Pura Vida

In Costa Rica, pura vida means that life is good, or all is well. I can imagine that life IS good if you live here. People are not rushed or hurried, they just take their time and most of them are pretty pleasant. I noticed that the biggest difference between Nicuragua and Costa Rica is that most Costa Ricans can speak some english, and they try to get their point across if they don't. I'm still glad I brought my translator with me...though sometimes she also forgets and speaks to me in Spanish! What's that about? haha 

I forgot to mention, in my last post, one amazing thing I saw. As we were on our last of 4 buses travelling to Tamarindo from Nicuragua, I saw an older gentleman riding a horse. It stuck out in my mind because, before it registered what he was doing, it just looked like he was going really slowly. In fact, he was passaging. He did a little trip around the back of the bus and then was even going at an angle into the forest beside the road. It was beautiful! It made me think of my grandpa, I could see him doing something like that! I'm pretty sure the guy was even wearing dress shoes!

Sunset in paradise:

Anyways, we were so grateful to be in a chill place, like Tamarindo. We booked a surf lesson for our first day at 1pm, so we had a few hours in the morning when we could go to the beach. I love the beach! The sand was great and didn't blow all over us. The tide was low so we could see huge rocks sticking out of the water. We found a shady spot under a palm tree and started reading our books, enjoying the sound of the waves. Before too long, we were accosted by vendors selling wares: pottery, jewellery, these little singing bird whistles. It was non stop through the entire time at the beach...it got a bit old. For those of you who don't know, Jan is addicted to Fresca, and just as we got to the beach, she said, "oh man I wish I had a Fresca"...well there's a man who sells those too! She was a happy camper! (I should mention that Fresca tastes different here, mainly because it has no aspartame!) The water was so beautiful and, when I went in, I was able to walk out for ages in the shallow water. It was so refreshing, but not cold. I floated around in the waves, soaking up the sun, but pretty soon it was time to leave. We grabbed some tacos for lunch, which we shared and then Miguel, our surf instructor,  was meeting us for surf lessons. We got rash guards to protect our upper body, and let's just say for modesty, because my bathing suit top didn't have a chance against falling into crashing waves. Miguel took us down to the beach and asked us about whether we were regular or goofy. I  had no idea what he was talking about. It turns out regular is right footed and goofy is left. He tested us by having us stand in front of him on our surf boards and then he pushed us forward. Which ever foot we landed on was the foot we would surf with at the back of our board. I used both legs so he needed to test me an extra time. After some practice jumping onto the board, he took us out into the waves. We would lay on our boards and he would count to 3 and push our board, then we would "jump"up, theoretically. The first time, I made it up to my knees before crashing face first into the salt water. This continued...for 2 hours. I basically just had a head full of brine! I made it to my feet a few times, but just barely held it before I was falling. Jan was great though! She was able to surf the waves a few times! By the end, my elbows were raw and I was done. It was a fun time though! We had a snack and then decided to chill for a bit. After dinner (of falafel and hummous, Yum), we decided to have a nap. It was ladies night and that means we could drink for free at a number of bars. But, I needed some quiet time first. Sharky's,where  we'd had our frozen mojitos the night before, was packed as it was UFC. So we bought some 2 for 1 frozen mojitos somewhere else. Just as we were finished drinking them, and as we were watching the lady make a new batch, we noticed that she took out lime juice concentrate from the fridge and added tap water....uh oh! We looked at each other and cringed. I'm sure we'd be ok!  We went to Sharky's next and had a few rum punches. The crowd was a bit different though...bikers, locals, tourists...strange mix.

Afterwards, we decided to head to the beach for a full moon party. When we arrived there were black lights strung up in trees with colourful ribbons and other neon objects that glowed. People were wearing neon paint and electronic music was playing. We went to line up for the washroom but realized you had to pay! We hadn't brought much money as we weren't planning on buying any drinks, it was ladies night! We decided to enjoy the place for a little bit longer before heading back to our hostel. I was famished...who isn't at 1 am? So we stopped and I got a hamburger...I'm sure Jan was thinking "omg, Kirsty is going to die" (she was actually, I asked her) as he reheated the patty on the BBQ. But it was so delicious! We headed back to the room and crashed! We were awoken at 7 am by the cleaners...seriously. Jan, hadn't been feeling well all morning and we were both tired... At 9, I finally got up, after listening to them yell in my ear for 2 hours and the lady was sitting, right outside my door, talking to her friend in the kitchen. I told her we were trying to sleep and she was being loud. For the rest of the day, she shot daggers at me. But, come on, you work in a place where people sleep! So rude! Jan wasn't feeling good so opted to stay in bed. I puttered around for the morning and then went down to the beach.

