12 Days in Costa Rica

 

It has been about three years since I visited a new country. I went to Japan at the end of 2019 and in January 2020. Then you know what happened. I moved home, built a bubble empire, and now here we are. I started writing in 2011 and it was mostly about travel. Let me tell you about Costa Rica. 

I spent the majority of my time around the Nicoya Peninsula/Gulf of Nicoya.

I spent two nights in Jaco. Not the best place but I hung out by the pool, read my book and watched the movie Cocktail.

I then spent a night at the Curu Wildlife Refuge. They only allow a certain number of visitors to stay the night. Luckily, I booked in July so I had a cabin that was about 20 seconds from the beach.

Costa Rica isn’t cheap. If you’re looking for a budget Central American destination, I hear Nicaragua and Guatemala are mucho cheap. The flight was around $1700. It was also during the Christmas break so that did not help. I was thinking a budget of $150-200 a day would be more than enough. It was not. A private room anywhere is going to cost conservatively $60-80 a night. Each meal, no matter where I was staying, was $10-14. Private transportation or taking an Uber for more than twenty minutes will also hurt your wallet. They accept American money but will give you back colones. If you go to Costa Rica, just take out colones from the ATM and it will save you the hassle of converting your money. Also, the bank will give out money that is less than perfect condition but shops and restaurants will only accept perfect bills so you can imagine that could become frustrating to some people. Not for me though.

 Getting around is also not the easiest thing. The roads are a bit rough but they have fruit stands in a lot of places so it’s not all bad. There is a lot of traffic so expect any type of transportation to take longer than you initially thought. I had to take a boat to cross the sea. As I was waiting for my bags to be taken from the shuttle bus to the boat, the transportation people misjudged the tide and the boat got buried in the sand. They had another boat there in under two hours but I had to ask the guys how often their boats got stuck. They said they have been running these boat trips for ten years and this is the second time this has happened. Twice in ten years. Lucky me!

I almost missed my connecting flight to San Jose. My flight from Toronto to Montreal got delayed a few times so I landed in Montreal and my flight to Costa Rica was taking off in like 10 minutes. Air Canada thankfully held the flight for the Bubble King and I even got to ride on one of those airport carts that usually transport the elderly. It was great. 

The food was excellent. I tried to eat as many breakfast burritos as possible. Lots of fruit, smoothies, and ice cream! I just finished my year without treats and I missed ice cream and cookies the most. Did I have a chocolate milkshake and a cone filled with gelato at the same time? Yes. Here are some pictures of more traditional Costa Rican restaurants and food.

It was warm. Every day was about 28 degrees. It barely rained so having a sunscreen gameplan is essential.

 

Ten years ago, I wrote my bucket list. I will revisit that list with you later this year but trying to learn to surf has been on my list for a long time. I blocked off three days in Santa Teresa to start my surfing journey. Let me start by saying, I still have almost no idea how to surf. When they take you out to the sea, you aren’t surfing. You are sort of waiting for the waves to die down while the instructor holds your board, tells you to start paddling then yells at you to get up. I fumbled around for a few seconds then would end up falling off of my gigantic beginner’s surfboard. I took three lessons and this sounds like an exaggeration but I think I got worse the second and third times I tried surfing. Taking lessons certainly helped and it might have made me feel good seeing the other beginners bail into the sea. Surfing is tough but I would try it again. People who surf are super-hot, chill and cool so I think whoever is in charge of letting people become surfers might contact me to tell me I don’t have what it takes. 

One activity that I was looking forward to doing was a bioluminescent night kayaking trip. I had never heard about bioluminescence before I arrived in Thailand. Then one night while swimming in Khanom, I saw them and I fell in love. I couldn’t wait to see them again. However, it did not go my way. It is sort of luck of the draw with the brightness of the moon and how lucky you get to get the full experience. I didn’t mind too much because I had already seen them but the strange part was that the tour guide kept yelling at the group to splash our kayak paddles into the sea. “Splash! Splash”. I saw nothing. The guide would then ask the group, “Do you see it? Isn’t it amazing?” The other 8-ish or so people in the group would yell back, “Yeah! So fun!” It felt like I was in a cult. Are these people seeing it or are they just trying to be kind? 

 

I would say I spent about 95% of this trip alone. I’m not a big, “Hey, where you from?” kind of guy. I talked to a few guys (exactly what I wanted…) but that was about it. I watched some of the World Juniors game at a sports bar in Santa Teresa and talked to a guy from the Niagara Region for a bit. I met a guy from Belgium who told me that women from Belgium aren’t fun. I wrote that down in my journal. One of the more fun nights was when a young person named Hannah invited me and a few of the people staying at this jungle guesthouse to a bonfire on the beach for New Year’s Eve. 

There were about 8 of us. Once the fire was made and there was a brief lull in the conversation, I told the group I had questions I asked strangers and wondered if they wanted to hear some of them. They reluctantly agreed to be polite to the old guy in the group and this delighted me. One of the questions I asked was when were you in the most trouble? A guy responded, “When I was about 4 or 5, I thought our maid was cute. She would wake up around 5:30 am. I didn’t have an alarm clock so I wrote down, wake up at 5 on a piece of paper. Somehow, I woke up at 5, and hid underneath her bed to try and watch her get undressed. She saw me while she was getting naked and kicked me out of the room.” He later told me that he didn’t know how to write wake up at 5 so he just scribbled letters or shapes on the paper and hoped that that would work. Of course, a young boy would do something like this.

 

A lot of people rent a side by side, cars, motorbikes, or ATVs. Renting an ATV for a day is USD $80. Driving them around is super fun and a great way to see more of the area but it’s not conducive to saving cash.

 I learned that you can drink beer while driving in Costa Rica. I didn’t drink and drive but I was told that the driver and passenger can have a few cheeky drinks while driving. Doesn’t seem safe. 

 

A lot of people speak Spanish. Everywhere. All of the time. Also, a lot of Europeans. Germans, French. 

 

There were a lot of American-ish-looking tourists who seemed to own/be caring for dogs in a lot of the areas I visited. I’m not sure if these people live in the area and have adopted these dogs. I’m not sure if they just hang out with them for a few weeks and then leave them back on the beach. I don’t get it but there are a lot of people with dogs. 

 

I noticed there was a lot of bull riding/fighting/bull evading on random TVs at bars and restaurants. Give the people what they want. 

 

Should you visit Costa Rica? If you like jungles, nature, animals, coffee, chocolate, surfing, warm weather, ice cream, random dogs with mysterious owners, driving ATVs, eating great food, nice pools, fruit, and friendly people, then yes, yes you should visit Cosa Rica. I would recommend traveling with people you love. I think my traveling solo days should be behind me. Life is better when experienced with people you care about.