This is my 500th post here at Thomson's Travel Blog and I'm excited to use it to announce that since I have settled down and will no longer be traveling all the time, I have created a new blog about my move to Chicago. This blog isn't going anywhere; hopefully I'll be traveling again in the future, but it would be weird to write on a travel blog about where I live.
You can find all of my witticisms and misadventures as I transition from suburbs to the city at sarcasticcity.blogspot.com. I've already written a post about my first few days here, so check it out.
Thanks for reading my previous 499 posts and making it to the end of this one and I hope you'll hop over to my new blog and follow my next adventure!
Peace and love, blogosphere. Enjoy the internet.
Saturday, August 20, 2016
Sunday, August 7, 2016
Going for the Gold: Travel Advice from the Sarcastic Medalist
Let's be real, if sarcasm was a sport, I'd win.
I have two very important pieces of travel advice for you, my dear readers, and both of them are things I figured out today.
Before that, however, you should know that I got a monstrous piece of red velvet cake today and a really pretty coffee drink. Even though I don't like coffee, it was too pretty not to try! It was a brownie coffee concoction that was covered in whipped cream. It was basically made for instagram. Since it didn't turn me into a coffee person, I passed it off to the guy and gals from our hostel who'd joined us for lunch (Mick, Mary and Ashley) and got the cake. Like I said, it was red velvet but in a change of pace, there was a caramel filling in between the layers and it was surprisingly good, better in my opinion that the more traditional cream cheese frosting that coated the outside.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I shall impart some of my wisdom.
1. Fly home on a Monday -- Pinterest will tell you that Tuesday is the cheapest day to fly, but Monday is the smartest day to fly home. By the end of your trip, you're going to be tired and ready for your own bed; it doesn't matter how amazing the trip was -- because this trip really was superb -- you will be ready. Flying home on a Monday means that your last full day will be a Sunday, when everything will be closed. San Jose basically shut down today! Even if we'd wanted to do more than walk a half mile for we wouldn't have had anything to do! You get to the last day of your vacation lounging in paradise without any guilt that you should "doing something." It's liberating.
The one exception to this rule would be Israel, where everything shuts down for Shabbat on Saturday. Then you should fly home on Sunday!
2. Travel during sports -- I know that sounds weird since I know very little about sports and typically care even less but Whitney and I have been parked in front of the TV all day and have made so any friends! Everyone has at least a passing interest in the Olympics and is willing to sit and watch with us. It is also a great conversation starter! I noticed the same when Whitney and I were in Europe during FIFA World Cup in 2014. We instantly bonded with so many people and a lot of my favorite memories from that trip have something to do football. Now if only they gave out medals for sarcastic blogging, because I would be the Michael Phelps of the internet.
We are packing up now. Our flight leaves at 2:45pm and gets to Charlotte at 9:10pm and then we have a long layover but Whitney has friends in Charlotte so the plan is to leave the airport for a few hours and make a pilgrimage to Cookout for shakes!
I cannot begin to describe how wonderful this trip had been so I'm not going to try right now but maybe I'll be feeling more sentimental on the plane tomorrow.
I have two very important pieces of travel advice for you, my dear readers, and both of them are things I figured out today.
Before that, however, you should know that I got a monstrous piece of red velvet cake today and a really pretty coffee drink. Even though I don't like coffee, it was too pretty not to try! It was a brownie coffee concoction that was covered in whipped cream. It was basically made for instagram. Since it didn't turn me into a coffee person, I passed it off to the guy and gals from our hostel who'd joined us for lunch (Mick, Mary and Ashley) and got the cake. Like I said, it was red velvet but in a change of pace, there was a caramel filling in between the layers and it was surprisingly good, better in my opinion that the more traditional cream cheese frosting that coated the outside.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I shall impart some of my wisdom.
1. Fly home on a Monday -- Pinterest will tell you that Tuesday is the cheapest day to fly, but Monday is the smartest day to fly home. By the end of your trip, you're going to be tired and ready for your own bed; it doesn't matter how amazing the trip was -- because this trip really was superb -- you will be ready. Flying home on a Monday means that your last full day will be a Sunday, when everything will be closed. San Jose basically shut down today! Even if we'd wanted to do more than walk a half mile for we wouldn't have had anything to do! You get to the last day of your vacation lounging in paradise without any guilt that you should "doing something." It's liberating.
