Volcan Irazu

My host dad warned me not to climb down the sides of the volcano because I might fall in and burn my eyes in the bright green sulfur water when Zoe and I went on a day trip to visit this famous volcano. Haha, very funny.

This is a funny little animal that was casi tame. It was eating out of peoples hands and stuff. Then some stupid american tried to touch it and got clawed. Why would you try to touch it? Dumbass. Anyway, we asked what it was called and the security guard dude gave us like two colloquial names and the technical name and the genus name and the group name and . . . too many words and we forgot them all. So, we have no idea what it was. If you have a clue, let me know.

Climbing in Santa Ana

Santa Ana, about 30 minutes from San Jose, is reputed to have some pretty decent climbing. Although it surprisingly has a sunnier weather pattern than San Jose and can be sunny while San Jose is pouring, the climbing is still rather . . . wet. Muddy wet holds that would be scrubbed to hell with alcohol and wire brushes in the US are all the more challenge to the Costa Rican climbers. We had fun, but I have to admit I was frustrated by the sheer muddiness of everything. Here is Eduardo on a proj there.

Halloween

My little Costa Rican brother, Luisca, decided to scare us on Halloween. He got Zoe (my new roommate from England) pretty bad; she said she screamed and jumped out of her skin. He waited for me on the couch for hours and, unfortunately, had to go to bed before I got home from the climbing gym. That's what happens when you live so far away! Carlos, the dad, was joking about how it was probably for the best because I might have punched him, seeing what happened when I almost got robbed. Its been great having a roommate from England especially because it makes me realize how often I really do have to ask what the heck she's talking about because even though we both speak English, we say quite a few things very differently. It makes me feel better about the amout of times I have to ask for clarification in Spanish and that it doesn't always mean that its just because of the language.

Aventura en Bicicleta de Terror

Here we are, ready to start our bike tour. Well, El Bob on the left isn´t going he just drove us up there, to the top of the mountains near Cerro de la Muerte. Its raining and its already dark, so we figured, what better time to start biking down a very steeply inclined mountain with large rocks and loose gravel and parts of the road washed out? Especially since two of us were sin headlamp. I almost backed out at this point. But, hey. I can handle 70 kilometers of biking downhill, right? I´m tough.

Other than it being dark, the first night of biking was relatively uneventful. I did skid out and fell on some loose gravel, so Pupi felt bad for me and gave me his headlamp. And I used the hell out of my brakes so that my lumbricals were killing me. But, we only had to bike 14km straight down to Providencia, where there was more bouldering. If it hadn´t been raining and dark, it might have been more useful to plan the trip around where the bouldering areas were located. As it lies, however, I would have picked a more direct route that didn´t involve going straight down and then hiking straight up and over 3 mountains the next morning. I would dare any super fit biker dude to try to bike up this unending saga of steepness. Here, we´ve got Pupi early in the trip when he still has a smile on his face. I would have hitched if anyone had been stupid enough to drive up this crazy road.

Already dripping in sweat, we climbed into the clouds where we drearily found ourselves still able to appreciate the beauty. Although I´ve never felt more like Sisyphus, the Greek dude doomed to push a rock up an endless hill. I tried to keep optimism; I was sure it was around the next corner for at least three hours.

We finally reached a downhill, the first of the day. So much for ALL DOWNHILL, as I was told. It also turned out to be 135 km instead of 70. Certainly tested the limits of my toughness. And, unfortunately, it didn´t last. After this, it became more as I might have pictured the whole trip. Some downs that you could milk for all their worth on the ups.

More beauty. They are probably waiting for me, as I turned out to be the weakest link on the downs. I was never the slowest on the ups, I´ll have you know, though. The thing is, they say my bike had shocks. But I´m willing to bet money and all the mud I accumulated on my body during this trip that they didn´t work. Plus, my hands hurt too bad after the first while to break properly, which scared the hell out of me, considering the unexpected obstacles we frequently faced. Next time, I will get a bike with better shocks.

Covered in mud and slish-sliding around down the road, we are exhaustedly pedaling like mad to get down the damn mountain before dark. Other than the mud in the eyes, this part was pretty much pura vida.

gabriel looking just a bit tired after pedaling for 13 hours. we finally arrived at . . . some bar in the middle of nowhere. we were informed that we should hike back uphill to the turn that we missed in the dark or to ford a river about 60 feet across in the night and try to find some dirt road to a dirt road to a dirt road that would lead us back to where we were supposed to be. my vote was, as it had been since it had gotten dark, to stop and camp at the random bar. I finally won, and we camped in the backyard of the people that owned to bar. we got good food, some ice cold cerveza and some old drunk dudes trying to hit on me even though i was covered in mud. ahhh.

the next day was a beautiful sunny day and we awoke in good spirits, though i was still too worn out to speak good spanish. its kind of funny how much my level of spanish goes down when i'm tired. anyway, we forded the river, made it to quepos, hung out on the beach for the day and took the bus back to san jose. all in all a fun adventure.

Tortuguero

When Joel came to visit, we set off for Tortuguero. Its a quaint little village only accessible by boat located in the middle of dense jungle that is known for being the breeding grounds of monster sea turtles. We took a boat from Limon that traveled through the extensive canal system and allowed us to see a lot of the wildlife without getting eaten alive by mosquitos. Or crocodiles.

Some pelicans.












A cocodrilo, de terror!! Damn, those things are monstrous and creepy and camo- flauged and . . .






This little monkey is hiding. And all you can see is his enormous package, in stark contrast to his leafy surroundings.














Mapaches!! Or racoons. Aren´t their little curious eyes cute? Not as cute as the monkeys, of course. But pretty darn cute.




Here´s a little playful cutie pie monkey watching us with his little curious white face. I´m not really to sure if I could fit any more adjectives in that previous sentence. Anyway, as most of you know, I´m obsessed with monkeys and I frequently try to be like them, only I unfortunately don´t have a tail to use for balance and grabbing branches when jumping from tree to tree. Also, I can´t howl like those hella loud howler monkeys, though I definitely tried hard.

Fuzzy sloth, think he has three toes or something but who knows? He doesn´t move. Supposedly, they come down about once every 8 days. This was in Cahuita, a beautiful Caribbean beach where we went after Tortuguero. We really wanted to try surfing and we figured it didn´t really matter if the waves were small because we´re beginners and all, but they were really nonexistent. We did, however, go snorkeling and saw an 8 foot nurse shark and two four foot barracudas. De terror. I like the little sparkly neon ones better. The Nemo fish and the black ones with blue polka dots.

This little possum looks stuffed. But, alas, he´s not. And, as you can see, I didn´t actually take any pictures of me or Joel, just the animals. I´ll have to get some others from Joel.