photo diary: adventures in costa rica

One of the trendiest places to travel to right now: Costa Rica. I'm a follower not a leader in travel so I jumped on that bandwagon, too. 

*I say I'm a follower with traveling because it is so much easier to get recommendations from friends on Facebook before going than to go blind and probably spend too much money on everything.*

I'm pretty sure AirBNB deserves the credit for making the country trendy. They've regularly featured treehouses with monkeys or just really chill vibes, then steer you towards the beautiful beaches and jungles and dayum- it looks lovely. 

My plan was to have a bunch of friends get a big house for $150/night and a private chef [they have so many cheap options] but getting adult friends to commit is nearly impossible, even though we finally have our own money to spend. We ended up going with another couple and getting my first ever all inclusive experience.

All-inclusive is bittersweet to me. You can get a really good deal, drink unlimited beverages, get four plates of food at every meal, and have lovely pool time... but you also feel obligated to stay there and not explore. Luckily, I think we spent our time pretty wisely. 

Our resort: DoubleTree in Puntarenas

Cost: $327 per person for four nights

The resort was right on the beach, with seemingly nothing else around. The beach had mostly black sand, and large volcanic rocks at the shore. Because of the rocks and the waves, we weren't allowed to swim in it. I tried to be a mf rebel and do it anyway, but having fist-size rocks come hurdling at your ankles isn't fun for more than .7 seconds. They were fun to look through, though. They had such fun colors and shapes and I planned on bringing them back to show everyone, but TSA stole them out of my carry on bag. WTF. 

It's one of those rare beaches that is not photogenic at all... but it's pretty cool when you're there in person.

We woke up every morning by 7:30 to eat breakfast and be at the pool by 8am. It was strangely easy. It might have been the fact that I was on a mission to try every drink on the menu, but no one can confirm. We wanted to soak up that sun before heading to the jungles. 

Important thing to realize: While different locations in Costa Rica are technically close, the roads are insanely windy and it took us three hours to get to the mountains and volcanoes from the beach. 

Adventure #1- Lake Arenal area. I, once again, had starred everything I found on Pinterest that I wanted to try and see. There were 15+ things and I had to narrow it down to what was easy to do in one day.. on Friday the 13th. We chose La Fortuna Waterfall and Tabacon Hot Springs. 

The drive there proved to be terrifying. The roads are narrow and windy, and trucks are zipping around and crossing over lines like it's nothing. When we got towards the top of the mountain, the fog was so thick we couldn't see five feet in front of us. The man kept driving while I crouched behind the seat in the back, not wanting to see our death happen.

Also, if you refuse to give a homeless person money on the road, they'll know where you come from and they'll hit your window and give you the middle finger. Stand your ground, okay?

I will say, though... it's all worth it. There's so much to look at everywhere you go.

La Fortuna is really easy to make happen, assuming you can handle going down 514 steps, and then back up when you're done. You just pay $15 a person at the entrance of the park and go. It's worth it. It was huge, and you don't have to spend too much time there, but it's still nice to see.

250 feet top to bottom of the waterfall, and a nice hang out/wading area to the side.

From Fortuna, Tabacon Hot Springs are only about twenty quick minutes. We GPS'ed to a resort, but after parking along the street, they sent us back to some little trail that went down to the hot springs that felt like a hot urban oasis in the jungle. There was graffiti and cement, but also fallen trees, mossy stone steps, and natural round hot tubs.

We spent under an hour here, but you could easily spend half a day and be happy. Besides the man who may have been on drugs and was just floating around, everyone was chillin, minding their business, and probably posted up there for a few hours.

If you're a photographer- it's a dream place for a photoshoot with all sorts of backgrounds/scenes. I had all of these great ideas for brilliant pics but they didn't work out in my favor. I'm sure you could really kill it, though.


Because of the earlier foggy drive, we didn't want to risk driving the same way or in the dark, so I found Costa Rica's first craft brewery along the other side of the lake that only added about 10 minutes to our route, but gave us a completely different drive and views of every angle of the lake.

views of the water and of beers. 

For adventure #2, we had to go ziplining. Again, my original plan was changed because of convenience, but I'm not upset with how it turned out. Instead of going back to the mountains and doing an above-the-trees course, we did one through the trees and over smaller waterfalls that was thirty minutes away- Adventure Park.

We lucked out in getting a tour without anyone else [1:00 on a Saturday], which was a real game changer. No waiting, no unfamiliar faces in our photos... it might change the way I think about paying extra for a private tour in the future.

My face on the right does not accurately portray how fun I thought it was. 

