Back in Black

We had such a great time at Playa Negra last time that we decided to go back! It was another great trip with a lot less bus problems. This time Kyle and I brought our friend Taylor along too. Weekends here are great because we make all of our food, and Kyle's friend owns where we stay so we get a sweet discount on nice rooms. We got there and immediately settled down to head to the beach. We got in the water a bit and watched the sun set as we waited with anticipation for the great day that the rising sun would bring us.

The next day we woke up and had a leisure morning while sipping coffee and eating huevos rancheros. We then headed to the beach with surf boards in hand. We probably surfed for 3 hours with another hour or so of body surfing after. The surf wasn't too bad at all, and we for sure enjoyed it. That night we had some spaghetti with meatballs. At some point in our great conversations on love, loss, and life we realized that the moon was practically a full one. So, we did the obvious thing of going body surfing by moonlight. At the very least, we didn't stand the danger of sun burn at night. We went down to the beach that was completely empty and took in the beautiful sight that is a beach lit by the moon.

The next morning we just got up, made some quick breakfast, and headed out. There isn't much to write about this weekend, and that is the beauty that made it such a great weekend. With only a couple of weekends left, it was really important for us to go out and just enjoy being in Costa Rica. Pura Vida.

Green Mountain

A couple of weekends ago, I finally made my way up to Monteverde, one of the largest areas of tourism in Costa Rica. If you think of Costa Rican ecotourism, you are thinking of this place. It is filled to the brim with flora and fauna galore.

Any trip to Monteverde using the bus system is a real adventure because you have two options for when you want to go. The buses leave at 2:30 in the afternoon or our choice of 6:30 A.M. which comes very early whenever it is time for you to head out. While it does end up being so early in the morning, it means that you have the ability to go somewhere for the afternoon once you get there. When we got there, we checked into our bed and breakfast for the weekend, grabbed some food, and headed to our canopy tour. This tour proved to be one of the more interesting and exciting of the three that I have been on since being in Costa Rica. The lines went through the actual tree tops of the forest rather than going above. It was also all around mystical due to the clouds hanging over the forest as we zipped through. This tour also had a really cool Tarzan swing which is really just a giant that you jump off of a high platform on (a la Tarzan complete with yelling).

The next day we work up, had a lazy breakfast and then headed towards the Monteverde Biological Reserve. There we had somebody highlight some trails on a map and we headed into the forest. We hiked around for 3 hours observing the beautiful forest, suspended bridges, and waterfalls. It was very nice to be able to escape into a forest that is so different from being in the busy city during the week.

That evening we had a night hike booked. This night hikes are important to go on because much of the animal life in the forest only is out at night. Luckily night in Costa Rica comes at about 5:30 P.M. so it isn't too hard on those of us trying to pack everything into a weekend. On this hike we saw some of the coolest things I have ever seen. Right when we started, there was a mother sloth and there baby just hanging out it a tree. I couldn't keep my eyes off of it. After walking for a bit longer, there was an animal called a coatimundi that is a relative of raccoon  it was super cool to say the least. We also ran across a tarantula, a raccoon, raccoon babies, snakes, and various insects. It was way cool. Even thought it was a little bit cold, you couldn't be upset being in such a cool place.

Finally, on our last day we had a bus leaving at 2:30 so we had the morning to burn. Kyle and I headed to a really cool coffee shop and decided to hang out for a while to just enjoy good coffee. It was phenomenal coffee straight from local growers. They played your regular playlists from the states as we read the newspaper and conversed over foreign politics and other super interesting topics. It was really refreshing to have something that reminded us a little bit of college life in the US. Afterwards we did some souvenir shopping and headed to a restaurant call the Tree House. This place was so cool because it had a tree in the middle that covered half of the seating on this second floor restaurant. The food was exceptional and a great way to end a fantastic weekend. It was truly remarkable. Pura Vida.

Photos courtesy of Kyle and myself.

Anderson-Lehman's Take On Costa Rica

So, I had been pretty excited to know that my parents were coming down to Costa Rica in order to show them around a bit and have a little taste of home. I got an even better weekend than that. When I went to the airport to meet my parents, I came around the corner to where they were waiting hoping to see a tall white man aka: my dad (tall white guys aren't too common here). Instead I saw a different one with blonde hair aka: my brother. Turns out that my parents were playing a bit of a game and surprising me with the whole family! I still don't think they realize how much better that made my life. So, completely stoked to have my family with me, we drove out to Heredia so that I could show them around town and grab some food. You have to understand that Heredia isn't really all that much to see, so we really just did some walking and at some food before heading off to the coast.

