Costa Rica 哥斯达黎加 (2)
Feb 5: On the way to Manuel Antonio National Park, we stopped briefly by the beach along the road. We saw beautiful red Macaw, but what attracted us more was the small fish stall of the locals on the beach, cleaning the fish just caught from the sea, putting them in bags according to the size, and marking the price.
Lunch was seafood at a seaside restaurant, La Parcela, recommended by the host. The sea was on both sides of the restaurant, and the view was beautiful.
Around 3 pm, we arrived at the Hotel San Bada next to the national park entrance, and the town was full of traffic, like a lively tourist town. After settling in, the two of us went to the top-floor restaurant for a cup of coffee and watched the beautiful sunset. Soon attracted by a roar, several howler monkeys played in the trees beside the hotel. The sound was a little frightening. It was getting dark, and no photos could be taken.
Too full from the big lunch, our friends decided to skip the dinner, and two of us had a simple dinner at the Japanese restaurant on the hotel's rooftop in the evening, and the food was delicious.
Feb 6: After breakfast, we went to the beach first. In addition to being right next to the national park's entrance, the hotel was not too far from the beach. We did not dare to go into the sea at the beach with big waves. We just rented an umbrella and sat on the beach for a while. When the waves hit the beach, the water carries a lot of fine sand onto the beach, so the water is very muddy, and walking on the beach is not too comfortable.
Back at the hotel, we had lunch at one of the hotel's restaurants. Then we joined the tour group to Manuel Antonio National Park. We were supposed to buy tickets online with real names to get inside this national park. However, no tickets were available online, but local travel agencies had all the passes. So for us, the only way to get into the park was to join their tours. We bought our tickets through the receptionist at the hotel shortly after we arrived yesterday. The morning tours were all sold out, and we only got the day's last tour, starting at 1 pm. The park closed at 4 o'clock, so we only had two to three hours to explore. For each tour, about every ten tourists were accompanied by a tour guide who carried a high-powered telescope, and he stopped from time to time to show us animals through the telescope, which we could not see with the naked eye, such as spiders, bats, sloths, and more. The tour guide didn't give us much time, and often we rushed through the park. When we came to the beautiful beach in the park, we didn't even have the opportunity to get our feet wet, only time to take a few photos because the beach closed at 3 o'clock. Maybe we had seen too many animals in Panama and at Jim's house before, perhaps we had too high expectations for this national park, or maybe the park had too many guides with high-powered telescopes leading tourists like us. We felt that today's group tour was not impressive and worthwhile.
After walking in the park for 3 hours on a hot day, everyone was a little tired, so we returned to the hotel for a short rest and then to the Japanese restaurant on the top floor for dinner. In fact, outside the park gate, there are many restaurants near the hotel, but they only do the business of daytime tourists. After the park closes at 4 o'clock, most shops are closed, the lights are turned off, and the whole street is deserted at night.
Feb 7: Manuel Antonio National Park closed its doors on Tuesday, and of course, the town was deserted, and there were few tourists. Today we were heading for our next stop, La Fortuna. Along the way, we stopped at Esterillos Oeste beach near Jaco when the tide was low. The fine sand beach stretches far into the sea. The four of us leisurely strolled on the tranquil beach with only a few small empty boats parking there. It was a pleasant and peaceful experience. After leaving the beach, we stopped at a street vendor in Jaco Town, having an iced-cool fresh coconut for two dollars, which was very delicious. Lunch was at Amara in town, and then we headed to the Crocodile Bridge to see crocodiles. Two of us came here on a local crocodile tour last month during our cruise trip, but we did not stop at the bridge and went directly to the touring boat. We only saw a few small crocodiles in the river that day during the tour, and we were very disappointed then. Today we walked onto the bridge, looked down, and nearly twenty large crocodiles were lying there. The best part, it was free of charge; we didn't need to pay for any guided tour.
