Summing up

Total length: 6 month and 18 days

Countries covered: 22 (time spent in the country ranges from 1 day to 6 weeks)

Total pictures taken 4699

Number of extended-hand pictures taken 137

From 2011.09.10 Ljubljana

Craziest hike - Angthong Marine park. Also wins the best panoramic views!

From 2011.10.12 Koh Samui

Most unsafe hike - Pai canyon, Thailand and San Gil canyoning trip (we didn't risk bringing the camera to the San Gil hike so there are no pictures)

From 2011.10.29 Pai

Highest peak - Monserrate in Bogota, Colombia (10,341 ft)

From 2012.02.03 Bogota

Cutest animal - Too many to choose from, but here's San Gil's monkey that bites 

From 2012.02.08 San Gil

Most nobel creature - elephant at Baan Chang Elephant reserve

From 2011.10.27 Baan Chang Elephants

Greatest runner - this green guy

From 2012.01.15 Cahuita

Warmest beach - Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

From 2012.01.22 Manuel Antonio

Laziest beach - Chaloklum, Phangan

From 2011.10.14 Koh Phangan

Most money held at one time - 5 million Laos Kip

From 2011.11.04 Huay Xai and Gibbons

Craziest house we stayed at - Tree house on Gibbon Experience, Laos

From 2011.11.04 Huay Xai and Gibbons

Best camping / oddest town - Kolka, Latvia

From 2011.08.15 Kolka

Best tour guide - Uncle Igor, Latvia

From 2011.08.13 Riga

Most adorable picture received from back home - nephew Andy, 6 month

Best old town walls - Dubrovnik, Croatia

From 2011.09.19 Dubrovnik

Craziest drivers - Everybody in Hanoi, Vietnam

From 2011.11.18 Hanoi

Worst bus ride ever - Laos to Vietnam

From 2011.11.18 Hanoi

Best travel companions - too many to choose from. Thank you guys!

Longest walk in the wrong direction - 1 hour and 40 mins, Vienna, Austria. Also the time that Levka lost his map privileges.

From 2011.09.05 Vienna

Best snacks that remind us of childhood - Dulce de leche aka boiled condensed milk, Costa Rica

From 2012.01.20 Monteverde

Gogoshi, Brasov, Romania

From 2011.09.30 Brasov

Best beer - Czech republic (no contest!)

From 2011.08.30 Prague

Favorite city - Budapest, Hungary

From 2011.09.22 Budapest

Biggest cultural shock - bathrooms in Vietnam (no picture here)

Most number of transport used for one trip - From Phangan to US (tuk-tuk, boat, bus, 3 planes and a car ride)

Worst sea sickness ever - Levka on the way to Phanghan from Surathani

Funnest mode of transportation - Anywhere on a scooter!

From 2011.10.26 Chiang Mai

Prettiest train ride - Vienna to Graz

From 2011.09.08 Graz

Shortest train - Romania

From 2011.09.28 Eger

Most "stylish" city - Hoi An, Vietnam

Pairs of shoes warn out - 6 (for the two of us)

City with most amazing architecture (it would also win Best Gallery, but we didn't get to visit it) - Dresden, Germany

From 2011.08.29 Dresden

Best joke teller - Rob (he's the one on the right, if you can't figure it out yourself)

From 2011.11.13 Kouang Si waterfall

Cheapest very good accommodation - Luang Prabang, Laos - $7 per night

From 2011.11.10 Luang Prabang

Best device for crossing flooded streets - Levka

From 2011.10.24 Bangkok

Best food - Mae Kadees, Bangkok, Thailand

From 2011.10.25 Bangkok flood

Most food eaten at one time - Grandma's house, Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine

From 2011.08.02 Dnepropetrovsk

Best Castle - Sigulda, Latvia

From 2011.08.14 Sigulda

Weirdest castle - San Felipes de Barajas, Cartagena, Colombia

From 2012.02.12 Cartagena

Town most likely to be in a Fairytale - Bled, Slovenia

From 2011.09.12 Bled

We did not really want to stop, but kinda had to. But home is not that bad either, just that whole looking for work thing is getting in the way.

From 2012.02.18 Flight back

The end.

