if you can be one thing in life, be interesting.: Cabo Blanco

This morning we woke up early, about seven here (5 at home--eek!), and headed to Cabo Blanco National Reserve. Cabo Blanco is Costa Rica's first national reserve, and takes over the entire southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula. It was super interesting to see the difference in primary forest and the secondary, or replanted, forest. In the rain forest it works the same as our forests back home--the old growth is enormous and spread out, while the new growth is over crowded and smaller.

Mom and dad made me the sherpa, and I carried the water for our journey of about 8 miles round trip in 90 degree heat. I'd like to continue to tell myself that this was good practice for backpacking season, although backpacking season is still months away, considering the rumors of rain and snow at home.

I saw a slew of wildlife--mostly monkeys, birds, lizards, and butterflies, and a ton of flora and fauna. It was pretty incredible. Even the spiders here are pretty, and I really do hate spiders. They are also incredibly large...so big in fact, that I think they could eat me, but they're still pretty.

Be forewarned, I have LOTS of monkey stories. BUT I will share with you only the top three:

On the trail, we met a few white faced monkey's face to face. Like, literally. One monkey apparently wanted me off his property and shook a stick at me as if he was Rafiki. There was an entire colony though, it was pretty neat, although I was scared for my life (for no particular reason). They were running all around us, swinging from the trees. It was like the bell had just rung for recess as we walked up. We knew we had worn out our welcome when they started throwing things at us (although I'm pretty sure my welcome was worn when that damn monkey shook his stick at me).

As we were walking back we could hear a few howlers off in the trees, we stopped to see if we could spot them, and, waited, in silence, to see if their sounds would help us see them. Then I heard the saddest, most terrible noise as I saw this female with a baby on her back. I'm not sure what the noise was, but I'm pretty sure that she was either in mourning or in pain. The sound made me want to cry. It was so sad. Absolutely heart breaking. She was certainly an emotional lady...I almost hope that there was a reason for her pain, other than PMS. No one likes a PMS-ing monkey.

On the trip back, there was all this commotion in the bushes and I was sure that I was about to see the elusive giant Guinea Pig thing, but then there was this crazy screeching and howling and scariness, quickly followed by a monkey falling from a tree, and a howler monkey going crazy like he was a badass UFC fighter above it. It was INSANE. Who knew that monkey's had turf wars like the bloods and the crypts?! Crazy!

That's really all I have for today. I'm ridiculously sweaty and look like a disaster, and my sunburn has become this disgusting blistering mess. Time to finally jump in that pool....

mom and I in front of a "Panama Tree"

pretty spider.

huggin' some tree

white faced monkey

HUGENORMOUS

the ma and pop

la familia.

checkin' out the monkeys.

the southern most point of the Nicoya Penninsula

my muy bonita madre y me

Made the drive from Carrillo south yesterday. I had never been south of Punta Islita, so it was almost completely new territory. I was surprised, once again, by the newly paved roads from just South of Carrillo almost all the way to Islita. There were even bridges, culverts, all sorts of modernization that I didn't expect and was almost disappointed to see. How quickly things change. I am happy to report that we still had to do a couple of river crossings ourselves (including the Rio Bongo), and the treacherousness of the roads after the pavement made up for the existence of the pavement in the first place.

Islita still seems to be thriving, and continues to be the one town I've visited in CR that has actually been completely successful thanks to American tourism. The town thrives. I think it's a great example of taking something that could potentially ruin the local way of life, and evolving that way of life to make it work for the people. Everyone has a part in this evolution, even the school children in this town make this amazing art that they sell to the American's to help fund programs for THEM. They've managed to keep this incredibly rich culture without inflating themselves out of work. It's a pretty special example.

As we went south it became pretty obvious that surfing was the pass time of choice in the lower Nicoya. The beautiful surfers of the world all must congregate in this area. Mal Pais seemed like little America, surf shops, massage parlors, the whole works. And a whole lot of beautiful (did I say that already?!). No wonder my boy Tom lives here with his hooker of a wife--it's a hot spot!

The road from Mal Pais to Montezuma was probably the most questionable that I have traveled thus far in CR. Incredibly steep, two track, through the jungle. However, regardless of how treacherous I thought it was, the tiko's still manage to blow my mind--flippin' SEMI TRUCKS on this fourwheeler trail. Incredible.

Speaking of fourwheelers, that's the way to get around, no more SUV's.

Finally arrived at our house outside of Montezuma (in Cubaya, actually). Funny side story about Cubaya...you sing the name...each stressed sound getting deeper CA-BYe-ya. It's like a little mini musical. I kind of dig it. Anyway, the house is amazing. Everything is open, it's far enough off the road, totally gated (so it feels safe). The pool just calls your name (although I still haven't gotten in it), and I have a special little hut all my own across the yard from the rest of the family.

We went to the Super and the fish market when we finally arrived here, and bought some groceries in hopes of avoiding eating out...but by the time we had finished shopping, we felt the need to eat so we went to the Soda next door called "Coyote". Like most Soda's, it's actually someone's house and they've put a few tables outside and they feed you to make a buck. This was the best Soda EVER. First off, they spoke English, which is a plus for me because my Spanish completely sucks. Second, they had the most amazing food EVER. I had a lemon-garlic-butter fish that was to die for. Melt in your mouth good. I probably would have eaten three plate fulls had my judgement not been there :)

This morning I read in a hammock for quite some time, before convincing the family that we needed to get out. The brothers wanted to head out fishing, and the rest of us were eager to check out a couple of falls. As it turns out, the rivers are pretty dry so many of the waterfalls are less than awesome, so we ended up at the beach.

Met the nicest little couple from Michigan....their beach bag was stolen right from under them at the beach. This was my first "theft" experience in CR to date. Turns out their camera's and car keys were in the bag, and, as it turns out, Costa Rican rental car companies never give you a spare. So, we ended up bringing the wife to town to find la policia and call the rental car company for a spare, and leaving the hubbo at the beach to watch the car. In town, we found that there are no police in Montezuma, but we ran across a Costa Rican who spoke amazing English who wanted to help. Two hours later we had broken into the car, the nice midwestern couple had recovered their purse and wallet from the inside, and managed to hire a "tow truck" to bring the car to town so that they didn't have to wait at the beach for the rental agency to arrive with a spare key.

Made dinner at the house tonight--Mahi-mahi, green salad, and rice. Pretty traditional Costa Rican meal. It was to die for....I ate until I thought I was going to explode. YUMMY!

Tomorrow, Cabo Blanco National Reserve....until then, hasta.