So Costa Rica rocked. Like a rock star rocked. I need to finish putting all my pictures on Flickr and then post them for all the world to see how "rock star" a trip to Costa Rica can be.
So, the flight there (and back) was less rock star like. We flew on TACA airline. A conversation with Michele, who lived in El Salvador with the Peace Corps, on whether or not it's reasonable to drive from San Salvador, through Columbia, and to Costa Rica (it's not), learned me that TACA is also commonly known as "Take A Chance Airline." Wished I would have known that before I bought the tickets. To all who read this and are planning a trip to Costa Rica - it's not worth the $40 you spend to fly on TACA instead of an airline you're familiar with. My word is gold. It took us two days to get there and we were never confirmed on any flight we took, despite being told otherwise.
Once we got there, however, the poor travel couldn't dim the white hot brightness of Costa Rica's beauty. We rented an SUV (tip #2: rent a SUV not a car. Only 1/2 the roads are paved and if they go anywhere good, they probably aren't) and drove from place to place. First we stayed a few days in La Fortuna.
The weather was awesome and nearly cloudless. We were incredibly lucky to be able to see the top of Arenal volcano. We hiked around and stayed at
Villas Josipek which were ok. I wouldn't recommend taking tours with them if you are young and able. The "guide" that could speak English was nice enough, but didn't really know much about the area and wasn't really in game shape and ended up slowing us down. You should check out places that are on the other side of the volcano than Josipek (I think you want the west or southwest side) for better, though potentially more dangerous, views. After a few days of volcano viewing, rainforest hiking, and waterfall swimming, we headed west to the Nicoya Peninsula.
We drove most of the day and took a ferry over to the peninsula. This was the best part of the trip. Montezuma was great. Incredibly laid back and beautiful. If I smoked pot religously, I would probably move down there and settle in. It wouldn't get any better. The beach is beautiful, the weather is hot, there are tons of great hikes, and there are monkeys. La Fortuna had monkeys too, in fairness, but you didn't see them as often. We saw white-faced monkeys and got lucky and spied a pair of howler monkeys (who make god-awful noises that you can hear for miles). We took a trip to Mal Pias ("bad land" - though it's quite nice) which is a surfer town to catch the sunset. It was cloudy but beatiful none the less and the ride back I was able to see more stars that I ever had.
There's more to add, but the Man needs me to do some work. Maybe I'll write more later. Probably not, but anyway, there's a half synopsis of the trip.
