San Jose, Charlotte, Los Angeles

We got to San Jose and found our hostel after a bit of searching, it was really well hidden. It was just a door in the side of a wall where you have to get buzzed in, but when you get inside it's a strange labyrinth of rooms and different levels. It was a nontraditional design for sure. It had a rooftop bar which was pretty cool, you could see the skyline of San Jose (it was noted that the tallest building was the Holiday Inn). Our room had a grate on the ceiling that was just open to the outside, that was also a bit weird. We walked around the city for a bit that night to find an ATM and get dinner, and had a semi terrifying encounter at the ATM with a guy walking down the street covered in blood. At first I thought he had a cut in his neck, but he wasn't acting like he was hurt or like he was someone that had lost so much blood (it really was everywhere on him, the whole right half of his body and clothes), so he probably murdered someone else and it was their blood all over him. I saw him coming and was pretty startled, and then he started talking to us asking for money and I was not sure what the hell to do, like if we didn't give him money would he murder us too?? Thankfully he went along down the street pretty quickly after stopping to talk to us, smoking his post-kill cigarette and looking generally insane. We decided to go back to the restaurante next to the hostel after that, as to avoid death/rape/stabbing that might occur on a longer walk home at a later hour in San Jose.

The next morning we got some souvenirs at the markets and ate breakfast and drove back to the car rental place. Thankfully all the damage was covered and the rental guy wasn't pissed off at all. We got to the airport and started our full day journey back to the US. I would say the highlight of that day of travel was playing wheelchair football at the Charlotte airport in North Carolina in the middle of the night, things were pretty slow. We got back to LA eventually the next morning. All in all, it was an awesome trip, great times with great friends (Four friends working together! Solving unexpected things Costa Rica throws at them! Sung to the tune of the MacGruber theme!). I for sure got to do a bunch of new things and had a great time exploring the country with my buddies, it was definitely a great post graduation excursion and I was really happy with every part of it. Can't wait for the next adventure.

Manuel Antonio National Park and Bribing Cops

The following day we took the bus up to the Manuel Antonio national park and got there right when it opened at 7am. We hiked to the beach and a deer walked with us most of the way, it was pretty weird, she even let us pet her and was just chill with walking on the trail with everyone. We spent a ton of time at the beach there, which was awesome. The water was really warm and we swam and snorkeled all around and I took a nap on some rocks and the guys made a hermit crab "sanctuary" where they put the numerous and gigantic hermit crabs through tests of physical strength and intellect, the whole setup was pretty elaborate by the end. It was a pit in the sand with tunnels and leaf barriers and sticks in the sides for climbing on. All the crabs made it out in the end, they were pretty hardcore. We went on a hike after the beach and saw a bunch of animals that could only be described as deer-rabbit-pigs, they were little mammals that went through the brush on the ground and looked really cool. We also saw another anteater and more of the raccoon creatures, and 2 sloths. They were pretty cool, even though they were far away. On the way out of the park, a huge group of monkeys came out of nowhere and we spent a good amount of time just watching them. They were only a few feet away and were playing around with each other, they're so fun to watch. We also heard a bunch of howler monkeys and saw a lot of squirrel monkeys further up on the path. It was way cool.

We got back to the hostel just in time, as it started raining a ton right as we got inside, and we hung out and read for awhile before going to dinner. We got back to the hostel and played cards and drank guaro and beer afterward. We were playing with Dave's kama sutra playing cards which were pretty hilarious, learned some new positions like the "splitting bamboo" or "the cow"... funny funny stuff. Another note about the hostel and most other hostels we stayed at, the heated water in the showers is powered by electricity, so there are electrical wires coming out of the shower head doing something crazy to heat the water. It seemed sorta dangerous to me, combining the electric current with water and all, but I guess it works, and we didn't get shocked, so that was good. Although the temperature and water pressure were definitely unreliable and you never knew what was coming up next. It was an intense showering experience full of suspense and surprises (when will the scalding water hit next??)!

Next day we hung around Manuel Antonio for awhile and checked out the markets and the public beach there before driving back to San Jose. We also stopped at Playa Hermosa, the town next to Jaco where we should have stayed, it was a really nice beach with good waves and water that was not contaminated! What a concept, Jaco should get on that wagon. We also stopped at this random bridge where there were a ton of crocodiles hanging out, they look pretty creepy down there just floating around waiting for people to feed them from the bridge. I imagine that is why they hang out there in such large numbers, there were probably about 15-20 crocodiles down there. Right after that stop, we had another rental car adventure when Michael got pulled over for speeding (pulled over = policia in neon vests waving us down from outside the car). The cop was going to give us a ticket, but then found out we were tourists in a rental car, and said we had the convenient option to pay him cash right then at a reduced price and he wouldn't have to file a ticket. Shady as this was, we definitely took him up on this offer that was essentially a bribe, as we didn't want to have to deal with paying a ticket in a foreign country. It was cheap, less than $50, so split between us was not a big deal. So add bribing foreign cops to the list of rental car insanity.

Vista Serena Hostel and Monkeys!

