Friday, September 23, 2005
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...
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.
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...
Kepfram & Ellie, 2:03 AM
