he's baaaaaaack!

As 94% of the world now knows, Rob's home! And better yet, we have nothing to do this weekend. Nuh-theeeeng. Nada. Zip. Zero. We're pilfering internet at the library right now, and its likely that a nap is in our future. And then probably some beer drinking. And/or movie watching. It'll be a rough day.

Rob got fair warning before he got home that I'd probably follow him around relentlessly. Like stand-outside-the-bathroom-until-he-comes-out relentless. I kid. Sorta.

Apparently I've missed him a little bit...

Costa Rica - the wrapup

Since I never quite got around to blogging about the second half of my Costa Rica trip (and have been back over a full month...), here's the speedy breakdown of the rest of our adventure:

During the week, we hung out on campus since Rob had classes and group projects before enduring a racuous party on Thursday night, complete with Milwuakee's Best beer. Yikes.

(Andrew, Mark & Rob)

Toward the end of my trip, we jumped in a slightly larger SUV with the Germans and headed to the coastal town of Dominical for some surfing. Many of the beaches in Costa Rica are named "Playa Hermosa", and we surfed at one of them on Saturday:



I made one minor mistake while surfing: forgetting/refusing to reapply sunblock. Whoops. I flew home in full lobster mode and proceeded to flake alllllll over our apartment and my office for the following week. It hurt. Mother Nature won. As in whooped my ass. I learned a hard lesson. Everything worked out in the end...yay.

owwwww.

We swung by Playa Ballena (Whale Beach) before heading back to Alajuela:

a sign warning that there were crocodiles in the brackish water where the river met the sea...

...and the families obviously paying close attention to the signs
HAH!

On our way home, yet another bridge had collapsed, and we were forced to take the lonnnnnnnng and winding road dubbed "Cerro de la Muerte" for its perilous turns and many fatalities. Greeeeaaaatttt. Six hours, fog that wouldn't quit, and a few missed exits later we finally ended up back at INCAE.

my wobbly view from the back seat. clearly there ain't much light. there were moments when we literally couldn't see a single inch beyond the front of the car, and we literally continued by feel along the dots in the road...scary might not begin to describe it

I was suuuuuuuuuuper bummed to leave on Sunday (to the point that I may or may not have alarmed the customs agent with my puffy eyes and florescent red face), and endured an far-from-eventful flight back to the States. Monday at work was ugly, but I'm almost back into the swing of things now...almost.

Monteverde

Intent on checking out the cloud forest, Rob and I booked a tour to visit a sanctuary with a series of suspension bridges strung across the canyons within the rain forest. Another early van awaited us and we bumped our way to the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve.

The Reserve consisted of a few meandering paths through the jungle, and eight bridges to let you literally walk in the clouds. Since it was the off-season, the place was pretty quiet.

The lush foliage and gorgeous colors were breathtaking. We meandered along the paths and bridges for about two hours, and took TONS of pictures. Since pics are better than words, here we go...

Rob has eagle-eyes and saw this GIANT moth chilling in a plant along the path...the thing was bigger than a CD!

this little guy almost got crushed and was haulin' ass...

our new little point-and-shoot has RAD macro capabilities. these bad boys are the size of the fingernail on my pinky. at the biggest. sick, no?

Monteverde - are we there yet?!

As you'll surely recall from this post, directions, smooth roads and signage are not Costa Rica's strong points. We set out on Sunday morning for Monteverde to hang out in the cloud forest.

We found a second semi-paved road into/out of Tamarindo, and gave it a shot...muuuuuuch smoother. Huh. When we approached the area of Nicoya with the collapsed bridge, we started to keep our eyes peeled for the humungo 8 1/2" x 11" sign that would lead us around toward San Jose. We were successful at first. After blasting through two sign-free intersections with crossed fingers that we were in the right place, we ended up on pavement. Um, what? We both knew that shouldn't expect to hit pavement for another 45 minutes. Troublesome. Somehow, as it tends to happen when Rob and I are on the road, we ended up where we needed to. We had literally taken the wrong road and ended up in the right place.

We knew that we should find one sign indicating the turnoff for Monteverde, but weren't counting on it. When we actually saw a sign that told us to turn left, we cranked the wheel. After somehow ending up in a little town that we knew we weren't supposed to be in, we started the climb to Monteverde. They don't call it the cloud forest for nothing! At one point, the winding one-lane dirt road reached a 40 degree pitch...no joke. We kept moving, imagining that we were perhaps on the right road. We were told that it should take no more than 40 minutes to reach our hotel upon turning onto the dirt road. An hour and twenty minutes later, we started to see more signs telling us that we were still 15 kilometers from town. Huh? We had managed to take the back way -which no one we know even knew about- into Monteverde...nice.