The one exception to this rule would be Israel, where everything shuts down for Shabbat on Saturday. Then you should fly home on Sunday!
2. Travel during sports -- I know that sounds weird since I know very little about sports and typically care even less but Whitney and I have been parked in front of the TV all day and have made so any friends! Everyone has at least a passing interest in the Olympics and is willing to sit and watch with us. It is also a great conversation starter! I noticed the same when Whitney and I were in Europe during FIFA World Cup in 2014. We instantly bonded with so many people and a lot of my favorite memories from that trip have something to do football. Now if only they gave out medals for sarcastic blogging, because I would be the Michael Phelps of the internet.
We are packing up now. Our flight leaves at 2:45pm and gets to Charlotte at 9:10pm and then we have a long layover but Whitney has friends in Charlotte so the plan is to leave the airport for a few hours and make a pilgrimage to Cookout for shakes!
I cannot begin to describe how wonderful this trip had been so I'm not going to try right now but maybe I'll be feeling more sentimental on the plane tomorrow.
No Way, (San) Jose
Yes way! I found another pun for my blog! It didn't seem possible but I make the impossible look good so I do it all the time.
Last night, we went to a sports bar for nachos and chicken wings because that is what you do when you want to watch the Olympics and the hotel's TV is being used by someone to watch a junky movie on FX! When we returned from dinner, the TV was free and we were able to watch the Olympics AND found The Parent Trap IN ENGLISH on the Disney Channel to watch during commercial breaks. (I had an identity crisis because I am closer in age to the would-be stepmother than to Lindsay Lohan. Whitney has an identity crisis because she didn't know the movie was a remake).
Fun fact: Today is National Sister's Day! I didn't know that the U.S. had one of those, but they do and I get to spend it with my sister, celebrating the end of our #SisterTrip. I won't lie, we're both pretty ready to get home so we are taking things easy and watching the Olympics (in Spanish but hey, a fast swimmer in a fast swimmer in any language).
And that's kind of our plan for the day. If it sounds lame to you then I don't want to hear about it! We're going to treat ourselves to a nice dinner and find snacks for our flight tomorrow but mainly we want to cheer for Team USA and relax! Peace and love, pura Vida,
Last night, we went to a sports bar for nachos and chicken wings because that is what you do when you want to watch the Olympics and the hotel's TV is being used by someone to watch a junky movie on FX! When we returned from dinner, the TV was free and we were able to watch the Olympics AND found The Parent Trap IN ENGLISH on the Disney Channel to watch during commercial breaks. (I had an identity crisis because I am closer in age to the would-be stepmother than to Lindsay Lohan. Whitney has an identity crisis because she didn't know the movie was a remake).
Fun fact: Today is National Sister's Day! I didn't know that the U.S. had one of those, but they do and I get to spend it with my sister, celebrating the end of our #SisterTrip. I won't lie, we're both pretty ready to get home so we are taking things easy and watching the Olympics (in Spanish but hey, a fast swimmer in a fast swimmer in any language).
And that's kind of our plan for the day. If it sounds lame to you then I don't want to hear about it! We're going to treat ourselves to a nice dinner and find snacks for our flight tomorrow but mainly we want to cheer for Team USA and relax! Peace and love, pura Vida,
Saturday, August 6, 2016
Let's Jaco-bout It
It's been a few days since I've blogged now, which I know is a rarity for me, but you, my reader, are at the mercy of my whim and my whim has been more interested in using the tablet for Netflix than it has been in writing since I got to Jaco. My whim is also very similar to my Whit and the tablet's actual owner has wanted to watch Netflix.
I'm now returning to your regularly scheduled posting because I have a two hour bus ride to San Jose and my phone is dead so I might as well write about a of the interesting things I've been doing.
As you know, we made it to Jaco with relatively little drama by our standards and had a great first night there with Lindsey, Glenn and some dead fish. We slept in on Thursday, appreciating that for the first time in a month, we'd been sleeping in separate rooms. Lindsey took us to breakfast (I got pancakes because we all know that pancakes will never hurt you) and then Lindsey took us to the pool. Lindsey and Glenn had to work but they were pool-sitting so we had a nice hangout to ourselves. The downside was that we'd eventually have to go up because we were going to have to walk back to the house. It wasn't a particularly long walk but the road to get to the house is best described as being the type of road they don't build where it snows. Basically straight up in a cliff, the road has a lot of hair pin turns that make you wonder if the person designing it has ever actually driven a car. Driving it at a speed of more than five miles an hour means you are taking life into your own hands. And we had to walk UP it. It didn't turn out to be as bad as we'd expected but I wouldn't recommend it.
