Kepfram & Ellie's Travel Journal

Border Run Take 1:
This weekend Ellie & I are in Nicaragua. We´ve been gone just about 90 days, my how time flies, so it was time for us to leave Costa Rica to renew our visas. So we´ll be in Granada, Nicaragua from Thursday to Sunday morning. I haven´t quite formed my opinion of Nicaragua or Granada yet, like most things & places it´s multi-faceted, most of the city is beautiful old colonial era buildings with tiled Spanish style roof & ceilings @ least 15 feet high (most buildings don´t have a second floor), on the flip side, most of these buildings have seen better days in their storied histories (I´m guessing most are @ least 100 years old) and Nicaragua is one the poorest country in the Americas after Haiti (explaining the condition of the buildings, street kids, homeless people, etc.). I´ll be looking around more this weekend & plan on taking lots of pictures so hopefully you can see for yourselves.
Ok, that´s it for now.
Later,

Kepfram

Bueno, es verdad que las fotos que Kepfram ha encontrado en el red son mejor de muchas de las que tomamos, pero hay algunos buenos:

de nuesta viaje del ferry















la vista de nuesto hotel















de la playa de Montezuma















el restaurante donde vimos el mono y el pajaro





















de una flor bonita
















y de la ventana del bus

The long overdue post about our long weekend in Montezuma.
The Story: Thursday, September 15th was Independence day in Costa Rica. The marching band that we've been listening too from the nearby school for the last month was prepping for the parade & associated festivities. Hearing them for the last couple weeks kinda took me back to millitary school: marching, band practice, formation, parades, etc., but our local band was all precussion. I'd really like to know why there were no wind instruments... Anyway, neither of us had to work last Thursday & my Friday class had been cancelled so we decided to go away for the long weekend.
Montezuma is about 7 or 8 hours from our apartment in San Pedro on the east side of San José, to get there we took a bus to Puntarenas, then a ferry to Paquera, & then another bus to Montezuma. The bus to Puntarenas was an easy ride, I slept & shared snacks along the way, but I don't want to go back to Puntarenas. It wasn't a pit, but right now I have no reason to go back, the beach wasn't pretty & all I saw from the bus & our 2 kilometer walk from the bus station to the ferry port was ugly beach & the nearby buildings. The ferry ride was pleasant, the boat reminded me of the Staten Island ferry except the view along the way was MUCH nicer. I don't know if Paquera is really a town or just the name of the ferry terminal on the other side of the Golfo de Nicoya, I only saw about 3 buildings outside of the dock area before we got on the bus to Montezuma. The last 7 kilometers of the 2 hour ride from Paquera to Montezuma was unpleasant, the road is rough, & there was no air conditioning. It took 45 minutes to an hour for that last stretch (I consider experiences like this training for when we head through South America & places where the infrastructure isn't as good).
Montezuma: laid back, little, out of the way, nice.
Apparently I only got this impression because it's the off season, during high season apparently it's packed with tourists & backpackers, but I saw none of this so in my mind it's a lovely little ocean village with small quiet beaches separated by groups of rocks. I'm definitely of the opinion that low season is the time to visit a spot like Montezuma, because it's so small I think crowds would have ruined the experience. Everyday felt like Sunday, we never had to rush, people walked about casually, cars passed through infrequently, it was very peaceful.
We sea kayaked (I got sea-sick), we snorkelled (Ellie got sick of the mask), I discovered I actually can float! (You see, I can't swim very well, reason: the point where my body "floats" naturally is about 6 inches beneath the surface of the water, great for snorkelling, bad for swimming) & saw some fish, hiked to a waterfall, swam in the pools of a waterfall, saw a white-faced monkey during breakfast, had a bird join us for breakfast(it seems that white-throated magpie jays like cheese & toast), saw a mackaw, saw a peccary, got terrified by a howler monkey , saw some movies: Meet the Fockers & City of God. We forgot to bring our camera with us so many times that weekend it wasn't even funny so I've borrowed photos from the web to help. We'll post some of the photos we did take later...

Vamos a playa Montezuma este fin de semana y recuerdo que no les he dado fotos de nuestros otros viajes de este mes. Aqui son algunas.

Las primeras fotos son de una viaje de Cartago, una ciudad circa de San José, donde ha sido muchos temblores. Este íglesea que se llama "los ruinos" se cayó por temblors seis veces en su vida, la última vez era en 1910 cunado no la reconstruió. (Pero es muy bonito con la jardín adentro, ¿no?)

