Adventure Travel Through Costa Rica

In the summer of 2007 I embarked on quite an expedition to one of the world capitals adventures of Costa Rica. We had waited and planned the trip for months, and in August came to an end, (rainy season in Costa Rica) I and 4 other fellow adventurers packed our bags on Friday after work and headed south for three hours to Detroit airport.

After hours of driving, flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and let the middle of the hurricane, we landed in San Jose in the late afternoon. Our first order of business was to head to the car rental place to rent a good SUV to us over the last trip (little did we know ... it would not). We got to eat quickly, got soaked in the rain, and then started our drive.

Our first goal was to Cerro Chirripo. However, looking back on it, the drive is just as much adrenaline as the upcoming climb. Driving in the late evening through the curvy and dangerous mountain road gave us some great views of the valley below. We were crossing the mountain called "Cerro de la Muerte," which in Spanish means "Mountain of Death". Soon our road came to an end in a small town called San Isidro. But this is not our destination. We had to do at a place called "San Gerardo de Rivas." We pulled over to ask for directions and the first man we spoke with seemed uninterested in us to help. Probably because it is a live duck quacking away in a bag that was thrown over his shoulders. I bet it was in the rush to get home and make dinner. Finally we found two women who have laughed at us, but in the end helped us (the little Spanish we know, we were able to make out the direction that he gave us). The single lane, gravel road eventually led us to our hostel.

we woke up at 05:00 to see a foreign country that we just spent the night in. We were staying in a hostel famously built right on the rocks, owned by American from North Carolina who moved to the bush just to climb Cerro Chirripo as often as he wanted. We had the whole place to ourselves, kitchen and all. We left some of our luggage in the hostel, and our car in the parking lot and started our trip.

We began at the foot of the park, and by the time we got for the first mile marker, we were all seriously means recognizing that climb the highest mountain in Costa Rica (second highest in Central America). At more than 3,800 meters above sea level, this 14 km hike is about to get the best of us. We have grown through the humidity, rain, and two levels of the clouds before we got to a point halfway. Already tired, we ate some good healthy food and loaded on vodi.Kiša finally calmed down as we went onward. He started to get cold and the ground began to be felt like a desert. Our fatigue was getting worse and worse, and the rest breaks began to occur more frequently. As the sun began to resolve, we knew we had to do it in base camp, as the Cerro Chirripo is home to Costa Rica is all 6 cats. After 9 hours of trekking we are putting on some warm clothes (it began to snow at the moment) and went to sleep at base camp. Early the next morning, my mouth to see the sunrise over breakfast and then the top of the summit, before the start of our travel back down. 4 hours later, our shaky legs, but we hopped in the car and drove away.

While driving through the mainly agricultural land and some road closures, we took a break in Domincal for a seafood restaurant in Ocean strane.Zalazak sun as we watched the tide to give up. Back in the car we drove to Manuel Antonio. Once again, it comes at night we arrived at our hostel. This hostel is a dump. It was in someone's garage and that the stray dogs roaming around. We kept going until we found a good place at the main bar for a few dollars više.Sljedećeg morning, our adventure began. We went for a hike in Manuel Antonio National Park where we hung out with some monkeys and went for a dip in oceanu.Valovi are unreal. We checked into the city, and then went to the pub. It was very interesting talking with ticos, however, was zabavno.Nekoliko guys got cheated in some fake cigars, but we got over it quickly and enjoyed the evening. In the morning we met up with a guide named Alex that we took in the mangroves. Interact with the monkeys and "Jesus Christ Lizard" is something that does not happen in Canada, so we enjoyed every minute of it. We saw some cool birds and other animals. But the cool part of a small caiman head that we started to see popping up around our boat. On the way back, we stopped for some fresh fruit before making Costa Rica back to our hostel. We got dressed and went to town again. Dinner in the old aircraft follows in the local dance club ended the evening.

the next morning we all woke up late and sick. We had booked through Quepos for some scuba diving which we did. Although we have almost an hour later, it's okay, because we were just a bunch of tourists who are crazy enough to dive during this season. Ship us some really cool reef we swam around. We got some good glimpses of the fish and lobster, which lived in the area. All in all, diving is a blast, but it's time to move on! We got back into the car and head to Jaco.