Cartagena 2/12-2/17

[Side note: this post was started about a month ago, while we were still in Cartagena.  By now we've been back  home for almost 3 weeks, and apparently when you are unemployed you still don't have time for blogging...]

We booked our hostel in Cartagena a little bit ahead of time before we knew when exactly we'd be arriving.  The reason we did it was so that we could tell the address where we'll be staying to the manager of our hostel in San Gil, so that he'd mail Julie's phone there  (she left it charging in the lobby.) 

In the end we arrived 2 days before our reservation. Luckily the hostel had some availability, and we got a 2-room suit for the 4 of us for the first night.  From the 2nd night on they moved us to another hotel around the corner managed by the same folks; we did not have high expectations, but it turned out to be even better.  Neither of the places had hot water, but the weather during the day was in the low 30s, so it was not a huge deal.

We arrived in the second half of the day, and decided to go for a walk, to find some food.  

We made it to a restaurant, but not further because it got a bit cold for the shorts I insisted Julie should wear.  So we went back to change, stopping by a supermarket on the way.  Levys purchased enough oat meal and eggs to last us the next few days, so at least we did not have to go out for breakfasts.

The following day we spent browsing the old town. It's beautiful, clean, and very pleasant to walk about.

In the second half of the day Irin went back to the old town to paint, and Julie and I went to check out the local beaches.

They are located in the new part of town full of hotels, and (presumably) expensive residential buildings.  Can't say the beaches are anything of note, but we did swim and tan a bit.

On the 3rd day we decided to get out of town, and see one of the recommended attractions, Volcan de Lodo El Totumo, aka Mud Volcano.  We did not know quite what to expect, so when we saw a "volcano" about 15 meters high we were not too disappointed.

When we got to the top we saw about a dozen people sitting in a mud hole maybe 3x3 meters.  It looked a bit pathetic.  But we were already there, so we got in.  It was completely surreal - you can't feel the bottom, and you are  floating like a log in the gooey mud.  I rarely just float in any liquid; the last place where I could float easily was Dead Sea, so I enjoyed the experience.  You are offered a "massage" by one of the 3 or 4 local workers who sit in mud all day long, but we opted out.  When you get out you are directed towards the nearby lake where you don't get an option to wash yourself, rather you are handled by one of the local ladies who promptly helps you out of your swimming trunks, and washes you thoroughly.  All for an equivalent of 1 and a half dollars. 

On the way back we got to enjoy the local cuisine (they had to make the activities longer than the bus ride), and I got to pose as Moses.

For our last excursion on this trip, we ended up going to Playa Blanca, white beach on an island off of Cartagena. We heard that this is the best beach in Colombia.

We woke up early, made oat meal for breakfast and headed to the pier which is a 15 min walk from the hostel. Along the way, we started to be harassed by locals trying to sell us various tours to the beach and around. We ignored them all and walked forward with determination.

We bought a ticket for a boat that was to leave at 9 am and supposedly take about 30 mins to get to the beach. As always, Colombian time does not coincide with real time so the boat left almost an hour late and took twice as long to get there. It also made a detour at some random island where the local kids swam up to the boat and begged for money. We are still unsure of why we stopped there twice (on the way there and back).  Half way to the island one of the engines started behaving oddly, and the crew changed the spark plugs.

All of us were pretty annoyed with the ride, but then the water turned to hazel blue (from an icky gray) and we knew that we were arriving to our paradise island.

The enjoyment had to be postponed once again. When we arrived, we had to jump from the boat into the water. Poor Irka, landed on some corral and took off a chunk of skin from her foot. The locals suggested to take her to the police hut down the beach who could give us some medical supplies. When we arrived there, the police were reluctant to help. But after some convincing, they gave us some basic supplies. They also called over a girl who spoke some English and she helped us talk to police. Also a nice healer-type lady stopped by and took over the disinfecting and the bandaging. The whole scene looked like this:

After all was done, we moved Irka to a shady spot and finally could enjoy the beach. The rest of the day was what you would expect from an island paradise; sand, water, palm trees, grilled fish, annoying people trying to sell you everything from jewelry to massages, and a sunburn. The latter was most pronounced on our pale friends.

For our last two days of Colombia, and of the trip, we took it easy and just roamed around Cartagena.

