Drake Bay

June 7, 2019

I spent my last few nights in Costa Rica in the remote town of Drake Bay. It’s a little hard to get to and I had a surprisingly hard time finding any kind of cohesive bus schedule. In the end I took a taxi to a town called La Palma where a bus departs twice a day for Drake Bay. Along the way the bus fords several rivers- not a drive I’d want to do!

The town of Drake Bay is super tiny, with a handful of restaurants and tour operators. They don’t even have an ATM or full grocery store!

Drake Bay took a little bit of warming up for me, I wasn’t sure at first if I’d picked wisely but by the end was sad to go!

At the “bus stop” (aka random bench in town), the owner of the hotel came to pick me up…well, he didn’t at first but then the nice bus driver called him for me hehe.

I stayed at Casa Horozontes, perched up a steep hill from the bay, with a beautiful view, comfortable hammock and very kind owners, Yami and Pedro. Pedro doesn’t speak any English but has the biggest permanent smile I’ve ever seen! Yami is like a nice mom, and helped to arrange all the tours I wanted to do while there. Breakfast is included and is delicious and huge, eggs, pancakes, fruit, YUM. You can also opt to have dinner there which is similarly tasty and grande (and much better than most of the food I had at restaurants in Costa Rica)

It was afternoon when I got in, so I just strolled along a beach collecting some shells (which is something I LOVE to do, but I don’t think you’re really supposed to take shells from beaches. Oh well).

The next morning, after my huge breakfast, I went on a snorkeling tour, which ended up being just so-so. The visibility in the water wasn’t great; we still saw a few fish, turtle, and manta ray, just not all that clearly. I’m not sure if it was the weather that day or if it’s always like that, I assume it was the weather otherwise I doubt snorkeling would be as big a deal as it is there! That evening I had a great strawberry daiquiri and a horrible piece of fish at a restaurant in town before embarking on a night tour which is a popular activity all around Costa Rica.

At first the tour was pretty cool. Even in the dark, our guide somehow spotted frogs, lizards, tarantulas and other creepy crawlies. The tour would have been great if it was two hours; that’s about how long I want to look at spiders and amphibians while getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. But it was FOUR HOURS LONG. I think it was supposed to be three hours long but our guide just kept on going! I appreciate his enthusiasm, but honestly all the frogs looked the same, I didn’t need to see 50 of them to get the idea. At least he got some cool photos….which he never emailed to us. Here’s the one photo of a spider that I took:

My last day of vacation (SAD FACE) I hiked to San Josecito beach. It was a beautiful clear day and the hike isn’t too hard, but like in Corcovado, the heat and humidity make it a bit more challenging. On the way, you have the jungle on one side and the ocean on the other, so the views are great and I even saw a few monkeys. The nice thing about this hike is that you can chill at the beach a while before heading back! I laid around and read and floated in the ocean, managing to get an impressive stomach sunburn to bring home.

I spent my last evening having dinner at the hotel with three Costa Rican sisters who were beginning their Semana Santa (holy week) vacation and who really pushed the limits of my conversational Spanish! After 3 flights and a long travel day, it was back home to San Francisco to dream about my next adventure!

Corcovado National Park

June 7, 2019

For my second week in Costa Rica, I headed down to the Osa Peninsula, which is the southwest part of the country, and more rustic and undeveloped than other parts of the country.

The primary reason to come here is to explore Corcovado National Park, the largest park in the country and one of the most bio-diverse places in the world!

I don’t usually allow this dorky hat in photos, but was too lazy to take it off and try to make my hair look decent!

Puerto Jimenez

After a quick and scenic 45 minute plane ride from San Jose, I arrived in the morning and had a day to kill in the town of Puerto Jimenez.

I didn’t have much of an idea of what to do, but I checked in at Cabinas Jimenez, where Annie at the front desk helped me plan a great afternoon.