They also let us swim in a little waterfall/pool for a while, which again, was extra great with it only being the four of us. One of our guides even got fancy with his pictures he took of us. That leaf adds SO much privacy, amiright?! 

At night, it was vacation-business as usual- dinner, drinks, dancing... and some really extravagant shows that I hope you saw glimpses of on my Instagram story. At one point, the two of us ended up becoming the stars of the show. *shocker* My drunk and ADD mind could not focus on lines though and I don't think the show runners appreciated that.

If you're thinking of going to Costa Rica, DO IT. You can easily do a full week if you're driving to stay in different places every two days. That would be the only thing I'll do differently next time I go- don't stay in one place the entire time you're there.

Also learned:

• When it comes to the food- don't expect spicy. I was surprised to find out that Costa Ricans hate spicy food, but it's all very flavorful, with a bit more sweet than spice. 
• They don't have a military, and I find that to be very cool. They're also very proud. 
• The people who work in tourism seem to have a much better quality of life than those who don't... and the tourism workers know how to help you out [with hopes of a tip].
• Sloths and monkeys aren't going to be everywhere like they suggest... at least not in regularly traveled paths. We saw exactly zero sloths, and the only monkeys we saw were at the Monkey House. 

Now, because it wouldn't be a vacation post without a handstand pic, there's this one from the hot springs. 

love,
elizabethany

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visiting a monkey house in costa rica

I sat down to start writing my Costa Rica blog when I realized there was one part of the trip that absolutely deserves its own post... and also deserves the first post. Our trip to a "monkey house."

There was really one main reason we wanted to go to Costa Rica- in all of the pictures I've seen, there have been monkeys running around like squirrels. When I did more research, I realized that's an internet thing and not necessarily a real thing you can expect. After even more research, I really couldn't decide where to go to make sure I was able to touch a monkey. 

We decided to talk to one of those people who try to make you spend way too much for some excursion at a hotel and said to cut the BS- all we care about are some monkeys. He told us to meet a cab driver who would take us to a place five minutes away... the "monkey house."

This guy, Chino, took us through a neighborhood while we all thought we were definitely getting scammed and probably doomed, then ended up in someone's yard who had dozens of monkeys running around. It was literally someone's house who grew fruit that the monkeys loved. Nothing official, nothing you can find on the Internet.

The Monkey House yard

Chino grabbed us some bananas, told us to stand by the tree holding them, and BAM, just like that- monkeys were running up to us, on us, grabbing the bananas, and being much more friendly than even I could imagine. If you know one important thing about me, it's that only two things can make me smile on a rough day: doing gymnastics, and watching monkey videos. I was in Heaven. 

Not gonna lie, I was scared, but so happy, amazed, and just everything. 

They loved selfies, gave serious side eye, and even straight chilled on us.

There's no such thing as too many monkey pictures so here are my favorites. 

 Unfortunately, there's an unhappy but hilarious way this story ends, my friends.

We were warned from the beginning to stay away from the "alpha" monkey. It was obvious which one he was. He watched from afar and had a bigger "beard" than the rest. If he got upset, we'd be in trouble with wild animals.

At one point, there were four monkeys on my man. Two of them started fighting each other, and Alpha was not pumped about that. He must have ran from 50 yards away to attack his leg, start screaming very loudly, then run back. It was so quick none of us really knew what had happened, but he had a scratch on his leg and a really small puncture. Chino and his friend did some of their Costa Rican witchcraft [pouring alcohol on it], acted like it was nbd, and kept handing us bananas.

Uhhh, I think I'm done here.

Two of them, neither one the Alpha, were inseparable from each other, and making this face:

Chino: "Oh they're smiling!"

All of us: Uhhh, you have a different idea of smiling than we do."

We took a few more pictures [because priorities], left, had some drinks, and decided to worry about whether or not it was a real issue later. 

Everything has been fine for him, but the next day we heard a different story from Chino when we saw him in the lobby. Another man he took to the house had worn a hat that the monkey took off his head. When he went to steal it back, monkey was not happy. Monkey fought back. Human went to hospital for stitches. 

So... if you're going to be in the Puntarenas area like we were... think about how badass you feel that day. Are you too scared or are you ready to take a risk? Are you ready to fight a monkey for a hat? We need you somewhere between those things. Fighting a monkey is bad. Do not go find Chino for the Monkey House if you think a hat is important. Stay in your hotel. Go get a pina colada.. and then still stay there even when it may seem like a good idea again.

More on Costa Rica very soon.

love,
elizabethany

PS I made that very dramatic graphic for Pinterest purposes, of course. 

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