Before dark, we arrived at the Baldi Hotels Hot Spring Resort and were greeted with a refreshing cocktail. We dropped off our luggage in the room and went directly to soak in the hot springs at the resort. Over two dozen hot springs have different water temperatures on the resort campus. We would stay here for three days, and my friends joked about soaking in every one of the two dozen hot springs to get our money's worth. Dinner was a simple Pizza, salad, and shrimp fried rice at the hotel.
Feb 8: After breakfast at the hotel in the morning, we drove to the Arenal Volcano National Park, and there was a long line of cars waiting to enter the park at the entrance. In the park, we chose a slightly longer and more challenging hike. The trail was not steep, but it was very muddy. On the path, we saw the 400-year-old Ceiba trees, the only plants that survived the 1969 volcano eruption.
At the volcano observation point, the weather change on the top of the mountain is unpredictable; most of the time, the top is covered by clouds. We waited more than 30 minutes but did not see the Arenal peak. On the way back to the hotel, we went to a Korean restaurant and had bibimbap, which tasted good.
Back to the hotel, we went to the hot springs again, hopping from low temp hot springs to high temp ones to relax after strenuous hiking in the morning. In the evening, we went to a small restaurant, Marisquerias Snapper, in the town, recommended by a friend; we had fried whole fish, seafood soup, etc. The food tasted great, and the place was highly recommended.
Feb 9: Our plan today was to go to La Fortuna Waterfall, a private park owned by an American, a must-visit place in La Fortuna. Tickets are not cheap, but the park is very well-built. The waterfall accessed by climbing down 543 steps is indeed lovely and spectacular. It's easy to go down but hard to walk up. We were a little breathless, walking up from the bottom, and had to stop many times. At noon, we found a small restaurant next to the bus terminal in the town, where many locals ate. A simple plate of fried rice with shrimp and pork ribs was cheap and delicious.
After returning to the hotel for a short nap, we returned to the hot springs. Connie got so many bug bites in the last two days while at the hot springs she refused to go there anymore. In the evening, we returned to the town center and found a small café, Travesia, serving beef soup. In Costa Rica, we found their local beef/beef bone broth to be very delicious and similar to our Chinese beef soup but with a lot of potatoes, corn, and melons.
Feb 10: This morning, it had been raining heavily in Fortuna, and we were leaving for San José, the capital of Costa Rica. The 120-kilometer road took us more than four hours to drive by trying to avoid the highways with 700 numbers, which is very difficult to navigate as told, and it twists up and down very much. We were not sure that was a wise decision. We could better plan the trip to San Jose to see more places along the way. The roads we drove on were not easy, plus the road had a lot of potholes. One of us got motion sickness all the way. Along the way, we bought some local fresh strawberries from the small shop on the street, and these were the best strawberries with a strong flavor.
Before arriving in San José, we stopped by Alajuela, the third largest city in Costa Rica. We found our beloved beef/beef bone broth in their central market. Having a large bowl of beef soup and pork Tamale (pork corn dumplings) for lunch was very satisfying. The beef broth was thick and fragrant, and it was the best one so far. Tamales were also tastier than the ones in the United States. After lunch, we visited the Catholic Church and Square Park, then drove back to the rental center to return the car, and our first rental car abroad (not counting in Canada) ended successfully.
An Uber took us to our Airbnb rental. It was a three-bedroom unit with a kitchen, a living room, two bathrooms, and a work area. It was clean and spacious. After a short rest, we went to a Cantonese restaurant, Mulan, for dinner. We had eaten a lot of fresh seafood these days, so we ordered ground beef soup (West Lake beef soup in Chinese), fried noodles, two portions of green leafy vegetables, and a large pot of salted fish clay pot rice, which all tasted very good. We could not finish the steamed rice with salted fish and saved the rest for the next day.
Feb 11: We had a full day in San Jose today and no particular plans to visit any places. A fruit and vegetable wholesale market near our rented unit is open from 10 pm to 2 pm the next day. We went there early in the morning to buy fresh strawberries, pineapples, papayas, and watermelons. We also tried a cup of freshly squeezed sugarcane juice and coconut. Sugarcane juice is super sweet, and pineapple is also sweet, much better than those in the United States.
