Costa Rica
A trip to test a new relationship... and new dive gear.
December 2016
Table of Contents
But First, A Little Ramble...
If you have read an article of mine titled “Wild West Road Trip. Pt. 1”, you will briefly read that I took that trip after ending a 9 year relationship and did a little “finding myself”. A photo featured on that page shows me standing in front of the Yosemite Valley view which became the cover photo for my Match.com dating profile later that year. The very first man that messaged me was the very first guy who got an in person date with me and after date #2 I deleted the app. He was handsome and funny and treated me very well. BUT! Could he keep up with me on a whirlwind blitz around a foreign country? Only after that true test would I know if that relationship was worth pursuing.
John and I planned this trip after just 4 months of dating, even getting scuba certified together in preparation for diving the reefs of Costa Rica.
Surprisingly, Colorado has the highest per capita of divers of any state in the country, despite being a landlocked state.
It made it easy to find dive shops with programs to enable us to complete most of our certification requirements before our travels. We worked with A-1 diving near our home for all of our paper exams and practice exercises in the pools. Through them, we were even able to do 2 out of the 4 required “open water” dives in Denver. These are usually real life dives in the ocean, but we were able to do them at the Denver Aquarium instead. There were simulated reefs to practice not running into and currents to swim against and real fish to observe when we were doing our tests. We were diving in a giant tank adjacent to the Aquarium’s restaurant, so we passed some time playing Rock-Paper-Scissors with some enthusiastic children. We were even underwater when the Aquarium put on their mermaid show. These talented free divers performed a variety of tricks and even blew a kiss at John. He returned the favor, although he claims he was merely offering his regulator in case she needed an emergency breath. (Strike 1 for the new boyfriend?) Afterwards, we were halfway to our full certification and would just need to complete 2 dives in the ocean once we were in Costa Rica.
We excitedly used our “new diver” discount at A-1 to stock up on some diving basics that we could take with us. We both purchased Atomic Split Fins, which we paired with Deep See dive boots. I fell in love with my Henderson 5 mm Wetsuit because I get cold so easily, even in the tropics. John had a triathlon wetsuit he used for a while, but he recently upgraded to this O’Neill Wetsuit with a chest zip to make it easier for him to get on and off without help. John bought the Tusa Freedom Ceos mask, but I like my Scubapro Sub Vu Mini better. It doesn’t have a blind spot over the nose and it also has side view panels. We both dive with snorkels on, although we have been told by guides before that we shouldn’t. I prefer to have it in case of an emergency where I am out of air and still need to swim far at the surface to reach safety. Mine is a Mares Ergo Dry and John’s is a Tusa Hyper Dry (I did not yet have my GoPro, so there is no underwater footage from the dives on this trip. But I highly recommend the GoPro Hero with this Dive Case and Handle that I use now. I have been down to 104 feet with this set up and never had an issue. Also, at the time, I did not have a Dive Flashlight, but I do now. It’s great for illuminating creatures underneath coral overhangs for filming.)
It was a lot of nice, new, expensive gear that we didn’t even get to use on our very first ocean dive… read one to see what happened…
Getting There
Our travel day was less than perfect. My original flight from Denver was canceled after I was already at the airport… at 3:30am. So I found a place to sleep at the airport while I waited for the next flight I could catch. John, meanwhile, was flying from New York where he was working at the time. A friend invited him to lunch before his flight and they lost track of time and he was the last person to board his flight as they shut the gate door behind him.
Thank goodness we both made it from our various cities of departure and reunited in San Jose... but our luggage decided to go on a joyride instead of joining us.
That Samsonite Checked Bag contained all of our shiny new dive gear and, perhaps more importantly, my birth control. We cut our losses and headed to our hotel nearby in case the airline could return our luggage in the morning.
The Bad Luck Continues...
After a fitfull night’s sleep, we had a great breakfast and got some intel from the hotel receptionist for a nearby pharmacy where I could resupply on birth control. It was an interesting conversation to kickstart my reintroduction to practicing my Spanish again, that’s for sure!