After asking more locals where to find our hotel, we made it! The place was gorgeous, and our balcony had a view of the entire valley and gulf. That night, we were lucky enough to catch a lightning storm in the distance, and I snapped a couple pics:

cool, huh?

Costa Rican wildlife

I'd been in Costa Rica about five hours the first time I heard it. It resembles a baby's cough, but hackier (that's TOTALLY a word). Or someone tapping a pen six or seven times on a desk. It's metallic, and it's not very loud, but is certainly noticeable. I tried for 8 days to capture the sound on my camera, to no avail. What could possibly make this sound, you ask?!? A gecko. Apparently they're vocal...huh.

On my first night in Costa Rica, we stumbled upon this, the most monstrous moth I've EVER seen...in Rob's house:

the beer can's for scale, not because we were trying to get it drunk. i only do that to my cat. duh.

Along my trip, other fun creatures popped up at INCAE...

I love leafcutter ants...they're so funny. and fast as hell.

this little guy was starting his cocoon right on the wall of Rob's little casa

annnnnd this one's for Summer. no joke...they've got squirrels in Costa Rica...you scared?

Tamarindo...hoooo!

When we'd wandered back to our hostel on Thursday evening, there had been a few cows eating grass along the roadside. I hoped in the shower (a.k.a. a 1" diameter pipe from the ceiling) for a quick rinse, and I swore a cow was in the alley between the buildings, mooing at the top of his lungs. When we poked our heads outside a bit later, there were 20+ cows in the road - hah!

We had a delicious surf&turf dinner and a few beers before calling it a night... On Friday morning, we took our time getting up and getting going...after all, we didn't have much to go do! We spent a few hours in an ocean the temperature of bathwater, took a nap, enjoyed some beach-beers, and found a tour that we wanted to take the next day before meeting up with Rob's roomie, Benedikt, and his girlfriend, Martha, for dinner. All in all, a super chill day...as it should be when you're at the beach!

Rob 'earned' a few sand flea bites on his feet when he went wandering around an old wood pile...whoops.

Saturday morning started E.A.R.L.Y. Like 5:45am early. Time in Costa Rica is a bit of a paradox, I'd say: typically, if you say something will begin at, say, 3pm, you're lucky to have a handful o' people gathered at 3:20pm. That's Latino Tiempo, no? On this tour, we were told we'd be scooped up at 6:15am, and the guy got there at 6:02am! The same thing happened two other times during my time in Costa Rica...go figure. But I digress.

The driver appeared to be new on the job, because he stopped twice to ask for directions to the Rincon de Vieja, a valley approximately an hour away from Tamarindo. We got to enjoy 6 more kilometers on another pothole-sprinkled dirt road before we arrived. On tap for our day of adventure: ziplining, rappeling, mountain climbing, tarzan swinging, horseback riding (I was juiced, because they don't eat hay - they eat grass), white water tubing (like rafting, but better!), volcanic mud bathing, hotsprings soaking and eating. Since it was the off-season, there were few other tourists around, and only two (odd, so odd) guys on our tours with us. One was a dutchman that didn't speak English or Spanish, but could communicate with the wierdo Italian guy he may or may not have been friends with. Wins all around...

at one point on the tour, they use a pulley to lower you - headfirst, a'la Spiderman - down to a platform in the ravine below...ack! later, we did the same hang as we zipped across a canyon!

Overall, Tamarindo was beautiful, and I can see where it can really shine during the high season. There's lots to do, the beach is gorgeous, and it seems as though lots of businesses are moving in...if they'd just work on that road...

an expensive little mistake

Anyone that knows Rob knows that he abhors carrying anything in his pocket. So much so, in fact, that he (lovingly, I'm sure) refers to me as his mule. Okay, so maybe HE doesn't say that, but I say it. So yeah.

Before I left Costa Rica on Sunday, I did my very best to ensure that I'd given Rob back all his important things: cash, credit cards, IDs. Imagine my surprise when I opened my wallet in my cubicle Monday morning to see his smiling face staring back at me from his DRIVER'S LICENSE and student ID. Ooooops.

No biggie, I'll just mail 'em. Back in August, I mailed a card to Rob's mailbox at Thunderbird, which was then (supposedly) forwarded along with various other peoples' things to Costa Rica. Has it arrived yet? Nope. Our terrific track record, and the fact that Costa Rica isn't exactly on the cutting edge of efficiency, I decided that UPS would be our best bet, since a tracking number is a necessary evil on this one. The damage? $67.17. Ouch.

our moolah...up in flames (pic by Rob...pretty cool, no?!)

Playa Tamarindo - are we there yet?

Early Thursday morning, we took off for the grueling four-hour drive to Playa Tamarindo, a 'must see' beach on the Pacific side of the country. We rented a itty bitty SUV with 4-wheel drive, and were a bit dismissive when we were told "you'll need it...". Uh-huh, shuuuuuuuure we will.

