Everything exceptional
The last episode of our CR miniseries (in a cool TV vocab ;)) will be about some of those small differences that make this country so unique. I'd like to think that we became somewhat more than ordinary tourists, not real Ticos, of course, but somewhere in between. We did some touristy stuff (more about that here) and some beach hopping (more about that here) but mainly we tried to enjoy our time there while fitting in with the locals (a bit difficult considering the "gringo" look that we might have) :D.
As I already told you, we had kind of a daily routine - woke up at 7am, did some work and went to the beach at 3pm. When we arrived, we could not enjoy the evening longer than till 7pm, cause I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer (jet lag) - I think it was only after two weeks when I could watch the clock strike 10pm for the first time. That explains our evening activities. After these two weeks, we usually read or watched a movie after dinner. As it gets dark pretty soon in CR (6pm) we weren't keen on going anywhere except for one time, when we took our headlights and went on an adventure - a stroll around the Finca. We hoped to see some animals, which we did but not the ones we expected.
There were small emerald green 'lights' everywhere which we knew could not be lights, of course. We guessed maybe some stones? But there were so many of them, it couldn't be. So after taking a closer look, we learnt those were spider eyes. After that, we saw them everywhere and they were beautiful. Btw as there were no lights we could watch the night sky in its full beauty.
Other than that, we pretty much did the usual stuff. What we especially liked was cooking some CR meals. That meant (at least for us): Gallo pinto (any time of the day; rice with beans and pepper), lots and lots of avocados (in all shapes and sizes), patacones (deep-fried plantain patties) and fruits. I am sure that if we invited Ticos for dinner, they would probably be surprised by our rendition but we liked it. Btw when it comes to fruits, CR is a total paradise - price-wise, selection-wise and taste-wise. We usually bought fruits and vegetables on the street or in the markets. The best pineapple deal we got, was during our first week when we bought 3 pineapples for a thousand colones (around 2 USD). Unfortunately, this never happened again :D. Here's a photo of one of our shopping trip - 4 mangas (no, not mangos, mangas), 5 bananas, a papaya and a guanabana (please ignore the beer :D). This all cost 4148 colones = 8,2 USD. And this was quite expensive - 70 colones for a banana is a lot ;).
During our first week, we tried to shop locally - in Samara. That didn't quite work for us because that particular Pali (CR grocery stores) had mostly unhealthy and easy to make stuff for the tourists that lived there. The fruit was a disaster, I will not even talk about meat - that was the only time we went there. Next weeks, every Friday, we made a little shopping trip to Nicoya which was much better! There were a small bakery, fruit and vegetable market and a Super Compro that had everything else. So this became part of our routine. There we could also watch Ticos living their everyday life and got to see the unbelievably wide and deep road trenches - they were obviously necessary during the rainy season.
I never got used to seeing Ticos in their long pants. I wore all kinds of shorts and playsuits, drenched with sweat and they were fine in them jeans! :D They were also extremely patient when it comes to waiting (in lines). On our first trip to Nicoya, we had one really important goal - to get a data card for our mobile wifi router. We carefully prepared what we are going to ask for (in Spanish) and went in. We waited for approximately half an hour, with people coming and going, one person skipping the queue and nobody blinked an eye. Funny story: we waited and managed to buy a card in Spanish. It was some kind of promotion and we got a card with some basic data for 1000 colones. We left happy that we had been able to do it and that it had not cost a fortune.
Useful tip: Before accomplishing this amazing goal of yours, check if your portable wi-fi router works in CR. Ours did not (despite working in all neighbouring countries).
When we came home and found this out, we could only toast to the fact that we had not gone to Liberia because of this.