And was an eye opening experience to the ease with which folks in other countries can access birth control, even though Costa Rica is still labeled a "developing" country. The process was much easier than any I had experienced in The States.
I also learned the important life lesson to keep stuff like that in my carryon bag in the future. The airline still couldn’t locate our bag, so we decided to proceed with our plans.
Then we got a nail in the tire of our rental car that required a repair and John’s work interrupted our vacation for some emergency network changes. He completed the work sitting passenger in the car while I drove some dark and twisty roads with car eating pot holes and semi trucks all over.
Seriously, if you wanna make millions of dollars, go to Costa Rica and sell reflectors.
There are none on the one lane bridges that appear out of no where in the dark, none on the bikes that locals are riding around or tractors driving slowly along.
Then, when I tried to use my Spanish again during dinner to order mussels, I accidentally ordered octopus which neither of us were really into trying.
We settled into our Airbnb in Puerto Viejo hoping that our luck was going to change in the morning.
Puerto Viejo, Cahuita National Park, and Naming the Rental Car
We woke up an hour earlier than intended thanks to John’s alarm still set to Mountain Time and got some pastries to eat on the beach for breakfast. I dipped my toes into the Caribbean for the first time.
We strolled along a trail that meandered between the forest and the beach and saw real life leaf cutter ants for the first time. They were so cute, all in a row carrying their little leaf pieces back to their colony to feed their fungus garden.
We drove to Cahuita to the National Park for some wonderful hikes. John proved he really was the man for me when he correctly identified a golden globe spider along the trail.
I had made him a packet to study of plants, animals, and foods unique to Costa Rica as well as key phrases in Spanish and some background info about the country. I was honestly surprised he had actually read it all.
I also met my first wild monkey and thought it was really cute. John has had previous bad experiences with wild monkeys and he backed away quickly. One stole his glasses while he was in Bali and required an exchange of a banana for their safe return.
We finally felt like we could breathe easy for the first time on this trip and eased into a nap in the sand.
On our drive to our next location, we named our rental car Squirtle, setting the precedent to always name our rental cars on our travels. It was a BYD F0, similar to a Toyota Yaris, but even cuter. The name was appropriate. We later even wrote an ode to the trusty vehicle set to the tune of “Oh Christmas Tree”…
Oh rental car, oh rental car,
You are so very tiny.
Oh rental car, oh rental car,
You used to be so shiny.
Watch out for tractors, dogs, and bikes,
And one lane bridges, late at night.
Oh rental car, oh rental car,
Squirtle makes us smiley.
We spent the night at Green Mountain Lodge, which lived up to its name, providing a view of Turrialba (both the volcano and the town) surrounded by the verdant green hills. We went into town for Chinese food which was delightful, although it took a minute for my brain to process the Spanish spoken with an Asian accent by our waitress.
Christmas with a Sloth, Turrialba Volcano, and the Best Pizza Ever
When we woke up in the morning it was Christmas! John got a card with pictures of his gifts that were waiting for him back home, a Black Diamond Climbing Harness and ATC. My favorite Christmas gift ever came during breakfast which we were enjoying outside with the view. Another guest at the lodge pointed out a sloth and our host pointed out that it had a baby with it! I got to watch it through our Vortex Razor Binoculars and the telephoto lens on my camera. The binoculars were much better. We are hunters, so John did not skimp when buying his glass. I literally gasped every time they moved, noticing the baby nuzzle into its mother and its tiny claws reaching into her fur.
We learned some fun facts about sloths from our host, like they can spend 10 years in a single tree and might take 10 days to switch trees, moving mostly at night. But they are very fast swimmers in the water and their claws are deadly sharp.
Squint at the brown shape in the center of the photo and you can see the sloth.
Once we were done eating and “ooooh-ing” and “aaaah-ing” over the sloths, we headed up to Turrialba volcano, the only active volcano left in Costa Rica. We drove through some of the most beautiful countryside we’ve ever seen.
There was a police officer blocking the road where it became unsafe to get any closer. We got out to take pictures and look around and just enjoy being so close to such an awesome force of nature. Smoke was pouring into the sky and ash was coating everything all around. It definitely smelled like rotten eggs.