Arrival of the night in Jaco, we enjoyed some dinner and hung around watching surfing videos at the local pub. In case you did not know, Jaco Costa Rica is a surfers Mecca. While watching these movies that we get approached by another American from Carolina, who urged us to make a real UFC style fights in the local club. Of course, we accept. Arriving at the club, security is tight, so we had to mention the name of the surfers to get in. While you enjoy the Costa Rican beer we had the rare opportunity to watch the underground cage fighting. Fighters from all over, but mainly Brazil, were there. It was great to watch and experience, but as soon as he finished the evening we headed back to our hostel for some real cigars before the fall of night.

Early the next morning we took a taxi to Herradura, a small beach north of Jaco the motor boat we picked up and we taxied across the bay to Montezuma. This is the first in which the rains hinder our plans. We had booked a boat trip across the Tortuga Island for some snorkelling, but the hurricane made ​​this impossible. But our visit was not in vain. We had the opportunity to explore the city. Montezuma is a colorful, but a strange city. It is absolutely amazing and probably my favorite part of Costa Rica. We enjoyed a great meal and then headed to our cabin in the mountains have been recalled to what we are through and it is still doći.Sljedećeg morning, while in the company of tuna and sea turtles for most of the way, we took a taxi boat back to Jaco where we picked up our car and went on our way.

Our next destination is Monteverde.Putovanje was pretty interesting. The road became very bumpy and rocky and dangerous. And then it happened ... we got a flat tire (we later learn that the road and messed up the suspension and alignment). This apartment has happened right on the hill of gravel in the middle of a large bend in the road. Two of us had to watch the traffic from both sides down the road and ask them to slow down and not hit us, while the rest worked on replacement tires in the rain and mud. Finally we have it in Monteverde. In the interests of my trip to Hanging bridges are also got to see some amazing reptiles hanging around in their normal habitat. But once it was over, we aimed to zipline highest, longest and fastest set of 11 ziplines that Costa Rica had to offer. Since we were in a cloud forest, after he left the platform and began his zipping, you can see everything for a bit and then disappeared into the clouds. It was very surreal and exhilarating feeling! Totally cool! This turn is well worth it, but we had to keep on going, for our final destination was La Fortuna and Arenal Volcano. We stopped for food at a restaurant inside a tree, and then went on our way!

We need to La Fortuna late at night, booked out the entire room is equipped for 11 backpackers (so we had room to hang our wet stuff in the hopes of drying it) and went immediately to bed (after calling the car company to replace our vehicle ). In the morning we ate awesome Tico breakfast and were amazed at the hostel we crashed. We had a restaurant, pub, internet cafe, pool and views of the volcano right at our finger tips. We quickly went into town and met with our tour guides. They made ​​us sit up in the back of his pickup truck and we were deep in the jungle. This is where we started our canyoneering in Lost Canyon. That's cool. This hike through the pristine crystal clear and refreshingly cool, the water would often be interrupted by a huge waterfall that we, of course, rappelled through. It was one of my favorite parts putovanja.Slapovi were big and so empty that even the fallen trees from the hurricane were left where they lay.

We finally made ​​it back to our hostel where we met some cool people and spent an evening with them in the pub. In the morning the group split up. Three of us rented some bikes and headed to the famous "La Fortuna Waterfall," for some swimming and photo opportunities. Me and one of the passengers ventured off with a guide to Venado Caves. It is very physically demanding experience collapse. In fact, it consisted mainly of climbing, crawling, squeezing and bending. But it's still nevjerojatno.Špilje are hot and humid in the deep crevasses volcano volcano territory. No, this is really cool, knee, squirt we walked through the whole time. As expected, the caves are full of giant insects and pauka.Zgodnih part of this expedition was when the cave started to get smaller and narrower, but knee deep water remained. We ended up crawling through the water with just enough room for our heads to keep up. Then the noise disturbed a bunch of bats and flew straight to our heads. After getting hit in the face several times I've sunk as they passed.

Once we returned to the hostel, we met up with other guys and found some guides take us on a trip to the volcano. This lasted until late at night when we could see the hot lava flow from a cone! We lucked in, again, when the volcano exploded a little more than normalne.Vodiča said that this does not happen often as they ran for the camera. It was definitely an experience of life time.

We finally made ​​it back to our hostel is not a little more socializing with some people we met, and then press the bag. We knew in the morning we're back in the car (which has now been replaced by a straight truck) on our way to Limon.

We arrived in Limon in mid-afternoon and only briefly checked out the town. We did not find anything interesting, so we headed to Puerto Viejo on the south coast of the country, near the Panama border. This place was hot! And I mean really hot! Caribbean air was so thick and wet that we were all sweating all the time. We took a walk around town and enjoy some cultural music and food (lobster was so cheap! Yum!). At this point we headed back to our hostel. We stayed in a really cool, hippie-style hostel. There were hammocks and tents all over the place. We hung out on the beach with some more passengers, and then went to sleep.

As a side story, while in Puerto Viejo, I found myself awake in the middle of the night to see the bats falling from the ceiling in my bed. As it hit the bed, next house cat jumped through the window and slaughtered the bat right on my sheets! With a bat in the mouth, the cat jumped out another window, and went on with their business. Interesting eh !?

morning, we went to breakfast and met a guy named Carl. Carl us on a tour of the backcountry of Costa Rica. We visited the banana plantations, cocoa plantations, and even your own house, where we ate the fruit from the tree in his yard. Carl is our top wildlife refuge take a look around. This is where we had some delicious fried plantains. Then he came by boat. The boat floated on the river in Tortuguero Tortuguero National Park. This park was unreal. First of all, this is huge. It is also completely unspoiled by ljudi.Park consists mainly of mangrove swamps, and we floated down. We came across a really cool monkeys and crocodiles just hanging out. It was very pleasant to say the least. However, once again, as soon as we had finished the journey on the road and head to our next destination! Siquirres

U Siquirres we met up with a larger group of passengers, and began a series of rafting trips Pacuare River. This is a good time filled with funny and highly skilled guides, and great food for lunch. River was beautiful. It was very cool and refreshing in the Costa Rican heat, so we spent a lot of time jumping into a river. Given this, white-water is relatively tame compared to what we had all previously experienced. There are some great photo opportunities of lush rainforests and amazing waterfalls. We had mentioned to guide the next day to go rafting Reventazon part of the Pascua River. It was amazed and actually quite worried about us. It was going to be quite irregular and full of adrenaline. We were excited ... naturally. After the visit was over, we put in a beautiful villa on the mountain overlooking the River. It was owned by the Belgian couple who prepared breakfast for us in the morning. As amazing and the revitalization of what it was, the bad news during doručka.Uragan raised the water level in the river Reventazon to the point where a little dangerous to raft. It's pretty disappointing, but we really have an option. So instead we went back into town and enjoyed some more fruit on the street and sat around the city center again looking out over the trip.

At this point, we piled into the car and headed back toward San Jose. But first we stopped off at the Irazu volcano. This is a dormant volcano that we get the chance to walk okolo.Krater is quite interesting to see that the solid lava fields all around. We found out that this is premium land to grow coffee. Given this bit of information we had to go to work neizbježan.Vjetar is cold, the air was dry and the temperature was low. So we went into the volcano-top shop and had a cup of freshly brewed coffee Irazu volcano. It was a great ending to an unforgettable adventure. That night in San Jose, we met up with friends we made in Arenal for one more night before we caught a flight in the morning. But wait ... does not end here. When we got to the airport a few hours later, we learned that the hurricane that bothered us was gone, but a new invasion of Costa Rica is a hurricane just in time for our flight!