Ok, so I know it's been a VERY long time since the last post, but life has been hectic since we got back to Cow Town!
So I guess I left off on the day before the Canopy tour. That morning we were picked up at our hotel by the tour company and after picking up all of the other people taking the tour that day we made our way through miles and miles of African Palm plantation to the Tour site. We stopped along the way a few times to that they could point out different plants and animals. The oil that they extract from the palm comes from big bushels of little red fruit...who knew? We saw a turtle and a baby alligator, and lots and lots of cows with these little white birds surrounding them (mom probably remembers the name but I don't). We also saw some rice fields which we appreciated because the rice in Central America is sooooo good!
Once we got to the mountain 'lodge' owned by the company we had a big buffet breakfast, complete with pinto gallo the typical Costa Rican breakfast of rice and beans...it was yummy....mom even liked it! After we were all fed they suited us up with harnesses and gave us some very thorough safety instructions. Then the adventure began!
After a short hike further into the rainforest we reached the first platform for the first of nine zip lines and 3 repels. It was amazing and I was so proud of Mom, she was fearless flying through the trees!! There were a few points when we got a little nervous as we stood on a platform with 10 other people on it and the tree swayed back and forth. But safety was a big priority for our guides and we were secured by cords from either the zip line or the tree to our harness at all times. I don't know how to put the experience into words because it was so unbelievable, but we got some awesome videos of it, so we'll have to show them to you all!
When the tour was done we caught a bus from Quepos westward up the coast to Puntarenas which is a jumping off point to the Nicoya peninsula, our next destination. We arrived in puntarenas just after dark and started walking in the general direction of the ferry, hoping to catch a taxi there because it was about 2km away....no such luck. We ended up walking the whole way there with our packs on, but it was a very well lit street, so it ended up ok.
We had about an hour wait for the ferry so we took a seat on a nearby bench to rest and were approached by a guy named Raul who claimed to work with Tourists in the area. He informed us that we had missed the last bus from the town on the other side to Moctezuma, our final destination for the evening. He offered to help us make a reservation for a taxi to pick us up and make the hour long trip to Moctezuma and to book a hotel room before we got there in case the reception was closed. It all seemed a little fishy, but we took him up on the offer because it would be nearly 11pm when we arrived and we didn't want to be stuck without a room. After all the arrangements were made he asked us to pay him for his services, which we had kindof expected...nothing is free in this world! We were glad to have everything arranged though so it was worth the extra $5 for security!
The taxi driver we had waiting for us was a very friendly man and he talked my ear off the whole way. He got us to the hotel safely and the guard was there waiting with our room key when we arrived. It was VERY nice to get settled in that night with some of the most comfy beds we had the whole trip!
The next morning after a bit of a sleep in...ok I slept in until about 8:30 when mom couldn't stand it anymore and had to wake me up because she had been awake for "HOURS!"...we went for a wander of the town. It consisted of about 3 very touristy blocks and we had breakfast in an overpriced americanized restauraunt. The food was good and it was a cute restauraunt, but the portions were small considering the prices. Costa Rica is definitely more expensive and touristy than Panama!
We decided that we would catch a flight to San Jose the next day rather than taking the taxi-ferry-bus route there so save us about 7 hours of travel time and when we called to make a reservation were told that we had to pay by 4pm that day...after a brief panic that we would have to take a $25 taxi ride to Tambor where the plane flies out of just to pay for the tickets we found a place in Moctezuma where we were able to pay and save the travel time to Tambor and back!
Once all of our travel stuff was arranged, we hit the beach for our last beach day! The beach one one side of town was a little rocky and we decided to explore a bit after a few hours there, because it was far from the nicest beach we'd visited on the trip! We eventually found another beach on the other side of town (remember it's only 3 blocks) with much softer sand and a bigger rock free area to swim in. The waves at this beach were very powerful and some were huge! It would be a great surfing beach!
We watched the sunset from the beach and headed back to the hotel to get showered and changed for dinner and made our way to a really neat restauraunt that we had seen earlier. They specialized in BBQ'd seafood and we both opted for the lobster. It was fantastic! And the 2 for 1 daiquiri's went superbly with it!
The next morning we were up early again and headed to the "airport" in Tambor. We had mistakenly assumed that there would be some sort of building there where we could wait and have something to eat....no so. There was just a landing strip and a guy from the airline drove up in an SUV a few minutes before the plane got there to check us in. The plane was tiny and we were a total of 10 people including the 2 capitans who we would have been able to reach forward and tap on the shoulder had we been sitting in the front row!
In San Jose we checked into our hostel and headed out to find some lunch and the market. We had lunch at a Peruvian place and I was very excited to find "arroz chaufa" and "papas a la hauncaina"...anyone who knows Peruvian food will understand my delight! And we finally figured out while we were there that the delicious fish called corvina we had been enjoying for 3 weeks was sea bass!
The market was very fun, and Mom and I had no trouble filling up the sports bag we bought to transport our purchases! It was a bustling place with anything imaginable for sale...we would have loved to buy some of the fresh seafood we saw there, but didn't have time to cook it! Huge prawns, fresh fish....could have been a feast!
Once we got all of our purchases stuffed into our packs back at the hotel room we had a little rest and headed out for our last dinner in Central America. And it was a good one! At the Peruvian restauraunt we met a very friendly american man who recommended a place called Cafe Mundo to us and it was great. It huge old house with a large outdoor courtyard, complete with a fountain. Great meal to end the trip.
The next morning we headed home, and after a very uneventful trip made it back safe and sound to meet Dad and Jimmie at the airport. And now time is flying by as Christmas approaches!