It was so hot though, and no shade in the afternoon, so I only lasted an hour and a half before I came back to the hostel. Let's talk about this hostel for a minute. It was on the main strip, so great location, but must have been co-owned with a restaurant as the door to the restaurant's kitchen was always open and faced into the common area of the hostel. Did I mention the restaurant specialized in smoking meat. I can't even tell you how smelly it was. On top of that the garbage always smelled, from the hostel ror the kitchen I do not know. But, it's about 40 degrees with humididty so do some visualizing for a moment...yep, it was that bad! Then, in order to get to the private rooms, the showers, or the toilets, you had to walk through this tiny kitchen, which also always stank. People would leave out dishes, pots and pans, or the garbage, which just always semlled. Our room had a smell at first too, but we must have gotten used to it. It was such a weird space. We were grateful for the wifi, when it worked, but couldn't wait to get out of there. With Jan not feeling well we kept things low key, just staying close to the hostel and going out for short trips for food or to browse a shop.

This lizard climbed a tree and ate all the leaves that were left on its branches:

Jan was feeling slightly better but was still fighting a travel bug (if you catch my drift) so we decided, after asking at reception, to take a shuttle to the cloud forest, which cost us $40 U.S. Apparently, the local buses going to Monteverde take 7-9 hours, and we just couldn't deal with that again so soon. We hung out at our hostel until 2pm before we had to leave, puttering and doing some shopping. It was so hot, I was sweating just sitting in the shade. The shuttle we'd booked was only meant to take 3.5 hours.  It took 4.5, but was air conditioned at least. Well, for the most part. The first van was at the beginning but then hot air started blowing on my feet to the point that I thought my sandals might melt. The second van was great though. The view was beautiful!  At our stop, to switch shuttle vans, we noticed giant red birds (maybe parrots) sitting in pairs.

We kept hearing something loud hitting the ground and finally noticed monkeys, in a mango tree, eating to their hearts content, as well as tossing the fruit to the ground.

We were careful not to stand under that tree. People were coming out of the restaurant to collect the mangos...not sure if I would do that! Once, we started climbing the mountain, hill, whatever we're on to get to Monteverde, the air got so much cooler that the AC inside the van was actually too cold. As we rose over the countryside, and the sun was setting, it just absolutely took my breath away. The views are stunning. Green vegetation ripples over valleys. Gorgeous. At one point, we stopped to watch a sloth climb across an electical wire.

so cool! We arrived at our hostel, and while really old and tired looking, it was also really clean. Jan checked the mattresses, and they were in great condition! I got Pooh...she's using Dora! lol

We went to a resaurant recommended to us by the hostel and then turned in. Jan's tummy is still pretty upset, especially if she eats. But we're hoping  she'll be better soon. The wind howling through the windows last night didn't keep me up as I thought, though the loud family yelling in the halls at 6 am did. Do people really have no clue. Maybe I'm not quite feeling Pura Vida...yet.

Travel Days Make My Head Hurt

And, here we go again! After 2 weeks travelling through Nicuragua, it was finally time to say goodbye. A small reflection, if I may, on what Nicuragua taught me:

Most people I know hate their jobs, or if they don't hate them, find something to complain about them. Most of us make a pretty decent living, have breaks at work, holidays, and maybe even a great space to do our job. The people in Nicuragua are so grateful for what they have that they don't complain. I think of the guys who work on the local buses. On local buses here (also called Chicken Buses), there are 2 or 3 men. One is the driver, one man tells the driver when to stop and go to let poeple on and off, he also collects the money and, almost every one I've seen, has gone out of their way to help people with heavy loads, including myself. These guys are running between the front door and the back door, or if there isn't a back door, the rear door on the very back of the bus (the one we use for emergencies). Back and forth, regardless of weather, heat, rain, sun, they run back and forth, constantly.  Sometimes, there's a third guy, who rides on the roof, he is in charge of any extra cargo that won't fit inside the bus. These men, while not always friendly, work their butts off. They don't roll their eyes at people or give big sighs, they chat with people, help them on and off, and give directions.They are happy to have a job at all. I think that usually, the more you have, the more you take for granted. These guys showed me that you can appreciate the things you have, even if sometimes, they are hard. I can't even imagine doing what they do and then going home to a small house, with possibly a dirt floor, maybe one room, maybe your own bedroom if you're lucky. And to do it everyday. 

