Costa Rica 2008

Costa Rica is a delicious Oyster waiting to be discovered and eaten by those who have not explored it.

For those of you who have not explored Costa Rica, you are missing out tremendously.  If you do have the time, you must get there.

Here’s a little swimming, at the top of a 500ft waterfall in the middle of La Danta Salvaje.

Go learn more about Costa Rica, at the wikipedia site on Costa Rica.  Here you will find a great amounts of information on how Costa Rica came about, her natural resources, her people and her culture.

Before the adventure begins, here are links to the awesome time spent in Costa Rica with my Get Out Philadelphia Adventure Club friends.   My travels were from February 16th, 2008 to February 23rd, 2008.

      Mike’s Album

      Maureen’s Album

     Tina’s Album

      Andrew’s Album

     Amy’s Album

     Ted’s Album

 

In the Beginning

Fall of 2007- It was the bright idea of Ted H. to plan a trip to Costa Rica, Central America for his fellow Get Out Philadelphia Adventurers.  His ex-brother-in-law owns 1000 acres of Costa Rican rain forest land, so he thought why not take this opportunity to visit my ex brother-in-law and enjoy all 1000 acres of his land.  His name is David Vaugn.  David welcomed Get Out Philadelphia to explore and take a Costa Rican adventure with him.  This was to be the first organized international adventure made by members of the Get Out Philadelphia Adventure Gang.  That’s when it came about, the event -> http://adventurers.meetup.com/47/calendar/6618189/. 

RSVPs came with fists up, shoving everywhere, dinners and special treatments were requested and made, and in the end, what mattered the most was who was really ready to give up that GREEN $$$.  Only a select 10 adventurers were chosen.  The chosen ones had until November 12th, 2007 to prove themselves.  Again, handwritten tests were taken, phsyical and mental challenges were completed, races were performed, eyes were blackened, fists were bled, all to win a spot as one of the select Costa Rican Adventurers.  Final payments came in as late as two weeks before the actual trip.

Between the Fall of 2007-Winter of 2007- Outlines were made, itineraries were created, loads of confusion and discussions came about, and a big picture was at least drawn. 

The big picture was to go to Costa Rica!  Again, with the big picture already set forth (now the big picture -picture above- definitely tempted our adventurers), David finalized all the details for our adventurers.  His details are as follows, they are included in this adventure itinerary –> http://gopcostarica2008.pbwiki.com/Trip+Itinerary

A plan was coming together very fast.  It was shaping to be one really awesome trip on paper.  We were all excited.  Thank Goodness, by the words of one of my most favourite persons in this living world, I think by her words exactly, “…I will be very upset if you don’t go”, I was able to make it as an adventurer within the two weeks before the adventure began.

The Adventurers

Finally.  The adventurers.  All having passed a multitude of mental and phsyical challenges as well as (most importantly the reason why we could go) having an airline ticket already paid for and having submitted the complete payment of a whopping 353.00 USD.  All are ready to go. 

It was a cold cold Saturday afternoon.  We decided to meet to get to know each other better, before the killing.  The qoute- “the calm before the storm”.  I can’t remember the name of the person who said that but yes, Here we are. 

 

We have all come together to discuss our finalized objectives- To get stoned, drunk and eat lots of coconut and pineapple whilst being followed by a snarling jaguar on tapir trails.  Yes, and we met our host and hostess (with the mostest) in our destination, via our wonderful technologically advanced ADSL connected webcam and also with the help of our friend named AOL Instant Messenger.  Here we were able to chat with them live as well as see them face to face whilst they were in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, Central America and we were here in South Jersey, USA, North America.  This was stuff I had only dreamt about when I was five years old where you could see the other person while you’re talking- aaah childhood fantasies- on another note- I think I saw David and Dawn picking their noses.

We were able to iron out all of our issues, such as should we wear underwear or not?  And should I have clean underwear?  And how many pairs should I have?  I bet the ladies were wondering if they needed their brazerres!  Or who should carry the hairdryer?  Or even, can I plug my hairdryer into a tree for good natural electricity? Or better yet, should I pack one cookie or two?  My favourite one was, I’ll be bringing my laptop, you know that electronically fancy doo-dad gadget that allows me to surf the world wide web  wirelessly (this day and age anyhows, and on that note: I was looking for a wireless internetwork transmitter out there in the mddle of the rainforest- suckerrs!) in which we weave for all naughty materials (which we are required to enter our userids and passwords -that are encrypted by our birthdates, social security numbers, home addresses and the names of our soon to be first borns) that are not allowed by childrens’ eyes to see (and defining children as anyone under the age of 25).

Without further adue, here they are- David and Dawn

Well OK, just David for now. 

