Manuel Antonio 1/22-1/25

The bus ride from Monteverde to Manuel Antonio started off on almost the right foot.  We were at the bus stop at about 5:45am, about 15 minutes before the bus was supposed to leave for Puntarenas.  We figured that should be enough time to secure seats.  There were probably a dozen more backpackers waiting in line before us.  By 6am there were at least 30 people waiting.  By 6:30 there were probably 30 more, but as it turned out they were waiting for the bus to San Jose.  At 7am a bus showed up, and started loading people, but first those who were going to San Jose.  After some inquiries it turned out that our bus broke down somewhere on the way, and the San Jose-bound bus would take us to the bottom of the mountain, where another bus would meet us.  

For the next hour the bus overflowing with 60-70 people descended the mountain.  Roughly 3/4 of the way through the bus stopped, and everyone who was standing was unloaded to another "intermediate" bus.  When we did get to the bottom of the mountain, there indeed was a bus waiting to take us to Puntarenas.  By 10am we were sitting in front of a beach at a bus stop in Puntarenas waiting for our next bus to Manuel Antonio, observing locals fill coconuts with rum to make their beach experience more fun.

Around 3pm we were in Quepos, trying to negotiate a room that had something that looked like a window, but did not open, down to the price of a room that had no windows.  We met half way, took a shower, and went for food and town exploration.  Quepos turned out to be a small, and strange kind of town.  It appears to serve a role of a shopping center for the locals.  There are multiple hardware, clothing, and other "utility" stores.  In addition to that it seems to be influenced by the nearby Manuel Antonio, predominantly touristy town:  Quepos has a few cheaper options for accommodation (one of which we took), has a range of car rental places, and offers regular bus service to Manuel Antonio.  We discovered all of that on the first day by walking around the whole town.

The next morning we had a plan to go to Manuel Antonio National park, which is the main attraction.  But it turned out that it was closed on Mondays, so we went to the beach instead.  By now I've visited probably 90% of Costa Rica's beaches, and can confidently say that Manuel Antonio one is the best.

During the bus ride to Manuel Antonio I saw a familiar face.  Turned out to be Foux's student/friend Borya who I'd met when we hiked in Pinnacles.  He was there with his sister.

So we swam, worked on our tan a little bit, and hunted pelicans for a good picture.

You can clearly see Borya and his sister in that picture too.

The following day we went to the park.  As fate would have it that day the park switched to a new ticketing mechanism.  Instead of collecting money right in front of the entrance to the park (which was fast, and convenient), they contracted a private agency to issue tickets about 200 yards away from the entrance; these tickets were then checked by the actual entrance.  Since this was the first day, the agency appeared to have no idea what they were doing, and we spent about 40 minutes in the burning sun waiting to get our tickets.  Then a bit more time waiting to get our tickets checked.

We breezed through the first part of the park quite quickly, but as soon as we got to the beach we slowed down to watch all the wild life that came out to greet us.

After watching these guys for a while we headed for the beach, where our snack (not a very good one) fell victim to a family of racoons who first strolled by checking out what was laying within easy reach, and then returned for a swift operation during which they stole ours, and other people's snacks.  

After the beach we went up to the part of the trail that was closed for reconstruction.  We figured that since we spent $20 each to get to the park, we were entitled to see it in its full glory.  The trail went up the hill, and presented nice views.

The workers on the trail did not mind us being there, but looked at us with curiosity.

Before leaving the park we've stopped to watch monkeys some more (no matter how many monkeys we see, Julie is ready to watch them endlessly.)  That's when I got peed on by one.  That is it was no peeing on me directly, but it was a bit windy, so I got some.  As I mentioned in a previous post, that same night I got pooped on by a small gecko in a cafe.

The following morning we got our European import from Hertz, and were on our way to Montezuma on Nikoya Peninsula.

2012.01.22 Manuel Antonio

Monteverde 1/20-1/22

We are running waaay behind.  I think it's because we are rapidly nearing the end of our trip, and prefer to spend the time doing something other than sitting in front of a computer.

