Jaco week 2
Door: Sjoukje
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Sjoukje
21 Oktober 2016 | Costa Rica, Jacó
Buenas!
Im just 1.5 week here in Costa Rica. It feels like I've lived here all my life. Jaco is so small I know every little corner, every single bar, every palm tree and I can even indicate which hooker is at which street at what time (and trust me, there are a lot...!).
I left you guys full of excitement if I would survive the surf lesson. I can reassure you: I'm still alive! Surfing was absolutely awesome. The fact that I surfed on baby waves and on the biggest board ever, won't take the excitement away that I was able to stand on the board! :)
Friday we had a day off, because of some national holiday -don't ask- which meant more time for sporty activities: paddle boarding trough the mangroves. In one word: Stunning. Paddling to places where no human being can come by foot. So green -except for the water, which was sadly muddy brown-. The best of all were the monkeys (kapucijnaapjes). Paddling next to them, showing a piece of banana and RATS the piece of banana was grabbed out of your hand. This resulted in as well a happy monkey as a happy Sjoukje. Those little basterds are smart though! The moment I really focussed on their huge scharp teeth / mega cute baby monkey / not falling of the board because of excitement, one monkey managed to grap a whole banana out of my jeans pocket, urgh!
Since I'm here to enjoy every little minute; the next day we were waking up at 5am to go to national park Manuel Antonio. With a hilarious guide we were able to see sloths, monkeys, deers, plenty of birds and who know what else. The beaches were more bounty than bounty: white, palm trees, blue see... Amazing. The park itself was sadly a bit too touristic. Paths, fences, toilets and fat Americans; it wasn't a real jungle.
In between a few Costa Rican facts:
- They don't have an army
- Their modal wages are really comparable to the Netherlands, but the prices in the super market are doubled the Dutch prices.
- It's super normal to live with your whole family in one (small) house. Resulting in the fact that I've know idea who are my actual guest family members I stay at, and who is family just passing by.
- If you think it can rain in the Netherlands, forget it. The amount of water which is released here feels like a great hard and warm shower.
- In whole Jaco is no public doctor available. When I had to visit a clinic because of some stupid -hopefully- allergy is was forced to go to some fancy private clinic. Experiences.
- At least 50% of Costa Rican visitors are Americans.
- Almost all Dutch bananas come from the east coast of CR. Talking about bananas, they have two different kinds here: a fruit (like we know) and a vegetable (for cooking).
Enough intermezzo. The rest of the week was Spanish themed: Prácticar. Hablar. Apprendar. Leer. Vocabulario. I feel almost a nerd on my own travel. The week started super rainy and cold, but right now I can tell you I'm sweating so much I slide of my seat right now. In the free times and evenings I hang out with the other students, tanned on the beach, experienced that the Jaco night life can be quite exciting, and that skinny dipping in the sea can be pretty refreshing. Sadly I can't tell you more about this last remark, my computer time is almost done... :P
One more thing. Tomorrow 5 girls are going in a rental car to national park Monteverde, a -hopefully- amazing cloud forest. Bad roads and rain, here we come!
Beso grande!
(damn, I don't even have time to check my blog! Lo siento!)
Im just 1.5 week here in Costa Rica. It feels like I've lived here all my life. Jaco is so small I know every little corner, every single bar, every palm tree and I can even indicate which hooker is at which street at what time (and trust me, there are a lot...!).
I left you guys full of excitement if I would survive the surf lesson. I can reassure you: I'm still alive! Surfing was absolutely awesome. The fact that I surfed on baby waves and on the biggest board ever, won't take the excitement away that I was able to stand on the board! :)
Friday we had a day off, because of some national holiday -don't ask- which meant more time for sporty activities: paddle boarding trough the mangroves. In one word: Stunning. Paddling to places where no human being can come by foot. So green -except for the water, which was sadly muddy brown-. The best of all were the monkeys (kapucijnaapjes). Paddling next to them, showing a piece of banana and RATS the piece of banana was grabbed out of your hand. This resulted in as well a happy monkey as a happy Sjoukje. Those little basterds are smart though! The moment I really focussed on their huge scharp teeth / mega cute baby monkey / not falling of the board because of excitement, one monkey managed to grap a whole banana out of my jeans pocket, urgh!
Since I'm here to enjoy every little minute; the next day we were waking up at 5am to go to national park Manuel Antonio. With a hilarious guide we were able to see sloths, monkeys, deers, plenty of birds and who know what else. The beaches were more bounty than bounty: white, palm trees, blue see... Amazing. The park itself was sadly a bit too touristic. Paths, fences, toilets and fat Americans; it wasn't a real jungle.
In between a few Costa Rican facts:
- They don't have an army
- Their modal wages are really comparable to the Netherlands, but the prices in the super market are doubled the Dutch prices.
- It's super normal to live with your whole family in one (small) house. Resulting in the fact that I've know idea who are my actual guest family members I stay at, and who is family just passing by.
- If you think it can rain in the Netherlands, forget it. The amount of water which is released here feels like a great hard and warm shower.
- In whole Jaco is no public doctor available. When I had to visit a clinic because of some stupid -hopefully- allergy is was forced to go to some fancy private clinic. Experiences.
- At least 50% of Costa Rican visitors are Americans.
- Almost all Dutch bananas come from the east coast of CR. Talking about bananas, they have two different kinds here: a fruit (like we know) and a vegetable (for cooking).
Enough intermezzo. The rest of the week was Spanish themed: Prácticar. Hablar. Apprendar. Leer. Vocabulario. I feel almost a nerd on my own travel. The week started super rainy and cold, but right now I can tell you I'm sweating so much I slide of my seat right now. In the free times and evenings I hang out with the other students, tanned on the beach, experienced that the Jaco night life can be quite exciting, and that skinny dipping in the sea can be pretty refreshing. Sadly I can't tell you more about this last remark, my computer time is almost done... :P
One more thing. Tomorrow 5 girls are going in a rental car to national park Monteverde, a -hopefully- amazing cloud forest. Bad roads and rain, here we come!
Beso grande!
(damn, I don't even have time to check my blog! Lo siento!)
-
22 Oktober 2016 - 21:23
Wouter Van Heel:
Leuke blog Sjoukje, zet hem op mijn grote nichtje -
23 Oktober 2016 - 23:13
Ab De Lange:
Hallo Sjoukje, fijn te horen dat alles goed met je gaat. Prima reisverslagen. -
25 Oktober 2016 - 01:08
Anne:
Keileuk:) en stoer <3
-
26 Oktober 2016 - 19:51
Ger Van Den Berg:
Leuke blog, Sjoukje
Mooi land Costa Rica met veel energie uit watarkrachtcentrales. Amerikaanse higtech (Intel) bedrijven. Bananenexport. Meest welvarende land van Midden-Amerika. 25% tropisch regenwoud. Monteverde is meer bosrijk dan Manuel Antonio. Knap dat je kunt surfen in de zee. Leuk hè, die aapjes. Succes met Spaans leren.
-
27 Oktober 2016 - 23:08
Sjoukje De Lange:
Bedankt voor jullie lieve reacties! :D
Reageer op dit reisverslag
Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
