Costa Rica, land of sloths, beautiful nature parks and ‘Pura Vida’.
I didn’t spend that long in Costa Rica and wouldn’t say that I really travelled or experienced it in the same sense that I did Panama, but the time I had there was still good.
Began by spending a week in Puerto Viejo doing a second week of Spanish lessons. In the coming weeks I might write a post about learning another language but the lessons went well. Struggled with the grammar but that’s hardly surprising, I struggle with English grammar at times. Aside from the lessons Puerto Viejo is a cool place, plenty of partying in the evening (although there was no ear nibbling this time) and can go to a national park in Cahuita to see some monkeys, sloths, crabs etc etc. Stayed in the school and it was good, even if it was full of Dutch people. At one point during the week I’m sure I was the only non dutchy at the ‘Dutch Embassy’. But it isn’t too bad a time to be around the Dutch, their national football team is rubbish and they have never won a world cup!
After Puerto Viejo I headed upto San Jose. A fairly easy 5 hour bus ride. Just know where you are going once in San Jose as it has a dozen different bus terminals. I only stayed there for one night, but (and I might be abit controversial here) I kinda liked it. The noise of the main street – the lottery ticket sellers shouting random numbers ‘VENTIUNO ‘VENTIDOS’, the shop assistants trying to grab your attention or the random people selling random goods (socks, headphones, hats, colourful bra straps). After spending two weeks in beach towns it was nice to be back among the hussle and noise of a city.
Next morning headed out to one of San Jose’s many bus terminals to head upto Monteverde, but only after spending 15/20 minutes hunting round for hostel staff so that I could leave as it was a buzz entry/exit door.
Monteverde is a cool place, there is lots you can do – nature trails, cloud forest, still my, bungee jump, quad biking (you can also drink the tap water here, always a bonus!) I chose to do the ziplining, had been recommended by a friend who had spent 3 months in Costa Rica and it didn’t disappoint. 7 normal cables, 2 ‘Superman’ cables and a Tarzan swing. On the last normal cable I started ‘helicoptering’ – spinning round in a circle when you take your back hand off the cable and lose control. Wasn’t scary and was good way to see all the surrounding area, but it meant my head hit the breakpad instead of the pulley. The Superman cables were also a good way to see the canopy and looking down on birds flying below is pretty cool.
After doing the ziplining, decided to do a bungee jump the next day. Has been on my Wish List for a while and there ain’t many great places in the UK to do one, where you gonna go do one in the UK? From a crane in a car park in the rain?? No thanks. So lets do it in Costa Rica. And it was good. 150ish metres, bit scared looking down when standing on the edge but Pura Vida! Once you jump off, WOOO. Would happily do one again, as long as it ain’t in a car park.
Was also nice in Monteverde was bumping into people from earlier on in my trip. I’ve been travelling for long enough now for it to happen and its nice when it happens. Can share stories, catch up and not have to have that standard travellers intro conversation ” Where you from? How long you travelling for? Where you going? Where have you been?” Bumped into people who had been on the same San Blas trip as me from Colombia to Panama as we were staying in the same hostel and then bumped into someone from Puerto Viejo who I had been to Cahuita national park with as they were doing the ziplining on the same day.
It’s also been good to offer advice to other people travelling. At the start of my trip I was taking a lot of advice,and still am, but its nice to be able to share it back abit.
The day after the bungee jump it was time to head to country number 4, and the country I’ve been looking forward to the most – Nicaragua.
As I said at the beginning I didn’t do a lot or see a lot of places in Costa Rica but its a relatively expensive place, even if their money is nice and colourful. I had also heard enough Pura Vida to last a while. Ordered dinner ‘Pura Vida’, I’ve just bought a bottle of water ‘Pura Vida’, its sunny ‘Pura Vida’, its rainy ‘Pura Vida’.
Costa Rica Highlight – Bungee Jump. Loved it, been meaning to do it a while. Also seeing a sloth and the ziplining were good fun.
Costa Rica lowlight – The cost. Things are relatively expensive and costs of tours can quickly add up. It would have been nice to do some other stuff and see some more animals/nature but hoping I can do abit of that in Nicaragua.
As a quick side note, there is a lot of ‘Fear of Missing Out’ among travellers. There doesn’t need to be. There will always be things you could have, maybe should have seen, but you can’t always see everything (money/time/energy/weather/language barrier etc etc). Just enjoy what you do see and do, and go with the flow.
Pura Vida
Joe From Bow
Joe From Bow 