Que Marriott mas bonito

I am now safely in the Marriott con Smother y Stan, I had forgotten life could be this wonderful. Robes in the rooms and chocolates on the pillow! This, no doubt, is la vida luja.

Party in the Rich Coast

Just a little something Tyler and I threw together between our busy schedule in Manuel Antonio...

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Ayer

Yesterday was the best day ever. Tyler and I bussed into Quepos (a little city muy cerca to Manuel Antonio. We needed to buy our bus tickets, but we figured while we were there we'd look around. We split an oreja (literally meaning ear, but in this case elephant ear, it's a breakfast pastry) and sat down outside to eat it. Directly across the street there was a phenomenon which we'd witnessed a few days earlier on our way to a mangrove tour. Normally I am too polite to mention these details but this happened TWICE, so I shall stoop to say that there was a woman doing something completely inappropriate for public life, more appropriate for bathrooms.

So after that we hopped the bus back to Maneul Antonio.

We've made a friend from Columbia named Vladymir, he was our surf teacher and is quite the fun guy. So we went and posted up outside of his surfshop at the beach. Besides, it's a lot safer to leave your belongs guarded while you play in the ocean, go figure. And play we did, we floated around for hours, Vlad came out and surfed for a while too.

So great day on the beach and then we came back and made guacamole (not traditionally a Tican food) and enjoyed our last epic sunset. Vlad had promised us a beach bonfire, but it rained once it got dark so everything was too mojado (wet).

And here's the best part of the whole day. We were playing poker with an Israli named Shajar when some crazy Kanucks walk by and ask if anyone knows how to play Euchre. Tyler and I JUMPED at the opportunity, but I fear we did not rep the USA very well, as we lost. Twice.

MANuel Antonio

Tyler and I are having the most wonderful time. Imagine uncrowded pristine beaches with soft sand and warm sun. That is where we are.

guesswhatguesswhatguesswhat!?!?!?

TYLER COMES TODAY.

Onward ho to Chirripó

I never thought I would wake up at 2:30 for any type of physical activity, but I did. And here's the sad part, it didn't work out. We woke up that early in order to summit for the sunrise, but unfortunately dense clouds and rain don't allow for sunrise viewing. Boom Boom Ugh!

My dear friend Nick "the Summit" Schwanz and I climbed Chirripó, the highest mountain in Costa Rica. It is 3,820 M, and for those of you who don't do metric, it's around 12,861 aprroximately. This was quite the elevation gain considering I was kicking it at the beach and doing a lot of nothing.

Here I am being the tallest thing in Costa Rica at about 5:12 am on the 16th.

A lot of great things happened on this hike: Nick and I climbed 16 k the first day to the base camp, 5 k to the summit at 3 am, didn't see the sunrise because it was frikken freazing, 5 k back to the Base Lodge, then the 16 k back down. We were so Into Thin Air...
Perhaps the funniest part of the whole trip is the amount of food that we packed-pasta, chocolate, peanut butter, cucumbers, bean paste, raisins, crackers, Tang, and a bunch of other essential stuff. As anyone knows when you hike Chirripó you must carry up all equipment (sleeping bags, tents, stoves) or you can wimp out and fork over $25 for a porter to run your goods up the mountain. Being what we are, conscientious and cost-effective, we carried out own gear. Besides, we paid $25 for the WHOLE experience (park entrance and lodge fee) while some schmucks are shelling out around $500 for 2 days on the mountain. Although, I will admit, I suffered devestating jealousy upon seeing their pasta dinners with wine.

Here is Nick on the trail, it should be obvious that he is a great hiker and a wealth of pop culture knowledge.

Chirripó was an experience, a really great time. We even made new friends. The hostel we stayed at, The Mariposa, is run by the most wonderful couple from Arizona. Al principio (At the start), we were dismayed by it's close location to the trailhead as it meant that we had to walk up 3 k in the pouring rain the night before our hike. But upon return, which really is harder on the cuerpo (body), we could not have asked for a closer place to come back to. And we also made hiking budies, Brian and Jason, from Minnesota and Colorado respectively. They were our roomies at the lodge and gave us a ride into San Isidro today, truthfully lifesavers.

Possible tragedy has stuck as I may have left my very favorite waterbottle on the bus, tomorrow when I have more energy to keep my eyes open (I am still exhausted) I will conclude on whether the silver bullet is indeed lost to public transit.

San Luis

Today I hiked to the San Luis waterfall, a much bigger feat than I anticipated. I had wanted to go to Monte Verde National Park but the dingdang bus only runs at 7:30am and 2:30pm. I took off from my hostel, which is located across the street from Mundo de Insectos (Insect World- I do not plan to go, it´s apparently outdated and overpriced)

But here´s what I really need to tell you, my guide, Charley, came highly recommended from Lonely Planet. He´s born and raised here, has studied lots of snakes and plants, and is just a friendly guy. So we started walking to the San Luis waterfall, a hike that required no bus. The hike was great, crossing rivers and no joke, he made me hug a tree. Charley was constantly pulling fruit out of the trees, I must´ve eaten 4 oranges. So yadda yadda, we´re hiking and the waterfall is beautiful:

We get there, and it´s super hot and we´ve been walking for hours. Charley even more so, because he went out walking for a few hours before we embarked on our adventure. And the water here is so crisp and refreshing, not like in Tamarindo. Tama, as with most Tican water is like bathwater, a comfortable temperature that does little to relieve the itch of my millions of insect bites. But Monte Verde (Green Mountain if you didn´t know) is mountain water, so it feels great. Charley announces he´s going to swim, which seems like a great idea to me. I turn and photograph some crazy roots and when I look back Charley has stripped down to his socks and his traje de baño (bathing suit)

I guess I should really just call it a bikini, as it was obviously women´s swimwear. I hiked really fast on the way out.

