I spent a week in Costa Rica with group of my future classmates at the Chicago GSB. The trips are known as Random Walks and students can choose from any number of adventures on offer. On our trip there were eleven incoming first-year students being hosted by three second-year students. We were able to really get to know people before the stress of classes hit us and also pick the brains of a few students that had already survived their first year at the school. I must say that everyone except maybe Kevin (more on that later) had a fantastic time.
Click on any of the images for the larger original.
Burger Kings are pretty common around the world, but in all the places I've been this is the first time I've seen a Taco Bell outside North America. These restaurants were just around the corner from our hotel, the Hotel Presidente. Not the highlight of the trip, but the first picture I took.
I hadn't mentioned it before, but we started our trip in the capital city of San Jose. I'm glad to say that I've been there, but I have no desire to really go back. One never really felt safe even when walking with someone else. Plus the streets and buildings were dirty and in various states of disrepair. The crown jewel of the city is the Teatro Nacional (National Theatre) in the main sqaure next to the Taco Bell. This and the main church were the only buildings I saw that were maticulously maintained.
Here is the main church, the Catedral Metropolitana, in the first picture. The city's Central Park with it's crazy looking gazebo is shown in the second picture.
After a long night of drinking for most and gambling for some, we spent most of our second day in a Tourismo bus on the winding roads of Costa Rica. This first bus trip was our introduction to "Costa Rican Time" in which the stated time bears no resemblence to the actual time required to complete a task. Our first main stop on the bus trip was to the Poas Volcano. We were told maybe two hours, but ended up taking much more. Above are a couple pictures of the volcanic crater. When we got up to the top, we were so disappointed because the entire crater was encased in a cloud with zero visibility. We were lucky and the clouds parted for maybe ten minutes so we could take these pictures before the clouds returned and drop a load of rain. The second picture shows Ed, our fearless guide for our trip through the mountains, describing what we couldn't read on the board in front of him.
This picture shows (from left to right) Fred, Hemang, Christian, Holbrook, and Jamie (with Amit in the back facing the wrong direction) on top of the crater. If you notice the boy's attention being diverted then look at the second picture. I think most people were distracted by the other photo shoot that was going on at the time. Fred swears he saw the promised land...
Fred is the Great Cornholio! He found these delicious Costa Rican corn rings and polished off the entire bag. It was only the second day of the trip and the legend of Fred's stomach was already beginning to form...
Costa Rica suffers from many earthquakes, so the proposed solution to building large churches was to make them out of steel. Apparently this entire church was built in Belgium and shipped to the town of Grecia (spanish for Greece) to be erected. Yes, we all went up to it and knocked on the wall to make sure our tour guide wasn't lying. Grecia is also quite proud of the fact that it was voted the cleanest town in all of Central America a couple years ago. This was a fact that Greg was determined to remedy by puking next to the bus. A little too much beer and cards the night before coupled with one too many sharp turns in the road. We were all just happy he was able to wait until the bus stopped.
The next church on the tour was the Zarcero Church. The church itself was pretty, but what made the place interesting were the sculptures made out of bushes. All of the designs were created and maintained by one old man. The gardens were actually quite extensive, and there is no real way to do them justice in only a couple photos.
Thanks to Alejandra Fernandez for the correction
After a hard day of driving, we arrived at the Tabacon Resort. The resort is located at the base of the Arenal Volcano and is famous for its hot springs and spa. Apparently this resort was the closest one to the base of the volcano and was only about three miles away from the lava fields. Unfortunately, it was too cloudy and we never saw the top of the volcano, but we could hear it erupting from time to time. The eruptions sounded like a distant jet engine.
Here are a couple pictures of the wonderful hot spring pools at Tabacon. The place had over fifteen pools and a water slide. The coolest pool was 29 degrees Celsius and the hotest was 40 degrees! We all sat under the waterfalls for a soothing massage. The second picture shows the main bar/pool being cleaned in the morning. Since the water is continually flowing from the spring, they need to remove all of the volcanic sand that gets deposited daily.
Our first group activity of the trip was horseback riding. For any number of reasons, I decided to not go horse back riding and took a couple photos instead. Above are a couple photos showing the corral for the horses and a shot of the group setting off with the volcano (shrouded in clouds) in the background. I got a little bit of grief for not joining in, but after everyone returned most could at least understand some of my reasons. I didn't stink nor was I in pain for three days afterward. Instead I used the few free hours to go into the local town to take some photos and do some emailing at an Internet cafe.
The local town was La Fortuna, and this is a picture of the pretty little church at the center. You know you've reached a town in Costa Rica when you find a church, school, bar, and football (soccer) pitch.
We ended up spending two days and one night at Tabacon. The next day we were to drive to the Pacific Coast to another resort near the Manuel Antonio National Park. We were under the impression that the drive would take four hours, but ended up taking over six. On the other side of the volcano from Tabacon is the Laguna de Arenal. From the picture you might guess the theme that it was often cloudy. Of course, you'd have guessed correctly. We were nine degrees latitude above the equator, which meant we were subjected to equatorial weather: cool and sunny in the morning, warm, humid, and rainy in the afternoons. The weather wasn't actually that bad, because most of our activities were in the morning. This time of year is known as their winter, but the temperature doesn't actually vary that much. The winter has just a bit more wind and rain so it feels cooler, which is enough to keep the bulk of the tourists away. We stopped for a break in a little village north of Tilaran near the lake. The second picture shows a bit of the town with the lake in the background.
