The End...

Here I am at the end of my trip. I am at a hostel by the airport, and I fly out tomorrow at noon. Its hard to believe I have been traveling since the middle of February and now it is the middle of June. I have done a lot, but it has also been a very long time and I am ready to go home.

The last couple of days I have been in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. I really liked it there, and I would definitely go back sometime during the high season because it was quiet and rather rainy the whole time so I didn't really see it in all its glory. The World Cup has started, and that seems to be the main activity for most of the people here. There are 3 or 4 games a day so if you wanted to that could take up your whole day! I did watch the first half of Costa Rica's match against Uruguay. They ended up winning, but I missed the second half in favour of going on a tour of a chocolate farm and factory. 

I didn't spend any time on the beach in Puerto Viejo, despite my objective to spend some time in both oceans before going home to ocean-less Ontario. I did hang out with some cool animals though! I went to a wildlife sanctuary in Puerto Viejo and saw lots of snakes, monkeys, a couple of sloths, an ocelot, a crocodile... It was so cool. I know they were in captivity but I definitely thought it was a better experience than wandering around the jungle and not seeing anything! I did that as well and of course it was beautiful but all the green got a little boring after a while when I didn't see any animals. 

Yesterday I went to the sloth sanctuary near Cahuita and that was AWESOME. Saw a couple babies, a few older ones, learned the difference between two-toed and three-toed sloths, and went on a cool canoe ride where we saw a few sloths in the 'wild'. They were not that wild because they had previously been at the sanctuary so they were comfortable around humans, but it was still cool to see them moving about in the tree. Apparently sloths are the most common arborial (tree) mammal in Costa Rica. More common than monkeys. They are just so good at what they do (camouflage, moving slowly) that they are impossible to see. Many of the sloths were rescued, they had some sad stories. One of them electrocuted himself on a high-voltage power line and then fell to the ground and broke his arm in a bunch of places. He now only has one arm. Another one was paraplegic because he fell and got hit by a car. Not sure how you could hit a sloth with your car, its not like they can run across the road very quickly!

Well its about time for me to say goodbye to the caribbean. A geographic regular in my life over the past 6 months (bahamas, mexico, guatemala, honduras, Costa Rica) I don't know when I will be back again... I definitely want to come back to visit the Corn Islands in Nicaragua, I heard from so many people how amazing they are. I really wanted to go diving one more time before the end of this trip, but while there is good diving on the Caribbean in Costa Rica, there has been two much rain which limits the visibility so it wouldn't be worth it.

Onward to San Jose and then Toronto!

Rainy season in Costa Rica

"Winter" has arrived. Winter down here means rain... every day. Its good in the sense that it is making me eager to get home for the summer! But not so great for enjoying my last few days on the beach. After Monteverde I went to the Pacific coast, to a little town on the Nicoya peninsula called Montezuma. Like a number of other places I have visited, the guidebook made it out to be a much more interesting place than it actually is. I can imagine during the high season it is different, but now it is low season so it was very quiet. And the humidity, when it wasn't raining, was very very high so I went out on a nice hike along the coast and ended up soaked without actually going swimming. All of my belongings are damp and my backpack smells a bit funky... Ugh.

Yesterday I spent the whole day traveling from Montezuma across the country to the Caribbean and I arrived after dark in a town  called Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. Yesterday was a beautiful day. Of course  I was in a bus. So far today it has been raining really hard and unfortunately I lost my rain jacket in Monteverde so I have been hesitant to go out and explore. I have a few days here, and there are quite a few things that I would like to do (besides lie on the beach) so hopefully the weather improves.

Reflections on packing

One thing is for sure, every time I have to travel from one place to another I am always cursing myself for packing such a heavy bag. There are some things that I am happy that I have, other things I have used maybe once or twice so I definitely wouldn't pack them again. Generally, I packed erring on the side of "maybe i will need this" but when you are backpacking I think you should only pack things you are definitely going to use.

Some things were a nice idea, but I have not used them enough to warrant packing them.

