More Travels Coming Soon...

Okay, I really don't know if anybody reads this thing or not, but either way, here's my itinerary for my upcoming trip this summer. (This is the real 2008 epic, the Central America trip was just a warm-up).

May 31 - Leave Salt Lake City
June 2 - Arrive in Rangoon, Myanmar
June 2 to June 9 - Myanmar
June 10 - Bangkok, Thailand
June 11 to June 14 - Bhutan
June 15 to June 16 - Kathmandu, Nepal
June 17 to June 30 - Everest Base Camp Trek, Nepal
July 1 to July 3 - Royal Chitwan National Park, Nepal
July 4 - Kathmandu, Nepal
July 5 to July 6 - Dubai, United Arab Emirates
July 7 to July 13 - Ethiopia
July 14 to August 5 - Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia
August 6 to August 10 - South Africa
August 11 to August 18 - Israel and Jordan
August 19 - Arrive in Salt Lake City
August 20 - Start Grad School

Tamarindo Beach

So it turns out that surfing isn't as tough as I always thought it was. After using the morning to sleep in, get breakfast, write in my journal, and e-mail home, I grabbed a board and headed out to the ocean. I got out to the coast at about one o'clock and ran into the water with my board, excited to try my luck at surfing again. The first few times I tried to catch a wave I was about as successful as yesterday, but after a few sets I started to catch on. It helped a lot that I was in shallower waters. Yesterday I thought I had to be really far out into the ocean and wait for the perfect wave to come and catch it at just the right time. Today I went for just about any wave that came my way. Some waves had already broken before I even hopped on my board and others I had no chance of catching but tried anyway. It also helped that the surf was a lot better today. Wave after wave after wave came and all I had to do was keep trying to catch them.

Originally I considered paying for a class on surfing, but I ended up getting more than enough tips just by listening in on surf instructors who were teaching other people (I listened from a distance, of course). The best tip I got the whole day was to remember to keep my head up. In the past my main problem with surfing was that I could never really catch a wave in the first place. I'd always paddle with a wave but then the tip of my board would dip underwater. The whole thing would get pulled under and I'd always get smacked around underwater until the wave finally passed. After I heard that tip to keep my head up I caught almost every wave for the rest of the day. It felt so good to paddle along with a wave, feel my board start to catch, and then actually be riding the thing because I had kept my weight off the front of the board and avoided going under. Another useful tip I got was to push my arms up, pull my knees under my chest, and stand up all in one motion. Just those two tips was enough to get to the point where I had caught the wave and was standing up. All I had to do after that was learn how to balance.

Every so often I'll meet someone on a ski lift who tells me that what you learn snowboarding really helps out when you learn to surf. I never used to believe those people because I snowboarded a lot but still was still such a crappy surfer. Now I realize those guys knew what they were talking about. My problem was that I couldn't catch a wave in the first place so I never got to the point where my snowboarding experience could help out. Once I figured out how to catch a wave and stand up today, the rest came pretty naturally. For the first couple of hours after I figured out how to stand up I wiped out just about every time because I didn't know where to put my feet on the board to balance correctly. Once it clicked though it became automatic, just like learning how to ride a bike. By the end of the day I was catching every wave, popping up to my feet, and riding almost every one to the shore.

There's something captivating about surfing. It's one of those things where after every wave you want to run right back out there again to see if you can do it better the next time. For me there is a moment each time I catch a wave where everything clicks and it just feels so good to know I've caught the thing. I love feeling the board catch behind me, watching out of the corner of my eye as the tip of the board skims against the surface of the water, pushing up with my arms, and feeling myself stand up on another wave. The whole thing is so captivating but it's also so relaxing. Between sets I love laying on the board, feeling the sun and water on my body, and staring out into the ocean.

Even though I was so exhausted I still wanted to ride every last wave I could before I called it a day and my trip was over. Many surfers came and left during the time I was out there and when I finally grabbed my board and headed in there were only two or three people left in the water. As I walked along the beach back to my hotel I stared at the horizon, where the sun had gone down just minutes before. I reflected on how amazing the past three weeks has been, looked forward to future trips, and wondered if I'll be able to surf in Zanzibar during my visit to Africa this summer.

