Thief! And crocodiles. And dim sum. // Costa Rica & Panama 10 - 17 June

Before anyone freaks out, no I haven't been robbed, no one has been robbed.

After spending a couple more days in Nosara after the Spanish course and realising surfing isn't just a hobby one can just have a go at once in a while and enjoy, I packed up my flip flops and headed for the hills.

Monteverde 

I slept for the first half of the shuttle ride up, but after an hour or so and a coffee stop, as the shuttle started to ascend the altitudes, all I could do for the rest of the drive was stare out the window and admire the views. After spending 4 weeks on the coast I have missed the mountains, a lot. I even asked the shuttle driver to stop to let me take photos (I had the shuttle to myself, thanks again to low season). It was mid afternoon and the lighting was perfect. Rolling wooded hills, cows grazing on undulating green pastures, and even volcanoes in the distance with its tops just peaking through the clouds…

Miraculous coincidences // Costa Rica 2 - 9 June

"She is the luckiest traveller"

At 4:53am on Sunday 2 June, Julio my Airbnb host sends me a WhatsApp voice message, "we're about 10 minutes away". We are actually nearly 250km away from his actual Airbnb. But he's picking me up from Alajuela, near SJO airport, where I spent a cold sleepless night in a windowless room (closet).

How?!

Aspirations

Rewind back to about 3 weeks ago, when I was sitting in my room in Ojochal where I got too bored of cleaning casitas and not talking to people, and was looking at alternatives to how to spend the rest of my time in Costa Rica, and decided to go to Nosara to do a 1-week intensive Spanish + surfing course. I had also applied for their homestay, but their affordable homestays were fully-booked. So I looked at Airbnb, narrowed it down to 3 according to distance and budget. One was an entire apartment to myself with A/C but the host sounded like a Gringo; another was a room in a house with a pool with a lady who did yoga and meditation and also some kind of spiritual stuff that made it sound kind of iffy; and then there was Julio's place, a room in a Tico family house in a Tico area, with shared kitchen and shared bathroom and laundry facilities. I chose Julio's - while it was basic, it seemed the most "normal", and it was the closest thing to a homestay.

Spontaneity is superb // Costa Rica 30 May - 1 June

Manuel Antonio 

...is a place. It was a place I wasn't going to visit at all - it is one of those places that guidebooks put 3 stars, many Costa Rica travel blogs write about, and all newspaper articles writing a short feature on Costa Rica will mention. I wasn't exactly put off by that per se, but I had already chosen Corcovado for my experience-the-wild part of the trip

And while Corcovado was, compared to Manuel Antonio, definitely more untouched, unspoilt, screams RAW AND WILD RAINFOREST, M.A. turned out to be the most fun so far.

Corcovado/Drake was a great experience - the rainforest tour where I met great people, the solo-hike where I discovering beautiful views and animals on my own. And I had a lot of time to myself, which I used for reading, chilling, catching up on news, catching up on my own thoughts...

But I was so glad I decided last minute to tag along with a bunch of strangers to a different part of the country. It was only for two nights, I didn't sleep very well in those two, but it was still very refreshing.

Howler monkeys

Sloths, sand and shots // Costa Rica 25-30 May

Well. In my last post I did say change of plans.
And what a change of plans and scenery it has been indeed.

I went from sweeping casitas to searching for sleepy sloths; from making dinner for one to sitting with lovely people from 6 different nationalities doing shots; from 'learning Spanish on Netflix' (watching Narcos Mexico) alone in my hut in the hills to learning slang in German, French (European AND Canadian), Costa Rican-Spanish.

Leaving "Best beach town for American retirees" on Monday 27th May, I traveled south-east, down the coast towards Drake Bay in the Osa Peninsula.

Drake Bay is a hilly little bay-side town, population of about 1000 residents, accessible only by sea until recently. It's surrounded by lowland tropical rainforest, tourism is its main economy, with a not-too-dense spread of eco-lodges, the occasional soda (local restaurant) and companies running tours to Corcovado National Park, kayaking, and zip-lining tours.

Capuchin monkeys

Corcovado National Park day tour 

The next morning, the 16-seater speedboat left Drake Bay beach at 6am, and an hour and a few sore butts later we were at another beach at the entrance of one of the most biologically treasured parks in the region. Jose was our passionate and scholarly nature guide, who took us through the dense rainforest armed with his powerful telescope, a keen eye for spotting wildlife and classroom-like pop quiz questions for us. With him we saw howler monkeys, squirrel monkeys, spider monkeys, a sloth (life goal achieved!!!), a baby hawk in its nest, a coati, spoonbills and many other types of birds and lizards I can't name, including species that were endangered and only found in Costa Rica. It was a good amount of walking, waiting, trying very hard to peek through dense canopies, but the result was rewarding and truly eye-opening. Most of these animals were things I had never ever seen before. And the fact that the Osa Peninsula holds possibly the highest natural diversity on the planet, inspiring The National Geographic magazine to describe it as "the most biologically intense place on earth", is mindblowing and humbling.

Baby hawk

Woodpecker

SLOTH!! Life goal TICK!

Drake Bay Hikes

The next day, blessed with beautiful weather, I did a 10km hike on the Drake Bay Hiking Trail, hugging the coastline, watching the waves crash into rocks below, spotting wildlife and chatting to friendly travelers along the way.

At night, the weather stayed dry so I did a night hike with a guide, spotting spotty frogs, spiders, grasshoppers, and other creepy crawlies.

Red eye tree frog

Granular dart frog - poisonous and endemic to Costa Rica

It's beautiful, but I couldn't stay

It rained A LOT in the Osa. It was raining the entire afternoon I arrived, and coupled with a powercut, there wasn't much to do except sit outside in the patio and read while feeding mosquitos. I ventured out with my raincoat for a walk and soon found out that my raincoat is NOT thunderstorm-kind-of-rain-proof. Fortunately, power came back on as soon as I got back from my walk, drenched, and ready for a lukewarm shower. The next day it rained halfway through our Corcovado tour. Again, raincoat wasn't much use after 20 minutes, and definitely no use on the hour-plus long ride trecherously bumpy speedboat ride back to Drake through the storm. My fingers were purple from the cold, and my ass as well from being thrown off and on our benches every 5 seconds.

From having no plans to having beach buddies

I met up with a few fellow travelers from the Corcovado Park tour for drinks and dinner that evening - a French brother & sister pair, and a Spanish-Costa Rican couple. Both pairs were heading off to Manuel Antonio in the next 2 days. I had previously written Manuel Antonio off as being a bit too touristy and more for families than solo travelers like me, but over a beer with these new friends, I was convinced to join them - there wasn't much else going on in this tiny village, I needed to get out of the rain, and very importantly Daniela & Roberto offered me a seat in their car :D I only had 2 nights booked at Drake Bay anyway and had no plans for another 3 nights.

That's the beauty of solo traveling, not making many plans ahead, being flexible and open to suggestions.

So - off to Manuel Antonio!

...Which I will continue in my next post. Where the aforementioned shots and 6-nations and slangs come in. And my reward of meeting great people, and being able to share the excitement of finding a sloth or a howler monkey with them.

I'll end with this sweet little thing - 4-month-old Rio, a relatively new resident at my accommodation in Drake called Casa El Tortugo which was excellent by the way - 5 stars for cute pets and massive breakfasts!

Puppy eyes <3 td="">