After breakfast, we strolled towards the city center and toured the central market with many snack bars. The downtown area filled up with many local pedestrians but few foreign tourists. Lunch was DIM SUM at a Chinese restaurant in the downtown area, then we returned to our Airbnb and went online to work on the immigration entry form for Colombia. Interestingly we couldn't find the United States in the list of countries, and we spent a lot of time searching on the Internet and finally found the reason. Even though the form is in English, the country listings are in Spanish. The Spanish language for the United States is Estados Unidos, while American or The United States is used elsewhere. We finally filled out and sent the form, but not all of us received the confirmation email. Without this confirmation letter, we couldn't get on the plane tomorrow. It often happens to too many tourists, as mentioned on the Internet. The four of us tried many different options, spent almost the whole afternoon completing the form to figure out what went wrong, and finally got confirmation from the authority. We checked in and were ready to go to our next destination, Columbia.
Dinner was the last night's leftover from the clay pot-cooked rice. While we were having a large bowl of watermelon and papaya after dinner, one of our friends received her daughter's text message about our visit to Colombia. The daughter said that her friend's family in Colombia had begun stockpiling goods for an upcoming country-wide demonstration. No one knows what would happen, but her Colombia friend suggested giving the trip a second thought. Before our trip, we had registered for the U.S. government's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, STEP, and let the government know where we were going. After coming to Central America, we often received emails from the local U.S. Embassies about regional social developments. We were told there had been small-scale anti-government demonstrations in Colombia recently. Whether it is a good time to visit Colombia was