Costa Rica: Beaches, Buses and Bonfires

I know this is now more than a month over-due but I feel it would be a waste to not make an account of the our incredible Latin American Spring Break. Semana Santa begins the week before Easter and is celebrated with festivals, bacchanals and a desperate rush to the beach to try and escape the deadly April heat. Everyone with the means spends at least a day or two on the coast. Those without buy an inflatable pool for the front yard and squeeze grandma, the cat and all the cousins into the 4x4 square of red and yellow plastic. As ISEP students, we took the chance to go to Costa Rica since the ten days of no school provided enough time for  travel and exploring. The big celebrations don’t start ‘til the end of the week, so the plan was to spend the first half in Costa Rica and then meet up with friends back in Southern Nicaragua. I had planned a trip to Peru for the end of the week, so we parted ways at the border and I’ll continue my journey from there in another post.

Transportation was a journey in and of itself, but after taxis, buses, border crossings and a twenty-minute search for our hostel, we made it from Managua, Nicaragua to Quepos, Costa Rica. Our hostel was cheap, in more ways than one, but included delicious breakfast and was run by a welcoming owner, Carlos, who was full of local advise and even drove us around a bit in has big white van. The first wonderful thing about Ticos is the fact that their accent is much more understandable than that of the Nicas across the border. They also say "pura vida" at least once and hour and they're a bit more accustomed to foreigners. So while at times we felt more like stupid tourists, we also had a nice break from cat-calling and confused stares.

Costa Rica was fresh and green, which was a great break from the unrelenting heat of Managua. We headed out our first day in search of a waterfall, but instead ended up on a beautiful white sand beach. We spent the day lounging, swimming, building sand castles and meeting all of the college kids that also happened to be at the beach for Spring Break. Most memorable was a group from Massachusetts who invited us back to their house for drinks that night. 

I should probably explain how we were invited though, because it very well epitomizes making friends in Central America:

Step 1-See another group of loud 

       young-adult students on the 

       beach.

Step 2- Hope they speak English 

       and maybe have a very loud 

       conversation so they know 

       you speak English.

Step 3- Eventually make your 

       way over to find out where they are from, what they’re doing 

       and if they are immediately turned off by a stranger starting up 

       a conversation.

Step 4- Find a local passing by who wants to 

       play soccer.

Step 5- Play soccer and finally learn the 

      names of everyone you’ve been talking to.

Step 6- Laugh, Run, Play, Say Goodbye, 

      watch everyone walk off into the sunset, 

      and head back to the hostel.

Step 7- Get in the shower at the hostel and 

      suddenly hear the owner shouting your 

      name because someone is on the phone 

      and asking for you.

Step 8- Get out of the shower to find that the 

      Massachusetts folks had remembered which hostel we 
      were staying in and gone to the effort of finding the 
      number, calling us up and asking if we’d like to come over.

Step 9- Victory Dance  

Nearly everyone in there group had studied abroad last year and they had rented a huge house with a pool and beautiful view of ocean for the week, so we all felt content to just spend the evening sharing stories on the deck. Eventually we did decide to walk down to the water, so our night ended with swimming in the moonlight and drying off around a wonderful bonfire. This was by far one of the best nights I've had in my entire time abroad. It was great to hear from people who are planning great adventures in the world and looking forward to making a difference. Their adventurous spirits had led them to us and I’m sure will lead them to incredible places down the road.

Our last day in the area was spent at the local Nature Preserve with Chris, a Canadian we had met at our hostel who was willing to explore with me while the others went to the beach again. We had an awesome time walking through the jungle and we even happened to see a sloth cross the road! If you know anything about sloths, this was a once in a lifetime experience. The area also had some incredible miradores that looked out over the ocean and beautiful coastline of the Parque Nacional.

            

                               

That afternoon, we hopped on bus headed north toward the Peninsula de Nicoya, a small branch off of the mainland that is easiest to reach by ferry. The ride across turned into a beautiful sunset cruise and we arrived just in time to catch a taxi to Santa Teresa and Tranquilo Backpackers for the rest of our stay. This hostel definitely gave a feel for the traveling life. We met people from all over the world, most of them surfers, who travel for months at a time or have found a way to work from anywhere, provided they have cold beer and internet access. We spent most of our time on the beach, drank a few too many margaritas and saw some of the most beautiful skies I can remember. Our last night in Costa Rica was spent in a small town back on the mainland where we found a delicious local place with seafood dishes and functional fans. Our hotel for the night also had air-conditioning! So we stayed in, drank toña and learned a lot about each other in a tiny hotel room  in Puntarenas.

