Posta Rica!

1/12  Early in the morning the class departs for home.  Jess, Joe, Alex and I are staying for more.  We buy some groceries and move to cheaper lodgings.  The local Backpacker's Hostel ($7/person) which has free internet (one computer) and a free kitchen (one pot).  Chores done, we hop the bus and head to Manuel Antonio.  The park is open and in we go ($10/person).  No need to hire an expensive guide, other groups have done this and we walk along the crowded road checking out what the guides have found.  We see several Three Toed Sloths (Bradypus variegatus), lots of Halloween Crabs (Gecarcinus quadratus), plenty of butterflies, and the iconic Red Eyed Tree Frog (Agalychins callidryas).  Moving off the main road we hike some of the smaller trails where we find plenty of Capuchins and a huge troop of Squirrel Monkeys (Saimiri oerstedii).  We end up at a small beach where we hope to find some good snorkeling.  We do see some amazing Black Ctenosaurs, very happily eating flowers.  But the snorkeling is poor.  A  Northern Raccoon (Procyon lotor) tries to steal our entire food bag and manages to make off with one package of tortillas.  Animals 1; Humans 0.  Back to hiking we actually manage to hike every trail in the park.  We finish at the northern-most beach near the exit.  This beach has some great snorkeling on the west side.  We stay here and enjoy the fish until the park closes at 4pm.  Then back to our hostel where we wait for 45 minutes while two guys use the one pot to boil spaghetti.  Who does that?  Nobody does that!  Finally we cook dinner and treat ourselves to some ice cream.

1/13  5am wake for the 5:30am bus to San Isidro (₡1900/person).  From there we take the 11am bus to Puerto Jimenez (₡3735/person).  This bus departs an hour late, drives for five minutes, then stops.  We are stuck for a half hour until another bus comes and we transfer to that bus.  I think the problem is simply that our bus was too full and there aren't seats for all the passengers.  The new bus is five seats across, the previous one is four.  You know a country has graduated beyond "developing nation" status when they won't run the busses with passengers standing in the aisles.  We arrive in Puerto Jimenez after dark and totally exhausted.  The touts see us as easy pickings, grab us off the bus, and start walking us from hostel to hostel.  And a good thing too.  The two hostels we had thought to stay at are full.  Our tout walks us down the road to a private house where we find the best bargain in lodging I've ever experienced.  Fannie and Harvey rent rooms in their house for $6/person.  The rooms are clean, the beds are comfortable, the fans work, everything in the bathroom works.  Fannie stores our extra gear while we backpack, and she lets us use her kitchen.  For our first meal she makes us some lemonade.  For subsequent meals she is so disappointed with our food choices and cooking skills that she feels compelled to make us dinner (and more lemonade) each night.  And she does our laundry.  All at no extra charge.  Harvey is a riot to talk with, though very difficult to understand.  Even when he uses words I know.  That only slows us down a bit.  We have conversations that leave us both laughing... possibly even at the same jokes.  I'll never really know.  We will regretfully leave Fannie's house days later and we will pay more than they asked for the rooms.  It is the least we can do.

1/14  Wake early again for the overpriced collectivo.  The short ride to Carate in the back of a truck is $6/person... oops... make that $8 per person... as we can see from the recently modified sign.  Oh well, except for a taxi, this is the only way to Carate.  We stand near the front of the truck and watch dozens of beautiful blue Morpho butterflies swooping in the morning sunshine.  We reach Carate -- the end of the road -- and we start hiking.  After a day and a half of busses and trucks and sitting, it is great to be hiking.  The first 3.5km of the hike is just walking along the beach.  Here we reach the La Leona ranger station at the entrance to the park.  They check our permits.  Jess has been working tirelessly for the last month to get us reservations.  Required a few email messages (in Spanish) and then paying all the fees at the National Bank when she was in San Jose.  The bank's stamp on her permit is what gets us into the park.  It is easy to see why people let outfitters do the work for them, but at nearly 10 times the price.  The park charges $10/day admission and $4/night for camping.  So we pay $38/person for a three day backpacking trip.  Much, much cheaper than what the outfitters charge.  Of course, we are carrying our own food so we don't have to pay $12/person for breakfast or $17/person for lunch and dinner.  $46/day to eat!  Ludicrous!  Our PB&J tortillas are tasty enough... sort of.

