Costa Rica Vacation

I've been out of town for two weeks... first for work in South Carolina and second for my vacation to Costa Rica! I went with my cousin, Gene, and a friend, Stephen. It was a fun vacation but a little exhausted after basically a week of hiking. I think I'm done exercising for the whole year. ;)

Our first stop was Arenal Volcano/La Fortuna. We flew into San Jose, Costa Rica but went directly to Arenal Volcano area on the first day. The main attraction was the active volcano, but we did not get to see the lava flow. It turns out, we were staying at the wrong side. The lava flow is only visible from north or west side of the volcano... La Fortuna, where it was cheaper to stay, is on the east side. But we got to enjoy Baldi hot springs.

After spending 2 nights, we moved onto Monteverde for some more nature intake. We visited Selvatura Park for walking around suspension bridges and Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve. The cloud forest was pretty awesome but the guide did talk about how the climate change was affecting both animals and plants.

After spending 2 nights there, we went to Manuel Antonio area. There is a small park, Manuel Antonio, where we saw monkeys, sloth, woodpecker, crabs, etc. It's right by the Pacific Ocean so we got to relax by gorgeous beach too.

We arranged this trip ourselves, after deciding that the travel agent was not being totally honest. Guidebooks (Lonely Planet, Frommer's, and Fodors) were helpful to varying degrees. But they did not prepare for some things.

1) If you want to see the lava flow at Arenal Volcano, stay at Arenal Observatory Lodge or north/west side of the volcano. We met someone who basically saw quite a lot of activity because they stayed there. It's a bit pricey but you won't get to see any activity staying in La Fortuna. And you can only see red lava glow at night so you might want to hit the hot springs during the day and then look for lava in the evenings.

2) La Fortuna and Monteverde cities preferred US dollars over their own currency of colones. In fact, the price quotes were so horrible, we did everything we could to use US dollars. The lesson, don't change all your money (like my cousin did) to colones. You will be using US dollars quite a lot.

3) On the other hand, Manuel Antonio area preferred colones over US dollars. So before you get there, make sure you have colones.

4) Cost of goods is NOT cheap compared to the cost of goods at US. The exchange rate won't save you. So be prepared to pay basically what you would at US. For example, bottled water (small) cost $2.

5) We alternated between rain forest and cloud forest. Regardless of which forest, it's humid. And there are lots of bugs. Buy an insect repellent if you forgot to bring one.

6) Don't eat salads or raw vegetables. You might get food poisoning (which is what I think happened to my cousin).

7) Guidebooks will tell you that roads are awful in Costa Rica. That's kind of true. However, the road from San Jose to Arenal Volcano/La Fortuna is not awful. The road from La Fortuna to Monteverde is really really really bad. Our transportation from La Fortuna to Monteverde consisted of taxi, boat across the Arenal Lake, and then taxi to our lodging at Monteverde. As soon as we crossed the lake, we were on unpaved, gravel road all the way to our lodging. There were no road signs. Although lots of packaged tours will include rental car, you might want to stick with obtaining private shuttle/taxi service between cities to save yourself stress of finding the road and trying to drive stick shift for hours on unpaved road.

The road conditions from Monteverde to Manuel Antonio was similarly awful (although after a while, we did hit some paved road).

8) We flew from Manuel Antonio to San Jose on Nature Air, one of Costa Rica's domestic airline. The airplane is really small... 2 turbo engine plane. And there's no air conditioning. But the air time is very short so it might be worth trying to fly between cities to save some time on rough roads.

9) Restaurants and hotels automatically add 10% gratuity on top of 13% tax so don't feel that you need to leave tip. You already are.

10) At Manuel Antonio, we stayed at Vela Bar Hotel which was in a great location. It is literally right across from the free beach. And it's on the road, near the entrance of the Manuel Antonio state park. The guide books make it sound like this is the only hotel at that location. However, there are at least 3 other hotels. They seemed nicer ... and a couple seemed to have swimming pool. They are: Hotel Villabosque, Cabinas Espadilla, Hotel Playa Espadilla. Costa Linda, one right next to Vela Bar Hotel, appears to be a hostel for backpackers and advertised room at $10 per person. All of these hotels are located at probably the best location in terms of access to the beach and the state park. Other nicer hotels are kinda far (although you might have a view of the Pacific Ocean) and you would have to drive in order to access the beach and the park.

