sunnuntai 18. joulukuuta 2016

Hasta luego

So this is it. In less than an hour my flight will leave from Costa Rica and my journey here will end.
And all I want to say is thank you.
Thank you to all the people who made my journey the best.
Thank you Costa Rica showing me your beauty.
Thank you for all the new memories.
Thank you for everything.
Thank you.

I couldn't have wished better way to spend five months and I am extremely sad to leave. If I could, I would stay here forever.

I am too sad to write anything else. If you could see me right now, you would see me sitting in an airport trying to hold my tears. Trying so hard and failing.

So before I break down I am just going to repeat myself and say thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.

Thank you and hasta luego <3

torstai 15. joulukuuta 2016

Hello Nicaragua

So I visited Nicaragua. That's it. This is how I am going to start my blog. Very boringly (if that even is a word).
Maybe I am just not in a good mood to write anything because I know I have to leave soon. Soon I have to go to the airport and leave. I don't want to. Please.

But okay before all the good ends, let's talk about all the good that I had.

So I visited Nicaragua. Why? Because I had already seen everything I wanted to see in Costa Rica and I had free time, so why not. Why not go there, when it's so close and easy to go.

I took Ticabus from San José and it took me straight to Granada for only 29$. Crossing the border was surprisingly easy. I had heard "horror" stories how Nicaraguan border is a mess to cross (it takes forever etc). But for me it was easy. Just get the stamp on your passport and cross.

It took about 9 hours to go from San José to Granada but it didn't feel that long (mostly because I slept in the bus hah). I didn't have any reservation to any hostel because I knew there are so many hostels that there must be a room for one person. And luckily the hostel that I was aiming for had bed for me! Hostel Oasis and it really was one. The biggest hostel I've been so far. The dorm room cost only 9$/night and it included all you can eat pancakes and bananas breakfast (score!). It's middle of everything so it was easy to walk from place to place (not that Granada isn't easy to walk around from anywhere hah). It also had super good wifi (which is very important to travellers nowadays). Very good hostel and I totally recommend it to all.

I didn't do that much in Granada because, even though Nicaragua is super cheap, I was running out of money to do any tours. First day I just explored the city and relaxed. I absolutely love how colorful all the houses are. Granada truly is beautiful. Second day I spent in Laguna de Apoyo. Beautiful beautiful laguna where you can relax, swim, take a kayak and just enjoy.

My third night I stayed at the treehouse hostel. And I must say that go there! So beautiful and relaxed place. You get a free shuttle from center of Granada to there and back. Also it's a party hostel so it offers "party shuttles" at 8 and 9pm (and of course back ar 12 and 2am). It's only open from Wednesday to Sunday so make sure you are there around that time (Thursdays they have open mic night!). You have the opportunity to sleep in a normal dorm or do it like I did: night in a hammock! Truly truly recommended even though they don't have wifi! But hey it's a treehouse, what can you expect.

Saturday I headed to San Juan del Sur because I wanted to do Sunday Funday (heard too much about it to skip it). I took a shuttle there because it was easier and not that expensive. It's also easy just to take chicken buses to San Juan but I didn't want to change the bus at Rivas. Wanted to take the most easiest way possible.

Yet again I didn't have reservation to any hostel but yet again I got a room from a hostel that I wanted to go to (Coconut Surf hostel). Only 10$/night and breakfast included. There's not that many hostels that have breakfast included so when I find one, I am the happiest person ever. I am just so lazy to make my own breakfast that if I don't get it from my hostel, I often skip it (I knoooow, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and I shouldn't skip it).

And then Sunday came. I was expecting a lot from Sunday funday. I heard so many good stories that made it sound the best thing ever to do in life. To people who don't know what Sunday funday is: you pay certain amount money (30$) and then you go from hostel to hostel to party (hostel to hostel aka 3 hostels and a club)! All the hostels have a pool so basically it's huge pool party which starts at 12pm till... Well till you can't continue anymore hah.
I was a bit skeptic first to pay 30$.
Is it really worth it?
Was it?
Let me tell you...
It really was!
The music is so good. You meet so many new people. You just have the best Sunday ever!
Some people "gave up" already around 9pm but I found myself in bed at 2am. So basically I partied almost 14 hours. Not bad if I may say so hah!