After La Leona we move into the jungle and parallel the beach.  The trail continues for another 16.5km to the Sirena ranger station.  I'd say about 2/3 is in the jungle and 1/3 is on the beach.  The beach hiking is hot and the soft sand drains energy from every step.  But the whole hike is very, very flat and not particularly difficult.  We see Scarlet Macaws (Ara macao); tons of Red-lored Parrots (Amazona autumalis); little birds including plenty of Grey-capped Flycatchers (Myiozetetes granadensis); all four species of Costa Rican monkeys: Squirrel Monkey, Howler Monkey, Capuchin, and Spider Monkey (Ateles geoffroyi); Toucans galore; a flock of Sandpipers (Actitis macularia); Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura); many Mangrove Black Hawks (Buteogallus anthracinus subtilis); plenty of spiders, especially Golden Orb-Weavers (Nephila clavipes); lots of butterflies; many different lizards including Iguanas, Basilisks (Basiliscus plumifrons), and lots of Four-striped Whiptails (Ameiva quadrilineata); the completely ridiculous looking Great Curassow (Crax rubra); and most spectacularly a White-nosed Coati (Nasua narica) and two Collared Anteaters (Tamandua mexicana)!

P.S.  Thanks very much to Todd for the loan of all the Costa Rica wildlife guides.  As you can tell, they were heavily used.

We reach the biggest river crossing at the Rio Claro just after high tide.  Tip:  Get a tide chart for the region for the dates you plan to hike, I had copied the information before leaving the United States and it was very very useful.  We enjoy a rest and watch one other party successfully navigate the crossing.  So we strip down, put our cameras in dry bags, and do the crossing ourselves.  It turns out to be quite easy, even close to high tide.  Shortly after the crossing we reach the Sirena ranger station and settle in for the night.  You can tent in the field, but many backpackers cram on to the small, covered platform in the station.  The station has giant sleeping pads (but the supply is limited, so bring your own), bathrooms with showers, a place to wash clothes, potable water, and a kitchen area (but no stoves, pots or utensils -- just sinks and a place to cook).  Oh... and wireless internet.  Really.  We ask about hanging our food and are told that the only animals we have to worry about are ants.  So we put all our food in my large dry bag and seal it tight.  Then retire for the night.  I have my OR Basic Bivy, which I have modified for this trip to take a delrin pole (from the OR Double Bug Bivy, cut down to four segments) and keep the top of the sack off my face.  Unfortunately, I can't sleep in the bivy.  It is just too hot.  Every single night in Costa Rica I manage a shower before bed, then I strip down and try not to sweat excessively while sleeping.  It is always always hot.  Meltingly hot  Inescapably hot.  Normally I can tolerate it without complaint, but trying to sleep in the bivy is too much.  I'm roasting.  So I grab my glasses and headlamp and wiggle out of the bivy.  As a testament to the warmth, upon grabbing my glasses I find a big, scary Bullet Ant (Paraponera clavata if you care) walking along the frame.  Everybody who has been stung by Bullet Ants tells me it is ridiculously painful.  Like a wasp sting, but the pain lasts 12 hours.  I really don't want to sleep in the open with Bullet Ants around.  But still I gently sweep the Bullet Ant off the platform and crawl outside my bivy sack.  Even with the ants roaming around, I can't sleep in the bivy.  If I had to do it again, I would bring my double bug bivy (pre-treated with permethrin, like we pre-treated most of our clothing) and a silnylon tarp.  The double bug bivy would be cooler.  While I never needed the tarp on this trip, it would be good insurance for someone traveling with only a mesh bivy.  Jess, Joe and Alex all have Hennessy Hammocks which are also a good choice, though they require trees or posts to hang.  Personally, I nap just fine in a hammock, but don't do well sleeping all night in one.  I like to be able to roll on to my stomach.  Anyhow, what was I talking about?  Sleeping... right.  I spend the night sleeping on top of my pad with no shelter.  It works fine.

1/15  We wake early to hike the trails around Sirena.  My drybag containing our food has a large hole chewed in it.  Note to the Sirena rangers:  In addition to ants, there are mice which will take your food.  We lose another package of tortillas.  Animals 2; Humans 0.  We hang our food for the remainder of the trip.  We hike for about three hours, finishing around 9am.  The day is starting to get very hot, and the tourists who paid lots of money to be shuttled to Sirena for the day by Zodiac boat have just arrived.  During this hike we see huge tracks from the Baird's Tapir (Tapirus bardii); lots more monkeys and birds including hummingbirds (species unknown); a Caiman (Caiman crocodilus); and a rat.  I'm not sure how to determine quota for an animal watching trip, but I'm pretty sure I have made quota at this point.

We enjoy a relaxing morning/afternoon -- siesta, cards, food.  In the evening we go for another hike.  We find a Bullthorn Acacia tree which is filled with very aggressive Acacia Ants (Pseudomyrmex ferruginea).  The acacia's hollow thorns shelter the ants and the tree's sap feeds the ants.  In return, the ants aggressively defend the tree from all herbivores and insects.  Cool!