I told him if he laid down and stretched real long, he might be longer than the car!

I'll fill you in on one thing about Costa Rica that drives even the Ticos (native Costa Ricans) crazy: signage is poor at best...in lots of places, an indicative sign can only be found from ONE of the two directions. Much like in the States, you follow signs based on the general area that you're traveling to, and signs get (marginally) more specific as you approach your destination. One of Rob's roomies is a Tico and busted out his monster map for us to study the night before we left. We wrote down about 9 city/province names along the way to ensure that we'd find our way.

Much of the drive was on a narrow paved two-lane highway, with semis clogging the way until we found clearings for passing. Imagine our surprise when we came upon a pair of signs indicating six different cities/provinces, only one of which we recognized. What is now referred to as 'the Puntarenas detour' was born when we followed said signs toward the sole city we knew and ended up at the ferry building in the harbor city of Puntarenas. After asking no fewer than three people for directions, we managed to find our way back to the very highway we strayed from.

About two hours and a few nervous turns later, we came upon a bit of trouble. The bridge we were to take through Nicoya had collapsed and there was simply no quick and easy way around it. Our solitary alternative? An hour of rain-drenched off-roading on country roads up and around the river. Once we found Nicoya's main road on the other side, there were no signs indicating any directions. Awesome. After a best guess gone wrong, we found signs (facing the opposite direction, of course) toward Santa Cruz.

when we came upon the collapsed bridge, we chatted briefly with a car full o' locals that explained that they knew an alternate route and led us 'round to Nicoya

If you can believe it, there's more: the roads into Tamarindo consist of dirt, rocks and potholes. And, it had started to rain. Lovely. Rob, being admittedly stubborn, didn't turn on the 4-wheel drive until well into our bumpy 13kilometer drive. Our little Jimny was so light that we'd hit a rut and bounce into another, and then another. Sounds fun at first, right? Right. After hitting a series of holes, losing control and bouncing (in slow motion, I swear it) for 10 full seconds, we stopped just a few feet short of a truck parked on the roadside. Needless to say, 4-wheel drive made frequent appearances during the rest of the trip...

a wee taste of what we dealt with for about 45 minutes - f-u-n fun!

We arrived in a rainy, gray Playa Tamarindo and fortuitously found our hostel, a cute place with a chocolate lab mascot named Makai. A quick lunch and a beer wrapped up our afternoon...

Costa Rican wi-fi & my Yahoo! email don't get along...

Naturally, because I use my Yahoo! email account more than any other, Costa Rica ain't a fan. I can open my mailbox (sometimes), but can't get any of the content of the individual emails. Of course.

Quick rundown of the last weekend, with details to follow:
- spent 3 nights in Playa Tamarindo, a gorgeous beach region
- spent 1 night in Monte Verde, the cloud forest

Lame post? Yup. Sorry, I've got a hammock, a book and a beer waiting for me...and Rob needs the computer to do school stuff, so more scoop mas tarde!

country number 18...!

Costa Rica = RAD. So far, its a perfect combination of Kauai and Guatemala. Every afternoon, there's a thunderstorm and big ol' warm raindrops. LOVE.

We just busted out the brand new teeny tiny point-and-shoot camera, so no pics...yet. Tomorrow we're heading to Tamarindo, a really cool beach area, for three nights (fingers, eyes and toes crossed that we can visit a nearby turtle sanctuary while we're out there....) and then one night in Monteverde, the cloud forest to see some monkeys and sloths and well, clouds. I've already met a ton of Rob's classmates and am trying hard to remember all the names (good tip: 1 in 3 guys is named Carlos, so I can just run with that).

Pics soon, I hope! Rob (finally) posted some from his recent escapades...check 'em out!

Rob's in Costa Rica!

I know that its been ages since my last post, and I do have a lot to post about, but I'm choosing to use this as a posting board to let everyone know that Rob has arrived safe and sound in Costa Rica!

He said that although the campus of INCAE is only 15 minutes from the airport, he didn't pass a single business establishment along the way to campus this morning....eeek! He's chosen to refer to this time at INCAE as "summer camp", since they'll have meal tickets for the cafeteria, there's rumored to be gigantic cockroaches, and thunderstorms are more common than not. Sounds FUN to me!!! So far, he's got a room to himself (fingers crossed that no other roomie slithers in) and internet is a little spotty in the house (yet they'll have internet in the rooms soon if all goes well!).

Classes begin tomorrow morning, so his lazy days are effectively over...

Eight weeks at INCAE will be followed by an eight-week consulting project elsewhere in Latin America. I can't WAIT to head down in a month...this time's going to FLY by!