Costa Rica

Seeing as finals were over before we arrived in Costa Rica, I was really looking forward to some time to relax.  I know, I know, that sounds ridiculous coming from the guy who just spent 3 and a half months traveling the world, but by the time we hit Costa Rica, I needed some relaxation.  Two days prior to pulling into Puntarenas, we were informed that the ship would have to anchor outside of a different port for the first day.  This wouldn't have been such an issue if there'd be a city at this new port.  The port of Caldera is Costa Rica's major shipping port, (the yellow Dole freighter was there when we were) but there are no restaurants, shops or even neighborhoods for about 10 km.  The other problem with anchoring and not actually docking, is tendering.  We had to take ferries to shore, each one leaving every half hour and capable of carrying 100 passengers.  By the time we made it to land, there were about 100 students standing around, wondering which direction to walk, as there were no taxis in sight.  Benson and I went to the office of the port officials and asked if we could call a few taxis.  They called ten taxis, but there was no way for the drivers to differentiate who called them and who didn't, nor did they care.  Group after group would step in front of the next, creating an amoeba like formation that was neither a line nor a mob, though it was much closer to the latter.  Seven of us piled into the first van we saw come around the corner, but within a few seconds we were adamantly told that specific taxi had been called for a different group.  Each of the taxis by this time had been filled and were on there way to Puntarenas, but we (the ones who called the taxis) were left behind until the second wave of cabs came.  We fought our way to the front and eventually snagged a cab to Puntarenas.  All of us seemed kind of "out of it" for the day, we all followed each other wherever through the town for a while, sat and ate lunch and then headed to the beach.  Our first order of business, as you may have guessed by now, was to fly the kite.  Benson, Darren and I took turns flying it first, then Benson taught Vin how to fly it.  The wind was the strongest we'd pulled against yet, but Vin handled it like a champ.  He go lifted the furthest off the ground by far.  Some kids gathered and watched and laughed with us for a little.  Later, Darren met a few local guys juggling a soccer ball, so Darren, Vin and I kicked the ball around for a little and played a mini-futbol game on the beach.  They didn't speak English, but our some combination of humor and sportsmanship sufficed.  After the match, Darren, our futbol amigo Raul, and I went for a swim.  The waves weren't anything special, but the water was the perfect temperature.  We cooled off in the water and I practiced our Spanish with Raul.  I could see how living in a country for even just a few weeks would greatly improve one's bilingualism.  We left the beach after a few hours and made our way to Darren's beach house.  We got there just before sunset, flew the kite some more and watched the sky change from blue to orange to red to purple.  We were planning on getting back on the ship in Caldera, having dinner onboard, and riding over to Puntarenas.  We knew the last tender would leave the port at 8 o'clock, so we made sure we were there by 6:30.  We pulled up as a tender was leaving the docks, but knew there'd be another leaving 30 minutes later.  I took this opportunity to lie back on a bench and get a quick nap.  Twenty minutes later, the captain radioed the officer at the dock to notify him that the weather at the ship was too rough to bring passengers aboard.  The tender we saw leaving was turned around and we were told we'd have to find a way to meet the ship in Punatarenas 3 hours later; we were stranded.  It took some convincing but after a while, the captain informed us that SAS would call a taxi company and provide transportation for us back to Puntarenas.  We got back to the pier in Puntarenas and sat down for dinner.  Afterwards, some of us got some ice cream and waited for the ship to come in.     For our second day in Puntarenas, my group and I went on a canopy tour.  It was about a 45 minute drive out to a town called Miramar.  The tour was booked through a hotel located on the top of a hill, overlooking a lush green valley to the ocean below.  The view was incredible.  We harnessed up and followed our guides up to the first platform.  The first few cables we rode across were short and slow, to get us used to the zip line and how to control speed, but by the third one, we found ourselves 60 feet above the ground zipping across 100 meter cables between the trees. Jumping off a platform and trusting in the harness and cable to keep me up was a pretty intense feeling, but the view and the cool air absolutely made up for any nervousness.  Our particular tour included 13 cables, and the 11th one was the biggest.  We had to take a car to the top of another hill to get onto number 11.  