El Fin de Enero: Jaco

After our mountain adventure that Friday, I went with some friends to the beach for the rest of the weekend. It was a group of six of us, including Lexi and my roommate Jessica.

We left our houses at 6 AM on Saturday - another early morning! - to make it to the bus station while there were still tickets left. Jaco is the closest beach, so it's a really popular destination for the San José crowd, and the later buses sold out Friday morning. We got on at 7:30 and arrived at about 10, which gave us the whole day on the beach!

Jaco isn't know by locals to be the most beautiful beach Costa Rica has to offer, but it's convienence makes it popular. To our American eyes it was unbelieveably gorgeous, especially with the surrounding mountains! We couldn't have been more thrilled to be there!

We walked around in the afternoon and swam in the pool of the hostel we stayed at, which was in a house. There were people from all over the world there, mostly surfers.

That evening we had hamburgers for dinner and then went out to ladies' night for free drinks and to see what the nightlife was like. It was an interesting mix of middle-aged men and scantily clad women, and since we were all tired from our early morning anyway we decided to call it a night.

The next morning we went to the beach again before our 4 PM bus. Lexi and I went for a long walk and found some deserted areas and tide pools!

When we were headed back into town for lunch Ellen got really sick. She hadn't been feeling well all day, but was too much of a trooper to complain much and still wanted to go to the beach. Then all of a sudden she was throwing up and could barely even stand up. We got her to a restaurant, but she was too weak and queasy to walk anywhere. A few of us ran back to the hostel and a guy there picked her up on his motorcycle and took her to the red cross. We followed in a cab, and after quite a bit of trouble and confusion found it. 

We were all really worried about Ellen, and also about making the bus, because the tickets for ALL of the Sunday buses back to San José sell out on Saturday afternoon. If we missed it there was no way to get back until Monday. Luckily they were able to see her her quickly, diagnosed a stomach bacteria, and perscribed some antibiotics. She was feeling well enough to get on the bus, and we made it just in time to board! Yay!

I think we were all relieved to get home Sunday night, especially Ellen. She spent the next day in bed but after that recovered quickly. The weekend turned out to be more of an adventure than we were planning on, but despite the mishaps was well worth the trip!

Un Día en las Montañas

At the end of  January I got to go to the mountains and the beach in the same weekend!

On Friday I went with my friend Lexi and two tico friends, Esteban and Maurisio, for a day trip to the mountains. We left before 8 AM and drove about two hours to arrive.

The car ride was beautiful though!

We finally arrived at the spot they had in mind, and had to take some time to enjoy the scenery before we started our hike!

On the hike we saw all sorts of cool plants, which when inspected up close appeared to be perfectly normal

but which, when seen from a regular distance, were all mineature!

We learned from our tico guides that they're actually the same plant species as the larger versions, but under the harsh conditions imposed by the altitude and sun they sometimes stay very small to conserve energy. Look, here are two sizes of the same plant growing right next to each other!

We walked around for a long time and saw all sorts of interesting plants and beautiful views. 

And also found some great spots to take a rest.

After the hike we stopped at Esteban's family ranch, where they raise cattle for milk. It was so beautiful!

And we got to play with the calves!

Then we went to a cafe to drink some locally grown coffee (as in we could see where the coffee we were drinking was grown!) and on the way back to San José we stopped at an overlook to see the sunset.

What a day!