La moñtana rusa: literally, “russian mountain,” but it’s Spanish for “roller coaster.” I learned those words this weekend. That’s what the roads are around here. If you get motion sickness, have back/neck problems, really don’t like going down very steep rutted roads, or have a phobia about driving non-amphibious vehicles through rivers, then I would suggest not driving on roads in
Aside from the sheer joy of twelve hours’ worth of moñtana rusa, we also saw some pretty cool nature parks. We climbed a heck of a lot of rocks to get to the waterfall in Montezuma (I am so happy I went rock-climbing before I came here!), hiked for about three hours in the Cúru reserve, hiked a blistering EIGHT KILOMETERS yesterday in the primordial jungle that is Cabo Blanco (I had not sweated that much since my last kung fu test—holy be-jeezus, Batman), and saw a LOT of gorgeous beaches. We stayed in Montezuma the first night and saw its crazy little downtown, then went to Mal País the second night. While I can see the appeal in Montezuma—waterfall, gorgeous beaches, cute stores/restaurants, I can’t so much see the draw for Mal País. One word: dust. I thought Sámara was bad, but Mal País is a trillion times worse. The streets are a constant cloud, and there are bridges without rails, indicators, or signs, bridges that are simply a narrow piece of cement (bridges here are only wide enough for one vehicle at a time) that pretty much invite accidents, especially at night. (No streetlights, either, for the most part.) Met a phenomenally interesting guy at the hotel that night in Mal País who had been sleeping on the beach the night before when a car did go off one of those types of bridges and nearly landed on him.
This guy was the best part about Mal País by far—he had more stories than anyone I’ve ever met. He’s an American who’s lived and walked (without shoes) in and through most of Central and
And we even found an awesome ethnic restaurant. While I like Costa Rican food and even went so far as to order rice and beans for breakfast yesterday (and then guess what we had for dinner? uh-huh…), I really miss having different ethnicities of food available. They seem to stick to what they know around here—if you look at the menus from ten different restaurants in Sámara, they will have the exact same things. But in Mal País, we found a fantastic Thai place! Ricisimo!! I had a veg coconut curry and sweet bananas crepes with mangoes for dessert. It was by far the best meal I’ve had in a restaurant here. Plus, the restaurant itself was wonderfully whimsical and fun. If you’re ever in Mal País, I utterly recommend Casa Zen. We all loved it.
I went two whole days without rice and beans! I really was missing it by the third day, though. Guess I’m starting to go native…
Hot diggity, it’s gotta be over 90 degrees and it’s only
May your roads be smooth and undusty…
!Hasta luego!
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