This was also the first time that I fully took advantage of all of the rich Americans I meet through my work at the Beverly Hills of Nicaragua. I met a great couple here last week who have a lake house in Arenal, a really beautiful area of Costa Rica famous for its outdoor adventure activities, natural hot springs, and active volcano. When I found out I had a day off, I told them I was thinking about going there…and in turn, they handed over the keys to their castle!
The house was amazing – absolutely beautiful inside and on the outside, sat on top of a hill overlooking the lake, with a giant porch where you could enjoy the view and listen to the howler monkeys (for some reason, they’re more endearing in Costa Rica than they are in my back yard every night).
The House
On Saturday, we took the rental car over to the volcano…which was completely hidden in clouds. So instead of marveling at a big white blob, we snuck into one of the fancy hot springs hotels and spent the day in the springs. Several cervezas later, we were best friends with the owner of the hotel and had keys in hand for a night at quite possibly the nicest hotel I’ve ever seen in my life. So we decided to take a night off from our free lakeside house to stay in our nearly free hotel suite…tough life, I know.
Hanging out in the hot springs.
We spent the next day recovering from a slight hangover and then driving along the coast of the lake, stopping at local spots along the way to check out the food and art. And luckily for us, after two days of complete white-out, the volcano appeared out of no where just as we were driving away from Arenal.
The Volcano...finally!
My friend Jen risking life and limb for a photo with a rainbow. The cow was not pleased.
Now the fun part: the trip back. Trips from Limon are always interesting, mainly because the way back is almost always guaranteed to be a complete shit show. So for me to get back to Limon from Arenal it took the following: - 40 minute car ride to the bus
- 1.5 hour bus ride to Liberia, CR
- 1.5 hour bus ride to border
- 1 hour at the CR border waiting for my stupid passport stamp- 20 minute trek on foot from CR to Nica
- 1 hour at Nica border
- 30 minute cab ride to Rivas
- 1.5 hour wait for bus to Limon- 1.5 hour bus ride to Limon
Tired yet? I left the house at 5 a.m. and ended up making it back to Limon around 3 p.m. Now the best part – had I been in the states, this trip was about the equivalent of driving from D.C. to New York. Gotta love Central America.
This is at the bus stop. Home base for the crazy women that sell everything under the sun.
Luggage assistant. You'd think he's just up there while parked. No, he rides up there and hops down into the bus when he needs to chat with the driver.
Typical aisle before departing. So many salespeople, so little room. The girl actually has bags of fried chicken, rice, plantains, and salad...all in one.
And my favorite. The guy who sells nail clippers, flash lights, and all other random items you would never think anyone would buy on a bus. This guy comes in a close second to the woman behind him who sells underwear.
So aside from my trip from hell back, overall impressions of CR are mixed. The country is certainly beautiful, but it doesn’t really have that Central Americanfeel that it should. It’s so Americanized that I had a hard time finding Costa Ricans that would even speak Spanish to me. They would see that I’m American and just automatically speak English – I seriously had several conversations with people where I refused to speak English and they refused to speak Spanish, so we went back in forth in both languages! That said, I’m not going to lie – it was nice to take a shower and five minutes later, still feel clean. But I was surprisingly happy to return to my little village filled with dust, pigs, and burning trash by the end of the weekend.
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