April 21, 2011
The day before yesterday our friend Donaji came to stay with us. She is from Mexico. We met her in Leon, Nicaragua when we were with the big group of people. She is 30 but I thought she was 24. She is on a long trip as well, probably for a year. She is only a couple months into her trip and now she is booking a flight to Bangkok soon. Her English is so good and our Spanish is so bad. I was thinking of trying to speak lots of spanish with her but so far it is just easier to speak in english with a couple spanish words and phrases thrown in for good measure.
The first day she was here we decided just to have a beach day. So we went out surfing with our two boards at low tide and caught lots of little waves and had a blast. Chad went out and caught some pretty nice ones! He is getting better every day and starting to like it more and more. We came home for lunch and then it was back to the beach. Chad of course went back out surfing but since Doni has done a lot of yoga and knows quite a bit about it we decided to have our own little yoga session of our own. So at sunset we faced the sun and did an hours worth of bendy, stretchy, mantra filled yoga! I was impressed with her teaching skills! She could probably start her own class. It was the first time that I had really done yoga properly and not on a DVD. To top off the evening I made a pretty good tasting coconut chicken curry.
Today we rented a quad again to go to the Cabo Blanco Nature Reserve. Because of Semana Santa we couldn't even get a good price with a spanish speaker in our group. We only rented one and the three of us piled onto it with Chad driving and me on one side and Doni on the other. We tried to get one for 7am so we could get to the park early to see all the monkeys and other animals when they are most active. But of course the surfer guys who run the hotel up the road are neither friendly or helpful in the morning. So we had to wait until 8am to leave. We got to the park at 9am to start the 5km hike through the jungle to the beach. We spent a good three hours wandering the jungle and saw all kind of cool animals. We saw howler monkeys, white faced monkeys, quatti, mapaches and lots of lizards. We reached the beach in 3 hours and made some sandwiches and hit the water. Little did we know lurking in the water were poisonous sea cucumbers or pepino de mar. Doni got a back sting right on her arm. She flew out of the water after that. The water was murky so we didn't know what it was at first but we asked Alonzo, our local Costa Rican friend, and he said it was a sea cucumber that just floats past. The walk back was grueling because we ran out of water and it was mostly uphill. I don't think I have ever sweat that much. The quad ride home was nice and refreshing.
April 22, 2011
Having returned the quad without filling the gas tank due to no gas stations being open the shop owner wouldn't give Doni her passport back! Luckily with a little help from her friend also vacationing for the weekend he used a little Mexican persuasion to give it back the next day. Mario is Doni's friend from school in Mexico and he was there in Santa Teresa on vacation with his friend Alonzo who is from Costa Rica. We had a great weekend with them! We drank beer and rums on the beach listening to blasting mariachi and latin dance music from his jeep. We got a bit tipsy but after some chicken and rice (of course!) and a wee siesta we were up for the electronic music beach party down the road! The music was a little ravey for me but we still had a good time.
Next morning we packed up the house and our surf boards and hitched a ride with Mario back to San Jose where he works and lives. Doni, Chad and me piled into the back seat with all our stuff strapped and stuffed into any available corner we could find. It was a long drive back to the city because of all the vacationers traffic. We stopped in Punta Arenas for some dinner and an ice cream before hitting the road again. Whilst we were in said town Chad was repeatedly heckled by a crazy woman who fell in love with him. She actually meowed at him. She told Mario why she loved him so much but he was actually embarrassed to repeat it! Its all in the eyes i think. His colouring is so brown he looks like a local until you see his eyes....so I have to beat the ladies off with a stick!
When we finally got to San Jose I thought we might just head to the Ticabus station and hit the road to Panama city that night but with all the Semana Santa traffic the tickets were sold out for two more days! Not really knowing what to do we were lucky enough that Mario is so generous and a great host! He let us stay with him for three nights until the bus came. When we got to his apartment we were in awe! He lives in a really nice complex with a pool and a gym and gardens gallor. He has a great view of a pond and fountain from him balcony. We revelled in the luxuries of a backpacker break. The first day in SJ we hung out at the pool and just had a relax day. That night however, being monday night, was Salsa night at a club that Mario knew. We met another one of Doni's friends from Mexico and Alonso there. The food was absolutely amazing and the salsa was frickin awesome. Not knowing how to salsa, chad and i stood back and took it all in.
The next day we took the bus into the city and went for a walk around downtown and went to the museum. We ended it with some of the best chop suey I've ever had! SJ has a great Chinese food scene! We had to catch the bus to Panama City that night and Mario was again nice enough to drop us off. We left our surf boards with him to hopefully sell but who knows maybe we'll be back soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment