Costa Rica

Day 1: Monday, Nov 8th (LAX-San Jose Costa Rica - Jaco Beach)

This was possibly the longest day in history. We flew out of LAX at 1am, I remember when I was looking into booking flights that I figured this way we'd get a free night of accommodation by flying through the night. Copa Airlines, our carrier, is a budget central American airline that has one flight from Western North America a night (1am) from one destination (LA) to Panama City. The flight 100% booked and I don't think that they could of fit one more seat in that plane if they tried. It only had about 200 passengers who had to share 2 washrooms located at the rear of the plane which was a bad break for us seeing as we sat at the front. Thankfully, alcohol was complimentary because the seats were not designed for someone over about 5'5 because they were awkwardly too small even for Lisa. Also, being a night flight everyone was sleeping and we just had to get the only seats on the flight that didn't recline because there was a fire exit directly behind us. A couple of bad breaks because once we touched down, some angry compadres were ready to get off the plane. A short wait in Panama City, we went directly to San Jose Costa Rica.

To my great disappointment after 9/11 I went through both the American and Costa Rican airport security without a hitch. In LA, I was directly behind a Chinese tour bus who didn't speak a lick of english and ignored all the instructions in going through the metal detector. We found it pretty funny since we weren't in a rush. In Costa Rica, the lady was on her cell phone so she literally stamped our passports and sent us in. Taylor, in true Taylor fashion, was so tired once we got on the connecting flight (he was sitting solo) fell asleep pre-takeoff and missed the lady handing out the forms. This also made it so we had to go through security separate, he wasn't so lucky, it took him what seemed to us waiting, hours.

Once in San Jose Costa Rica, we had to leave the airport and head into the city to catch buses recommended to which were $4 for about 3 hours (170km's) to our city. Taylor headed up to Flamingo Beach to meet up with his family who is holidaying until the 15th and Lisa and myself headed to Jaco beach, which is the closest location on the Pacific Coast we could get to. We plan to check out the coast for a few days and work our way up to meet up with Taylor for the weekend. We had a couple of hours in San Jose before we had to head  off so we found a local bar to grab beers. We came to the realization we don't know a lick of Spanish and need to learn quick. We said our good byes  and headed to our separate buses in rural San Jose.

On a completely random note, before we left LA in the hotel I bought $10 clippers to cut my hair. Taylor and Lisa went to the airport the night before we left to see about changing Taylors flight, so nobody was their to help me, so I cut the front myself, leaving a fancy mullet in the back. My football team, the Stealers, were playing monday, so I decided to wear my jersey, I looked funny to say the least, the most American looking guy in the history of America. So I negotiated rural Costa Rica looking like a chump. Thankfully our hotel in Jaco was an American sports bar, and the steelers were playing, so I just looked like the biggest fan having rushed to this sports bar to watch the game. Little did they know, you check into the hotel at the bar and I was so tired, I didn't realize this until the next day. Thankfully we arrived, and the day was over, time for bed!

-Jason


















Day 2: Tuesday, Nov 9th (Jaco Beach)

Me and Jason woke up this morning at 11, after going to bed around 8pm last night. We even missed dinner, which is something I never like to do ever. Not really sure of what we should do and not being a fan of paying $45 US for our room we decided to check out and move on. We still had two free drinks that we got last night so we thought we would have them and then carry on for the day. While we were enjoying the first beverages we had consumed in the last 16 hours the rain storm began. It began to pour and neither of us had the energy to face it and walk into town to find something else to do so we ordered lunch and have been here ever since. Not the way we wanted to start our tropical vacation, but we're making the best of it :)

-Lisa

Free Beer and a partially clouded day

Beer ? and the rain

Day 3: Wednesday, Nov 10th (Jaco-Montezuma)

After seeing what Jaco had to offer, we decided to move along to Puntareas, a 2 hour bus from Jaco. While riding the bus, we read all the material we had on Puntareas and it wasn't positive so we changed our game plan. We decided to take the ferry across some random gulf to the Nicoyla peninsula and head to Montezuma (which Taylor recommended). Bad news, the ferry wasn't going to come until 5 pm, so that was a about 3 hours of waiting and once we took the ferry across we had to take another 2 hour bus, so we weren't scheduled to arrive in Montezuma until late. We met a guy from New Zealand on the bus, shared a cab to the ferry and once at the ferry we shared some beers while we waited. I got the chance to play my favorite Costa Rican game. Go to the restaurant where they don't speak a word of english and order the fanciest word on the menu, this time I got a plate of fries with hot dogs cut up and spread over top of it, too bad I wasn't 5 again. Our new buddy didn't stick around long, he checked his email and found out that there were going to be some good swells where we just came from, so he grabbed a cab and headed straight back to the bus. We finally arrived at Montezuma at about 10 pm to find ourselves in the middle of the jungle. We snagged a recommended hotel/hostel accommodation and thankfully there was vacancy and it was still open. Luckily we had decent accommodation because all night we could hear crazy crazy tropical rain and monkeys screaming.

-Jason

Day 4: Thursday, Nov 11th (Montezuma)

So Hottt!

Woke up this morning semi early and it was still overcast so we were a little disappointed. We went into town and dropped off our laundry finally. We stopped for breakfast at the first place that we saw, this little Italian style restaurant on the corner of the street because it was a deal too good to be true. Rice and beans, tortillas, eggs, coffee and fresh mango juice all for 5 dollars. Every thing was really fresh and definitely worth the money. We then walked through town and sat at the beach for a bit while we figured out what we wanted to do. We saw that a waterfall was close by so we headed out. The walk was down the street and then headed into the jungle for a bit and then through some mini waterfalls. Flip flops were not the most ideal shoes for this. We eventually crossed back over the river onto land and had to climb up a hill, walked on the side for a a while and had to scale down the steep hill to get to the bottom. But the waterfall was worth it. After a little dip in the water Jason informed me that I better not have gone pee in the water because of all the bacteria and parasites and what not that live in the tropical waters. A little warning would have been nice. We headed back to our hotel for a little siesta, and then back into town to pick up all our fresh clothes. The night was spent streaming the Canucks game (6-2 win!!!!) and journal writing. A nice relaxing time in the jungle. 

-Lisa

Day 5: Friday, Nov 12th (Montezuma)

Today, we woke up nice and early expecting to travel down the coast. We were in for a surprise, public transit only comes directly into Montezuma one way. We needed to take two buses and the same ferry just in order to get to Puntareas where we would have to take another two buses just to get to the general area we are meeting up with Taylor. I guess we should have know better seeing that the main methods of transportation around here are little 4x4 vehicles and ATV's. However, for $40 USD they offer a private 4x4 shuttle down the coast to exactly where we want to go, we decided to take this option to avoid the long days and possible frustrations of Costa Rican public transportation. Lucky for us it was smoking hot out, so after shuffling rooms, we headed to the beach for what turned out to be a 4 hour broil. While we were out in the sun, with sun screen on, we both got a little too well done. I am no longer white as a ghost, but a fancy shade of pink. Just to give you an example of the cost of living, we went out for lunch today and both had the specials offered. I had a burger and coke for 1900 and lisa had a mini pizza and lemonade for 1500 and with tax it came to 3700 which is about $7 Canadian before tip, not bad. That was probably a good break because I defiantly had to shell out and buy Aloe Vera. Headed on our fancy shuttle to meet up with Taylor tomorrow.
-Jason

Day 6: Saturday, Nov 13th (Montezuma- Playa Flamingo)

The Burn!

Woke up bright and early at 8:55 this morning and barely had enough time to brush our teeth and pack up before our shuttle driver was knocking on our door to pick us up to deliver us to the good life in Playa Flamingo. They weren't kidding when they said that the road was not drivable by public transit. The road was a windy road complete with pot holes the size of small craters. Not ideal for people who get car sick and who haven't gotten their normal 10 hour sleep. With one pit stop in the middle we finally made it to Playa Flamingo. Not really too sure what the protocol for the hotel was or if the Quinn's were staying at the Flamingo Resort or the Flamingo Marina we were finally in. We met up with the family and then headed to Monkey Bar. After order the mango smoothie for $1.50, which was made with real fruit that's where the magic of the restaurant ended. Confusion struck when the sign said that happy hour was every night, but the bartender informed us that it was only Monday- Friday. After that disappointment the night continued with service that made us feel like the server had forgotten about her only table. Also we discovered that there isn't too much to do on a Saturday night on a Saturday night, which we didn't expect considering the night that they had on Friday night when the town was bumping.

-Lisa
* No pictures.... whoops

Day 7: Sunday, Nov 14th (Playa Coco)



After spending the night in the comfort of a Resort and downing an all you can eat breakfast while a crepe/omelet chef, we got up early and headed to a beach to make the best of the day. With a two hour time difference, it's light at 430am, and at full heat at about 930am but on the flip-side it's dark at 5ish. We headed about an hour down the road to a black sand which was cool and the water was nice for swimming. We then headed into town so the ladies had a chance to do some last minute shopping before they had to fly out, us guys took full advantage of the 1-7pm Sunday happy hour at a bar in the middle of town. We quickly looked around town for a skim board before leaving, we found boards but didn't pull the trigger because they looked pretty flimsy. We then headed to the next resort (tough life) which was quiet but really nice. We had a great dinner in an out-doorish restaurant and followed it up with some pool. While we were hanging out, we noticed a gutsy raccoon sneaking right into the restaurant about 5 feet away from us trying to snake the left over crumbs, I swear that those things are following us! With a long fun day behind us and another long ahead of both Team Quinn and ourselves. Taylor's parents and brother were headed out at 5am followed by his aunt and uncle at 2pm who were nice enough to give us a ride into Liberia Airport where we could head for the border. A long fun day was over and a big Thank you to Team Quinn for a taste of luxury!

-Jason