On our way back down, we stopped for some pizza and fruity drinks.
It was seriously the best pizza I've ever had in my entire life.
Later on, I would have the best spaghetti of my entire life here in Costa Rica, too. It was so tasty that eating it for leftovers the next day was still better than any other spaghetti I’ve had. (Although I do feel the need to point out I have yet to enjoy the cuisine of Italy, so Costa Rica wins best pizza and spaghetti for now.)
Our next Airbnb was in San Carlos, near Arenal, hosted by the lovely Liz. I was really enjoying practicing my Spanish everywhere we went, and she even complimented me, saying I sounded just like a Latina. I’m sure I blushed to match her house.
It was a perfect morale boost to keep trying, even when I was nervous to make a mistake.
John and his family often speak Lao when they are together, and I only know a few scattered words in Laotian. So John usually translates the important stuff for me as they go. But it was on this trip that I realized I needed to do the same for him. After a ten minute conversation with someone asking for directions, I hopped back in the car ready to go and John is looking at me like, “fill me in!”
Arenal National Park, More Ants and Pizza, and Two Photogenic Beaches
The next day, we did a lovely hike in Arenal National Park, although we couldn’t see the actual volcano that stayed shrouded in clouds the whole day. We did see Lake Arenal, which is responsible for 12% of the country’s electricity. Ninety percent of the whole country’s energy comes from hydro-electric power.
In contrast, the United States gets 77% of its energy from fossil fuels. Another way that this "developing" country is putting the U.S. to shame.
We saw a coati digging for food and another line of cute leafcutter ants. Then accidentally tromped through a line of non-cute feet biting ants. It was so painful! I ended up pulling a 1/2 inch mandible out of my foot.
After a drive and more pizza we arrived in Conchal and ran to the beach to take in the changing colors in the setting sun and take some pictures. Playa Brasilito had sand so fine, it was just like dirt and the sky were perfectly reflected in the thin layer of water resting on top.
Then we crossed over an outcropping into Playa Concha which was entirely made of crushed shells. It was crazy that two such very different types of beach exist just a couple hundred feet from each other.
We thought we could get away with a little “adult time” on the beach after it got dark, but got run out of there by the mosquitoes. So we went to a little beachside picnic place and enjoyed blackberry margaritas (so good!) and watched the white caps roll in under the light of the moon. We made off with some bug spray that the restaurant had sitting out, so maybe next time the mosquitoes won’t win. (I have since discovered Sawyer Bug Lotion and Herbal Armor Bug Spray which have, literally, saved my skin on a number of ocassions.)
Diving Catalina Islands- Classic and Bailas
Finally, the day arrived to finish our dive certification! After getting checked in at the hopping dive shop, a ride in a van, then in a shuttle boat, and finally do the dive boat, it was nice to sit back and watch the coastline recede as the islands grew larger. Our instructor, Juan, tested us on compass navigation and an emergency ascent before releasing us to enjoy our first chance to explore under the ocean. The emergency ascent was intense, because you have to take out your regulator and swim up while blowing out the whole time. You have to keep blowing out because as you ascend, the air inside your lungs expands and can burst your lungs. I was blowing out and out and out and was feeling like I had to get rid of even more so I blew out a bunch of air and then was at the surface. It was crazy how much the air expands, I felt like I could have gone a lot further on the same breath.
We saw a devil ray, moray eels, a sting ray, and a HUGE manta ray, easily 25 feet across.
We wish we knew to appreciate it more in the moment, but since this was our first dive I guess we just assumed it was normal to see them glide overhead like a ship from Star Trek. Juan was dancing and fist bumping underwater. Even though he professionally guides there all the time, he had never seen one before.
We also saw a white tip shark, anenomes, starfish, and tons of colorful fish.