Post- pool, the Netflix-ing I mentioned began. We started with Parks and Rec but I fell asleep and when I woke up, we were watching thefirst season of Modern Family. This was fine by me and we relaxed the night away with Sofia Vergara and pizza.
Friday morning was another lazy start for us but we had bigger plans than the pool. Lindsey and Glenn were going to take us out on their sailboat! I like sailing and by that, I mean that I like sitting in the sun while other people sail which made this the perfect activity for me. It was very relaxing and nice to be out on the water.
We stopped and pulled out the paddle and boogie board. Whitney went for the more athletic paddle board while I opted for the boogie board so I could simply float in the ocean. Lindsey went out on a surf board while Glenn stayed put. Lindsey pointed out that there was a tree on the nearby beach filled with scarlet macaw. Seeing them fly over the forest was almost more impressive that seeing them up close. At one point, something spooked them and they all took off and it was quite the sight of red tails and wings soaring in different directions. It belonged on a postcard.
But paradise does have its downfalls and soon, disaster struck. I felt a tingling in my foot and leg and thought that I was either having a stroke or had been stung by a jellyfish. I decided that the best option for me was to get out of the water and it became obvious on the boat that I had been stung on my foot. Whitney soon returned to the boat -- she had been stung on her arm because she's always copying me. But don't worry, in case my writing wasn't obvious, these were not life-threatening stings, just stingy ones.
Soon I was back to lounging in the sun as we returned to Jaco. We'd gone pretty far out so I had a lot of time to work on my tan.
At one point, there was a sea turtle sighting. At first, we all wondered if we were looking at a dead sea turtle since it was kind of funny looking but we realized that it was two sea turtles who, despite but being mammals, were doing like they do on the Discovery Channel. Talk about a wild animal story!
We beat the rain back to the shore and got fired chicken for dinner. We attempted to watch the Olympic Opening Ceremony on TV but it was easier to watch Netflix so we caved and went back to Modern Family.
Today, in Jaco, was the opening ceremony for the world championships of surfing so we went down to explore some with Lindsey. We skipped the actual ceremony and simply walked around the booths and got some lunch and then it was time for goodbye. I'm usually pretty good at finding something to write, but I cannot come up with the words to describe how truly special our time with Lindsey and Glenn was.
And like I said at the beginning of the post, all of this is coming to you from a bus headed to San Jose. It's rainy and had cooled down a few degrees so we shall see what the night brings. Honestly, your girls are getting ready for a lazy day and are excited to be homeward bound on Monday. It has been a trip to remember and one that we would not trade for anything but I'm definitely looking forward to saving some money by being able to drink tap water again.
I'm now returning to your regularly scheduled posting because I have a two hour bus ride to San Jose and my phone is dead so I might as well write about a of the interesting things I've been doing.
As you know, we made it to Jaco with relatively little drama by our standards and had a great first night there with Lindsey, Glenn and some dead fish. We slept in on Thursday, appreciating that for the first time in a month, we'd been sleeping in separate rooms. Lindsey took us to breakfast (I got pancakes because we all know that pancakes will never hurt you) and then Lindsey took us to the pool. Lindsey and Glenn had to work but they were pool-sitting so we had a nice hangout to ourselves. The downside was that we'd eventually have to go up because we were going to have to walk back to the house. It wasn't a particularly long walk but the road to get to the house is best described as being the type of road they don't build where it snows. Basically straight up in a cliff, the road has a lot of hair pin turns that make you wonder if the person designing it has ever actually driven a car. Driving it at a speed of more than five miles an hour means you are taking life into your own hands. And we had to walk UP it. It didn't turn out to be as bad as we'd expected but I wouldn't recommend it.
Post- pool, the Netflix-ing I mentioned began. We started with Parks and Rec but I fell asleep and when I woke up, we were watching thefirst season of Modern Family. This was fine by me and we relaxed the night away with Sofia Vergara and pizza.