We found the Fort of San Felipe, which is the strangest looking structure that you can find.

The different sections of the fort are separated by unmarked tunnels. So we had to guess where we would end up next.

At one point, we walked for about 10 mins through a tunnel which we thought would lead into a dungeon. Instead it turned out to be a dead end. The climb back was fun :)

The rest of the time we spent eating and looking for souvenirs. The latter proved futile. The souvenir industry is not as developed in Colombia as in some other countries (such as Costa Rica). And the stores tend to sell the same low quality stuff. The only exception is the jewelry. Apparently, Colombia specializes in emeralds and you can literally buy them anywhere.  After months on the road, we weren't exactly on the market for precious stones, so we avoided those stores.

Here is the rest of the Cartagena pix.

2012.02.12 Cartagena

Santa Marta 2/10-2/12

The bus ride to Santa Marta was as much fun as any 12 hour night ride can be.  But we can’t complain – the bus was pretty decent, the movies were not too loud with earplugs, and we heard about it being super cold ahead of time, so we brought our fleece jackets as well as the sleeping bag onboard.  Instead of dropping us off in a town next to Santa Marta where we’d have to change bus to the one that would take us all the way, this bus surprised us by dropping us off directly in Santa Marta.  It took us a few minutes to realize where we were, then a few more minutes to get a cab – the first one was not able to move after we loaded up: the rear wheel was rubbing against the fender.

Julie and I did not know much about this town because in Colombia we planned even less than in any other country.  We figured it was time to relax now that we were with the Levys.  Turned out that Santa Marta itself is a port town without many attractions, and as far as tourism goes serves as a stomping ground for those about to depart to the Tayrona National Park.  But as it happened we caught the first couple of nights of the carnival, and got to see some dressed up folks.

The first day in town, after we ate, washed off and napped, we took a cab to the nearby Taganga, which is essentially a small beach with a few hostels and restaurants around it.  We did the beach thing, and headed back to Santa Marta for dinner.  It was a Friday, so we decided to celebrate Shabbat at a nice restaurant.

Next morning we were off to Tayrona National Park.

Usually people go to this park for more than one day, and either do a multi-day hike to the Lost City, or camp by the beach in tents, or simply in the hammocks.  We did not have the time for the Lost City track, and after reading about the quality of the provided accommodations decided that the camping is not for Julie or me either.  So we went for one day.  Andrey and Irin decided to play it by ear, and just in case took enough food for 2 days.

The hike was relatively easy and pleasant.  There were 2 trails that led to the Piscina beach: one that was made (recently?) for tourists, and the other one for pooping donkeys, horses and tourists who did not see the sign for the first trail.  Luckily we took the former one on the way to the beach (less luckily we decided to take a short cut, and took the stinky route on the way back.)

We spent a gorgeous day on the beach, tried an unusual and very tasty sweets made by some girls who are travelling on the budget, and get by by selling the aforementioned sweets.

Around 4pm Julie and I headed back to catch the bus back. We got lucky, and saw a species of monkeys we had not seen before, El Mico Titi.

The next morning we were going to Cartagena, and the Levys would catch up.  Later that night however Levys caught up with us at the hotel; they decided not to spend the night in the park due to circumstances outside of their control (they were in fact ready to spend the night in a pretty nasty tent, or in a mosquito-infested hammock.)

The next morning we were off to Cartagena in the last long bus ride of our trip.

2012.02.10 Santa Marta

San Gil 2/8-2/10

We arrived to San Gil from Villa de Leyva towards the evening, and after checking in went straight for food.  A couple of things were immediately apparent – that the town had a lot of hills, some of them steeper than the Lombard Street, and that during the day it would be hot (even in the evening the temperature was around 80F.)  Irin felt victim to an apparent food poisoning, so Andrey and her went to bed early.  We walked around town a bit more, but did not see anything out of the ordinary.

The next morning we decided to go on the all-in-one caving, canyoning, rappelling, waterfalling tour.  It started great – the guide came over with a baby howler monkey on his back.  He said that the monkey’s mother has abandoned him, and he just clang to the guide’s shoulder for the past few days.  Naturally Julie played with him until we absolutely had to go.

