A Solo Travellers Mind

My journey to Costa Rica was incredibly long. It involved two flights, one from Cartagena to Bogota at 4am, and another from Bogota to San Jose, Costa Rica at 8am. At the airport I was required to get my leaving ticket from Costa Rica as this is a “requirement of entry” which is very annoying, but we move… On arrival to San Jose, i hopped on a bus to San Jose town, where I walked 20 minutes to another bus station, so get another bus to Uvita, in the south of Costa Rica. The day was very long but at 5 pm I finally arrived. On the way to my hostel, I headed to a supermarket to get some supplies because walking the 20-minute journey to my hostel with my bags and shopping. This was a big walk, and sweaty business, but i was soon enough check in, had cooked my dinner, finally had a shower and then headed straight to my bed, listening to the sweet sound of people doing karaoke…

The next day, I reunited with Carley, who was currently in another hostel. We headed to Uvita Beach, specifically white tale beach! This beach is a paid beach, which we didn’t want to do, so we headed down a track near the entry to see if we could sneak through. After 1 failed attempted we headed back, before a local stopped us from his garden and explained how he sneaks on to the beach every day, and you just have to keep walking and cross a very little part of the water. He said just to be careful of the crocodiles, lol! I knew there were Crocs about because I’d seen some while crossing a bridge on the bus the day before, so although this was a scary concept, the guy does the walk every day, right? ( he also said they had salt and fresh water Crocs, so hopefully, no salties came to us) So armed with big sticks, carley and I headed out on attempt no.2 to break into the beach. We followed the guys’ instructions and arrived at the small crossing, the scary part! We managed to cross no issues and headed on our way to the beach. The beach was very cool, and it was nice to have a dip, but is it worth the $6 you’re meant to pay? Absolutely n, t hahaha! On our way out the beach, we got come refreshing drinks, just before we ran into, you’ve guessed it, a croc having a wee relax in the water! (I should specify we weren’t not in the water at the time but on a path near the water), but it was made to think we’d just been walking through the same stream! My aussie friends would call me silly (and maybe I am lol). We had some pineapple as a snack and then headed to a local waterfall for the arvo. The walk there was about an hour, however it was super hot! On arrival, however, it was well worth it! We got to go through a free butterfly park and saw some cool butterflies before arrivaling at the waterfall where you can slide down it! This was super fun, I went 3 times, the first with a guide who happened to be there and showed me the ropes, the 2nd was a repeat to attempt to improve my landing, and the 3rd was to support a middle aged Canadian women who really wanted to go but was kinda shitting it! It was very sweet! A spot of lunch was head by the waterfall, with a few more jumps in off a platform, before heading back into town. We caught the end of a very cloudy sunset at the beach before I headed back to my hostel for dinner. I got speaking to a couple I’d met the night before, and soon enough, it was 9 pm, and we’d chatted the night away, talking about all sorts of life events! It’s nice when you make these weird and quirky connections! After this, I headed to my bed once again, loving the early sunsets, making my early bed times appear socially acceptable, lol.

Our journey to Manuel Antonia was very chilled. We just hoped on a bus to the town next door, and then on to another, beforing arrival at the hostel. The start of the day was spent organising a tour to the national park. It was Easter weekend, so unfortunately, all regular tickets were sold out, we’d also heard that the tour is way better than going solo. So I’d budgeted for this expense, lol. We managed to locate one and book at the very last minute! Post organise, we headed down to a local beach. It was a super steep and downhill journey, so of course we hitch hiked back up the hill!
The next day was our tour of Manuel Antonia National Park and it was very cool! We saw sloths, tgree different types of monkeys, lizards, owls, bats, frogs, and crabs! Post tour, we had some chill time at the beach in the park, where i headed for a snorkel. This was nice. However, there weren’t as many animals as I’d anticipated, sadly! A super chilled arvo followed, as it was so unbelievably hot. Many ice tea was purchased, and even an ice lolly enjoyed!

The next day was an early start to get to La furtuna. This journey included 4 buses, and I’d honestly prepared myself for a very long and very horrid journey. However, i was pleasantly surprised. I jumped on the bus from manuel antonia to quepos, then from quepos to puntarenas. Then, from here, I took another bus to San Ramon. This was all completely drama free and very smooth sailing. Then another bus was needed to get to La Furtuna! This final bus was the only dramaful one as it was very tight to catch and involved some running. However, in the end, it all worked out in the end. On arrival to La Fortuna, it was a chilled evening. We checked in, i had my leftovers for dinner, and then headed to bed. Travel days are usually the most tiring, if I’m honest!

A super slow morning followed my travels day, with a lovely and much needed lay in. A morning of organising the rest of my trip commenced, followed by a trip to the grocery store. In the arvo, we headed to a free swimming hole with a rope swing nearby, which was kinda cool, and nice to just do something here that didn’t result in mind bankruptcy! In the evening, we headed to a Lazy river/hot springs. This was super relaxing and very nice vibes! We had candles and got to see some fire flies buzzing around, which was kinda cool. The river was also nice because you could swim against the river and not move #theperksofacurrent. Our transport back to the hostel broke down on the way to pick us up, and thus, getting back took a long time! Thus resulted in some rapido cooking of our rice, veg and chicken dish, which luckily turned out actually pretty good.

The next day was an early one! I woke up and made a bangin breaky burger, maybe my new favourite breaky, and then we headed on our Rio Celeste tour. The first stop on the tour was a big tree, a tree apperently 700 years old, and a place where aboriginal people believe it’s the entry to the afterlife! Here i was biten by ant, which hurt a lot lol. We then headed to Rio Celeste, where we took a short hike to lagoon, where the 2 rivers join, and a waterfall. Rio Celeste is very cool. It’s super bright blue, and it was super cool seeing the “normal” river and blue river combine! Post mini hike, we headed to a spot lower down the river where u can swim. This was a super nice little area. We had some ice tea and pineapple, and then had some fun! We could swim against the current, which was a lot of fun! And then we could also let the current take me down the river, also a lot of fun. In the eve we had an early dinner and a mango, before a super early night because I was still so tired.

A day of NOTHING followed. I spent my day on facetime, watching films, eating snacks, and just living a Zen life. And it was lovely. A much needed day of nothing to recharge for the next stint of countries to visit! I think in Costa Rica, I have hit a real RUT in the travels. It’s been a really long time, and I’m really missing Australia and also my friends back in the UK. I think knowing I’m visiting home soon makes this feeling so much stronger, because seeing friends and family is very in reach now (where as it wasn’t when I left 3 years ago…). I also think Costa Rica has been very different from other places. It’s been a lot less active because doing things here is so expensive, and I think this has really impacted my mood! I think the next few months, I need to set my focus back to the things I really enjoy (reading, hiking, swimming), things that haven’t been as high on the list here, unfortunately! Costa Rica is very nice and very pretty, but i think it’s a bit too out of my budget, lol.