Friday morning was another lazy start for us but we had bigger plans than the pool. Lindsey and Glenn were going to take us out on their sailboat! I like sailing and by that, I mean that I like sitting in the sun while other people sail which made this the perfect activity for me. It was very relaxing and nice to be out on the water.
We stopped and pulled out the paddle and boogie board. Whitney went for the more athletic paddle board while I opted for the boogie board so I could simply float in the ocean. Lindsey went out on a surf board while Glenn stayed put. Lindsey pointed out that there was a tree on the nearby beach filled with scarlet macaw. Seeing them fly over the forest was almost more impressive that seeing them up close. At one point, something spooked them and they all took off and it was quite the sight of red tails and wings soaring in different directions. It belonged on a postcard.
But paradise does have its downfalls and soon, disaster struck. I felt a tingling in my foot and leg and thought that I was either having a stroke or had been stung by a jellyfish. I decided that the best option for me was to get out of the water and it became obvious on the boat that I had been stung on my foot. Whitney soon returned to the boat -- she had been stung on her arm because she's always copying me. But don't worry, in case my writing wasn't obvious, these were not life-threatening stings, just stingy ones.
Soon I was back to lounging in the sun as we returned to Jaco. We'd gone pretty far out so I had a lot of time to work on my tan.
At one point, there was a sea turtle sighting. At first, we all wondered if we were looking at a dead sea turtle since it was kind of funny looking but we realized that it was two sea turtles who, despite but being mammals, were doing like they do on the Discovery Channel. Talk about a wild animal story!
We beat the rain back to the shore and got fired chicken for dinner. We attempted to watch the Olympic Opening Ceremony on TV but it was easier to watch Netflix so we caved and went back to Modern Family.
Today, in Jaco, was the opening ceremony for the world championships of surfing so we went down to explore some with Lindsey. We skipped the actual ceremony and simply walked around the booths and got some lunch and then it was time for goodbye. I'm usually pretty good at finding something to write, but I cannot come up with the words to describe how truly special our time with Lindsey and Glenn was.
And like I said at the beginning of the post, all of this is coming to you from a bus headed to San Jose. It's rainy and had cooled down a few degrees so we shall see what the night brings. Honestly, your girls are getting ready for a lazy day and are excited to be homeward bound on Monday. It has been a trip to remember and one that we would not trade for anything but I'm definitely looking forward to saving some money by being able to drink tap water again.
Thursday, August 4, 2016
The Road to Jaco
How can a day that starts with pancakes turn into such a mess? (Actually, a lot of my craziest days have started with pancakes so that sentence is already false, just a good way to start a blog post #UnreliableNarratorProblems)
Now, as you might have assumed from my into, today started with fresh fruit and pancakes! Our hostel had pancakes as today's complimentary breakfast and this made me very happy. We ate, finished packing and waited for our 8:15 shuttle.
In the first time in the history of Central America, the shuttle arrived early! 8:13! Mind blown. There were a few shuttles leaving from our hostel at nearly the same time so we verified that this one would be stopping in Jaco, even though that was not its final destination. Having performed this simple check, we climbed on board with the two other passengers and were off.
We stopped a few minutes later but no more passengers joined our crew. This is where things started to go wrong because unbeknownst to me (and not revealed by Whitney for several hours) we changed drivers here.
A lot of the ride was unpleasant. The roads were bumpy AND winding which means that Satan himself must have been the ones to design these plans. The roads actually weren't simply bumpy either -- for the most steep curves of the drives, we were on dirt roads. I had to give up trying to get a drink of water because the bottle would either fly away from my mouth when I tried to take a sip or the shuttle would rattle so drastically that the water would commit suicide by flying up and landing in my lap.
But soon, we were seeing signs for Jaco and this gave us hope. Actually, I was the one mainly seeing the signs because Whitney was asleep. We kept getting closer and closer and then we were in Jaco... and then we went past Jaco.
I wasn't worried because I knew that we were meeting Lindsay bit outside of town (she's given us the address of a hotel near her place since she knew that no one would recognize a private address). And then we kept driving... And I started to realized that our driver had forgotten to stop on Jaco. We were now a half hour past our destination.