Also, I've started this post previously, and lost it.  Let's pretend that I was even funnier, and even more eloquent during that attempt (if it's even possible)

So, the bus to Monteverde took a while, and was quite a bit of fun.  First of all we did not have seats assigned because the bus was sold out, but luckily when we boarded the bus we saw a large empty space for a wheelchair.  I took one of our backpacks onboard so that we could sit on it.  When the bus started moving from San Jose bus terminal there were plenty of empty seats, but within an hour they all filled up, and so did the standing room.  There were people standing shoulder to shoulder, and a couple of kids were laying on the floor next to us, playing stones.  The bus stopped once for the bathroom/food break, and we finally bought the Dulce de Leche candy I'd been telling Julie so much about. She appreciated it very much, and we kept searching for it ever since.

About 4 hours later we reached Monteverde.  Cool mountain air felt good after the non-airconditioned bus, but by the time we reached our hostel we felt that the wind was a bit much. As it turned out I booked the same hostel I stayed at last time I was in Monteverde, only this time we did not get upgraded to a nice appartment. Instead we were put in the only available room with the bathroom outside, which would be OK if the weather was nice, and warm, which it was not.  The wind was so strong, that our window was whistling.  Julie with her animosity towards cold was becoming unhappy, Monteverde was not particularly welcoming.

I was only able to persuade Julie to come out for food that night.  

The following morning the wind kept up, and so did Julie's poor mood. My initial attempts to persuade her that it was actually warm outside despite the wind proved futile. In about 2 hours (after we moved to a room with the bathroom) we agreed to take a stroll around town, get some food, and see what's up.  

After breakfast we decided to go for the hanging bridges walk in the cloud forest. Miraculously, when we finally got to the beginning of the walk the wind subsided.  Julie's stuborness paid off!  

The ticket we purchased included the bridges, the butterfly garden, and the calibri garden.  We started with the butterfly garden.  This particular garden looked like a large greenhouse to keep the temperature high enough for the butterflies.  It was too hot for me, but Julie loved it.  The guide told us a lot of information about the butterflies which I promptly forgot.

Next came the calibri garden.  

After visiting the butteflies and the birds we moved on to the bridges.  I've been on the bridges before, but I still love to walk on them.  Especially when I get to sway them, and see if Julie gets scared (she does not, by the way.)

In the evening we decided on the approximate plan of our further travel.  Instead of going to La Fortuna we'd go to Quepos/Manuel Antonio, where we'd rent a car, and continue our Costa Rica travel with more flexibility than buses could offer.  There was only one obsticle we had to overcome - the only bus for Quepos was leaving at 6am...

2012.01.20 Monteverde

San Jose (the one in Costa Rica) 1/18-1/20

From Cahuita we took a bus to San Jose.  We knew that San Jose itself was not of much interest, but there was a volcano near by that I wanted to visit since I've failed to see it during my previous trips to Costa Rica; also all the buses were going via San Jose.

We stayed at Bekuo hostel.  When I booked it, the directions did not make it clear how to get to the hostel from the bus station, so I emailed them to check.  They answered shortly, and told me to get a cab; they also told me how to make sure not to get ripped off by the cab driver.  They even said that if the driver tries to charge us more than $6, tell him to wait, and come get one of them.  They really knew what they were talking about.  The taxi meter was going up and down all the way to the hostel, and when we inquired why that was the case, the driver gave us some rediculous answer about it showing the distance travelled, or something of a sort.  When we got to the hostel the meter was showing the equivalent of $11.  I told him that was not right; he replied "OK, how about $8."  I said that was not right either, and $6 was all we were going to pay.  He kept pointing to the meter, saying $6 is not enough.  So we took the hostel guys on their promise, and asked them to talk some sense into him.  As soon as the girl from the hostel came down he agreed to $6.  When she said she'd report him, he said "Why? I've agreed to $6!"

Besides the very helpful staff  (they helped us with a lot more than just the taxi driver) the hostel also had very nice rooms, a big screen TV with tons of channels showing our favorite shows, and another one with the gaming console.  Julie even played Guitar Hero for the first time.  

In the morning we went to see Poas volcano.  As I mentioned, I tried to see it twice before.  First time we arrived there in the early afternoon, and it was already covered by the clouds.  The second time we had to take a detour due to the washed away road, and arrived there even later when the park was already closed.  So this time as soon as the bus arrived to the park we ran straight for the crater, leaving the museum for later:  

That was a smart decision because 5 minutes later it disappeared behind the clouds.

