El Fin

On my last week in Costa Rica, I took a long hike to a spectacular waterfall near La Fortuna. On the way, I spoted a scene out of “Animal Planet”, of a dozen turkey vultures dining on dog meat on the side of the road. Buen Aprovecho.

When I got to San Jose, the disembodied voice of my 9th grade geography teacher told me that if I wanted an A as a conscientious traveler I would have to go to some of the museums. So, dutiful student, I went to the Museo Nacional and the Museo de Arte Costarricense.
The Museo Nacional is housed in a former military installation that still has bullet holes on one side. It was somewhat boring and in need of an update in a few exhibits, but a good review from the first Spanish book I've read cover to cover, La Historia de Costa Rica. It was interesting to see some of the pre-Columbian artifacts like corn grinders, statuettes, and reconstructions of housing in the three main geographic divisions of Costa Rica.

The Museo de Arte I enjoyed more, although it was just as small, and although I lack the art vocabulary to describe why I liked it so much. Lots of pretty paintings I guess. I went at first to the National Amusement Park on the day I went to the art museum, but left disappointed when I found out there wasn't a full scale roller coaster to go on.

I also found my favorite restaurant in Costa Rica on my next to last day in San Jose, Jin To. It is a five-star Asian bistro, and for $10.50 I ate some of the best Murg Musala I've ever tasted in a great atmosphere.

And now, I'm freezing in Colorado where it's snowing...but not for long. Check back in a few months for the next episode of “Gringo far away from home.”

La Caverna de Venado: ¡Volando Murciélagos Batman! Y donde hay esos hay güano.

Today, clad with rubber boots, 1 plastic flashlight, 1 yellow helmet, I went spelunking in the Caves of Venado. The entry to the cave was a stream path cobbled with rocks, and not too shortly in after having to crawl a little ways, one of the girls in the group turned back as it became clear the tour was not for the claustrophobic.

The limestone cave itself was not terribly impressive: there were the standard formations (but nothing prize-winning), small waterfalls to walk through, hundreds of bats (and at one point they flew out in their random formations, making me reconsider my decision not to get a rabies vaccination), a few sea shell fossils and two crickets that I spotted. But, it was definitely a first, navigating a cave by crawling feet-first through tunnels with the barest margins of clearance to reach the next chamber, climbing twelve to thirteen feet without a line using the direction of the guide as how best to jimmey oneself up, and as the finale stumbling up a maze of rocks and waterfall sink holes to reach sunlight that never before seemed so glorious.

At last my dream from when I first watched “Goonies” is complete! (And wow, I really don´t feel the need to go spelunking ever again - probably from when one of the jokers on the tour mentioned the lovely seismatic spasticity of Central America, or when the tour guide pointed to the “vampire” bats, and then brushed by my back.)

Vacationed Out

I was walking through La Fortuna and came upon a language school, and after getting them to knock a hundred dollars off the price, I decided to have a week more of classes as a refresher and to answer the questions I have come across as I delve deeper into Spanish.
It has gone well. I´ve been the only student in my classes and I get a sense of where I will need to go to further master the language, e.g. learning more idiomatic expressions and developing a richer vocabulary. It really is starting to be pretty automatic, natural, where I don´t have to think too much to speak the Spanish of the day-to-day. The investment seems to be paying off.
I guess I´ve retired from being vagabundo de la playa for a while, but I didn´t feel like getting on the bus for my last few days in the country even if meant going to another beach. I´m not really doing anything adventuresome for my last few days in Costa Rica other than I may take my by now super-suave salsa skills out of the classroom and into the discoteca (¡Tengan cuidado todos que bailan, si a Uds. les gustan sus pies!).

The Rain-In. Or Narly Marley Week.

Alas fair readers, the dark cloud that I thought only was metaphorically following me around, was literal the past week in the province of Limon. After Puerto Limon, I took a bus to Cahuita, further south, a small tourist town by the beach and by the Cahuita National Park, which has a coral reef and pristine beaches. And it rained. And rained. And rained. The tropical equivalent of a blizzard.

I only was able to get the paper about three days ago to find out the extent of the flooding and damages further South. I was planning to go to Panama and the Boca de Toros islands there to scuba dive, but the bridges to Panama and roads were damaged or destroyed. There was a big aerial picture of one of the towns in Panama I´d need to pass through to go to Boca de Toros, and the streets were filled with water.

I was going a bit crazy in Cahuita because I´d tried half the restaurants, and listened to enough Bob Marley music for a life time (I like reggae, but not every day). In the province of Limon there is a substantial population of English speaking descendents of Jamaican immigrants who came during the late 19th century. It was a bit of a change from the rest of Costa Rica to hear behind my back, “Hey mon, you want some grass” with a Jamaican lilt.

When the sun finally did come out, I went to see if I could go snorkeling or surfing, but everybody said it would be a few days before the debris in the ocean would wash up and clear out. Also, it was impossible to hike more than a kilometer in the national park because of a swollen river. There was nothing else to do in Cahuita and fleeing the fiebre de cabina, I just took a bus to San Jose and thought on the bus where to go next. (Yikes, I didn´t even get to swim in the Carribean. I was thinking of it as a perfect scenario for one of Dante´s hells, you are in Paradise, but you can´t even take a dip.)

