A $12 Zipline Without Dying: Costa Rica Week 4
- Kjerstin Roberts
- Dec 26, 2019
- 8 min read
Warning: this could be a long post because it was not only my last week of volunteering, but also my mom came to town AND I met the hottest dude at my mom's hostel. So brace yourselves.
Day 1
I took the early bus home from Jaco at 5:30am so I could make it to church on time. I was supposed to play the piano, but apparently that was a no go for undisclosed reasons. I went to all three hours of church. The people of Costa Rica are seriously so nice and always sat by me. They wanted to show me that they cared, which is truly fellowshipping, and I really appreciated it.
I spent the whole afternoon at Parque Nahomi before coming home around 5 and getting invited to play street soccer with the four girls across the street. They aged from around age 4 to 15 so that was a lot of fun. The streets in Costa Rica have massive gutters, like the ones in old downtown Provo because of all the rain. The ball kept getting stuck so that was hilarious. We were also playing with a speed bump in the middle of our "field," and it was a challenge to control the ball when you went over the bump. I thought it was freaking hilarious. I ended up going over to their house and dancing with them. We played follow the leader while dancing and I loved it. Their favorite song was "Cuatro Babys" by Maluma so now every time I hear that song, I think about them.
After dinner at home, Samuel, Francisca's grandson, taught me a whole bunch more Spanish words while he was playing Clash of Clans. Luckily, I already knew a lot of the vocab because my high school Spanish teacher Senora Swartz made us learn Halloween vocab. Mostly little kids are just adorable.
Day 2
MOM SHOWED UP TODAY! She took a lot of pictures of me with the kids, so I'll attach some of those starting here so I can fit in all the wonderful pictures from this week. My mom arrived via bus after flying since 1am into San Jose. She took the bus from San Jose to Quepos and I picked her up in the afternoon from the bus station. Funny story: I showered before I picked her up, which normally you don't do mid-day because it's so hot and you're just going to sweat more before the night begins because plot twist: I BLED THROUGH MY PANTS. I started my period at the preschool, but wasn't anticipating it and didn't even notice. It's particularly embarrassing when you realize my host mom was doing my laundry at the time. Kinda funny, but also kinda not.
Another funny story that also is kinda not: a local on the beach wouldn't stop following me and offering me oral sex on the beach. When I would say no, he would continually ask me to repeat what he had said to me because he thought I didn't understand what he was saying. Mostly he was just a dirty perv. I called my mom while she was on the bus to try to get him to go away. It eventually worked, but he was creepy.
When I picked up my mom from the bus station, I immediately took her to Pops for some ice cream and then to watch the sunset at the malecon. The sunsets in Costa Rica can't be beaten; I don't know what it is, but they are better than pretty much any other sunsets I've ever seen.
After sunset, I walked back with Mom to her B&B, Villas Jacquelina. The B&B is so nice. It's in the middle of the rainforest a bit away from the ocean. There's only a dirt road to get there so it's nice and secluded. Her B&B is only about 1km away so we can walk to each other quite quickly.
Day 3
I went to school again today and then to the beach with Mom. She's not a big beach person, but she was game to try it with me. I taught her the easiest way to jump over the waves, and she finally started to get the hang of it towards the end.
We ended up going back to her B&B early that night and just hanging out. It was so good to just be able to talk to her. My mom is my absolute best friend and I love just talking to her.
We also talked with a guy named Ricky Acedo, a twenty-three year old guy from the US. His aunt and uncle owned the B&B. I met him the day before on the bus and thought he was super attractive and fun. I had no idea he worked at the B&B Mom was staying at. We talked for a while and really hit it off. He had been traveling for the past 14 months with brief stints at home, so it was interesting to hear his perspective on things.
Day 4
Mom got to go to Jardin del Mar with me. She came and saw all the cute kids I had been working with. She hated all the same things as me: absurdly strict voices and teachers, very few toys, an oddly high amount of TV watching, putting the sleep mats out really early and expecting the kids to stay put, etc. It was interesting to see how similar we were.
Once we were done at Jardin del Mar, I took her to Chili Taco, a place with delicious chicken nachos, and then to Parque Manuel Antonio. The national park is a little bit off of the beach, but then you can hike back in to a different beach. We ended up doing that and the results were GORGEOUS and well worth the effort.
When hiking to the beach itself, you're hiking through a massive rainforest. There are all sorts of monkeys, sloths, birds, poisonous frogs, and multicolored crabs. Instead of hiring a tour guide, Mom, Jacqueline, and I just walked by ourselves and then would just look wherever the tour guide was pointing. This meant we didn't actually spend money on a tour guide ourselves, but we still got a lot of the benefits that come with having one. I definitely would recommend the strategy to anyone who is looking for a cheap way to travel. I've done this in lots of other places as well and it works anywhere.