I made him pull over and we had a disastrous "conversation" since he didn't speak English and I don't speak Spanish and then Whitney woke up and got involved. This new driver had never looked at the list to see that there were people to be dropped off before Manual Antonio. He tried to blame us for not stopping him in time but we were not having that. We were now smack in the middle of Jaco and Manuel Antonio and nobody was improving in their ability to speak English/Spanish. Using hand signals, we agreed that we would ride all the way to the final destination and get dropped off in Jaco on his return trip to Monteverde, adding an hour and a half to our travel time. Whitney was furious, I was mainly hungry.
After depositing the other passengers, our driver stopped at the side of the road and got a monstrous bag of lychee fruit. For those of you who don't know, lychee fruit basically looks like an alien egg. It has a pink, spikey skin that you must peel to get to the fruit part, which is white and has a seed in the middle. The texture most closely resembles a grape. If you're thinking that this was a strange thing for him to do, you're right because so did we... UNTIL he offered us some lychee! If you were trying to bribe us, shuttle driver, it worked. I'd eaten lychee before but Whitney had not and didn't like it which just meant more fruit for me.
We were dropped in Jaco at 1:30, meaning that our drive lasted over five hours! Whitney was furious while I was mainly still hungry (lychee are small and I only had four so Dave your judgement for someone who cares).
Lindsey picked us up and brought us to her place, which is, of course, lovely. It's the first time we've seen her in eight years so there was a lot of catching up to do! We brought her up to speed and promptly collapsed. Whitney showed her the video of her bungee jump and borrowed her laptop with a disk drive to upload the video to Facebook!
Lindsey and her husband, Glenn, took us out to dinner where Lindsey, Whitney and I ordered the whole fish special after Glenn's suggestion. And yes, it was a whole fish, face and all. You never think about how much meet a fish actually has until you are challenged to eat all of it! And by eat all of it, I mean eat some and bring the rest home for leftovers.
The moral of the story is that any day that starts with pancakes can easily go wrong but will eventually right itself, and you might end up having a staring contest with your dinner along the way.
Now, as you might have assumed from my into, today started with fresh fruit and pancakes! Our hostel had pancakes as today's complimentary breakfast and this made me very happy. We ate, finished packing and waited for our 8:15 shuttle.
In the first time in the history of Central America, the shuttle arrived early! 8:13! Mind blown. There were a few shuttles leaving from our hostel at nearly the same time so we verified that this one would be stopping in Jaco, even though that was not its final destination. Having performed this simple check, we climbed on board with the two other passengers and were off.
We stopped a few minutes later but no more passengers joined our crew. This is where things started to go wrong because unbeknownst to me (and not revealed by Whitney for several hours) we changed drivers here.
A lot of the ride was unpleasant. The roads were bumpy AND winding which means that Satan himself must have been the ones to design these plans. The roads actually weren't simply bumpy either -- for the most steep curves of the drives, we were on dirt roads. I had to give up trying to get a drink of water because the bottle would either fly away from my mouth when I tried to take a sip or the shuttle would rattle so drastically that the water would commit suicide by flying up and landing in my lap.
But soon, we were seeing signs for Jaco and this gave us hope. Actually, I was the one mainly seeing the signs because Whitney was asleep. We kept getting closer and closer and then we were in Jaco... and then we went past Jaco.
I wasn't worried because I knew that we were meeting Lindsay bit outside of town (she's given us the address of a hotel near her place since she knew that no one would recognize a private address). And then we kept driving... And I started to realized that our driver had forgotten to stop on Jaco. We were now a half hour past our destination.
I made him pull over and we had a disastrous "conversation" since he didn't speak English and I don't speak Spanish and then Whitney woke up and got involved. This new driver had never looked at the list to see that there were people to be dropped off before Manual Antonio. He tried to blame us for not stopping him in time but we were not having that. We were now smack in the middle of Jaco and Manuel Antonio and nobody was improving in their ability to speak English/Spanish. Using hand signals, we agreed that we would ride all the way to the final destination and get dropped off in Jaco on his return trip to Monteverde, adding an hour and a half to our travel time. Whitney was furious, I was mainly hungry.
After depositing the other passengers, our driver stopped at the side of the road and got a monstrous bag of lychee fruit. For those of you who don't know, lychee fruit basically looks like an alien egg. It has a pink, spikey skin that you must peel to get to the fruit part, which is white and has a seed in the middle. The texture most closely resembles a grape. If you're thinking that this was a strange thing for him to do, you're right because so did we... UNTIL he offered us some lychee! If you were trying to bribe us, shuttle driver, it worked. I'd eaten lychee before but Whitney had not and didn't like it which just meant more fruit for me.
