Category Archives: Costa Rica 2007

Info from my November-December 2007 trip to Costa Rica. Visiting Jaco and Montezuma (and explore the peninsula that Moctezuma is on).

The Internet is SO slow in Montezuma!

Posted on November 30, 2007 | Leave a comment

It’s unbearably slow so this is all that I am posting at this time :(

Leave a comment

Posted in Costa Rica 2007

Tagged , ,

Showing up in Montezuma…

Posted on November 30, 2007 | 1 comment

Today was just a travel day. Packing, travel, checking in, unpacking, eating and picking up supplies. I’m in the same room as last time I was at the El Sano Banano, it’s the place with the awesome air conditioning. Here’s a street map of Montezuma, the map is kind big, but you can see most of the stuff is in the middle. Sometimes they spell Montezuma as Moctezuma, so I switch it around a bit too (mostly for the search engines).

It’s evening now and nice and cool out. I’m getting dinner (at L’angolo Allegro), some homemade pasta (no meat, I accidentally picked a vegetarian place), bread and a glass bottle of Fresca. It was very nicely presented, I should have taken a photo.

This is the town where they do the fire show (dancing and breathing) in the streets so I’m hoping for a show one of the next few nights. Tomorrow morning there is some kind of market (Saturday) that I want to check out before I hike up to the waterfall.

I’ve got some more photos posted (see set 3 for the latest), They’ve even (mostly) got titles and captions.

I have no idea when I’m actually going to get this entry and the photos posted. ‘Net access around here stinks and while internet cafes are abundent, no one seems to have high speed (that would be some kind of satellite hookup).

1 Comment

Posted in Costa Rica 2007

Tagged , ,

(I thought I) Figured the phones out

Posted on November 30, 2007 | Leave a comment

I finally got the phones in Costa Rica to work again. I’m sure they worked before I just couldn’t get them to work last trip. The trick is to get to an AT&T operator, or at least that’s what I wanted since my calling card is AT&T. So from a phone you just dial

0-800-011-4114

and that gets you an AT&T tone/message and you can dial your 1-800 number that’s on your calling card. Now these are the same notes I had scratched onto my card so I’m not sure if I misread them last time or the new pay phones they put in work more like the much older ones.

Now in the past (when it worked) it always used my minutes conservatively, it said it would use my cards at a 12 to 1 ratio (a 60 minute card would last 5 minutes) but it lasted much longer in the past. Not this time, I only got my 5 minutes that I had on that card (I got the cars from Sam’s Club).

Actually, I only got this to work in Jaco, I tried in Montezuma but no success (yet). I bet they want me to put money in the pay phone, but I’m not certain. Whatever it is, it’s probably the same problem I had last time.

Leave a comment

Posted in Costa Rica 2007

Tagged , , , ,

Made it to Montezuma

Posted on November 30, 2007 | Leave a comment

I made it to Moctezuma. The taxi boat was much nicer than the last time.

I met two american surfers from opposite directions heading to the same destination (Snata Teresa). They were fun to chat with and made a beautiful ride even more fun.

I’m staying at the El Sano Banano, I got all settled into my room and ate already. I made a mad dash to their sister resort, Ylang Ylang, but I was too late to catch the Monkeys do their daily swing down the beach :(

Although I am taking advantage of their free Internet to give you this update…

Leave a comment

Posted in Costa Rica 2007

Tagged , , , ,

Off to Montezuma in a Water Taxi

Posted on November 30, 2007 | Leave a comment

Cr Montezuma Jaco Water-TaxiSo I’m off to Montezuma this morning. You can see the ride by car would take forever. The water taxi, pretty much some guy on a boat that’ll hold about 8-10 people/luggage, will take about an hour. If experience holds, it’ll take longer since it’ll be way late. I sure hope it doesn’t rain…

I’ll be at the El Sano Banano, it’s a little hotel (in a little town), but I have access to their resort way down the beach. I’d consider staying down there but there is no A/C in their cabanas.

That’s all for now I’ve gotta shower and finish packing and get a taxi to get me to the water taxi (it’s actually at the next town north).

Leave a comment

Posted in Costa Rica 2007

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Thursday in Jaco

Posted on November 29, 2007 | 2 comments

Sunset2007-11-29 18-14-01.Img 7041I don’t even have enough time to cover everything I did today. I mostly ate, slept and wandered all over the place. I also made my plans for tomorrow (which you’ll hear later).

Weather wise, it was an awesome day. Sunny, the humidity was down (or I’m used to it), the sunset was awesome. The weather stunk in Michigan, thus that makes the exchange rate for the money worth even more to me :)

The sunset was awesome, the previous few days were no comparison! This is one of my favorite sunset photos from today.

I’ve also got a second album uploaded (be sure to pick “Set 2”).

2 Comments

Posted in Costa Rica 2007

Tagged , , , , , ,

Where is Jaco, Costa Rica

Posted on November 29, 2007 | 1 comment

So if you want to see specifically where I am you can go to the Google Map, that’s my hotel in Jaco, dead center (actually, it looks like it might be before the renovations but that’s it.

If you click the minus sign (“-“) on the scale on the left you can zoom out. After about 4 clicks you can see the whole Jaco Beach coast. After about 5 more clicks you can see the Nicoya Peninsula (where I’ll be heading via water taxi). A few more and you can see the whole country. Another 4 or 5 more and you can see Costa Rica with a good chunk of North and South America. Jaco should stay in (near) the center as you zoom out.

1 Comment

Posted in Costa Rica 2007

Tagged , , , , , ,

Tico Times – Costa Rican English Newspaper

Posted on November 29, 2007 | Leave a comment

So a few weeks before I left I subscribed to the TicoTimes. It’s a weekly English nation-wide newspaper about the size of Metro Times or a magazine from the Sunday section of a newspaper that comes out on Fridays in Costa Rica. A month’s subscription included the ability to download the PDF file every week. It’s a little hard to read on the screen, I think I get one more electronic issue, but I’ll probably buy a copy tomorrow.

ticotimesIt was nice to get a feel for what was going on in the country. From a to do list it wasn’t very helpful to me. It comes out on Friday and the calendar generally doesn’t stretch much past the weekend. So I might go somewhere else tomorrow and I should have stayed here for something, but I’ve already made my arrangements. I did find out about some kind of air festival in the northwest but I forgot all about it, I’ll have to check on that…

From a news standpoint I did know the rainy season was dying down early, I know the colon was going to go up in value (their “Greenspan” changed something), that the phone company might go on strike (they didn’t) and a few other things. It’s definitely worth the $8 to get the four issues on-line if you’re considering traveling the country. I recommend this for anywhere, I’ve gone to the bookstore and picked up a newspaper for London, England to get an idea of what’s going on there too (you might have to reserve these in advance).

Leave a comment

Posted in Costa Rica 2007

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,