Hello! We left
Monteverde on Tuesday morning to head for Quepos and Manuel Antonio. Unfortunately, what comes up must also
come down! So, we had another
crazy mountain drive on unpaved, muddy roads. At one particularly curvy point, a coach bus met our coach
bus. Our driver had to put our
coach bus in reverse and drive backwards up the mountain path to a point where
it was just wide enough for two coach buses to pass each other. We were inches from the other bus and
luckily, we were on the inside of the mountain curve, not the outside! I was
thanking Jesus and it’s a good thing we have Randall, the best driver in Costa
Rica.
On the way, we also stopped in Puntarenas and I got to see a
Costa Rican jail. That was pretty
interesting to see because their inmates actually have to do work! It looked pretty easy to escape from
there though! There was maybe an eight-foot
fence with some barbed wire on top, and that’s being generous.
The jail was not even the most interesting part of the
drive! What was the most
interesting part of drive was when we stopped on a bridge. This wasn’t just any bridge. This was the bridge that marks the
transition from dry forest to rain forest and it’s important because it crosses
over a very large, slow moving river.
When I stepped out of the bus to stand on this bridge, I decided to look
below. Our tour guide mentioned
that it would be a good place to see iguanas. The things I saw certainly weren’t Iguanas! When I looked below, there was an
entire colony of 8-12 foot crocodiles.
There weren’t three or four together, but rather 43 hungry crocodiles
sitting on the edge of the river!
I have only ever seen crocodiles in the zoo, so it’s a completely
different experience when there is no glass wall or fence to protect you!
This side of the country is close to the Pacific Ocean, so
it is very warm and humid. We were looking forward to the beach and seeing the
sun, but sadly it didn’t make an appearance. We ended up at a nature resort just outside of Quepos. Quepos is a beautiful surfing town that
actually hosted an international surfing competition a few years ago. The beach is a typical Pacific beach
with a lot of volcanic sand, rocks and dark blue water. What I found particularly beautiful
were the small islands that peek out of the water as you look on the horizon. The sunsets are very beautiful
too.
The people are very nice there but it’s extremely popular
with tourists, so there aren’t as many opportunities to speak Spanish. I have found that a lot of Costa Rica
is very geared toward tourists.
Everything is in English and all of the stores accept dollars. This makes me happy because it supports
a major part of their economy, but at the same time, I would like to interact
with more natives. I am excited to
go to my host family because I will be able to learn more about the culture
from her.
Cool things from today:
* I saw two red Macaws and a parakeet
* I saw a sloth (so flippin’ cute!)
* I played with a hermit crab on the beach
* I had a gecko friend in my hotel room, which was good
because he could eat all of the bugs!
* I saw 43 crocodiles
Love,
C
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