the best ferry ever.

today, after going to bed about 3 or 4 (i don{t have a watch) I woke up at 6, then at 7 and then 8 because I was worried i would miss my 10:30 transfer. at 8 I decided i{d get up and pack and then have breakfast. I waited at the hostel and chatted with mauricios and hugo some more and also this girl who is studying to be a documentarian (some one who makes documentaries). I finally had to say goodbye and it was sad. I liked montezuma a lot, and didn{t get to explore as much as i would have liked too. The only thing i didn{t like is that more people smoked cigarettes there than any other place I traveled. And, although it was different than jaco in that no one offered me drugs (which got to be annoying in jaco), there was a lot of drug consumption in the street, at all hours. But, it{s not really in an invasive way, so I just add that as a warning, that perhaps it{s not totally a family place necessarily. Anyway, I got on the transfer and met this german guy that actually works for accenture. he was surfing. I was convinced the trip would take 3 or 4 hours. 1 hour to the ferry, 1 hour on the ferry and another hour- hour and a half to san jose. we left at 10:30 and didn{t get here till 5:30, so my calculations were somehow skewed. Either way, the german and I chatted a bit and the ferry was the best ferry i have ever been on. It was rather large with food and drink places on all levels and on the top level...they had kareoke! I was entertained the entire time, there were some really talented ferry riders and the beer was cheaper than any other place in costa rica. I could imagine just riding the ferry for pure entertainment. Most of the songs were ballad like that almost everyone knew, there were some american college kids who are studying in san jose who sang my girl. They were nice and invited me to come sing margaritaville with them, but the boat docked before i had my chance. and I do love a good kareoke. Anyway, now I{m in san jose, which i find more than a bit dodgy, but this hotel is super nice. quite a contrast to the 8 by 8 room with only a bed from last night. tomorrow it will be sad to leave, i hope i make it on a flight though...

i love montezuma

The next morning, I woke up early and my other new friend hugo suggested that i walk to playa grande. I love it because all distance is measured in how long it takes you to walk, by the beach (not the road) at a relaxed pace. I wanted to make it to this beach because apparently, according to mauricios, it{s an energy vortex. Side note- mauricios and hugo sell jewelry on the streets and were really chill guys, i doubt they ever wear shoes. Anyway, I started walking...but then it got really deserted and the tide was coming up and I really couldn{t feel this energy vortex that he talked about. So, I headed back, and went by a tour office and decided to take a snorkeling tour of tortuga island. I talked with alvaro, the guy at the office for awhile while I waited. His dad worked as the cook at my hostel. When the rest of my tour group arrives (there were 8 of us total) there{s a guy wearing a VT shirt. I mean...of course there is. So we chatted, he graduated in 97 and now lives in minneapolis. There were also 2 chilean guys, a couple from San Francisco, and an italian (because honestly, every boat trip needs a crazy italian in a speedo...yes speedo, he was also wearing a doo rag. very nice guy though, didn{t understand much spanish or english). Anyway, we snorkeled for a bit, then made our way to the island. The chileans and I (they were both called Ignacio) went to search for the legendary wild pig of the island. It was sleeping under a picnic table. I think it was actually a boar, but I don{t know that word in spanish. One of the chileans, Ignacio (ha...) studied abroad at UCSB. small world. After lunch on the island, we played a very competitive couple of beach volleyball games. my team lost both times, and i switched teams, so I think it might be my fault. Anyway, we went back to snorkel again and got back to montezuma around 4. Both internet places were shut down, so I wasn{t sure how I was going to book my transfer to san jose. While contemplating this matter, I ran into a guy from the other boat tour that played volleyball with us. He{s that guy that gets way to competitive in casual sports, and calls you on every rule. It{s just beach volley ball, and were not in the olympics. Turns out he lives in LA and is a producer, with a dream to be an independent film producer. shocking. that sounds like 99 percent of LA. Anyway, it was a fun chat, but after awhile, he was bringing me down and I went to go visit my street vendor friends. I also scheduled a transfer with a tour co to leave at 10:30. I went to get pizza for dinner and ran into the ignacios. We had dinner and were walking to go to a bar when we ran into their friends from manuel antonio, Tish and Sophie. Their british, or at least tish is, sophie is part belgium, grew up in California, but her dad lives in london. They go to school in edinborough. I started to feel a bit 5th wheelish, but I decided to ignore those feelings, and we ended up having a great time that night. Sophie and Tish were staying at my hostel as well, so we went there to hang out before going to the only venue in town. While there, another group staying there and hanging out asked me to take a picture, and of course, they were irish. Thus, I yelled my {you are lovely} in irish at them and then went through all my other new vocabulary. They were from outside of dublin, and were impressed at my knowledge (however sparse it may be about the irish language). I also should mention this crazy guy that sleeps on a mattress in the sand outside the hostel. He walks around with bandages on his hands and a bottle of cacique in the other, yelling at people. We saw him a lot that night. He also went to chicos, and when we were there, standing in the street outside he pointed at me and yelled: mujer, quien te vas a querer y no sabes hacer un huevo frito. {woman, who is going to love you if you don{t know how to make a fried egg] quite prophetic, actually. Anyway, chicos was fun, but I headed back before the rest of the group and ended up playing euchre with some of the irish lads, and some canadians. Later, the chileans and brits returned with some austrailians and told me that i missed a fight between some other austrailian girls and costa rican guys in the street when the bar closed. It was then that I went to bed.