To get to the tour start the 4 of us were loaded into a beater taxi that stopped in the middle of the very first hill.  I was about to get out of the car to make it lighter when the driver said he needed to switch to gasoline from gaz. Turned out that quite a few of these cars had engines that ran on both.  Once on gasoline the car did make it to the top of the hill, not without trouble though.

At the beginning of the trail we were given $1 flashlights, and led to the cave that stank of human excrement for the first 5 minutes.  Then the stench let up.  We saw some sleeping bats, but I’m rather sure it’s not their poop that stank. For the following 20 or so minutes we walked and crawled, and sometimes got explanatory hand gestures about how to do it from our guide – he did not speak English.  Julie cursed me just a little bit when we had to get waste deep in the underground (cold) water.  When we got out of the cave the caving part started, and we were offered to make a jump into a pool of water from about 6m high.  Another guide (who spoke even less English) explained that when you hit the water you have to bend your knees.  We did not quite understand why until Andrey jumped, and discovered that the water pool is about 5 feet deep.  So of course Andrey and I jumped a couple of times. 

In another few minutes of skipping from one slippery rock to the next we reached a point where they strapped us into climbing harnesses, and with a bit of explanation let us rappel about 5 meters down. The 2nd guide appeared to be the “experienced” one, but also the more stoned of the two.  He ran the show, and apparently he was not satisfied with how slowly we were moving along; so after I descended he decided instead of letting everyone descend by themselves, he’ll lower us himself.  Luckily Andrey was going after me, and he’s been climbing for a while now, so as soon as he understood what that guy wanted to do he told him not to.  After Andrey and Irin climbed down the guy tried to lower Julie, at which point everybody told him not to.

Few more minutes of canyoning, and we reached the 2nd and final rappelling stop.  Here the guides took some time to setup.  Basically they carry all the ropes and equipment with them, there are no stations that are prearranged.  They’ve used 4 trees to attach the ropes. The descending person was supposed to have control over the speed of the descent, and the guide up top would have the 2nd, safety rope.  Normally that would sound great, unfortunately none of us really trusted the skills of the stoned guide.  Andrey once again went first, and safely made it to the bottom.  I figured that was the right time to send Julie – she was not liking the whole situation the most.  I promised I’d keep my hands on the safety line, and Andrey would encourage Julie from the bottom.  At the edge, before your feet leave the rock, and you drop vertically, the guides ask you to pose for a picture.  At that point Julie did not really feel like posing, but rather looked ready to climb back up, and disembody them both, so Irin, Andrey and I all cheered Julie down.  The guide once again proved incompetent, and pretty much none of us had to do anything going down, instead of spotting us he was lowering us himself at a very slow pace.

After all of us were safely down one of the guides was lowered, and then we waited for about half an hour for the 2nd one to gather the ropes, reassemble them so that he can come down himself, and then take the ropes down.  To take the ropes down he basically had to pull on one end as hard as he could.  The ropes were essentially between the rock and the hard place (another rock), so every time he does this the ropes get worn worse and worse.  As Andrey pointed out pretty much all the equipment we used would’ve been deemed unsafe loooong ago back in the States.

We kept on going down the canyon for another hour or so.  In the end there was another voluntary jump into water, this time from about 10m high.  Andrey jumped, then Irin jumped from a slightly lower ground.  I was considering jumping as well, but since Julie was not going to, I figured I’d wait to see where they’ll ask her to descend.  Neither Julie nor I could see an easy way to walk down.  Turns out we were correct.  We had to descend the slippery rock without apparent places to hold on.  I started thinking that if we jumped from the 10m mark hand-in-hand we’d be better off.  A local family had to guide us as the guides were seemingly oblivious to our struggles. 

The whole ordeal ended a few minutes later, and the guides light up a celebratory joint.  Unfortunately I did not take any pictures because my waterproof camera died back in Thailand. 

The next day Andrey and Irin planned on going whitewater rafting, but the water turned out to be too high because of the rains, so instead they went to a nearby park.  The walk in the heat must’ve been exhausting and we found them napping in the hostel’s hammocks.

We also took it easy, explored the town a bit more, visiting the local market and replenishing our supply of good fruits in time for our all night bus ride to Santa Marta.  