We are backpacking without a stove and making pretty decent meals with canned beans, packets of tomato sauce, tortillas, and Lizano (of course Lizano).  This night someone takes pity on us and gives us a huge pot of pasta.  Hmmm... we get lots of pity food in Costa Rica.  I don't think we are eating all that poorly.  But I'm not going to turn down the pasta.  Since our food is hung at night, the mouse takes out his frustration by running over me while I sleep.  The first pass wakes me (I suppose it could have been the 20th pass that woke me) and the second pass gets the mouse launched into the stratosphere.  There have been half a dozen times in my life when I have become aware of mice running over me in the middle of the night.  All of those mice are now in geosynchronous orbit.  Maybe mice will be more careful in the future.  Or maybe I'm being trampled by the mouse astronaut corps as part of their launch strategy.

1/16  The hike back to Carate goes quickly.  The only new wildlife we see is the Bare-throated Tiger-Heron (Tigrisoma mexicanum)), but we do get a bunch of Capuchins who come down low in the trees and pose for photos.  My photos are unimpressive.  In the low light of the jungle, most of my animal pictures are either blurry or shot at a very high ISO.  This is not the best trip for photography.  We cross the Rio Claro near low tide.  It is easy to walk out in the ocean around the mouth of the river.  Water is swift, but barely over the ankles.  Soon enough we have hiked the 20km back to Carate and we are playing cards while waiting for the collectivo back to Puerto Jimenez.  Back at Fannie's we are told that we look tired and we should wash while she cooks us dinner.  It is so good to be home!

1/17  Our original plans for Costa Rica called for two long travel days starting today, with the goal of reaching Tortuguero by tomorrow night.  This would have also necessitated a third long travel day back to San Jose two days later.  Luckily we decide to take a more leisurely approach.  We relax for the day.  Do a brief bit of email, walk along the shore, clean our clothes, buy an avocado and eat it with lunch, siesta.  In the afternoon -- during high tide -- we rent kayaks for 2+ hours and explore the mangroves.  I'm terrified of Crocodiles and keep a sharp eye out.  What can I say?  I think this is a perfectly rational fear.  Jess and I both get leaky boats and are paddling 100lbs of water back to the beach by the time we are done.  In the evening, Harvey shows us some of how his house was built, and the furniture and wood carvings that Fannie has made.

P.S.  Crocodile!

1/18  Time to leave Fannie and Harvey.  We sleep late and take the 8:30am ferry to Golfito ($5/person).  We tour the town then find a playground and a shaded table for playing cards.  At 1:30pm we catch the bus to San Jose via San Isidro (₡5800/person).  Just north of San Isidro the bus breaks down right in the middle of the road.  The driver and about six passengers get out and start rummaging around the engine.  45 minutes later the bus is running again.  We reach San Jose late at night.  This part of town has tons of prostitutes and doesn't feel particularly inviting at night.  We decide to take a cab to the hostel.  A tout puts us in what looks like a cab, but is actually a private car painted to look like a cab.  I suppose the jacked up rear end should have been a clue.  The other cabbies are really pissed at the guy stealing their fare.  Ugh... not ideal, but the non-cab does get us to Tranquilo Backpackers ($10/night).  We get rooms and crash for the night.

1/19  Pancakes!  Tranquilo has free breakfast every day: one pancake and two pieces of fruit.  And you can usually get another pancake if you ask nicely.  They also have five computers with free internet.  Not a bad deal for $10.  The only drawback is the huge number of chain smoking Euros (and Euro wannabes from the United States).  Very little of the hostel is off limits to cigarettes and my eyes are always watering.  At least our room is only contaminated indirectly.

We take a day to relax.  Walk around San Jose and visit the artists market, the central market, the small zoo near our hostel, and the small contemporary art gallery next door to the hostel.  Our rate of card playing -- which had been fairly good -- gets stepped up a notch or three in San Jose.  Rummy is introduced and competes with Hearts and Psoy for our attention.

This night I get one of the most disappointing showers of my life.  Tranquilo promises hot showers.  Now up to this point in the trip I haven't had a single hot shower.  Not one.  And I honestly haven't complained about it.  Sometimes the cold water is refreshing when I am meltingly hot.  Sometimes it is a bit brisk, but not painful.  San Jose is much cooler than the Pacific Coast where we had been.  And I'm showering at night when everything is cooler still.  It is probably the coldest shower I've ever experienced.  With about 3 seconds of lukewarm water just to taunt me.  My muscles are actually cramping from the cold.  Tranquilo does have hot water, but sometimes it doesn't work.  Nobody knows why.  All the rest of my showers here are warm to hot.

