Costa Rica

 

After flying into San Jose, we drove on the dark one lane roads (the only type of road in Costa Rica, it seems), avoiding pothole after pothole, until we reached Tamarindo, a magical oasis of tourists in the jungle.  Of anywhere I’ve been, it most reminded me of the towns in Bali—perfect surfing conditions, diverse restaurants, expats everywhere.  On our way, we did stop at a little town to eat at a “soda,” a local roadside restaurant serving typical Costa Rican cuisine: rice and beans, plantains, queso, fried egg, and a meat (or veggies for me).  We ate every single meal outdoors, except our very last one at the Monteverde Brewing Company.

In Tamarindo, the weather and water were ideal.  In between sunrise beach volleyball and sunset surfing, we enjoyed massages on the beach and runs on the beach.  Steve tried unsuccessfully to wade across the river to Playa Grande; then, we learned of the crocodile attacks there, so we took a tiny ferry for a long walk.

 

River tracing hike to La Leona waterfall

Our second destination was the Monteverde Cloud Forest. We hit the uphill unpaved mountain roads right as the low gas light turned on, barely making it to Santa Elena by the last drops in our tank.  A night hike taught me that all scorpions glow under black light, thanks to our guide who could spot a sleeping snake in the trees a hundred feet away or a subcentimeter glass frog perched on a leaf.  The next day, we went on our own glorious hike through the cloud forest.

We saw iguanas, frogs, geckos, snakes, tarantulas, other spiders, scorpions, millipedes, grasshoppers, crickets, leaf bugs, caterpillars, butterflies, racoons, coatis, kinkajous, opossums, monkeys, toucans, quezals, and other birds.  On one occasion, there was a touch of traffic while cows were crossing the road; on another occasion, it was a tarantula crossing the road.  A highlight was a cafe famous for its pavilion full of colorful hummingbirds speeding and hovering around.

The original moss art

I learned that Costa Ricans are called Ticos and that mae is Costa Rica's version of the ubiquitous local term for dude or bro.