Costa Rica Volcanoes & Surf 2009 – Trip Recap

Every time we go on a trip somewhere, people always ask me “would you go back there again?” and my reply is usually always that there are so many other places I want to visit that I may not get back around to go there again. Well, I guess Costa Rica has become the exception. Our first trip there was in some ways disappointing, although looking back on it now there were a lot of good times in that trip. The less than expected resort and “shady” guide didn’t totally ruin it. I know so many people that just rave about Costa Rica, so we thought we needed to give it another try. And I never got to surf the first time there, so that would be the focus of this trip. I found a trip with GAP Adventures, called Costa Rica Volcanoes & Surf, that was just what we were looking for. It looked to be the perfect mix of what Costa Rica has to offer, and it did not let me down.

We were arriving in San Jose a day early, so we had researched the city a bit before going and determined that there wasn’t that much that interested us. So instead we booked a class III & IV whitewater rafting trip on the Rio Picuare with Adventuras Naturales. They picked us up first at our hotel early on Saturday morning and all the other people on the trip. This van ride gave us enough of a view of San Jose to say we saw it. Our guide, Pascquel, had been a WW raft guide in over 18 countries in his lifetime and claimed that this river was his favorite. Our trip included a nice breakfast stop at a local establishment and then off to the river. Our crew included another couple from Colorado, who were at the end of their trip, and two young girls from San Jose who didn’t speak any English. The river lived up to its reputation, a perfect mix of beauty and adrenalin. The river contains continuous rapids with not much slow water in between, so if you are looking for a easy joy-ride float, I would not recommend it.

After getting bused back to our hotel, we quick showered and met our GAP Adventures group in the lobby of the hotel. GAP had told us that there were only 5 of us booked on the trip when I last checked, so I was surprised when I saw there were 6 people sitting in the lobby when we arrived. After meeting everyone, our guide Annika took us to a good local restaurant where we had Casadas, Arroz con Pollo, Imperials 🙂 and some other local dishes while getting to know everyone.

We headed up to the northwest side of Arenal volcano for a hike with a naturalist. He explained some of the history of the volcano and then we headed into the woods. Didn’t see too much other than an owl and couple Howler monkeys which were too far away. After that they took us to a place where we were supposed to be able to see lava. We pulled off down a dark road and had pizza and beers while we waited for all the clouds to clear. Then also had some local whiskey which we did a few shots of. Pretty tasty stuff. I think they give you that to help you SEE the lava! 🙂 We waited for sometime and did eventually see some lava for about two seconds when the clouds cleared, but very short-lived. I had setup my camera, but missed it anyway.

After the lava viewing, we headed to Baldy Hot Springs to soak in some of the volcano heated water. They had over 20 different pools to soak in and each one got hotter and hotter as you went up the hill closer to the source. Some of them even had sit-up bars in them and one had a TV with the Stanley Cup playing. I met a couple of younger guys from Lower Merion that were watching too. The drinks at the springs were outrageously expensive too. The best pool at the springs was the one with the three water slides. The middle seemed to be really crazy because everyone came flying out of there at really high speed and they also would let out some crazy screams midway through. I started out on the easy one which was kinda lame and then worked up to the middle one. It was totally dark inside the thing so you had no idea what was ahead of you and then the incline in the middle was so steep that it felt like the bottom dropped out. It was awesome! I did it like twice more.

The next morning we were taken to Lake Arenal and took a boat to start our mountain bike ride toward Monteverde. Due to heavy rains, the first part of the trail was washed out so they had to boat us to the starting point. The ride was mostly doubletrack, fireroad but had nice views and was pretty challenging in some spots. It was almost like home with wet, rocky conditions. I enjoyed chatting with our guide Alfredo during the ride. We discussed some of the similarities and differences of both of our cultures, which was rather interesting. My wife was getting annoyed cause we were holding them up sometimes. Stopped about midway(~ 4 miles) for some fruit and replenish our water. Some of the group decided to get on the boat for the rest of the ride, since it proved to be a bit much for some. We eventually met up with them and the van and headed up to the town of Santa Elena which would be our base camp for the Monteverde activities.

We arrived at the Historias Hotel in Santa Elena where we would stay for the next two days. We were greeted with a nice rainbow after we settled into the hotel.  My wife and I decided to have a night out by ourselves after our tour leader told us about a nice little restaurant, Sophia’s, which was right accross the road. The rain started that evening along with some heavy winds so it worked out nice that we didn’t have to travel very far. We arrived early and were not real hungry, so we decided to sit at the bar and have a couple fruity drinks. There were a bunch of young ladies practicing for an upcoming jewelry and fashion show while we were there, so that entertained us while we sat at the bar. We eventually worked up an appetite and got a table. Food was well presented and pretty good. I ordered my filet medium-rare and it was more like rare when it came out so had to send it back. Other than that everything was quite good.

The next morning we were off early for a cloud forest nature hike and then off for ziplining. On the way to the cloud forest, someone spotted a female Resplendent Quetzal in a tree, so we all piled out of the van and snapped a bunch of pics. Conditions and lighting were not great, but I did manage to salvage one picture out the bunch.  The cloud forest hike was very wet and the naturalist guide said that it was very odd for this time of year. We saw a lot of bugs but nothing too major.