1/20  We are off to to see the Volcano Poas.  The guidebook tells us that it clouds over around 10am, but there is no good way to get there early.  A taxi is $80 each way.  We consider going the night before and staying at a hostel near the park, but moving hostels seems like more work than we care to undertake.  So we take the 8:30am bus (₡3400/person for a round trip) and hope for the best.  The bus is frustratingly slow.  And I drink two cups of coffee in the morning so I'm bouncing off the walls.  Not because I have to pee, simply because I don't ever drink caffeine and two cups of coffee has me wired.  The bus is late, and it stops in Alajuela, and there is road construction, and the bus can only crawl about 5mph up the steep hills.  Finally we are just a few kilometers from the volcano... when the driver stops at a restaurant/souvenir shop for 20 minutes.  The drivers get commission for bringing a bus load of tourists and this guy won't pass up his opportunity just so we can see the volcano.  ARGH!!!  Finally we get back on the bus and crawl up the last of the hills.  We reach the park and everybody has to get off the bus to buy tickets for the park ($10/person).  Then we get back on the bus.  Then the bus drives 100 meters.  Then we get off the bus and the driver collects our tickets.   AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!  I get off the bus, ricochet off a few walls, and hustle to the volcano overlook.  It is nearly noon and the overlook is a solid bank of white clouds.  Sigh.  We tried.  At least I can smell the sulphur.  Alex, Jess and Joe approach me with trepidation, but my freakout is over.  We sit and look at the fog.  I actually get some nice pictures of Jess and the fog.  We eat lunch.  And miracle of miracles... the fog lifts.  We see the volcano.  Cool!  Not "flowing lava" cool, but at least "big crater and steaming lake" cool.  We hike the two short, paved paths and see the rest of the park.  The bus ride home takes 1 hour, 20 minutes.  Grrrrr!  Walking back to the hostel, we head to the central market for dinner veggies.  The central market is probably the worst place in Costa Rica for pickpockets.  We know this and are very careful.  Still, thieves manage to open an outer pocket on Alex's backpack.  But she is smart and has nothing there but a bit of candy, which the thieves don't bother to grab.

1/21  We visit the gigantic Children's Museum (₡1100/person).  Along with the much smaller National Gallery and Prison Museum which are in the same building.  When combined with 30 minutes talking to Carlos the bag check guy, it is a full day for us.  Carlos is a very funny old gentleman.  He lived in the United States for years and probably speaks perfect English, but wants to help us practice our Spanish.

After dinner we walk to Morazan Park a few blocks from the hostel.  Every Thursday night the local street performers gather here to hang out, practice new tricks, practice old tricks, and socialize.  We meet up with Liam who works at the hostel and turned us on to the gathering.  There is lots of juggling, many unicycles, and a few slacklines.  Joe introduces the Cornell method of tensioning slacklines which uses half the number of carabiners required by their 5:1 system.  We get ice cream and hang out.  I manage to finally juggle a regular cascade with one ball reversed, something I have been trying off and on for two years.  Alex masters juggling... and slacklining... and unicycling.  Had we stayed later she probably would have been spinning flaming hula hoops.  Definitely my favorite evening of the entire trip.

1/22  Alex has a flight home this afternoon, and Jess is looking for a relaxing day.  Joe and I walk across the city and see some Caribbean themed street performers.  Then we go to the National Museum ($4/students... stop laughing, I have a Cornell id).  It is very good.  My only wish is that the butterfly garden would have been open.  Still, I really like the museum and we see the whole thing.  I spend the last of my money on tomatoes for dinner.

1/23  Jess has an early morning flight and departs before I wake.  Joe and I lounge around.  I return my key and sheets to get the ₡2000 deposit back.  I need this money to pay for the bus to the airport (₡400/person).  Joe and I think we depart the hostel with plenty of time to catch our flight, but road construction in San Jose and a long security screening line mean that we just make it to the gate when boarding starts.  I leave the country with ₡100 in my pocket.  Drat!  Could have bought two more bananas.

Back in the United States, my flight to Ithaca is cancelled.  That's two missed flights and three broken busses if you weren't keeping score.  I find someone who can put me on a decent flight home and even get a $5 meal voucher (which buys a small serving of nothing in an airport).  With a 12 hour layover in NYC, I take the M60 bus ($2.25 if you care) to Chez Samson, aka. Brett and Sherri's home.  I take advantage of their couch every time I'm in NYC.  Thanks!  Reaching their apartment, I find a drunk half passed out in the doorway.  He speaks Spanish!  Feels like I haven't left Costa Rica.  I'm kinda sad that the drunk isn't impressed with my ability to talk to him in his native language.  The alcohol prevents us from having a real conversation... which is really fine with me.

1/24  Bus back to LaGuardia where I take an uneventful flight to Ithaca.  Here I catch the 72 bus ($1.50) to Collegetown.  And that's the last price I'll list in this trip report.  Because I'm home.