First I needed to eat breakfast, so grabbed a bite at Monka Cafe. Appropriately fueled up, I rode one of the hotel’s free bikes to a beautiful beach about 45 minutes away. The beach feels super secluded, but is actually attached to a hotel, so there are some hammocks and chairs - yet I had the entire place to myself! After some relaxing with a book and a beach stroll, I had lunch at the restaurant on the beach, Pearl of the Osa and then hit the (bumpy) road back into town.

I grabbed a kayak, also free to use from Cabinas Jimenez, and headed out to some mangroves. I didn’t really spot much wildlife, but it was nice to be on the water and see a new landscape.

Corcovado National Park

That evening, I went to “orientation” for my hike that would begin the next day. We didn’t actually get that much new information, most of it had been communicated to us via email already, but I did meet Marie, a nice German woman also joining the hike solo, and we grabbed a bite together at Marisqueria Corcovado before turning in early for our 4:30 AM wakeup!

Our little hiking group and a cool tree!

Our hike to Corcovado spanned 3 days. The first day, we began in Carate, and hiked 12.5 miles into Sirena station, which would be our accommodations for the next two nights. The terrain itself isn’t all that strenuous, but the trek is made much more difficult by the extreme heat and humidity, plus the weight of a heavy pack (mostly water for the hike, but also clothes, etc for the 2 night stay).

Along the way we saw TONS of animals, which is why you do the hike in the first place! Our guide, Carlos, was a bit salty at times, but was able to spot even the smallest of creatures, quickly set up his telescope, and give us a great view. Steven, the other member of our group, had a great camera, so most of the photos you’ll see below are from him!

Not sure what this bird is, but it’s pretty!

Sirena station is basic, but actually very impressive for being located in the middle of nowhere- they even have Wifi (and it even sort of works!). We slept in dorm-style accommodations and the meals there are plentiful and served by friendly local staff. The experience felt a bit like summer camp; the guides from the different companies all know one another, and we got to know them and the other trekkers around meals or just hanging around the station. I already miss my Corcovado crew!

The second day was for some easy strolling right around the station. Unfortunately my stomach started hurting pretty badly the first night, so I was a no-show for the 4:30 AM nature walk (and slept in until the luxuriously late hour of 5:30 AM). I did join the group for the afternoon hiking where we saw more bird and animals and even a crocodile! But, I still wasn’t feeling great so didn’t enjoy myself 100%.

The guides and their scopes! Our guide, Carlos, is on the far left.

Luckily I felt much, much better the next day. We hiked out via a different route than we came, a longer and more hilly 14 mile trail. We started at 5 AM- a little later than you begin the Carate route, because of a HERD OF WILD BOAR who might attack you if you go in the dark. Totally cool. At this time of morning, it was still dark, with a thunderstorm visible in the distance and the calls of howler monkeys in the air (they sound like terrifying monsters). It was all a bit apocolyptic, but it was time to get back to civilization!

There weren’t as many animals to see on this trail, which I didn’t really mind since we’d seen so much already in our first two days. We made good time and were back in Puerto Jimenez by 1 PM.

I did my trek via Sucros Tours. Overall the company was very well-organized and super helpful before the trip. The three of us in the group agreed that our guide was not the best. He seemed kind of annoyed with us and our questions, and on the last day, hiked VERY fast, at times leaving one of us (ahem, me) far behind the rest of the group- not cool when there are natural hazards all around!

I cleaned up, took a nap, ate a quesadilla, and then met up one last time for dinner with Marie and Steve at PizzaMail.it for some post-trek cabo-loading and….WINE!

Monkey business in Manuel Antonio

April 15, 2019

Manuel Antonio was my second stop in Costa Rica, it’s main attraction is the epynonymus national park, known for its beaches and aggressive monkeys!

