Delayed Photos... but a journal
by copus
Day 1: Fly! Fly! Fly! Columbus to Phoenix to San Jose. Arrive at San Jose, taxi to Balmoral Hotel. See drug-crazed prostitutes. Decide not to meet new and exotic diseases just yet.
Day 2: Taxi back to airport to pick up rental car. Private unmarked taxi cannot find anyone who has heard of Avis (Ah-vees) Rent-a-car. Finally get to Avis. Get pimp Kia Sportage. Pride of South Korean engineering. Long winding scary drive to Manuel Antonio. Nice Nice Nice beach. Eat at El Avion, which cooks their food in a cargo plane that was at the center of the Iran-Contra scandal. Visit Costa Rica tourist office staffed by Chicagoans who don't know Spanish. Crazy guy grunts at us who doesn't seem to know ANY language. Plan some zip line stuff. Go to a Tapas Bar. Enjoy lizards on ceiling until waitress reminds us that they poop. Spend night in hotel room smaller than the Kia.
Day 3: Hiked Manuel Antonio. Hung out on beach. Swam. Few people mistook me for a bear. Ate at La Barba Rosa (overpriced, but they had good pink pork chops). Also went to El Avion again. Also stabbed some Vienna sausages on the trail. Some kids in orange jackets tried to convince us that parking lots were closed and we had to pay to park on the street. We considered it protection money. On the bright side, they stuck around and helped direct traffic to get us out after the hike. El Avion had live music and a beautiful sunset. I recognized such traditional music as Guantanamera, La Bamba, and... Hotel California?
Day 4: Canopy tour. 9 or so zip lines. 3 rappels. Rode out with 2 dudes from Austin, a "bastion of culture and liberalism in Texas." Also had some bridge engineering types from Indiana. One of the canopy tour people was "Rambo," who spoke no English but LOVED to show off his bicep. Canopy Safari ruled. Hopefully CD photo of trip turned out well. Met a girl from Minnesota who got in fight with her boyfriend three days into their trip, and just went out on her own and found stuff to do. I'd love to sit next to them on their flight back. The trip out and back showed us African palm plantations (palm olives) and teakwood plantations. Mahi-Mahi, rather sweet corn, and coconut flan for dinner. I'd kill a baby for a good flan.
Day 5: Quepos to Chirripo. Roads vastly worse, huge elevation changes. Fun drive. Bu learned that "No Hay Pasado" means "Do Not Enter" in San Isidro de General. The Chirripo park office guy originally wouldn't let us stay at the lodge at the top of the mountain. Second guy working in the afternoon actually checked the reservation list (and we remembered that we originally reserved for three) and gave us the pass to stay at the lodge. Met TONS of people at Descayuno Hotel. $12 a night for a double. Sweet. Met a French couple. A Texas couple. A Montana couple. Jacob from Toronto. Dutch Jack. California Kevin. Montana couple Al and Alice never got a pass into the park. The others did.
Day 6: Started hike up to lodge. Hotel owner, who won multiple Chirripo runs (~3.5 hours to lodge and back! his daugher has also won the race) drove us and the French and Texas couples to Kilometer 0. KM 0-3 not too bad at first. Hated 4. 7.5 had a water break. 8-10 grueling. 11-14.5 not as bad. Almost turned back multiple times. I'm far too out of shape for this kind of stuff. Kevin met up with us towards the lodge. Started at 6:30am. Reached lodge at 3pm. 8.5hr hike over 14.5 km. I blame the altitude. After darkness hit, everyone went to bed due to lack of light and fatigue.
Day 7: Went to summit. Few few km not bad. Last couple hundred meters a scramble. Kevin, Bu and I got pictures at the summit, but didn't stay long. Too much fog, wind and rain too see much. Bonked out on way back to lodge due to lack of much food for previous dinner or breakfast. Total lodge-summit and back hike ~5 hours. Left from lodge to base around 12:15. Met Dutch Jack and some Alaskan guy right away... talked to them for far too long. 4-0km much steeper and muddier than expected. Reached bottom at 5:45pm! ~5.5 hours down. I blame mud and me. Still had to walk back to hotel. Bonked out again before San Gerardo on way back to hotel. Bu carried both bags last ~1km or so. Met up with hotel owner and walked back with him the rest of the way.
Day 8: Some of unused clothes packed to Chirripo got wet and moldy. Met guy from Mass. that got pass for lodge for next day. Drove back to San Jose and dropped Jacob off in San Jose. Went on to Arenal. Lots of ranch land. Mix of typical U.S. cattle like Holsteins and Jerseys, and stranger Indian (Brahmin?) cattle, with big ears and horns. Stayed at Hotel San Bosco in La Fortuna. Fog obscured most of Arenal Volcano. Almost hit pack of animals (we called them Lemurs but they're not) being fed on road by guy with bicycle.
Day 9: Woke up laundry service people at 7:15am, didn't have out clothes done. Went to Arenal Volcano National Park and hiked on an old lava flow. Made fun of poorly translated signs. Drove to Arenal the town. Bad roads. Nothing there. Windy lake. Went back to Hotel San Bosco. Picked up laundry. Sort of clean. Ate ate great steak place... bacon and mushrooms on a big steak. Awesome. Watched Costa Rica vs. Haiti at El Jardin. Chatted with same waiter for second night in a row. 3-3 tie. CR choked.
Day 10: Drove back to San Jose. Ate fried cheese for breakfast first. Dropped off rental car and took taxi to San Jose. Ate huge sushi lunch, did some shopping. Went to a very American bar for dinner. Watched loud gringos be themselves.
Day 11: Got up early to wait for Rios Tropicales bus. It did a couple loops around the block looking for us. Fixed some credit card mixup with them after riding out to their hq for breakfast. Rode down the river with Ralph and his wife, a retired logistics office for the group that flies into the eyes of hurricanes. In the other boat was Rodrigo, an Argentinian commerical diver who worked in Mexico, and four girls travelling together. A homicide detective from St. Louis, a triathlete with a kid that owned DHL franchises in Chicago, and some sisters, one from Florida and one from NY... I think. Played cards, talked, watched one of the river guides being high that night.
Day 12: Did canopy tour with the group (4 zip lines). The 2 day group couldn't raft out due to high water, so they hiked out in the mud... and we joined them for fun. We also hiked to some waterfalls in the area. Bu kept offering to help cook and clean, so that's what we did to pass the time. Just the two of us and the guide for the night. Neat guide, though.
Day 13: Water went down some, so another group rafted in. We put our equipment on to join them, but one of the rafts missed the stop and went aground on the rocks. The force of the water falls made the guides decide to end the journey. So we hiked out... again. This time with our stuff. The bus got stuck in the mud. We all had to leave the bus and get it unstuck. Then shower, dinner, and bus ride back to San Jose. Watched bad Mexican (we think) sketch comedy and a dubbed Simpsons episode and fell asleep.
Day 14: Up at 4:30am. Taxi to airport and flight to Phoenix and then Las Vegas. Plane at Las Vegas had to get the wing emergency slide chutes fixed, delaying departure. Fun. Back around midnight. Below zero temperatures in Columbus. Only had a fleece, gloves, and wool socks in my sandals to keep me warm.
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