La misma semana fuimos a Parque La Sabana en San José.

La parque es en el otro lado de la ciudad de nuestra casa, por eso no la visitamos mucho. Pero la parque es muy grande con estadio de fútbol, un lago grande, y con sitios para caminar, correr, y jugar.

Nos gustó como las palomas y los patos comieron juntos. Y mira que lindos los patitos....


Y entonces, el fin de semana pasada fuimos con unos de nuestros vecinos a Volcán Irazú.


Hasta 2 horas en autobus, llegamos a la parque donde pudimos ver el cráter, pero había muchos nubes y no pudimos ver la vista del país (dicen que si no hay nubes se puede ver ambos el Caribe y el Pacifico).

No me gustó como me sintió por el altidud (como estaba corriendo cuando caminaba), y había frio con mucho viento, pero nos disfrutamos mucho.

El altidud es 3,432 metors (donde se puede tener la enfermedad de altitud muy rapido), que es mas de 11,000 pies. Creo que necesitamos cuidarnos bien cuando vamos a Cuzco, Peru porque respeto mucho el altitud.

Nuestro amigo Isaac tomó uno de las unicas fotos que yo tengo de Kepfram y yo. No sé porque Kepfram no le gusta ser en fotos, quizás él tenga miedo de perdir su alma.

Las otras compañeras trabajan por la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos en San José, y una de ellas vive en nuestro edeficio.

Another beautiful day in Costa Rica's cental valley. The sun is gently filtering through the curtains of our apartment, in the distance I can hear the drumming of the marching band from the school up the hill, it's 77° outside (probably a little less indoors).
My ass hurts.
It's not alone mind you, I have acompanying pains in my legs, abs, & shoulders, but apparently I don't use those muscles as often in my daily routine so I'm less aware of them & their pains (which of course, would be why they all have pain now).
So I found a capoeira school. It's nearby in Zapote, maybe a mile from our apartment. I've been jogging over there everyday, it's less than 15 minutes from here. Anyway, the class is hard. I'm not sure if I'm getting older or I'm more out of shape than I thought I was, but I can't even finish the warm-up for these classes. I stretch & do the little bit of running @ the begining of class with everyone else, but when they start doing things that remind me of the acrobatics training I used to do in kung-fu school I end up falling in pain or exhaustion less than 1/2 way through each exercise. Example: walking 10 meters in a back bend (forward & backward), walking or hopping on your hands while someone holds your feet for 10 meters (like a wheel barrow race), walking on your hands for 10 meters, cartwheels from a squatting position for 10 meters, etc. The most torturous part of the classes is doing about 200 crunches near the end of each hour & a half session. Although for all my complaining I'm loving it, it's a great workout & there are some practical martial arts moves to be learned too (I'm thinking that a lot of the ground fighting techniques could be quite usefull).

Visitor's Guide to Costa Rica

Here are some things that we've learned that we thought potential visitors might find useful:

Taxis: Take 'em at night, or if you're going somewhere out of the way, or if you've got a group. They're not too expensive but there are some things you should know. You must negotiate the price BEFORE you get in. The best price will always be on the meter ("la maría"), but in case they refuse to use it (happens at night sometimes and for longer distances), make sure someone here has told you what to expect to pay - this will allow you to negotiate a fare within reason.

Buses: For long distance travel these are incredibly cheap ($4-5 within the country, $10 to Nicaragua, $10-20 to Panama). You can get a map which shows the location of the longer distance bus terminals around San José. If you're traveling in the city they're about 25¢ US (although the prices may vary on the SAME route - so check the signs if you're counting pennies). But for local buses, THERE ARE NO MAPS. Hard to believe but true. For traveling toward downtown San José, just about every bus headed in that direction will go there (but never a bad idea to ask!). If you're going away from the center of town best thing to do is get a good city map & read the destination on the front of the bus, then match it to your map, and then ASK the driver if they stop near your destination before you pay. If you're in the downtown San José it can be difficult to determine where the bus will depart from - for this you will have to ask someone.

