Costa Rica and Nicaragua so far
Door: Caitlin
01 Maart 2013 | Costa Rica, Monteverde
Yeah, I know. It's been forevah since Ive written. I just have been, like, like super like busy.
In Costa Rica I went to a little town called Quepos, to just hang by the pool a couple of days and visited Manuel Antonio, a beautiful but way too touristy and gringofied natural park with sloths, butterflies, whiteskull monkeys, frogs, spiders etc. The next day I went with an ozzie and a germanian to the rainmaker park, we saw less animals but at least there were hardly any peoplez and -you can probably guess by the name- it was more rainy, foggy and packed with plans and full of hanging bridges too.
After rainmaker I went to Uvita, a cute little beachtown where I swam near a waterfall, went to the beach (and nearly got killed by falling coconuts) and went hiking.
Costa Rica is shit expensive by the way, grocery shopping for example is more expensive even than it would be in the Netherlands, and even though the nature is absolutely stunning in Costa Rica (over 25 percent of Costa Rica's land mass is protected in national parks and preserves, more than any other country on earth) I decided to skip through some of it.
I headed to Puntarenas to take a ferry to Montezuma, when I got there (and some American dickhead was trying to sell me drugs) it turned out that there was no transportation on the other side of ze wasser but luckily I could hitch a ride with two Argentinean surfer dudes who were heading to Santa Elena with a car. I could get a ride with them but not to Montezuma. What do you do in a situation like this? Exactly. You change your plans and head to Santa Elena. Another beachday followed by another waterfall hike in Montezuma with some israelis, we also took a boattour to Isla tortugas and went snorkling. I was mesmerized by the epicness of underwaterworlderolius with their colourful fish and coral reef.
The next day I found out I couldn't take any money out of the ATM. I didn't know if it was the banks problem or shit with my card but I didn't even have enough money to get to the next town, so yeah, Caitlin hitchhiked again, to the next village. Also there my card wasn't working. Shit, with no money in the middle of nowhere I didn't know what to do. I decided to hitchhike to the ferry and with my very last money I could take a bus to San Jose from there. After half a minute of waiting at the busstop a Tico (slang for Costa Rican) couple stopped, and they were heading to san jose! Yesssss, and they bought me lunch too when they found out I barely had money. So nice! Long story short, when I got to San Jose, I called my bank and yes it turned out my creditcard was blocked and after 5 minutes they took the block away and I could use it again. It's funny now but at that moment I was stressed ouuuuuuuut of me arse. I took a little sidetrip to Mexico city for two weeks and then flew back from San Jose.
From there I made the bus just in time and headed to Reserva Santa Elena cloudforest, I had a really nice hike there and also did the zipline canopy, a nighthike where I finally saw a sloth, also snakes, owls, huuuge spiders and a coati, and I went to the monteverde park (hiring a guide is expensive but you see so many more animals). There I saw humming birds, a quetzal (that is really rare to see!), bats, frogs and monkeys.
I went to Volcan Arenal and went hiking but unfortunately I didn't see much of the vulcano because it was too foggy. There are many hotsprings around Arenal in which they charge $60 entrance, we found some free hotsprings which were just as good. Hah. Oh yeah and I stayed in a 5star-hostal too, it was great!
From Volcan Arenal I took a bus straight to Nicaragua and spent a couple of days in San Juan del Sur, read many books, went surfing, ate shitloads, went out dancing, went to a reeeeaally cool festival by the beach, danced my ass off, watched the sunset and ate some more. San juan del sur is quite touristy but not in an annoying way and still laidback.
When I was chilled out enough, we formed a group of 8 and together we went to Isla ometepe which was beautiful. We climbed the "easiest" vulcano to climb, still 5 hours up and 5 hours down mainly through mud, but once youve done it, you feel like the king of the world. We also went for a cool bikeride and swam in a natural pool.
Now I am in Granada and after a visit to Laguna de Apoyo I will go to Masaya. The plan is to go to Matagalpa, Leon, Little Corn Island and from there head south again to see Panama and Tortuguero in Costa Rica. With only 6 weeks left, time is starting to tick and I want to see as much as possible for as long as I'm here.
I miss you all, friendzies! (But still not looking forward to going home, except for seeing you all again of course ;))
In Costa Rica I went to a little town called Quepos, to just hang by the pool a couple of days and visited Manuel Antonio, a beautiful but way too touristy and gringofied natural park with sloths, butterflies, whiteskull monkeys, frogs, spiders etc. The next day I went with an ozzie and a germanian to the rainmaker park, we saw less animals but at least there were hardly any peoplez and -you can probably guess by the name- it was more rainy, foggy and packed with plans and full of hanging bridges too.
After rainmaker I went to Uvita, a cute little beachtown where I swam near a waterfall, went to the beach (and nearly got killed by falling coconuts) and went hiking.
Costa Rica is shit expensive by the way, grocery shopping for example is more expensive even than it would be in the Netherlands, and even though the nature is absolutely stunning in Costa Rica (over 25 percent of Costa Rica's land mass is protected in national parks and preserves, more than any other country on earth) I decided to skip through some of it.