j crew models are not as friendly as you would think...not that they are really models...

We took as much advantage as we could of the buffet breakfast for which we paid extra. Then, my interbus transfer arrived and i had to leave the group, sad, but I think we{ll all be ok :) I talked to the driver the entire way, as I was the only passenger and we discussed politics and immigration (topics I{m not too versed in, but was happy to share my opinion). We also talked about the drug problem in costa rica and how things were different when we were younger, much simpler. Which is strange because he was probably 40 years older than me, so maybe I just look at the past with rose colored glasses. Anyway, I arrived at Playa Herradura and had 2 hours to wait at the king tours office. Luckily, the office was on the beach and there were comfy chairs and entertaining company: daniel, sapotillo, and pancho. We basically sat around and yelled at people who passed by (this seems to be a national passtime) I told them that I{d love to work for them if this was what the job entailed. As it was july 25th, it was a national holiday in costa rica (the annexation of guanacoste I think...) Anyway, they taught me about some traditional dress and behaviors. One of these is call [bomba] and it{s a type of lyrical fight- similar to rap wars. Essentially, what happens is that you{re having fun dancing at a party and someone yells {bomba!{ and the person it{s directed to has to come up with a rhyme, then the next person has to respond in a rhyme and the winner is the one who is able to keep going. Thus, we began to yell bombas at people, I think i need a little practice, but I could be good one day...maybe. Then we went in a boat and visited all the other boats and gave them supplies (seriously, at this point i wanted to remain in herradura and hang out with my new friends yelling at people, rapping and delivering stuff to boats) but all good things come to an end and they brought me to my transfer. Once on the transfer, we worked out way back to shore to pick up the other people for the water taxi. From a distance, I could already breath the euroness exuding from the four lads waiting on shore. First, they all had rather floppy like hair and were wearing neon colored aviators, and other like stylish glasses that you{d buy at american apparel or h and m. Then, one of the guys was wearing a bright neon [frankie says relax] tee shirt. The other guy was wearing (also in neon) a low v neck tee shirt and they were carrying surf boards and a guitar. I got kind of exciting, thinking that these could be my new montezuma friends. They loaded the boat and then I got more excited to see that they were basically 4 j crew models...(ok...only 2 would have been j crew models, the others could have been model assistants or the like, either way, the ratio was in my favor). I asked them where they were from and they were from Holland. The boat was really loud and bumpy, so we didn{t get much of a chance to talk, but I admired their hair which ranged from blond cherub curls to a raven black almost euro mullet. When we got off the boat, I tried to push the fact that I was a girl traveling alone and it would be nice to have some people to hang out with, but they weren{t too friendly. actually quite the opposite. Anyway, booked with the first hostel I saw, an expensive 10 dollars a night and went off to explore. Right away I loved montezuma, I ate at an organic veg restaurant and had the most refreshing mint lemonade ever. I ran into the dutch guys again during my explorations, they were carrying cases of beer and as I said hi they kind of ignored me. It{s ok, I didn{t want to hang out with them any way...pah. While I was laying on the beach outside my hostel, a couple of times random guys would come up to say hello, ask my name and see what i was up to that night (which is normal in latin american countries). Anyway, I was kind of caught off guard each time because they kept mentioning [vas a salir esta noche?,] and i{d say [si, pero no se donde] and they{d say [chicos, para bailar] and I was constantly confused because each time it was a guy telling me to go out, so that i{d find chicos to bailar with. I mean, did I look that desperate sitting alone reading on the beach? only later did i discover that there is only one place to go in town and it{s called chicos...Anyway, I went to dinner by myself, it was pretty delicious, the waiter, coco would occassionally sit down with me to keep me company. That is until matt from canada asked if he could sit with me because I looked really sad and lonely as if i was waiting for someone that was never going to show up. He was on an adventure tour biking, kayaking and rafting across costa rica. Later his group of 5 people and a guide adopted me and I hung out with them the rest of the night. They were all probably between 35 and 50, but sure could dance when we got to chicos later that night. I made the short hop skip and a jump to my hostel, and ended up chatting for another few hours with Mauricio who is from colombia, but has been traveling through south and central america for the last 14 years...then, it was bed time.