 

Our adventure back to Nicaragua is a story in and of itself, but I’m going to wait and share it as the beginning of my tales from Peru! In other words, Stay Tuned!  

ISEP: Free Trips and Tree Flips!

Just a few hours north of Managua is a jungle paradise with rolling hills and beautiful landscapes. The district of Matagalpa is in the central Nicaragua and is known for incredibly delicious coffee that is grown and harvested there. As a part of our ISEP program, we took our first trip to Laguna de San Martin, a hotel and water play-land in the middle of this region. Along with the ISEPer's, our advisers and a few adventurous Nicaraguan friends, we headed to spend the weekend relaxing, swimming and exploring the Nicaraguan hills. After a very long, winding car ride, we arrived at our jungle hotel complete with monkeys, parrots and a pet alligator...

Our first afternoon, we ate lunch and headed straight to the lake, which included water trampolines, slides and all sorts of fun toys to keep us entertained. We also set up a relay race around all of the inflatables and took enough tumbles and falls to keep us laughing. Back at the hotel, I had my first hot shower in Nicaragua, but the highlight of the evening was a delicious dinner followed by games, friends and quite a few toñas. The next morning, we slept in and found our way to a beautiful waterfall about a half hour hike from the hotel. It was great to be out and breathing the fresh air after a long week of exams and school work! We drank more coffee in two days than I had my entire month in Nicaragua. And it was SO good. Our company was wonderful, the activities were great and the landscapes were breath-taking. It was great to have a weekend with plans (and meals) provided!

Our second trip was also an incredible success. It may seem like we go to the beach every week (which may be true) but there is no doubt that Playa Hermosa (Beautiful Beach) earned its namesake with ease. We took of early on a Friday morning and head south to the district of Rivas. While I was Peru for Semana Santa, the rest of our crew spent a few days in San Juan Del Sur, a great beach town located in Rivas with plenty of restaurants and internationals, but this was my first trip to the area. Our first bonding experience of the trip was being sent through 14 sections of a fabulous Canopy Tour at crazy speeds and incredible heights. A few of us even took a turn upside down! Flying from platform to platform made me feel just like the monkeys we saw along the way and we had plenty of time between set-ups to get to know the awesome Nica students who bravely came with us.


Once our feet were back on the ground, we headed to the beach, not knowing we were in for such a treat! We jumped off our twenty-passenger truck in front of giant beach house, complete with surfers, cabanas, sand-volleyball and hammocks. The beach itself would have been spectacular, but the food, drinks and great places to just play and relax convinced us all it was going to be a great weekend. After lunch, a few of us opted-in for surf lessons and hit the waves. Our instructors were very helpful and encouraging and we all eventually made it up!

 

 

That evening we had a fogate (bonfire) on the beach and someone even remembered the marshmallows! About an hour past sunset (which was also astounding), one of our ISEPer’s named Levi, ran up and forced us all to accompany him down the beach. The water had receded significantly since the afternoon, but the wet beach reflected the stars and made the sky seem endless. As we walked toward the water, we suddenly realized that with every step, the sand beneath us was lighting up like some nineties video game combined with Avatar. Soon we were jumping around like idiots and waving our hands in the water to keep the magical sparks from disappearing. One of the locals later explained to us that bio-luminescent plankton like the colder waters of the southern beaches. Every once and a while a group get washed up on shore and proved hours of entertainment for giddy young folks like us. It was an unforgettable night, full of laughter, riled discussions of Nicaragua politics, new friends and thanking Jesus for putting us in such an awe-inspiring world.  

The next morning, I set out to hike the point down at the end of our beach and encountered about a millions hermit crabs along the way. After making it back with only a few missteps and broken shells, our final activity was a horseback ride across the beach. I literally felt like I was in a movie. We adventured back through some of the jungle, climb a hill or two, and rode out to a seemingly untouched, untainted beach. Sitting on a horse in Nicaragua, looking over the glistening ocean, I began to understand a bit of how beautiful God must think we are if He created scenes like that for us to enjoy.

