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March 13, 2007
Costa Rica Vacation
(This blog entry is long overdue, since we got back from vacation almost 3 weeks ago now!)
After completing this race, my sweetie and I had a 10-day vacation in Costa Rica. We rented a small SUV in the capitol city of San Jose and forged out to the Pacific Coast. For 10 days, we made our way south along the coast, visiting little towns, national parks, and beaches along the way. We found the literal and figurative end of the road on the Osa Peninsula, way down near the Panama border. From there, on foot, we went even further into the Costa Rican wilderness. It was an adeventure I won't soon forget, and here is a short photo tour of the highlights of this 10-day adventure.
After completing a 6-day stage race while traversing the Costa Rican backcountry, we sought out a bit of indulgence in the food and beverage category. These passion fruit margaritas were certainly a highlight of this indulgence. We drank these margaritas on the deck of a restuarant that was perched on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean at sunset. I cannot imagine a more perfect way to let the 6-days of pain, dirt, discomfort, fatigue, and soreness of racing melt away from one's body.
Just outside of a town called Dominical, we randomly stumbled upon this bed-and-breakfast. It's called Costa Paraiso, and, if you ever make it to this part of the world, you must stay the night here. The accommodations are simple but sufficient, no luxury to be found here. However, the inn's location was outstanding, on the edge of a point jutting into the ocean. We ran miles on the beach at sunset, then again at sunrise. We lazed in hammocks in the dark, listening to the waves hit the point of rocks. We had a great morning breakfast on the inn's deck, overlooking the ocean.
They joke in Costa Rica about monkeys outnumbering human populations. Along the remote southern Pacific Coast, I believe this to be true. When we first started seeing monkeys, we took photos of them in their troops high in the treetops. Little did we know that we would have some close encounters with them. This is a White-Faced Capuchin Monkey, and it was just hanging out in a tree about 3 feet from a trail that we hiked. These guys may be little, but they are agile creatures. We watched them move gracefully through treetops hundreds of feet above the ground.
After several days of traveling, we arrived to one of the outposts of the Osa Peninsula, the tiny village of Drake Bay. Here, the road ends and you must walk or take a boat to your next destination along the coast. We left our car and hopped a boat to a small hotel down the coast called Drake Bay Wilderness Resort. What an experience this was! There was no electricity; we slept in the most simple of accommodations; we were just 2 little organisms amongst the tremendous diversity that is the jungles of Costa Rica. This experience made me feel like the tiniest of creatures in a great big, unending world. It was an amazing experience.
We went to Drake Bay with the express intent of looking for the whale and dolphin populations that live in the area at this time of year. We spent a day on a boat and did we ever see whales and dolphins! We also got to spend some time snorkeling atop a coral reef, which was exciting as well. However, my favorite experience of the day was chillin' with a sailfish. While motoring around in the boat, we saw the tail fin of this sailfish sticking out of the water. We went over to the fish, and it swam next to our boat for about 10 minutes before it headed off into the deep. It swam so gracefully and its electric blue stripes flashed in the sun as it moved. I know these creatures are the sought-after prizes of deep sea sport fisherfolk, and I wanted to tell this fish, "Go deep and stay there! Watch out for those baited hooks! Don't get caught!"
After 3 days in Drake Bay, we took a boat back to our car and decided to go to the real end of the Costa Rican earth. We drove our little SUV down some awesome 4x4 tracks (Got a flat tire! And got it fixed!) across the Osa Peninsula to a place called Carate. Literally, Carate has about 3 residences and 1 "store," I kid you not. It also has an airstrip, upon which charter flights bring a few tourists every now and again. Where the road ends, the beach travel begins. From Carate, it's about 2 miles down the beach to 2 tiny hotels and the border of Corcovado National Park. Along the beach, these horse carts are used to carry goods to and from the national park and the hotels. We parked our car near the airstrip, and walked along the beach to a little hotel called Corcovado Lodge Tent Camp. What a fun place! For 3 days, we slept in open-air tents atop wooden platforms, hiked jungle trails, and walked and ran along the beach.
Corcovado National Park, a large park located on the Osa Peninsula, has a great system of trails that run near to the beach and also into the jungle. We spent a day ambling along a beach trail, exploring the park. There is no one out there! It was just us and the wide ocean and the deep jungle. This was my favorite part of our vacation.
After returning to our car in Carate, we made a long and arduous drive along the frightening Pan American Highway back to San Jose. The highway is narrow and crowded with traffic all kinds. It ascends and descends some serious mountain passes. At one point, the road climbs above 10,000 feet elevation! We arrived safely back into the capitol city of Costa Rica. On our last day of vacation, we took a guided rafting trip down the Class IV and V Pacuare River. It rained cats and dogs and buckets of warm rainforest rain all day, but we had a great time floating through the jungle and running some wild rapids. It was a great ending to a superb vacation.
Posted by Meghan at March 13, 2007 7:59 PM
Comments
Beautiful pictures, they made me want to go on vacation soon. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: mary at March 14, 2007 7:50 AM
Wow-wow-wow! I want to go - it looks and sounds beautiful. What an experience!
Posted by: backofpack at March 14, 2007 8:44 AM
Aha, Wyoming Meghan (duly noted!) - wonderful photos. Such a completely different world. Those margaritas look a whole lot better than the margarita Clif Bloks (sorry, Clif!). Cool, maybe we can run together a the HURL Elkhorn run, if I'm up to speed by then. Or one of the Bozy runs. Or just a training run. :)
Posted by: Kendra Borgy at March 14, 2007 10:13 AM
Why on earth did you guys come back?! Those photos are awesome. What an adventure.
I wish Google Earth had hi-res images of all Costa Rica. I can barely follow along. There are a few squares at hi-res. Drake Bay and most of Cocovado beaches are in hi-res. It looks like paradise.
Posted by: JeffO at March 14, 2007 11:55 AM
Oh, what a great spot to vacation with sweetie!! Great pictures!
Posted by: olga at March 14, 2007 12:15 PM
I'm going to agree with Michelle and just say WOW! I'm afraid if I stayed in such a paradise for very long that I'd just lay around like the monkey after a while.
Thanks for giving us an update and for the cougar tips!
Posted by: Eric at March 14, 2007 9:32 PM
Great pics! It must have taken everything you had to get on the plane to come home... :)
Posted by: Beth at March 15, 2007 4:57 AM
... and the wonderful thing is... that Nature through your eyes and tales becomes a wonderfully big nurturing entity... if only your touch and sensitivity to Nature's value and beauty - instead of much widespread emphasis on fear and discomfort one could face in Nature - was better distributed amongst the many, well... maybe things would get better in these environment-fragile days... If this whole ultra-running "thing" could make people really love the world we live in, as well as make them feel challenged as they try to inhabit it, survive in it, and live to tell the story for ongoing generations, well... maybe things might just gradually improve... thanks to the sort things you and your sweetie are doing... no kidding...
Posted by: corraado giambalvo at March 15, 2007 8:43 AM
oh, WOW! Spectacular photos! It does indeed look like paradise! What an ideal trip. Does it GET any better? I think not. :)
Posted by: anne at March 15, 2007 3:05 PM