Tamarindo: Surf Town

I can only think about my dad right now and that I wish he was here. We are in a surf town today. Surf shops and surfers everywhere. Surf town is fine but maybe not so great for people who don't surf lol.

This morning we hung out at our hotel in Playa Del Coco then started the string of buses that would get us to to Tamarindo. It was so hot and humid, the bus was pretty miserable. A few hours later we arrived.

The hostel lady was so rude and short tempered. It's the worst hostel experience from staff I've ever had. 

The room though has air conditioning so I won't complain too much. Not sure how I am supposed to occupy three days here though. Maybe I'll find some more diving, problem is when the hostel personnel are not friendly then it makes finding activities very difficult. I'll go on the hunt tomorrow. Hannah is currently off with one of the men she met. I am sitting on a beautiful beach watching the sun go down. But then I will be running inside to escape the mosquitos. ;) 

It is pretty, beaches just aren't my ideal of a perfect vacation. I would be happy going back to the mountains with the cool weather, hot springs, and waterfalls. But compromise. No room to complain. I'm on a beach, in Costa Rica.

Pura Vida ✌🏻️

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Diving with Sharks

Today I dove. Not going to lie I was nervous! I have not dove since Fiji, 2 summers ago. There were 8 of us diving and I was partnered with the master diver who was so kind and held my hand literally. So we are on the little boat and go out about 15 minutes, and then the boat starts to rock. Of course the sea sickness sets in... The one time I don't have Dramamine in my purse. Gear up, including the horrific wetsuit. Have you ever worn a wet suit? They stink. By the way everything is currently moving right now even though I'm on solid ground. Okay so, gear up and fall in. As we decend I can't sink. My instructor leaves me on the rope and surfaces to get me more weights. No problem now, I swear he attached an anchor to me. Sank just fine. He held my hand for the first 15 minutes of the dive. What was crazy were the swells. You know in the movie Finding Nemo where the turtles are riding the current? Yeah. It was like that. We would just get taken along, then pushed back, then a warm current would come in, then a freezing cold one. It was interesting. Okay for first time down we saw lots of rays. All sorts of them! There was a crazy lobster. The neatest thing I saw by far were the octopi. Octopi? Anyway the octopus was unreal! You couldn't see it at all on these red rocks then the instructor touched it. Bam it saw away turning an electric blue. Then it landed on a yellowish rock and bam it wa a yellow. I was amazed! I've never seen anything camouflage like that before and to see a living thing change to three different colors in a minute! Everytime he found an octopus I was amazed! You need to google it. The second dive we went on the first thing we saw were sharks. Decend. Bam, 3 white tipped reef sharks.  Then huge eels. Like huuuge. Also some small ones. Tons of fish on both dives. At least 20 different species. The puffer fish were beautiful. The visibility was okay. Nothing like Fiji but decent. There wAs also a small sunken ship. Anyway. What an experience! 

Then I came back and swam with Hannah and had some beach time.

The mosquitos here are horrible! My back and back of my arms has been attacked. Also my ankle and parts of my legs. Hannah met this boy and he is COVERED in bites. Hundreds. I've never seen anything like it. Apparently mosquitos are attracted to certain a people's bacteria and scents. Great, they love me. Also they target you from 50yrd away. I'm a walking mosquito feeder. 

Glad I can be of service.

My mom messaged me saying glad I was going to look extra nice for JW. Great, especially since those bites takes weeks to heal. 

I just got back from the smoothie shop. This time fruit and beets with some protein powder. 

Beets make the most beautiful color! There will be not many photos of me in the coming time since I'm not a beach person. You know how some girls go to the beach and their hair naturally waves, their skin glows, and they have that beach look? Yeah. No. I'm the one who looks like the beach attacked me. Not something I was blessed with. I am freaked out about these mosquitos and having to live with them for the next week and a half. I miss the mountains already. 

On another note the appetite is back!

Also I bought shampoo. I really hope it helps the hair situation. It was a lot do am fingers crossed. 

Okay back to relaxing. 