The Spanish Cities

When Nicaragua was colonized in the sixteenth-century, Granada and Leon quickly sprang up as the two main cities in the country. These beautiful places also experienced large amounts of turmoil during the revolution but remain centers of history and culture. We were fortune to visit both cities within a week of each other and had a fabulous time in each. Our first stop was the International Poetry Festival in Granada. We hopped on the bus and arrived late morning. A lot of the day was spent wandering through art exhibits and poetry stands interspersed with poets, midday meals, and open-mic poetry sessions. Granada also has hundreds of  beautiful doors, so much of time was spent walking through the streets and talking lots of pictures. 

                        
We eventually ran into the Park of the Poets with some very cool permanent art and on our way back to middle of the festival, found ourselves at the Choco Cafe y Museo. This place had fantastic information on the history of cacao, aka cocoa, as well as chocolate rum, fresh cacao and a beautiful central patio with lots of neat facts, chairs and most importantly, SHADE. We all enjoyed the plethora of free samples they offered us and learned about all the nifty things cocoa is used for and found in. Our time there was again, a beautiful break from the heat, but my favorite part of the day was returning to the  main area of the festival to find a young, probably seven-year-old girl reading her poem in front of an international crowd of poetry lovers. 

 

We saw some beautiful churches and beautiful people before heading back to Managua that evening, excited to return and see more of what the city had hidden in its streets.





The next weekend, we planned an overnight trip to Leon for more sightseeing and our first extreme-sport experience in Nicaragua. Volcano-boarding was rated the #2 on CNN's thrill seeker's bucket list last year, just after #1- Flying your own Fighter Jet. Needless to say, our time in Nicaragua wouldn't be complete without sliding down a giant, semi-active volcano on a piece of ply-wood. We arrived in at Bigfoot Hostel and Volcano Boarding around 11am, so we had enough time to get settled in our room and wander around town before leaving for the volcano at 1pm.

This was the mural we fell asleep to in the hostel~ 

The ride to the volcano was an adventure in and of itself. We jumped in the back of a giant truck with over twenty other extranjeros from all over the world including Canada, England, France, Australia, Denmark, Belgium, Argentina, Honduras and more. After introductions, including favorite ice cream flavors, we drove half an hour on corrugated roads through the Nicaraguan country side, headed toward the "black hill" aka Cerro Negro. 

                                                             

From the bottom

The day was hot. The company was international. The volcano was ready to be boarded. We arrived, passed out gear and headed up the trail. Did I mention that it was hot? It was hot. The volcano was very dry, very exposed and very, very black. But we had a great time anyway chatting our way (in English) up the hill with a nice scenic break in the middle and an incredibly rewarding view from the top. 

 Our guide pointed out the volcano flows from the last eruptions in '95 and '99 and somewhere of in the distance you could supposed see the ocean. After photo-ops and suiting up, he gave us instructions, helpful hints, and forgot to tell us to keep our mouths closed. We lined-up and one by one, jumped on our boards and raced down the lava flows as fast (or as slow) as we could. Technically, there was  a competition to see who could go fastest, but most of us were just happy to make it down in one piece. 
  



We had cold toñas and lots smiles waiting at the bottom as we cheered everyone else down the hill. The ride home was another adventure, full of foreign languages and a karaoke version of Bohemian Rhapsody. That night, we enjoyed chatting in the hostel, pizza and a true Nicaraguan baseball game, Leon versus Los Angeles (the team from Granada).

The next morning, we found our way to a delicious french bakery, Pan y Paz, that happened to be in the old family house of our ISEP adviser's husband. We all agreed that we'd be willing to travel the hour and a half to Leon just to taste the delicious pastries and sandwiches again.

Our next stop was the incredible Catedrál de Leon. The pictures again, hardly do it justice, but the view from the roof was easily the highlight of our trip. From up top, we could see churches rising up every few blocks throughout the city and the ring of volcanoes rising up across the country side.

The stations of the cross were
 magnificent and giant.

The tomb of Ruben Dario

 

Forgive me for the overuse of photos in this post...

We also stopped at a phenomenal art museum with original Picasso's and many works by classic central american painters. Our final afternoon was spent at the beach, once again. Las Peñitas was a charming coastal town with great waves to frolic in and plenty of shells to collect. I'm not sure we could have stuffed more into our 36-hour trip!