My favorite moment was when John ended up in a school of yellow fish that all turned at the same moment, completely blocking out any other color behind him. John earned the nickname “Frog Man” because he struggles with his buoyancy sometimes and sort of hovers over me in this splayed out fashion, looking like a frog on a dissection table. I wish I had photos from these experiences, but it’s probably a good thing I wasn’t trying to film anything yet. As an inexperienced diver, I had enough gear to think about without adding that.
In between dives, we chilled on the boat for a while and were escorted to our next location by dolphins! How magical! As we wrapped up the second dive, we got a fist bump from Juan at our safety stop and surfaced as certified divers!
Afterwards, we celebrated at a tiki bar. John got dragged into an emergency work call and saved the day, despite the fact that his co-workers were confused about the “strange static” on the line, which was in fact the surf crashing behind him.
I felt like Costa Rica was a place where it would be acceptable, and perhaps expected, to wear some Cheeky Swim Bottoms. Size up when ordering. I am always a medium in everything, but even the large was snug on me.
We capped off our perfect day by finding out that our suitcase (named Big Blue now that he has become his own character in our story) has been found and was on his way back to us.
Turns out he had decided to go to a different tropical location and found his way to Hawaii. The only way it was identified was when the airline personnel opened it up and found a prescription medication bottle and contacted the Walgreens pharmacy which then called us. What a nightmare! Big Blue would be delivered to our Airbnb the next night.
Santa Teresa Beach
We relaxed the next two days at Santa Teresa Beach, just walking around and sipping some drinks and watching some surfers. It was a great spot for sea shell hunting.
We ate breakfast each morning at a bakery (delicious) and found an outdoor Brazilian restaurant for dinner and drinks (also delicious).
Montezuma Falls
Then we were on our way up to Montezuma Falls. After our hike through the jungle, we met some locals who showed us a safe place to make the jump into the pool below. John didn’t hesitate for a second, but I took a little more convincing and lost my top hitting the water.
It was in Montezuma that I got that bomb spaghetti. Seriously, I would go back just for the spaghetti!
Sport Fishing and Dolphin Spotting in Quepos
Then we were on the road again to Quepos and it turned out to be a longer day of driving than I had anticipated because we missed the ferry and had the option to wait 3 hours or drive around. I decided to drive while John fed me my spaghetti leftovers from the passenger seat. Still so good!
John arranged for us to go on a guided sport fishing trip, so we had an early wake up followed by getting lost at the marina. Once we finally parked, John looks at his bare feet, then looks over at me and asks if I brought his Reef Sandals… I wasn’t even sure how to respond to that, who leaves the house without shoes and why did he think I was responsible for bringing his shoes?!
Thankfully we were just going to be on a boat all day, so going shoeless seemed like the right thing to do anyway.
The ride out to our spot was bumpy but beautiful and we were escorted by flying fish and porpoises along the way.
Once we started trolling, John hooked up with a sailfish right away. It was jumping and twisting like crazy and took John about 20 minutes to reel in. (See it jumping in the picture?!)
Our deckhand, Randall, hauled it aboard by its beak and laid it across John for a quick pictures before releasing it back. They are protected so you can’t keep them.
Then we spent most of the rest of the day watching a MEGApod of spotted dolphins. There were seriously HUNDREDS of them all around. That was certainly my favorite part. We also could look down and see the backs of sea turtles and I even saw a tiny baby one swim by! We caught glimpses of the tips of manta ray wings breaking the surface and flying fish were jumping across the boat all the time. It was crazy how much life was in this one spot!
Later in the afternoon we hooked up again and it was my turn. It was a Marlin, which are supposedly one of the fiercest fighters and boy do I believe it!
It took FOREVER and eventually I didn’t even have the strength to hold the rod up. I was worried I was going to lose this very expensive piece of equipment to the sea when Randall stepped in to help me finish the job.
You can’t bring Marlins out of the water, so Randall held him by the bill and I reached down for a pet while John snapped a photo. He had beautiful blue and purple shimmering stripes running down his back.
Afterwards, we napped at our Airbnb before going out to see Ronda Rousey get KOed in about 30 seconds at a Mexican restaurant. Oh well, at least the food was good.