Anyways, back to my story. We got up early; we'd already prepared our bags so we wouldn't have to do that in the morning. We bit the bullet and had the free pancakes, since we were on a time crunch, and most breaky places didn't seem to open until 9 am. We were planning on taking the 8 am bus so we had to eat at the hotel. When we got to the rooftop, where breakfast was served, there was a whole menu! This had not been there on the first day. I ordered a smoothie and Jan ordered granola with milk so she could have some cereal. I facetimed my grandpa, it was his birthday! Happy BIrthday Grandpa!! He's the reason you're reading this blog! He asked me to write it for this adventure I'm on.

The smoothie (wrong flavour) and granola finally arrived and since we were in a hurry, I had to drink it really fast...now I didn't feel good! Jan got hot milk with her granola, not what she wanted at all. So, she threw the granola into the cereal bag and we went down to get our bags. No one was working reception yet but the guy on the night shift had left us information so we could leave money with the security guard. As  we were trying to figure out how much U.S. and how many cordobas to put down, the girl walked in! Thank goodness. We left the money with her, change and all and left in a flurry of bags. We arrived about 15 minutes early at the bus meeting point, but the bus was already waiting so it was a good thing. AND it left almost 10 minutes early, so it's a really good thing we were early! We told the driver where we wanted to get off and away we went. We knew we weren't going to be getting off at a station so we were grateful that the guy on the bus rememebered to tell us when we'd gotten to our stop. It was comical really, because about 4 guys were all yelling our stop name, but it wasn't the one we were expecting! haha...we figured it out when he pointed at us. There were 2 stops on the road to go to and a guy waiting told us which one we wanted. We were hesitant, as it seemed he was telling us the one where we had just come from but our bus did arrive. Though, it was full so.....our bags had to ride on the roof! This is the first time I've had to do this and while I wasn't too worried, Jan was. Every time we hit a bump, Jan wondered if our bags were still up there. I actually think there was a guy sitting up top with all the stuff. We stood the whole journey as it was so busy. At one point, the bus stopped and the guy was yelling "Gasolina! Gasolina!", and the guy from the roof, dropped down a jug of some liquid, which didn't look like gas, but evidently it was. And then someone else came over with a barrel of something that they also put into the bus...strange! At least it got us where we were going. 

We arrived at the border crossing to a mass of people yelling at us and trying to give us papers. We had read not to take any papers from anyone and not to give people money to do your passport for you. So, marching right along, we ignored all the yelling and vying for our attention. When we got inside the gate, and our passport had been checked, we paid C$55 ($1U.S. each) to get into passport control. Then, we waited in line and when we finally got to the officer, we were told we needed to fill out a declaration form (which no one had given us and there were no signs for). We borrowed a pen, filled it out and got back in line. When the guy took my passport, he told me now I had to pay C$50 (or $2 U.S. each). I had C$80 left. Perfect! Afer some misunderstanding and some confusion, we realized we didn't have enough cordobas for Jan, and the passport officer refused to give change for $20 U.S.. Standing there, not sure what to do, a fellow traveller came over and asked if she could help. She  gave us the money we needed and though we didn't see her again, we are so grateful to her for her kindness. She didn't need to do anything and she saved our butts, big time. This latest episode of the mean passport controller was the last straw, we were offically done in Nicaragua...we'd had one too many incidents in this country! Our first stop, in Costa Rica was showing our passport to a police officer..He was so friendly, asking us how we were. Jan was like "oh yeah, I love Costa Rica already!" We trudged through the "no man's land", hoping we were almost at the border crossing, when we came to a fork in the road. We chose left, which turned out to be correct. It led us to a line up of people. We waited for about 30 minutes or so before being let into a very air conditioned building. I chose the shorter line, of course, and it ended up being the one that everyone cut into. Bus drivers, handicapped, old people, all cut into this line....but finally it was our turn. We had to show our exit tickets, which we both had on our phones. Worried, they might not accept this (we had been doing reserarch on crossing this border), we held our breaths. Not to mention a few travellers had been sent away, evidently missing something. We were lucky though, and had no trouble. We put our bags through an x-ray machine and we were home free. What a weird experience. Once we exited the building, we walked back and forth on the road, where everyone was lining up, to buy our bus tickets and have money exchanged. I could have easily skipped the line, boarded a bus, and not had my passport stamped (something I would never do!). We waited for about 10 minutes and then our bus arrived. Compared to the local buses in Nicuragua, this bus was a luxury.S

It had big comfy seats and an under the bus compartment for our bags. I watched the country side roll by on our way to Liberia, one of Costa Rica's bigger cities. Once we arrived, at a normal bus station, and not the random area that nicuragua calls "terminals", we found the ticket counter and bought our tickets to Tamarindo. A whopping $3 later, we were ready! After some confusion about where to go, and different people sending us to different line ups, we were finally on the correct bus. Actually, it was an old transit bus..with very hard seats. Two hours later and we'd finally arrived! What a journey! It took us just over 7 hours, 4 buses, one border crossing, and $11 to get here but we finally made it! Have I mentioned I love the beach? Our hostel was right around the corner from the bus stop, so in no time we were changing into shorts and walking around town, looking for some food to eat. And, as a bonus, that weweren't  expecting...we have air conditioning!!! Woo Hoo, it definitely makes up for the fact that we have shared bathrooms in this place...well almost!