It was windy, obviously cloudy, and rather cold.  We brought our waterproof jackets with us, but that only helped so much.  We set out on the trail that goes around the volcano, to a lagoon, and back to the parking lot.  The fact that it goes by the lagoon only became apparent when we reached the museum; as it turned out we had our lunch on the lagoon's viewing platform without realizing there was a lagoon - it was somewhere below the clouds.

The bus back was not leaving for 2 more hours, so we had plenty of time for the one-room museum, the coffee shop, and the suvenir shop where we had to entertain ourselves:

Back in San Jose we familiarized ourselves with churros filled with warm Dulce de Leche (вареная сгущенка), and took a couple of random pix on the streets to show that we were there:

The following is the name of some clothing store:

The next morning we caught a bus to Monteverde.

2012.01.18 San Jose

Cahuita

After spending a good 3 hours on the Panama/Costa Rican border, we managed to cross over.

Our first destination was Cahuita, a small town on the Carribean Coast. Given that Levka has been to Costa Rica two times before, he debated for a while whether he has been to Cahuita. When our bus finally arrived into town, he didn't recognize the area so we assumed that he never made it there.

The first night, we walked around for a while looking for a place to stay. The hostels that we researched were full. We found another place that seemed decent. Only after we checked in, we found out that there was no hot water. Which is apparently common in Costa Rica. So the next morning we moved to another place.

Lonely Planet describes Cahuita as a backpackers paradise with tons of hostels, little restaurants, beautiful nature and warm water. We only partially agree with that assessment. It is in fact an overpriced village. And for the town being so out of the way and so underdeveloped, the prices seem outrageous. Or maybe the prices are such because it is so out of the way. By the time you get there, you have no choice but to spend the money.

However, there were a couple really cool things that we did.

On the first day we went on an 8km walk along the ocean in Cahuita National Park. Which is the perfect kind of hike, as far as I'm concerned. Along the way we did the following:

1. Saw two monkey families

2. Saw some other random creatures including this cute green guy:

3. Took a swim in the warmest ocean water that you can imagine

4. And Levka realized that he has been on this trail before when he recognized the parking on the other end!

(Unfortunately there is no picture for this momentous occasion)

On the second day we took a recommendation from our Israeli friends and went to a Sloth Sanctuary. It is only 10km out of town and was well worth the $25 tix.

They claim that a Sloth baby is the cutest thing ever and I may have to agree!

Judge for yourself...

We learned a ton of things about this strange animal and were really impressed and touched by its stuggle to survive as the deforestation continues at very high rates in Costa Rica. If you'd like to learn more about Sloths and the Sanctuary, check out these links:

http://www.costarica.com/places-to-see/parks,-reserves-and-protected-areas/-the-sloth-rescue-center/

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g309262-d1168718-Reviews-Aviarios_del_Caribe_Sloth_Sanctuary-Cahuita_Province_of_Limon.html

 

2012.01.15 Cahuita

Panama

Panama city

We flew to Panama City via Miami.  After a week of “cold” weather we were back to the heat.  We shared a cab with yet another Canadian, who happened to speak some Spanish.  He translated whatever our driver had to say, and which was that the area where our hotel was located was not particularly safe to walk at night.  We contemplated briefly whether to change to the hotel where the Canadian was staying, but it was more expensive, and we decided to stick with what we our original choice.  The hotel turned out to be iffy, but pretty close to the old town, Casco Viejo.  We took a quick shower, and headed out.  The part of town where we stayed was unimpressive to say the least, but was not a complete dump.  It had a few hotels, a few corner mini marts, and some big buildings that seemed to be half-abandoned.  Luckily, after walking about 5 minutes we discovered a nice walking path along the waterfront which led right to the old town.

Right behind was the cityscape of the “new” Panama City.

Old town was very pleasant to walk around.  It had a vibe that I coined Cuban, even though we’ve never been, but I think that’s what Cuba should be like.  Colorful, but poorly up kept buildings, some of which had no insides, just the outer walls.  Those that were in good shape usually turned out to be a restaurant, or a hotel.  

