Cloud forests, bus rides and Semana Santa

After being chided by my mother for not posting, here’s the latest installment of my Costa Rica saga. Again, I apologize for the length but there was a lot to say.

As some of you may have known, one of my bestest buddies from Mac, Eddie, was in Costa Rica last week visiting his parents (his dad is on sabbatical studying nematodes). And since Costa Rica is approximately 80% Catholic and being that is was Semana Santa last week, much of the workforce throughout the country was on vacation. Lucky that I am, I did not have to work last week so, it worked out splendidly that we could hang out quite a bit. Eddie and a friend of his from Lincoln, Jen, who was also in Central America came up to Liberia last Monday and we all traveled together and did the best we could to enjoy ourselves. We did of course, and unfortunately for Jen, this meant we gave her a hard time often.

After spending a cramped and uncomfortable night in my apartment, we got up early and headed to the cloud forests. There was no direct route to get there but finally, after being jostled around for several hours winding our way up a terribly bumpy road, we arrived at Santa Elena. There is nothing exceptional about the place, it is a rather small, touristy town that merely serves as a gateway to the nearby biological reserves, catering almost exclusively to those who have come to see the cloud forests.

In a remarkable “small world moment,” Eddie, while periodically lifting his head off the seat in front of him in an effort not to become car sick, spotted a guy sitting at the front of the bus we came in on wearing an Iowa State baseball cap. We ended up talking with him when we got off the bus and as it turns out, he graduated from ISU in the mid 90’s and has been traveling Central America for five weeks. Weird... Go ‘Clones!

Anyway, after getting off the bus we got some lunch, dropped off our bags and hopped aboard a short shuttle to the Santa Elena biological reserve to do a quick hike Tuesday afternoon. It was great! Incredibly dense, diverse vegetation with all kinds of things I’ve never seen before, but they are definitely called rain forests for a reason. As soon as we got off the van it turned from a fine mist into a steady rain and we trudged through the forest for about an hour and a half. It was incredibly beautiful with plants and vines everywhere and a towering canopy, but it was difficult to enjoy because we were busy getting soaked to bone (Eddie and I conveniently blame Jen although it was entirely our own faults. You know rain jackets don’t do a whole lot of good balled up in your backpack at the hostel).

We made it back no worse for the wear and the next morning I was fully equipped for a monsoon at the Monteverde Reserve, 5km the opposite direction from Santa Elena. But wouldn’t you know, it barely did anything more than a light mist…figures. I had my heart set on licking some poisonous dart frogs and seeing a resplendent quetzal, but unfortunately neither were to be found. The two reserves are much the same as far as flora and fauna, but there were far more tourists at Monteverde. We saw some howler monkeys, a variety of birds and a few lizards but had to hurry back and get our stuff in time to catch the last bus for San Jose.

We were heading to Eddie’s parents house and because every thing shut down for Semana Santa there was a mass exodus of people leaving the reserves. We had to go on Wednesday afternoon, lest we be stranded there until Saturday and met a bunch of travelers in much the same predicament (i.e. not necessarily wanting to go to San Jose but with no other options because buses didn’t run on Thursday or Friday). Interestingly, I did talk to this guy, who knew another guy, who could hook us with a special deal for a bus just for us on Thursday if we stuck around. A tempting offer but needless to say, one we did not take him up on.

Both lanes were clogged with traffic going into and out of San Jose and when combined with a flat tire, normally a four hour bus ride annoyingly turned into a seven hour trip. We didn’t reach Eddie’s parents house in Heredia, a suburb a few km north of San Jose, until late Wednesday night. With everything closed for Semana Santa activities, there wasn’t a whole lot going on so we just took it easy for a couple days. We did play some soccer and walked around downtown San Jose which were both pretty fun. Mr. and Mrs. Powers were incredibly nice and it was great to kinda be around some familiar people and some semblance of a family.

Eddie and Jen left for the States on Saturday and I took off for Liberia that same afternoon. It was great to meet Jen and hang out with Eddie for the week but now it’s back to the grind. I’ve been looking for new apartments, albeit not very resolutely, but this week I think I’m going to try and move to the beach. I’ll let you all know how that turns out but that’s all for now.