My last week in Costa Rica I spent in Montezuma with my friend Maria, who is a teacher in town. I met Maria my first week of college and I am on a fun streak of meeting up with her in cool places every few years around the world.
The trip to Montezuma started slow in true Costa Rican fashion. I had one of the Bosque drivers drop me off at the tiny Puerto Jimenez airport at 6 AM hoping to use my Pura Vida Pass (cheap flight pass) to jump on the 7 AM flight to San Jose and then connect to Tambor. Tired, slightly hungover and covered in mosquito bites I was waiting forever wondering why I was the only person at the terminal. Finally, a Nature Air rep was kind enough to tell me they cancelled the first flight but maybe I could get on the second flight. Annoyed, I trucked back to the Bosque office a 20 minute walk with my 45 lb backpack and 40 lb suitcase dragging through the muddy gravel roads. Luckily I was able to jump on the 10 AM flight to San Jose and the 1 PM flight to Tambor which was the first time I ever flew in a 6 person private jet.
Montezuma (also known as Monta-fuma) is a tiny artsy backpacker town. Maria’s directions to her house were “tell the taxi driver it’s the yellow house behind the public school with an ocean view.” Only in Costa Rica will a description like this actually work. I realized this was also true to get to my bosses house in San Jose as their description was to call this guy Colochos and tell him you need to go to Kim and Phil Spiers. Sure enough, every taxi drive in the airport new Colochos and within minutes I was in a car to their house.
Montezuma was perfect end to Costa Rica. I celebrated my birthday with a long bike ride, the beach, sand volleyball, dinner, an ice cream party (thank you Maria!), homemade sangria and capped the night off with salsa dancing at the one bar in town. To make my birthday even more memorable, Maria taped a sign to my back that said “Kiss me I’m 27!” which as you can imagine caused a bit of commotion.
Sunday we decided to rent a Quad and drive to Santa Theresa which is about 15 mile drive. It doesn’t sound like a lot but it was super hilly rough road through rainforests. Santa Theresa is surfer heaven. Beautiful sand beaches that stretch for miles and miles with perfect waves. We hung out on the beach for a bit and watched the sunset before heading back to Montezuma. It was the perfect day until we were about 6 miles away from Santa Theresa on top of a mountain in complete darkness and the Quad decided to break. Stranded on the mountain with nothing but the sounds of howling dogs, mosquitos and thunder we were at the mercy of Juan (Maria’s boy toy) to find help. Well Juan came through for us driving his moto to Dorian’s house (Maria’s friend). Dorian is cute Costa Rican that not only rescued us in his SUV but gave us salsa dancing lessons on his huge deck while we waited 3 hours for the repairmen. Who new being stranded could be so good?
The rest of the time in Montezuma was just relaxing with a hike, swimming in a waterfall and another surf lesson. My flight from Tambor to San Jose involved flying over a beautiful rainbow which I can only assume as a sign that it won’t be long before I return to Costa Rica.
Pics: Swimming in the waterfall (its just muddy water from rainy season), police pic on my bday, sunset in Santa Theresa, and most importantly: NEW DATING requirement "must be willing to climb a tree to pick me fruit :)
The trip to Montezuma started slow in true Costa Rican fashion. I had one of the Bosque drivers drop me off at the tiny Puerto Jimenez airport at 6 AM hoping to use my Pura Vida Pass (cheap flight pass) to jump on the 7 AM flight to San Jose and then connect to Tambor. Tired, slightly hungover and covered in mosquito bites I was waiting forever wondering why I was the only person at the terminal. Finally, a Nature Air rep was kind enough to tell me they cancelled the first flight but maybe I could get on the second flight. Annoyed, I trucked back to the Bosque office a 20 minute walk with my 45 lb backpack and 40 lb suitcase dragging through the muddy gravel roads. Luckily I was able to jump on the 10 AM flight to San Jose and the 1 PM flight to Tambor which was the first time I ever flew in a 6 person private jet.
Montezuma (also known as Monta-fuma) is a tiny artsy backpacker town. Maria’s directions to her house were “tell the taxi driver it’s the yellow house behind the public school with an ocean view.” Only in Costa Rica will a description like this actually work. I realized this was also true to get to my bosses house in San Jose as their description was to call this guy Colochos and tell him you need to go to Kim and Phil Spiers. Sure enough, every taxi drive in the airport new Colochos and within minutes I was in a car to their house.
Montezuma was perfect end to Costa Rica. I celebrated my birthday with a long bike ride, the beach, sand volleyball, dinner, an ice cream party (thank you Maria!), homemade sangria and capped the night off with salsa dancing at the one bar in town. To make my birthday even more memorable, Maria taped a sign to my back that said “Kiss me I’m 27!” which as you can imagine caused a bit of commotion.
Sunday we decided to rent a Quad and drive to Santa Theresa which is about 15 mile drive. It doesn’t sound like a lot but it was super hilly rough road through rainforests. Santa Theresa is surfer heaven. Beautiful sand beaches that stretch for miles and miles with perfect waves. We hung out on the beach for a bit and watched the sunset before heading back to Montezuma. It was the perfect day until we were about 6 miles away from Santa Theresa on top of a mountain in complete darkness and the Quad decided to break. Stranded on the mountain with nothing but the sounds of howling dogs, mosquitos and thunder we were at the mercy of Juan (Maria’s boy toy) to find help. Well Juan came through for us driving his moto to Dorian’s house (Maria’s friend). Dorian is cute Costa Rican that not only rescued us in his SUV but gave us salsa dancing lessons on his huge deck while we waited 3 hours for the repairmen. Who new being stranded could be so good?
The rest of the time in Montezuma was just relaxing with a hike, swimming in a waterfall and another surf lesson. My flight from Tambor to San Jose involved flying over a beautiful rainbow which I can only assume as a sign that it won’t be long before I return to Costa Rica.
Pics: Swimming in the waterfall (its just muddy water from rainy season), police pic on my bday, sunset in Santa Theresa, and most importantly: NEW DATING requirement "must be willing to climb a tree to pick me fruit :)
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