often a topic for conversation after our dinner these days. According to the emails we received, country-wide pro-government and anti-government protests have been scheduled on February 14 and 15, when we would visit several major cities in Colombia, including their capital, Bogota. Going to Colombia was the highlight of our trip, but for safety, everyone agreed to change the plan, no more Colombia, and go home tomorrow instead. We immediately went online to buy the tickets to fly back to the U.S. We were all disappointed, but it's better to be safe than say sorry. We will give it another try next time.
The following paragraphs are the Chinese version of the travel journal.
吃完早餐，正在装车准备离开，突然间来了一群松鼠猴，偷吃房东Jim 特地给它们准备的香蕉。在民宿住了三天，天天盼望着能在园子里看到小猴，可就是没出现，只在附近其它地方有看到各种𤠣子，而今天就在我们马上要离开时它们却突然出现了，太神奇，太幸运了。告别了房东，依依不舍地离开了森林中的木屋。
在开往Manuel Antonio 国家公园的路上，我们有在沿路的海滩边短暂停留，有看到漂亮的红鸟，但更吸引我们的是当地人小小的鱼摊，将刚刚旁边海里捕来的鱼清洗干净，按大小装在袋子里，标上价格，只可惜我们在赶路，只能看不能买。午餐是在房东推荐的一家海边餐厅吃的海鲜，风景很美，二边都是海。
下午三点左右到了就在国家公园入口处旁的旅馆，小镇上是车水马龙人丁兴旺，像是一个热闹的旅游镇。安顿好后我们俩上顶楼餐厅喝上一杯咖啡，看着美丽的夕阳西落。不久被一阵吼声所吸引，几只吼猴在旅馆边的树上玩耍，声音之大有些吓人，天暗了，没能拍到照片。
晚上还是在旅馆顶楼的日本餐厅吃了简单晚餐。
2/6: 早上早餐后，先去海滩看看。住的旅馆除了就在国家公园入口处的边上，另外还有条通道可以直接去海边，也算是一个优点了。来到海边，浪有点大，没敢下海只是租了把伞在海滩上坐了一会儿。海滩上的沙子非常细，海浪冲上海滩时水带着许多细沙，很浑浊有些像泥浆水，走在沙滩上感觉并不是那么舒服。
中午在旅馆的餐厅吃了午饭之后便跟旅游团去Manuel Antonio 国家公园。去这个国家公园需要在网上实名订票，但一票难求。可是当地旅行社都有进公园的门票，所以对我们来说，能走进公园的唯一办法是参加他们的旅游团。我们通过旅馆的前台帮我们订了今天下午的票。每十位游客有一位导游带着，他携带高倍望远镜，不时地停下来，用望远镜可以看到我们很难看到的动物，蜘蛛，蝙蝠，树懒(sloth)等等。也许是我们之前在巴拿马以及房东Jim家看到了太多动物，也许是我们之前对这个国家公园的期待值太高，也许是公园里到处是背着高倍望远镜的导游带领着像我们一样的游客，总觉得今天的跟团游性价比很低。因为我们没订到早晨的票，下午我们进公园时已经是1点多了，公园4点关门，所以导游没给我们太多时间，而是常常在赶路，等来到公园内漂亮的海滩时连湿脚的机会都没有，只有时间拍几张照片，因为海滩在3点就关闭了。期待很久的Manuel Antonio 国家公园游就这样匆匆地结束了。
大热天在公园里走了2～3个小时，大家都有点累，回旅馆休息一下晚上又上顶楼的日本餐厅吃饭。其实公园门外，旅馆附近有很多饭店，但是基本只做白天游客的生意，公园下车4点关门后，这些店也大都关门熄灯了，晚上整条街冷冷清清的。不想开车去远些的镇里，所以我们就图个方便在旅馆搞定晚餐。
2/7: 周二Manuel Antonio 国家公园关门休息，当然整个镇也是冷冷清清的，游客稀少。今天我们又要前往下一站La Fortuna.
先在沿途海滩稍作停留，大概正是低潮的时候，细细的沙滩沿伸到很外面，走在上面有些软软的，有几个小船停在沙滩上。离开沙滩继续往前开，在Jaco小镇又停了一下，路过有卖新鲜冰椰子，二块美金一大个，很好喝。在镇里吃个午饭后又赶路，来到鳄鱼桥。上个月我们坐游轮时来过这里，当时参加了当地的一个看鳄鱼的团，有经过鳄鱼桥，但并没有在桥上停，而是直接去坐船在河里看。记得那天总共没见着几条鳄鱼，且都是非常小的，当时还特别失望。今天走到桥上往下看，近二十条大鳄鱼躺在那里。