I headed to Puntarenas to take a ferry to Montezuma, when I got there (and some American dickhead was trying to sell me drugs) it turned out that there was no transportation on the other side of ze wasser but luckily I could hitch a ride with two Argentinean surfer dudes who were heading to Santa Elena with a car. I could get a ride with them but not to Montezuma. What do you do in a situation like this? Exactly. You change your plans and head to Santa Elena. Another beachday followed by another waterfall hike in Montezuma with some israelis, we also took a boattour to Isla tortugas and went snorkling. I was mesmerized by the epicness of underwaterworlderolius with their colourful fish and coral reef.
The next day I found out I couldn't take any money out of the ATM. I didn't know if it was the banks problem or shit with my card but I didn't even have enough money to get to the next town, so yeah, Caitlin hitchhiked again, to the next village. Also there my card wasn't working. Shit, with no money in the middle of nowhere I didn't know what to do. I decided to hitchhike to the ferry and with my very last money I could take a bus to San Jose from there. After half a minute of waiting at the busstop a Tico (slang for Costa Rican) couple stopped, and they were heading to san jose! Yesssss, and they bought me lunch too when they found out I barely had money. So nice! Long story short, when I got to San Jose, I called my bank and yes it turned out my creditcard was blocked and after 5 minutes they took the block away and I could use it again. It's funny now but at that moment I was stressed ouuuuuuuut of me arse. I took a little sidetrip to Mexico city for two weeks and then flew back from San Jose.
From there I made the bus just in time and headed to Reserva Santa Elena cloudforest, I had a really nice hike there and also did the zipline canopy, a nighthike where I finally saw a sloth, also snakes, owls, huuuge spiders and a coati, and I went to the monteverde park (hiring a guide is expensive but you see so many more animals). There I saw humming birds, a quetzal (that is really rare to see!), bats, frogs and monkeys.
I went to Volcan Arenal and went hiking but unfortunately I didn't see much of the vulcano because it was too foggy. There are many hotsprings around Arenal in which they charge $60 entrance, we found some free hotsprings which were just as good. Hah. Oh yeah and I stayed in a 5star-hostal too, it was great!
From Volcan Arenal I took a bus straight to Nicaragua and spent a couple of days in San Juan del Sur, read many books, went surfing, ate shitloads, went out dancing, went to a reeeeaally cool festival by the beach, danced my ass off, watched the sunset and ate some more. San juan del sur is quite touristy but not in an annoying way and still laidback.
When I was chilled out enough, we formed a group of 8 and together we went to Isla ometepe which was beautiful. We climbed the "easiest" vulcano to climb, still 5 hours up and 5 hours down mainly through mud, but once youve done it, you feel like the king of the world. We also went for a cool bikeride and swam in a natural pool.
Now I am in Granada and after a visit to Laguna de Apoyo I will go to Masaya. The plan is to go to Matagalpa, Leon, Little Corn Island and from there head south again to see Panama and Tortuguero in Costa Rica. With only 6 weeks left, time is starting to tick and I want to see as much as possible for as long as I'm here.
I miss you all, friendzies! (But still not looking forward to going home, except for seeing you all again of course ;))
-
02 Maart 2013 - 12:09
Yerünti :
Packed with plans! Just like you 'n me babe!
Hotsprings, vet!! Alles, vet!
Damn, wat gaat de tijd toch snel. Nog maar zes weekjes te gaan?
Geniet er nog even van en stress niet teveel over zo veel mogelijk willen zien. Gewoon epische dingen blijven doen zoals je dat nu al een tijd doet!
Check je gauw op Skype?
x -
02 Maart 2013 - 12:27
LARA:
<3 wat ben je toch een heldin! -
03 Maart 2013 - 04:21
Merel:
Leuk om je te kunnen volgen =)
Wij gaan eerder naar huis, omdat alles hier in Australie een stuk duurder is dan verwacht en het is ontzettend moeilijk om een baantje te vinden. Wij komen eind mei naar huis en dan moeten we ook maar een keertje afspreken om onze avonturen te delen. Lijkt me gezellig.
veel plezier nog en geniet er nog maar even van! -
04 Maart 2013 - 21:25
Caitlin:
Hey Merel! Leuk van je te horen! Jammer van het eerdere vertrek maar ik hoop dat jullie hebben genoten van de tijd dat jullie er zijn geweest :) Lijkt me gezellig om af te spreken! xxx -
06 Maart 2013 - 16:31
Talaydria:
Underwaterworlderolius :D! Best word of this storaayyy!!
Amazingly veel aan het doen daar, supah nice! Maar zoals Yerünti ook al zei: probeer niet teveel te stressen over zoveel mogelijk zien, dan deed ik ook in Australië maar uiteindelijk word je daar niet het meest blij van. Ik merkte namelijk dat ik op een gegeven moment zóveel mooie bossen, parken, kustlijnen, jungle etc had gezien, dat ik zelfs een soort van 'verzadigd' was geworden :O! Daar schrok ik van, en toen dacht ik: awm'gaawwd, I'm so spoiled!
Dus beter zie je minder waar je meer van geniet! Uiteindelijk kun je sowieso niet alles zien. En keep in mind these words: "Don't stress over what could've been, chances are if it should've been, it would've been." :)
Love ya!! xxxxx
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