Costa Rica
11 - 22 January 2009 : Pura Vida en Costa Rica
SAN JOSE - LA FORTUNA - MONTEVERDE - QUEPOS - SAN JOSE
Day 1 The other San José
G here. This is my first, and could very be my last, blog. Reason being, dare I say, I traveled sans Q. A true reward of a workaholic, I've accrued one too many vacation days. So I booked with GAP Adventures, saves me the planning portion of the trip, and with time, convinced my partner in crime Remy to come with.. Boys trip!
San Jose, the main capital of Costa Rica. Ask most people, they will tell you don't waste your time here. And it's all true, there is not much to this city... I'll leave it at that.
La Fortuna, at the foot of Arenal Volcano, is an area chock-full of extreme activities. On our way up to the La Fortuna, we saw a family of monkeys swinging around in a tree. On Day 3, we went waterfall repelling. There isn't many other places in the world where you can do this activity, so we had to do it! It was awesome, we hiked down narrow rivers, jumped into canyons, and repelled down 200 ft waterfalls! I really wish they had a photographer there that day. Later that night, we had pizza and went up around La Arenal volcano to see some live lava. Once we saw small glimpses of lava flowing down the mountain, we headed down to Baldi springs to go down some waterslides and relax in lush cascading hot springs.
Day 4-5 Monteverde
Here we traveled by car, boat, and horseback! The horseback ride was 75 minutes too long if you ask me. Note to self next time I ride horses: Wear long pants! My legs were killing me from all the galloping. Monteverde is known for the ziplining and cloud forest reserves. Ziplining was amazing, it felt like one of the zip lines was a half mile long with expansive views of the Costa Rican rainforest. This is definitely one of the best places to zipline in the world. Our tour leader suggested visiting the Santa Helena Cloud Forest reserve because the main cloud forest reserve has gotten very packed and touristy. We observed hundreds of plant life species and rare exotic animals including the king of all birds in Costa Rica, Quetzal Resplendido. Last but not least, I have to mention the best Tapas restaurant I've ever been to... Chimera restaurant. They had awesome international tapas dishes at very reasonable prices. Check tripadvisor for more info.
Day 6-7 Quepos / Manuel Antonio National Park
The ocean water in Manuel Antonio was so warm, we stayed in the ocean catching waves with our boogie boards for 3 hours straight. Interacting with the local ticos in the ocean was great, those Spanish classes paid off! An awesome salsa club with guys trying to sell us "mota" right when we hit the front door. Quepos didn't have much to offer. Manuel Antonio Park has an exuberant wildlife and tons of monkeys!
Day 8 San José
A local bus took us back to San José in time to head out for one final night on the town. Shout out to Jubal and our entire group on the GAP trip! It was an amazing time and makes me thirst for South America.
More Photos.
View full gallery here.
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