in San Jose and walked around the city a bit, and saw its sights, or the two people recommend. There is not much to this city. And we went to McDonalds for the first time in our trip. I ordered a fish sandwich and as I was chewing my first bite, I am like, this doesnt taste much like fish. So I looked at the wrapper, but it didnt say anything, so I looked at the receipt and it said mcpollo ! Which means chicken! I spit out a big mouthfull and go, its meat! Kristinas like, what, and I am like I think I just swallowed meat! I havent eaten meat in over a year and half so afterwards I felt sick, but I know it was totally psychological because I am not even sure I swallowed any of it. Oh well, it was an accident. But it sucked because then I was hungry afterwards. We returned to the hostel and I have been a bit sick. Maybe the chicken? I doubt it, haha. But the food or something so far on this trip has not been well for me. My stomach and body have had a hard time with it.
So tomorrow we are headed home. Hopefully we dont get delayed. It is raining like crazy here. I am sad to go, but Sex and the City comes out Friday! YAY! This trip was really amazing, very different from the Europe trips. I will send you all an email about our adventure home and post pictures in the few days following when we get back.
Hopefully we dont leave rain and come back to rain!
See you all soon,
Kimberly
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