Final Weekend: Puerto Viejo (again!) (5/4)

For my final weekend of travel, I wanted to return to one of my favorite beach spots in Costa Rica: Puerto Viejo, on the Caribbean side. I was lucky enough to be able to go with many of my closest friends from the trip. We arrived late in the day on Friday, so didn't have much time to do much besides find lodging,
The Lunatica Cabinas

and find a place to eat... of course Alex and I opt for the all-you-can-eat sushi option! We ate at this place called The Lotus Garden, and it was a beautiful restaurant. The sushi was really good, and they even pickled their own ginger! 

 Everyone working there was very friendly, and they even brought us a bit of guanabana to try. Guanabana is this fruit that I would always drink in smoothies and milkshakes, but never tried it by itself. It's really unlike any fruit I've ever tried, thus I am at a loss for words as to how to describe its flavor. The inside is very sticky and has almost a stringy texture, but it's definitely delicious.

Anywayyy... First thing the next morning, Alex and I get up and go rent some bikes, get breakfast in town, and wow was it a beautiful day to be at the beach!

There was one beach that I really wanted to check out, and it was about a 40 minute bike ride south of the main town of Puerto Viejo, called Punta Uva. It was kind of set back in a cove, so the water was very calm and the beach was so beautiful. It reminded me of some of the beaches that I had seen in Panama. 

 

I spent the day just hanging out and doing lots and lots of relaxing. It was beautiful. After heading back from the beach, Alex and I stopped for some amazing fish tacos. The whole group of about 15 of us hung out that night, and unfortunately had to leave the next day. 
Puerto Viejo is such a beautiful beautiful place, and is also so much fun to visit... I can't wait until I have a chance to go back! 

Searching for Turtles in Parismina (4/27)

One of my goals before I left Costa Rica was to see a sea turtle. After seeing leatherback turtles hatching in Aruba, my turtle curiosity had been sparked and I was determined to see a full-grown leatherback laying its eggs. Some of my friends from the program were going to Tortuguero to try and see turtles, but it seemed like the chances to see one weren't very high. I did some research and found a different option, Parismina, where the chances of seeing a turtle were supposed to be much higher during this time of the year. The only person I could convince to go with me on my adventure was Alex. Parismina is a tiny town, occupied by only about 600 people, with no cars, and no roads, just dirt paths. But it is also home to a turtle-protecting organization, Asociación Salvemos Las Tortugas de Parismina (Association to Save the Turtles of Parismina) or just ASTOP, where volunteers can spend time researching and protecting the turtles that come to shore to lay their eggs. Check out their website! http://www.parisminaturtles.org/
To get to Parismina, we had to take two different busses, the second being mostly on a dirt road through miles and miles of DelMonte banana plantations:

...if you think about the insane number of bananas that the world consumes, plantations like this have reason for existing. I'm not sure how enough bananas are produced, to be honest.  After the second bus dropped us off at a port called Caño Blanco, we took a boat to Parismina. You can only reach the town by boat or plane! 

Boat ride from Caño Blanco to Parismina:

The main port of Parismina:

After we arrived, we walked around the island, looking for lodging and to find ASTOP to ask about going with them out to the beach at night to look for turtles laying eggs. We set up our tour with the organization, and then continued to explore around the island. 

ASTOP's "leatherback shack"

Unfortunately, this was the only leatherback I was going to see the whole trip.

The two things the town is known for  (the two reasons for any sort of tourism) are turtles and great game fishing in the river (giant tarpon and snook).

The place we stayed was the Parismina Gamefish Lodge: 

View from our hotel room:

Our first night there we were pretty tired, so we decided not to go out with ASTOP to look for turtles, so we just hung out, had an amazing dinner of ridiculously fresh fish, and went to bed.

The next day we did more exploring. The whole town was so green and beautiful, with lush foliage and lots of beautiful tropical flowers.  

View of the canal from one point in town

There was talk of a lagoon where people could go swimming, because the ocean in Parismina was so rough, so we set out to find it.

The lagoon was pretty, it was beautiful walk to get there, and we saw lots of cows and monkeys and leaf cutter ants!! 

But the lagoon did not look very swimmable.

Another plus was that Alex and I had the beach all to ourselves! It was a beautiful black-sand beach, but the ocean was extremely harsh.

