Road to Santa Teresa

My flight to San Jose, Costa Rica ended up landed early and customs was very quick as well as luggage pick up.  I needed to wait around for my two friends who were arriving from Guatemala and then we immediately caught a taxi to the Airport Denny's where we would be catching our shuttle. I know, who'd have thought?  The taxi driver told us there were actually two Denny's in San Jose, the other one was downtown.

The taxi was $3USD.  The US dollar is widely accepted here, especially on the tourist path. I didn't exchange any Costa Rica currency which were called Colones and had no idea what was the exchange rate was.  We waited for our shuttle bus at Denny's to go to Mal Pais, Santa Teresa on the west coast of Costa Rica where the wedding is taking place.  A domestic flight from Sansa Air or Nature Air to Tambor Airport would've taken only about half hour with another 45 minute taxi ride to Santa Teresa which would have cost about another $50 USD.  My shuttle cost me $59 USD (booked on anywherecostarica.com) and was about 5 to 6 hours. I won't be getting a lot of time in Santa Teresa so the ride will have to count as one of my sight seeing activities, especially since the ride also included an one hour ferry ride.  Works for me.

The shuttle van picked us up at around 8:45AM.  It was a comfortable 10 person van with air conditioning. My friends and I got shuffled around and separated into various different vans enroute before reaching the ferry. Our driver hopped out to get us ferry tickets. When he hopped back in, I was handed a ferry ticket valued at 800 Colones ($1.5USD). They must make a killing on these shuttle runs, I thought to myself.

I was reunited with my friends at the Puntarenas ferry entrance. We collected our luggage and boarded the ferry just before 11AM. On the ferry we immediately spotted quite a few familiar faces.  We had met up more than half of the wedding including the bride and groom.  The boat had a similar setup (but less than half of the size) to the Vancouver to Nanaimo ferry boats of which vehicles were stored on the bottom levels and passengers traveled on upper decks.  It was packed with tourists and locals alike. We sat at the back by the bar that was blasting loud mix of top 40 and reggaeton.  The sun was hot and the party has officially started. 

I was a bit mopey though.  There were quite a few kids running around including a few that was similar in age to Drake. I could've brought Drake, I threw my hands up and complained to whoever was sitting next to me.  I really needed to snap out of it and stop being a party pooper. I was in paradise and I need to enjoy my surrounding. The scenery was actually very similar to the Strait of Georgia. 

When we reached the Paquera on the other side I was suppose to board another van to continue my journey to Santa Teresa, but the bride and groom had a private van and offered me a ride.

Unlike the previous side, the road was pretty bumpy and dusty. It was a minor reminder of the Old Coach road in Australia. We arrived at Villas Hermosa our final destination just before 2PM. After almost 24 hours of travel I was exhausted and hot, but the hammock was strung up directly outside my room and I haven't even met the ocean located 200 meters away so I was excited about my next 10 days.

I am still here!!

I have been ignoring the blog-sphere for awhile. It has been a very busy summer, although it came very late. I am working on starting out on a new partnership with a US company called Extraordinary Destination Wedding. The company specialised in customized exotic weddings. Until recently, couples thought an exotic option was to be married in Italy for example, but with celebrities like Katy Perry who recently opted to be married in India, people are now starting to think beyond the beach for their weddings and they are truly following their adventurous hearts with dare to be different attitude. According to the World Tourism Organization, in 2020, China will overtake France to become the largest tourist country. China is becoming more and more intriguing for couples from all corners of the globe. Her romance lies in its mystical culture and the serenity of its natural beauty. China couldn’t have over 1.3 billion people without a little romance. So she knows a thing or two about weddings. China has great potential in the wedding business out bound and in bound. It is a multi billions business.

I am also planning my South America trip in September. I will only be gone for about 3 and half weeks. Since I am trying to get to Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, I don't have a lot of time and there is tremendous amount of planning involved. But planning is half of the fun. I sometimes learn more during the planning stage than the actual trip. The actual trip then becomes a visual download of my research. It is truly a fascinating process.

I have also decided to learn how to roller blade as an adult!! Talk about off balance. But practice makes prefect and I have been practicing 3 times a week by the dog park. Summer is always so short. I have to make the best of it. Always mixing hard work with tons of fun!

Travel vs Vacation

Most people think travel and vacation are two of the same activities. People may use their "vacation" time to travel. But you are not vacationing when you are traveling. So I always argue (usually the only one) they are very different. Here are the dictionary definitions:

Vacation: Leisure time away from work devoted to rest or pleasure
Travel: The act of going from one place to another

Vacation to me means I am staying in one spot like a beach and doing as little as possible. Travel on the other hand is very exciting with constant motion which can be tiring and even stressful. My mind and body are constant simulated by history, stories, culture, ruins, hikes, churches, temples and conversations. One of my favourite things is taking a mini vacation in the middle of my travels. I highly recommend doing that when planning your travels. In South East Asia, I made sure to fit in some R&R under the Phuket sun; in East Africa, it was a few days on the beaches of Zanzibar.

To me, travel is a lot more than just about going from one place to another. Travel is about learning and gaining perspectives. Growing up, my parents told me this old Chinese fable about a frog in the well (井底之蛙).

There was once a frog who lived in a well. It was happy and grateful with the spacious well he called home. One day an old turtle who lived by the sea passed by the well and chatted up with the frog who lived in the well. The turtle told the stories of the ocean's vastness and wonders. But the frog couldn't believe such a place could exist. How could there possibly anything be better than the well?

The rain had came down hard this year and raised the water level of the well. The frog took the opportunity to finally leap out of the well. Moved by curiosity, the first thing the frog did was to visit the sea. It was awestruck by endless openness of it all. When it returned to the well, it was still a happy frog & grateful for its home, but a bit uneasy now it knew how much larger reality was than its tiny precious well.