1. Mosquito net

I was grateful for this at Surfing Turtle, because they provided me with a net but it had a lot of big holes in it so I didn't think it would work very well. However, I didn't use the mosquito net once otherwise.

2. Hiking boots

It was definitely good to have these for the couple of hikes I went on, but next time I will bring something more lightweight, like some off-road running shoes or something.

3. Sleeping bag

This one is tough. On the nights that I used this, I was happy to have it. However, I didn't use it enough for the amount of space it took up in my bag.

4. Extra toiletries, medicines, etc

It ended up being much easier than I thought to buy just about anything I needed in Central America. I didn't need to pack so much of everything.

5. 5 pairs of socks

I just didn't need so many socks. Otherwise, I did a pretty good job with clothes I think. Maybe I brought 1 t-shirt and 1 pair of pants too many, but generally I was ok, especially given the variation in climate from Guatemala to every subsequent country! I did end up buying a couple of things, and I repurposed a pair of leggings into shorts, but I don't think I would pack any more or less clothing next time.

6. Rain jacket

Ok, I have needed this since I got to Costa Rica, but I maybe used it once before that. My rain jacket is pretty light, but to save even more space and weight next time I would bring just one of those pocket ponchos. Sadly I lost mine in Monteverde.

Some things I was really happy about having:

1. Keen "amphibious" walking sandals

I bought these thinking that they were quite ugly, but that they would be super handy on my travels. Boy was I right. On both counts. I still think they are ugly, but I was so thankful to them when going through the cave in Semuc Champey. Going through the cave we were going to be in and out of water, and up and down rocks and ladders, so we all wore swimsuits, but most people only had flipflops. The solution was to tie a piece of string around their heel to keep the flipflop on their foot in water. This was not ideal. Meanwhile I had these nice walking shoes with decent tread that would get me in and out of the water and across the slippery rocks much better. 

2. A skirt and a nice shirt

As a backpacker in Central America you get used to being dirty and sweaty, so it was really nice on occasion to get clean AND have some nice clothes to wear. It made me feel like a real person instead of a dirtbag packpacker.

3. Thermarest collapsible pillow

I didn't use this a ton for sleeping, except once in a while when the hostel pillow was quite ratty looking. I did use this on long-distance shuttle rides, and it made sleeping a lot more comfortable.

4. Eye mask and earplugs

Necessities when you are sleeping in a room with a bunch of strangers. 

5. 2 towels/1 towel & sarong

Traveling to beaches, lakes, etc. it is really nice to have one towel for showering and another towel or sarong for the beach. This way one stays relatively clean. I started with a towel and sarong but I guess somebody really liked my ratty old sarong and decided to take it off the clothesline where it was drying. Then I bought a second towel, which has not been as ideal because it takes up more space in my bag.

6. Waterproof cover for my backpack

Sometimes your backpack gets put up on the roof of a shuttle bus, and then it rains. You will probably be happier if you have one of these.

7. Small portable speaker 

This was really nice to have just for hanging out in hostels or on the beach.

8. Probiotic tablets

These came in very handy for dealing with the 'digestive roller coaster' as I called it, that is travel in Central America.

10. iPad

I was amazed at how ubiquitious wifi is here, even in the most remote places I have been able to keep in touch with friends and family at home. It has also been great to be able to research other places and make future travel plans. I wouldn't travel without some internet device. There are still Internet cafes, but from what I hear they are becoming extinct. And some remote jungle/beach hostels have wifi but no public computers so you would be out of luck there.

The only thing that I frequently regretted not packing was a yoga mat. I had a special towel to use when I wanted to do yoga, but a lot of the time I made up excuses like the ground was too dirty or too hard or too uneven. If I had a mat I would have no excuse not to practice my yoga. I was going to bring it but decided not to because it was going to be too bulky, but I think I should have made it a priority. I had so many goals and ideals for keeping up a yoga practice, but basically after I left guatemala I all but abandoned them. 

The reason it all began...

