Pura Vida!

Hello everyone!!

The next part of our story begins on whim... while flying to Central America, and anticipating seeing the glorious Panama Canal, we decided that we could have stayed in the US if we wanted to see things built by Americans. Conveniently for us, our connecting flight landed in Costa Rica, and we simply "missed" our connection! So we found ourselves in San Jose, Costa Rica without a plan or idea, as we had done all our plan-changing during the last 10 minutes of decent. We couldn't have picked a better place to be clueless!!!

COSTA RICA: "Delicious Coast", endangered turtes.
Our Costa Rica trip started slow (no pun intended!)... we heard that we could see some endangered turtles on the Caribbean Coast, so we hopped on a bus bound for Tortugero National Park. After a depressing drive through some banana plantations, we hopped on a sweet speed boat to get to our destination at Parismina, which means "Mina! give birth!", to hopefully lay our eyes on some egg-laying Tortugas. After paying and arm and a leg each, we headed to the beach with our expensive babysitter, who helped us find the massive shelled beasts that left bulldozer tracks in the sand. We walked in the dark for what seemed like forever when out of the blue, crawled a giant from the sea!!! The creature was as long as I am tall and must have weighed 5 times more. She took no notice of us as she climbed the sandy bank to find a spot to lay her eggs. We sat on the beach waiting for her to prepare the perfect spot, not disturbing her ritual, until she gave up and went back into the sea as suddenly as she had come. Apparently, they're picky. That was the only one we saw but so amazing never-the-less. On the way back to Parismina we learned that some people here, lacking any huevos of their own, like to poach the endangered eggs for their aphrodisiac properties and probably the main reason for the turtles' near extinction. It's a bummer, but there are lots of opportunities to volunteer here to help save them.

DAY-O: Why you shouldn't eat bananas.
On the way to and from the Turtle park, we rode through a huge stretch of land where at one time grew a beautiful lush rain-forest, but now is home to a monocrop of billions of Chaquita, Dole, and Del Monte banana trees, each wrapped in a special pesticide-laced, blue, plastic bag that poisons and kills monkeys. So, please don't buy these bananas if you like monkeys. Also, the bananas here are expensive! To put it into perpective, the workers that grow them get paid each day, about $15 or the equivalent of what it costs them to buy about 25 (reject) bananas! That's not enough to cover the healthcare they need after prolonged exposure to harmful pesticides. Anyway, to the workers it might seem like an OK deal at first since the get a secure job, but they aren't really educated about the side effects (both medical and ecological) of their work. In addition, all the local resources the comminiteies may have prior to the banana invasion are bought up by the conglomerates and families are forced to work for them or move somewhere else in their country (which is an expensive option and not always feasible for them). Also, bananas aren't patriotic-- some of these companies (mainly Chaquita aka United Fruit Company) have been charged with "terrorism" as they fund Latin American military groups such as United Self-Defense Forces, National Liberal Army, and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia-- all considered foriegn terror groups by the US state department. Bananas aren't even that good anyway: they go bad quickly, and you get sick of it half way through one. So let's not support terrorists, destory peaceful communites, nor kill monkeys by not buying bananas. Thank you!

FINE BEACHES, BEAUTIFUL COAST
After our somewhat bitter sweet excursion to the Caribbean, it was time to relax!! The next day we bussed it back through San Jose to the Pacific Coast. We arrived in Puntareanas (which I think means something dirty but Kim says I'm wrong... whatever) and spent sometime with Kim's host family with whom she stayed 2 years ago while helping orphans in the same city. We met the best hospitality and had a wonderfully relaxing time. From there we headed to Santa Teresa on the beautiful Nicoya Peninsula where we wasted away the days on the white sandy beaches. We tried to Surf, but the waves came in too fast for us to paddle out, so we rented some cruisers instead and went for a ride. We found a great spot, built a lean-to out of driftwood, ate lunch, swam in the warm water, and built a killer Machu-Picchu-inspired sand castle that would've knocked the Incas off their feet! It felt great to be able to relax by the ocean after so much travelling. After Santa Teresa we bussed to the other side of peninsula to the small town of Montezuma--or Montefuma as the local say for some reason... We hiked through great waterfalls and went for a swim. We had a funny night on the beach watching the most amazing lightning ever and forgetting our hostel keys in the sand.