It was 700 meters long and strung across that valley in front of the hotel. Our group finished our tour and thanked our guides.  Todd enjoyed the tour so much that he signed up to do the next one with a group of SASers who were just arriving.  We goofed around for a little on a rock wall and swam for some time in the pool before jumping the van and heading back to Puntarenas.  Benson and I were hoping to get to Jaco to visit some other friends who'd rented houses in that area, but we didn't have an exact address for anyone, nor a place to stay.  Our driver from the canopy tour offered us a much better price than taking a taxi, so the two of us got back in the van after lunch and drove a little over an hour to Jaco. Benson had not written down the address, but our driver was quite resourceful.  First, he stopped at the police station to ask if they could help us; they couldn't.  Then we stopped at the post office to see if anyone there could help out, but they couldn't either.  Then our driver said he had one more idea.  He took us by a beach house rental office and told us to go up to the second floor.  I stayed in the car with our bags, while Benson went up.  He just described the people that had rented the house we were planning on going to and in a few minutes we had the address.  We finally got to the house, but most of the people were out to dinner or on their way out.  Benson made the mistake of taking his sandals off for the ten minutes we were there, and in just that amount of time, they were gone.  We decided to walk back into town (Benson barefoot) to find him some cheap sandals and grab some dinner ourselves. We found him sandals, and while we were walking ran into a group of friends celebrating one of their birthdays, so we joined them! After dinner, we walked for a few more hours and ran into a number of SASers.  They'd ask what our plans were for staying the night, and each time we'd say we didn't know, some would just laugh and some would say good luck, but one group sincerely offered for us to stay in their hotel.  They'd booked two rooms for some people that ended up leaving that day, so they invited to stay there. Benson and I put our bags down and headed back to the beach house to see if anyone had returned from dinner.  A few people were there, but not who we were looking for, so we just sat out on the beach and watched the waves, looked up at the stars and talked about how awesome this trip had been so far.       In the morning the next day, Benson and I made our way to the beach.  We were really hoping to run into a bunch more people there, but most of the people that stayed in Jaco had left in the morning or were out on trips.  We flew the kite (again☺) and walked down the beach towards that beach house.  Benson was hoping he'd find his sandals or someone that had set them aside for him.  No one had, but along the way, we ran into a few small groups of people who were looking for rides back to the ship.  Benson and I were planning on calling the same driver who had brought us there, but were hoping to find more passengers to split the bill.  We wound up getting a group of 9 together, which brought the cost down to $9 per person. We flew the kite for a few hours, taking turns and trying new stunts and body surfed for a while as well.  We'd been told to look out for jumping manta rays, so that made us a little apprehensive, but we still had a great time.  For lunch, I had my first burrito since I left home.  It was delicious, but made me miss Chipotle all the more, can't wait! We met up with our group and headed back to the ship.  Our driver stopped along the way to show us some crocodiles.  He pulled the car over and walked us to the side of a bridge.  Looking over, there must have been 20 crocodiles right below us.  Felt a little like Captain Hook for a second.  There was another group of tourists stopped on the bridge hanging some raw chicken from a string over the crocs' mouths.  Seeing them jump out of the water and hearing those teeth chomp down was pretty scary.  After getting back in the van, our driver made the comment that those crocs usually eat cows or horses that come too close to the river bank.  He also made some silly comment that their favorite meal is American travelers.  We all slept a bit on the way back, but by the time we got there, there was not enough time to do much else.  I was planning on walking around Puntarenas and getting some more photos and such in our last port, but there just wasn't enough time.  So, we walked down the pier, stood in line and walked up the gangway for the last time.     I think Costa Rica was a great destination for our last port.  We made the best of the docking situation and had a great couple of days over all.  I definitely found that relaxation I was looking for.  And now the next time these feet reach land, I'll be in America. There are no more countries on the itinerary, no more adventures in foreign lands, but I refuse to see this as the end.  For me, it's only just begun. I'm coming home. -mason ¨Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.¨ -Mark Twain