在天黑之前，我们来到了Baldi 温泉度假酒店。放下行李，就先去温泉里泡一会儿。酒店里总共有大大小小二十几个不同温度的温泉。我们在这里住三天，朋友开玩笑说要把这二十几个温泉都泡一遍。晚饭就在酒店里吃了Pizza，色拉 和炒饭。
2/8： 一早在酒店吃了早餐之后就赶紧来到Arenal火山国家公园，入口处进公园的车子已经排起长龙。进到公园后，我们选择了一条稍微长一点难一点的徒步路线。其实路并不陡，但非常泥泞，有时候无可避免地必须从泥浆中走过。在小路上，可以看到400年老的木棉树（Ceiba), 这几棵老树在1969年火山爆发中是唯一幸存下来的植物。
来到火山观望点，山顶的气候变化无常，绝大部分时间山顶都是被云遮住，我们等了三十多分钟还是没有完全云开雾散，没见到山顶的真容，有一点点扫兴。回酒店路上去一家韩国店吃了石锅饭，味道不错。
回到温泉酒店后又去泡温泉，从水温低的泡到水温高的温泉，缓解上午徒步的疲劳。晚上去镇上一家朋友推荐的小饭馆里吃了油炸全鱼，海鲜汤等。
2/9: 今天的活动是去La Fortuna瀑布，是在一家私人公园内。门票不便宜，但是这里的必游之地。公园修建的很好，走543格楼梯才到瀑布底下，瀑布的确不错，也很壮观。下山容易上山难，五百多步从底部往上走还是有点气喘吁吁。中午在镇上找了一家汽车总站旁的小饭馆，有很多当地人在那里吃，生意兴隆。简简单单的一盘虾仁炒饭和排骨饭，便宜又好吃。
回到酒店睡了个午觉之后又去泡温泉。晚上再回到镇上找了一家有牛肉汤的小店。来哥斯达黎加后发现他们当地牛肉／牛骨汤特别好吃，和我们的骨头汤差不多，但加了不少玉米，瓜类。
2/10: 今天Fortuna 早上下大雨，我们要离开这里前往哥斯达黎加的首都 - 圣何塞。120公里的路却开了4个多小时，还是避开700字头的公路。据说700字号的公路特别难开，上上下下弯弯曲曲得很厉害。但我们开的另一条公路也并不容易，再加上路上坑坑洼洼，有人一路晕车☹️😢😭。在沿途路边，我们买了些当地产的草莓，非常新鲜，草莓味道很浓。
在到达圣何塞之前我们先顺路去了附近的另一个城市 - Alajuela, 哥斯达黎加第三大城市。看了一下他们的中央市场，在那里又找到了我们深爱的牛肉／牛骨汤。一大碗牛肉汤再加猪肉Tamale（猪肉玉米粽子）下肚，很满足。牛肉汤又浓又香是吃到现在最好的。玉米粽也比美国的好吃。接着去了天主教堂和广场公园走一下，然后就开车来到租车中心把租的车还了，我们第一次在国外租车（加拿大不算）的经历也算到此结束。接下来的行程又会以出租车/Uber为主。
叫了Uber来到我们租住的民宿，三房一厅二卫还有个工作区，又干净又宽敞，很舒适。稍微休息一下后晚上去了一家广东人开的餐馆。这几天海鲜吃多了，今晚换换口味，要了西湖羹，炒面，二份绿叶蔬菜和一大锅咸鱼煲饭，味道很不错的。那一大沙锅的煲饭估计二顿都吃不完。
2/11: 我们今天在圣何塞有一整天的时间，也没有特别的计划去参观什么地方。在我们住的民宿附近有水果蔬菜批发市场，晚上十点开到第二天的下午二点。我们一早就去买了些草莓，菠萝，木瓜和西瓜。在那里喝了一杯新鲜的甘蔗汁和椰子汁。甘蔗汁超甜，菠萝也很甜，比在美国喝的要好得多。
早餐后，我们就慢慢地走去市中心，在中央市场里转了一大圈，有许多家小吃店，看上去不错，但我们没在那里尝试。市中心路上当地行人不少但外来游客寥寥无几。
中午在一家中餐馆里吃早茶后，回到民宿，上网想把哥伦比亚的入境表填了，但就是在国家列表里找不到美国，花不少时间上网搜索，最终找到了原因。即使表格是英文版，其中一个国家列表是西语。美国的西语是Estados Unidos, 而在表格上其它地方却用American 或者是The United States。好不容易填好表格送出，但就是不见确认邮件。没有这份确认信明天上不了飞机，网上查了半天据说这事常发生😭。四人整整花了一个下午总算才把进境表格这事搞定。办好明天的航班登机手续，一切就绪， 明天出发去哥伦比亚。
晚餐是吃昨晚剩下的煲仔饭。饭后吃着一大盆西瓜和木瓜时，朋友的女儿送来了个短信对我们去哥伦比亚有点担心，告诉我们她朋友在哥伦比亚的家人都已经开始囤积货物，没人知道情况会如何发展，建议我们再考虑一下行程。实际上，是否这时候该去哥伦比亚也是我们这几天饭后的话题。来中美州之前，我们注册了美国政府的STEP program，把要去的地方告诉政府。来中美州后，时常会收到当地美国使馆关于当地社会动态的邮件。我们被告知最近这几天哥伦比亚常有小规模护政府和反政府示威游行，接下来的一周各个城市都分别安排了游行。据说在二月十四和十五日会举行全国性亲政府和反政府的示威游行，而这一周我们正好在哥伦比亚的几个大城市里。去哥伦比亚是我们这次行程的热点，但是为了安全，大家讨论之后决定打道回府，马上买机票明天飞回美国。来日方长，我们还会去哥国的。