We were dropped in Jaco at 1:30, meaning that our drive lasted over five hours! Whitney was furious while I was mainly still hungry (lychee are small and I only had four so Dave your judgement for someone who cares).
Lindsey picked us up and brought us to her place, which is, of course, lovely. It's the first time we've seen her in eight years so there was a lot of catching up to do! We brought her up to speed and promptly collapsed. Whitney showed her the video of her bungee jump and borrowed her laptop with a disk drive to upload the video to Facebook!
Lindsey and her husband, Glenn, took us out to dinner where Lindsey, Whitney and I ordered the whole fish special after Glenn's suggestion. And yes, it was a whole fish, face and all. You never think about how much meet a fish actually has until you are challenged to eat all of it! And by eat all of it, I mean eat some and bring the rest home for leftovers.
The moral of the story is that any day that starts with pancakes can easily go wrong but will eventually right itself, and you might end up having a staring contest with your dinner along the way.
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Falling for Costa Rica
Have I mentioned that I don't like extreme things? My idea of an extreme sport is extreme reading -- it's where you read with the TV on -- so how did I end up zip lining today?
I am a good older sister, that's how.
We got a shuttle from our hostel at 10:30 and were on our way to Extremo Canopy Tours and Bungee Jumping (I think that's the name. Extremo was definitely in there).
They start off by putting you in a harness which feels like a permanent wedgie in the front and back. I mean, I'd prefer having underwear up my butt to falling to my death but it's not pleasant. (Like I said, dying would be worse, but wedgies are not fun). They also give you a helmet -- mine didn't fit properly, which was reassuring. The helmets had mounts for GoPros, which Whitney attached hers too (second mistake of the day -- first one was me agreeing to this insanity).
Next came the instructions, which did not make me feel better because it meant we were getting closer to actually zip lining. And then yeah, zip lining.
It was pretty. Like pretty scary. The views were cool but views can also be great without hanging out a cable over a canyon.
Now the second mistake I mentioned... Whitney managed to hit her head and break her GoPro case coming in on the seventh course. This sent the tiny camera flying into the cloud forest. Whitney kept her cool and I immediately went to pieces. To their credit, everyone with Extremo was incredibly helpful. They kept looking with us and after 40 minutes, right as Whitney started to give up, they found it. Against all odd, they found it. It sucks that the case is no longer with us but the camera is the most important part and we are now guarding it with our lives.
Since I was emotionally destroyed and Whitney was exhausted, we decided to cut our losses and skip out on the rest of the zip lining. We went back to the office and got drinks but, there is always a silver lining, because having ditched the tour, Whitney and I saw two wild scarlet macaws! If you don't know what a scarlet macaw is from the name alone, you've certainly seen one -- they're the giant red parrots. They were gorgeous and I managed to get a picture from just a few feet away -- with one of them looking directly at me.
Now, I am not crazy but Whitney is and after the GoPro fiasco, she was still going to go through with her second task of the day. She was literally falling for Costa Rica; Whit was going bungee jumping.
This was way too extreme for me but I was the official photographer/videographer. She screamed all the way down. It was over 100 meters but she did it! She also bought a DVD of her jump and some photos (except we can't really watch it because we don't have a DVD player here, oh well).
When we were done, we got ice cream because a) it's National Ice cream sandwich day back home and b) it's ice cream. We also treated ourselves to dinner at The Tree House Restaurant, which is a restaurant that has been built around a giant tree. It was kind of weird eating next to a branch but I got really good fried calamari and fish soup.
Now I must pack, even though I am thoroughly exhausted, because we leave for Jaco at 8:15 am!!
I am a good older sister, that's how.
We got a shuttle from our hostel at 10:30 and were on our way to Extremo Canopy Tours and Bungee Jumping (I think that's the name. Extremo was definitely in there).
They start off by putting you in a harness which feels like a permanent wedgie in the front and back. I mean, I'd prefer having underwear up my butt to falling to my death but it's not pleasant. (Like I said, dying would be worse, but wedgies are not fun). They also give you a helmet -- mine didn't fit properly, which was reassuring. The helmets had mounts for GoPros, which Whitney attached hers too (second mistake of the day -- first one was me agreeing to this insanity).