Readers, you have become accustomed by now to reading about how crazy riding buses can be here in Central America. Driving a car is much worse. While my dad drove us, I attemped to navigate; all in the dark. Costa Rica doesn't exactly like road signs that much, so this was a bit difficult. We found ourselves going the wrong way, making u-turns, on dirt roads (which isn't too strange here), and to top it off we paid a few extra tolls wandering around. We eventually got there, settled into our amazing rooms, and ordered some good ole fashioned room service. We ate, we laughed, and then ultimately all collapsed into bed after a long day.

In the morning, the kids woke up to mom and dad calling us trying to figure out what we were wanting to do. We decided on doing a "tranopy" tour for the morning. This tour is similar to any other canopy tour that they have in Costa Rica because you do all of the zip-lining, but you also take a tram ride up the mountain to observe the forest along with a tour of native plants and snakes. It was a great place to be as we zipped over the trees and looked out to the beautiful Pacific Ocean. After, we headed back to our hotel/resort for what would prove to be a great, relaxing afternoon at the pool. We hung out, order some food, swam around, and just enjoyed having the whole family together as iguanas crawled around trying to get some sun. To top it all off, there was a wedding going on at the beach there. After watching the beautiful sunset, we soon realized that they had set up fireworks on the beach as a part of said wedding. We headed back to our rooms, hung out a bit, and were suddenly drawn to our windows as fireworks began bursting over the bay. We then went down to the restaurant to eat some delicious food before heading back upstairs to talk some more and yet again find our way to some comfy beds.It was a great evening to cap off their whirlwind trip to Costa Rica as they headed back to the airport the next morning. I'm so glad that I got to see them all. It makes me excited for being home again with them in December. Pura Vida.

They go Gaga for..well...Gaga!

I'll keep this one short and sweet. Earlier in November a little music act was coming through Costa Rica, and here name is Lady Gaga. Okay, so maybe it was a huge deal with everybody freaking out. You have to understand that it is rare for Costa Rica to get big concerts to come through since the country is so little. The Born This Way Ball (name of the concert) took place in el Estadio Nacional in San Jose. We showed up in the early afternoon to wait in line to get the best spots possible. The girls that I went with had dressed up like Gaga in her videos, and I just tagged along for a concert I was still totally stoked for. We stood in this massive line where people were trying to sell you anything from a snack to unofficial merch. We made a couple of friends in line, and headed into the concert (okay, maybe we ran a little bit) to get a good spot. There isn't much I could describe past that time, because the rest was so crazy. Between the awesome opening acts, singing along to "I Believe in a Thing Called Love", and of course, Gaga; it was so cool. She sang all of her hits from her albums. Costa Rica loves her and I'm sure that she loves them back. I just have trouble describing it in words. Unreal. Pura Vida.

I'm Still Here, and So Was Thanksgiving

Hey there blogosphere...I know, you missed me. We have been separated for quite some time, and I have plenty of stories and photos to share. I apologize for not keeping you all updated; things just get busy sometimes. But to get you ready for all of my fun weekends: here is a lil' post on my Thanksgiving here in Costa Rica.

Sure, I have so many things to be thankful for this year. I'm safe, I have a great family, and I'm in Costa Rica. However, as Thanksgiving approached this year, I wasn't feeling so thankful about being Costa Rica away from family and tradition. I was worried that it would just pass me by like every other day here, but I was pretty wrong. Pura vida paused for a day, and Thanksgiving luckily found its way here.

A few weeks prior, we had all planned on gathering for Thanksgiving and bringing various traditional feast fixings. Our abroad program paid for the turkey (because it costs so much here) and we were to bring the rest. That sounds all fine and dandy, but I still wasn't convinced that the holiday would truly find us wandering gringos in Costa Rica. When they day finally came about, we all woke up and decided to have a very Costa Rican spin on a traditional facet of the holidays. Football; or in our case...the other kind. We were joined by other abroad student as well as some ticos as we enjoyed the warm sun and being outside. We even got the chance to throw around an American football as well! Later on in the day when I was hanging around the house, I got a message from my family back home to skype into some Thanksgiving good times. That might have been the best part of the day because I got to see everybody, see the food, laugh at jokes, enjoy seeing the Coryells shoved on a single couch (just another day with that great family), and showing them around my house on a tour. That conversation really got me in the mood. When I had to leave, I put on my long pants, a collared shirt, and headed off to Thanksgiving with optimistic apprehension. Lo, and behold, we get to the house that is hosting where it is filled up with my friends here dressed nicely, good traditional food, some family, and the occasional tica. For one night we weren't hustling around, we hugged eachother, enjoyed company and had a beautiful time. I don't know what I thought would happen. We all felt the same way about not being home, and that made us be one whole family for a night. I am truly blessed.

