Respectado the Killer Coral. Pura Vida Costa Rica

For the past two years, I have taken a trip around by birthday.  It's not necessarily something I have planned that way.  The timing has just been convenient.  When my friend Genny invited me to a Costa Rica trip in late August early September, going seemed like the natural thing to do.  I had never been to Costa Rica and heard nothing but good from others who had gone.  My birthday came and went, and Costa Rica was ready for me!  I went with Genny Kyle, Katie McCabe, Phil McCabe, Kelly McCabe, and Trevor Marble.

Our first stop was in a city called La Fortuna which had the Arenal volcano.  It is still an active volcano but currently in a resting stage.  Our resort was just near the base.  It consistently gave off a smoke from the opening at the top.  

While in La Fortuna, we went rappelling down waterfalls that ran from the Penas Blanca river.  They drove us up to the waterfalls in the back of a pick up truck.

I have been rock climbing several times, and once you climb up a mountain side, you have to rappel back down.  Even though I had technically been rappelling, I was much more scared this time.  It's easier to climb up a mountain and then lean back to rappel down.  It's much harder to stand on top of a cliff, turn around, and then lean back like your sitting on an invisible chair.  We rappelled down 5 different water falls and went through this motion each time, and it still never got easier.  I love water parks, roller coaster, and heights don't bother me, unless I have to take the initial step off a cliff.  Water slides don't scare me because the first step I take is a flat one.  Cliff jumping scares me to death because the first step I take is the step that leads to the fall. 

We did 5 different waterfalls and the tallest rappel was 165 feet.   My first rappel going down, I didn't know how far I had gone or how close I was to the ground.  All I could feel was myself getting sucked into the waterfall and I started to panic.  I screamed out a pretty fierce scream thinking I was going to lose control of my rappel.  Very shortly after, I reached the ground only to hear my friends laughing at me and to see the tour guide who was belaying for me with a big grin on his face.  I was the last to come down so everyone saw the joke.  

As you can see, I am barely a speck compared to the giant waterfall.

We loved our tour guides.  Gennie and I snagged a picture with Michaelangelo and Charlie Sheen.  They all had fun pretend names.

We also went zip lining in La Fortuna.  We had to take a tram to the top of a mountain where we would complete 7 zip lines down the mountain.

The Arenal volcano was still nearby sending out smoke.

I have been zip lining a couple times, more recently in Dominican Republic, but my previous experiences were babies compared to how high and long these zip lines were.  The longest zip line was 1/2 mile and we were literally flying over canopies of trees.  It was a rush and so beautiful to look out over the land.  It's like we were flying.

As you can see, I was very graceful in my landings. 

They even had fun names for some of the lines.  The largest one was named Big Daddy and the second largest was named Lil Mama.  

We also went river rafting on the Balsa river, which had level 2-3 rapids.  Out of all the adventures we had done thus far, river rafting is the one that I have done the most.  The river rafting in the US is different.  We have a much calmer ride the majority of the time and then a few big level 4 and 5 rapids.  The river rafting in Costa Rica has smaller rapids, but it is the whole way down.  Very seldom were we not going over white water.  It was a fun adventures.

Because there were so many consistent rapids, there were also many more opportunities to get stuck on rocks.  At one point, our guide had to get out of the raft and pull us off of a huge rock we had gotten high centered on.  Check out the look of determination in his eyes.

At night, we would spend all our time in the pool.  We were water babies the whole trip.

At our first resort, there were 4 different pools and each had a waterside going into it.  Now you might be thinking, "oh, they are just small pool watersides.  They can't be that fast or dangerous."  WRONG!  I have never screamed so much going down a waterside.  I thought I was going to fall over the edge a couple times, and I got shot out of the slide so fast that it ripped my hand away from my nose and got water up my nose.  It was funny to watch the look on each person's face as they rose up out of the water.  It was a look of slight confusion and disorientation about where they were.  It was a brief look but definitely entertaining.

Our second location was called Tortuguero, and it was a small village on the located on a peninsula on the East Coast of Costa Rica.  You could only get there by plane or boat.  We had to take a 1 hour boat ride with all our luggage to get there.  Our first location was all about adventure.  This location was all about nature.  We stayed in bungalow with no glass on the windows, no A/C, and bugs everywhere!  The town only has 1,000 people and there are no roads and no cars.  The beach was beautiful to walk along.  We were warned about entering the ocean because the current was so strong that it was potentially dangerous.  I think a couple of my friends went in but I know to respectado the ocean. 