We drove to our next hostel in Manuel Antonio, and it was beautiful. It was called Vista Serena, and it did have an amazing view of the ocean and the hills, it was just a gorgeous place. We checked into our rooms and had made it just in time to go on the 2pm monkey tour, where we went out on a boat in the estuaries in search of monkeys and other wildlife. Christina had been disappointed that we hadn't seen any monkeys yet up in the highlands, but wow, this trip definitely made up for that. We pulled up to this one tree and there were suddenly about 15 Capuchin monkeys all over the boat, and our guide had bananas that he would hold out to them and they would climb over your head and jump across the boat to get them. It was such a cool experience, we thought Christina was going to stay with them, but we managed to keep her on the boat and also got to see some basilisk lizards, an anteater, and a bunch of cool birds. It was a really cool trip, and our guide Conrad was hella funny, he was this chilled out stoner guy that definitely said whatever came to his mind at any specific moment. He was in the middle of a talk about how one of the mangroves was different from another, and then just looks up and goes, "Oh shit, that bird just took a shit!" He was originally from Riverside, but moved back to CR to take care of his grandparents, and just works at the hostel and gives tours now, seems like a pretty sweet life.

We got back to the hostel in time to see one of the most amazing sunsets Ive ever witnessed, it was just epic. Such awesome colors and the clouds were all different from the ones you see in California, and it went on for about 2 hours. It was just mesmerizing to stare at and was nice to just relax on the porch at the hostel with such a beautiful thing in front of you.

Jaco: Craptown of Drug Dealers, Prostitutes, and Car Vandalists

Jaco was a trip to say the least. The hostel we were staying at, Las Camas, was a crazy place with all the walls painted wacky colors and signs like Pura Weeda painted all over the place. The room we were in had no windows and was a bit like a jail cell, and when we got there, there was nobody working there and the other girls staying there had to let us in and we waited until the owner came back. She was hilarious. She was a Hungarian chick that reeked of alcohol when she checked us in, and she gave us a tour of the place and we found out that she was responsible for all the color schemes and murals, as well as the shack made of Imperial beer cans on the roof and everything else crazy about the place. She was really nice, but we decided she was for sure permabaked and not sure what was going on most of the time. We hung out on the roof during a thunderstorm that night, and it was really cool just watching the lightning and chatting outside and listening to the music she put on, definitely a chill night. We went back to the room and noticed that our bags were being assaulted by these tiny bugs that were sortof like ants. It turns out they got into the candy we had made that morning, but something had taken a huge chunk out of the bag, and I'm not sure how these bugs could have done that. They were definitely all over it though, and were carrying pieces all over the floor. We got rid of it and brushed off as many bugs as we could, and prayed they were not also in the bed. We woke up allright, not dead or bleeding or anything, which was good. I went running which turned out to be a pretty painful experience, as it was insanely hot and humid out, but it was cool being on the beach and noticing all the signs saying that the water there was contaminated with fecal matter, and that you shouldn't swim in it. After wandering around the rest of the town that was just a tourist trap with a bunch of souvenir shops, we were definitely wondering what was good about this town anyway, and why we had ever decided to stay there (It was because Christina hyped it up to us with promises of drugs and hookers and binge drinking, but we were all too tired for that stuff after the drive over, so it was a failed mission. We definitely saw plenty of hookers and were offered weed and coke a few times, but sadly didn't partake in any of these traditional Jaco activities.).

The icing on the cake with Jaco was that our car got its back window smashed in sometime between breakfast and when we left at noon in broad daylight in front of our hostel. Our car was empty, and there was no reason to smash the window, especially in the middle of the day, so it was just a dick move by some jackass in Jaco. We taped it up with grocery bags and it lasted like that the rest of the trip, but it definitely cemented our opinions on Jaco being a shit place that should not be visited. It was funny leaving the hostel, as our host was shocked that such a thing would happen in Jaco (even though I bet it happens all the time), and she was also shocked to find out that the ocean was contaminated there (even though there were signs everywhere saying that is was inadvisable to swim). She was like, but I surf there every day! I was not aware of this! This woman was so so funny, she said she had considered herself an expert on the area, but I think she had some more things to learn about the city of Jaco that we decided was the Tijuana of Costa Rica. As we drove away and got out on the main road, Dave screamed, "Cianora crap town!" out the window, and people turned and stared. But it was true, we were definitely happy to be out of that godforsaken place.

The Journey to Jaco: Insane Rental Car Adventures

After the coffee tour, we had a very adventurous trip to Jaco, a coastal beach town. We were driving down the road from the hostel in Monteverde to the main road, and we realized our GPS was not working. It would not connect to any satellites or open any maps, and that was indeed a problem. We drove back to the hostel to use their phone to call the car rental place and arranged to meet a guy from their company in a town called Orotina on the way to Jaco. The drive back to the hostel was literally less than 200 meters away, and on that short drive back we drove over a sharp rock and heard a loud noise. We didn't think much of it, but after getting back into the car to head out for the second time we realized that the back right tire was completely flat and that we were driving just on the rim. It had started raining crazy amounts by this time, which was also good timing. We went back to the hostel to ask where to go to get the tire changed with our spare, because the rental people had taken the toolkit from the car for some reason and we had no way to lift up the car by ourselves. The guy came out and inflated our tire enough to drive to the garage, which was really luckily right down the road from them. The guys there had the tire changed in about 5 minutes and it only cost 2,000 colones, which is about $3.50! We were pretty impressed by that and got back on the road and started down the pass to the coast.

