One Week Down... One Week to Go

Here's what's happened since the last update....

After the update, we all went to a local restaurant called "Cocolores" for some dinner. The food here was simply spectacular. It was really really tremendous. Koko and Adriane had seafood dishes, Sharon had chicken, and I had a steak dinner. It was seriously, the best steak I'd ever eaten. We sat at this restaurant for a few hours, talking, befriending other patrons, and just having a good time.

About 25 minutes before we left, a thunderstorm rolled over Montezuma dumping mass amounts of rain. The rain was definitely unlike anything we'd been accustomed to. The rain sounded as though the entire town was being driven through a carwash. We decided to head out of the place and explore the town some more. We were drenched in a matter of seconds running from the restaurant to a nearby bar. Fortunately for us, the rain didn't last much longer and the local swap meet made it's appearance on the street. Sharon and Adriane spent much time exploring what the vendors had to offer. It was good times. After some time out, we decided that we'd head back to the hotel for a few minutes and then proceed on to the beach where Koko was going to try his hand at fishing like the locals, unfortunately that didn't happen and we all went to sleep.

The next morning, we stayed in Montezuma till noon. Koko and Adriane woke up at the crack of dawn and headed to a beach that is supposed to have monkeys feeding every morning. Sharon followed soon after, making her way headed in a similar direction. I got out of bed minutes later and made my way down to the beach. Unfortunately, the only thing I had to wear were some jeans from the night before, so I quickly became overheated in the weather.

After laying out by the shore for an hour or so, I made my way back to the hotel where I was met by Koko. To Koko and Adriane's disappointment, no monkeys were to be found. Sharon met them half way on their journey back from the monkey beach. Soon after, we all made our way to breakfast at a nearby restaurant.

After breakfast, we promptly checked out and headed out on the road. We decided to head to Mal Pais next. The road to Mal Pais was pretty straight forward. We stopped off in Cubayo for some cash and drove straight to the secluded beach town. Once we got there, not realizing the size of the town, we ended up driving past the main town and straight into a dead end. This dead end greeted us with about half a dozen vultures eating a shark head. This was not a very welcoming experience to say the least. We headed back to the main town where we discovered a great long beach.

After parking, we went to a nearby surf shop only to be turned away by a sign that said "Out surfing, come back later." We ended up walking out further to find another surf shop and got our hands on a set of very 'broken-in' surfboards. Taking these boards, we headed back to the beach and made our way out to the water.

The waters of Mal Pais are very, very rough. It took me a good 10 minutes to swim out past the rough waves to a place where I could relax and wait for a good wave. After some time of missing wave after wave, I decided that I would head back to the beach and think of an alternate plan of attack. On my way back into shore, I inadvertantly caught a wave and was slammed into the shore. The beaches here are just as rough as the waters, littered with jagged rocks everywhere. Koko saw what happened and ran over half laughing as I stood up in pain. We shared our mutual bad experiences and I decided to walk further down the beach.

We met Sharon and Adriane down the beach. Sharon and I decided to try again and we headed out. A local teenager went out with Sharon, attempting to help her with the local surf. I went out alone trying my best. Once I got out there, I found it easier to catch the waves... To easy. The waves in this part of the beach would catch you and take you, like it or not. While Sharon was getting lessons, I was being carried back to shore.

I caught a wave that took me in to a reasonable distance where I decided to stand up. Bad idea. Adriane and Koko waved at me and as I waved back I was slammed by a wave. Attempting to get my balance, I was slammed yet again, this time losing my board. The board then was caught in the wave and I was dragged on my back, on the jagged rocks onto shore. Adriane and Koko could not stop laughing at my pain. This hurt very very bad.

Minutes later, Sharon made her way back to shore and we decided to pack up and head out. We got our hands on some homemade burrittos from a local, ate and ran.

We then headed for Monteverde which was in the mountains of Costa Rica. We needed to make it to the ferry which was roughly 1.5 hours a way. We drove at leasurely pace across the country side. Along the way, Sharon spotted some Howler monkeys that Koko and Adriane photographed.

When we headed back out on our way, a tremendous thunderstorm slowed us down to a crawl. Struggling to see through the rain, we barely made it to the ferry with minutes to spare. On the ferry ride back we enjoyed a beautiful thunderstorm that lit up the night's sky.

Once we got to Puentarenas, we headed out to Monteverde. This road was long and treacherous. After getting almost lost a few times, we found our way to a small dirt road. This road would not end. We drove on it for roughly 30 kilometers at a slow 20kph. The road was by far the worst road we'd encountered thus far. By the time we pulled into Monteverde, it was nearly 10PM. We checked out a local hotel to be turned away. They assisted us in finding another local hotel that put us up for the night.

This morning, we had some breakfast and headed out to the local wildlife reserve. This place was AWESOME. The lush rain forest was covered in plantlife, half of which I'd never seen before. We hiked for hours, down to a nearby waterfall and up to a peak. We looked out on beautiful valleys and stood on the continental divide in Costa Rica. On our way back, we got caught in a thunderstorm which rained on us, soaking us head to toe.

Once we got back to the car, we headed back to the hotel and then immediately out to dinner. We went to a local place called Morhos. The food was decent, but overpriced given what we'd eaten the night before. We shared a bottle of wine and laughed, reminicing old stories of friends and family. It was good times.

Tomorrow, we're headed out to the canopy tours near Monteverde at 7:00AM. Tonight will likely end with some card games and some more laughs.

More later.

-s