The first day we arrived, there was a huge iguana outside our bungalow.  We tried to pet it.  I touched it briefly but then immediately pulled away.  There were iguanas everywhere!

We walked into town and it was so insanely  hot.  There was a guy selling fresh coconut water for $1, so I decided to buy one, since all my yoga friends drink it as a good source of hydration.  I DID NOT like it!  Yuck!

Tortuguero is where you should go if you want to see animals everywhere!  

Yep, the spiders there were huge!!!  And they were everywhere....but all the bigs ones stayed outside. The attitude in Costa Rica is that everything is nature and you leave it alone, so thankfully, the spiders returned the favor and left us alone. There was this one kind of spider that we saw a lot that actually spun a web that looked golden when the sunlight hit it.  I chose to nickname them Rumpelstiltskin spiders.

It is the season for turtles to lay eggs in the sand.  They swim to shore, dig a hole in the sand, lay the eggs, cover the whole, and then head back to ocean.  60 days later, the baby turtles are born and head to the ocean.  Our first night there, we paid for an excursion to see the Green Turtles lay eggs.  We go late at night and wait somewhere away from the beach until one of the guides walking the beach find a turtle "in transition" and tells us we can go see now.  We have to wait until it's in transition because if we go earlier, it'll get scared and head back to the ocean without laying.  We also couldn't take any lights or cameras.  It was a neat experience.  Our guide told us that it has been egg laying season for a couple months now, so we could potentially also see baby turtles being born if we walk the beach early in the morning.  I wanted to see baby turtles, so the next morning I woke up at 4:45 AM and walked the beach by myself.  Sadly, I didn't see anything.  We only had one more night in Tortuguero, so I woke up again on 4:45 AM and walked the beach.  I had been told the day before to "follow the vultures."  The vultures look for baby turtles to be born and then pick them off on their way to the ocean.  I walked the beach for 1 1/2 hours before I saw some vultures flying over a certain area.  I continued to walk that way.  There were also 2 native women and their 2 dogs walking.  I think they were just out walking for fun and not necessarily for turtles.  They got a little ahead of me and then I realized they had stopped to look at something and were calling me over.  I ran to them hoping to see baby turtles surfacing from the sand.  Unfortunately, it wasn't baby turtles, but it was a mama turtle who had just gotten done burying and was now ready to head back to the ocean.  Unlike the previous night when it was dark and I wasn't allowed to take pictures, I had my camera ready....

Our last stop was a Caribbean town called Puerto Viejo.  In my mind, it was the epitome of a Caribbean town.  Very laid back.  Every restaurant was open and without walls.  People were friendly and rode bikes a lot.  The ocean was beautiful and just right there.  We also stayed in bungalows again.  Here is a picture of where we stayed.

It rained a little while we were there.  It was the rainy season, but we were lucky and had amazing weather most days.  When it did rain, I loved it!!  It was so hard and intense.

We went snorkeling and saw a ton of fish.  We also saw a sting ray, which was the most exciting thing we saw.  Thankfully, we didn't see any sharks.  That is a long standing fear of mine.

We went on a nature hike in the jungle.  Interestingly enough, all of their "hikes" weren't hikes at all.  It was just a flat walk through jungle.  If anyone from Costa Rica ever visited Utah and went on a "hike," they would be extremely surprised at the strain it would cause.  Our guide carried around a machete...you know...just in case. 

We saw a bunch of sloths (9 in total, I believe), monkeys, snakes, spiders, some wild cat looking thing that I can't remember the name of, bats, terminates, etc.  

We took a tour of a cacao bean farm.  Our tour guide made us hike up a huge hill during the tour.  I know I just mentioned how their versions of hikes are significantly different than our versions, but this was truly a hike.  Everyone kept saying, "The chocolate sample they give us better be worth this hike."  After stopping occasionally to learn about cacao beans, we eventually made it up the hill.  Sure enough, we got samples.  We actually treated it a lot like a wine sampling. He had chocolate samples from different farms nearby.  He had us smell the chocolate, listen closely as we broke it in half, and then taste it slowly while determining its unique flavor.  Interestingly, each chocolate tasted slightly different, even though they had the exact same amount of chocolate versus other ingredients. Something about the soil and nature factoring into the different farms.

