Monteverde, costa rica
Day 1
So the adventure has begun again and in true central America style!
Dad and I get to the border and he realizes he's outstayed his visa by about a month so guess who's crossing the border with me!
We get to the nica side and old mate behind the counter realizes dads overstayed so he gets whisked off with a couple of dudes while I'm getting stamped. I managed to get a tica bus ticket for $14 straight to puntarenas which saves me a lot of hassle.
I'm waiting for the bus to leave and dad comes up and says the immigration guy just happened to be the same one that was at out resort yesterday fining people for not carrying a passport! So I think due to the possibility he pocketed the fines he let dad off with a fee of $35 instead of about $70. Corruption sometimes comes back around and works out for you it seems!
So dad has taken off with a couple of guys to cross the costa Rican border, have a coffee then back into Nicaragua where hopefully our workers Manuel and marcus are waiting for him. Classic start to a trip here really.
Ok so we travelled for 2 mins and were all back off the bus to go through the costa Rican border. Bags off again, through the new security.
I get to the stamp desk and she asks me for my ticket out of costa, luckily I took a screen shot of my eticket from panama to Nicaragua! Stamped.
Meanwhile I can see dad waving to me from the other side as he gets stamped back into nica.........hopefully!
I took a quick trip to the bathroom and of the 2 dunnies only one has a door but that didn't stop old lady whipping of her pants and squating. She didn't even blink an eye!
About 3 hours into the bus ride that was stopped by 3 police checks, we also watched 3 half movies because the bad pirates kept stopping, they call my stop for puntarenas.
I jump off and grab my bags and a really nice taxi driver asks where I'm headed. I say puntarenas but he tells me I need to catch a ferry. He said I can go straight to Monteverde instead but I better run across the road right now because that's the last bus!
I ran across the pan American highway with the skill of leap frog and managed to flag it down as it was taking off.
Lucky dad found that 1000 colon note this morning cause that's the $2
I needed for this 3hr bus ride, I forgot to get some local coin.
How the fark is this bus getting up this hill? The driver is revving the guts right out of it and people are still pulling the string for random stops. We are almost vertical people, how about lets NOT stop right now.
I'm having flashbacks of the road to semuc champey in Guatemala.
We were about to take on a huge hill when the gears slip. The driver put on the handbrake lifted the engine hood which is next to the drivers seat and literally poked the engine with a big stick! And we're off again.
There's a woman sitting behind me that has so much deodorant on that I kinda wish she had a bit of B.O to balance it out.
Arrived in santa elena/Monteverde and Found hostel pension and it's great. The guy running it has actually stayed at our hostel and Half of our guests from the casa are here!
I went for a walk with Sally to find the bottle shop and get me some mixed drink in a can, oh god how I miss them. Costa rica pulls through with the goods and I find J&B whiskey and coke in a can.
For those wondering why the obsession, well this country is the only one (apart from mexico) that sells dark spirits mixed in a bloody can!
We get back to the hostel and have a few drinks with all the crew from oit hostel. Met a great Canadian couple who once again confirm for me that Canadian men are the loudest people in the entire world.
There was an awkward moment at the table when everyone could smell a hideous fart but no one said anything. By art of deduction and everyone about to throw up, turns out it was the cute labrador street dog who had clearly been chowing down on leftover bin burritos!
Anyway I've paid for another night because it's a cute little town I want to explore tomorrow. It actually looks like a snow village in the mountains in oz. Only problem is its freezing here and I'm sans warm clothes. Oh well, fingers crossed for a warm day.
By the way dad emailed and he got busted on the costa Rican side for owning a business and crossing on a tourist visa! So it's a trip to Managua for him to sort it all out. Pain in the arse.
Monteverde day 2
I've signed up for a sky walk in the cloud forest this morning and I'm hoping I see a bloody sloth because I bloody love sloths!
The bus is actually on time (Guatemala take note please).
It's seriously like a ski resort sans snow here. The skywalk starts at a chalet basically.
Soooooo glad I bought a waterproof jacket at the local sports store. I was wondering why all the locals were smiling and saying "rico", my new jacket is the national costa Rican soccer jacket! Whoops.
There was some kind of marathon through the cloud forest as I walked in which made for very wobbly suspension bridges.
I timed it so I would be by myself and it was a great idea because it was so peaceful. Sadly not much wildlife but I did see the cutest little hummingbird flying around a woman's arse!
The walk took about 2 hours and I jumped on the bus back to town.
There was a nice Aussie woman behind me that wouldn't stop talking and had the worst breath EVER.
I'm now at a little coffee shop having a real hot chocolate, delish.
I've booked the jeep-boat-jeep ride to la fortuna
tomorrow at 8am which should be cool. Looking forward to a dip in the hot springs overlooking the volcano.
Just went out with the 2 lovely Dutch girls that stayed at our hostel for some chicken soup but gotta leave room for a burrito later!
They are off on the night walk to find me a sloth. Fashionably I might add. Their runners are wet so they've donned socks and thongs.......noice!
I've done the shopping and prepared for peanut satay rice and veggie wraps when they get back
at 8pm.
It's apparently hanukkah so a Jewish girl becky has made a manorah out of empty beer bottles and stuck candles in them!
There's some kind of wierd endurance running race going on in town, they were out at the cloud forest and they are still running through town with head lamps on.
Had a lot of laughs and a few mixers In a CAN with the Dutch girls and will hopefully see them again in panama. Monteverde has been great, very relaxing little town indeed :)