frusterating day in quepos...and a knife fight

our last night in jaco, we went to an all you can eat lobster dinner. it had a great atmosphere, live music, right on the beach, very fancy looking, so we got a table sat down and found that it was 65 dollars per person for all you can eat lobster and all you can drink, beer wine and liquor. maybe i could have justified the 65 dollars if i ate meat...we also had a sick person who only wanted soup, so...we did the very rude thing and got up after we had sat down. oh well. we ended up having a nice, cheaper dinner at this restaurant called el bohio, which was also on the beach. the next day, we tried to leave early, but sometimes it{s hard with a group, and we ended up dawdling a bit. then we got into town, returned the surf boards. we went to the mas x menos (a grocery store) to return a skirt that maire had bought, which ended up taking longer than it should, and then we couldn{t find the boys in the car...essentially, there was a lot of confusion. we got to quepos, (finally) and went to settle in at our hotel (called Villa Romantica) which we had booked 2 days before on both hostel bookers and hostel world websites. when we arrived, they didn{t have our reservation and told us that it was impossible to get the room for the price that the websites had quoted. there was quite a bit of misunderstanding between the german owners, the costa rican receptionist, and the irish and myself. Stressed out, we headed to the beach in manuel antonio and had a few short hours of beach bliss. At lunch I had the strongest single margarita that has ever been made, which left me in the perfect position to buy things from the random street vendors. (which I probably would have done with out the margarita anyway). We stayed at the beach till 6ish, it was lovely. Then we returned to the hotel. Found that we still had to wait until the owners husband got home so we could talk to him. Thus, we watched a csi (which apparently is the nation tv show of costa rica since it is always on) and took showers to prepare for dinner. When we were ready, we left to go talk to the owner{s husband about the rooms. He was very german and I think that our language barriers caused some issues in communications, thus making everyone a little bit upset. We finally reached a conclusion, paid the original rates that the computer told us, then paid 10 dollars to use the AC (which they didn{t tell us about before, and we had already turned on) and 8$ a piece for breakfast. We planned to eat a lot the next day to make it worth it. By this time, everyone was hungry and we headed out to search for a place to eat. We took a turn around quepos, and parked our car by this promising looking restaurant, when a man who appeared sketchy came up to us and told us that it was an unsafe place to park and he{d watch our car for a fee...we got back in the car and decided to look elsewhere. On our way to manuel antonio for a restaurant, we got stuck in a ^traffic jam, that was caused by a knife fight. they weren{t pocket knifes either. one dude had 2 8inch kitchen or butcher knives while the other guy had a broken bottle. everyone was watching, even the people playing soccer. about 5 minutes in, we realized that we didn{t really want to be a witness to any type of crime and we probably shouldn{t be hanging around this area. We went to Barba roja, a restaurant in manuel antonio that had no vegetarian option for food. not a single one. i finally ordered the salmon pasta, with out the salmon, but still had to pay for the salmon. after that, even though it was our last night as a group, we ended up just heading back to our hotel and going to bed.

my strange obsession with dreadlocks...