About 15 kilometers down the road, a guy driving behind us flagged us down and told us our wheel that had been replaced was wobbling a lot and that it looked dangerous. Sure enough, the spare tire we had was defective, and we had to stop at another garage where they patched the original popped tire and put that back on for another 3,000 colones. So cheap! We made it to Orotina only 2.5 hours late and got a new GPS and a new spare tire from the guy that looked really bored of waiting for us, but hey, if they hadn't of given us a messed up GPS in the first place, this all would have never happened. We ate a quick lunch at Killer Munchie in Orotina, home of the Killer Sandwich and Killernacho, and made it to Jaco at 7pm or so. It was for sure an experience, but we made it and it was all good in the end.

Zip Lines and the Organic Coffee Farm

The next day we went on a zip line canopy tour that was way fun. There were 12 lines that we got to go across, but the last one was by far the best. It was a kilometer long, and you had to go with 2 people to have enough weight to make it across. They said you got up to 75km per hour on that line. They also had a Tarzan swing, it was funny watching that one because people freaked out pretty often. After the zip lining, we went around the trails on in the park and saw a few cotamundis. They are like Costa Rican raccoons, one of them was in the trees, maybe looking for ants to eat? Another few were running around the forest and we caught glimpses of them. They're really cool looking, I've never seen an animal like that before and felt pretty lucky to run into a few of them. We ate at a really good pizza restaurant that night, Pizza de Johnny, and then went to the Ranaria, the frog house, where we saw a bunch of really cool frogs and toads, including many poisonous frogs that were really colorful and neat looking, and also these huge frogs that sometimes ate birds. I thought that was pretty crazy, they were about the size of a softball and apparently their tongues are really strong and they can just kill prey that you would think would be much too big for any frog to eat.

The next morning we got up and went on a tour of a coffee farm down the road. It was a really cool place. They not only grew coffee, but they also had banana, plantain, sugar cane, tobacco, papaya, naranjita(?), and a bunch of other plants. It was a really self sufficient place, and it was all owned by one family. The guy that was showing us around told us a bunch of cool stuff about how the coffee growing process works, how sugar is refined, and how bananas are harvested. They showed us every step that has to be taken to make coffee, beginning with picking the beans, peeling them, drying them, and roasting them, it is for sure a really long process that is a lot of work, especially for the coffee pickers. We also got to go on a ride in an ox cart that was hand painted in the traditional Costa Rican way and make our own dulces out of the sugar that was grown at the farm. The sugar was refined by crushing the sugar cane in a press and then boiling down the juice until it turned into a molasses like liquid. We got to take some of the liquid and mix it up on a flat surface to aerate it, and then added peanuts and coconut and let it cool off, it was pretty good stuff. Just pure sugar and those other 2 ingredients, so it was just really sweet. We also got to try juice from the narjanjita fruit (its like a cross between an orange and a lemon and was really good), and coffee fresh from the beans they grew there. It was definitely a cool tour of a farm that produced a lot of different products, and a very educational experience!

Monte Verde: The Cloudforest

The next morning we took off to Monte Verde, a mountain town that is known for the 'cloud forest', a big rain forest that has... well, a fatty cloud layer! We got into the town after a much easier drive than the previous trip just as it started storming, which was good, because it's definitely nice not driving in the crazy rain. We got lunch at the soda next door (sodas are small restaurants, it's pretty much someone's house where they cook for whoever comes by), which was really good food, as always. We had a discussion about what sort of rating this place would get if it was a restaurant in LA, and we decided that there was no way it would pass any sort of health inspection and would for sure have been condemned by now. There was a dog wandering around the kitchen, bugs everywhere, and a three or four year old daughter of the owner was hanging around that we spotted sucking on the tops of the ketchup bottles before putting them back on the table. Nevertheless, good food and nice people that ran the place, and we didn't get sick or anything so no worries.

We then went to the Serpenteria, where we got to see a ton of cool snakes, lizards, frogs, and turtles, and we even got to hold one of the non-venomous snakes. He was really cool, they just climb all over you and it feels really weird. He wanted to go in my armpit because it's really warm there I guess, but I wasn't really down for that. There was also a crazy puppy that was hanging out around the place that would come up and bite you unexpectedly while you were holding the snake, so that was a bit chaotic. He was really cute though. We also saw poison dart tree frogs, these cool camouflaged green snakes, and this crazy constrictor snake that somehow got up to the water sprinkler spigot that would mist their terrariums, and it didn't know how to get down. It was stuck there for about 30 minutes before it finally just fell down.