Happy to say our trip is off to a busy, but fantastic start! Unlike our last trip, there were no travel surprises and I landed on time in San Jose. We didn’t plan much time in San Jose in favour of more time in Costa Rica’s national parks, but we did really enjoy our short time there.
Since were mostly doing adventure activities in the rest of the country, we opted to learn a bit about Costa Rican history and culture and did a walking tour of San Jose. We spent a fair bit of time exploring San Jose’s many parks. I’m so glad we did the tour on a Saturday because the park was packed with locals and we met some fascinating Tikals and Tikas (the local name for Costa Ricans).
Almost as soon as the tour started, I was excited to notice some people walking around with hula hoops – one of my favourite hobbies! We soon stumbled upon a whole group of hoopers and our guide told us that the city used to run free programs every Saturday in the park. There would be yoga at 8, dance at 9, hooping at 10, etc. Unfortunately the city eventually stopped the program, but the hooping lady loves to hoop so much that she continues to bring hoops to the park every week to teach people to hoop! I was thrilled to join in for a bit and see many of the same tricks I know.
At the next park we stumbled across a local festival celebrating entrepreneurship, which had several different exhibitions on. They were showcasing local community initiatives and providing free food and smoothies for the festivities, so we decided to join in! It was great to see so many Costa Ricans interacting together in public spaces on the weekend and it really gave the city a lot more character.
In fact, our guide was fantastic at pointing out some of the interesting (and funny) eccentricities of the city. He showed us a sun dial that reads the wrong time, but instead of fixing the sun dial, the government posted a convoluted table explaining how many minutes to add or subtract from the sun dial based on time of year to get the correct time. He also pointed out a mural of a monkey that was originally painted smoking a cigar, but was modified to be drinking a brain out of a glass with a straw to be less offensive. Funnier still is that the monkey is painted next to a gate that regularly rolls across the graffiti and makes it look like the monkey is behind bars.
So our short stop in San Jose ended up being much more exciting than anticipated, except maybe when we almost missed the only bus to Monteverde for the day – but we made it in the end!
Monteverde was a totally different scene than San Jose, but we were thrilled to get into nature. Monteverde is a cloud forest nestled in the highlands of Costa Rica. It’s one of Costa Rica’s top attractions and boasts an impressive amount of wildlife. There are tons of adventure activities – from ziplining, to bungee jumping, and rafting – but we opted to check out the biological reserve instead.
The reserve is a protected area with several kilometres of walking trails. It was a cooler morning, so I opted to go for a run after breakfast, along some beautiful mountain views I might add. We thought it was going to be packed at the reserve due to our late start, be we were surprised to find that thanks to the number of trails, the reserve felt virtually empty! We had our first animal encounter only a few hundred meters into the trail when an agouti stumbled on to us as we were putting on bug spray. We mistakenly identified him as a capybara at first, so if you’re wondering what an agouti looks like – now you know.
We hiked about 7-8 kilometres of trails in total. This included hiking up to the most amazing viewpoint. The trees are so tall that you’re under the canopy for most of the trails, but at the viewpoint you can look out over the rolling hills of the reserve for as far as the eye can see! We also hiked out to Monteverde’s famous red suspension bridge and caught a glimpse of a few of the many, but elusive, birds. We could constantly hear the birds up in the canopy, but it was hard to catch a glimpse of them down below.
We finished off our time in Monteverde with a night walk in the forest. I was skeptical that we would see much, but most of Costa Rica’s wildlife is nocturnal and boy, did they prove me wrong. Our first sighting was a poisonous tarantula, followed by an armadillo! The armadillo was easily my favourite because I really did not expect to see one. We went on a lengthy search for a sloth and eventually found one hanging out on the road where we had started. Our guide was totally thrilled to discover there were actually 3 sloths in one tree! Sloths are solitary creatures, so you rarely see them together and our guide couldn’t believe to find 3 in the same tree.
We also saw a sleeping keel billed toucan, a side stripped palm pitviper, and another sloth, bringing the total up to 4! We really couldn’t believe our good luck and finished our time in Monteverde feeling thoroughly accomplished!
Next stop is Arenal Volcano!
Love Maria
Let’s start with my favourite read of the year; I liked it so much I read it twice in a row! On the Jellicoe Road is the story of teenager Taylor Markham, who was abandoned on the Jellicoe Road by her mother when she was a child. She is picked up by a young woman named Hannah and grows up attending Jellicoe’s boarding school for troubled youth. During the first few weeks of every year, the Jellicoe school participates in the Territory Wars with the local Townies and the Cadets. The students secretly fight over school territory behind the backs of their teachers and in her senior year, Taylor is selected as the leader for the Jellicoe School.
Finally, some historical fiction about Croatia! I travelled to Croatia in 2012 and aside from being totally enchanted by the beautiful landscapes; I was fascinated by Croatia’s turbulent recent history. My knowledge of the Bosnian War and the break-up of Yugoslavia was unfortunately quite incomplete when I travelled to Croatia. Since historical fiction is one of my favourite ways to learn about history, I looked for related books when I returned and had a hard time finding one about Croatia until now. Girl at War tells the story of Ana Juric’s life in Croatia as a young girl in the early 1990’s and later as a student in America. Ana escapes to America after a truly horrific experience and tries to move on by forgetting her former life. After being asked to speak at the UN about her experience during the war, Ana decides it is finally time to return to Croatia to face the ghosts of her past. This story is heart-breaking, but incredibly well written and moving.
I know Rainbow Rowell is super popular right now, but I was only introduced to her earlier this year when my book club read one of her other novels, Attachments. I really didn’t like Attachments, so I had trouble understanding Rowell’s appeal until I decided to give her another chance with Fangirl. Fangirl is about Cath Avery’s first year at college and how she struggles to leave behind the comforts of her childhood, namely her obsession with the popular Simon Snow fantasy series. The Simon Snow series represents the real-life Harry Potter series, and as a huge HP fangirl myself I was interested in the ‘fangirl’ storyline. Unfortunately, I think the fan aspect of this story was a little lacking and actually the weaker part of the story, but I loved the characters in this book and I loved reading about Cath’s struggles with her sister, boys, and with adjusting to college life. The characters and their struggles are so relatable and that was what made this book a win for me.
I stumbled upon this book when I was looking for literature to read about Brazil before I went on my trip. It only has about a dozen reviews on goodreads, so I’m happy to recommend it to more people! It’s a memoir about an English couple, Laura and Paddy, who take a year-long break from their lives to cycle around South America. They start on Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro and cycle more than 20,000 kms, through every country in South America, before returning (like turtles) back to the same beach where they began. The story is written by Laura using her travel diaries. It’s not the best travel writing I’ve read because Laura is not a writer and has never written a book before, but it’s personal and I really enjoyed traveling along with the couple on what must have been an incredible journey. Both characters are relatable – I didn’t feel like Laura or Paddy were so different from myself – which is what made their journey so believable and exciting!
This story opens in the mid 1970’s when teenager Lydia Lee turns up dead in the local lake. The police chalk her death up to suicide by drowning, but Lydia’s parents can’t believe their beautiful, popular, and intelligent daughter would kill herself and suspect foul play. Lydia’s parents, Marilyn and James, are a mixed race couple with two other children, Nath and Hannah. When I picked this book up, I thought it might be a mystery or thriller, but it’s really a simple story about relationships. We get to experience the story from the point of view of each family member as their histories, personalities, fears, and dreams are revealed to us over the course of the novel. It’s not a fast paced book, but it’s well written and I really enjoyed the character development throughout the story.
The Road Goes Ever On 