Costa Rica

My parents arrived about two hours before me and were already at the Pura Vida hotel in Alajuela waiting for me. I was so excited to see them that I was almost crying. It has been just over a year since I had last been with them and I couldn’t wait. I got to the hotel and the owner showed me to their room and I started cry as I walked with her and then burst out crying as soon as I saw them. I was so excited that it took me a minute to realize that my dad had a beard!
That night we had a wonderful dinner and then opened Christmas presents. I gave my parents a large plaque that says The O’Donnell Family to put over the front door and they gave me many wonderful things. Most notably my mom bought me 15 pairs of underwear which means I can throw away my old saggy underwear with holes and no elastic. I don’t think people are generally excited to get underwear for Christmas but I certainly was.

Puerto Viejo

The next day we took a 4.5 hour bus ride to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca a small town on the Caribbean coast near the Panamanian border. When we stepped off the bus we weren’t exactly impressed with what we saw. When I imagined Costa Rica I thought of incredible white sand beaches and all inclusive resorts…Well, let me just say that that is not what we got. We checked into Cashew Hill Lodge, owned by an American couple with four kids who moved to Costa Rica as self proclaimed political refugees. It is on a beautiful property with about 7 different houses, all very colorful and unique.

Then we walked around town pondering if we should stay in Puerto Viejo or leave the next day for the Pacific side and check into an all inclusive resort on a pristine beach. Actually, throughout our entire vacation we continued to ponder if we should cut our loses and go but in the end we stayed there the whole time and did enjoy ourselves although it wasn’t exactly what any of us expected.

Yoga

Once we got settled in we rented bikes and went in search of a yoga studio/instructor. The owners of the hotel put us in touch with an instructor named Ishmael and he ended coming to our house everyday to give private class to my parents and I. My mom and I have been practicing yoga for years and we have always tried to get my dad into it since he has a bad back, but it never seemed to work out before, so we were both overjoyed that we could all take class together. Ishmael was great and my dad liked it, so we all ended up happy.

Surfing

Another order of business was to set up surf lessons. We checked out a few places and then finally went with the son of the hotel owner. We got long, sort boards and started off on the beach with about 2 minutes of instruction and 2 minutes of practice popping up, then into the waves we went. The instructors basically held our boards, pushed us into the wave and yelled at us when to stand up. Beyond that, there wasn’t much teaching involved. I got up on my first try and both mom and dad were able to get up as well. Overall, it was fun but we were all a little frustrated that there was not more solid instruction. Whenever I asked how do I know which waves are good and when to go, my instructor just told me that I would feel it with time.
A few hours after our lesson the backs of my legs began to burn and I realized that somehow suntan lotion either didn’t get on the backs of my legs or it somehow came off…very curious. By nightime my legs hurt so badly I could barely move and I made my mom put wet towels on me and then Aloe Vera.
Originally I had told my dad I wanted to surf four times so I could really get in some practice, but my legs hurt so bad that I didn’t go again until the last day in Costa Rica.

Puerto Viejo is a town of only about 500 residents and a few thousand tourists. Most of them are young backpackers who come to surf and be hippies. No matter who they are they all dress with minimal clothing. The girls wear very short shorts, skirts of dresses and the boys wear board shorts. I personally enjoyed this since I haven’t worn shorts in Honduras for two years even when it is 40 degrees Celsius. However, the boys did something that boggled my mind. They would wear their board shorts so low that you could see their pubic hair in the front and their butt crack in the back. See photo below for example.
I asked a few guys about this and they just said it was the fashion and didn’t think it was odd at all. Hmmm…

Salsa

I had hoped to go out with the daughter of the hotel owners numerous nights but at first I was too exhausted and then after I burned my legs I was in too much pain. Luckily by Friday night I was finally ready to go out and went to a salsa club called Maritza with a live salsa band. My parents stayed with me at first and then once people started dancing they went home to go to bed (Although my dad came back an hour later to check on me). I was bored for about the first hour but finally I met some good salsa dancers and enjoyed the rest of my night.

The Beaches

The beach at Puerto Viejo didn’t exactly strike my parents and me as the most beautiful beaches we had ever seen (in fact the beaches at West Bay in Roatan, Honduras were much better). Fortunately, the beaches down the coast were beautiful so we visited a few of them. Cocles beach had great waves so we could watch people surf and play in the waves.
Cocles

Punta Uva was beautiful with white sandy beaches and fairly clear water.
Punta Uva

Towards the end of our trip we went to Manzanillo, a tiny town at the end of the road (literally) to go dolphin watching. Sherman, our guide, took us about 30 minutes down the coast towards Panama to a spot where the dolphins are.
They advertise an 80% chance of seeing dolphins because apparently the dolphins are pretty consistent. Luckily we were not part of the unlucky 20% who see nothing and saw tons of bottle nose and spotted dolphins. It was the first time I had ever seen dolphins swimming in the wild, so I was pretty excited.
When we finished with the dolphin watching we just relaxed on the beautiful beach at Manzaillo and Sherman cut up tangerines and watermelon for us.
Manzanillo

After we finished eating he did an amazing thing, which sadly I don’t think would ever happen in Honduras. He gathered up all of our trash, then he picked up some more trash that had been left nearby, then he walked about 50 meters to a trash can and threw it all away. I was personally blown away! My dad commented on it and he said “Yeah man, this my home, I got to take care of it.” Although that may seem like a very logical and simple mentality, unfortunately I have found few Hondurans that think the same way.
Sherman

The only thing we didn’t get out of our beach experiences was snorkeling. My dad had his heart set on it but everywhere we asked said the “sea was ugly” meaning that things were just too choppy to be able to see anything. After the dolphin tour my parents tried for a bit but we just weren’t there at the right time of year.

Our Tour with Delroy

Delroy and his wife Veronica own a macrobiotic vegetarian restaurant in Puerto Viejo and after eating there we decided to take a tour with Delroy. First, we stopped off at an iguana farm. The owners raise the iguanas and then let them into the wild because the population has been depleted mostly due to people hunting and eating them.
Then we talked to a proud BriBri man about his culture and history and bought some of the handicrafts that the rural BriBri communities make.

After that we took a hike through the jungle to a beautiful waterfall and my mom fell half way in trying to jump from one rock to a large tree trunk (I think she subconsciously did it on purpose).

Finally we finished the day with a tour of the cocoa (chocolate) making process. I was actually very impressed by the woman who ran it and her ability to concisely explain the process. We got to suck on cocoa beans right from the fruit, see the production process and then sample the finished product.


Time to go home

I actually left a few days before my parents since I didn’t have enough vacation days. Ironically my parents were ready to go home when I left and even tried to change their flight to leave early. Even though we did have a wonderful time the vacation turned out to be a little rougher than we expected. There were lots of bugs in the hotel (a crab scurried across our bathroom floor our first night), everything was a little damp (which causes mold), dad was attacked my mosquitoes and some unidentified creature that made his eye swell up and dad and I both got sick…and of course there was the face meets bottom of ocean incident
Notice he shaved his beard…it got itchy.

I realized that I have been living a rustic lifestyle for two years now and I have had my fill. I really just want to enjoy luxury and comfort, so I’ll have to keep that in mind for my next vacation.

Earthquake

A few days after we got to Costa Rica there was a 6.2 earthquake outside of San Jose, the capital city. We heard about it through the news because fortunately Puerto Viejo did not feel it and was in no way affected. Maura, my aunt, called our hotel to make sure we were okay and many friends asked about it when I got back (it was nice to know that people were thinking about us).