Stay tuned for updates on my past weeks. I'm so thankful for all of you who read this blog, because you act as a support for me being away from home.

Pura Vida.

Privateers and Pirates in Panama

So we pulled into Portobelo under the cover of night; searching for a hostel called Captain Jacks. We are immediately sent up a road towards a hill where we see a beacon of hope in a lit pirate flag. After wandering up some stairs, we are greeted by a rag-tag group of English speakers in this beautiful restaurant/bar/yacht club/hostel. We immediately felt at home and excited for what was promised for the rest of the trip. After dropping our stuff in the dormitory there, we headed back upstairs to grab some food.

As you may have picked up, this isn't really your normal hostel. The menu is absolutely no exception. Jack has found a Vietnamese, French-trained chef that serves up the "best burgers in Central America" (pretty close) and authentic Vietnamese food. I know, right? That night we just sat around talking with the various captains of the sailboats sitting out in the port. The began to fill us in a bit about all of the folklore and history in the town of Portobelo.

Portobelo was once the main port for the Spanish empire in Latin America, and one-third of the world's gold passed through here. along with this you begin to have a whole lot of pirate and privateering action coming through. There were some big names that came through: Christopher Columbus, Sir Francis Drake, Captain Henry Morgan, and many more. There is a storied history of great raids on the town that made it like something straight out of a Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Metal detectors are actually illegal because there is still so much gold in the ground. Heck, Jack actually had a 25 lb cannon ball just sitting in his bar because they had just found it sitting around. There was literally history everywhere.

In the morning we woke up and finally saw the beautiful sight that is Portobelo. Oh my. We could not stop being excited to head into town because there are Spanish fortifications just sitting around in the middle of the town. It is actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and we could see why. There is the house where all the gold passed through, and now it is a museum with plenty of information. Then came the fortifications. They are all there complete with cannons still sitting in place. you just could feel the history there. I found myself looking into the opening of the port and imagining the tall ships pulling in with pirates waiting to attack them for all of their gold coming through. The whole time was spent trying to get in as much of the forts as we could. This place is absolutely amazing. At one point we had followed up this trail to an upper fortification that was used to observe the area (it had a moat!). When we were just running around up there, we could see the rain clouds coming in...not good. It began to rain and we had to navigate our way down this muddy trail to find a covered spot to hide from the rain. After all of our adventuring, it was time to head back to Jack's to hang out.

We returned to a nice shower and a kitchen ready to make us some burgers. We pulled out our computers and began to look at our pictures, listen to the rain, and reminisce about the amazing day and all that had happened here. The whole time Kyle was grinning from ear to ear because his dad had been there when he was younger, and as a consequence Kyle had grown up with bedtime stories of the Pirates and gold in Portobelo. And plus all three of us are history nuts and couldn't stop talking about everything we could think of involving this place. As the day waned, the boat captains began to wander in as well as some backpackers that were more our age. That place was hopping that night, and we had a chance to watch the final game of the World Series with a Giants fan from Australia. Too cool. Oh, and we might have lead a sing-along of "Piano Man" by Billy Joel at some point. That really did happen, and the whole night was just a great one.

The next day, we woke up, drank coffee, and just enjoyed being in Panama. That day we had to leave. Taylor wanted to take the bus back to Panama City, but Kyle and I took a sweet train that follows the canal. It was a great way to finally see the canal and just do something we both love, riding trains. I couldn't stop smiling most of the ride. It was a chance to just pause and think about how crazy the whole entire trip had been. I also could not help but think about how trains find there way in my life from people like my great-grandfather Getz to Walt Disney. I really like trains :). Back in Panama City, we went to a mall to eat in the food court and hang out in an arcade where I watched Taylor tear up the DDR machine as many have you have also seen in an earlier blog as a teaser.