We quickly discovered that we were not in Asia anymore.  The prices here were significantly higher.

The next day we headed to Miraflores Locks, i.e. Panama Canal; visited the museum, learned about the history, and the future, saw a big ocean cruiser go through, took some pictures.  The construction was impressive, even though it is not as huge as I thought it was going to be.  I was hoping to see another Hoover dam.  

This was our opportunity to catch up on the 7th grade Social Studies class. (Especially for those who didn't have schooling in the U.S.) The history and the importance of the Canal is vast and impressive. If you want to learn (or remind yourself of it) check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Panama_Canal 

In the evening we headed to a place that sounded good from description, and judging by our tourist map was not far away.  After walking for about an hour on some shady streets we gave up on that idea, and ended up having dinner in the old town again.

2012.01.07 Panama City

 

Boquete

Next morning we took a bus towards Boquete.  That is we took a bus towards David, and from there we’d go to Boquete.  While waiting for the bus we met a couple of Russians from Israel, Daniel and Ben. Luckily for us Daniel, who by the way is a girl regardless of the spelling of the name, speaks Spanish fluently, and knows a lot about the region because she works as a tour guide in this area.  As Julie discovered, "Donde esta la biblioteca" is one of the very few things that she remembers from hischool Spanish. And this particular phrase proves useless as we are never actually searching for a library.

Boquete is a cozy little town that’s a favorite with the American expats of retirement age.  It’s got large communities built specifically for that purpose.

Things to do in Boquete include walking about the town, enjoying the mountain air, drinking local coffee.  For everything else you need to actually leave Boquete, which we did not realize before we came.

There are a lot of other activities that you can do – hiking, biking, white water rafting, visiting the hot springs, but all of them require either booking a trip, or getting there by some way of transport.  Booking a trip is quite costly, at least we did not see anything that looked cheap.  Getting, say, to a hot springs by bus would take about 2 hours, one of which we’d have to walk, and the bus only goes about 3 times a day; the other option was to get a cab that would cost us about $60; the third was of course a tour, that cost $30 per person.  We almost did a cool 20km hike, we were even ready to split the cab with the Russians to get us to the trail head, but then we read online that the trail was not maintained since 2009, and there was a good chance it would be at times “missing”.  So we ended up just chilling in the town instead.  On the last night we were there, a local fair of flowers and coffee started, and we got to enjoy what sounded more like a rave till about 4am.  The next morning we had to get up at 7am to catch our bus to our next destination, Bocas del Toro.

 

2012.01.09 Boquete

 

Bocas del Toro

Daniel and Ben left a couple of days before us, as soon as they learned that the hike was off.  They were heading to Costa Rica, so we did not expect to see them until some time later.  But when we got to Bocas del Toro we ran into them on the street.  Turns out when they saw the archipelago from the bus window they decided to make a detour, and stop by the islands.

Bocas del Toro is a small beach town on Isla Colon.  We heard that 5 years ago it was quite different, without any tourists, and primarily fishing industry.  Now it’s full of restaurants, hotels, and tourist agencies.  On our first day we decided to stop by the local hospital because my poison oak was not getting better even though I was out of my steroid pills, and the hospital was nearby.  The hospital was as one might expect it to be in a small fishing village, but luckily the doctor was not there after 4pm, so we promptly left never to return (poison oak got better the following day.)  

On our second day we headed to Bocas del Drago, a better beach, which was about 13km away.  Daniel told us about a local bus that would take us there.  We boarded the bus, as did the other 40 passengers, never mind that the bus was built for 20.  Luckily the ride was only about 40 minutes once we were moving – we were waiting for the bus to be sufficiently full before we started moving.  The driver kept stopping picking up passengers along the way, and somehow they all fit.  At one point Julie was sitting in my lap, at another somebody’s bag was sitting on my shoulder.  The beach turned out to be OK, the only outstanding thing about it was the multitude of starfish.

The weather was unfortunately windy, and not extremely sunny, so as soon as the nearby food vendor decided to test the limits of his very old and crappy stereo, we headed back.