We walked down to see the beach (featured above). And, as a treat, for surviving this crazy travel day, we had some frozen mojitos! Two for one! Jan had a regular mojito and I had strawberry! We LOVE frozen mojitos! I hope Calgary catches on to this awesome new trend!

 Fish tacos for dinner (so yummy) and we were in bed super early. What a day!

Beach Bums

Since we've been jumping from place to place with only a day or 2 between travel days, we are pretty tired. Our non-travel days had been busy since we were trying to see so much. We decided to have a beach day. We skipped the free pancakes at our hotel, opting instead for a breakfast sandwich at a cute cafe in town. The shuttle for the beach was supposed to leave at 10 so we were rushing a bit to get organized and to eat before it left. However, as things go in Nicuragua, the shuttle was leaving at 11:30. We ended up taking a different shuttle at 11, but it was annoying to wait around for an hour when we could have taken our time. Aw well. We hopped in the back of a truck, where there were benches installed along either side (and a canopy over our heads), and headed on down to the beach. We chose Playa Hermosa because there were bathrooms, wifi, and it was quieter than some of the other ones. And beautiful. We arrived, and staked our spot in the sand.

Within minutes of lying down on my sarong, I was covered in sand. I looked like a sand sculpture, carved on the beach. The fine sand was being blown around by the wind, and the combination of sunscreen and sweat made me sticky, therefore, the perfect place for sand to land. It was even getting into my headphones and gadgets. So I put most of my stuff away and tried to relax despite the sand being in my ears, nose, eyes, mouth, well you get the picture. The beach had wifi, which was so cool, and I was able to chat with people back home! Jan went to check out some stuff and when she came back, she informed me that the water was full of sting rays, and apparently when they sting, it's like glass cutting you. It  was enough of a problem that they had posted signs saying what to do if you got stung. Sting rays hide in the sand so as you walk out into the waves, you can get stung...I think I'll stay safely on shore today! The beach was also infested with wasps and they were flying everywhere. It was such a nuisance as they would fly around and land on you. The last thing I wanted was to be stung by a wasp on my beach day! We finally got some hammocks and enjoyed the last couple of hours laying around in those and using the picnic table.

I didn't get my tan on quite as planned. The day went by quickly and before too long we were headed back into town in our trusty shuttle truck. I hadn't enjoyed the beach nearly enough...sadly, it wasn't a great beach to hang out at, though the surfing seemed awesome!

We returned to our hotel to shower and change. Our plan was to go out and have some fun tonight. We found a pizza place right on the beach and ate there. The pizza was delicious! We then headed over to the Loose Moose, a local Canadian joint, to order the Thirsty Kirsty, the best named drink in town!!!

It was delish. When we arrived, we chatted with some of the guys working there, and everyone was really friendly. But, before too long, the vibe changed and it wasn't exactly what we wanted. We had a long travel day the next day so we decided to go back to the room and get organized instead of staying out. This wasnt really our scene anyways. We walked the short distance back to our hotel. We had both worn dresses, for our big night out! ;p All of a sudden, a big gust of wind came and WHOOSH, up went our skirts! I was able to control mine since it was just a little t-shirt dress...Jan's, however, had a billowy skirt. So, when she grabbed the front, up went the back. When she grabbed the back, up went the side....we were dying laughing. And, I'm pretty sure the creepy men that loitered around the bottom of the street heading to our hotel, enjoyed our show immensely. Jan was doing so much juggling with her skirt that she dropped her ginormous 1.5 Litre water bottle right on her toe! It's a little purple now....

A good quote at our hotel:

Good thing we still have teeth AND have managed to not only smile, but laugh at every moment we've had!

Jesus and Cowboys

It all started out well enough. I had slept ok, though I was still feeling phantom bugs after the Ometepe expereince. We had booked a horse back riding tour for later that day so we decided to walk up to Jesus, a statue overlooking the city, in the morning. But, before anything, I was starving. I'm always starving in the morning and the pancakes were free! We had stayed in the sister hotel of the hostel we stayed in Managua so I had high expectations for breakfast. We were disappointed. They brought over the limp, microwaved pancakes, with 3 slices of bananas and a sad little dallop of whip cream. A tiny raisin hid under the melting cream. I don't usually like Aunt Jemima's or whatever the local equivalent was called, but there were no other options. I slathered it on the tasteless food and went to town. I needed a second helping of syrup to get it down, when all of a sudden Jan started freaking out. Evidently, there were ants in our syrup.