Not to be outdone by the South East Asians that could transport anything on a motorcycle, Colombians demonstrated how to transport a motorcycle in a bus.

2012.02.08 San Gil

Villa de Leyva 2/6-2/8

From Bogota we decided to check out a little village called Villa de Leyva. The buses to this place were inconvenient in terms of leaving super early, but we still decided to go. I guess our friends, Kutman-Levy aka the 'early risers', had helped us make this decision. We woke up at 5 to catch the 7 am bus. However, when we arrived to the bus station, after much running around, we learned that the bus is not going today. We purchased tickets for a bus about an hour later. What was supposed to be an easy 3 hour ride, turned out to be a painful six hours. For the majority of the time, the bus was traveling through some villages, mostly by unpaved roads. It also stopped often to pick up passengers.

We finally arrived to the town and it was pouring rain. We decided not to bother with getting wet and took a cab to the hostel.

The hostel turned out to be a little ways from center but otherwise really cool. Very clean, beautiful location with views and gardens and it had hot water. The latter is such a rarity in Colombia that it is worth mentioning.

We waited for the rain to subside a bit, put on water proof clothes and umbrellas and headed out to town.

The town, is really a colonial village that has been perfectly preserved. It's been declared a Colombian heritage site which helps keep it's authenticity.  

It is also known for its arts and crafts which are very different from the regular touristy knick-knacks.

And the nature is just stunning!

We roamed the town in the afternoon and then again the following morning.

We thought about staying there an extra day or two. But we had already made reservations in San Gil. Looking back, we all agree that Villa de Leyva deserves an extra day of hiking.

In the afternoon we took a ride to San Gil, our next destination.

2012.02.06 Villa De Leyva

Bogota 2/3 - 2/6

Bogota was our first stop in Colombia, as well as the first place where we did not come by ourselves.  Irin and Andrey joined us.

We took a cab to our hostel only to realize that the hostel had 2 locations, and we were to be staying at the other one.  Luckily though it was just a couple of blocks away. An English-speaking girl came from the other location to lead us there.  She led us down the street which was full of young people; she explained that a university was nearby, and that every Friday night this neighborhood comes to life.  The neighborhood, as we later noted, was also home to multiple hostels.

After settling in we decided to check out what food options are there around us.  I forgot my camera in the room, and when I went back to get it the lady at the front desk advised me against it.  She spoke Spanish, but from what I gathered her advise was not to take the camera when it was dark.  The neighborhood did not look all that shady, but just in case I complied.

First thing we noted was the multitude of police officers.  Practically every corner had one or two policemen.  The entrance to the bank was guarded by an armed man with a mean looking dog.  On one hand that could mean that the "bad" people were all around us, on the other that we were safe with such police presence.  

The next morning we set out to see Monserrate, a mountain nearby with some history, a funicular running up there, and great views of the city.  On the way we noticed a lot of awesome graffity; in fact we even learned that there was a tour of Bogota's graffity offered by our hostel, which unfortunately we missed.

To make sure we were walking in the right direction we consulted (on two occasions) with two policemen, and both told us to watch our cameras and bags.

We assended Monserrate by funicular, but only bought a one way ticket.  We wanted to come down using the staircase, that boasted around 1500 steps.  Monserrate turned out to be high enough for both Julie and I feel a bit light-headed, but the view was indeed nice.

There was a church, and a small market on top, as well as the little climb with monuments depicting scenes from Jesus's last day.  We spent about half an hour exploring the mountain top, and headed down.

In the evening we took a cab to a fancy neighborhood of Bogota (I can't remember the name.) It turned out to be something similar to Santana Row - full with expensive shops, restaurants, and bars.  We walked around, had dinner, then stopped by a noisy pub for some beer and dancing. It took the inspiration of our friends to get us out at night and dancing!

The next day we walked some more around town visiting the local flee market, the museum of gold, and the street that was turned to a walking/bicycling street for the day. What impressed me is that a lot of streets in Bogota become walking/ bicycling on Sundays. This is to promote healthy lifestyle and to improve the air quality. We heard that some 3 million people get on a bike every Sunday!

The next day we were off to Villa de Leyva, a place we did not plan on visiting initially, but that came highly recommended.

