Costa Rrrrrrica

It’s only been a few days since I wrote last time, and that have been a time full of travelling and changed plans.

My last day in Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua, was spent on a bike, cycling in the shadow of the same volcano I climbed the day before. The guy I rented the bike from explained a route for me, in Spanish, but I looked at the map and thought I knew better and cycled the way I wanted to, not the same tourist route everybody els is cycling. After a few hours cycling, mostly uphill, with the wind constantly against me, did I understand why they advised me to take the bus to the other side of the island and cycle back from there. So halfway, after coming to a nature reserve that I couldn’t walk into because of floods, did I decide to go back. The same way that took a few hours on the way there, took less then one hour going back. Win some, loose some…

The day after I took of for Costa Rica (after a quick Happy Birthday call to my little quarter century girl…), first by boat to the main land and then bus to the chaotic border. The plan was to go to Volcano Arenal, one of the most active volcanoes in the region, spend one day there and then head out to the Caribbean coast. Getting to the volcano included several bus changes in different cities. Since the whole border crossing affair took such a long time didn’t I manage to get all the way to Arenal the same day, but had to stop (since there was no more buses) in a little town called Tilaran. I checked in to a hotel close to the bus station and asked in the reception when the bus for La Furtuna (the town closest to Arenal) were leaving in the morning. 7am, 9am, 1pm and 4pm was the answer (it was written down so I wasn’t confused with the Spanish this time) and I thought the 9am bus would be perfect. So up at 8.30 in the morning, get ready and of to the bus station in the rain (there was perfect weather in Nicaragua and as soon as we crossed the border was there overcast and later heavy rains, the first rain for me since Flores, Guatemala). So did I get the bus to La Furtuna? No, there was no 9am, 1pm or 4pm bus. The two buses to La Fortuna was at 7am and 2pm. Since the weather was bad (I wouldn’t see much of the volcano if I went there because of the clouds) and I had to wait for so long did I decide to change my plans and head first for San Jose and then directly from there to the Caribbean coast.

So here I’m, in the little Afro-Caribbean settlement of Cahuita. What they

A Rare Costa Rican Moment Without Rain

have here are, apart from reggae bars, is a national park (which you can only visit about 10% of, because of the rains and floods the last months) and a nice beach for swimming (which is covered with trees and garbage because of the rains and floods the last months).

After one more night here will I head down the coast to Puerto Viejo for one night and that will be all I see of Costa Rica. Even if Costa Rica is very beautiful and more build up then the rest of Central America, so is it also very touristy, expensive and the food is even less tasty here…

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