Bus for Quepos...Maybe Not

The last couple of days in Costa Rica I was not able to get on the internet because of the shops being closed for the holiday. After Dominical Kyle and I took what should have been a short bus ride north back to Manuel Antonio. We arrived at the bus stop with plenty of time to spare to catch the bus north. When the bus came it read, "Quepos", which is where we were heading. Kyle went in front of me and paid for the both of us. Here is a rule that can save any of you some time if you ever find yourself travelng in a foriegn country. Always double check the destination of your bus with the driver! : ) Even if the bus says the name of where you want to go on the top, this does not necessarily mean that it is heading there. I think we assumed that if the bus has a city's name across it, than that is its destination. Not exactly. I soon realized that we were definitely not heading north in the direction we should be. Long story short, what should have been a 2 hour bus ride , was an 8 hour day of over crowded bus rides. It was all good though. We got to see the city of San Isidro and take a pretty hilarious bus ride back. I counted over 100 people on a bus that has seats for 45! Men, women, children, and even a dozen baby chicks were crammed inside this sauna on wheels. It was an adventure just wondering if we would make it up the next hill! Like, The Little Engine That Could, we slowly climbed up and down the mountians at a brisk walking pace. It is amuzing things like these that keep traveling interesting. It's important to look at it this way, otherwise you can find yourself way too stressed over things like deceptive bus destinations. No matter where you are in the world, you can always find an adventure on the public bus! The last couple days where nice to just relax and reflect on our time in Costa Rica. Kyle and I surfed one last time in Manuel Antonio and also saw the elusive sloth that we had been wanting to catch a glimpse of. We were able to get pretty close, and man are those guys ugly! It was quite a site to see the sloth doing what they do best. I guess the best phrase for this behavior would be slothing around? Anyway, it was trying to climb a telephone sign and not having much luck. Imagine someone trying to climb a well griesed fire pole and you will get an idea what he looked like. After our sloth entertainment we went to the La Mariposa hotel for lunch by the pool. As one of the "1000 places to see before you die," I thought I might have already passed and gone to heaven! The hotel sits on top of a mountain that has a 270 degree view of the national park and the Pacific Ocean. There is an infiniti pool around the entire deck and views that I will never forget. The hotel was a nice ending to a great trip. Above are some pictures from the trip and a video below. I hope you enjoyed reading about Costa Rica as much as I enjoyed being there! I am set to graduate in May so there will be many more adventures to come!

No Surf....Relax!!

Kyle and I are still in Dominical. The waves are pretty small, but it´s nice to take a break from surfing. Since we have been in Dominical we have been hanging out with two Dutch guys and a girl. They left this moring for different cities. Meeting new people is another thing that I really enjoy about traveling. They were really great to hang out with and an absolute riot! The people that surround you can make a good experience a great one. Positive energy is contagious and it is definitely a good thing to have those kind of people around. Yesterday we hitched a ride with a local surfer and went to a waterfall just outside of town. After a short walk we could hear the water crashing and see the 20 ft. falls in the middle of the forest. It was nice to chill out there and go off the rope swing. Jose, the surfer, put on a show when he climbed over 30 ft. up a tree and jumped into the small pool. Jose was born in raised in Dominical. He teaches surfing for a living and seems to have a nice life. If I run for president it will be on the platform of Jose, the surfer instead of Joe, the plumber! lol....We are staying in Dominical tonight and then heading back to Manuel Antonio for the rest of our trip. The waves will stay small with a Christmas swell coming in on Thursday. It is going to be a very Feliz Navidad if we get some good waves!

Our First Surf Contest

Kyle and I have been doing the usual. Wake up for a pre dawn session, eat , surf again, repeat until sunset. Today the local surf shops were putting on a surf contest for anyone who wanted to give it a shot. Me, Kyle and two friends of ours that we have been surfing with decided to enter. I was in the first heat of the day. I found myself really excited and kind of nervous to be competing in my first surf competition. The heat was 20 minutes and I caught about 5 waves. The thrill of paddling against 4 other surfers going for the same wave definitely brought out my competitive side. I was tempted to tackle a few of them off of thier boards. Win by any means necessary! However, tackling is for football so I just tried my best. I was pretty happy with my performance, placing 4th in the mens open longboard division. Kyle was trying to tell me that it was because there were only 3 other competitors in my division, but I´ll think what I want. Kyle and the other guys competed in the open shortboard division and came out the same as me. Although I wanted to win, it was more about having a good time and trying something new. I think that when we try new things it breathes life into us. When was the last time you tried something that put you out of your normal comfort zone? I´m not saying go and do something crazy and dangerous, just something you would not normally do. It can be something as simple as reading a type of book that you would not normally pick up, or crossing off something on you ¨things to do before I die¨list. Life is about our different experiences over the years. Don´t leave that list or new opportunity sitting there. Carpe Diem, Viva La Vida, Sieze the Day! My camera won´t hook up here, but I´ll be sure to put of pictures as soon as I can.

