The following is from a series of emails sent out during our three week trip to Costa Rica in January 2004:
While in Montezuma we took a snorkelling trip out to a remote island where they let you go and see various exotic fish. Very colourful! I hope the underwater camera photos turn out… the snorkelling is then followed by a bbq they prepare out on the island, which is pretty good.
We did some general relaxing while in Montezuma, and then made our way back to the capital (San Jose) on Friday. That trip was a bus to a ferry, which stops in Punterenas, where we briefly stopped the week prior on the way to the mountains. This town is located on a peninsula, which is 1.5km long by maybe 300 m wide (two to three blocks wide depending on where). Unfortunately the ferry terminal and the bus station are at the 1.5km opposite ends of town, and we made the mistake of walking the whole way (with all our backpacks and stuff on) while trying to find the bakery for a sandwidh. We thought it was only a few blocks away, but it was actually close to the bus station. Getting there, it turned out they didnt have sandwiches. Doh!!!
The next few days were spent just outside the capital in a town called Heredia. We met up with a friend of mine for one of those days and had a great visit! We went to the San Jose promenade where the main shopping is, and found their equivalent of a mall as well. Also downtown we checked out a gold museum, which houses many gold pieces from the Costa Rican days before Columbus and when other greedy Europeans set foot on the land. The artifacts ranged from decorative (pendants, etc), ceremonial (burial gifts), medicinal (used by shamans), and for war purposes. This whole museum is owned by the National Bank, and is actually in a large underground vault. Lucky for us we werent locked in that overnight.
The other museum we checked out (there are actually many more) was a Jade museum, which actually had ceramics in half it, and Jade in the other half. I guess ceramics arent exciting enough on their own. The Jade seemed to be mostly decorative in purpose.
The last few days in the city made for a good way to wind down from the trip, and gear up for returning home. Most of the country (including the places we went to) are rural, and illustrate a different lifestyle than that in San Jose. While the Costa Rica is not that big, the terrain makes getting here and there a less than trivial issue, and there is a wide variety of things to see and do, without getting bored too easily. And theres no snow!!!
While its hard to leave a place like that to come back to colder snowier lands, there were three things I came up with to look forward to back home:
- hot water shower with loads of water pressure
- my electric toothbrush
- not having to put on sunscreen and feel gross for yet another day
- (okay I lied, theres four) Canadian Beef!!!
Technology showcase: Three weeks resulted in some 800 high-resolution digital photos totalling 2GB (or 3 CDs worth). But how was it possible to store all of them while on the go? The Apple iPod, while notoriously stylish and renouned as ont of the more popular portable MP3 players can also serve as a mobile hard drive! With over 20 albums on the road with us, there was still plenty of room to spare for my excessive photo habits!
I look forward to seeing you all soon
Chris Christou