2012.02.03 Bogota

La Paz Waterfall Gardens 02/01

La Paz Waterfall Gardens was our last stop in Costa Rica.  It's not far from the Poas Volcano, but we did not visit both attractions at the same time because we did not have a car, and did not take a tour.

Once there we were once again surprised with how expensive things have gotten.  The entrance ticket was $35.

The ticket price aside, the gardens is a great place to visit.  It's got a trail that goes by enclosures with all kinds of animals, birds,  butterflies, reptiles, and of course the waterfall itself.  There's also a lodge and a restaurant. I can't say much more than this, so here are a few pictures we took:

And here's a video of me trying out a slightly faster way to get down the multiple staircases:

2012.02.01 La Paz Waterfall and Gardens

La Fortuna 1/30-2/1

We thought that La Fortuna was not far enough for our roadtripping skills, and decided to stop by the Santa Maria national park on the way.  The park sounded cool after reading about it in the Lonely Planet guide.  The roads to the park were fine, and we encountered little traffic.

As it turned out when we got to the park we failed (not the first time) to read that the park is closed on a Monday.  We asked the park rangers if there was any way for us to see the park, and they said that there was another entrance that was open.  The trail that started at that entrance did not have the attractions we read about, but we decided to give it a try anyway since we were already nearby.

Skipping the details, we failed to find the other entrance.  The road was clearly not made for tourists travelling by themselves, and there were no signs at all.  But we did see some cool things along the way.

The wind farm:

A road that cut through what appeared to be a hill made of chalk. Everything around was covered in white dust:

And of course a garbage dump, which was especially unexpected next to (or even inside?) the national park:

Having realized that we are not making it to the park we kept going towards Liberia where we had lunch before setting off for La Fortuna.  Liberia is an unimpressive town, and has a strange notion of how one should park on a busy street:

The guard asked me not to park any closer to the car behind me.

We took a few pictures next to Arenal lake.  It was a 3rd time for me, so I knew exactly where to stop for a good picture.  Julie did not always share my opinion, particularly if the spot I picked was windy and/or cold.

At another spot Julie made me get out and take some pictures of the Howler monkeys that were in a tree next to the road.

Once in La Fortuna we again spent a bit of time searching for accommodation.  The hostel that I stayed at last 2 times, which was already more expensive than the other places raised its prices again, with the private room costing around $70.  A very nice hotel next to it however agreed to rent a very nice airconditioned room for $35.

We stayed there 3 nights, and did the standard La Fortuna activities.

Ate good food:

Hiked around the Arenal volcano:

Soaked in the hot springs (no pictures from there since my waterproof camera is no more.)

Celebrated my 34th (thank you baby!)

Having felt the burden of the age I acted all grown up:

There was one more stop we wanted to make before leaving the country, La Paz waterfalls garden next to San Jose.  

2012.01.30 La Fortuna

Roadtrip 1/28-1/30

After our successful exploration of the southern part of the Nicoya Peninsula Julie suggested we go on a road trip - just start driving up the coast, and see what we discover.  On my part I like driving, and don't like planning, so the idea sounded great.

We headed out in the general direction of Tamarindo.  Last time I was undertaking the same trip I was with Dima and Yulia (another one), and we had a detailed map of Costa Rica.  We thought we picked the shortest route, but we had to turn around a couple of times due to a bridge being washed away, and the road leading to nowhere. We also had to cross a couple of rivers, and climb/descend some rough roads.  Anticipating the same experience, but this time in a smaller, and less capable car I was rushing Julie to leave as early as possible.

The map we had this time was a free one from Hertz.  It was not anywhere as detailed, but in retrospect that might've helped us.  I'm guessing it did not show those roads that we should not have taken.  We reached Tamarindo by paved roads in about 3 hours, and started looking for a place to stay.  First we went to the same place I stayed at last time, and the cheapest room there was about $75.  Then we tried a bunch of hostels/hotels, and they were all either booked, very expensive, without hot water, or the combination of the above.  After about 1.5 hours of fruitless search we decided to head up the coast, and find something on one of the cheaper beaches.

We made a point of stopping at every single beach we passed - we wanted to see as many of them as possible, and we wanted to find a good place to stay.  