Oh I should mention I almost got hit by a boat. Did I also mention the crow who attacked my head yesterday? I was walking down the beach and literally it open clawed grabbed my skull. Ok so tee were making our accent on the second dive and I start going up. Next thing I know my dive master is grabbing my leg pulling me down and someone is pushing me from the shoulders. Really quickly, I look up and a boat is right there. Apparently it was a close call bc when we surfaced my dive master started yelling at the boat captain, like a lot. Then he was telling the others in our boat about it, all in Spanish but phew. Another thing. I physically felt someone shove my shoulders down as he grabbed me from below but I'm not sure if there was another diver above me.... Guess I'll never know but I'm glad I want sucked into a propeller today. 

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Playa De Coco

This morning we left Monte Verde at 5am, that was early. Hence no photos. We then traveled by bus 2 hours and got off literally at a road junction. 

We sat on a makeshift bech under a mango tree and all around us were rotting mangoes. Mangos. ? Es or s anyway. Imagine the bugs and the smell. Now do it times two. About 40 min later a bus came and we got on that to Liberia. A few more hours later we arrive. At the bus station we find that we need to go to another bus station. Luckily a man overheard me and my broken Spanish and showed us where to go. I am always blessed with guardian angkes when traveling. It's so nice. 

Then we get on yet again another bus and travel an hour to Playa De Coco.

It's beautiful! This is right infront of our hotel. I'm staring at it right now while laying on an amazing outdoor bed. I decided when booking this trip that by this time I would need a break from the cheap hostels so hotel on the beach it is. 

This is our cute hotel: I am currently on the second floor patio. 

The view. A thunderstorm is rolling in. Should be fun to watch. But the beach brings rain and major humidity! When we first arrived we were so hot and tired we threw on our suits and raced to the water. It's perfect. Warm, and soft sand. There are cold and hot pockets in the water which is pretty nice. I then went and booked a double dive for tomorrow! Woohoo! So excited! Then we relaxed on the beach. After we headed to the grocery store. I decided to say goodbye to Hannahs college budget and hello to my working professional budget. Fresh smoothies and Subway, loaded with  veggies. I think I will be having these fresh smoothies every day. After that it was baby bell and Greek yogurt. Time to treat myself 😂. Yes, my appetite is coming back! 

This place is awesome and so relaxing. However... Today on the bus my bug spray fell out of my backpack. My nice bug spray. So now I only have the crappy back up one and guess what... Just got out of the shower and noticed my back has been eaten alive! I forgot to spray back there! I also wish I had my aerosol can! That stuff is pricey, I now have a pump one that sprays giants streams of stinking liquid. Further, is it even good to out that on your day on and day out for a month? What is a natural repellent? Wish I had brought some long sleeves.

Ah! It is down pouring! 

I wish it hurt when a mosquito bit you so you knew it was happening. They are silent Devils. Now I'm 8x more likely to have Zika. 😱

One more thing. Did I tell you about the bandaid ripping off my skin on the death hike: 

My foot hurts! 

Until tomorrow. ✌🏻️

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Monteverde: A Cheesy Tour

Today Hannah went zip lining. I really didn't want to do that since I've done it before and some freaking Tarzan swing was involved in this one so I decided to take a pass card. Instead I went on a cheese factory tour. 

Got to sample a bunch of different cheeses and learn about the factory, it was started in the 50's by a group of Quakers from Alabama. They were leaving USA because they didn't sign up for the draft since they didn't believe in the war. Anyway they came to Costa Rica and started a small cheese factory.  Which eventually grew bigger and now makes quite a bit of a cheese. They get all their milk from local small farms with free range cattle and some even still milk by hand. It was neat learning how they made the cheese. And of course samples are a plus. After I had some of their ice cream it was so creamy and delicious! 

I decided to do the hour walk back to town and get my steps in. I made a friend. This little pup followed me for a ways, I just wish I had had some food to give him. Then I stopped and sat for awhile atop a beautiful

Viewpoint:

The pictures don't do this justice, I wish you could actually see it.

and now we are going back to that crazy fig tree. Hopefully this time I can climb it! I think part of what I'm feeling is anemia. That's my self diagnosis but at home I get a lot of my iron from spinach and here... No leafy greens. I probably should have brought supplements but that could explain the fatigue, loss of appetite, maybe. Anyway time to go do the straight up streets again to the tree!

