After a long flight I found myself in San Jose - the capital of Costa Rica. It doesn't really look like a capital city. Come to think of it - it barely even passes as a city. I met up with Igal and Guy who had arrived there a day earlier and who were already settled in, and so started our adventure in Costa Rica.
Soon after, an American girl (from here on referred to as Crazy Kelly) approached us and told us that there was going to be some fiesta in a town called Zapote and that some people were going there and asked us whether we would like to join them. Naturally we said yes. There were no other people – just us and Crazy Kelly.
We got into the taxi and Crazy Kelly took control of the situation by telling the driver that "We need to go to Zapote to see the show but first could you please drop me off at an ATM since I need to take some money. There should be one right around the corner." The driver just sat there and waited for someone to speak a language other than English. Once we got it all sorted out we went to Zapote and found a big fair with tons of people, rides, food stalls - you name it.
The evening's major attraction was what is called the "Corrida de Toros a la Tica" (loosely translated: "Running of the bulls, Costa Rican style"). This is kind of an up-side-down inside-out bull-fight - a bull is let into an arena where there are a lot of people. The people try to get as close as they dare to the bull and the bull just tries to show them who's the boss. They don't hurt the bull or anything - it's the bull doing all the hurting.
After watching some people get mauled, eating some local delicacies, and screaming on some of the rides in the fair we went back for a good night’s sleep. The following day we rented a car and made our way to a town called Cahuita on the Caribbean coast. Cahuita is under heavy Jamaican influences and everything there is laid back and goes with a "man" at the end. Ya man. Sure man. Man man.
The week prior to our arrival the place was hit by a little storm which drove all the tourists away so we had the place pretty much to ourselves. While in Cahuita we went on a little trip in the national park where we encountered howling monkeys, capuchin monkeys, leaf-cutters (ants), termites, Iguanas, huge butterflies, sloths, raccoons, and several other types of indigenous life forms ( a.k.a. "the locals").
We continued traveling in the Costa Rican country side which takes you through hills and valleys, hidden streams and water falls, jungle-like terrain and, of course, volcanoes. We visited three of these – Poás, Irazú, and Arenal. Out of the three the Arenal is the most impressive – it is very active and at night you can see it spewing lava onto its slopes.
Next we made our way to Monte Verde – a small town in the mountains in the middle of the cloud forest. We went on a night tour of the forest where we got to see some tarantulas, snakes, sleeping birds and crazy ants.
Monte Verde has another “minor” attraction – the canopy tour. This is basically just a series of zip lines which run over the jungle at various heights and lengths. We went on the “extreme” canopy tour which has 13 such zip lines, the longest of which is 750 meters in length, and also includes a rappel and a Tarzan swing (bungee-like experience).
After our adrenaline levels dropped we heard of more fiestas coming our way so we traveled to a place called Palmares to take part in the annual “Fiestas de Palmares”. This fiesta was very similar to what we saw in the beginning of our trip in Zapote (bull ring, lots of people, a huge fair, country music festival, gigantic discotheques) but it’s ten times larger and goes on for two weeks.
We spent two nights in the fiestas and then made our way to the north, toward the border with Nicaragua. Parting from our beloved rented 4x4 was very sad and we immediately went on a bumpy and crowded bus ride with one destination – Nicaragua. The border crossing was hectic – there are no signs and you don’t really know what it is your supposed to do, especially on the Nicaraguan side but eventually we made it across.
But for stories from Nicaragua you’ll have to wait some more.
Until next time, as they say in Costa Rica, Pura Vida!
