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.
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.
brainfart by Daniel at
12:49 PM
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