56 days

We started our trip at a permaculture farm in the central mountainous area of Salitrales. We stayed there for 12 days and slept each night in our little tent surrounded by giant, prehistoric spiders and creepy crawlies. Showers were a quick splash of cold water or a swim in the nearby river. To most of my friends, this is not the most ideal way to spend your time; however, I learned a great deal while I was there and TJ and I made really amazing connections with friends who helped create the rest of our trip.

I learned how to make dosas (fermented beans and rice), how to make chocolate, how to de-shell rice and coffee beans, how to cure cramps with tinctures such as Skullcap. We ate a lot of kimchi, beet sour kraut, rice, beans, and freshly harvested greens – all grown on the farm with a few items brought in from the small nearby town.

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Envision 2015

This festival is what sparked our entire trip! We knew we wanted to attend since 2014 and took that whole year transforming this Envision trip into an entire 4.5 month long backpacking adventure.

Envision was awesome. Connected with so many people while I read the Alchemist in our hammock – lots of crazy miracles and magic. Everything that you would expect at a transformational festival located on a jungle beach.

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West Coast

Playa Uvita

Eat: there is one spot here, on the main road, that has good food and batidos to keep you cool. If you are facing the ocean, it’s on your right with colorful walls and open patio seating. This town is so small, you can’t miss it.

Domincal

Eat:

• Tortilla Flats
• Surf Shack – yummy smoothies and tasty vegetarian breakfast and lunch
• El Coco Restaurant – cheap!
• Patron’s
• Porque No – located in Dominicalito. OMG. One of our top fav. meals on the trip!! Also, can’t beat the breathtaking views this restaurant has of the ocean. Reservation recommended.

Stay: Piramy’s Cool Vibes

Love:

• Casa de Yoga
• Bamboo Play Yoga – Danyasa
• Marucatu – hosted a fun post-Envision party and is also a top rated restaurant in Lonely Planet
• Drop-dead, gorgeous sunsets…WHOA!

Montezuma

From Dominical we travelled 14 hours on 2 buses, 1 ferry and a 3rd bus. #backpackerlife

Eat:

• Puggo’s Chef Restaurant – OMG. Our second top fav meal of the trip. The hamsa symbol and colorful lanterns drew us in. They had food to die for and the BEST smoothies we had so far. We ate here 3 times while in Montezuma!
• Natsu Sushi Bar (in Puggo’s)
• Organico – delicious vegan food and live music
• Ice Dream – Italian bakery, cafe and gelato spot. SOO good!
• Montezuma Restaurant – it’s patio sits on top of the beach. The corner table is where we sat and is the best spot in town on a hot, hot day.

Stay:

• Hostel Hotel Ly – only place who had vacancy after our 14 hour travel day and 8:30p arrival time.
• We then moved to Hotel El Pargo Feliz – four thumbs up.

Love:

• The moonlight’s reflection on the calm ocean here was unlike anything I’ve ever seen
• Waterfall hike – there’s one popular one that everyone does and there is a huge rock you can jump off of!

Santa Teresa

Eat:

• Habanero’s – dine with your toes in the sand and really good margaritas!
• Zulu – second top fav smoothies and REALLY good Oreo shake
• Olam at Hotel Nautilus – healthy, delicious vegetarian cuisine
• La Sandwicheria – amazing breakfast! The owner is so sweet.

Stay:

• Kokua Hostel – fun dinner nights, really good food. Such nice people.
• Casa Zen

Love:

• Santa Ganesha – awesome furniture store. Wanted to take every piece home.
• Best sunset we had seen thus far. Best way I could describe it’s colors is saying it looked like a Big Stick
• Rented an ATV!
• Flor Blanca Resort for yoga – beauuuutiful yoga studio. My first and only class taught in 3 different languages – english, spanish and sanskrit! 

 

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Medicines from the Edge
a tropical herbal convergence

This was an amazing, natural medicine convergence we got to attend. The gathering was located at the Termales del Bosque Spa & Hotel in Ciudad Queseda which has the most beautiful hot springs I’ve ever seen.

Workshops I attended:

• Creative Alchemy: how to make herbal balms
• The Astrology of Herbalism
• Meso-American Foods as Medicine and Culture
• Medicine Making: Tinctures
• Intro to Permaculture
• Curanderismo
• Beyond Thrival: Superherbs & Superfoods as Medicine
• Building Community Healthcare
• Moon Medicine for Women
• Lunar Living

And on the last night of the gathering everyone soaked in the hot springs lit by the moon. Rain sprinkled throughout the night and we were all in our birthday suits listening to live music.

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Arenal

La Fortuna

Eat: Lava Lounge – live music, sangria and best dessert of the trip thus far: mango cheesecake!

