Tag: central-america

Costa Rica wrap-up

My one month in Costa Rica ended almost a week ago and I am ready to share my overall thoughts and experiences. I am trying to strike a balance between telling you about the place and how I experienced it, and self-reflection. Let me know in the comments what you want to read more about!

The Good

I knew what to expect from Costa Rica, even though I hadn’t been to the Guanacaste province, and I wasn’t disappointed. The beaches, sunsets, volcanoes, fauna, flora, and food were exactly what a thousand other blogs will tell you about. The food is fresh and delicious (albeit relatively expensive), the nature a true sight to behold. The people are absolute gems, offering warmth and hospitality, excited to share their knowledge about the country and the region, and always willing to help. These are a few things that make Costa Rica a worthwhile destination, so if you’re hesitating about going – just do it.

In mid-April I started my second month of not working. I had a tough time answering the “so, how does it feel to be on sabbatical?” question, because I honestly did not know what I felt. For a good while I felt like the time off was short-lived and I would be going back to work the following Monday. Interestingly, that seems to have faded now as I’m settling into another rhythm.

I got into the habit of doing yoga flows, using the travel mat I carried with me. Always looking to optimize my packing, I was afraid carrying the yoga mat would be a PITA and I wouldn’t use it – I was wrong (well, it is a bit of a PITA to carry but mostly worth it).

I read 13 books in April, which feels like such a luxury. I simply had no mental capacity to read when I was working full-time. Or rather, I didn’t (couldn’t?) prioritize reading when I needed to disconnect. I love immersing myself in the written word, and yet I somehow found it too hard, which seems very nonsensical. I was afraid I’d lost my love for books. Luckily it seems that I still have the capacity to immerse myself, devour books, and enjoy the heck out of it. On the flip side, I have not watched a single minute of tv since I left Canada (I don’t even miss it).

One of the books I read in April, What My Bones Know (Stephanie Foo) – highly recommended!

The pictures below capture some of the amazing sights and experiences from Costa Rica.

Playa Conchal
Playas del Coco
Main square in Sardinal
Sign for Liberia, largest town in Guanacaste
Playas del Coco
Hanging out in a creek
Church in Guayabo, Miravalles volcano in background
Sunset in Brasilito
Sign for Guayabo with Miravalles volcano in background
Miravalles volcano at sunset
Water apple. Glad I tried it, don’t need to again
Granadilla, i.e. current addiction
Daura Damm, delicious gluten-free beer
Mango with tajín
Yummy plate of chicken, rice, beans, and plantain

The Shenanigans

You can read about the laundry shenanigans in this post. There were also cold plunge shenanigans (you can read about my cold plunge experience in this post). My cousin and I dropped by the wellness centre a few days prior to my cold plunge to find the owners refilling one of the tubs with water from various plastic bottles that had been stored in a freezer. We helped out while talking to them (as one does) and it took all my willpower not to have a giggle fit at filling a 65 L tub with 250 ml Fanta bottles… but hey, they had their system (and it worked)!

As expected, sending postcards from Costa Rica was rich in shenanigans. Accompanied by a new friend, I set out to Playas del Coco to look for postcards and stamps. Neither of us knew the exact Costa Rican term for postcards so we got some blank stares when we asked shopkeepers if they had them until a kind soul finally understood and told us the correct term (rinse and repeat with stamps). Armed with postcards, we set out to find stamps. From experience, this is the problematic quest in most countries, Costa Rica being no exception. We were told that the only place you can buy stamps is at a post office (called correo) and there was one about a kilometre away from where we were. We set out on foot in 37+ Celsius weather and somehow made it alive to the blissfully air conditioned post office.

I was able to buy international stamps, which the post office worker additionally manually stamped. Interesting. When I asked where I can drop off mail I found out that I would have to return to said post office or drop them off somewhere at the airport (the second choice seemed a little risky to me, I did not particularly want to leave the country with mail I wouldn’t be able to send from anywhere else).

Postcards and stamps in Costa Rica

Days flew by and I realized I wouldn’t have the opportunity to return to the post office so I packed the postcards in my bags and left for San José to fly to Colombia, hoping for the best. Luckily, my wonderful AirBnB host in San José told me there is a post office in a nearby mall. Huzzah!! Finding the post office was an obstacle challenge, peppered with many, many interesting shops (apparently I lost my interest in watching tv but not in shopping). I managed to make it relatively unscathed only because I simply have no room in my packs for anything else. I did however buy a slightly bigger messenger bag to fit that one extra shirt I found and couldn’t say no to…

In the end, I managed to mail the postcards! They were left with the Costa Rican postal office on May 2, 2024. Godspeed, little paper rectangles!

And uh… I obviously stumbled on the mailbox at the San José airport without any effort. Figures.

Mailbox in departures area of San José international airport

The Ugly

The heat. I am not made for it, and I suffer from being in it for long periods of time. By the same token, the blistering sun – with all my efforts to sunscreen diligently and cover up as much as possible, I still got a weird half-a-leg, half-an-arm, full-face sunburn.

