The Nicoya Peninsula, which we explored on our road trip with Shuli, was one of our favorite places, so when Denise came to visit we ventured out from the House of Dreams and took a little road trip of our own to see more of the northern pacific side. The beaches are beautiful, the green rolling hills accentuate the blue sky and white puffy clouds, and the towns are much smaller and more charming than in some of the other regions.
There has been a lot of deforestation and cattle grazing there, which was sad to see but at the same time allowed for lots of wide open spaces for cloud watching. And all the pasture land is giving people like Jo and Francois a chance to buy the land, reforest, and give others a chance to help enrich this beautiful country. I hope that in decades to come, the region of Guanacaste and the northern peninsula will move in the direction of more jungle instead of less. Seeing all the habitat destruction and mile after mile of cattle lands has definitely motivated me to eat less beef, especially here where you can clearly see the direct effects of your dietary choices.
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| What are YOU eating for dinner? And WHAT effect is it having on our beautiful Earth? |
Denise loves driving just as much as I do, so it was nice to have someone else take over behind the wheel to free up my hands for some out-the-window pictures. After seeing some pictures of the roads and hearing stories about our road trip with Shuli, Denise thought that renting a mini 4x4 would make for an easier ride.
The roads through the mountains to Monteverde were even worse than those we'd encountered on our trip with Shuli, so we were very happy to have our little Suzuki Jimmy to carry us through.
After renting the Jimmy we swung by the House of Dreams to pick up our stuff and take Kirby on a little ride down the road and back again to see what lay beyond the House of Dreams. Kirby had decided to save some money and have some time to herself to just relax at home, so Denise and I set off to Monteverde on our own. The sunset was beautiful but came too soon, and we ended up finishing our drive to Monteverde in the dark. Luckily there were various towns we passed through to make sure we were on the right roads, then at a big fork in the road we encountered a caravan of taxis who pointed us down the more direct route. Even though there are very few signs, the ask-whoever-is-in-the-street-for-directions method seems to work out pretty well.
By the time we got to Monteverde we were pretty tired and hungry, and Denise had to summon all her patience as we went to a few different hostels so I could pop in to check out the place, ask about rates, and then move on to the next. We finally found a nice hostel with reasonable prices and a cute little balcony with a view of the canyon. The whole town of Monteverde is built on the side of the mountain, so it turns out that pretty much everywhere has a great view.
Now that our night's lodging had been secured it was time to turn our attention to food. There was a little soda just up the road and we were the last customers of the night. We got the place all to ourselves and the chef/owner/waiter joined us for dinner as well. I ordered a very traditional Costa Rican dish, Olla da Carne, which is a stew-like combination of beef, root vegetables, and platanos. The vegetables are all served in huge chunks though, so it's more like a wet meal than a stew. The chef was very excited to tell us all about the process of making it and how healthy it is. He was also very happy to tell us all about his favorite beaches on the Nicoya Peninsula. Really, he just seemed happy to talk about whatever. We kind of got sucked in to a long conversation, which was pretty much one sided, and we politely sat smiling and adding some "si" or "aahhhh"'s to his stories while waiting for the proper time to ask for the check and head off to bed. It's hard to be subtle sometimes when you don't speak the language fluently, so finally we just had to cut him off and pay our bill.
The next morning we were up early for our zip lining adventure. It was lots of fun and made us feel like we'd already had a full day's worth of activity before 10am.
When we left the zip lines the clouds were descendinng onto the mountaintops, so it was good that we were as well. It was one of the most beautiful drives I've seen and even better that I wasn't the one driving!
After leaving the mountains and before reaching the beach we found ourselves in the relatively big city of Liberia. We stopped for a lunch break and a half gallon of fresh coconut juice, Denise's favorite tropical beverage, which we ended up finishing by nightfall.
The first beach we reached was Playa del Cocos, a long stretch of gray sand lined with coconut trees. There were lots of boats out in the bay and some tourists browsing around the main street. We sat for awhile enjoying the breeze and being out of the car for a bit, but we weren't really feeling a pull to stay there so we soon found ourselves back in the car and on to the next beach.
We headed south to Playa Conchita and from there we drove along the coast to Playa Flamingo. Playa Flamingo was gorgeous, a huge beach of white sand lined with trees and bordered on both sides by jungle reaching out to meet the sea. The hotels lining the beach were beautiful as well, but way out of our price range. We drove up a nearby hill to see the view from the top and got to see some of the most beautiful houses and landscaping I've ever seen. It was like lifestyles of the rich and famous in Costa Rica.
After peeking down driveways and through thick hedges we rolled along down the coast and back to Playa Conchita where we found a great little mini suite to call home for the next couple days. Denise once again had to practice her patience as I dragged us all over town looking for the perfect spot, but our searching paid off and we got just what we wanted. A clean, cozy place with a balcony and bathroom for a good price. The place even had a hot tub, but we found out later that night that it was actually more like a pool that was the size of a hot tub.
After settling into our room we went to the beach to catch the last of the sunset, then headed back to our room to take a mini nap before dinner. We were so tired from our early morning zip liing and then so many hours of driving that our mini-nap turned into a long sleep, and in the morning we realized that we didn't have to worry about where to go for dinner because it was now time for breakfast.