And on Monday I woke up 7am feeling as good as any other day.

I didn't have any plans what I wanted to see or do in Nicaragua because I went there only because I had free time. So on Monday I just went to see Cristo de la Misericordia. If you walk there it's nice at least hour walk but half of it you have to walk really steep up. Luckily guy from my hostel wanted to drive there with his bike so I got a ride there! And it's good that I got a ride because the walk would have seriously been really steep and I'm too lazy to walk it hah. The view from there was so beautiful. I could see the whole San Juan and more. So pretty.
Rest of the day I just relaxed and bought some souvenirs.

On Tuesday everyone from my hostel went to have a bbq to a private beach but because it cost 20$ I couldn't afford it and go there (yes yes I know I just had spent 30$ to do Sunday funday). But I had nice day at my hostel trying to teach English to one of the workers there haha.
When others came back from the beach we went for a dinner. The restaurant we wanted to go said they are closed/closing but when they saw all of us (13 people) they didn't close it after all and let us eat there (smart move restaurant, smart move). The food was amazing so it's a pity I have no memory what the place is called.

Wednesday I headed back to San José. I took a chicken bus to Rivas and from there Ticabus to San José. Crossing the border took longer this time because when you go back to Costa Rica you need to show them a document that you are leaving the country and oh so freaking many people didn't have a ticket to show. So it took forever for people to buy ticket or something.. I don't know I was just so pissed because the line wouldn't move forward. So if you ever go from Nicaragua to Costa Rica by bus, pleeeeease have a ticket to show that you are leaving Costa Rica. Please.
In the end it took me 8 hours to get from Rivas to San José.

So that was my trip to Nicaragua. Many more small or not so small things happened but don't want to bore you more with small details. I met so many new amazing people and I really hope I will somehow meet them again. If you ever wonder if you should go to Nicaragua: go there. You will have a blast!

Oh yeah.. I was couple of days in Cahuita before I went to Nicaragua...

Cahuita is small, beautiful town. I just walked around Playa Negra and the nacional park. In Cahuita you can snorkel by the coral reef and do other tours if you want to. You don't need more than couple of days there though. It's beautiful and if you only want to relax it's perfect place to do that.

My flight back to Finland leaves day after tomorrow. Too soon. But all I need to do now is to enjoy my last days here and be happy to be able to see my friends again.

So see you soon!
Hasta luego!

perjantai 2. joulukuuta 2016

Hike to Chirripo and back

Before I even start saying anything about my hike, I must say: Go do this. Even though you are not a hiker, even though it might feel too hard...Go for it. I promise you won't regret it and you will definitely fall in love with Chirripo.

So I arrived to San Gerardo on Tuesday because I wanted to do my hike to Chirripo on Thursday. I came here two days before the hike because I didn't want to rush things (buying food etc.).
I decided to do this two day hike after I came to Costa Rica so of course I didn't take any warm clothes with me here (seriously who needs a sweater in Costa Rica). Luckily I read from my guide book about 'Casa Mariposa'. It said that this hostel will lend warm clothes and some other things for the hikers. So I booked a room from there and I must say that I am glad that I did. The hostel is perfect. Extremely beautiful, perfect location to do the hike (only 50m away from the park entrance), staff is excellent and I really did get to borrow warm clothes and some other things I needed for the hike.
The only 'bad' thing is that it's quite far away from the bus stop so it feels forever to get there especially when you have your huge backpack with you.

When I was in Montezuma I heard from a guy who had done the hike before that it will be horrible (but worth it), it will rain, you will sweat like crazy, you will get super cold, it will take about 10 hours to get to the basecamp, there's no hot showers there, you definitely shouldn't do it alone etc etc. So I got a bit freaked out. I was expecting the worst. I was expecting it to be horrible and too much for my level of fitness.

