The Weekend of Walking

I couldn’t believe it was already the weekend when I woke up Friday morning I felt like the week had just started and I wasn’t rested for another adventure, but there was no time to dilly dally.

The day started out godo with Cinema Class, we watched the movie Nueve Reinas which is similar to Ocean’s 11 (my favorite movie) I would highly suggest this film too. I ate lunch and packed and headed for the Ferry. Most of the students had left already since they did not have a late morning class.

We walked to the end of the peninsula and rode the ferry from Puntarenas to the Nicoya Peninsula; it was a cheap/quick ride only $1.50 and one hour.  On the ferry with us was our Professor of Ecotourism and her family. We landed in Paquera and caught a bus to Santa Teresa a Surf town on the west side. Good news only 2/3 of us had to stand this time.

Austin, Me, Stephanie and Annemarie on the Ferry to Santa Teresa

We arrived in Santa Theresa just before night fall and the walking began… We talked to a boy from New Jersey who runs a hostel with his Sweden friend.  They said they could give us a great deal and it was just up the road, 5 km later we arrived just when the rain started to fall PERFECT! We dropped our stuff and immediately headed for food.

We ended up at an upscale(well upscale for Costa Rica all the silverware matched) sushi/fish shop. The sign also said beef and chicken but in my book Veal doesn’t really count as beef. Haha. I am also getting so used to the typical ease of gluten free in Puntarenas that I forget to ask when I go out now, thank goodness I remembered because I initially ordered the special to split with Anne Marie which ended up being breaded. Oops!

So after a lot more questions and instructions I found out that Cevchie was about the only thing to eat but still sounded delicious. It is also very popular here so we thought we would give it a try. And we tried and I decided it tasted like Tuna Block…and turns out it was tuna. Ceviche is a cooking style where you cook the fish in acid, it was like almost raw tuna. But once over the initial shock we both enjoyed it.

We then stopped by the store and headed back to the hostel. On the way back we luckily ran into all our other friends from USAC we all headed to our house to hang out. We had a great time but we returned to the dilemma of travelling with 20 people without a shared goal. At one point we were in a Taxi and 1/3 of the people were yelling to turn around 1/3 of the people were saying go on and a 1/3 were just watching. We couldn’t find a club that pleased everyone and walked up and down the strip (if you can call it that). Some of us finally just stopped at a beautiful place overlooking the ocean and walked the5 km and back to the hostel. We could hear the frogs croaking and saw crabs scurrying across the road. Everyone had fun.

As close as I got...but hey I look like I am having fun

In the morning we could really see the town, It was a single dirt road with hostels on either side. Half the people in the town were carrying a surf board and 4 wheeler or dirt bikes were the preferred means of travel. We grabbed breakfast (Avocado Omelet J) and headed to the Beach.

The beach was a blast! The waves were huge and so much fun. We walked and explored up the coast and I even tried my hang at surfing. I only tried about 4 times and was apparently in white water which is hard but I was glad to finally try. I am hoping to hire a real coach sometime soon.

Like Puntarenas there are Dogs everywhere, except here there
are more and they are all really nice and pure breeds. We had
the cutest Lab Puppy follow us to breakfast I wanted him to
come to the beach too!

We did however have some casualties at the beach while the majority of us were on our hour or so walk the tide came in. A flip flop and t-shirt are gone and two digital cameras are currently chilling in a bag of rice. Pray that they will dry out and work SOON!

After the beach we de-salted and trekked back to the bus stop. Some people stayed in Santa Theresa, we were headed to Curu a nature preserve for our Ecotourism class and other were headed back to Puntarenas. We all fell asleep on the bus and when our stop came we frantically rushed to get off. When we got off it was a big surprise a wooden gate and a large LARGE green field. I felt like we were not in Kansas anymore.

The Ranch

Usually you get of the bus and there is a bank, a tourist shop and seven people trying to sell you anything, this time we were all alone and it was nice. On the 2.5km walk into the preserve we saw a heard of cattle grazing, wild horses, dear (Yea chilling by a palm tree, Now I really couldn’t figure out why so many live in Michigan it gets cold and we try to kill them). We also saw a cage of protected Spider monkeys and a million more crabs.

At this reservation you were allowed to interact with the animals.

 The camp was on a beautiful cove. They only had solar power but there was a small store and souvenir shop. We listened to the presentation about the land which was started in the 1930’s as a sustainable hardwood and fruit farm. Unlike typical wildlife prevention this farm utilized creatures like the monkey to help grow healthy crops. It currently is a tourist location for Tortuga island, a cattle and mango farm.

Night Hike

This might have been my favorite night so far most of us went on a night hike to see the wildlife but ended up being the wildlife. We turned it into a tour where for some reason we all picked up Australian accents (some turned British) and wandered through the Jungle. I was the guide who spotted Heffalumps, whoozles, and dung of 

the kinnikanich beetle. I think all the real animals heard us coming miles away.

Monkey Snagging the Leftovers

Then we played group card games like Mophia and the Name Game, we were all exhausted and rolled into bed at 10:30!!! The lighting here in Costa Rica really throws you for a loop.

We woke up early to look for animals, Annemarie and I walked to a lagoon we mostly found mud but learned that the statement of a million crabs may have not been that much of an overstatement. The whole ground had at least one teeny tiny crab per square inch. We saw some birds and a Cuati, a raccoon meets swiper the fox kinda thing.

Most people headed back to Puntarenas or to Santa Tereasa if they didn’t go Friday but Annemarie and I decided to spend the day here. We hiked more after breakfast and saw lizards, iguanas, a crocodile and lots of birds. We returned to camp in time for the Monkey’s lunch time! This tradition started with the origin of Curu the only way out used to be by boat and boats would come near the camp to collect the fruit, the overripe or ruined fruit would be put in buckets and the monkeys started to come down and eat it. After the shipping stopped so did the fruit. The monkeys however were upset by this fact and pounded on the roof of the house until they were fed fruit.

So continuing the tradition we got to see a whole trip of Capoochen monkeys get bananas and then argue with a troop of Howler Monkeys about the situation. It was amazing!

We took a dip and headed back to the road to catch the bus for the Ferry. On the way back we decided who each glee character the students at USAC were with our teachers daughter. It worked surprisingly well, except they said I had to be Sue Sylvester. Haha.

We tallied it up and we think we walked about 20 miles this weekend I was glad to come home to my rice and beans watch soccer (Yea I am being converted…) and RELAX!