Ziplining was a blast. The fog and rain really made things interesting. Some of the lines made you feel like you were zipping into oblivion which was a bit eery. The wet cables also made it particularly hard to brake when coming to the platform. Several of the people in our group were not really enjoying it too much. We were planning on doing another zipline called “Extremo” in the afternoon, but everyone else bailed so I didn’t want to go by myself. Bummer. There was also a “Tarzan Swing” on the zipline too, which was so awesome. I tried to video my turn on the swing, but the guide would not let me hold it in my hand so it just swung. The swing is really cool because it makes you feel like your stomach is dropping out.  My wife and I made our way into town in the afternoon for a late lunch. The sun came out and made for a nice afternoon. We ended up having some appetizers at “Trio” which is were our tour leader was taking us for dinner. It was really good, so we looked forward to our dinner. Dinner was fun with the group and we had a bunch of laughs. The next morning we had to get up really early to catch the public bus from Monteverde to Puntarenas to catch the ferry for our trek to the Zopilote Surf Camp. By the way, the roads up to Monteverde are really rough, dirt roads so the public bus was quite a ride. I heard that they keep the roads in that condition to help limit the amount of “touristas” into this area.

We arrived into Puntarenas a few minutes too late and missed the 11 o’clock ferry, so we had some lunch and hung out for the 1 o’clock. Ferry was nice and they served beers which always helps.  We hopped on the ferry, which took us about an hour and fifteen minutes. Our tour leader, Annika, gathered us up a little before we reached the dock so that we could be the first ones off to catch the bus to Santa Teresa. The bus fills up fast and takes about a two hours to get there. Annika checked to see if we were willing to fork up some extra bucks to get some other transportation, which would be much quicker and we all willingly agreed. After we got off the ferry and walked to the bus, she had managed to arrange a taxi for an extra five bucks each all while walking to the bus. I didn’t even realize she was doing it…it was quite slick. Anyway we shaved an hour off the time to get to the surf camp which rocked.

We unloaded our stuff at the surf camp and the head guy, Simon, showed us our options for sleeping quarters. My wife and I settled on a open room in the main house. The rest of the group settled into the two other huts on the premises. The bunkhouse was really cool and totally open in the front you could look out on the ocean. After we settled in, it was time to get our first 2 hour lesson. Two of the guys from the house then gave us an initial debriefing and then gave us the boards to use which we then waxed and combed.

After we prepped our boards, we made the long haul up the beach to an area that was free of  rocks. When we got to the area, they showed us how to pop-up on the boards which we practiced for some time on the sand. After they felt we had that, we made our way to the water. The instructors helped us get up by holding our boards for us and eventually we were able to get up. The surf and current were really intense and they said it isn’t usually like that. This made it that much more challenging for us beginners to get up. Fighting the current really takes it out of you. I was able to get up once or twice the first time out, so I was psyched about that. I was pretty tired after the two hours, so I was looking forward to the next morning when I would be fresh again. On our walk back to surf camp we saw the most beautiful sunset…I was bumming since I didn’t bring my camera. Maybe tomorrow?

That night we had an awesome dinner at surf camp. It was some of type of goulash/chili/beef sauce over homemade pasta. It was a bit delayed since the power went out, but so worth the wait. Power never came back on until later the next evening(Things move a bit slow in Costa Rica), but it wasn’t too big a deal. The next days surf lesson went a little better and I was getting up a lot more than the previous evening. Surf was still ripping and sun was so hot that we didn’t quite make it the whole two hours. We hung out in the camp most of the middle of day because it was so hot out.

The power came on that evening so we jammed some Bob Marley off my iPod on the camp stereo. We had some cocktails and some good laughs. “Pepo” the camp squirrel made his rounds too, which included my head. Dinner was curry chicken that night, which was just as excellent as the previous meal. I had seconds. :)  Rain had also started in the afternoon, which became a downpour like I had never seen before. It lasted well into the night too. I was thinking, if it rained like that at home we would have flooded the whole Lehigh Valley because of the development and paved areas.

The next morning the sun was out and we headed out for our last try at surfing before we started heading home. This time I was able to get up pretty regularly, which was cool. Our friend Sue from Switzerland , was teasing me the previous day because every time I got up on the board I would wipe the water out of my eyes. So each time I got up I would yell over to her and act like I was fixing my hair or something. It was funny…guess you had to be there. Anyway, I started gaining some confidence and tried heading out to the bigger waves. Well, it took so much effort to get out past the break that I was wiped out when I got there. I found one to take but wiped out because it was a little different that the whitewater we were riding before. I tried a few more times, but the current took it out of me. It left me tired, but wanting to do it again. Hopefully I can try again down the NJ shore this summer. I usually am not a big fan of the beach, but I do want to do this again.

After we got back to camp, we had to pack up and get ready to catch the bus in Santa Teresa which would take us back to San Jose. Sometime after surfing my cold started up again and I got really congested. Good that it stayed off until then, but the trek back home was surely miserable. After a long taxi, bus, ferry, and a bus we got back to the hotel in San Jose. We had our last group dinner and said our goodbyes. That night I didn’t sleep very well in the hotel in San Jose, and we had to get up really early to catch our taxi to the airport. Our tour leader Annika was waiting for us in the hotel lobby at 5AM too to say goodbye. She was a GREAT tour leader. We were her last trip with GAP Adventures. They had better sign her up again! She even took all our cameras and downloaded everyones pics and made CD’s for each us..she rocks!

The trip home was pretty smooth, except for me feeling worse as time went on. I was afraid they were going to quarantine me for swine flu or something. We eventually got home and I ended up really sick all week. I am still suffering from what I call the post-GAP Adventure blues. Coming home from these trips is such a shock. You go from doing one fun activity after another and then get home it is total dullsville. Eventually it goes away. Oh well that is a small price to pay for another great adventure vacation. See you after the next one!

Pura Vida!