Tourist Buses & Vans: If you're concerned about comfort when you travel longer distances (and you have the funds to pay for it), consider using one of the private bus companies such as Fantasy Bus or Interbus (NOTE: Interbus has a VERY cheap airport service). The advantages: you will be guaranteed a seat (oh, did I mention that this is often NOT true with the public buses?), some companies offer door to door service, & you might even get air-conditioning.

Walking: In town distances are not far, but pay attention to where you are, who's around, and what route you're taking. There are some neighborhoods which are rife with street crime (as Kepfram has discussed earlier), and touristas are definitely the targets. Don't walk alone after dark. Wear comfortable shoes as there are some gaping holes in the sidewalk and trash is everywhere. Pay attention cars, motorcycles, & buses - ALWAYS be prepared give them the right of way even if the light/traffic sign is on your side, and even if you're on the sidewalk! (Kepfram was once almost mowed down by a motorcycle when stepping off a bus onto the sidewalk! - luckily I sent him out of the bus first, so I was safe).

Clothing: If you don't want to stand out, pay attention to what the Tico's wear & try to dress accordingly (look for our upcoming feature "Spot the Tourists!"). Don't wear shorts unless you're at the beach, at the gym, or you're a guy trying to look like a teenager.

Food: Food here is incredibly cheap (as long as you're thinking in dollars), and you can get a good local breakfast of gallo pinto (mixed rice & beans often served with eggs or meat) or un plato del dia (usually some kind of meat or fish served with rice, salad, & local veggies with juice and sometimes desert) for lunch for about $2. If you're buying groceries, try to shop for food and one of the many open air markets on Saturday or sometimes Sunday mornings where food is cheap, fresh, and usually local! Oh, and it's okay to drink the water!

Money: The simplest way to think about the exchange rate is that ¢1.000 colones ("mil colones"), the smallest bill that's minted, is just about $2 US (the current exchange rate has it at about $2.06, so the difference isn't really meaningful at small amounts). There are currently 2 different forms of ¢5, ¢10, & ¢20 coins, and to make matters worse coins are VERY hard to tell apart, so pay attention.

Shopping: There are plenty of tourist trinkets available, but look out for buying items made of hard wood (the guide books say this is leading to deforestation). There is very little in the way of luxury shopping here, and what there is is all imported and more expensive than in the US.

Plumbing: Water pressure is very weak here in general, as a result most toilets can't handle paper products of any kind (and sometimes can't even handle everyday "use"). Unless you are specifically told that you can flush the toilet paper, DON'T TRY IT (and even then, it's safer to use the trash can - you don't want to be the person responsible if there is a problem).

Laundry: This is they only thing we've found that's actually really expensive here. There are very few self service laundry mats (and those that exist are used mostly by gringos), expect to pay $4-5 per load for a wash & dry (we spend $8-12 every week, therefore to get our laundry done!).

Weather: If you're in the central valley, the altitude keeps it an idilic 70-80° during the day & 60-70° at night all year long. The "winter" is the Costa Rican rainy season (April through November), where it often rains in the afternoons, and right now the rains are sometimes torrential. We're not really minding the rain, though.... Once you descend towards the coasts the weather is hot and humid (just like the rest of Central America) pretty much all year, especially in the rainy season. Look out for mosquitos which transmit Malaria and Dengue.

Accomodations: Prices range from $5-15 for hostels to upwards of $200 for luxury hotels. We generally pay $20-30 for a shared private room with bathroom. If you need hot water (which actually I don't mind living without if it's over 90° F - Kepfram, however, has another opinion), make sure you not only ask, but that you have someone turn it on for you to prove it's working (and in the case of the "suicide shower" pictured in one of Kepfram's early posts, get them to show you how to work it!). And if you're in San José we have a couch, and our building will rent to short term visitors if there's space.

Entertainment: In San José you can see theater (in English or Spanish), dance, opera, live music, and movies (including a very limited number of films from outside the US - also many English and other foreign language movies are subtitled, but some are dubbed, especially those marketed to children, although sometimes there may be 2 versions available). There are also spots for dancing Salsa (some with live bands) and many discos. Except for theaters, events are often smoke filled, even where designated as non-smoking.

Attractions: Beaches, Volcanoes, Rivers, Wildlife, etc. Since 1/4 of the country's land is national park, most of the best things to do here involve enjoying the country's natural beauty. This does not necessarily mean "roughing it," but that's available if it's what you're looking for. And if you're looking for luxury, keep in mind that there are many spas and hot springs to enjoy.