We always passed by a police station on our way to Nicoya and one uneventful afternoon - obviously both for us and for the policemen - the police decided to do a random check right there in front of the station. We spotted it when we were maybe the fifth car in the queue. What made our day was the guy in the fourth car because when he saw them, he got out, ran to his trunk, checked something and ran back to the car. We did not know if he was making sure something was well hidden or making sure whether something was not there. Either way, if you imagine him - he was in his fifties, mind you - running back and forth while trying to be as low key as possible, then opening the trunk quickly, closing it just as quickly and then sitting in the car like this had not happened, you have no other chance just to laugh.
I have said several times before that we fell in love with CR and that CR has been very kind to us. We often came across monkeys, colourful birds, crocodiles (not that often in this case ;)) and whatnot. However, the most exceptional thing happened on our very last evening in CR and our very last beach trip. We decided to go to Barrigona beach (even deciding where to spend our last hours had been difficult) and in hindsight, we could not be happier that we did. When the sun started setting down we went for a little walk along the beach and found a family with two children watching something closely. After a few seconds, we realized there were baby turtles "running" to get to the water. They moved their little flippers as fast as they could to get to "safety". There were lots of them so any way you turned you could watch a couple struggling in the sand. Some were slower, some faster but all of them needed a few second pause in the sand to catch their breath. After they got into the water, they relaxed, took one last breath and disappeared in the waves. The huge luck we had! UN-BE-LIE-VA-BLE! It makes me smile even now (almost 6 months later) when I think about it. We like to think that we probably saved some of those tiny little creatures because no bird would come hunting when there were humans present ;). And I also need to mention the responsible and sensible parenting skills we witnessed - when the children were trying to catch and touch the turtles, their parents explained that they couldn't (and why) and then children just enjoyed watching them - thumbs up 'cause I am pretty sure that most of the people let the kids do whatever they want.
Of course, the next day, when we loaded the car and said bye to our hosts (in fact we said Auf Wiedersehen, remember, they were German :)) I cried half the trip to San Jose. And again on the plane. I was barely able to watch the take-off and by the way, San Jose is my favourite airport when it comes to views when taking off/landing. So I'm glad I somehow stopped crying to watch that.
There's plenty we could bore you with because as you can imagine, there's plenty that had happened throughout a month. Despite that, we will move on to Mexico and tell you something about our stay there. So C U there & thanks for reading!
As I already told you, we had kind of a daily routine - woke up at 7am, did some work and went to the beach at 3pm. When we arrived, we could not enjoy the evening longer than till 7pm, cause I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer (jet lag) - I think it was only after two weeks when I could watch the clock strike 10pm for the first time. That explains our evening activities. After these two weeks, we usually read or watched a movie after dinner. As it gets dark pretty soon in CR (6pm) we weren't keen on going anywhere except for one time, when we took our headlights and went on an adventure - a stroll around the Finca. We hoped to see some animals, which we did but not the ones we expected.
There were small emerald green 'lights' everywhere which we knew could not be lights, of course. We guessed maybe some stones? But there were so many of them, it couldn't be. So after taking a closer look, we learnt those were spider eyes. After that, we saw them everywhere and they were beautiful. Btw as there were no lights we could watch the night sky in its full beauty.
 |
| Gallo pinto with some fried plantains |
Other than that, we pretty much did the usual stuff. What we especially liked was cooking some CR meals. That meant (at least for us): Gallo pinto (any time of the day; rice with beans and pepper), lots and lots of avocados (in all shapes and sizes), patacones (deep-fried plantain patties) and fruits. I am sure that if we invited Ticos for dinner, they would probably be surprised by our rendition but we liked it. Btw when it comes to fruits, CR is a total paradise - price-wise, selection-wise and taste-wise. We usually bought fruits and vegetables on the street or in the markets. The best pineapple deal we got, was during our first week when we bought 3 pineapples for a thousand colones (around 2 USD). Unfortunately, this never happened again :D. Here's a photo of one of our shopping trip - 4 mangas (no, not mangos, mangas), 5 bananas, a papaya and a guanabana (please ignore the beer :D). This all cost 4148 colones = 8,2 USD. And this was quite expensive - 70 colones for a banana is a lot ;).