11) It's probably worth it to have guided tours at Monteverde. For Manuel Antonio State Park, we were fine without a guide.

There are too many pictures to try to upload. So here's the album link for Costa Rica pictures.

Costa Rica 5-2009

Predicting TV Hits

Ok. So I try really hard not to watch television, but I'm just addicted. Maybe it's my genes -- I'm just prone to watching TV. Over the years, I noticed that I tended to watch a TV show before it becomes a mega-hit. And then I would drop it after it becomes very popular because the series would get too contrived, too long, not as great, etc. etc. For example, I watched the first season of X-Files before it became a cult hit. I followed it until towards the last 2-3 seasons when the plot just got too contrived. I was also the first season watcher of Alias. Alias gained momentum after the first season (and after a year or two, I stopped watching just when it gained more audience because the story became convoluted).

I'm not saying everything I watch becomes a cult hit. You could also argue that if you watch too much TV, some are bound to be hits.

With the help of Hulu (it is evil!), I actually started watching Dollhouse on Fox. I have to admit I was a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series) and Angel. Joss Whedon is the creator of all 3 shows. The storyline of Dollhouse is... well, morally shocking. It involves brainwashing people and manipulating them to be fantasy slaves to rich people (the short version). But for whatever reason, it is addicting. Maybe because it's morally repugnant? Who knows. But if my past TV watching is any indicator, it might actually become a cult hit.

Sleep and Eat More, Work Less!

France apparently holds the record amongst the industrialized nations as the one where people sleep the longest according to this WSJ piece today. Not only that, people in France take longer to eat their food (twice as long as Americans) and have 30 days of mandatory vacation leave. Yes, that's right -- MANDATORY leave of 1 month. Can we spell e-n-v-y?

On the other hand, I guess I should thank my dad for making the decision to emigrate from Korea to US when I was a kid... because Korea holds the record for being the most "awake" nation.

Why I Still Don't Facebook

I don't know how much grief I'm getting from my friends who are convinced Facebook is here to stay. I still don't believe it unless it's popular 10 years down the road. Why? What's to say hi5 isn't going to be the next Friendster/MySpace/Facebook? Looks pretty much same to me and just may become the next "Facebook."

Still tired of profile creating. Although this site, www.particlebrand.com, has my interest peaked. Robo.to in particular promises that it will keep all your status updated in one easy calling card.

Washing Hands 101 + Pandemic Preparation Kit

What with swine flu news and precautions on keeping up with hygiene, I learned something that seems like it would be elementary. I learned how to wash my hands. I was also amused to hear on NPR that basically, adults can learn from little kids on how to wash hands because kids scrub, rub, and wash hands for a longer period than most adults. Never say you can't learn from kids.

So, in order to wash hands properly according to CDC, you are supposed to use soap and lather our hands. I hope we all knew that. We are also supposed to wash thoroughly under running warm water for about 20 seconds (sing Happy Birthday song twice). I hope you knew that because I did not.

Something else I did not really think about until listening to NPR last week -- If a major pandemic does break out, then potentially it may have the same effect in our society as a major natural catastrophe such as hurricane, earthquake, or fire. Meaning, that people will not be in stores, perhaps credit card transactions won't go through (because there won't be people working in that sector), water may not be running (because there won't be people working in that sector), etc. etc. In natural disaster, we are aware that we should have a kit and emergency money. I realized the value of actual cash -- not credit cards -- when everything shut down during the hurricane in Alabama. Having gas for your car is also a pretty darn good idea because pumps won't work at gas stations to fill up your car. And last but most importantly, water and food???

All of which, we should have. But this guy (I forgot his name) on NPR was talking about how the American government was doing disservice to the public by not advising people to basically get their basic emergency kit ready and handy... in case our society does come to a halt. The message was basically that if we have to stay in our homes for a while, having plenty of water, food, and cash goes a long way.

Learning something new everyday.