The following day the plan was to take a tour to see the dolphins, to snorkel a bit, and to chill on a beach on a nearby island.  Unfortunately the morning greeted us with a heavy rain, so unwilling to waste an extra day we left the island heading for Costa Rica.

2012.01.13 Bocas Del Toro

Catching up

We've been lazy or unmotivated and this blog has been left untouched for several weeks. Let me tell you what you missed.

Siem Reap

After Phnom Penh we took yet another bus ride to Siem Reap. The town is right next to the coolest historical ruins which is the Angkor Wat complex. We started at a wonderful guesthouse (The Best Western Guesthouse) next to the night market. It is run by a friendly Aussie, has large clean rooms with AC. We were happy with this recommendation from Yasha and Yulya. At this point we truly miss their company and their good finds!

On the first day we explored the town with our friendly Canadians, David and Lena. The town is amazingly touristy but also very cute and convenient. It features several markets (night and day ones so that tourists can spend their money at any time of day), cute restaurants, bars, coffee shops and pleasant streets. Levka was the designated tour guide for the day. Which means that he held the map and the rest of us could blame him anytime he got us lost. In this manner we covered most of town. In the late afternoon we split the tuk-tuk to watch the sunset at Angkor Wat. The ruins were stunning. The sunset was iffy as it became overcast in the afternoon.

A few words about Angkor:

It's a complex of ruins that are over one thousand years old. It used to be a capital city with a population of one million. The town was left and forgotten for one thousand years. It was covered by a jungle and was discovered in the 1900s. Recently it became the most visited site in all of Southeast Asia with millions of tourists every year. I recommend reading about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat

On the second day we hired another tuk-tuk and a tour guide from the hotel to go for a full day of exploration at Angkor Wat. The guide came highly recommended and was a huge disappointment. He talked a lot about himself and his own accomplishments. One of those was his work as an interpreter during the filming of "Tomb Raider". Not sure how much work he actually did for the film but he spent most of the tour telling us where Angelina Jolie walked, how she looked, how he had a crush on her, etc etc. I'm pretty sure that if I wanted Hollywood gossip I could have stayed in US.

Regardless, the ruins were impressive. Our favorite was the "jungle temple", 1000 year old trees that grew through the temple walls. At this point the roots hold the stones together and look like this:

And yes, this temple was featured in Tomb Raider :-)

In the evening we got some good food and almost got in a bar fight at "Angkor What?", a local bar.

The following day we took another very long ride to Bangkok.

2011.12.14 Siem Reap

Bangkok

The ride was very long but went pretty smoothly including the border crossing (stamp in, stamp out - we are quite used to the whole process by now). In Thailand we boarded a mini bus which kept stopping for bathroom and snack breaks every hour. As a result we arrived to Bangkok after dark and 2 hours later than we expected. The hostel that we liked before was booked and we ended up using the lonely planet recommendation and staying at another hostel near by. It was very basic with beds as hard as the floor, no towels, no wifi, barely any light. It was run by a sweet old grandma who spoke no English and made us take our shoes off before entering the house.

That evening we ate at our favorite restaurant one last time. May Kadee's is the best place we have eaten at ever and we visited it about a dozen times over the three stays in Bangkok.

The rest of the evening we ran between different travel agencies trying to find the best way to get to Phangan island. We didn't do enough research about South America and were not ready to head there. So we decided to spend a couple more weeks (including New Years) at our favorite island while we order tickets to the next destination. We chose the most expensive and most convenient way of flying the next morning.

Now as I reflect on Bangkok, I can say that it had gone through quite a transformation in my mind. The first time it seemed huge, smelly and noisy. After visiting Vietnam, Bangkok seemed quite tame and nice and even green and quiet. Even Levka had changed his opinion and we both left Bangkok remembering it fondly.

Phangan

It is worth mentioning our trip to Phangan. It involved a shuttle to the airport, plane from Bangkok to Sura Thani, bus transfer from airport to ferry terminal, ferry to Phangan island and a tuk-tuk ride to the Fanta Bungalows. All in all a full day of travel which was still much more pleasant than the overnight bus alternative. 

