From the volcano to a pawn shop // Panama and Colombia 19-26 June

While I still can’t get over how beautiful the Pacific Coast sunsets at Nosara were, I think I’m still more of a mountain person than a beach person. I find comfort and tranquility in the terrain, the greenness, the cool air that comes with each fresh breeze.

In the morning I met up with Aiko again for breakfast, together with the rest of her yacht crew, for breakfast at Kwang Chow Restaurant for DIM SUM - YES I never thought I’d have DIM SUM for breakfast in Central America. To be fair it wasn’t great. The owner even gave me some recommendations for better Chinese food in the city, maybe because I talked to her in Cantonese. She said her restaurant is more for the ‘gwai lo’ tastes. But still it filled a craving for me.

The minibus to El Valle De Anton had 2 gears - death speed, or dead stop. It stopped several times along the way to wait around to pick up passengers, sometimes we waited for ages for just a few more passengers; the only consolation was seeing all sorts of bus snacks being sold by snack-sellers popping into the bus during those stoppages - cups of cut up fruit with condensed milk, plantain chips and nuts, churros…If I didn’t already have so many snacks with me I would have bought them all. When we were in motion, the bus would be going at full speed along the Pan-American Highway.

I stayed at the Bodhi Hostel - a nice simple hostel with a huge kitchen, huge garden and smoothies from heaven. I’m normally not one for dorms but they didn’t have private rooms and thought I could give up a couple nights of quality sleep and catch up when I’m back in my air-conditioned room and double bed in the 10th floor apartment in the city. More on sleep later.

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="">

Can't sit still // Costa Rica 18-24 May

Pet update: One of the chicks disappeared the other night :( Now we're left with one hen and one chick. Daisy the chubby mutt is as sweet as ever, greeting me with a "pet me please" look on her face every morning. Oso the lab still loves bananas and stepping on my feet and taking my hand with his mouth. I've been trying to hand feed bananas to the ducks, still no success but they are inching slightly closer every day.

Daisy is always chill as ever, unless there's a thunderstorm.

Luca was momentarily heartbroken when we told him that Yang (the white
 one) had disappeared :(

Staff update: my co-worker handyman Mr. F has announced his departure after a month and a half or so here, citing the need to seek medical attention. But I think he's a bit frustrated about the lack of decent tools and the overly laid-back attitudes around here.

My update:
The original plan was to spend 3-4 weeks here chilling, doing a bit of work, adapting to the lifestyle, self-study Spanish, perhaps interact with the local community, before heading off to visit a couple of national parks for 10 days, which will take me to 15 June which is when my flight to Panama is booked for.

But after 11 days, I reckon I've spent enough time chilling here. It's an absolutely lovely place to be in, but there's just too little going on here. My mental rhythm, my internal pace-maker, programmed by living most of my life in a city is catching up with me, and it's giving me itchy feet again. I also haven't been studying as much Spanish as intensely as I'd like, and I haven't had any meaningful interactions with anyone other than my colleague Mr. F. here and the owner. Turns out the 'local community' is majority white & retired North Americans who own or stay in these big casitas in big plots of land (and come here for free ta, and not very many Ticos (local Costa Ricans) other than builders, gardeners and maintenance guys looking after these places.

My social life is hungry. My brain is thirsty. I want to do more, see the country more, interact more.

While I do 'work' here, I don't feel like it is a great use of my time or skills. Before I arrived, the owners said other than general helping out, they also wanted to pick my brain about the business-side, and give them suggestions. I don't proclaim to have any concrete knowledge or experience in running a hospitality business, but I did share what I observed and know from experience of travel, growing up in a very hospitable home and seeing how my family run their hospitality businesses.

But it turns out that owners have built this place not really with the intention of running it as a business per se, but as a lifestyle. The rental villas are a way for them to share this space and environment with others, and the rates they charge are simply to cover their costs and keep it going. They aren't so driven about business as to perfect every detail and fix every bit of wear and tear. They have people come here to use their space for free for Tai Chi class, meditation sessions, 'spirituality' talks and yoga class. They grow all sorts of fruits and vegetables in the gardens for volunteers & staff to help themselves to eat. Their groundsman Mr. M spends half his day chilling out and watching YouTube videos. The philosophy of this place is to share, chill and let be.

And it's a great philosophy. I just don't feel like I'M the one they need here. And there's just something about flying halfway across the world to clean houses, feed chickens, watch Netflix and learn a bit of Spanish on my phone just doesn't feel quite right. 

Also stumbling upon this article has really challenged me and what I'm doing here
http://www.unavainabienspanish.com/volunteer/

But I sure will miss is sipping my morning cuppa watching hummingbirds sip their morning nectar from the Heliconias around my deck. And picking wild mangos.

So change of plans: I'm leaving in 2 days, going to Drake Bay (gateway to Corcovado National Park) for a few days (apparently it is the most biologically intense place on the planet), booked myself into a family-run lodge, and will get a local guide to take me trekking & wildlife spotting. After that, I'm looking into doing a 1 week intensive Spanish + Surfing course in the coastal town of Nosara. All of this is a lot more money, but at least it's going to the local economy and I'm learning new skills. I've also left a week unplanned at the end - I'll either be staying on the coast or going up a volcano.

Plus the mosquitos are absolutely killing me. I am either completely lathered in bug-repellent cream, or in Mopiko - bite-relief cream. So, I am literally getting itchy feet, pun-intended.