Trevor Marble, Gennie Kyle, and myself 

Phil McCabe, Kelly McCabe,and Katie McCabe

He had us sample the different farms chocolate with different herbs and flavors.  It was interesting, but if I'm being honest, I prefer my milk chocolate and white chocolate that are mostly sugar.  This chocolate was pure chocolate and hadn't been sweetened by all the sugar and other ingredients that are added.  I learned that all the famous chocolate making countries (Switzerland, Belgium) don't actually grow the cacao bean themselves.  They can only grow near the equator.  Those countries just buy the beans and manufacture the chocolate we have come to know.  

For dinner, we walked down the street and found a fun little outdoor restaurant that had a fun vibe to it.  Our waitress was so friendly and we immediately loved her.  We ended up seeing her around every day we were there.  She joined us for beach days and everything.  Our friend Katie was so enthralled by our waitresses life, that we teased her that she had just found her life coach.  Katie couldn't order without our waitresses approval.  Katie wanted list of songs that the restaurant was playing, which our also songs the waitress loved.  Katie joked that she was going to follow our waitresses example, leave her country, and move to Costa Rica.

Gennie Kyle, Kelly McCabe, and myself

We of course had to get a picture with our waitress Sara.  We loved her!

The restaurant had a sign on the wall that said, "I heard you're a player.  Nice to meet you. I'm the coach."  My friends in Utah call me Coach, so I thought it would be fun to get a picture of the sign.  As I went up to take the picture, the owner said we should both be in it, and if I emailed it to her, she would hang it on the "wall of shame/fame," which was a wall with pictures of a lot of her customers.  I was so excited to make the wall of shame/fame!!

Our very last day there, we decided to have our final hours of beach time.

We ran into the bartender from our favorite restaurant, so we decided to body surf with him.  We were out riding the waves, and we were slowly drifting sideways from where we started.  All of the sudden, I got hit by a huge wave and went under.  I came back up and realized I couldn't touch.  I got hit again and went back under.  Each time I came up, I elongated my body in an attempt to touch.  I was confused because I was closer to shore than my friends, and they seemed to be touching just fine.  All that ran through my head was, "you can't touch anymore.  Just swim to shore," so I started swimming.  Each time another wave would come, I would briefly go under, and then swim again when I came up.  I finally reach some coral.  Finally, I could grab onto something for safety.  At the time, I thought that coral was a blessing.  I was WRONG!  The waves were still pushing me forward, so beyond my control, I washed up onto the coral.  I tried to stand up, and immediately collapsed.  It was so sharp and hurt so bad.  When I collapsed, another wave came and pushed me farther over the coral.  I was like a dirty rag getting washed on a wash board.  I was caught between two evils:  continue to let my body get dragged over the sharp coral?  or stand up and walk on the sharp coral?  Well, after much pain, I finally made my way to shore.  I had water up my nose, my ears were slightly ringing, and my toe hurt but was too covered in sand to see why.  I finally found my way back to our towels (remember we had drifted far away from where we entered) and sat down to regain composure.  I looked out at my friends who were still body surfing.  Within minutes, they decided to come back in but ran into the same dilemma I had just endured.  What was at one time a painful inconvenience was now a comedic scene to watch.  Katie had gotten washed up onto the coral and tried to stand up and immediately collapsed.  I watched her get washed over the coral, try to stand occasionally, and eventually make it to shore.  Gennie had used the coral as a guide to keep swimming sideways until she eventually got around it.  Kelly and Diego (bartender) were stranded and standing on a soft spot of the coral.  They were looking around trying to figure out what to do.  I probably shouldn't laugh at them, especially since I knew the pain they were feeling, but I couldn't help but chuckle.  As they made their way over, everyone having pained and confused looks on their faces, we all just started to laugh.  How pathetic we must have looked.  The theme of our whole vacation was brought to life by this one experience:  RESPECTADO THE CORAL! 