It took me FOREVER to drive there- 7 hours, including a lunch stop in sweltering Jaco. Luckily I was staying at a great resort, Gaia, where I immediately relax when I arrived. They greet you with a cold towel and fruit, then your own personal concierge provides a tour of the grounds. In theory your concierge is there for anything you need, but I’m pretty low maintenance, so it was more like just having a friend text me everyday to ask how it was going and if I needed anything. All I needed at that point was to relax by the pool before an early dinner at the hotel (which has a great restaurant called La Luna).

The next day was wildlife-packed. Gaia has a guide that will take you to Manuel Antonio, and he helped us spot lizards, bats and of course plenty of monkeys. I learned tons of interesting facts about animals- like that monkeys have a fingerprint in their tail, and that hummingbirds have to go into hibernation every night because they are so active during the day!

Our guide and his telescope. You can put your cell phone up to the eye-hole and take a decent photo!

They monkeys in Manuel Antonio are known to be aggressive about stealing food, but this one was just chillin’!

A hummingbird as seen through the telescope.

A “Jesus Christ” Lizard, so named because they walk on water.

We ended our walking tour at the beach, where I spent the next couple of hours relaxing in the shade. Overall the park was nice, but pretty crowded and not the best place for seeing animals in Costa Rica. The beach was also…fine. I’m not sure I consider it one of “the 12 most beautiful beaches in the world,” which it supposedly is.

Me at the beach! Some photo editing makes the water look a lot more blue than it really was. And makes me look slightly less pale than I actually am.

The most popular restaurant in Manuel Antonio is, unexpecedtly, a falafel joint where I grabbed a sandwich for lunch, followed by a quick nap before re-joining the nature guide for a tour of Gaia’s scarlet macaw preserve. The owner of the hotel is helping repopulate scarlet macaws in Costa Rica with a protected breeding area where they’re born and spend about a year and a half before being set free to go where they please. So of course, there are tons of beautiful rainbow-plumaged scarlet macaws flying around, as well as other animals like monkeys and !!sloths!!

For dinner I ventured into Quepos where parking is terrifying, because the streets have a two-foot drop off before the sidewalk, so if you are bad at parallel parking, you’re going into a ditch! I ate at a seafood place called Velamar but it wasn’t very good unfortunately.

The next day it was already time to move on! I got in a quick workout at the hotel’s gym (which I’m pretty sure is almost never used. Private gym!) and then relaxed and had some lunch by the pool before driving back to San Jose whose traffic is so horrible and disorganized it really puts the bay area into perspective.

I had a brief overnight stay at Casa Primo CR, a hotel close to the airport. The owner was super sweet and arranged airport transit for me the next day and even made me a sandwich for dinner since there are no restaurants nearby. The next day I was off to the rugged Osa Peninsula!

Arenal, Costa Rica: Volcano Views and Waterfalls

April 5, 2019

Hola from Manuel Antonio where I’m blogging from my patio while watching a thunderstorm! I’ve only been in Costa Rica for 4 days so far but it feels like a lot longer. I’m splitting my time here between the northern area of the country, and the Osa Peninsula in the south west. First stop: Arenal!

I arrived into San Jose (the capital) late in the evening so grabbed my rental car and stayed at a hotel near the airport. It was totally fine but nothing to write home about. I got in around 8 PM (after haven woken up at 4 AM) and was tired and hungry. Unfortunately for me, the only close restaurant was the Hard Rock Cafe! So much for immersing myself in Costa Rican culture!

The next morning I set off for the Arenal area, about a 3-4 hour drive from San Jose where I spent two nights.

Where I stayed

I posted up at the Arenal Observatory Lodge during my stay. A bit remote, it’s located less than 2 miles from the volcano that towers over the area. I was definitely glad to have a rental car since it’s about 20 minutes away from everything else in town. The best part was the beautiful grounds, they have 11 miles of easy trails with lots of plant and animal life to observe. It was a great way to stretch my legs after a long drive!

The room I stayed in was in a building separate from the main area, with six rooms and a shared bathroom, almost like a really nice summer camp lodge. However, I was the only person in the building! It was sort of nice (didn’t actually have to share the shared bathroom) but a little spooky at times since I was so far removed from everyone else!