And we had a great view of the sunset on our way back

Sunset over the Parismina airstrip

After a quick dinner, it was time to meet up with the ASTOP volunteers to do our four hour patrol of the beach- 8pm to midnight. We couldn't use flashlights or anything because they scare away the turtles and then they won't lay their eggs. We walked probably about 4 or 5 miles up and down the beach in absolute darkness looking for the turtles, which was super tiring for my body and my eyes. Alex and I both saw multiple shooting stars, which was amazing! And there was also bioluminescence in the sand, so in some places (usually closer to the water) when you would step down, the sand would essentially light up a little with a bunch of little glowing things, which was very surreal. 

Although I didn't see a turtle, I still discovered an amazing town that I definitely want to visit again someday. I would love to go back and volunteer with ASTOP for a longer period of time! 

Dominical (Weekend of 4/20)

Thursday, before my weekend actually started involved adventuring into San José with Alex to see The Hunger Games movie. I had my heart set on seeing the movie as I just finished the book earlier that week. The movie was only playing at one single movie theatre in all of Costa Rica, and it involved taking lots of busses all over a city that I don't particularly know very well. After the movie we headed back to Heredia to go to our favorite sushi spot, where I had two rolls that I'm very much fond of- which definitely have a bit of Costa Rican-ness to them!!
The one in the back was the Jamming Roll, the ultimate favorite: Spicy tuna, avocado and MANGO! Mango in sushi is such a good idea. The one in the front was the restaurant's specialty roll- the Nippon Roll, with shrimp tempura and avocado inside, and cream cheese and a fried plantain on top. YUM.

Friday morning started off with a 6am bus ride to Dominical. Dominical is on the Pacific side, about 4-5hours away from San José. Naturally I was sleeping for most of the time on the bus, and apparently I'm too trusting of Costa Rica- because someone stole my backpack that I had put in the overhead rack. Luckily I had all of my actually valuable things in my purse down by my feet... sooo I hope that Costa Rica thief has fun with all my clothes and bathing suits and toiletries. AND RETAINER. And two books! The books may have been my greatest loss. Just kind of annoying for this to have happened, but I guess I learned a lesson. 
Dominical is a very sleepy, slow-moving surfer beach town. Everything was very relaxed, but there definitely weren't that many people around. It kind of seemed like an eerie ghost town at some points. 

Friday was pretty tame, Alex and I hung out on the beach for a while then met up with our friends Ryan and Breigh-Anna for dinner. At the restaurant, Ryan (also from Maryland) was quick to point out that there was a sandwich called the "Ripken Club," and on the Spanish menu it said that it was a chicken sandwich with OLD BAY (although it didn't have Old Bay listed on the English menu). I was super excited, because of course both Ryan and I had to try this sandwich geared towards us Marylanders. It unfortunately did not have Old Bay on it, but was delicious nonetheless. Saturday morning, Alex and I were up and ready to begin our adventure to the #1 reason why we were in Dominical- to see the Catarata Nauyaca: Nauyaca Waterfall. We take a taxi to the entrance to the trail, which was 6km basically up and down a mountain. The first (and last) kilometer was straight down going there and straight up going back. SERIOUS incline. I definitely could feel that hike the next day! But luckily the hike was beautiful, lots of jungle and nature to see. Alex swears he saw a toucan fly over us, I'm pretty sure I heard a howler monkey, we saw encaged peacocks,

...and one of my person faves, leaf cutter ants! Nature is so cool, look at these guys with their own leaf carrying highway:

The waterfalls (there were 2! to my surprise) were absolutely breathtaking. Easily one of the coolest things I've seen in Costa Rica, and definitely the best waterfalls I've seen here.


Waterfall #1

Hike down to Waterfall #2

Amazing!

There was a boy who looked about 12 years old who came to the falls and immediately starting scaling the main waterfall. Scary but extremely impressive! He definitely knew what he was doing. And then he would dive off from about 40 feet up. So naturally, Alex wanted to try too. With some assistance from the boy, he made it up the falls 

and jumped! Crazy!

After an exhausting (but beautiful) trek back, 

we hopped on a bus back down to Dominical, and decided to check out happy hour at a hotel/bar right on the river that runs next to the town. It was beautiful- we drank a few Imperials and watched the sun set over the river while Jack Johnson was playing in the background. Really doesn't get much better. At this hotel there were a few gringos hanging out, 2 guys from Manhattan (one of which was named Vinny...haha so New York), and another one from North Carolina. I always get excited to be around East Coast people! After showering and freshening up, Alex and I went off to find some dinner... what do we decide on? Sushi, of course. But this was hands down the BEST sushi I think I've ever had. Again more rolls with mango and the fish was just so fresh and absolutely amazing. So great. Definitely slept well that night after an exhausting day of trekking around and that awesome meal.