I decided to come to Volcano Arenal (an active one) and the town of La Fortuna in the North. I was too late for the bus to La Fortuna, so I went to a hub in the North of San Carlos for two days instead. I saw Bob Esponja la pelicula, and Oceans 12, and avoided the tipico food and went all American with KFC and Pizza Hut (strange, but the level of quality of the fast food joints here in general exceeds the states...perhaps because there are less of them.).

I came to the town of la Fortuna yesterday, and right off the bus I went to a hike 1km from the Volcano. But my luck, of course, the Volcano was covered with fog, so I still haven´t even seen the peak, let alone the lava that glows sometimes at night. I also made the observation that I haven´t been on a single nature hike or zoo tour, etc. where I haven´t heard an animal ethology joke (yuk, yuk, yuk) relating to the human war of the sexes.

Afterwards, the tour group went to the Baldi hot springs, which was pretty relaxing. They have nine pools of varying heat, with tropical plants and fountains so that it´s scenic, along with a bar. The pools farther away from the bar were so hot, I can´t imagine staying in them for more than 10 minutes fully submerged, so I´m convinced the owners planned it that way to keep people concentrated in the bar.

Today, I haven´t done anything, but I think I´m going to hike to a waterfall they have here and see the volcano once more before I head on out. My next destination is likely a beach in Costa Rica where I can go scuba diving, but there´s still the possibility of going to Panama for a week, though my trip is coming to a close.

Los Fuegos Artificiales & the Capsizing of the U.S.S. Kayak

New Year´s eve rocked this year. We (with a fellow Spanish student amiga) were going to go to a Spanish restaurant in Granada, but instead heard live music coming out of another restaurant nearby, so went there instead. Chowing down on gourmet filetes, we just relaxed to a group that played music from Nicaragua, the Caribbean and other genres that I only faintly recognized. They changed up the lead vocalist every song, so it seemed like more of a variety. And every few minutes, their songs would be punctuated by a ear-piercing firecracker going off in the street, but they kept on playing. With one of the firecrackers, I swear I felt a small sonic wave hit.

After some overpriced ice cream, we went to the Central park and got a bit pyrotechnic. But, I´m a bit of a gallina who likes his fingers, so I mostly threw a few poppers I bought from a fireworks market while nervously looking for the next barrage to set the whole city alight. (“Oopps, I just burned down a five-century-old city...“) Luckily, the colonial architecture has clay-tiled roofs.

We didn´t do too much in Granada because most everything was closed for the holiday. We did take a bus to another city called Masaya, which has a lot of markets and a national artisian´s market, and it´s definitely a more intensive selling process in Nicaragua. Although, you can definitely buy a lot of cool art for relatively little, if you are sure to haggle a bit.

In general, there are also many more street vendors (many of those without even street stands) and beggars than I experienced in Costa Rica. Also, I don´t remember hearing the term “gringo“ in Costa Rica, but every single day I heard it in Nicaragua, and some of the time in a resentful breath.

I did like the tipica food I tried better than in Costa Rica, primarily because it had more spicy elements to it, while seemingly little different otherwise (rice and beans, arroz y frijoles). But I think I have literally lost twenty pounds in this trip so far because the food doesn´t appeal to me and I´ve been walking many kilometers every day. So maybe it´s not too bad a diet plan.

About the only outdoorsy thing we did in Nicaragua was to go kayaking in Lake Nicaragua (errata from last entry: not Lake Managua but Lake Nicaragua). I had never kayaked before, and, of course, two minutes after being told, “The key thing is not to move your hips“ I´ve capsized it, and get to learn how to clear your kayak of water and get back in, while about fifteen people in a nearby lakeside restaurant are being entertained by the all-wet gringo. But after that, things went a whole lot smoother, and I got the hang of it with tips from the guide and also some kind experienced kayakers who were on the trip.

It´s really quite relaxing and easy, save for having to avoid the many motor boats that were traversing las isletas, or little islands (there were also some choppy waves we had to pass to return from the islands so most everybody got soaked). Apparently, most of the islands are private property, and the rich of Nicaragua and foreigners have their own little islands on the lake. There are power lines criss-crossing from one island to another. Among the sights, were a number of species of birds, including one that makes nests that hang below branches, raindrop-like in shape.

Seven-Dollar Room by the Sea

After returning from Nicaragua, I´ve come to Puerto Limon, a city on the Caribbean side, the capital of the province of Limon. This is about my third full day here and so far I´ve done absolutely nothing but wait in bank lines and hope that the next Chinese food restaurant I try will taste a bit different than the last. I found a hotel 25 m from the sea that is really quite a bargain since it is kept very cleanly, but there is no where to swim nearby. The water is too deep, the current and frothy waves are too strong, and the rocks are too many.

There are tourists from the cruise boats, but the only thing I can see that they could do is go shopping at a souvenir shop.

My room has a desk for once, so I´m trying to write a little today and maybe tomorrow, and then I´m heading for probably much more expensive lodgings in Cahuita or Puerto Viejo, where there are better beaches and also places to snorkel.