Activities & Eats

My first day, I walked around Arenal Observatory Lodge and enjoyed some amazing views of the volcano. I didn’t know it at the time, but I got really lucky with a super clear day. The next two days you could barely even see the volcano due to heavy clouds.

After getting settled in my room, I headed over to the Arenal 1968 hiking area (so named for the year the volcano erupted). There is also a national park around the volcano, but a few sources I found online said they actually preferred the private 1968 area which is why I picked it.

They almost didn’t let me in since apparently they close at 4, and I arrived at 4:15, but I told them I was a pretty fast hiker, so they let me do the short trail which goes through some jungle and volcanic rock. Many people visit with a guide, which probably would have been worth it, but I enjoyed the scenery even without any background info to accompany it.

The following day, I was up bright and early for my canyoning tour with Pure Trek where we repelled down 4 waterfalls in the jungle (the largest is about 100 feet tall), and a bonus “monkey drop” which is a terrifying short zipline followed by a straight down drop into the water ACK. I’m pretty scared of heights, but so many blogs and tour reviews said that this was an AMAZING LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE so I figured I had to do it! I’m not sure it changed my life, but I definitely felt accomplished after it, even if I did take it super slowly the whole time.

Unfortunately I don’t have any photos because we had to leave all our non-waterproof stuff behind so it wouldn’t get ruined. However I befriended a Canadian couple who had a Go Pro and took some pics of me, and I’m hoping that they email them to me!

I continued the waterfall theme that afternoon by paying a visit to La Fortuna Waterfall, a popular tourist destination where the main activity is posing for pictures in front of the waterfall! Despite the photo-happy crowds, it was still beautiful. I did take a photo with it but I look too ugly in it to post in public so enjoy this one without me in it:

Finally, to wrap up my water-themed day, I decided to indulge in another popular activity: hot springs! There are tons of facilities in the area, but I opted for a night pass to Tabacón on the recommendation of some of my fellow repellers and a friend who visited on her honeymoon.

It got off to a rocky start. I drove the 20 minutes there from Arenal Observatory Lodge only to realize I’d forgotten my swimsuit, so drove BACK, then back again. Having finally made it, I ate the included buffet dinner (about as exciting as you’d expect) and then was ready for a soak! They have tons of different pools, of varying temperatures and decorative styles. After about 15 minutes in the public zone I decided to try to access the GUESTS ONLY Shangri-La gardens recommended by my friend. Nobody was posted up checking for guest ID, so I just strolled right in and basically had the area all to myself! It was great, though would have been much more fun with another person (there’s only so much time one can spend soaking alone with one’s thoughts). I also think it would have been nice to see it during the day since they have a lot of tropical landscaping that was hard to appreciate at night.

This pic is from Tabacon’s website- I don’t have a photo of my own since, you know, water and phones don’t really mix.

My new favorite activity is catching the sunset, every night so far has been different but breathtaking.

Night 1, from the balcony at the Arenal restaurant (my HDR app makes it look slightly more purple than it actually was)

Night 2, from outside my room at Arenal (that’s Lake Arenal in the foreground)

As for eats & drinks, I’m afraid I haven’t been too adventurous so far this trip! I had dinner at the lodge my first night, and Tabacón the second. The town of La Fortuna (the tourist hub) doesn’t have a lot going on, food-wise but I did go to lunch twice at a very cute cafe called Organico Fortuna. The food wasn’t AMAZING, but it was super cute, and seemed like a healthy-ish choice.

Arenal was a great introduction to Costa Rica, stay tuned to hear what I’ve been doing in Manuel Antonio!

Welcome to my blog!

South America...and beyond!

In early 2017, I took a 3 month sabbatical from work to travel in South America, and blogged about it along the way. Since then, I’ve taken a few more noteworthy trips, and am sharing my experiences with you here!

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