Next came the instructions, which did not make me feel better because it meant we were getting closer to actually zip lining. And then yeah, zip lining.
It was pretty. Like pretty scary. The views were cool but views can also be great without hanging out a cable over a canyon.
Now the second mistake I mentioned... Whitney managed to hit her head and break her GoPro case coming in on the seventh course. This sent the tiny camera flying into the cloud forest. Whitney kept her cool and I immediately went to pieces. To their credit, everyone with Extremo was incredibly helpful. They kept looking with us and after 40 minutes, right as Whitney started to give up, they found it. Against all odd, they found it. It sucks that the case is no longer with us but the camera is the most important part and we are now guarding it with our lives.
Since I was emotionally destroyed and Whitney was exhausted, we decided to cut our losses and skip out on the rest of the zip lining. We went back to the office and got drinks but, there is always a silver lining, because having ditched the tour, Whitney and I saw two wild scarlet macaws! If you don't know what a scarlet macaw is from the name alone, you've certainly seen one -- they're the giant red parrots. They were gorgeous and I managed to get a picture from just a few feet away -- with one of them looking directly at me.
Now, I am not crazy but Whitney is and after the GoPro fiasco, she was still going to go through with her second task of the day. She was literally falling for Costa Rica; Whit was going bungee jumping.
This was way too extreme for me but I was the official photographer/videographer. She screamed all the way down. It was over 100 meters but she did it! She also bought a DVD of her jump and some photos (except we can't really watch it because we don't have a DVD player here, oh well).
When we were done, we got ice cream because a) it's National Ice cream sandwich day back home and b) it's ice cream. We also treated ourselves to dinner at The Tree House Restaurant, which is a restaurant that has been built around a giant tree. It was kind of weird eating next to a branch but I got really good fried calamari and fish soup.
Now I must pack, even though I am thoroughly exhausted, because we leave for Jaco at 8:15 am!!
Sloth Hunting
The first thing you'll noticed about any Costa Rican gift shop is the sloths. There are a lot of gift shops in Monteverde so we saw a lot of sloths while we were walking around. This greatly excited Whitney. She watched a sloth documentary a while back and has loved sloths ever since. She says that they are kindred spirits because they are both lazy (they sleep 15 hours a day, which isn't anywhere close to her true sleep idol, koalas, who sleep 22 hours a day, but it is still impressive).
This is why we went trekking through the cloud forest in the dark of night. Don't worry, we didn't just stumble around, we did pay for a night tour. A night tour/night walk is just like what it sounds like -- you go walking at night to see wild animals while they are out doing their wild animal things. A lot of these animals are nocturnal so it's their time to shine! Whitney's goal was to see a sloth, my goal was to not come face to face with something that wanted to eat me.
Now, before we get to the animals, let me tell you that our tour guide was everything I aspire to be in life and by that, I mean he was a supreme sass master. Most of our tour group was couples or if not couples, then a couple of travelers like me and Whit, but there was one family of four on the tour. Families are cool, I have no problem with families.I do, however, have a problem with idiots and this family got under everyone's skin from the start. Not to judge, but they had a daughter who could not have been older than 10 who would not stop talking. They did absolutely nothing to keep her quiet either. In fact, the parents and older brother let her pester the rest of the group while they ignored the guide and wandered away from the group. I guess I can't be surprised that your child is difficult when you've named her Steal (or more likely Steel or even Steele or another one of the many ways to spell a very simple name in a complicated way for the sake of being trendy). At one point, our guide told the group "some tourists think they know everything because you give them a flashlight." The parents and brother got so far behind that the entire group had to go back and look for them. The next time that happened, our guide had us shut off our flashlights to play a game called "Tourists lost in the jungle," Steel ignored him and yelled until her family caught up. Because shouting in the dead of night is the perfect way to not scare away all of the animals we're trying to see. When they weren't wandering, the family would pull focus by claiming they'd seen something that would always turn out to be nothing. Also, how did the child end up with the brightest flashlight?! I'm lucky I could see any it'of the animals since she kept swinging it around and blinding the rest of the group by shining it into our eyes.