In the morning we enjoyed some coffee and a couple games of backgammon, along with some pastries. Not nearly as good as the toastlettes with nutella I'd become accustomed to. We packed up our beach stuff and made our way back to town for a beachside lunch. The timing was perfect. We sat down just as the rain clouds were building up for a huge release, ordered our food as it started to sprinkle, ate while it was pouring rain, and paid the bill when the sun started to peek through the clouds once again.
We'd really liked Playa Flamingo when we were there the day before, so we drove down the beach and found a nice spot to watch the storm clouds dissolve and the waves crash on the sand. Denise was fascinated with the various holes all over the beach and could hardly believe it when I told her they were all made by crabs. We dug our way down into several of them without any crab sightings, but finally we succeeded in getting one to show himself. The rest of our time at the beach she took little walks around to poke into the holes with a long stick in hopes of another sighting. She was also on a mission to get the perfect picture of a hermit crab, and as you can see, she succeeded.
In between poking and photographing crabs, she sat with me in the sand to gaze out at the sea and sky. We played a few games of backgammon, watched the crabs walk by, and just enjoyed sharing the beautiful view.
It started to look like rain again so we packed up our things and headed back to the rental car. Once there, I couldn't find the keys. And neither could she. Luckily, we found them. But unluckily, they were inside the locked car. We couldn't believe it, but there they were. And there we were. Separated by just a pane of glass. We could see them, but we couldn't get to them! What to do!!???
First things first, we put things in perspective by talking about how grateful we were that it was just the keys that we couldn't get to and not the car! Would have been a very different situation if we'd returned from the beach with no Jimmy in sight. Next, we formed a plan. We'd walk up to the nearest hotel, ask to use their phone to call... someone? We figured the front desk staff might have some ideas.
When we got to the hotel we had to kind of plead with the security guard to let us onto the property since we didn't look like the type of guest that would normally be staying somewhere so swanky. Luckily there was a nice Costa Rican man enjoying a cup of coffee at the beachside hotel restaurant and he took an interest in our situation. He first called the tourist police and said that if they couldn't help he had some plan B options. The tourist police were on the scene within seconds, literally. They must have been just around the block. A 4x4 full of them. By the time we were back at the car there were a couple motorcycle cops on the scene as well, so we had 6 Tico Tourist Police on the scene!
They didn't have any kind of kit or caboodle, they just put their minds to it and used what was available to them. Each of them took a turn trying to just open the door handle. Luckily we'd already tried that or we would have felt even more ridiculous than we already did! Then a few of them tried to pry the door open with their bare hands, also to no avail. They started searching the nearby bushes for bits of trash that they could use and came up with a few sticks and a piece of wire. They whittled the sticks to a point to cram them into the doorframe and open it up a bit, made a loop on the end of the wire, then slid it into the small opening they'd created with the sticks and popped the lock! They were so nice and friendly the whole time and even let me take a photo of all of them with Denise! Just another wonderful encounter with the Costa Rican Tourist Police!
We hopped into the car and drove down the block to the hotel restaurant to thank them for letting us in and helping us out. We'd also had a second to check out the menu there and noticed some creme brulee, so we decided to treat ourselves to a sunset snack and celebrate the fact that our Jimmy had made it through the day safely, was securely locked up and in our sight, and we had the keys with us!
The Costa Rican man was very friendly and seemed happy to have some company. Soon Denise and I found ourselves in another one-sided conversation, listening to him talk about his troubles with the Costa Rican beauracracy. The more he talked the more we realized that we were sitting next to a very rich Costa Rican man. He was part owner of the hotel, owned a large ranch nearby, and travelled all over the US and the world as a big-game hunter. He told us that he had hundreds of trophies at home commemorating his skill. A University from the US is paying him to reforest part of his ranch instead of continuing the damaging practice of raising cattle. Not only does it destroy habitat directly, the cattle churning up the mud and muck causes massive amounts of sediments to flow into the rivers and streams, as well as eroding the hillsides. Did you see the photo I put in earlier with the cows asking you what YOU were eating for dinner? Well...
After enjoying the sunset we went back to our mini-suite to shower up and get ready for dinner out at Outback Jack's. We'd seen the signs on the way into town declaring the restaurant as "The 8th Wonder of the World" and " The Other Reason for Visiting Costa Rica" so we had to see it for ourselves. Since it was the low season we were pretty much the only people there and the place didn't seem to be very 8th-wonderish, but the food was delicious and we enjoyed listening to the waves break just outside the restaurant.
In the morning we were up early to have our last cup of coffee on the balcony, pack up all our stuff, and make our way back to the House of Dreams. It had been a wonderful road trip and I'm so happy that I got to share more of Costa Rica with Denise, but it's true that there is no place like home. Especially when home is the House of Dreams and you're living in it with people that you love so much!
All this delicious food has been just what Katie and I needed to help fuel us through the end of our projects. As you know if you are reading this we have been keeping up on this blog and documenting our entire trip with tons of photos. Not wanting to go home without finishing the blog we have been working overtime to finish up the last of our stories. We have also been working really hard to organize the thousands upon thousands of photos we have taken in the past three months. Looking back on all the pictures of our spectacular adventures has been really fun but a lot of work and without Yadira’s food to power us forward I don’t know how we would get through it all! Our eyes have been straining to see the minute details in each picture to help us narrow them down into favorite folders we can share with family and friends upon our return home. Our eyes have been so tired that Katie has resorted to typing with her eyes closed which we have been calling zombie typing. It is a funny sight to see! Unfortunately, tomorrow we are heading back to San Jose to have access to the internet and blast all the blogs we have been working on. 