Ok Fine, Here’s Dawn

 

Travel Prep by David and Dawn of La Danta Salvaje

David and Dawn really got us prepped for the entire trip.  From packing to every little detail between San Jose to (No, not San Jose, California) La Danta Salvaje to Puerto Viejo and then back.  These two planned a really funpacked energetic adventure trip for us.  It was one adventure after another.  You couldn’t even sit down, if you did, you’d miss out on all the fun.

Once we worked out the kinks from our modern doo-dad gadgets (kicked them around a few times), we were able to see David and Dawn.  They saw us and they were in shock at how ecstatic we were to get to Costa Rica.  They did almost everything to try to calm us down, then only to get us more excited by telling us of how they spotted a Fer De Lance the week prior and whitefaced monkeys bouncing from tree to tree and how there would be wild boars hiking along with us.  I think they were trying to scare us, but, c’mon now, we’re Get Out Philly Adventurers!  Nothing scares us! 

So then they cut to the chase and informed us of what we needed to bring for each phase of the trip, how we should pack, how much money was needed, to watch out for the crazy huevitos (that’d be me), and they asked us to bring them an american souvenir- a faucet repair kit from our very favourite ACE hardware stores. 

Considering that our itinerary included four days in the rainforest and 2days at the beach, David and Dawn highly advised us to pack and make sure we had the proper gear for both parts of the trip.

This is what they recommended for the Rainforest Adventure at La Danta Salvaje:

A toothbrush and toothpaste

That’s it.  No bags. No towels.  No underwear (who needs underwear).  NO deodorant (ah heck, you smell anyways, so why bother now).  No swimtrunks (Now c’mon, you’re going to be in the middle of the rainforest, who’s going to be staring at you swimming nekked??- well ‘cept for them other primates).   No tee-pee (rainforest leaves guys, you know that umbrella plant really makes good tee-pee substitute, and to clean your buttocks- just jump in the river- it’ll carry everything downstream and eventually into a big lake or the ocean).  So No Worries!  The message David and Dawn were relaying was just to pack light and bring what only what you need.

We went ahead and decided to pack as a basic requirement:

1. Daypack
2. at least 2pairs of underwear
3. at least 2pairs of tshirts-1quickdry
4. 1long sleeve jacket-fleece/sweater
5. 1raincoat
6. 2pairs of long pants that can quickly become shorts (without cutting the legs off that is) – aka, convertible hiking pants
7. 2pairs of long socks
8. running shoes/trekking shoes/trekking boots
9. toothbrush/toothpaste/soap/teepee/
10. Deet- bug repellent
11. a towel

Both David and Dawn did inform us that we did not need to wear or pack our own boots because they had plenty of waterproof knee high boots (me being a rebell and thinking that my hiking boots go wherever I go, ended up wearing only my hiking boots and no other shoes ‘cept for the neat jungle pattern flipflops I ended up purchasing in Puerto Viejo) that could trek through even the most quicksand of mud existing in the world.  Well ok, maybe only the kind of quicksand that doesn’t suck all of you in, just your leg for that half a second that you take to pull your leg out. 

This is what you would look like with all the appropriate rainforest gear on.

I went ahead and packed the above except for the fleece sweater.  I ended up packing a long sleeve cotton t-shirt from my favourite Hang Gliding outfitter in Maryland, two extra pairs of wool hiking socks, and a ton of electronic gadgets like my ipod/iphone, 2 walkie talkies, my digital camera, my charger, my pocket knife, and my compass and whistle.  Plus I had clothes that I was wearing- jeans, long sleeve sweater, a tshirt, boxers and some wool socks.  Thank goodness I was wearing those because let me tell you, whilst heading off to a warm warm climate from a wintry climate, one sound- BRRRR.

I was amazed that we didn’t need our sleeping bags or tents.  I was hoping to spend a night in the rainforest in tents and sleeping bags.  This will have to be part of a future trip.  Although I would really have to question the safety of setting up camp in the rainforest. 

Now as for Puerto Viejo- David and Dawn suggested two things as part of our luggage.

Swimtrunks and Bathing suits

No, I’m not kidding.  Just swimtrunks or for those of you that prefer, you can bring your bathing suits.  And you guessed it, obviously we brought extra things- such as flipflops, sunglasses, and suntan lotion.  And for the ladies, such extra necessities were required like a blowdryer, hairbrush, scrunchees, bras, tampons and amenities that men have the pleasure of not ever needing.

They did advise us to leave the bottles at home.  Duty free shops are a great place to acquire local concoctions.  They had informed us to grab some airport RUM before taking off for La Danta Salvaje (and we also later realized that there was an ample stash of some good stuff all for the price of 5USD per serving bottle).  There’s a sample of that good rainforest concoction.