Me, Diego, and Katie

We headed to the capital of San Jose for our final night.  We arrived close to bedtime and were all exhausted.  We had a very early morning full of flights to look forward to.  We walked into our room and felt like we were in heaven.  We each had our own bed, A/C, and a TV.  We hadn't had a TV all week.  Even though all the channels were in Spanish, I laid on my bed and stared at the TV.  It was such a relief to have all my first world luxuries again.  That night, Katie called me into her room and asked if I had coral slivers.  I knew my toes hurt but never looked why.  Sure enough, we both had coral slivers all over our feet.  Genny got a little too much pleasure from trying to pry them out with needles and tweezers.  They quickly learned that I am a screamer!  All those coral slivers ended up taking over 1 week to finally get out of  mine and Katie's feet.  We were reminded again to respect ado the coral!

Happy List:
-"This juice is meaty" and "This water is hearty." --Katie McCabe
-"Let me touch you.  I'll make it worth your time." --Gennie to the iguana
-"Take it to the volcano." --Holly
-Katie finding her "life coach" in a 20 year old Portuguese nomad
-Allen (hipline tour guide) changing his shirt and Katie saying, "is this part of the show?"
-Holly's Xena princess warrior cry while doing the monkey drop
-Gennie having trouble getting out of the hammock and being made fun of by Holly.  Moments later, Holly was lying in the hammock, saw a spider, and Gennie had to pull her out.
-Gennie posing in her jungle bathing suit at the pool near the waterfall and shrubbery.
-Underwater pool pictures and Katie only getting shots of Trevor's chest
-The insanely fast watersides
-Getting beached while white water rafting and having our guide hop out to pull us off the rocks
-Holly getting pulled down the river by the current and having to be rescued by the our guide
-"spread your legs" while zip lining
-Katie saying, "This zip line is so high up that I need a lit of topics to think about during the long fall to my death."
-Trevor eating the magic fruit
-"The Swedish boys can fruit your womb." Holly to Gennie
-Holly making the wall of shame at dinner in Puerto Viejo
-After we ordered our food, our waitress rode off on a bicycle
-Yoga master helping Gennie do the pose where you raise your whole body except your shoulders off the ground and Gennie thinking, "You're gonna let go of my body and I'm going to break my neck."
-Katie, "there's a spider!"  Holly, "where?!" as she moves away.  Katie, "no, just floating." And then we all ran from the mysterious spider floating through the air.
-Chocolate tour guide, "It has a mucilaginous exterior which is fancy for slime," right as Gennnie is putting the cacao pod in her mouth and spits it out.
-"this guacamole tastes like a hamburger smells."  Trevor
-Our barman Diego climbing a coconut tree
-The zombie maracas player and his grin when he saw the van with people smoking pot
-Kelly's and Katie's baboon butts from getting sunburned
-Gennie building a sand boyfriend, "if you build him, he will come" and it getting washed away twice on two different beaches.
-Zombie maracas player goes bend the fence briefly and comes back with a big smile on his face while zipping up his pants.  Nothing like a quick pee in between songs
-the beach grand finale:  wave surfing the monstrous waves when Holly got hit hard and couldn't touch anymore.  As she's swimming to shore, Katie asks Gennie, "is Holly ok?  She doesn't look ok."  Gennie, "she's fine" and keeps playing in the waves.  Holly gets washed up onto the killer coral and is thrown around like a dirty rag on a wash board.  After painfully making her way to shore, she witnesses the other go through the exact same ordeal.  Katie gets washed up onto the killer coral.  Gennie is smart enough to swim around it, and Kelly gets saved by Diego the barman.  Respectado the Coral
-The killer coral slivers up through out the night.
-the German woman pissing Kelly off on the chocolate tour.
-woman walking up the huge hill on during the chocolate tour and the guide asking, "are you hurt?" judging by the way she was walking.  Woman's response, "no, I just got bit by something and now my muscles in my leg are seizing up.  I"m just going to take an antihistemine," as if it's an everyday occurrence.
-Gennie getting pleasure from removing the killer coral slivers from Katie's and Holly's feet.
-Our jungle tour guide leading us on the trail and then starts walking out into the ocean.  We all stand on shore thinking, "are we supposed to follow him?"  Sure enough, that was the way to get to the other side of the trail.