Airfares: Okay, now that you're dying to come visit, check out this link - it searches all the major discount sites & lets you see which one actually has the lowest rate (the airport code for San José, Costa Rica is "SJO"). Also keep in mind that if the best deal is on a single carrier, it's best to your ticket directly from the airline (that way you'll have some options if you need to change you're itinerary!).

Weekend Update: I'd love to have some interesting photo or picture here to give you an idea of things I've seen or done this week & let you know whether it's me or Ellie posting (she posts her pictures to the right by the way), but I don't so sue me.
So anyway, in no particular order here's some stuff...

• Work: So I'm teaching 4 classes now, working 14 hours a week and enjoying it. Most of my schedule is late afternoons & early evenings so I can sleep in late or do whatever most mornings, except for Tuesdays when I have a class @ 7am! Which means I have to be out the house by 6am, & up around 5am, which doesn't make me a happy boy, & despite what I may have said about this trip "is not a vacation" & how we were "just continuing our lives in a different place," I haven't been getting up before 9 or 10am since we left Spanish school & I don't want to any more than I have to till I return to the states.


• Play: So, I'm searching for a Capoeira school. I've wanted to learn more for a while now & my most of my mornings are free so I'm hoping to find a school down here that works with my schedule. I haven't had much luck so far, I know there were a couple schools in the area a few years back, but haven't been able to find any current information


• Food: This weekend I discovered why there aren't many Ticos in the supermarkets (but I almost always see gringos shopping!), they're shopping @ the weekend markets. Not the organic market like the one we've been going to, but apparently there are multiple open air markets around San José on Saturday & if the new one we visited was any indication they're all way cheaper than the grocery store (about 1/2 the price) so that's where we'll be shopping from now on. You can buy 2 liter bottles of fresh squeezed juice for a little over $2 (¢1000). We got some tamarind juice (a new fav) & orange juice for this week, next time I'm thinking about getting some sugar can juice, if for no other reason I want to watch them use the machine (it's gas powered & looks like a small wood chipper, you feed sugar cane into the top & juice comes out the bottom).


• Weather: I still don't understand rainy season, downpours sometimes, no rain other days occasionally a shower, whatever happens there's no humidity, go figure?!


• Travel: Lately we've been trying to sort out the rest of our travel details for the year, this is what we've got so far: Before the end of this month we'll be going to Nicaragua to renew our visas, visit Lake Nicaragua (the only freshwater shark habitat on the planet) & Granada. Around 90 days, later towards the end of December when there isn't likely to be much work we're going to Bocas del Toro in Panama, it's a little out of the way beach town & a nice place to spend a 72 hour vacation (our tourist visas are good for 90 days, after which we have to leave the country for @ least 72 hours). In March or April we'll leave Costa Rica by bus for Panama City, we'll look @ the canal, visit a few people we know if they're around, & maybe a little sightseeing before we fly out, next stop: Ecuador (I have yet to find a convincing reason to go to or through Columbia, even if Ellie wants to go. If she gets kidnapped I can't afford to buy her back. I'm not so worried about anybody abducting my broke ass.). Ellie's research tells us that prices are always cheaper outside of major cities (which should be a no brainer, it's that way in the US too, no?). The other downers in the major cities are crime, overcrowding, & pollution which I'm happy to sidestep, especially if it will save me money. Anyway, from Ecuador we start what I suspect will be the longest part of our trip, traveling through South America by land. From Ecuador to Peru to Chile, possibly through Bolivia (depending on how well we tolerate the altitude among other things). Ellie has more details about how & where we're going places, she's been doing the research, but doesn't post unless I harass her & has yet to tell me everything. The rest of what I know is Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, then NYC.


• Us: Ellie keeps everything! Which @ first I thought was cute in a bag lady kinda way, but when I needed a soap dish, who happened to have the lid from a coco butter jar I was gonna throw out? So outside of fighting over stupid things like that we're doing well. We're still not practicing Spanish as much as either of us would like, which I suspect will bite us in the backside once we're traveling all the time. We've made some new friends, Omar & Lea a couple from the US here studying Spanish & teaching English like us. We hang out together about once a week, practice Spanish, go out, etc., they've been here about year & speak Spanish pretty well so they're a great help. We've also been hanging out every now & again with our neighbors, playing cards or having dinner. There are many cool peeps in our building .