Luckily I got myself a friend to do the hike with! She came to the hostel the same night as I and we were both happy that we didn't have to do the hike alone.
So we started our hike 5 am on a Thursday morning.
And it was horrible.
Terrible.
I am not a hiker. I definitely am not in a good shape. I definitely wanted to walk back after I saw the first '1 km' sign.
But I kept going because I am not a quitter (and I had already paid for everything sooooo...).

So there's three horrible points where you think you can't do it anymore and it feels like you are in hell and you surely keep thinking why the hell you ever decided to do it.
First one:
Your first km. When you start you feel like the first 1 km sign will never come. You keep going up and up an up and it feels like it never ends. And when you finally see the 1 km sign, all you can think of is 'what the hell, did I just do ONLY 1 km'. Yes..horrible.
But eventually your body will get used to the hike and it will become almost not exhausting hike (you even start enjoying it).
The second one:
Km between 8 km to 9 km. I swear to God it MUST be fucking way more than 1 km. There's is no way it is only 1 km. You just keep on going up and up and up and up and up and you have no idea when you will see the 9 km sign and you start saying to yourself that it will get better after 9 km (it really doesn't). I really have no good things to say about that part. It's pure horror.
Third part:
 Your last 2 km before you get to the crestone basecamp. Before your last 2 km you have hiked down. Way too much down. After 11 km you start hiking down. And you really don't want that. YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO GO UP! And you just know that you are fucked. Eventually you WILL have to go up. And steep. So when you are on your last 2 km you will have to walk up. And steep. You feel like you just want to curl up to a fetus position and cry (okay you might not be that dramatic hah).

But the hike all the way up to the basecamp is so beautiful. So beautiful that you forget from time to time how your legs are killing you and how it's so hard to breathe. And eventually you will end up to basecamp (we did it less than 6 and half hours woopwoop!) and everything has been worth it. My legs hurt so much that I was 100% sure that I couldn't walk the next day. But tadaaaaaaah the next day my legs didn't hurt at all!

So the next morning we did the actual hike to Chirripo to see the sunrise. It's only 5,1 km away from the basecamp. To see the sunrise we woke up around 2 am and started hiking 2:30 am. The hike there is absolutely beautiful. The sky is full of stars and you can't believe you are seeing it. Absolutely stunning starry sky. I have never seen such a beautiful night sky (I know I am repeating myself).
The hike is actually nice and quite easy. The most difficult part is the last km when you have to hike up to the Chirripo. It's steep and pretty dangerous so make sure you have good enough light with you.

And then you are there. And it's absolutely gorgeous. If for some reason I wouldn't have seen the sunrise it still would have been worth it. The starry sky all up from Chirripo was so beautiful and breath taking that I didn't want it to never end. And little by little you start to see the sun come up and it's even more amazing. Beautiful. Stunning. Words can't explain. So beautiful.
It was so freezing cold up there and I couldn't feel my fingers but everything was totally worth it.

Then we started to walk down. Around 7.30 am we were back at the basecamp and at 8 am we started to hike down from there. I was so looking forward to it! All that hiking up and up and FINALLY I can just leisurely walk down. It was so nice. For the first half part. After 8 km it's pure agony. You start feeling the pain on your knees so badly that it's impossible to walk fast. Every km feels further and further away. You want to stop. You start wondering if it all was worth it. You start hating your life. The pain on the knees are too much. You walk and walk and walk. And you cry inside. You just want it to stop as soon as possible. You want to stop and never move again. But after long long walk down you finally see the exit and all you can think about is how amazing it will feel to take nice and hot shower.

And I did all that. All that agony. All that pain. Saw all that beauty. And it was all worth it. Every part of it.
We also got lucky with the weather because it didn't rain at all.
Now I am just enjoying my time after nice shower and wondering where else should I hike to.
Maybe Everest?