Costa Rica Part I (The Pre-Class Trip

Costa Rica
Day 1 (March 12th)

One of the requirements of my MBA curriculum is to complete 1 international elective, so instead of taking international finance or marketing, I decided to take the Global Operations Practicum. Most of the "classes" entailed working on a project for a company in a foreign country. The Costa Rica class offered a unique opportunity to work with a non profit foundation that is focused on improving housing, healthcare, and education in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica. After meeting with several people involved in all different aspects of the non profit world, we headed out to Costa Rica for 12 days for some "research", adventure, and fun. The highlight of Day 1 was when we flew into the Liberia airport and some dude decided he wanted to take his shirt off in the middle of the customs line. I can't apologize enough for not capturing this moment of zen on camera, but he looked something like this. Everyone made it through customs except for Jose Antonio, his passport was expiring within 6 months and even though the consulate assured him he would be ok, he was denied access to the country. Matt, Jay, Yoshi, and I rented a Rav 4, Herb and Elke rented what looked like half of an SUV, and Pasha, TJ, Quigley, Charity took a bus to La Fortuna. We were all staying at different hotels in town but met up for some drinks and dinner that night. Our hotel was off the beaten path to say the least, so the owner offered us another room that had 4 beds. Sweet! We checked in and I needed to use the bathroom and here is where some ability to communicate in Spanish comes into play. I didn't know how else to put it, but told the manager, "Hay una problema en el bano!" Couldn't remember how to say it wasn't my fault and I found the toilet that way or figure out the word for plunger. Either way we got it fixed and were off for a night of drinking Imperial and Guaro. We foolishly disregarded the advice of Vladmir, the manager at Quigley, Pasha, Charity, and TJ's hotel, of not mixing the local rum, Guaro, and Imperial cerveza. Bad idea.

Day 2 (March 13th) - I decided I would cut some length off of an old pair of jeans and take a picture each day we were in Costa Rica to chronicle the different days. I didn't count the first Wednesday or last Sunday since they were primarily travel days.

After a much too early wake up call, it was time for us to catch the shuttle to go whitewater rafting. El Rio Toro (the Bull River) was a little low so we had to wait a little bit longer to get on the water. For some reason everyone in my boat was ademant about flipping the boat and about half way in we slid down some rapids, crashed into the bank, and our guide helped facilitate the flipping. It felt great getting in the water, but I struggled getting out from under the boat and swallowed an insane amount of river water. There was nothing living in the river because of the high levels of sulphur so I was fully expecting to get deathly ill. Luckily I didn't. After a 3.5 hour trek down the river we got out of the river and they had fresh pineapple and bananas set out for us which was great because I was starving. Above is the picture (from left to right sqautting in the front are Quigley, Elke, and Yoshi; in back from left to right are Pasha, TJ, Hinman, Herb, Jay, me, Charity, and 3 Canadians, btw, Canadians love Costa Rica - I couldn't go to take a piss without bumping into someone from Canada.) After a delicious meal Hinman, Jay, Yoshi, and I got back in the Rav 4 to head to the active side of the volcano at the Arenal Observatory Lodge.

Day 3 (March 14th)

We woke up early at the Arenal Observatory Lodge (a Brad Roller top pick) and had an awesome breakfast. BACON!!!!!!!!!!!!! We then took a guided hike around the volcano and to a waterfall. The only way I can describe our guide is as the Costa Rican Michael Winslow. We would be walking down a trail and all of the sudden our guide would just stop and start making some crazy ass noise. The next thing you know there was a monkey or some exotic bird in a tree nearby us. There were some interesting characters on the hike with us. One lady was about 3-4 minutes behind everything that was going on. Several times through the hike the guide referenced the tractor that was going to tow us back to the hotel after the hike. As we are being pulled back to the hotel we hear her from the back, "Oh! We're being pulled by a tractor!" Weclome to the show lady, maybe you should be wearing a helmet. After the morning hike we got in the car to head to Monteverde. I have yet to mention the wonderful roads in Costa Rica and the road on the way to Monteverde had to take the cake. It was basically a winding caliche road that had cows wandering in the middle of the road. It took us around 3.5 hours to cover roughly 100 km. Luckily Hinman worked for Ford Motor Company before coming back to get his MBA and was very capable of handling the Rav 4. After we checked in, we went for what we thought would be a leisurely hike up Cerro Amigo. It ended up being a grueling 55 minute, 300 meter vertical climb on a 3km trail. At least we were able to enjoy the rewarding view of Nicaragua on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. We caught a glimpse of the Pacific but the clouds were making it hard to see very far off of the other side. After the exhausting hike we went into town for a great dinner at a Chilean influenced restaurant. Each table was served complementary appetizers consisting of small tortillas, guacamole, salsa, black beans, and jalapenos. I would love to start every meal in that fashion. After having 3 bottles of wine at dinner, we stopped at the store to pick up some more and went back to the hotel for some intense games of spades in the lobby. That is until 10pm, when apparently the hotel curfew starts; the guests there were probably of the average age of 55 (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Day 4 (March 15th)
Here we are in the Santa Elana Cloud Forest. Santa Elana is about 5km outside of Monteverde. We got some advice from the front desk saying that if we were interested in seeing more wildlife, we should go on a hike in Santa Elana because there are only 20,000 visitors a year vs. the 200,000 that come through Monteverde. Sadly, the only action we got was the Coati that we saw in the parking lot. Regardless it was an enjoyable hike with some cool views and we only saw 4 other people on the 2.5 hour hike. After our hike, we were starving and decided to be a little adventurous and stopped at some random restaurant on the side of the road on the way to our next destination, Playa del Coco. The best way I can describe this beach town is that I felt like I was in Florida where everyone spoke Spanish. So, basically I felt like I was in Florida. The town was a little shady. A word of caution: if you find a recommended place to stay in Costa Rica via http://www.tripadvisor.com/ , make sure you are not getting scammed when you go to another site to book your room. We were originally set to stay at Hotel Puerta de la Sol, but when we arrived the owner did not have a reservation for us. Hinman had seen that the hotel was recommended on trip advisor, then had to "do a google" to find the room to book it. Someone had posted pictures of the hotel in Playa del Coco and set up a webiste to bill customers. Luckily we were able to get the transaction cancelled and we found a nice room (with A/C) at the Cocobay Hotel and Casino just down the road. We spent a little time at the Casino and I decided to get up and leave after the woman in front of me hit on 13 with the dealer showing 5. Of course she stole my ace that would have made my double on 10 pay off. I only lost $40 and then I ventured down the the "poker room" which was basically a converted guest suite. Looked like the type of place where you might not be able to walk out with your winnings and the buy-in was $200 (or 100,000 colones). No thanks! We took that as our cue to play another game of spades. After a few cervezas and a shot of centenario rum that Hinman ordered it was time for some late night grub. The bar was about to close but we were able to order some fries and they were probably the best french fries I have ever had. Yoshi, Jay, and Matt can vouch for that.

Day 5 (March 16th)
For the first time we were not woken up by nature in the morning. This was much worse, we awoke to an annoying car alarm at 6am and it went on until 9am. Today marked the end of our adventures on our own as we headed back to the Liberia airport to meet Prof. Ferguson and the rest of the group. The pre-class trip was over, now it's time to get to "work".