Vershun’s Brain Dump

Well a few years back a few friends and I spent two weeks backpacking around Costa Rica. Like the Peru/Argentina trip, this is mainly for archiving purposes but someone might benefit from it… sometime I guess.

Three years is a long ass time, so I might not remember everything.

We started out in San Jose. It was pretty dirty, the drivers were horrifying, and one of our group got molested. However, there are some neat sites around San Jose if you can get to the resorts.

About a half mile into a resort hiking trail:

Manuel Antonio

The next day we were off to Manuel Antonio, a small, touristy beach town. If you’re 20-something this place is a must. Awesome clubs, hot people everywhere, and fun on the beach whatever hour of the night. There’s a club that’s built into a crashed plan, check it out (it’s downtown you can’t miss it).

One of the many beaches of Manuel Antonio:

Manuel Antonio also has a national park (I actually forget what it’s called, but it’s pretty big). Go in here and play. There’s sloths, spiders, playing monkeys, all sorts of fun biodiversity.

An enormous spider (size of my hand):

A very cute animal we found in Manuel Antonio named Tran (pronounced Tron, which tickles my geekhood):

Arenal and La Fortuna

This place is great and a must-see. We didn’t get to see the top of the volcano due to clouds but at night you can see the glow of lava. There’s a great service offered where they take you around the forest and up near the volcano at sunset. Then after you hit up the hot springs with bars you can swim up to (this is fantastic since getting out of hot water is such a buzz kill).

Also, right up the road you came in on (if you’re coming from the south) is a swing into a natural pool. This thing is AWESOME. I’m also 12.

Granted the hot springs are really hot, but I’m not sure about this:

Our group (the 2 guys and 3 gals on the right, Andrew in green on the far left):

Leaving Arenal (a picture of the volcano):

Monteverde

The cloud forest of Monteverde is a must-see. We only stayed there about 48 hours but it’s an amazing little town. Lots of stuff to do there (the girls did ziplines and we did a night-hike through the rain forest). Nice shopping and cool art is there too. The forest is constantly shrouded in cloud (imagine that) and so it has a mystical kind of feel.

Random picture of the cloud forest:

A recently shed bug:

Punte Ares to Montezuma

This was the last leg of our trip. We stayed in Montezuma for about four days and absolutely loved it. Fun small town, lots of hiking and swimming (waterfall jumping as well), and definitely one of the best atmospheres of the whole trip.

On the way to Punte Ares:

The beach we stayed on in Montezuma:

The booming city of Montezuma (seriously… this is about it):

LOL FRIEDMONKEY!

This is a tight waterfall. It’s a pretty popular path that goes right off the main road right before you enter the city. You can actually hike up and there’s two more smaller waterfalls above it. You can jump all the waterfalls but it’s really slippery and evidently right after we left some kid cracked his head open.

Here’s our hostel owner. I wish I remembered his name (A-something) because he was awesome. Dude could spin a basketball like he was in the NBA. Oh and he tried to convince us multiple times drinking your pee in the morning was really good for you. He also made Noni smoothies for Andrew and I (which we secretly watched him make in case he tried to pee in it).

Conclusion

Costa Rica is really fun.

What were you expecting something deeper? Wrong blog asshole.