Truus

After a short visit to San Juan Del Sur in Nicaragua (a place you can definably skip if you’re not a surfer) I headed to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. Three busses and ten hours later I arrived with the sun setting and the shops closing. The neighborhood didn’t feel very safe: a lot of drunken people, garbage, piss smells and carton boxes. This part of town is definably not safe, but very cheap; lots of cheap fruit in the streets and markets, hotels not more then five dollars per night and two pair of socks for eighty cents. San Jose is a city not too big to feel totally overwhelmed. There is a neat order in the chaos called a grid system (why didn’t we invent that in Europe) and the buildings are run down but modern, especially compared with other Central American countries. As would turn out in the next two weeks, Costa Rica is not rich in culture. The people wear shorter skirts then I’ve ever dared to buy (we observed that only the hookers in the USA or Holland would walk around like that) and make-up is as thick as the smog from the auto busses. Nice shoes, jewelry, leather belts, millions of mobile phones, i-pods and TV’s and expensive cars add to the picture of a modern land. But for all that it lacks in Culture it adds in Flora and Fauna. Costa Rica is definably a ‘Rich Coast’, this country has the highest variety in flora and fauna after Canada and is home to beautiful beaches lined with wild palm trees. Boy did we see: ever green jungle, the most colorful butterflies, birds and flowers and a huge diversity in trees and plants. The food is overwhelming, as always, and to our delight were bakeries (especially the pasas-coco bread is scrumptious) and fruitstands the most common sight in any pueblo, together with fried pollo and gallo-pinto is this what Ticos consume most. But besides all this, the most important thing about this 51.100 sq km big country, with 4 million habitants, a democratic republic and with over more then 100 volcanic cones of which several are major volcanoes, the highest being Cerro Chirripo: 3,810 m, is its people. Truus was astonished about the friendliness and helpfulness of the citizens. It being very obvious that we were not gonna buy a single folder, product or trip, they would still inform us with all the possible knowledge they had and had endless patience for the tens of questions I fired to whoever would be closest; time and again and again and again.

Besides new influences, Costa Rica also brought me the visit of a twenty year old friend: Truus. We met when we were about eight or nine and stayed pen-friends throughout the years. She’s the only person, besides my parents, who knows me that long and private. My travels are not really travels anymore; they are more a lifestyle, so it was really cool to show someone from home how my life spins and rolls forward with every meeting and happening. The three years we hadn’t seen each other melted as snow under the sun with the first bear-hug and everything just happened from there.

The next twelve days we kris-crossed Costa Rica from San Jose to the Caribbean coast to the Cloud Forests to the Pacific coast and back to San Jose. An incredible amount of hours in local busses and seven different beds were part of the experience and Truus endured it all. Not really being the experienced traveler, she just came along and saw every new thing as learning experience; I never had any doubt about it.

On the Caribbean Coast, where ‘Rastafari’ and ‘ya-man’ were thickly spread, we hiked in the most dens and green jungle I have ever seen. The weather was like in Holland, I don’t think I’ve had that much rain in at least a year, but it made the rain forest extra shiny and true……and muddy. Our ankles disappeared in a claylike slippery mush of red earth and the progress went very slow but hilarious. The jungle seemed to walk into the sea, just skipping over the little line of white sand. The sea was wild, clear blue and following waves could be seen far out into sea. Without a doubt, Mazanillo is the best piece of jungleforest I’ve seen so far.
We tried to spot sloths and anteaters, but no such luck. We came home with sights of Morpho butterflies, huge Golden Orb spiders with webs so strong and huge it blew my mind, Howler monkeys, Capuchin monkeys, Toucan’s, all the different salamanders, huge iguana’s and a Poison Dart frog.
On the bike ride to the reserve we met Robb from California, but living here for the last eight years, and he told us many many things about the flora and fauna, his head was a source of information.
And I plucked, opened and offered Truus her first fresh coconut, something you have to do being surrounded by so many palm trees. Did you know that there are more then 2600 different species of palm trees?

Up to our first volcano in La Fortuna.
Although we had a fantastic day for saving money and getting to and into the parks for free, the weather was so so. Vulcan Arsenal was covered in clouds and we did not see the glowing and tumbling rocks she spews almost every night. But not to be sad, we saw a beautiful waterfall and spotted big Curassow birds. A bird expert told us that some people wait lifetimes to get a glimpse of them.

Further down the road to Liberia where we visited Vulcan Rincon. Again we could not climb the Vulcan because of strong winds at the rim, but we hiked around the active fumaroles (holes in the ground where steam is escaping from the deep earth) and boiling mudpools with temperatures from 75-106˚C.
And again we saw a beautiful waterfall where you really though you were swimming in paradise.

Tamarindo is a town on the Pacific. I really advice not to head in that direction, unless you like to walk a beach with hundreds of other tourist, swim in polluted water from the town and see a town totally molested by the development for business.
There is only one good reason to go: the Leatherback Turtles. At this moment this is the only turtle who is laying her eggs. We took a tour (because you couldn’t do this on your own) and watched a lot of falling stars between midnight and five am, while waiting for a ranger to spot a green monster crawling out of the clear blue waters. Those biggest turtles in the world (the females can be 2.7 m and 300 kg) lay 65 to 85 eggs. The digging of the hole is extremely precise with her back flippers, we were so surprised. She comes ashore seven times in the span of four months to lay 500 eggs and only 1 in 1000 little turtles will survive! What a work.

Back to the Cloud Forest in Monteverde; another two days in cooler climates and more pristine hiking in rainforest. A lot more moss this time, and a fantastic view from Vulcan Arsenal.

We had another drive with lots of luck when a very nice man picked us up and drove usaround. Showing the coffe plantage, the milk/cheese factory, different sights and a beautiful valley. We could not have had a better tour.

Time went swift like a seagull flying and the moments came that we had to make our way back to San Jose. Waving goodbye to Truus at the airport I realized that friendships sometimes are not build because of shared interests, this friendship is build on the time we have known eachother and the fact that that will always be so.

Truus, thanx for those wonderful weeks, you are a lot stronger than you think and I admire your strength and search. Don't wait too long, life will start 'happening' to you too.

Everything you come across, will guide you in the direction.

Folks, see ya somewhere down the road.

Greetz Mathu