Went back on the crazy steep hike and tried to climb the tree. It was too scary and too high! 

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Monteverde: A Day In The Clouds

Today we walked on clouds. We walked on the top of the world. No, really. 

After breakfast we headed to Selvatura park which is full of hanging bridges. 8 to be exact. We climbed through the rainforest and awed at the natural beauty. 

The bridges were slightly scary. Especially when someone wiggled them, they were indeed high. But as Hannah said the higher the better bc if they break at least we know we are dead and not stuck half broken in a river. Amen.

We met this cute girl named Becky from New York and did the 1.5 hour hike with her. My fit bit was throwing a party on my wrist super early today. No problem hitting 10k this morning. 

Some of the bridges were ontop of the canopy and others like this, through the canopy. By the way I haven't had sugar in 8 days. Costa Rica is going to cleanse me of Americans sugar addiction. Though, I really want some chocolate right now. Hey, at least my appetite is coming back!

After this we walked to the cloud forest: Santa Elena Reserve. 

Almost stepped on this guy. Insane caterpillar! We did an hour hike through intense lush rainforest. Everything was green, huge leaves, miss everwhere, vines, trees growing in Trees and plants on those trees. 

It was beautiful! We then hit this look out point and had to climb this metal tower. 

Then a little ladder through a hole to a platform. Slightly freaky. 

But I made it! The view was great:

Pictures don't do justice. 

Spending the day in the rainforest was awesome! The weather was perfect! 

Then we came back and made dinner. Scrambled some eggs and made a skillet of onions, black beans, peppers, and beets. I know it's a weird combination but it was the cheapest of everything and I needed vegetables. Hey it's dinner for $2 in a very expensive place! Costa Rica ain't cheap! 

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Monteverde: The Ficus Tree

Today we woke and got on a bus. From the bus we boarded a boat with a gorgeous view. 

We traveled across the lake and then onto another bus. I was laughing because my Fitbit thought the bumpy road was me running and suddenly I had 5k steps. Now I need to take it off for awhile. After about 3 hours we arrived in Monteverde and I regret staying here 3 days but we will make the best of it. It is a small town in the midst of major hills and streets steeper than San Francisco. 

Our hostel is next to a construction site and super loud BUT we have a private room with two beds and our own bathroom. After the last hostel though, this is a huge downgrade. We miss our hammocks and the beauty of the last place. Here there are no common areas but luckily we met people yesterday and on the bus. Anyway. We wanted to get something in today and I had read online about this cool tree that is hollow and you can climb it. So we asked the lady and she said it was about 30 min walk. Ok.

We start walking and immediately it is straight up. Up hill for days. We are supposed to turn at an ATM. But we never see an ATM so we keep going up this monster hill and eventually after about 25 min we get to a place to ask for help. 

He missed the turn. Go back down the monster hill and turn at a sign for an ATM/bank not the actual bank. Now go up a steep paved hill that's at least a 70% incline. The tree should be near the school. Keep walking. At this point I'm a walking sauna with this "rain jacket" with no breathability and guess what... Today I learned it's not a rain jacket- rain went right through 😱. Okay so we meet up with 3 that we met yesterday and find the school with a sign that says focus tree and points down. They start walking down a really steep rocky hill and I'm thinking dude the tree is supposed to be right next to the school and if I walk down this hill I'm going to need to go back up it. Well 15 min later at the way way bottom of this super steep hill we are told we have to go all the way back to the top and then turn down a dirt path. Well as we begin to climb I realize I'm in trouble. 

1. I have a head cold and can't breathe through my nose.

2. My blister has popper and the bandaid was so sticky and rubbing that it has rubbed off the skin from the arch of my foot right where my shoe hits. Intense pain. 