last night we stayed in and made a huge spagetti dinner. It was nice because we were able to use up all the vegetables in the fridge. we had run out of beer (because of our morning escapades) so we had pasta y agua. today we woke up early to go white water rafting in manuel antonio. I decided not to go on the raft tour, mainly because funds are tight, so I just went along for the ride, hoping to be dropped off at a beach somewhere. We went with our same guide from horseback riding, herman. As we arrived at the rafting place (roughly an hour away) I began to think I had made the wrong decision, as all of the guides were young and attractive males. Particularly, there was this one with impressive dreadlocks, and beautiful eyes...but I digress. Anyway, Herman said I could hang out with the driver and he'd take me where ever I wanted to go. I told him that my plans were to go to the beach and maybe have a 'cervezita' and lunch. I hopped in the van with Roy and he immediately stopped in Quepos. I was a little concerned because we stopped outside of a place clearly marked as a strip club, and he went inside. 2 minutes later, I realized it was actually a store, and he was bringing me a beer. In my head I was thinking 'when I mentioned the cervezita, i meant with lunch in about 3 hours, but I suppose 9 am is just as good as any time.' After all, he did buy it, so it would have been rude to not drink it (much less it would be warm later). Roy and I headed to the beach directly outside the gates of manuel antonio. It was a super nice beach, I got to lay out and I didn't get offered drugs or prostitutes once (which is what happens in jaco at times...). Roy and I talked about life, some how we got on the subject of marriage. He said "but clara, you are young, you need not worry about these things, you are what, 20? 19?" and I said, "no Roy I'm 25" then he said "oh...well, then perhaps you should start looking for a husband, you are behind." After this part in the conversation, he began mentioning that he was single, and divorced, and that I needed a costa rican husband, then he bought me another beer. (don't worry, this was more than an hour after the first one). did i mention roy has a 17 year old son? he's quite older than I but, one must be flattered by the offers of marriage. Anyway, after some more 'charla' we went to get a casado for lunch (the basic fare, rice beans platano, fresh cheese salad..usually meat as well) and then we headed back to the rafting place. When we arrived, I clearly tried to make eyes at the cute dreadlocked guide, but I was distracted to find that one of our group had fallen ill. James ended up not going rafting and instead slept in the office. we left the rafting place, on our way to the tour through manuel antonio (the park) and we stopped at a farmacia to get some rehadrating salts for james. We never actually made it to the park, as there was a small vomiting incident in the streets of quepos, so we as a group decided to head back. trevor also wasn't feeling well, and as I"m always up for a nap, it seemed like a good decision. Everyone's resting at the house now, Trevor and Mairead leave tomorrow, and assuming all is well, maire, james, sean, pat and I will head back down to Manuel Antonio/quepos to stay tomorrow night. After that, my plan is to catch ferry to the Nicoya Peninsula and go to some place called Santa Teresa. However, all of this might change. James has been our driver, so if he isn't well, since I'm the only other person who brought their licsense, my driving abilities might be put to use. here's hoping he's better tomorrow :)

beer for breakfast...sure, why not.

today we have spent most of the day by the pool. the alarm went off again last night at 2 am and then at 7 am. the 2 am time felt quite sketchy because someone called, asked for the number code, not the word code and then hung up. moreover, the numerical code ceased to turn the alarm off. all this made me feel like it was some elite ring of theives trying to break in. Then after that, i couldn't get back to sleep because in addition to worrying about robbers constantly setting of the alarm, i could feel bugs crawling all over. so, I got up and surfed the web a bit, reading the news that i haven't read in ages. when i finally got to bed, i was quite close to the 7 oclock hour when the alarm went off again. how lucky we are to be in the main house...the other houses don't hear the alarm as loudly as us...we woke up early, but we were still tired. I dont know who, but somehow, the idea of beers by the pool came up around 10 am. Some how it's easier to justify beers before the lunch hour when you feel like you didn't really sleep much and then you get up early. the beers by the pool plan has lasted the last 4 hours, and it's been quite nice. I had to clean a dead frog out of the pool though, i threw it on the side walk. Incidently, the pool boy came almost directly after to clean the pool (had I known, I would have waited for him to get the frog out). we offered him a beer, but as a respectful worker, he refused because he was on the clock. Meanwhile, we continued our beer by the pooling. It's still going on...i think we also justified it because we are leaving jaco soon, and need to clean out the fridge. either way, i can hear the sound of reggaeton blaring by the poolside bar, and i should probably get back. One cxan ony handle the air conditioning and tennis tourney watching for so long before the loud music and beers call...

2 things...

1) I am already super sore from horseback riding.
2) we went to the colombian place for dinner. It was delicious, yet again (it's called 'donde flavio'). I had a beer with dinner, a delicious costa rican imperial, and because I added too much chile sauce I thought I'd order another beer (seemed a simple idea). When I ordered the beer, the waiter said 'ok' and then went and got on a vespa type bike. We were all done with our food, and I was curious as to where the waiter was going, the beer was not that important to me. 15 minutes later your man comes back with a single can of imperial. A couple things went through my head, such as: 'how nice of him to go and get me a beer when they had run out' and 'what happens if I want another.' but, I ended up just drinking my beer and heading home to watch the kevin costner flick on tv. wild night. i love the colombian place even more.