Dominical For Now

Yesterday Kyle and I headed to a town called Dominical 44 km to the south of Manuel Antonio. The trip should take less than an hour. However, the Manuel Antonio local government has chosen not to pave the road in between the two towns in an effort to keep tourists in Manuel Antonio. This is marketing your city, Costa Rican style! All you have to do is to make it harder to get to any other towns! Well, it didn´t keep Kyle and I away and actually makes Dominical my new favorite place in Costa Rica! We are staying in a hostel directly in front of the best beach break in the area. This morning we woke up for a sunrise session and walked about the same distance most of us walk to take the garbage out to surf. I like this walk much better! This is not to say that Domincal is not developed, but not nearly as much as other towns. It´s funny because we are always searching for a place that is ¨untouched¨ and not ¨developed¨. However, it is because of our search that places become known, visited, and later more commercialized. So now I find myself in a dilemma. Should I write that I hate this place and no one should ever come here. keyboard won´t let me do a queston mark, or parenthesis...lol....No, I tell about how great it is, thus contributing to the very problem that I seek to avoid. The simple fact that I am here is the reason for development. So now you see my problem. Instead of just not going in the first place, I think that we can still enjoy what our planet has to offer without commercializing everything. Tell that to the people trying to make money and Í´m sure they will not agree. In the end I guess we should just try to always have a positive impact on our surroundings, whether they are human or in nature. On that note, Kyle and I are going to follow my rules and enjoy the rest of our trip in Dominical.

Living the Life...

Our days have been pretty much the same since I last wrote. Wake up early to catch the bus to the beach, surf until we can’t feel our arms, and then head back to the hostel to watch the sun dip below the Pacific. This trip feels like it is not as much about what we are doing, but more about what we are not. It’s nice to not have any particular plans. It‘s even nicer to forget about the day of the week and time of the day. Sometimes we get caught up in the momentum of everything moving around us. If only I can move through life with the same flow and grace of a breaking wave. If you don‘t surf, try it! There is no other feeling in the world. The swell is hitting the local beach here, so here is where we will stay. Later in the week we will probably head to another town nearby for a change of scene and some different breaks. The pictures above are of the beach we surf at, sunset view from our hostel, and the monkey's that call this area home.

Surfing With Crocidiles!

Kyle and I arrived in San Jose on time at 4 pm yesterday. We could already see Costa Rica´s beauty from the plane ride in. Mountains covered in tropical rainforest paint the land a deep green for as far as you can see. After grabbing our surfboards and loading them in our taxi we got a taste of San Jose rush hour. What should have beena 30 minute cab ride took about an hour and a half. We thought we might miss our bus to the beach but they ended up having a later one than we thought. Our first meal in Costa Rica was perfect! A gaint plate of chicken, rice, beans, and vegetables for about $2 was exactly what we needed after a long day of traveling. Now we were off on our bus ride to Manuel Antonio. After winding through the mountains for 4 hours we had finally reached our hostel. Vista Serena sits on the side of a mountian over looking the Pacific ocean. The porch has many hammocks that provide a great place to watch the beautiful sunsets. Our first morning here we woke up and headed to the beach. The beach is only about 10 minutes down the mountain. The last two days we surfed for at least 10 hours. My shoulders are definitely asking me to take a break. But its so hard with perfect waves pounding the beach all day. The water is a great temperature and the sun is not too bad when its behind the clouds. The spot we surf at is at the far right end of the beach from the picture above. The beach looks like something out of Jarassic Park. Today, Kyle had an encounter with a living dinasour himself. He came running out of the water and I knew something was up. A 7ft croc was patrolling the surf and decided to get uncomfortably close to Kyle. Crocs are not uncommon here, so it was not a huge surprise. Needless to say we took a little break from surfing until he decided to go bother other unsespecting beach goers. Crocidiles are not the only widelife we have seen. Yesterday on the was back from surfing we saw a whole group of monkeys and two sloths in the trees. It is really amazing to have such diverse plant and wildlife around us. Costa Rica has more species of both than the U.S. and Europe combined! The food is good, the surf is up, and the weather is perfect. I just got here, but I´m already planning my return.

WINTER BREAK COSTA RICA STYLE!!!

The last time I wrote I had just returned from a great trip to the Middle East. It has only been a little over 3 months and I'm ready for new adventures. Kyle and I are heading to the Rich Coast o en espanol, Costa Rica BABY! I have always wanted to go there and I felt like now would be a good time. It was kind of a last minute thing. I started looking into flights last week and became frustrated when all of them were around $600, not what I was hoping for. After staying up way to late travelociting and orbitzing on the computer I decided to try one more time the next morning. Then it hit me, American Airlines Ft. Lauderdale to San Jose: $238...round trip! It was a sign from the travel gods! Kyle was not planning on going do to a lack of funds from late night partying and unpaid debts to a local mob boss. However, I convinced him to skip town with the financial help of a few of "my people" (Mom and Dad).  So now here I am writing on the eve of our trip to a motherland for surfing, rainforests and cerveza (beer). If you don't know any spanish, I think you will have a nice arsenal of slang by the time you are done reading my blog. We are leaving tomorrow and returning the 26th. While we are there we are planning on doing a lot of surfing and relaxing. Costa Rica is home to some of the worlds best tropical rainforests and surf....sounds like a good combination. Our first stop will be on the Pacific coast in a town called Manuel Antonio. The picture above is of Manuel Antonio National Park.  I will try to write everyday, however I may never leave the peeling surf for long enough to manifest more than a : ) So if you see that, you know its all good and we are living La Pura Vida! (The Pure Life, a common saying in Costa Rica)