Cooking and Cockfights! (definitely separate events)

This is the (interestingly) decorated kitchen in our hostel, where Jen and I spent many laborious hours cooking....aka chopping up some fresh vegetables from the local market and boiling some water for pasta.


Hmmm. I think this picture deserves a bit of explanation...So this past week was Carnvial, which is only really celebrated in certain cities (like Panama City, for example, was completely booked for over a week!). However, on the last night of celebrations, Jen and I ventured into the nearby town of Dolega, where we were told there would be tons of festivities. (Translation: there would be a cockfight.)
We stood out just a little bit (picture two gringas in spring dresses amidst 60 year old panamanian cowboys), but it actually worked to our advantage as we were treated like royalty and ushered right into the arena to watch the fights. But first, we had to chose our lucky bird, hence the picture!


The big fight!
(Ours won, by the way)

Beautiful Boquete, Panama

apparently its normal to put a cactus this size in one´s front yard....anything goes in Panama


one of three rivers flowing through Boquete


strangely reminds me of Tahoe?


me?


Coffee plantation!

Rainforest and Pacific Coast....I love you, Corcovado.

Fending off pumas with machetes in Corcovado National Park...

....orrrrr just hiking through it. Same thing.
The moment we arrived in Costa Rica was the moment we began hearing about Corcovado National Park. I mean, when National Geographic labels a place "the most biologically intense place on Earth"...you can prettttty much assume its going to be, well....intense. If only we had known just how intense...




On Saturday morning, we got a 5am wakeup knock from the totally endearing four foot seven inch Costa Rican woman whose house we were staying in right outside of the park. Bright eyed and cheery (read: totally suffering from lack of sleep), Jen and I hopped on to el collectivo, which is basically the bed of someone´s truck, covered with a tarp. After a two hour ride consisting of bumps, ditches, rivers, a cigarette break for the driver, and some more bumps...we finally got dropped off about a mile away from the park entrance and so the journey began... we walked along the most pristine strip of pacific coast line ive ever seen for about one hour to reach the entrance station, and then from there they told us it would be about six hours of rain forest/beach hiking, and river crossings to get to the Sirena station where we had reservations to sleep. The ranger warned us in broken english to plan our trek around high tide, when apparently the bull sharks swim up into the rivers, and the chance of encountering crocodiles increases significantly. I´m sorry.....what?? Bull sharks? Crocodiles? Uhhh....



Stopping a few times, it did end up taking us close to 7 hours to reach the station, but MAN did it feel good once we did! We took nice hot showers, put on the terrycloth bathrobes they provided, put our swollen feet up and watched a little Entourage that happened to be on HBO, and then ordered some room service...
And by that I mean we took freezing cold "showers" with our flip flops on, squirted some blackbean paste type thing into a can of tuna, put on some dirty damp clothes from our dirty damp backpacks, and laid down on our pee-smelling mattress-looking thing at the modest hour of 7 pm.
The next day we got up at 6, left at 7, and did the same trail for the way back, with one hour of rain which actually ended up being quite surreal. (Hiking in the rain in the rainforest...who would have thought?)
All in all...........coolest experience. ever?

ever.

La Playa beckons.........

Now, I briefly mentioned that we got robbed in Santa Teresa. Fortunately, when the little buggas broke into the house, they were out of luck when it came to MY electronics and important things...my passport was hidden, my new ipod nano (courtesy of lily!!) was with me along with my wallet, credit card, camera, etc... my LIFE basically. HOWEVER...they did take my backpacking backpack, and my one, single, only, solo article of clothing providing warmth: my sweatshirt (not to mention it was my favorite one from Vietnam, which you may remember appearing in almost every picture from my last blog). So although I am extremely thankful for still having the things which were not stolen, and extremely sympathetic towards the other girls (mainly Emma) who got entirely ripped off, I had a bit of a situation. BACKPACKING for 3 months with.....no backpack. And...no sweatshirt. What to do?
Solution: Borrow humungous bright orange beach bag from Emma's mom, and purchase oversized-old-man-sweater from the supermercado. Problem solved.
After the cloud forest breeze of Monteverde, Jen and I were itching to return to the beach. (Or were we just itching in general? Both with over 35 mosquito bites per appendage...)
We took a bus to Domincal, a quaint beach town farther south on the Pacific coast. It was no Santa Teresa but we did manage to have a great time...sunset walks on the beach sans romance, lots of reading, and researching our next move...








When in Costa Rica...........try Guaro? (just once though!! bleh!)

And then there were DOS....

After an absolutely fantastic month in Santa Teresa, it was time to part ways. Jen and I said our goodbyes and instead of joining the girls on their trek (and I mean trek) back to the San Jose airport, we hopped off the ferry and literally ran onto the bus that was leaving two minutes later for Monteverde. Although cramped and hot and long and uncomfortable (and and and and), the bus ride up to Monteverde was quite stunning...green and mountainous, go figure! We had already made reservations at a recommended hostel called Pension Santa Elena which turned out to be amazing in that it served coffee all day. For free. ALL DAY. Oh and the staff was really helpful, and we met a few good people, and our room was decent enough for 7 bucks, and there was a kitchen we could use and free internet all day. (But the highlight was still, obviously...free coffee. Did I mention they served it all day?)
Anyway, Monteverde is known for its cloud forests, and thus its canopy tours. Since Im completely terrified of heights, I decided to try this ziplining I kept hearing about, which consists of strapping yourself to a rope and flinging yourself through the tops of trees in the cloud forest. Wait, what? That doesn´t sound fun.
But it was! I didn´t even cry. Jen and I both felt like we were little kids on Disneyland rides, as neither of us could wipe the ridiculously big and childish smile off our faces as we soared through the air. Embarassing, yes. But totally worth it. !



off to go hiking!

98259382 hours of uphill hiking later...we made it to the top

feeling a little dorky at this point

...and nervous

Roughing it in Santa Teresa

After an exhilerating and FULL twenty four hours of travel...


....our group arrived in Santa Teresa on the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica. The posse :Emma (good friend/roommate/partner in crime from LA)
Jen (best friend since freshman year at UCLA)
Sierra (Emma´s good friend from Marin)
Samantha (Emma´s good family friend from childhood)
Karen (Emma´s amazing mother, and generous hostess!)
I´ll give the brief rundown of our month (!!!) long stay in Santa Teresa, since the daily routine didn´t vary too much...
The month consisted of a LOT of the following: rich Costa Rican coffee, spanish lessons and bird watching on the porch, yoga on the beach,

yoga in the studio which overlooks the beach, dance parties (inevitable with 6 females in one house), swimming in the warm (!!!) pacific, reading, painting, trying not to inhale but inhaling massive amounts of dust,

casados de pescado (fish with rice, beans, and salad for 2 dollars), playing pool, not getting much better at it, taking more pictures than one thought possible, getting robbed (once), more swimming, more yoga, more walking, and meeting great people....