Manuel Antonio National Park
We were up early again the next morning to get the most out of Manuel Antonio National Park. We stopped everywhere where we saw guides pointing and spotted monkeys and sloths that we might have missed otherwise. But we also saw plenty on our own including more monkeys, dazzling morpho butterflies, iguanas and possibly a fleur de lance viper that we made sure to give a wide berth on the trail. (That was also in our packet of Costa Rican animals to watch out for.)
Loved the ocean views and diverse jungle plant life as well.
Then we were on our way to our last stop on our trip, with another pizza pick up along the way. Yes, Costa Rica seriously has the BEST pizza!
A Jungle Bungalow and a Non-Murderous Escort
Getting to our last location was an adventure all on its own. We had to take a taxi boat from Sierpe because the spot we were staying at wasn’t accessible by road. The boat was pretty crowded, so I was on John’s lap for most of the trip, not that we minded.
We were keeping out eyes peeled for crocodiles as we cruised through the mangroves, but no luck.
We left the river system behind and were on the open ocean for a while. More and more people got dropped off at various spots and suddenly it was our turn. There was no dock, so the boat got us as close to shore as it could and then we waded through waist deep water with our suitcases to shore. Shore was a dark and deserted beach with no signs or lights to indicate where we should go. The boat pulled away and we looked at each other with absolute confusion mixed with just a little bit of terror on our faces. I followed a path into the jungle for a ways until we found a little shack and met Luis and his wife. Luis offered to take us up to the hotel and his wife gave us flashlights because by now it was pitch black. Luis hefted our 50+lb bag onto his shoulder and effortlessly started trekking up this steep path into the trees.
Visions of decapitated bodies and bloody machetes danced in my head as we warily followed him.
Thankfully his wife joined us which made me feel a little bit better. Suddenly we crested a hill and popped out of the dark jungle onto a beautifully manicured lawn and cozy little bungalows circled up. (Photo below from the next day when there was light.)
We met our hosts, tipped Luis and his wife, showered up and then arrived for the buffet style dinner which was amazing. My favorite part was a fruity tasting cake for dessert, fresh from the oven. It was New Year’s Eve so we slept just a couple of hours and woke to an alarm to walk down to the beach and celebrate midnight with the stars and the waves.
Diving- Canos Island
The next morning was pretty stressful, as we were trying to start the new year (2017) off right by diving on New Year’s Day. We had to be at the beach for our pick up at 7am. We just barely made it there… and then waited a full hour for our late dive boat to come get us. I kept myself busy by taking pictures of our little secluded beach.
THEN! We awkwardly had to wait while the boat captain called PADI to verify our certification because we didn’t yet have our dive cards, those would be mailed to our house about a month later. Once all the boxes were checked and we were cleared to go, we were off to Canos Island. Along the way, we saw dolphins and sea birds hunting flying fish.
We saw one really cool National Geographic style race for life when a sea bird dove and was chasing a flying fish that was exposed in the air. It was a really close chase but the fish made it back into the water at the last possible second.
We hopped off the boat to register at the preserve office and get one last bathroom break. Our directions were “either the ocean, or the 2nd tree on the left”. While we waited for everyone, I was busy watching the literally hundreds of hermit crabs wandering around the beach and exchanging shells, sometimes in one long congo line. Then it was back onto the boat for the backwards roll (our first) into the water. This was also our first chance to actually dive with all of our personal gear, since Big Blue had finally made it back from Hawaii.
There was a strong current this time, so we were supposed to use a guideline to pull ourselves quickly down to the bottom, where the current wasn’t as strong. John and I didn’t understand that was what we were supposed to do, so all of a sudden we were being yelled at to hurry up. My respirator had a TINY leak in it that was dribbling water against the back of my throat every time I breathed. John’s face mask collapsed in on his face and he had to resurface to fix it. We both struggled through some almost panic attacks in those moments. The rest of the dive didn’t quite make up for the rough start, although we did see three white tip sharks laying on the bottom together and a giant ray. I noticed one of the sharks swam up to another and nudged it before settling back down again. It made me wonder what it was communicating with that gesture. Once we were back on shore for our break, John played some pool against the guides and won to shake off the bad luck.