The next day, after Kim chopped my beard off, we chilled on the beaches in the beautiful Manuel Antonio National Park, just a jetboat ride across the gulf from Montezuma. We saw a few rare, red-backed squirrel monkeys on the way into the park. We over heard a guide say there were only 600 left and they all lived in the park! We are so lucky!

We went to eat sandwiches on the beach there, but as soon as we sat down, a brave little raccoon tried to steal our PB and Js! She and I played tug of war for a while, and I even picked her up and swung her in circles like a small dog plays tug-o-war! We eventually just gave gave her a sandwich because she had babies, and she ate it with us on the beach... literally, sat down next to us on her butt and chowed on the sandwich. Racoons are Awesome! Later, after swimming in the turquoise water, we walked out to be welcomed by a couple Capuchin monkeys, some giant colorful iguanas, and the raccoon with her whole family!! We watched the animals for a while and left the park totally not disappointed!

MONTEVERTE:

After chillin' for a week, it was time for some adrenaline again. And boy did we get it! They sell it at the Farmacia, just kidding-- well I'm not, but we didn't buy any. Instead, we went to Monteverde: where dreams come true! First of all (and yes, this is a tangent), we made the best Tacos ever- so good they put Mexico out of business. Anyway, I really liked the tacos. I digress... we did this canopy tour in the rainforest, but instead of ziplinning from tree to tree like a normal canopy tour, we went from mountain to mountain!! Imagine standing on a 3 story high platform that takes you to the tops of an amazingly lush rain forest canopy. From the platform extends a seemingly infinite long cable that disappears into the cloud forest filling-in some unknown valley in front of you. A man you have never met before attaches the harness you're wearing to a pulley that rests on the cable. He says, "lean back" and you're off! You rise up over the trees that seemed so tall a second ago and then the entire valley drops out from under you. Now, you're flying over hundreds of feet over rivers and forest at insane speeds. After what seems like forever, the opposite side of the valley appears through the fog and you try to see where you're going to land. Finally, you see the end of the line. A man gives you a signal, so you clench the trailing cable hard to brake so you don't smash into the valley wall. You walk through the rain forest, still wearing your harness, and you meet another guy who helps you onto the next cable. You do this 13 times!!!!! Then, at the end, you repel 300 feet out of a really tall tree. You walk a little further, and someone straps you into a rope and pushes you off a platform. You free fall 50 feet before the rope finally becomes taught and you swing out on the biggest rope swing you could ever imagine. You undulate for a while until your ride slows to an end. Two guys catch you with a big balloon animal looking thing, and you're off to the last cable. Someone takes your harness off, turns it around so it's backwards, and lifts you onto the last cable, one harness on your chest and the other at your waste. Then you fly face-first, higher and faster than ever, for over 1/2 a mile!! The ride only takes 20 seconds, which shows you something about how fast you go. You leave with a big smile!

The next day we headed into the beautiful Monteverde Cloud Forest reserve. We didn't see many animals, but we did get to walk through some virgin rainforest, one that had never been cut by humans. The trees here were enormous and the foliage so thick. There seemed to be as many leaves on the forest floor as there were half way up the canopy or at the top. Water dipped constantly from the leaves, though it wasn't rainy, and the whole place felt enchanted. As soon as we left it poured! A really cool fact we learned afterward, was that the huge park only gave visitors access to 3% of its property, the rest being strictly off limits to humans! Also, the whole park is privatly funded, and all donations and park entrance fees go towards buying parcels of even more virgin forests before they are chopped down! On the way home, we stopped at an organic coffee roaster for some of the best coffee and hot coca in the world!!

Tomorrow we head back to San Jose for one last adventure in Costa Rica before we take off to Cancan!! In Costa Rica, they say "Pura Vida" which means live life to the fullest, don't have regrets, and don't sweat the small stuff. So Pura Vida everyone!