Costa Rica, November 2024
Okay so I forgot to journal in Costa Rica. At least a virtual journal… and SURE, I didn’t remember until typing my next journal as a prep for my next visit. So let’s reflect on a beautiful adventure I had last year for my 30th birthday in Costa Rica.
I went with my best friend Dhiv to Costa Rica for a week to celebrate my golden birthday. It was a week full of good food, exciting adventures, and huge laughs. We started off the week with a drive up to La Fortuna. A city we would do ATVing, ziplining, rappelling, horseback riding, and eat so much food. The weather was rainy but that really added to the ambiance of being in the rainforest. We spent one morning touring a coffee and chocolate farm where we purchased far too much of both because it was so delicious. We got the opportunity to make our own chocolate, straight from the cacao plant. No surprise, it is atrouciously bitter before your add all the extra stuff, but it makes incredible chocolate once you start adding in cayenne, sugar, milk, or whatever other yummy flavors make a chocolate that we liked. Then we got to explore the coffee farm and see how they go from plant to coffee, and how the different roasts exist, it was incredibly tasty and I will forever recommend it to people.
We celebrated my birthday by staying in a gorgeous hotel with natural hot springs and an amazing dinner. Then the morning of we woke up and got massages before doing a 2 hour drive to Monteverde. Here was a smaller town with a really fun culture and some of the BEST food I’ve ever imagined. Our breakfast in the mornings was a great little cafe and all the dinner spots we checked out were phenomenal. Here we went to some hanging bridges in the rainforest where you walked through the misty treetops, over looking it all. You were so high up and able to see some of the most beautiful views. It was pretty rainy and misty which had Dhiv and I in a very silly mood as we traversed through this near-empty forest. We couldn’t stop cackling as we started posing like different leaves and just being utterly ridiculous. It was one of those moments that you’re just so thankful for the people in your life. This trip had a lot of those moments. That time where you got to just sit there and go okay. My life is exceptional. I love my friends, I love these adventures, I love getting to explore. We did a night tour in the jungle on the final evening where we got to see little frogs, snakes, birds, and jungle cats all out in their natural habitat which was just as exciting as it was nervous making at points. I am so grateful to have a friend that will always say yes to the chaos that I plan instead of making me go alone.
We had a drive on the last day back to San Jose. Which nearly gave me a heart attack driving into the city but we made it. When we were about halfway there we stopped at this random little bar where the woman spoke no english. I got to test my very mediocre Spanish skills alongside with some google translate to chat with the bartender and share our experiences. We ordered some of the BEST birria tacos I have ever had in my life. It was just a really lovely adventure. It was one of those trips that was fully enhanced by the people I was with. Which is a rarity for me as someone who loves the independence of solo travel. But yes, this adventure reminded me that sometimes it’s more fun to have your humans with you as you see these places and have experiences.