We saw them all, from those that were almost completely undeveloped:

To those that resembled Cancun's resorts:

Previously I thought Tamarindo was the most expensive beach, but that turned out to be wrong.  From our observations that honor goes to the Flamingo beach. It stood out among the other beaches with its expensive resorts, million dollar yachts, and insane views.

At one time we reached the end of the road on a lash hill of Flamingo beach, and had to drive backwards because there was no room to turn around.  At another time we realized we've gone on a road along the beach where our car should not have gone, so we turned around as well.  The search continued well into the evening.

Around 7pm we were exploring yet another road that ended next to some private housing community.  It was already completely dark, and the only lights on the road were those of our car.  We headed back to the last roadside restaurant we saw, had dinner, and found out about a cheap hotel nearby.  For $40 that "hotel" offered a room so discusting that we decided we'd rather spend the night in the car.  So we moved on.

It took us a while to get out of that little town because we kept getting lost, once ending up in front of a river crossing (without a bridge, of course.)  Around 10pm we got to a little parking next to the Ocotal beach, next to yet another private condo community.  We "chatted" with the guard, and he motioned us to follow him in our car inside the complex.  In the end he offered us an appartment for $75, which was still too expensive.  We turned around, and in about 3 minutes saw a sign "rooms for rent".  The owner offered a room with hot water for $40.  I took a look, and decided it was the winner.  The shower in our room turned out to not have hot water, but the owner was nice enough to let us use a shower in another room - the whole property had only us as guests anyway.

After discovering a couple of puppies, and considering our proximity to a nice beach we decided to stay another night.

Ocotal beach turned out to be pretty cool.  It's mostly covered in black sand, and the water is insanely clear.

So we spent some time on the beach with the puppies, drove some more to explore the beaches and towns around, chilled in the nearby very touristy Coco beach town (even got stuck in traffic because of some sort of festival), and the following day left for La Fortuna.

It was a true roadtrip experience, and we enjoyed the adventure.  Another bonus was that I got to see quite a few places in Costa Rica I have not seen before.

2012.01.28 Roadtrip

Montezuma 1/25-1/28

The ride from Quepos to Montezuma was pretty uneventful.  One of the ways in which Costa Rica has changed in the last 3 years - quite a few roads got paved.  One concern we had when renting the car was whether we'd be OK with a small 2WD.  

To get from Quepos to Montezuma we had to drive to Puntarenas, cross Nicoya Gulf on a ferry, and then drive some more.  I remembered that much from my first trip.  

Along the way we got to see these cute little guys under the bridge:

Once in Montezuma we started the hotel search.  The 2nd way in which Costa Rica has changed in the last 3 years is the cost of everything.  Most of the places we tried were either booked, or cost over $70.  Some of the cheaper options were not really options at all.  We drove as far as Cabuya trying to find something cheaper, but eventually found a hotel that gave us a decent room for $40.  We only had an ants problem once during our 3 nights there.

On the first day we went to my favorite part of the town - the waterfall.

The waterfall has a lower level depicted above, and the upper level depicted below.

The hike to the upper level turned out to be much harder than I remembered it.  So much so, that we opted out for another way down, via a different trail that I've not tried before.

2012.01.25 Montezuma

The following day we were considering going horseback riding, but instead decided to use our car, since we were already paying for it.  So we went exploring the Nicoya peninsula - Cabuya, Mal Pais, Monzanillo etc.  Now, those roads are not paved yet, and the road from Cabuya to Mal Pais had multiple warning signs that read "Very bad road, 4x4 only".

But we figured it was a dry season, so we should be OK.  Worst case scenario we'd backtrack the same way we went.

Mal Pais and Cabuya did not impress us much, but Monzanillo was different.  The beach was nice, and the town's athmosphere was laid back, so we stopped for deeper exploration.

We walked along the beach, cut to the main road through some yoga resort, and came upon an Israeli restaurant. We were the only couple there who did not speak Hebrew. As we discovered, the town was crawling with Israelis.

The falafel was indeed as good as the sign on the restaurant promised.

After lunch we continued our trip, looping back to our hotel.

We got back safe and sound, and the car was just a bit dirtier than before.

2012.01.27 Mal Pais and around