3. I don't have water and am sweating bullets.

4. I have eaten 1 banana and 1 kasha bar and it's 1:30pm. Remember the no appetite thing? I didn't realize that. 

5. I'm with a group of hikers who are flying up this hill. 

Okay so honestly this was a really bad situation. When we finally got to the top of the hill I felt faint and had to hold a tree. My arms and legs were shaking like crazy. My nuts! I remembered my emergency nuts and downed them. 

I needed to see Thai tree but I also knew I was in bad shape. 

This is a strangler fig tree and it was many many stories high. When you go in the  cage of roots it looks like this:

Are you kidding how cool! I knew I needed to snap a picture but I also knew I had no strength to climb it. 

Made me sad bc I really wanted to climb it. 

But Wowza! 

This tree is pretty awesome! I've never seen anything like it! Found out its like 159 feet tall. 10 stories! 

Then I told the group I was leaving and attempted to walk the journey back to town and the hostel. Multiple times I had to stop bc I was shaking so badly I couldn't keep my balance going down. I finally made it and bought a water bottle that was way to expensive but it was desperate times. Then got a banana and peanut butter in me and passed out on the bed. By the way. Food here is so expensive! If you are on a budget come to Monteverde for one day. Do the cloud forest and bridges, hike to the ficus tree and get out. ✌🏻️

Update: 

I found food. It even had veggies. Delicious. 

More of an update: 

I have to go back and climb this tree! 

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30th at Baldi Hot Springs

I LOVE LIFE!

Let's say it again...

I LOVE LIFE! Turning 30 is supposed to be scary but are you kidding me... I am living a dream. 

I spent my 30th birthday at Baldi Hot Springs resort. It was 26 pools of various temperatures of volcanic heated water. Each pool had a unique design with waterfalls and secret passages. It was a honeymooners dream. The best part is Hannah and I had the place pretty much to ourselves. There were maybe 10 people there. 

Look at this! I may or may not have been wishing so hard that a certain hot guy could magically appear and share in the romance. ;) 

I just can't. It's so perfect! We went from pil to pool and tested wa h of the waters. The one at the top was SO HOT. Like barely stick your feet in hot. 

A thousand selfies. But hey, there was no one to take our photo. Okay. This place was like a honeymooner's dream. 

Let's back up a bit. Yesterday the internet went out bc of a storm which was stinky but okay. We can all survive without Internet. Then I woke up to a cold shower and pouring rain. Not to mention my hair and skin are FREAKING OUT! Dry, brittle, acne. Then the rain started early and began to STORM! I was thinking... It oh, apparently the universe doesn't think 30 is a good age. BUT we turned it around. Started walking to Baldi... Up hill for 2 hours but our hostel guy said we could hitch hike. I can feel everyone cringe now. You've got to know I'm safe okay. Like the most safe person and I have Hannah and I go into mom mode. (Ps someone thought I was her mom, let's move past that)

So... I put my thumb out and after a few failed attempts got this. Okay 1. Labeled work company truck. 2. Work uniform. 3. Looked happy. So, we got in. AH!!!!! I hitch hiked. Check that off the bucket list. Don't worry I didn't hitch hike home. We got lucky and people we met yesterday happened to leave Baldi at the exact same time so we shared a cab. HF was watching out. 

Let's go back to this beautiful place. They even had a water slide. So we relaxed all day. Then in order to go to dinner you had to have clothes... I walked here in my bathing suit! I started to panic and turned my sarong into a dress. It was bad but oh well. Guess what?! The buffet had... Vegetables! I had a huge plays of beets, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and onions for dinner. It was perfect! 

We sat overlooking the rainforest. Oh! One problem. So if you know me you know I love to explore food. But... I've had no appetite for about a week now. Eating very little and not ever craving food. Off right? I thought it was because I was sick- it first started in Bew Mexico but it hasn't gone away. Weird. But hey! I can lose the weight I've been packin this year. 

Anyway today was incredible. 

Current status: laying in a hammock. 

One more thing. When traveling do not forget nail clippers. You don't realize how fast those darn things grow until you can't clip them. I'm going to go for a raptor look when I get home so as I walk around the wood floors I click. Parents won't know if it's me or the dog. #winning 

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