I am now in Monteverde, Costa Rica, which (ironically) was the original place i had in mind before it quickly expanded into an all Central America trip! I had first thought that I would come here and volunteer in the Quaker school. Now, being here, I kind of wish I had done that. Ok I don't wish I had done it, but I wish I could still do it. My track coach from Westtown is here teaching and he told me they are looking to hire a social studies teacher and would I be interested! I thought about it for two seconds before remembering how excited I am about going back to school in September. However, this is a really awesome place and I would love to stay if circumstances were different.

Costa Rica is more expensive than the rest of Central America so I had a bit of sticker shock when I first got here. $2 for a beer instead of $1. Ugh.  But I feel like its getting me ready to be back in Canada so I guess its ok. Costa Rica is a lot more developed than anywhere else in Central America. It deffinitely doesn't feel as "third-world". 

Anyway. Monteverde. Where ecotourism all began. They definitely have the tourist game down. So many hotels and offices selling tours for the cloud forest, coffee farms, canopy tours.. Its a bit overwhelming in such a tiny town. I have been busy trying to make the most of my few days here. First I did the zipline canopy tour, and that was pretty awesome. 14 cables with a total distance of 4 km! It was so fun. The best part was the Tarzan swing where they clip you into a rope and you just drop and swing back and forth over 40 meters or so of jungle. Then the Superman zipline was pretty great. You fly facing down over the valley on one of the longest cables. It was great.

Last night I went for a guided night tour and I saw a couple of snakes, a porcupine, and a sloth! That was really cool. I have no idea how the guide knows where to look for stuff because hes just swinging his flashlight around and suddenly hes like "Everyone over here!" and then we all scramble over to look at something in the light of his flashlight. The sloth was definitely the highlight.

Today I went for a hike through the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. I didnt see any animals but the vegetation was incredible. And being in the clouds was really cool. After that I hiked down to the village of Monteverde to meet my old track coach Jonathan. He showed my the Friends' school and told me a bit about the history of the area and the quaker community here. We had a nice lunch.

Now I am sitting drinking delicious coffee and writing this while looking out over the valley and the slightly larger town of Santa Elena. Not bad.

Oh and I nearly forgot, one of the best things about being here was my sleeping situation. The last two nights I have been in a "dorm" that is supposed to sleep 4 people but I was the only one! I forgot how nice to have privacy like that. And the temperature here is perfect for sleeping, its so fresh and cool and also quiet. I am having the best sleeps. Especially after being active in the day. Today there are more people in the dorm but I don't mind. I am very well-rested.

One more day here then back to the beach!

another beach, another island

I am so bored of beaches. And islands.

Just kidding. I spent the last 5 days at another surf lodge where my friend Harriet is working. Her place is so much better than where I was. Its up on a big cliff but has a great beach down below, the food is awesome, and the lifestyle there was a lot less self-destructive. People actually exercised. There was a yoga master class with a celeb yoga teacher from LA so I went to that and came to the realization of how out of shape I am. We were working on mostly inversions, and I have no upper body strength. It was good though, I feel like I needed a good kick in the butt to get back in gear health-wise.

There was a great group of volunteers and guests that I hung out with, and there were a number of other places down the beach so it didn't feel quite as isolated. Apparently the surf was top notch, but I wasn't tempted to go out. I had my one experience of surfing, and it was quite rough. Maybe I will try again in Costa Rica.

Today I traveled to Isla Ometepe, a big island with two volcanos in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, a large freshwater lake. The island is all about ecotourism so there are a lot of farms and stuff where I was thinking about volunteering.. alas time is ticking! There are a lot of interesting birds. And lots of bugs. I rode a horse to a natural mineral spring pool. It wasn't hot though, lucikly. I went to a hot one near the last place but we had to go at night because its so hot there during the day. Then I walked back from the pool and was sufficiently sweaty that I needed to go swim again! Its a hard life. I will leave tomorrow to go to Costa Rica... Its calling to me and I don't have much time left.