During our first week, we tried to shop locally - in Samara. That didn't quite work for us because that particular Pali (CR grocery stores) had mostly unhealthy and easy to make stuff for the tourists that lived there. The fruit was a disaster, I will not even talk about meat - that was the only time we went there. Next weeks, every Friday, we made a little shopping trip to Nicoya which was much better! There were a small bakery, fruit and vegetable market and a Super Compro that had everything else. So this became part of our routine. There we could also watch Ticos living their everyday life and got to see the unbelievably wide and deep road trenches - they were obviously necessary during the rainy season.
 |
| Quesadillas with guacamole |
I never got used to seeing Ticos in their long pants. I wore all kinds of shorts and playsuits, drenched with sweat and they were fine in them jeans! :D They were also extremely patient when it comes to waiting (in lines). On our first trip to Nicoya, we had one really important goal - to get a data card for our mobile wifi router. We carefully prepared what we are going to ask for (in Spanish) and went in. We waited for approximately half an hour, with people coming and going, one person skipping the queue and nobody blinked an eye. Funny story: we waited and managed to buy a card in Spanish. It was some kind of promotion and we got a card with some basic data for 1000 colones. We left happy that we had been able to do it and that it had not cost a fortune.
Useful tip: Before accomplishing this amazing goal of yours, check if your portable wi-fi router works in CR. Ours did not (despite working in all neighbouring countries).
When we came home and found this out, we could only toast to the fact that we had not gone to Liberia because of this.
 |
| View from our terrace |
We always passed by a police station on our way to Nicoya and one uneventful afternoon - obviously both for us and for the policemen - the police decided to do a random check right there in front of the station. We spotted it when we were maybe the fifth car in the queue. What made our day was the guy in the fourth car because when he saw them, he got out, ran to his trunk, checked something and ran back to the car. We did not know if he was making sure something was well hidden or making sure whether something was not there. Either way, if you imagine him - he was in his fifties, mind you - running back and forth while trying to be as low key as possible, then opening the trunk quickly, closing it just as quickly and then sitting in the car like this had not happened, you have no other chance just to laugh.
 |
| Random vulture photo - they were everywhere! |
I have said several times before that we fell in love with CR and that CR has been very kind to us. We often came across monkeys, colourful birds, crocodiles (not that often in this case ;)) and whatnot. However, the most exceptional thing happened on our very last evening in CR and our very last beach trip. We decided to go to Barrigona beach (even deciding where to spend our last hours had been difficult) and in hindsight, we could not be happier that we did. When the sun started setting down we went for a little walk along the beach and found a family with two children watching something closely. After a few seconds, we realized there were baby turtles "running" to get to the water. They moved their little flippers as fast as they could to get to "safety". There were lots of them so any way you turned you could watch a couple struggling in the sand. Some were slower, some faster but all of them needed a few second pause in the sand to catch their breath. After they got into the water, they relaxed, took one last breath and disappeared in the waves. The huge luck we had! UN-BE-LIE-VA-BLE! It makes me smile even now (almost 6 months later) when I think about it. We like to think that we probably saved some of those tiny little creatures because no bird would come hunting when there were humans present ;). And I also need to mention the responsible and sensible parenting skills we witnessed - when the children were trying to catch and touch the turtles, their parents explained that they couldn't (and why) and then children just enjoyed watching them - thumbs up 'cause I am pretty sure that most of the people let the kids do whatever they want.
Of course, the next day, when we loaded the car and said bye to our hosts (in fact we said Auf Wiedersehen, remember, they were German :)) I cried half the trip to San Jose. And again on the plane. I was barely able to watch the take-off and by the way, San Jose is my favourite airport when it comes to views when taking off/landing. So I'm glad I somehow stopped crying to watch that.
There's plenty we could bore you with because as you can imagine, there's plenty that had happened throughout a month. Despite that, we will move on to Mexico and tell you something about our stay there. So C U there & thanks for reading!