Rant over. The first thing we saw was a crab in a stream. We were told not to shine our lights directly onto the animals and I'm sure you know that those directions were followed by 100% of the group if you read the last paragraph. We saw frogs and butterflies and then we heard that another group had seen a porcupine in tree so we went to find it, but we didn't. We kept on our happy trail and then up in the trees, we saw IT.
No, not Pennywise the Clown! A sloth. Apparently it was a baby sloth. It was up in the trees and was surprisingly agile! It actually moved with some speed which shocked everyone except the guide who said that the little ones tend to move a lot faster. It worked to get away after someone shone the flashlight directly at it... Either way, Whitney was in heaven. The tour could have ended right there and she would tell you that she got her money's worth. I managed to get a picture of the sloth but it doesn't look exactly like a sloth, more like a spot of brown surrounded by green. Nighttime conditions are not ideal and the lighting that I did have kept changing because of people and their stupid flashlights.
Moving on from there, we saw more frogs and butterflies but we also saw a sleeping hummingbird (which everyone agreed felt weird because we'd never seen them sit still before), a venomous pit viper and a boa constrictor in a tree. It was very exciting.
The good news is that Whitney has not yet attempted to store a sloth in her luggage but it isn't for lack of trying! I don't think she could get it through customs even if she managed to catch one but you never know.
This is why we went trekking through the cloud forest in the dark of night. Don't worry, we didn't just stumble around, we did pay for a night tour. A night tour/night walk is just like what it sounds like -- you go walking at night to see wild animals while they are out doing their wild animal things. A lot of these animals are nocturnal so it's their time to shine! Whitney's goal was to see a sloth, my goal was to not come face to face with something that wanted to eat me.
Now, before we get to the animals, let me tell you that our tour guide was everything I aspire to be in life and by that, I mean he was a supreme sass master. Most of our tour group was couples or if not couples, then a couple of travelers like me and Whit, but there was one family of four on the tour. Families are cool, I have no problem with families.I do, however, have a problem with idiots and this family got under everyone's skin from the start. Not to judge, but they had a daughter who could not have been older than 10 who would not stop talking. They did absolutely nothing to keep her quiet either. In fact, the parents and older brother let her pester the rest of the group while they ignored the guide and wandered away from the group. I guess I can't be surprised that your child is difficult when you've named her Steal (or more likely Steel or even Steele or another one of the many ways to spell a very simple name in a complicated way for the sake of being trendy). At one point, our guide told the group "some tourists think they know everything because you give them a flashlight." The parents and brother got so far behind that the entire group had to go back and look for them. The next time that happened, our guide had us shut off our flashlights to play a game called "Tourists lost in the jungle," Steel ignored him and yelled until her family caught up. Because shouting in the dead of night is the perfect way to not scare away all of the animals we're trying to see. When they weren't wandering, the family would pull focus by claiming they'd seen something that would always turn out to be nothing. Also, how did the child end up with the brightest flashlight?! I'm lucky I could see any it'of the animals since she kept swinging it around and blinding the rest of the group by shining it into our eyes.
Rant over. The first thing we saw was a crab in a stream. We were told not to shine our lights directly onto the animals and I'm sure you know that those directions were followed by 100% of the group if you read the last paragraph. We saw frogs and butterflies and then we heard that another group had seen a porcupine in tree so we went to find it, but we didn't. We kept on our happy trail and then up in the trees, we saw IT.
No, not Pennywise the Clown! A sloth. Apparently it was a baby sloth. It was up in the trees and was surprisingly agile! It actually moved with some speed which shocked everyone except the guide who said that the little ones tend to move a lot faster. It worked to get away after someone shone the flashlight directly at it... Either way, Whitney was in heaven. The tour could have ended right there and she would tell you that she got her money's worth. I managed to get a picture of the sloth but it doesn't look exactly like a sloth, more like a spot of brown surrounded by green. Nighttime conditions are not ideal and the lighting that I did have kept changing because of people and their stupid flashlights.
Moving on from there, we saw more frogs and butterflies but we also saw a sleeping hummingbird (which everyone agreed felt weird because we'd never seen them sit still before), a venomous pit viper and a boa constrictor in a tree. It was very exciting.
The good news is that Whitney has not yet attempted to store a sloth in her luggage but it isn't for lack of trying! I don't think she could get it through customs even if she managed to catch one but you never know.
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