Costa Rican road infrastructure. From bizarre 3-way intersections with no traffic lights to clogged up traffic due to choke points. It takes wayyyy longer to get between places than it should.

Public buses, for their lack of air conditioning. At the least the ones I took, which included a 6-hour bus from Playa del Cocos to San José. See first issue re: heat.

Getting caught in a downpour and walking the 15 minutes from the grocery store to my accommodation on the side of the highway in shin-deep side-of-the-highway runoff water, in the dark, with a backpack of groceries and a 6 L water bottle.

Feeling guilty if I don’t do anything “productive” during my day. I think this one will take a while to unlearn. I’m working on it every day, trying to relearn how to simply live my life, find joy, and not feel guilty about it. My sense of worth is so wrapped up in my work that I have to actively focus on defining who I am, not what I do.

What’s next?

I have started exploring Bogotá, Colombia! I am letting everything settle in, taking the experiences, the lessons, and the self-reflections in stride. I will continue to work on myself while enjoying a cooler climate, learning about a new culture, seeing new places and meeting new people.

There is so much more I could share about Costa Rica, let me know in the comments below if you would like to know about anything else!

Costa Rica travel quirks

After the 15 minutes it took me to pick out a detergent (side note: options are wildly different in Costa Rica and the choice is spectacular; imagine an entire aisle dedicated to laundry detergent, with 14 different scents and 45 different properties1), I can’t figure out the washing machine. One of the premises of traveling light is being able to launder your clothes so I was elated when I settled into a complex that offers laundry on site. Excited to get the sweat, dust, sunscreen, and dog drool out of my clothes, imagine my puzzlement when I checked the load I had put on “gentle cycle” only to find it dripping wet. As in, sopping-pile-of-clothes, “what happened to the spin cycle?” dripping wet. I gave it another spin (pun intended), only to end up with the same result. Is this how clothes come out of the washer here? Do I need to adjust my expectations? 

I repeated this internal dialogue out loud with my best friend (she’s in Canada and long-distance troubleshooting a washer left her equally puzzled) and my cousin, now my neighbour and resident expert on all things Costa Rica. He offered that the “gentle cycle” might not be a thing with this washer and to use the regular cycle. He even showed me exactly what option to choose and I put another load in, full of hope and optimism. 30 minutes later… same result. Many unanswered questions later, I wrung out my drippy clothes as best I could and called upon the dryer to work its magic. I hung up the non-dryer items on the shower curtain rod, silently praying that it wouldn’t come tumbling down – as it had in past travels, not once but twice, on different continents.

Fast forward a few days later, when my cousin casually mentions “oh by the way, they replaced the washer, it was broken”. 

This makes me think about the quirks of travel that are often not discussed, but in my opinion make the experience rich and memorable. My best friend is afflicted by “bad travel juju” and try as we might (including having liquid smudge on hand at all times), it rears its head wherever we go. 

On our last trip to Costa Rica, we were plagued by bathroom troubles. Lest you think I am about to launch into some diatribe about gastrointestinal issues, let me assure you that I mean mechanical bathroom troubles. As in, the toilet doesn’t flush, so let’s use a container – aka garbage can – to flush it (my idea and I’m very proud of it. My best friend looked at me like I had sprouted another head). I then somehow managed to block the sink in the same bathroom, which meant that using the toilet required pouring a garbage can full of water to flush the toilet then washing your hands in the shower. The next day our sink plug had been confiscated, proof that we couldn’t be trusted with such advanced tools. At least we were able to wash our hands in the sink again, and we also figured out that we could get the toiled to flush if we wiggled the thingamajig inside the tank.

In another bathroom the light went out. It took 4 people about 40 minutes to change the lightbulb and they told us it was a wiring issue – and to leave the light on at all times. When we asked what would happen if the light went out again we got shrugs. Phone flashlights came in handy for that one. 

Each bathroom in each accommodation had a quirk, but the most epic was our toilet in Monteverde. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so tell me how many words am I saving with the video below? Sound on, and please watch until the end. 

Our epic singing toilet in Monteverde, Costa Rica. Sound on and watch until the end!

The key to facing all these challenges/quirks is laughter. I truly believe it keeps us sane, healthy, balanced. It would be easy to fall into negative thinking and diminish your experience, but I offer you an alternative – laugh about it, put it down as a memorable anecdote, and enjoy the heck out of your trip and your life. Go ahead, flush the singing toilet, wring out your clothes – and use uncontrollable laughter as the antidote to bad juju. 

Life is full of quirks – laugh to smooth out their sharp edges and transform them into the precious memories that will make you smile years down the road.

What travel quirks (or life quirks) have you encountered? How many of them sent you into peals of laughter? Let me know in the comments – and let me know if you liked this post and want to read about more shenanigans like these! I’m off to do another load of laundry.

  1. Not actual numbers ↩︎