The most memorable was the ferry ride. When we entered the boat, we were handed little plastic bags. Levka joked and asked whether they expected the ride to be that bad. And they replied with a definitive "YES!" That region was still experiencing the end of the monsoon and the waves ride was quite choppy. About five minutes into the ride, Levka turned completely white, then green and then ran to the bathroom and locked himself there for the rest of the trip. The only other bathroom was lined with passengers desperate to get in. In the meantime, I sat with a hood, headphones, eyes closed, trying to ignore everything that was going around me. In 1 hour, the boat stopped at Koh Samui for 5 minutes. Levka got out of the bathroom and looked like he just jumped into the water. As soon as the boat started to move, he ran back into the bathroom and stayed there for the rest of the trip.

At Fanta, we were met by the friendly faces of Yasha and Yulya (our last leg of the journey together). And of course we made it to Zhaba that same night to say hello our friends from the previous trip.

The rest of the time we spent our time idly. The weather wasn't as good as we hoped, mostly overcast with some rain and high waves. So swimming was limited. But there was plenty of reading and socializing. 

Another thing about Phangan was that it was completely full with Russians. It seems like you're not allowed on the island without a Russian passport during the months of Dec and Jan. 

After much research, we found out that it was a significant savings to fly to Central America through U.S. So we said goodbye to our friends at Zhaba a few days early and made it home just in time for New Years!

Phnom Penh, 12/12/11-12/14/11

We were going to arrive to Phnom Penh in the evening, and it's not a small town, so we decided to be responsible, and look into the guide book for recommendations on accommodation.  They mentioned one particular place that seemed to fit our most important need in Asia - it was called "immaculately clean".  So we called ahead, and made sure there was a room waiting for us.  In fact it did, but as it turned out while it was clean, it was not very new, and the bathroom constantly smelled like stale water.  The window from the room was facing the back of the front desk, and not the street.  The guesthouse itself was located next to a busy bus station, and a local market, and there was literally nothing to do around there for at least a mile or two.  Even the tuk-tuk driver was wondering why we were going there instead of some place next to the river where all the rest of the tourists were.  But despite all this the room was acceptible, and cheap, so we stayed there for the first couple of nights.  As we were walking around town the next morning, we found another place to stay (well, it was suggested to us by Yasha and Yulia), and moved there for the 3rd night.  It was more expensive, but saved us money on tuk-tuk rides.

The first impression of Cambodia and Phnom Penh - the people are nicer, and less pushy than in Vietnam.  For example the tuk-tuk drivers only ask you once if you require their services, and when you tell them that you don't, they don't proceed on asking you where you are going still hoping to change your mind.  Second striking impression is the poverty.  There are a lot of beggars, and a lot of them are children.  It feels wrong to sit in a nice cafe drinking your $2 coffee while there are dozens of beggars, some of whom are disabled, asking you for whatever pennies you can spare.  There are also a lot of scams often including small children.  For example they might ask you to buy them food from a convenience store near by.  Shortly after they are going to return the food back to the store for a smaller price...

We spent the first full day in Phnom Penh walking around the city's major tourist sites.  We visited the Independence Monument, the Royal Palace, and the Phnom Wat.  

At Phnom Wat we witnessed a monkey steal a kid's juice box.  Monkeys just live there, stealing food wherever possible - mostly from the vendors, tourists, and little kids.

In the afternoon we discovered the Blue Pumpkin cafe that helped us catch up on our blog tremendously.  It had very comfortable couches, great food (including awesome baked goods), and the internet connection.  

On our second full day we climbed a 6 story mall for some arial shots, and visited the Russian market.  I read somewhere that the market was called "Russian" because it sold a lot of fake brand items, and Russians would go there to shop for them.

 

I can't say we found a lot of Russians there, or "good quality" fake goods, but we did find a t-shirt that had exactly the statement I'd mentioned I wanted on my shirt: "No tuk-tuk".  See, even though each tuk-tuk asks you only once whether you want to employ his services, the number of the tuk-tuks is insane. So we had to say "No, thanks" at least 10 times a minute when we were walking around town.  I told Julie that I was going to take a picture with the first tuk-tuk who offered us a ride with me wearing the t-shirt:

On the 3rd day we took a bus to Siem Reap to the one of the most well-known religious sites in the world.

2011.12.11 Phnom Penh