We went down the line again for the second dive. It took all my strength to pull against the current. But I was the second one down and got to see a few more sharks down at the bottom before they glided away. We swam against the current during the dive and the guide (Wilson) had us go really slow and steady so we didn’t burn through our air too quickly. It was nice to be able to really study all the coral and sea fans and many types of fish we were passing. We moved through a rocky canyon with life all along the bottom and up both sides and excellent visibility.
My favorite part of this dive, and possibly my favorite memory of any dive even 8 years later, was having a staring contest with a pufferfish.
It was like he was studying me as much as I was studying him. John said he felt like our dialogue went a little something like this:
Me: “Hey there pufferfish, what are you doing down here?”
Pufferfish: “Me?! What are YOU doing down here?!”
There were so many huge schools of fish around us that I felt the need to occasionally flip over and swim with my face towards to the surface so I didn’t miss anything passing by overhead. When it was time to surface, Wilson told us that was a very challenging dive and we did a great job, considering it was only our 4th time in the ocean.
Back at the bungalows, we ate lunch on the patio and then walked back down to the beach for a little nap in the sun. We made the trek back up the path for dinner and caught a gorgeous sunset from our porch. It was our last night in Costa Rica.
Getting to the Airport- An Adventure of Its Own
In the morning, the rush to the airport began as we packed and scarfed down breakfast and hiked down the path with our luggage by 6am. Along the way, we passed a mama monkey with her baby who gave me a justified screech to back off when I got too close for a photo.
It felt a bit like a skit from Planes, Trains and Automobiles as we hiked to the boat, that would then take us to the car, which we would take to a shuttle, and finally board a plane. It was at least a gorgeous way to start the day.
We threw all of our wet clothes all over the seats to try to air out on the 4 hour drive and hit the gas. I felt like all the days of driving in Costa Rica with no lines for the lanes and no guard rails and no reflectors and one lane bridges that came out of no where and car-eating potholes prepared me for this moment as we were truly in a race to catch our flight. As I came over one hill, I could see a flock of vultures eating something dead on the road at the bottom. The birds quickly scattered as I approached, except for one who must have eaten just a little too much. It was like he was on the bird version of a treadmill, flapping and flapping but going no where. It was too late to swerve and he became additional food for the rest of the vultures with a smack and an explosion of feathers.
Now, I'm not proud of what happened and I regularly break and swerve for squirrels and rabbits and even leaves blowing in the wind that I THINK are little animals, BUT I tell this part of the story because what happens next makes it really funny.
When we got to the rental car drop off, we still had to change into more comfortable clothes for flying and pack away all of our still damp clothes strung all over the car. We had no time to try to find a bathroom or wait in line to change, so I just changed really quick inside the car. The guy who was going to inspect the car came out, so John was stuck in an awkward situation of having the change with him around. John tried to go around the car for a little privacy and his jaw dropped when he saw the perfect vulture shaped dent in the hood complete with talon and winged feather imprints in the dust.
As the inspection guy was coming around, John decided that was the perfect place to drop his pants and change.
The rental car guy quickly averted his eyes, gave us our return slip and pointed the way to the shuttle. When we got on board, John whispers, “don’t react…” and then tells me about the evidence we were leaving behind. Just as the shuttle was pulling away, the inspection guy comes running out of the bay where they had parked our car. We dreaded what was going to come next, but he just climbed on board and handed us our phone charger we had left plugged into the car.
Standing in line in security, John was reflecting about all the things he learned about me on this trip so early in our relationship. He said it was all good things, “except that I didn’t know you were a BIRDerer!” I still laugh so hard I cry when I tell that story. We were the last ones walking through the door to board the plane and they closed it right behind us. Our airport run was the perfect mixture of misadventure and excitement and fun, just like the whole rest of the trip.
It was John who originally brought up the idea to visit Costa Rica, but I did wonder if he was going to be able to keep up on a trip planned my way. Not only did he keep up, but he added to the adventure. That’s how I knew he was the one.
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