Looking back on that day, it may have been one of the best days of my life. I'm so lucky to be in this country, and even more lucky to be able to travel around and have these experiences with Alex.

Semana Santa! Spring Break! Panama and Mom & David Visit

Spring Break!


My break began with a trip to Bocas del Toro, Panama. I left on Friday, and came back on Tuesday to meet up with my Mom and David for part 2 of my break.
The trek to Panama was VERY long... a solid 9-ish hours of travel in total. The worst part definitely was crossing the border, a very long process with a lot of unnecessary waiting.
Diana about to cross the (sketchy, unstable) bridge into Panama!

After taking a bus to catch a taxi to a dock, we took a boat to Bocas Town

Bocas Town:

Our hostel, Hostel Heike, where I stayed with my friends Ryan and Diana:

We arrived pretty late the first night, so we just hung out in town. The next morning the 3 of us went in search of a beach, and eventually did find one. The water was so calm, so blue, and so salty, it made for perfect floating. The second day there, we decided to go on a snorkel/boat tour.

First we saw dolphins:

Then we stopped for a little bit at this small port thing, where we passed the time looking at all the fish in the extremely clear water, and checking out these sweeet scarlet macaws!

Snorkeling was pretty cool, saw a bunch of cool fish and coral. And didn't see anything scary haha. Our final stop on the trip was a beach called Zapatillas, which our tour group had all to ourselves. It was located on an island that definitely reminded me of scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean. The water looked unreal.

 Diana, Ryan and I passed the time by building a lovely sand pyramid!

At the end, the tour boat dropped us off in our second Bocas location, Bastimientos Island, an island with only some villas, our hostel, and beaches. No grocery stores, no bars, no restaurants (besides the one at the hostel). But the hostel was definitely one of the nicest that I've stayed at.

The next day, we ventured to the main beach on the island: Red Frog Beach, one of the nicest beaches I've been to, and quite possibly my favorite. It had everything! Clear water, white sand, fun waves to play in, and a volleyball net! I spent the day swimming in the ocean and playing lots and lots of volleyball.


Hike down to the beach:

A red frog! What the beach is named for.

But yeah... it was beautiful

 

So that concluded the first part of Semana Santa, and so Diana and I headed out back to Heredia to meet up with my mom and stepdad, David.
Our first stop was Playa Flamingo, in Guanacaste, a solid 5 hour drive from Heredia. When we got there, we learned that there was a red tide, and that we probably shouldn't swim in it. What a shame! The beach was so beautiful, except for the dirty water.
View from above:

A small sample of the red tide casualties (this did make the beach kinda gross):

Diana and I did manage to still enjoy ourselves with some beach volleyball.

Beautiful cocktails on the first night:

Because we couldn't do much enjoying of the beach with the dead fish everywhere and not being able to swim in the ocean, so we looked for other options. One day, we went down to Tamarindo, a beach south of Flamingo, which was pretty nice but super crowded:

My lunch in Tamarindo, shrimp salad in a pineapple bowl:

Our next adventure was white water rafting!! I'm so proud of my mother for being adventurous! It was everyone's first time rafting, but it was an overall success with the one exception of David falling out of the boat and hurting his back.....

I love this one to compare the difference between the faces in the front and the back of the boat.

12 foot waterfall!! Diana and I went down twice. I had a bad habit of keeping my mouth open the whole time....

We saw a lot of wildlife too! At least 6 toucans, a bunch of white faced monkeys, cool birds, and bats!

Diana and I had a lovely time talking in Spanish to all the raft guides too. They were trying to convince us to come back in the future and be raft guides! Ha!


So as we had given up on Playa Flamingo, we decided to relocate, to Manuel Antonio! So we got up early the next day to head down there. 
Diana and I doing what we do best:

Cool bar/restaurant with an old airplane in it which was converted into a bar!

View from the bar, it would have been a nice place to watch the sunset if it wasn't so cloudy!:

Our second day there, I went with my mom and Diana into Manuel Antonio National Park, where we took a tour and saw lots and lots of animals!!
This sloth was so low to the ground and like 7 feet off the path! So cool!

Squirrel monkeys!

 Toucan!

White-faced monkeys!

My mom and I at the beach inside the park:

After 2 days, we had to head home. My mom and David didn't leave until Tuesday, so we had all day Monday to do something. We decided to go see Volcán Poás. At first we couldn't see any of the volcano because it was so cloudy, but after waiting around about 15 min, it cleared up!

And that concludes my spring break adventures! I'm so glad my mom and David were able to come down to visit and see a good portion of Costa Rica!