Random bits

This week I learned

• how to use an electric drill
• and what gecko poo looks like.

And some qwik bits about Costa Rica:

• Up until 2013, its largest source of income was microchips before the huge Intel plant moved to Asia in early 2014.
• Renewable energy in Costa Rica supplied about 98.1% of the electrical energy output for the entire nation in 2016.
• It is home to over 5% of the entire world's animal and plant species. 
• It hasn't had an army since 1949, and they're VERY proud of it.
• Instead, all that money goes into health care (11% of GDP) and education (7% of GDP), making it a very peaceful, politically stable and highly educated and developed nation in a region quite often troubled by turmoil. 

They love their craft beers here in Costa Rica!

One of the few restaurants in this village serves international 
cuisine - wasn't expecting to find bahn mi and kimchi gyozas 
out here! (Gyozas were not great, bahn mi was not bad).

Mango hunters

Day off in the nearby surf town of Dominical - where I had 
the best grilled-cheese sandwich of my life 
(out of not-very many)

"Pet ME, not the darn cat." - Oso

From landing in SJO to feeding chickens // Costa Rica 9-17 May

San Jose, 10th May 

...Who was I kidding, staying at a hostel for $28/night (for a private room) on my first night in Costa Rica? I don't think I got a wink of sleep, despite the mostly-sleepless 28-hour journey from Hong Kong to San Jose via Madrid. There was no hot shower, no air-conditioning, and very thin walls. I wasn't quite ready for the backpacker lifestyle just yet. At 6:30am I got up and booked myself a night into a hotel room right in the city center (Hotels.com points - so it was almost free, thanks to lots of duty travel during by BA years!)

I took an Uber for the 3-minute ride to the hotel.

And had coffee at the cafe in the National Theatre - hand-drop coffee of the beans of a choice from one of the seven provinces of Costa Rica.

And finally drinks and dinner with a friend in the nice neighborhood of Escalante.

Today I just needed to feel somewhat alive again, and by any means.

Baby steps to the backpacker life. Baby steps.

Bali Rica, Ojochal, 11th May onwards

Not many Workaway opportunities had availability during this low season and didn't require Spanish ability, but I was accepted by this place called Bali Rica on the Pacific coast in a tiny town called Ojochal. Mac and Sharon had designed and imported a Balinese house from Indonesia, and built 5 other houses on this piece of land - 4 for rental, 1 for themselves and 1 for staff/volunteers.

I've sort of developed a routine now, mostly as a result of natural forces: I wake up between 5-5:30, depending on which one of these two alarms goes off first: when the chickens decide that they've had enough in the coop and start clucking loudly, or the parrots have their daily morning screech-off to announce their arrival and/or talk about the previous night's thunderstorms they'd had to endure.

I go let the chickens out, come back and start the kettle before sweeping the floor of the open kitchen and the deck of the night's debris of dead insects, wings, leaves, and dust.

I make breakfast - tea, overnight oats with yogurt and mango that I've picked up from the road by the beach, and peanut butter on toast (toasted in the George Foreman). The wood-workshop next door would start their electric saws at 6. Sometimes earlier. I eat as hummingbirds and other kinds of birds buzz around my deck, surrounded by tropical greenery.

Everything is still damp because of the rain the night before, even my supposedly quick dry towel is still damp.

From about 8am, I start 'work' (my host hasn't quite formally discussed with me the terms and chores, but rattles off when she sees me out and about). So far I've been helping clean the various buildings (volunteer houses, the rental villa, the yoga pavilion), feeding the chickens and ducks, and keeping the dogs company during a thunderstorm. Not really much heavy lifting.

Oso, golden retriever, attention seeker, will chase anything you throw, always happy.

As such, there's a good amount of spare time around here. I've been picking spinach from the garden to sauté for lunch, waiting out the rain and chatting to the other work-exchanger Mr. F, reading and bird watching (spotted my first wild Tucan! And parrots, hummingbirds, wood rails, birds of prey and all sorts of others I can't name), going to the supermarket, picking up mangos from the neighbour's driveway, listening to my Spanish audiobook, talking to the groundsman Mr. M in an awkward mix of English/Spanish/'sign' language and awkwardly pretending to understand each other.

The resident Tucan I saw from my deck!

The grounds here are stunningly lush, diverse, full of wildlife. The veggies and fruit from the grounds are available for my picking - I've only had spinach and bananas but there's supposedly loads more that I've yet to make use of - ginger, pineapple, papaya, coconut, some sort of mandarin...it goes without saying that everything is organic.

Day off - surfing! 
Yesterday I had the day off and so I took the bus (after waiting for almost an hour and a half and unsuccessful attempts at hitchhiking) to Uvita which was 20 mins away for a surfing lesson. Attempting to learn how to surf in the weak-yet-unpredictable waves at the beaches outside of Tokyo with a friend had made me think that surfing was highly difficult and dangerous, especially after I ended up with 3 stitches on my left leg. But with a dedicated instructor, very frequent and consistently easy waves, and a beginner board, I was riding the waves after a couple attempts. The hard part was dragging the board and myself back out every time! Now I just need to find a beach nearby with nice easy waves and a shop to rent a board for practice...

Bananas from the garden, conveniently hung at my height by Mainor the gardener

Playa Tortuga, the nearest beach from the property. Free mangos.