{"id":12726,"date":"2005-01-27T19:02:00","date_gmt":"2005-01-28T00:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agaaga.khoolbrew.ca\/?p=12726"},"modified":"2022-04-18T19:13:48","modified_gmt":"2022-04-18T23:13:48","slug":"guanacaste-costa-rica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agaaga.khoolbrew.ca\/index.php\/2005\/01\/27\/guanacaste-costa-rica\/","title":{"rendered":"Guanacaste, Costa Rica"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The day after our wedding, we rented a small Daihatsu 4×4 and drove from the resort in the Gulf of Papagayo to El Coco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is why a 4×4 is needed. Some of the potholes can swallow up a small car! \ud83e\udd23<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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After browsing some expensive souvenir shops, we had a short walk on this beach.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After that, we headed to Guaitil, a small town where locals make and sell pottery using traditional techniques of the Guanacaste natives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We were given a demonstration about how they make their pottery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We learned that clay is collected and ground in these giant wooden mortar and pestles; and then mixed with water and “iguana sand” (sand in which iguanas bury their eggs).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Colours for the pottery are from rocks\/sand collected from several mountains. Apparently, black is the most expensive as it comes from several mountains away.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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After learning about pottery, we walked along another beach.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sunset back at the resort. After dinner, my parents convinced us to walk to the beach to watch the fish jump in the moonlight. My dad showed us that if we step in the wet sand after a wave goes out, the sand lights up as if there are stars in the sand. When we picked up the sand, we discovered squishy bioluminescent jellyfish!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The last day at the resort, we snorkelled and explored some of the beaches nearby.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Patterns in the sand made by bubbler crabs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Don’t know what these two crabs are doing. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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On Jan 29, after seeing family off at the airport, we began our honeymoon by overnighting in Liberia, where we saw this parade of about 30-40 sabaneros prancing down the street.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Our hotel used to be a school. Our “twin-private” room for USD$35 \/ night. There were 4 twin beds (2 in a loft), fridge, microwave, coffee maker (with coffee and some snacks), mugs, utensils, and a fridge. We had our own private bathroom that had a hot shower.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We checked out a local market, and visited the tourist office to ask for directions to Monteverde. The instructions were straightforward: take the 8AM bus from the station to Ca\u00f1as, then take the 10:30AM bus from Ca\u00f1as to Tilaran, then take the 12:30PM bus from Tilaran to Monteverde. Reality didn’t quite turn out that way as we missed the 8AM bus to Ca\u00f1as due to a misunderstanding. Lesson learnt – just ask the driver of whatever bus is loading around 8AM where he’s going! There was no 9AM bus and the 10AM bus was full, so we walked over to another bus station that had an 8:30AM bus to Puntarenas that makes a stop at Ca\u00f1as. We made it on the bus, but at 9AM, there is still no driver. 10 mins later, still no driver and we are very confused, and worried about missing the bus to Monteverde. So we bite the bullet and take a cab to Ca\u00f1as (45 mins and CDN$10). That bus would have cost us CDN$1 each. Oh well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bus station and schedule in 2005 (pre-smartphone days).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We boarded the 12:30PM Tilaran to Monteverde bus. It’s a school bus and then things get very interesting. The road is just crazy! Hard packed dirt with tons of rocks, ruts, and potholes. The bus stops continually to pick up and drop off passengers (and various animals) and the trip lasts 3 hrs. On a side note, based on google in Apr of 2022, total drive time from Liberia to Monteverde, which is 122 km, is about 3 hrs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Next adventure, Monteverde.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The day after our wedding, we rented a small Daihatsu 4×4 and drove from the resort in the Gulf of Papagayo to El Coco. After that, we headed to Guaitil, a small town where locals make and sell pottery using traditional techniques of the Guanacaste natives. We checked out a local market, and visited the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,49,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-south-america","category-internationaltravel","category-the-parents"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/agaaga.khoolbrew.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/6351297768.jpg?fit=2048%2C1536&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agaaga.khoolbrew.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agaaga.khoolbrew.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agaaga.khoolbrew.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agaaga.khoolbrew.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agaaga.khoolbrew.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12726"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/agaaga.khoolbrew.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12881,"href":"https:\/\/agaaga.khoolbrew.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12726\/revisions\/12881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agaaga.khoolbrew.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agaaga.khoolbrew.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agaaga.khoolbrew.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agaaga.khoolbrew.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}