Finally, we were at the terminal to take our 11 pm bus back to San Jose. As a final touch, we were able to pay it forward a bit for somebody who needed help. There was an English speaking woman who needed a translator, and we got to be that for her. It was a great experience to help another traveler that just needed some help. Then it was back to the land of pura vida. So cool.

We Just Wanna Work on a Pretty Boat Part 2

Stop #1

On day two we had planned on finding out how to get on a boat to go through the canal. We knew that we basically needed to find a certain yacht club and post on their bulletin board that we were interested. The only problem: we really had no clue where we were going. Taxi #1 took us all the way out to the first set of locks for the canal. Here, there is a visitor center/museum but nothing close to what we needed. Then Taxi #2 took us all the way out onto some islands that were full of pretty yachts. We wandered around taking pictures here because it was just so amazing to be out in a place like this. However, after talking around a lot and getting plenty of help, we realized that we weren't at the right spot. So, finally now that we knew where to go, Taxi #3 took us to the Balboa Yacht club (which in my head is a sort of promised land for our small group of wanderers).

Stop #2

Now that we were at the yacht club, we found the bulletin board and posted up our information. We then sat down in their restaurant, ate some great food, and waited. While we waited we were watching the news on the TV  The were showing images from all over Panama where people were rioting in the streets over the government trying to sell an area that Panamanians rely upon. So, we obviously decided to avoid the city for the evening. Thanks to the help of my wonderful mother, we were able to reserve a spot at a hotel outside of the city so that we were out of harms way. But really, who could've planned that happening. The ruining of plans continue.

This second morning was our waiting time. We had given out our information, and we were waiting to hear back from any possibility that we might be able to go work. So, basically we spent some time just in bed. At a certain point we decided to call it off on this side. We packed on up and headed to the bus terminal to head to the other side of the canal. Struggle bus warning.

We get to the bus terminal, which we had been to before. However, the bus system in Panama is totally different than that in Costa Rica. In Costa Rica, you just find a bus, walk on, and pay the driver. In Panama there is this system where you go through a turnstile to get out to the buses before getting on. We had no idea how to do this because you apparently needed a certain prepaid card to get through. Totally not knowing what to do, Taylor just help up a dollar, and they let us through and helped us onto the bus. We walked on without paying anyone else. So confused. We get on this bus and finally get moving. After about 30 minutes, a man begins to collect fares, and we had no idea what we needed to do. Just riding along on our struggle bus. We paid him and just wanted to get to Colon.

We finally arrived in Colon; the other side of the canal. Here, we needed to take a taxi to go anywhere because this side is a lil bit sketchy and was the center of all of the large riots. After a couple of taxis, confusion, and being ripped of by a taxi driver, we were at a yacht club 30 minutes outside of Colon. We just felt weird there, but began to ask around about line-handling in the canal. Eventually someone just told us that nobody was going through till November. So, there went all of our plans.

With all plans out of the window we decided to go back to Colon to get on a bus to Portobelo: one of the coolest places ever, and something that Kyle grew up hearing stories of.

Hop on the "Struggle Bus" to Panama

So, the point of study abroad came around when I needed to leave the country in order to renew my tourist visa that I am on here in Costa Rica. So, my friends Kyle, Taylor, and I decided that we would try to go work on the Panama Canal on private boats on a whim. We hoped that we would be able to get one of those crazy study abroad experiences that you always here about. Let me start of by saying that we got to the same end, but with very different means. Let me give you a photo to sum up the mood of the trip:

We spent our time riding what we began to affectionately call the "struggle bus". Urban Dictionary defines it as : Used to metaphorically describe a difficult situation. To us, it was our transport experiences. Our 15 hour bus ride ended up leaving 2 hours late (aka: it left at 1 AM). Once we got to the border we realized that we hadn't purchased return tickets, and that the wouldn't let us enter Panama without them. So, we had to talk to some random guy to buy a ticket to come back when we were at the border. So you can kind of see how this trend began.

Once we finally arrived in Panama City, we took a taxi to the hotel we had booked for the night. However, they apparently didn't have a room with three beds like we had booked, so they drove us over to their other hotel that did have 3 beds. All that followed that night was fantastic. We walked out to the waterfront and walked as we were in awe of the skyline. And it was upon that skyline that I found a familiar sight that found us excited all of a sudden. Hard Rock Cafe. We walked all the way there so that we could enjoy a good American burger. Needless to say I was in heaven. I grabbed my mom a pin (as is customary in my family) that features one of the most exciting parts of Panama: they just have crazily decorated busses. Look at all of this bus nonsense, and it is just getting started.