Adios Tama...

I am now in Monteverde, a great little town flanked by two national parks. It is a prime hiking lugar and I am hitting the trails bright and early tomorrow (7:30 bus... yikes!) I am relieved to get out of Tamarindo in that they had no Tican food, only pizza. And they also had an overabundance of mosquitos. I have been trying various remedies, rubbing onions on the bites, letting toothpaste dry on them, eating raw, yes RAW garlic; basically looking a fool to any local who sees me fret over my small pox (I look infected I have so many little bites.) Now I have returned to a land of mountains, cooler breezes and gallo pinto.

Also, random story, when I was in La Cruz I ate breakfast in this woman´s kitchen, it´s a long story. Her name is Candy and she´s EXTREMELY religious. She will randomly shoot off praising God and it kept confusing me. She prayed over me, it was a little awkward, and she asked God to forgive and protect the sinners, the prostitutes and me. And in true church lady fashion she asked if I was traveling alone. When I said yes she wagged a ´gotcha´finger at me and goes ¨You´re never alone! God is always with you!¨

Who´s the goose?

Liberi-UGH

I recommend Liberia to precisely none of you. On my travels I arrived late enough in Liberia that I planned to spend the night there. I stayed at Hotel Guanacaste, and as I entered my room for the first time I felt I was Tom Hanks in Big (I know you all get that reference because I'm not friends with people who haven't seen Big)

In my desperation, I sought comfort from the white-devil himself: McDonalds. Luckily my wonder drug (diet coke) was in full supply. A few more words on the Costa Rican Mickey D's, it's actually must nicer than in the States. All of the furniture had a modern feel to it, the food was not as greasy or as salty and the bathrooms were immaculate. This is especially notable because almost all public restrooms might as well be squat-toilets. They are always exceedingly filthy, without toilet seats, and 9 out of 10 times don't have soap. This does not bother the Ticans but I now carry hand sanitizer.

Back to the gilded land of the Golden Arches, they serve a McPinto for breakfast. Should I breakdown at another point in my trip and need my Western comfort, I plan on trying to corporate version of Costa Rica's national dish. Another Tican Twist, they have a pump of mayonaise right next to the *Fancy* Ketchup dispenser. (The dispense is not fancy but any true American should know that the packets of ketchup at McDonalds all claim to be fancy) Mayonaise is a staple here, in fact last night I went to Mexican with a mini-UN group (I am meaning to say we were all from different countries) and we were all perplexed by the zigzag of mayonaise running down our burritos.

In that airconditioned wonderland I plotted my escape from Liberia, which did not go without a hitch. I went to the bank to withdraw money and as my card was in the ATM the power went out. When the machine rebooted there was no sign of my card. I freaked a little, because my bus was due to leave in less than an hour for Tamarindo (I'm here not, so wonderful) I had to go inside and dig deep into my Spanish vocab because no one seemed to understand that my card was currently INSIDE of the machine. After an eternity in the waiting section (banks all have a grouping of chairs that the line waits in, it's a nice thought, no standing; there is also an express line for handicapped people, no sticker required!) they gave me my card back and I scurried off with no cash in hand, I was not risking their awful banking again.

Now I am in Tamarindo, arguably the most tourist place in Costa Rica. Beautiful beach, lots of funky restaurants and the locals get peeved when you speak Spanish, mostly because the majority of locals are not from Costa Rica. Due to the tourism there is a lot of theft, I witnessed it yesterday when some guy jumped my friend Nati and ran off with here camera. Not really a violent crime, just a grab and run. But due to this I am not bringing out my favorite camera, we all know how devestated I would be if I lost it.

Ooooooooo

Soo I want to obloog but if yoou can´t tell the o is acting really weird soo I shall write when I have a better keyboooard.

I am in La Cruz, the beach is awesoome but deserted because the waves are soo small. Toomoorrow I goo tooo Tamarindoo!

Ooo

Halloween and Hitting the Road

Halloween was the oddest night. We started off with a big birthday dinner for Juli, everyone in costume. I will put up pictures when I have internet capable of uploading, yes, this is because I am not living hostel to hostel. I share my views on the hostels on the booking website so I won't bore you with those here. Lucre and Hector surprised Juli with mariachis, not a tradition here in Costa Rica in case you were wondering. Any one who has ever had Profe Centeno should know Mananitas, and this includes me, so I was able to sing along to the Mexican birthday song to everyone's delight.

Then we went to this reggae dancehall, not really my scene. They played reggae music until the main act- an all male dancing crew came out to perform. It was like an NSync concert but there was no singing. We literally just hungout there until 3 in the morning. This was not your usual Ghostbusters/Thriller dance party. In fact, most Ticans were not in costume as Halloween is a recent import. There were pretty much no decorations and the locals (mostly guys) were way too embarassed to dress up.

Now I am about to catch a bus to Liberia which will land me at Rincon de la Vieja national park, there's a volcano! I am going to do some hikes and maybe hang out in a mud pool. This past night I stayed at a little hostel owned by 2 young (like early 20's) kids from Chicago. It's quaint, they're always burning incense and I think it's to mask the smell of the city more than anything. But I said I wasn't going to bore you with hostel details so I'll stop. BUT, I do have just one quick anecdote to tell:

There's this random kid from Toronto named Rawlins and I don't really know how to describe him. He's constantly trying to be deep and profound but it just never really comes across coherently. Last night we were changing up music on the channels and I put on the movie soundtrack channel, it was Ray Charles singing Georgia. Rawlins earnestly looks at me and goes, "Do you think he's singing about the state or the country?" And while I know most of Ray's biggest hits center on countries in Eurasia, I had a hard time fighting back a smile.