We didn't see much wildlife on the trip so the bus driver took pity on us and stopped at his cousin's house. In the back yard he promised us we'd see something unique. For those of you who have seen the The Princess Bride, we think they got the idea for The Rodents of Unusual Size from the animals in this person's yard. (You have to click on this web site if only to hear the music. Priceless) The rodent is actually called the Paca and is prized for its meat.
People's faces have been hidden to protect the innocent.
On our way to Manuel Anotnio, we stopped for lunch by the ocean in Chacarita. I only mention it here because this is where I had my best meal: Shrimp with Rice. This is not to be confused with Rice with Shrimp, which was also on the menu. I was assured by our bus driver, Mario, that the Shrimp with Rice was the way to go, and I wasn't disappointed.
The next stop on our drive to Manuel Antonio was at the Rio Tarcoles. The river is the main sewer for San Jose and the Central Valley. These crocodiles just hang out here all day waiting for something to wash by. Neat to see, but pretty gross when you think about it.
We were to stay at our final destination for three nights. As I mentioned before it was near the Manuel Anotonio National Park, which is the smallest and most visited of any park in the Costa Rica. Our hotel, the Hotel Casitas Eclipse, was excellent and located between the town of Quepos and the park. The first picture shows an ariel view of the entry to the hotel, and the second is the bungalow that I shared with Fred.
Directly across the street from our hotel was this really cool bar fashioned out of an old cargo plane. The El Avion is owned by the Costa Verde Hotel which has the famous monkey bar where you can get overrun by monkeys everyday at 5:30pm. The second picture shows the view from the monkey bar (actually the name of the bar is the Anaconda) of the national park. Quite a stunning view actually.
On the first full day in Manuel Antonio, we went whitewater rafting with Rios Tropicales in the morning. Here we are getting some instruction before we face the rapids head on (or leg on in Kevin's case). Many in the group decided to also do the sea kayaking adventure in the afternoon with the same outfit, but some, including myself, decided to hang back at the hotel for food and some cards.
Raft 1: Starboard - Holbrook and Fred; Port - Alex, Greg and Jaime
Raft 2: Starboard - Christian, Kristen and Paul; Port - Doug, Krista, and Guide
Raft 3 (aka Raft of Dispair): Starboard - Hemang, Rose and Jason; Port - Kevin (in the death seat), Amit, and Guide
Raft 3, with Kevin, had the distinction of being the only raft in over a year to flip their guide into the river. Their guide was actually the owner of the rafting company and never gone for an unintentional "swim" in this river ever before. Of course, he had met his match with this boat. The photographer actually didn't get a photo of Raft 3 actually flipping completely over, but the event occurred after these photos were taken. As you can see they got stuck on a rock and threw Kevin overboard. You can just barely see his yellow helmut below the rock. Kevin then proceeded to play pinball with himself through the largest rapid on this stretch of the river.
As you can see, the aftermath of Kevin swimming a couple times wasn't too pretty. He evetually needed to go to hospital and was given IV antibiotics a couple days later. In fact, the hospital trip may have been the highlight for Kevin, because he was able to get treatment and an x-ray all in about a half an hour for about $150. Now that's health care.
Our second major activity in Manuel Anotonio was the rainforest canopy safari, which roughly translated to risking your life riding on a cable and pulley through the tree tops a couple hundred feet off the ground. Unfotunately, we almost didn't make it to the forest. After a few days seeing how the locals operated, we decided they didn't have much regard for safety or cleanliness. On this trip we saw the tour guides start to freak out, which was a bit unsettling. One of the trucks used to take us to the forest had something wrong with an axle. When they started making frantic phone calls and shifting the passengers around we knew something was up. In the end, there wasn't much for them to do so they just removed some of the passengers and the remaining ones just sat on the other side of the truck to relieve some of the pressure on the axle. Then we just motored on like nothing was wrong. Nothing phases these people. The first picture shows everyone scratching their heads looking at the truck. The second pic shows Hemang on the rickety bridge we had just crossed. In the end, the truck must not have been damaged too badly since they use the same one to pick us back up at the end of the day.
We did eventually arrive safely, and were able to pose for this group photo after we were all kitted up.
From Left to Right: (Front) Hemang, Rose, Amit, Christian, Kristen, Greg; (Middle) Jason, Fred, Krista, Jaime; (Back) Paul, Holbrook, Alex, Kim, Doug
The picture on the left shows Greg on the first zip line of the day. The right photo shows Amit reaching the platform. You can see the other platform in the distance and the gear they used to keep us safe.
One of our guides had caught a gecko, which we were able to play with. The second photo shows Rose starting her descent down one of the ropes. If you look closely enough you can see the people right at her toes about 100 feet below.
The last day of the trip we had completely to ourselves. Most of us spent it on the beach. The left picture shows Kristen, Krista, Jason, and Jaime maxin' and relaxin' on the beach. Greg, weary from many days of drinking and gambling, needed some active relaxation.
In order to get back to San Jose for our flight home, we chartered a little Nature Air plane from Quepos. The first photo shows the Quepos airport. I can only imagine what the Department of Homeland Security would say about this place. The second photo is from the charter plane. Some people were worried that the mountains were higher than our airplane!
And always remember: What Happens in Costa Rica Stays in Costa Rica!
© 2003 Doug Rathburn