If you want to see all of my photos, head on over to my Facebook account!

To the Land of the Shaka

A week ago, Kyle told me last minute that he was going to be heading out to some beach 30 minutes away from Tamarindo, so I said of course. You see, he has a friend that he life guards with who emptied out his bank account with his wife and moved down to Costa Rica to buy a small hotel. We hit up Brad, his friend, and he gave us a sweet deal to head down to Playa Negra.

Playa Negra is a beach that doesn't exactly have tourists year round, especially during the rainiest month of the year (October). The town there of Los Pargos has two stores and a smattering of restaurants and surf tour spots. The beach is know for its sick surf and beautiful sunsets. Everybody in the town is pretty darn cool as well as being from other countries. Living among the teague forests here it is just a bunch of surfers. Every time that someone drove by, they threw up the shaka and went on their way. When we got out there, we went out to the beach to try and catch the sunset. Boy, did we. This was a great start to a relaxed weekend. Kyle and I came back to make some stir fry that absolutely hit the spot since Costa Ricans apparently never eat very many veggies.

The next day was such a lazy morning. We woke up and just sat in our comfy beds. We sliced open some pineapple and just chilled out Costa Rican style. Eventually we figured that it would be a good idea to head down to enjoy the beach. After a quick run to the store, we got some surf boards and headed out. We got in a bit of surfing, but we weren't totally feeling it. However, we did get in some great body surfing. Not much more to it other than a pretty beach and tasty waves. We headed on back. Relaxed. Made some great pasta and went to sleep.

The next morning we just lounged around a bit more before heading back to where our bus back to San Jose was. When we showed up, the town square was filled with HORSES. There was a big event going on where people would ride horses down a lane and try to catch a metal ring with this small pen in their hand. Crazy. Seemed like a great day to just sleep on the bus back.

However, that wasn't meant to be. The bus that we got tickets for apparently didn't exist at the time we bought it for. Instead he had to wait another two hours till 5 to leave. Ten it was all right. Wrong. at about 8 o'clock our bus broke down. We waited outside of this random store until 11:30 pm to get another bus to take us to San Jose. We pulled in at 1:40 am, and I got back to Heredia at 2. Great weekend with a crazy end. Pura Vida, I guess.

Typical Tamarindo

So, this long-awaited post won't have all that much to it. You see, this was the final of our three planned excursions that I went on with my program. We headed out to the Nicoya Peninsula along the Pacific coast to a beach called Tamarindo. This beach is quite different from many of the other spots that we have wandered to because this place relies on tourism, and more specifically, Americans. This trip was supposed to be our first and nicest, but with the large earthquake that had happened nearby, we had postponed it to our fourth weekend in the country.

To get out to Tamarindo, it took a 6 hour bus ride, which had become pretty accustomed to us. After the long trek out, the bus pulled up to the nice 4-star hotel/resort that we were going to be staying at this weekend (La Diria). It came equipped with something like 3 pools, a full spa, lawn full of lounge chairs, and its own private beach access. Like any good college students, we immediately headed towards the beach to try to enjoy it as much as possible. After getting in some quality beach time, there was a dinner planned for us at the restaurant with typical food along with traditional dance from Guanacaste (the region we were in, and what many tourists associate as Tico culture). After that we headed out for a nice night on the town.

The next morning we woke up for some breakfast then headed onto a van that took us out to our canopy tour; this was a separate tour that we could sign up for. We got there and immediately headed out on a truck into the forest were we saw plenty of animals inculing howler monkeys. We ziplined and rappelled for quite some time and then headed in as it poured on all of us sitting down in the back of the truck. You can see the storm approaching in the video below that I have prepared to show you my adventure.

When we got back to the beach it was totally dry and the beach was yearning for some company. Obviously I headed down for some good ole' body surfing, because that is just what I've gotten used to doing I guess. After spending all afternoon in the water, I headed out with Kyle for an all you can eat sushi dinner (that was only $25 each). We got to just hang out for a while and chat as we watched people walking around town looking for a place to head while we enjoyed sushi. That night everyone just hung out in rooms becuase we had such long days.

The next day we slept in and headed back home to Heredia. It was a nice relaxed and much needed weekend for everyone.