Stay: Kokoro Resort – beautiful rooms, excellent costumer service and delicious breakfast buffet every morning! mmm, seasoned yuca fries… The open air lobby is surrounded by the rainforest and the Arenal Volcano is easy to see.

Love:

• This little town is cute with a central park surrounded by shops and restaurants. However, the souvenir shops here are extremely overpriced.
• Los Lagos Resort – zip lined for the first time! We also got to see their butterfly farm, crocs, frog farm and ant farm. Afterwards we hung out at the swim up bar where they had hot and cold pools, big water slides and tons of private jacuzzis.
• Back in the day, Arenal used to be active and you could watch the lava pouring out as you sat in a jacuzzi or at your table in a restaurant!

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The Cloud Forest

Took the jeep-boat-jeep from Arenal to Santa Elena…

Santa Elena

Eat:

• Taco Taco
• Monteverde Ice Cream
• Hotel Delmar – delicious food and amazing view. We went there for happy hour, then did a short hike next to the resort, watched the sun set from the balcony of their tea lounge, then came back for dinner where TJ ordered the same thing he had for lunch because it was so good! The pink clouds at sunset were so gorgeous they looked fake.
• Treehouse Restaurant – good live music and is really like a giant treehouse – so cool!

Stay: Pension Hostel

Love:

• The giant fig trees – you can climb through their tunnel like trunks!
• Curri Chancha – we were advised to visit this reserve over Monteverde as it is less visited and therefore more flora and fauna can be seen. It was beautiful.

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Caribbean

From Santa Elena, we bused to San Jose, then to the sleepy little Caribbean town – Cahuita!

Cahuita

Eat:

• Miss Edith’s – our first Caribbean meal! And it was soooo good. Felt like we were at the real Blue Bayou. This is also where we had coconut rice for the first time #gamechanger
• Kelly Creek for breakfast – the BEST honey I’ve ever had. I actually don’t really enjoy the taste of honey but this was so fresh and so local and literally came from one particular bee hive tribe. So, so good.
• Reggae Bar in Playa Negra
• Chez Fabian – a French chef in the Caribbean creating amazing fusions!
• Coco’s – beer. And fun, local music
• Sobre los Olas

Stay: Bridgette’s in Playa Negra. Free bikes rentals! Super useful for going back to town (Cahuita).

Love:

• This was our first time on the east coast. I really fell in love with the powerful sunsets in the west; but here in Cahuita, we set our alarms to watch the sun rise over the Caribbean Sea in the morning. Words and photos can not do justice to how beautiful the golden sun rise always was.
• Visit the Sloth Sanctuary and do the Buttercup tour! Too cute.
• Cahuita National Park. OMG. It’s the only free national park in Costa Rica and it’s filled with stunning beaches, lots of forest and wildlife.

 

Tortugeuro

From Port Moin, you embark on a 4 hour, scenic boat ride to this breathtaking national park where sea turtles come to lay their eggs.

Eat:

• Buddha Cafe – SOO cuute and on the water. Had my first, ever Caphriana. Their lemon poppyseed cheesecake wins over the mango cheesecake in La Fortuna!
• Fresh Foods – cheap and good
• Wild Ginger – #1 on Trip Advisor and we 100% agreed!
• Miss Miriam’s

Love:

• 2.5 hour canoe tour through the national park. Our canoe cut through the glass river water as we weaved through the tall, dense forest. Saw TONS of wildlife – turtles, caimans, bats, monkeys, butterflies, frogs and a freshly made jaguar paw print!

Puerto Viejo

Eat:

• Hot Rocks – good bar food but way fun for music and drinks
• Koki Beach – so yummy and our server that we constantly got was THE SWEETEST. Passion fruit creme brule – new, top fav dessert on the trip!
• Bread and Chocolate – incredible, must visit.
• Dread Nut
• Stashu’s con Fusion
• Madre Tierra – mmm…breadfruit gnocchi
• Tamera – good Ron Don
• Caribeans – this cute cafe had a refrigerated room full of bomb cacao bars, tons of flavors from many local farms
• Casa del Pan
• Monli – Caribbean and French fusion
• Amimodo
• De Gustibus

Stay: Rocking J’s. One of our fav hostels.

Love:

• The Caribbean vibes in this town are real!
• Salsa Brava Reggae Bar
• The Jaguar Rescue Center – MUST VISIT

Manzanillo

Eat:

• Cool & Calm – fish tacos to die for

Stay:

• We camped on the beach during their Easter weekend madness! They rage like the 4th of July on Easter weekend
• We had friends who camped at the Funky Monza and we hung out there a lot during our stay