Adventures with NSW: Costa Rica

Jesse took me to Costa Rica for my graduation present!

We decided to rent a car and go to a volcano, scuba diving, rainforest, and surfing. Things didn't quite go as planned though. I won't go into too much detail, I will say there were more fails than wins, but any trip with Jesse and to a great destination like Costa Rica is an overall win.

First things first: American Airlines WILL lose your lugguge if traveling out of Miami airport. When we arrived in San Jose, my bag with all my belongings in it wasn't there. We decided that instead of waiting for it to come in the next morning, to just go on as planned and have AA send it to our hostel in La Fortuna. We rented a car (not as cheap as expected) and drove throughout the night in the winding roads up to the Arenal volcano/La Fortuna area. When we arrived, nothing was open...so we slept in the car. Memorable to say the least.

*Lesson: Patience is a virtue. We should have waited for the next morning and got my bag ourselves, and drove during the day. Of course, everything happens for a reason. Had we done an alternative, something even more terrible may have happened such as an accident, so I am at peace with our decision, but in the future I will remember to be more patient*

So the next day I bought a new bathing suit and we decided to go to Baldi Springs, $25 USD for an evening of never ending hot springs, gorgeous rainforest scenery, and a gourmet-buffet all you can eat dinner. The next day we unfortunately couldn't make it to go zip lining...but 'tis how the whole trip went.

We drove to Playa Hermosa to go diving with manta rays. Only, I left my bathing suit in La Fortuna on accident, and by the time I realized it, the room maid had already stolen it. So, when we arrived in Playa Hermosa, we booked our dive boat for the next morning and went into Playa del Coco to look around the town and find yet another bathing suit. While we were walking around (for about an hour, parked behind the police station), some db Costa Rican broke into our rental car and stole my backpack, which had my underwater camera housing, passport, money, and other items, totaling to about $1000 of possessions. Policia are worthless, they in fact may have been the ones that stole it...who knows. I was livid...Jesse didn't know what to do to help...and it was just a terrible experience altogether, I hope none of you ever have to go through that. We got a hotel room, went on our dive without a camera :o(, saw some pretty cool things including a million puffers and some white tip reef sharks, but no mantas and visibility was terrible. I'm going to have to go with: it wasn't worth the drive there.

*Lesson: Always pack a bathing suit in your carry on*

Our plans changed yet again, as now I had no passport, no suitcase, no backpack, no clothes, no makeup, so camera housing, etc. We had to drive to San Jose immediately in order to get to San Jose before the US Embassy closed for the holiday weekend (if we didn't make it, we would have had to miss our flight and wait for the embassy to open). So, a 7 hour drive through rough roads, our rental car BREAKING DOWN, etc, we found ourselves back in scary San Jose, begging the airport people to let us in (it was after hours) and give me my suitcase. Jesse did a great job speaking Spanish and making up a story in which they finally gave me my suitcase. Alas. Luckily, when AA lost my bag, they made a copy of my passport - so now I had a passport copy to give the US embassy, thank goodness for that stroke of luck!

*Lesson: Always travel with a few copies of your passport, placed in separate areas, including one back home with a family member or friend*

The hostel we stayed at was quite decent. We had a police escort to the US embassy, so finding it was easy. Getting the passport also went quite smoothly since I had my flight info, passport copy, photo, etc. Then we quickly drove ourselves to Jaco to visit Jesse's friend, Kip, and do the surfing portion of our trip. Unfortunately, I never made it out to Kip's club because I was exhausty, and I never got to meet Kobi :o( just more things to add to the list of fails. We did get to see wild scarlet maccaws though.

The surf in Playa Hermosa (a different Playa Hermosa) was much too intimidating for me, so I didn't try there. We went to another beach the next day, I did terribly. We went to Jaco, I did terribly. I also believe that's where I swallowed so much contaminated sea water, that I was sick for a week upon arriving back home.

*Lesson: Don't drink Jaco water, even if it's accidental.

We then went to Manuel Antonio, got attacked by awesome monkeys, and played with millions of hermit crabs. It was beautiful and I look forward to returning.

We ended our trip at Dominica, the place that was the whole reason for Jesse taking me to Costa Rica. It was like Jurassic Park...river meets ocean, glassy waves (though I still didn't do well), and incredible sunsets. It was the perfect end to a not-so-perfect trip.