Sunday, May 13, 2012

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!