The next weekend we headed down to San Jose to meet two of our friends at the airport. We had just gotten settled into our hostel when the whole building began to shake. By the time we realized an earthquake was happening, it had basically passed. Nothing too serious, but our first encounter with an earthquake. It only measured a 4.8 but the epicenter was only five miles from where we were staying and extremely close to the surface.
We headed out of San Jose first thing the next morning and headed south to see the Carribean coast. It was our first chance to really explore Costa Rica outside our region and it was really interesting. We took winding mountain roads out of the city and stopped for lunch at a town in the middle of nowhere. Five hours later we ended up in Puerto Viejo for the night. It was a super hippy town that was trying to deal with the large influx of tourists. The highlights of the town were 1) The pirate we found down by the beach who carried a handmade slingshot in his pocket and was hacking away at a block of wood with a machete trying to make what appeared to be a boat and 2) Ali Baba, a middle-aged, shirtless (always), heavyset owner of a Middle Eastern restaurant who belly danced as customers walked in the door with his pants ready to fall to his ankles at any second.
The next day we decided we should head to the Panama border since we were only an hour away. We got to the river separating the two countries but were only able to walk 3/4 of the way across the bridge because we had no proof we were leaving Costa Rica again in three months and they wouldn't have let us back in the country (and because there was an angry looking Panamanian soldier carrying a fully-automatic machine gun at the other end). Oh well, it was worth a shot (forgive the pun). From there we drove north along the coast to Cahuita National Park. We hiked a trail along the coast that was full of wildlife.
We saw two types of monkeys, a few sloths, a coati (pronounced koh-ah-tee; or maybe you know them by their other names: Brazilian aardvarks, hog-nosed coons, or snookum bears), and countless leaf-cutter ants. Our hike was cut short by a huge rainstorm coming in, the first rain we had seen in months. The weather and surroundings of that area made it seem like a completely different country than where we're living.At the end of the day, we drove to Poas Volcano, a mere 45 kilometers from San Jose, but once again a whole other world. As we climbed the mountain, the fog was so thick we could barely see past the front of our car. To make matters worse, this is where the large earthquake of last year had taken place so the road was still covered in mud and you had no real way of knowing where it ended and there was a steep cliff along the side. The car was deathly silent as we crept up the mountain and finally arrived at our lodging well past the Costa Ricans' bedtime and had to find a nightguard to let us in.
The view we woke up to was well worth the peril - you could see the mountains surrounding San Jose and the city in the middle. We continued up to the crater of the volcano which was spectacular as well. There was a sea of clouds surrounding everything but the crater and when you looked inside there was a teal green lake. Definitely one of our favorite places we've seen here in Costa Rica.
Miah heads to Seattle tomorrow morning and we should be able to make our decision as to where we'll be moving to by the end of next week. We'll keep you posted...
Team Wander
