Happy Saturday, everyone! At this moment, I am sitting on my
bed listening to different music styles to prepare for my music final,
listening to the thunder, watching the rain, and thinking how am two weeks away
from returning to the USA. I have so much I want to share with all of you, but
I realized I fell into the trap: I let too much time go by and now I’m going to
try to cram everything into a few blog posts. My last post was about the first
weekend with my mom. Here is what we did the second weekend:
Wednesday: We headed back out towards the Pacific and drove
to Quepos. It was about a three hour drive, but there was no traffic and we had
fun talking. We stayed at Hotel Sirena in Quepos and the best part was the air
conditioning and the pool! Quepos and Manuel Antonio are very, very, very warm
and humid. We walked around Quepos in the evening and bought 3 small cartons of
strawberries, 2 mangos and 2 bananas for 3 dollars. I love how fruit is so
cheap here in Costa Rica! We enjoyed the strawberries, ate dinner and went to
bed.
Thursday: I woke up not feeling well, so I spent all morning in
the air-conditioned hotel room. I wanted my mom to see Manuel Antonio, so she
joined a tour group and explored the national park on her own. She met some
very nice people and enjoyed herself, except she lost her flip-flops and
sunglasses on the beach! whoops! She got back around 12 and we both jumped in
the pool to cool off. I was slowly getting better, so we took the bus to Manuel
Antonio. At a souvenir shop I found the towel I have been wanting to buy! The
only other place I have found it was in Arenal, so I was super excited. My mom
and I walked along the beach for a while and then walked to a restaurant I had
found earlier on the internet and wanted to try. We found Café Milagro after a
2km walk, all of it uphill! It was not the smartest thing for me to do after
being sick that morning, but the blackberry lemonade was worth it. The food was
also delicious. It was basically a yummy Costa Rican bistro. I loved it! We
caught a taxi back to Quepos and after a quick dip in the pool to cool off, I
was ready for bed.
Friday: We got up and had breakfast, checked out, and headed
to our tour of Villa Vanilla, a local spice and vanilla farm about 10 miles
from Quepos. The tour guides were on vacation, so the owner gave us the tour
himself. He is an expat and moved to Costa Rica around the 1960’s. He
definitely has the “tranquila” lifestyle down. We moved slowly through the farm
and saw the harvest process and drying process. I loved sampling the cinnamon
trees. yummy! We were treated to mango cheesecake, cookies, chocolate, and
other food made with products from the farm. My mom and I bought vanilla beans
and real cinnamon at the farm’s shop. We ended around noon and the heat was
incredible! We cranked the air conditioning in our car and started the drive to
Monteverde and the cloud forest.
After 4 hours, and about 10 miles of
dirt roads, we arrived in Santa Elena/Monteverde. It was so cool – a big
difference from the heat and humidity of Manuel Antonio! We stayed at Camino
Verde/Tina’s Cabinas. It’s a small bed and breakfast and I HIGHLY recommend
people stay there! Andres speaks perfect English and was very, very helpful when
we wanted to plan our day. They also have super fast internet (for Costa Rica)
and that was definitely a treat. The rooms were clean, smelled wonderful, there
was hot water and a great family atmosphere. My mom and I ate dinner
at the soda next door and then hit the hay.
Saturday: We started our day nice and early. We got up at 7
and had a breakfast of eggs and pancakes. Andres, the host, was very surprised
when I put peanut butter on my pancakes. He said he’s never seen that before!
Peanut butter is just not that common here in Costa Rica. After finishing our
breakfast my mom and I headed to Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. It is your
stereotypical rainforest! We walked the trails under the very, very green
canopy and the mist from the clouds made us feel like we had the whole reserve
to ourselves. It was a very good morning, and we ended up walking about 3 miles
on the trails. The gift shop also had very good prices, so we bought some
souvenirs including a poster of local Costa Rican fruits. Hopefully my roommate
next semester will let me put it up in our dining room (hint hint) We quickly
stopped at the humming bird house then headed back into the town of
Monteverde/Santa Elena. We had lunch at my now favorite restaurant in Costa
Rica – Choco-Café de Don Juan. The barista was phenomenal! I got a swan in my
coffee and my mom got a rabbit. The food was also wonderful and fairly priced.
After eating I went to pay and told my mom I would meet her in the car. I
bought her a display of a Blue Morpho butterfly and a small packet of the local
coffee for a surprise. We had to be back at our hotel by 12:30 to be picked up
for our next adventure – zip lining!
It is
essential to go zip lining in Costa Rica, and my mom and I picked a good place
to go! We soared on 12 zip lines, 2 Superman lines, and one Tarzan swing. I
have never seen my mom smile more! She loved the zip lines! The Supermans were
my favorite because it felt like I was flying. My least favorite was the
Tarzan swing. Originally I was not going to, but my mom did it, so I had
to do it. The concept is very simple. You are attached to a bungee rope and you
stand on a platform and jump off, causing you to swing out over the canopy. I
did not like it! I told the guide he would have to push me off, and I think he
helped push me a little. After a blood-curdling scream and about 30 seconds of swinging, I was never more thankful to be back on solid ground. I have done the
swing, but never again! My mom and I can check that off our bucket list. 
We returned
to our hotel around 3:30, and headed off horse back riding at 4. Our guide was
a hoot! He was so funny and a real jokester. My horse was named Muñeco and he
just wanted to run! The guide let me gallop for a small part of the trip – that
was very fun! We rode up into the mountains and watched the sunset before heading
down. My mom and I walked into Santa Elena after being dropped of at our hotel. We
had dinner at an “Italian” place. My mom
loved her pizza with pineapple, ham, and coconut. We were so tired when we
returned from dinner that we just went straight to bed.
Sunday: When I woke up I discovered something: zip lining
makes my back sore! Between my back, and my legs from horse-back riding, it was
slow going in the morning. My mom and I slept in and missed breakfast, so we
headed back to our favorite café. After a relaxing breakfast we got in the car
and started the drive back to San Joaquín. We wanted to get an early start to
avoid the traffic jam we experienced last week. I am happy to say we had no
traffic the entire way! We made it back to my mom’s B&B safely. I took her
to dinner at a Peruvian restaurant and showed her the local church. We packed
up her suitcases in my room and I sent many of my souvenirs home with her. We
exchanged pictures and said goodbye three times – she kept driving back down to
give me some things that had gotten mixed up in our suitcases. It was sad
seeing her drive away for the last time, but I was ready to get back into my
routine and I knew that I would be seeing her in a little over a month. Having
my mom come down and be my 'adventure buddy' was wonderful, and definitely a
highlight of my adventure here in Costa Rica.
Monday: Back to school! My mom made it safely to the airport
at 6am, and I kept tabs on her as she made it safely to Seattle where my dad
was waiting to pick her up. I worked on homework and projects. Being back in my
routine has its advantages, but it also means I have to focus on school again.
Next post will be about Semana Santa (hopefully!) I can’t
wait to see everyone soon! Hasta luego!
No comments:
Post a Comment