Costa Rica
Ok, so I’ve jumped all the rest of the travel and done a post of Costa Rica. Mainly because I’m here now and I’m getting old so it’s probably best to write it while it’s fresh in the mind. The funny thing is when I was writing the USA road trip post I was looking at photos and going “Oh yeah, I forgot I saw that”, “****, I remember that now. That was awesome” etc. I am getting old. Thank god I’ve got a million photos.
We are completing two house sits in Costa Rica. They are both in a little town called Ojochal down in the south west part of the country. We have 5 weeks house sitting here. Lucky for us we had just over a week before the house sit started to go exploring. So we hired a car with full insurance (you should see how they drive down here) and got going. The map below is a rough route of where we drove.
We started the trek to Poas Volcano. Beautiful area. Thick jungle, lots of wildlife, great views and really friendly people. The place we stayed at had a big window open to the jungle area and we were entertained by 100s of fireflies. Got quite cold at night as it is elevated, which is weird as you think of Central America as hot and humid. Here are some photos from that area.
We headed west to the coast line. Once we got down into the lower lying area everything was dead. This is the dryer area of the island and it is just after the dry season. As a result there was brown grass and dead trees everywhere. Thought I was back in Australia. So we couldn’t wait to hit the coast.
Now I’m a big beach person as there is nothing better than a good beach. I was disappointed. Even the beaches on the East Coast were the same. In fact this may be one of the only countries I like the inland bit better than the beach bit. The beaches themselves are fine, but the sand is grey. Something about volcano ash. Anyway, even with a perfect backdrop of green jungle and palm trees, something doesn’t look right about a beach without white sand. Walking off a beach with dirty feet doesn’t seem right either. Anyway, lucky for Costa Rica the inland bit is really good.
While the beaches were average I liked the coastal towns. Very laid back, decent food and bars as well as a happy feel to the town. We went out at night for food and felt quite safe. There were lots of tourists mixed in with the locals. I don’t mind this as it means most people speak English, which makes my life easier.
After that we headed back inland to Montverde and Arenal Volcano. We complete a couple of hikes in both spots and got some great photos. Unfortunately there was a lot of cloud cover near the volcano so didn’t get any photos of that. Arenal is very touristy, but there is a reason lots of people visit there. It’s a beautiful place.
We also met some mean looking bugs. Here’s one.
We then headed to the East Coast. First stop was Limon. Looked like a ****hole. Was a ****hole. We stayed at a hotel with a restaurant on the bottom floor. As we were entering we saw a rat run past. We ate there anyway. Wasn’t too bad actually. Expensive though. Eight dollars for a Corona! I must be back in Australia!
After leaving this average place we headed south along the coast. Much better. Back to the nice little laid back coastal towns. We visited a couple of wildlife sanctuaries and took some happy snaps. Sloths are awesome.
This one is a little sleepy. Been a big day.
Monkeys are cool too
We then cruised across to where we are doing our house sits. Jungle everywhere. Here’s the view from where I grind some pokerz
Here’s the view I wake up to everyday out the bedroom window
Here’s a toucan that landed in the tree out the back
So we still got another 3 or 4 weeks to go. The only form of transport we have is a quad bike. That’s fun! There isn’t that much to do where we are other than a bunch of restaurants and bars. You can see why people retire here. Just a place to chill out and do nothing. Lucky I like that kind of lifestyle. I am happy it is only for a month or so though, as after that it might get a bit boring. No air-con isn’t cool but!
Poker bitz:
Brag – Grinded more poker in the last week here than in all of 2012 combined. Silverstarring it.
Beat – ****ing power outages aren’t uncommon. Only been hit once so far while playing poker. Power was out for 30 minutes. I play 45 man turbos, so 30 minutes is not good! Also grinding on a lap top is a pain in the ass!
Variance – My poker game.