All I could do was laugh. I looked down, and sure enough, there was an ant curled up, dead, on my pancake. Not one to waste food, I scraped that sucker off and finished breakfast...Jan, well, she had a harder time with that and doesn't mind wasting food so much. The lady seemed unfazed by the ants in the syrup and just handed over a new bottle. What next?

After that trauma, we started out towards the beach and then North towards the statue.  

To be honest, for a giant, white Jesus in the sky, he should have been easier to find. We got lost so many times! First, one man told us to walk along the beach, but we missed our turn onto the road...unknowingly. Then, a security guard guided us off the beach and met us at the front of the house he was watching, to give further instructions of where to go. As we neared a dead end street, a young guy came running around the corner, in Vans or something equivalent, and with his perfect English told us to follow him, and up the hill he galloped....not likely. He  runs this steep hill everyday, and just so you know, he was half way down the hill when we met him again, still on our way up. Talk about strong legs! The view, half way, was magnificent so I knew the view from the top, at Jesus, would be stunning.

And it was! For a mere $2 U.S. we took in the entire beach, curved like the moon, and the surrounding hills. Talk about breathtaking.

As "hard" (it wasn't really that hard, just zaps your energy and with the heat too! Phew!) as the walk up hill was, the downhill portion was even harder, on my knees anyways! Thank goodness it was cloudy or we would have been drenched with sweat. It actually rained a bit on the way down, more like a mist actually, and this is what we saw:

SO Sweet!

We headed back to the hotel as we had some downtime before we had to meet for the horse back riding. After sitting on the rooftop for a bit, I suggested we take a nap. I was so tired. I never nap but wow was I out like a light. A 30 minute power nap and I felt so much better. Though, I definitely could have used a little more time with my pillow! We walked down the steep hill from our hotel (our bums are thanking us) to the cafe, where we were meeting for our tour. Jan wasn't feeling tip top so only I ate lunch. It was pretty good. Right on time, a woman walked in....with jeans, a paisley shirt, boots, and a cowboy hat. Do you think this might be the lady we're meeting???? Blue was amazing! She's originally Canadian, from Kamloops/Vancourver, but has been living here in Nicuragua for 8 years. We all jumped into her truck, some in the box, because that's what they do here, and drove the 40 minutes or so out to her ranch. The  sprawling ranch was beautiful, and inside was amazing. I can't imagine what the locals think of such grandeur. The staff were all so friendly and kind, offering us cucumber water and fresh squeezed juice. Then, we got geared up! Yep, they found us jeans to wear, cowboy hats and boots, even a bandanna!

Then they took some fun photos of Jan and I, complete with fake guns and a red velvet couch! Yeehaw! Soon, we were walking down the back lawn to meet our horses. To be honest, I can't remember their names...but mine had a white bum!! 

Off we went, about an hour and half, wandering the beautiful hills of Nicuragua, passing through cow fields (oh how they love us), past local homes and shops, and even a few Howler monkeys. 

Then, just passed the trees, the beautiful beach opened up in front of us.

The sun was low in the sky and the water sparkled with it. We took our frisky horses (they knew what was coming) to some waiting staff. We dismounted, had some water, some snacks, and a beer. Now, it was time to gallop. We got back on our horses and as the sun turned pink in the sky and lowered into the water, we raced across the sandy beach...3 times, back and forth. It was beautiful...and bumpy. My derriere was hitting the rock hard saddle in a big way...my horse was not the smoothest runner. My head even felt a little jarred from the whole event. Jan, however, in her padded saddle, loved every minute. It was dusk now, and we set off towards home. Walking throught the dark, the odd firefly lighting our way, gave us a new perspective on some of the poverty in this country. You could see into people's homes, as we wandered by, and often it consisted of only 2 rooms and then a covered deck they also used. Many seemed to have just dirt floors. About an hour later, we arrived back at the barn,  and dismounted painfully, before handing over our horses. We went back to the "big house" where we changed back into regular old Jan and Kirsty, had some chips and salsa and juice or water...paid our bill (gulp) and were soon loading into the truck and heading back to San Juan. What a beautiful evening. Arriving back in town, we decided to grab dinner and then head home. We were both pooped, dirty and Jan had barely eaten, so starving. We grabbed a rice bowl, which sounds way better than it was, and off we went ot the hotel. In for the night. What an adventure!