Costa Rica

(my whole Costa Rica album is here on flickr)

After crossing the border from Panama, my first stop in Tico land was in Manuel Antonio. It's well-known for its wildlife reserves & its beaches, and even though it was quite touristy, I really enjoyed myself. The beach was calling me the first day, so I walked about 5km down the hill from the hostel to the beach. Five hours & a few chapters from my philosophy anthology later, I called it a day & got my playa fix for the week.

The hostel was super chill until about 9pm every night when the drunks got rowdy. It was fun watching the NBA finals & Gold Cup with them, but I really didn't feel like gettin hammered and meeting all these new people when I had a lot of transcribing to do. So, I was the guy with my laptop & headphones on in the corner, chuggin away at my work while the others chugged away at the cerveza.

The Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio was next. I was amazed to see, without the $30 guides that so many paid for, so many animals in one day: sloths, monkeys, toucans, lizards, spiders & jungle crabs. Some of the pics of the sloths & toucans didn't turn out, but I did the best I could. It was incredible to watch the sloths. The first one was hanging on a branch of a tree that was overlapping its leaves into another tree. His arms were about 2 feet long, but he needed this leaf that was 2.5 feet away. He must have swiped his arm 30 times in that extra slow-motion grab before he realized it was not possible. The monkeys were swinging & dancing around him as if he wasn't there. It was so cool, I just don't know how these creatures have survived so long... I guess they just have no predators.... well, except for this one.

I left Manuel Antonio in search of more jungles & the highlands, ending up in Santa Elena (very close to Monteverde) in the NW region of Costa Rica. There it was also quite touristy, but I ended up meeting a bunch of cool med students from UCF, a Canadian who goes to UBC, a UW graduate living in Seattle, and a German named Phillip who ended up rooming with me, all of which were a super good time. My main goal, though, was to visit the sloth sanctuary (which contains the "slothpital"), but the owner had recently died & the sloths had been transported across the country, so this is as close as I got.

That was super frustrating after the 8km walk there, but I did stop at a reptile center on the way better, un "serpentario", with all kinds of snakes (which constantly gave me chills down my spine), frogs, lizards & turtles!

I splurged on my $20/day budget and used my credit card (which I'm not counting against the budget, hehehe) for a ziplining adventure... and let me tell you, it was worth it!!! There were 14 zip lines, ranging from 60m to 552m, a tarzan swing where you swin out and up a good 200 feet, and then a superman zipline at the end where you are strapped face forward and, well, fly like superman!!! The superman was probably the best 45 seconds & 1km of my life... it's really hard to describe with words how cool it is to see the jungle from that crazy aerial angle. The only lame thing is that I broke my camera trying to strap it to the front of my chest and record a video. It was crushed by the pressure of the guys who caught me on the Tarzan swing with this rubber pad. Here's the only real video that turned out decent, tho:

I had a lot of time just walking in Costa Rica. The flora & fauna were like I've never seen before, so I think just driving by everything would have left me slightly disappointed; walking let me take everything in at the right pace.

It was a little frustrating speaking Spanish there. I can't remember how many times I would speak in Spanish, they would respond in English, then I in Spanish, then them in English; it was as if we were battling to see who can practice there non-native language. I received many compliments on my Spanish from Ticos & Americans, but apparently that doesn't matter when someone is trying to sell you something or "help" you (the quotations on help represent those people who approach you and try to help you with your bags, tell you how to get somewhere when you already know how to get there, open the door for you and ask about your life in hopes of money for talking with them, etc...). I have noticed almost all of them have the American /r/ instead of the trilled Spanish /r/, not only when they say Costa Rica or Bira (instead of "cerveza"), but also on some syllable-final /r/, as in hacerla or largo.

OK, Nicaragua awaits... (!!!!!)