Another super cool thing within the park is how close the wildlife is willing to get to you. When I took this picture of the monkey, there were all sorts of other monkeys running around and screaming at us. One even touched my arm! Though you are not allowed to touch them or get too close, they are unafraid to come up to you, which is a unique experience in itself. We also saw several sloths as well as some poisonous frogs and purple crabs.
Day 5
I worked by myself so Mom could sleep in and then met up with her and Jacqueline to go white water rafting. The rapids weren't huge, but it was a fun activity. I got to practice switching between English and Spanish. At one point, we were telling jokes. I tried to tell one of my dad's favorite jokes ("What do you call a fly without wings? A walk!"), but I misspoke and asked, "what do you call a fly without legs?" When I said, "a walk!" absolutely no one got the joke until Jacqueline figured it out what I meant like an hour later. It was honestly super funny later but super embarrassing at the time. It's a good thing I'm a person who can laugh at myself!
It was also my last day at the house because Francisca and Joaquin, my host parents, were going up to San Jose for a concert the next day. Regina was headed out the next day and Jacqueline only had a few days left as well. We said our goodbyes and took a few pictures.
Day 6
It was my last day at the school. It was honestly such a sad day. I cried a little, the kids cried a bit more, and Mom cried a lot. Those kids came to mean a lot to me in such a small amount of time. I never would have thought it possible. I'm attaching my sister's favorite picture of me with some of the kids. Zoom in on my face for a good laugh.
After the tearful goodbyes with the kids I had been teaching and the teachers I had been working with, I headed home one last time to the house. There, I said goodbye to Samuel and Antonio, Francisca's two grandkids that I had played with a lot while I was there. We had played all sorts of cards, video games, and even a game where you pull a zip tie out of something that makes a top spin and then have your two tops war it out. It was pretty sad to leave them. Samuel is on the autism spectrum, so I don't think he even particularly understood what was going on. Antonio was very sad about it. I miss playing with them a lot, just because their joy was so infectious.
After saying our goodbyes, Mom and I took the last bus to Uvita to go stay in Flutterby House in the treehouse. Mom has always had the dream to sleep in a treehouse and we were ready to fulfill that dream. Imagine our surprise when we showed up to the craziest and most noisy party I have ever seen. They called it the Gemini Party. There were full grown adults running around in glittery unicorn costumes, face painted people everywhere, and it was overall just crazy. We decided to leave.
Because we had taken the last bus to Uvita, we ended up having to take a taxi all the way home. At night, taxis cost more and we were about an hour and a half away from home. The taxi was supposed to be $90, but I talked to the man driving in Spanish the whole way back and got the price knocked down to $70. Speaking another language definitely does come in handy at times. Mom and I ended up sleeping over at her B&B, which was totally fine because when she showed up the first day, they gave her a room that slept four people, even though she is only one person. I just took one of her extra beds.
Day 7
Mom and I woke up to doing the most amazing tour I have pretty much ever done. We went through a company called Quepos Canyoneering and did their tour with seven adventures in one. We went off roading, climbed up ladders into the treetops, zip lined three different times, walked across a tightrope suspension bridge, rappelled down a waterfall, did some free rappelling, and did a monkey drop. It was quite the day. I'm so glad that I have a mom who will do things with me, even when I know she hates both heights and rappelling. When we were rappelling down the waterfall, there was one place they told us not to go. She, of course, accidentally went straight to that place and got PELTED with water.
The monkey drop we did entailed getting swung out over the water and then being dropped from about 20 feet into the water. It was quite exciting. They let me land pretty hard, while they cushioned Mom's fall a bit more. That honestly was the best tour ever.
After the tour guides fed us lunch, we went back to Quepos and took the bus to the beach. On the way to the beach, I convinced Mom to stop so I could go on the sketchy $12 zipline next to the road. I had seen it a ton of times but had never actually gone on it. I got all buckled in and off I went! It wasn't really a zip line necessarily. It was more like a metal contraption through the trees that you just hung from. It let you go up and down and swing from side to side. It was pretty fun.
After that, Mom and I made it all the way down to the beach to have a nice and relaxing day. When we got back to Quepos, I finalized packing up my room, wrote Francisca a note of gratitude, and left the house. Mom and I stayed at her B&B one last night. I talked to Ricky for the final time. We ended up getting each other's contact information. We actually stayed in contact for quite a while. I still follow him on Instagram now 3 years later. He's just as hot as ever.
Life Lessons
Moms are amazing and brave and the absolute best kind of people.
Sometimes (not always), hot guys are really nice.
Don't ever feel obligated to have oral sex on the beach.
Leaving kids you love is really hard.
Goodbyes are the absolute worst.
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