Monkey Head Island

This morning I headed out on a boat with Rich Coast Divers to a dive site called “Monkey Head Island”. I quickly figured out that diving in the Pacific is a completely different ball game than diving in the Caribbean. Before today the only dives I had done were the four to get my open water certification in the Gulf of Thailand and the twelve dives I did in Belize and Roatan earlier in this trip. In all of those places the water is crystal clear and perfectly warm, there's a huge reef that divers swim along to see the wildlife, and if there are any underwater currents, I didn't feel them. The Pacific is known for having lots of large underwater wildlife, but the trade off is that the water isn't nearly as warm, there aren't as many reefs, and the underwater currents toss divers all over the place. Despite the additional challenges, the dive at Monkey Head was amazing. The first thing I noticed after dropping down into the green Pacific waters was that there were puffer fish and porcupine fish all over the place. When I saw the first one I was really excited because I hadn't seen one before, but then I saw that they were everywhere. The fish only puff up when they're intimidated and we didn't see any of them in that condition, but they're still pretty funny looking even when they aren't puffed up. I watched hundreds of those things drift back and forth with the currents, twisting their lumpy heads to look around and paddling along with their stumpy tails. Most of the puffer fish and porcupine fish were only six or seven inches long, but I saw one massive one while I was down there that must have been two or three feet. I can only imagine what that guy looks like when he's puffed up. Our guide from Rich Coast pointed out a few other interesting things to the other diver and I while we were down there. We spotted an octopus that was so scared when we swam towards him that he wrapped his entire body around a rock and clung to it until after we left. We also saw a green moray eel like the one I saw at the shipwreck in Roatan and a round sting ray resting on the ocean floor whose coloring blended perfectly with the sand underneath it.
Only a couple of minutes into our second dive we saw a bright orange seahorse resting on the sand. Most of the rest of the dive was filled with a lot of the same sightings - a sting ray, a small octopus, and tons of puffer fish. I actually enjoyed the more challenging conditions in the Pacific because it was so different than everything I've done before. I tried to find a rhythm with the currents, kicking my fins to keep my position when the current pushed against me, and then using the current to surge forward when it turned the other way again. Occasionally a current would bring a patch of cold water and in a split second the pleasantly warm water surrounding me would be replaced with an ice-cold wake-up call. After a few of those temperature changes I noticed that I could see the cold water coming. The warm water was relatively clear, but in the distance a cold patch looked like a mirage in the desert.

Towards the end of the dive I followed our guide around the corner of a massive rock and saw a large white-tipped shark resting under it only a few feet away. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say that this thing was the biggest shark I've seen since the last time I watched “Jaws”. He must have been eight or ten feet long and had the perfect shark shape that everyone seems to recognize. Fortunately he was more afraid of us than we were of him and he quickly swam off to find more isolated waters. After returning to the boat my guide said that during some dives he'll spot three or four sharks and sometimes even more. Playas del Coco is great for large marine wildlife, but nearby there's a place that's absolutely legendary for diving. About a thirty-six hour boat ride into the Pacific is an island called Isla del Coco. One of the guys from Rich Coast said that at Isla del Coco it's common to see entire schools of hammerheads and other types of sharks, not to mention the other incredible marine life. Of course I'd love to go diving at Isla del Coco, but there's one catch - a trip out there and back costs $4500. Someday I really will dive there, but it probably won't be one of my next few trips.

This afternoon I caught a public bus to Playa del Tamarindo to finish up my trip with a couple days of surfing. I was absolutely exhausted after diving this morning, but I rented a board anyway and tried my luck at surfing for an hour or two this afternoon. Surfing isn't easy to get the hang of. I knew that already because I've tried it before, but I figure that as long as I'm down here I might as well give it another shot. I paddled my longboard out to where most of the local surfers were and tried not to be embarrassed that I was the only one not catching any of the waves when they came in. Despite the fact that my surfing skills are lacking, it was still tons of fun to be out there. I enjoyed floating on my board out in the ocean and basking in the warm sun as I waited for each set. The anticipation of the next wave and the challenge of catching it kept me entertained the whole time I was out there.

Finally a more experienced surfer pointed out to me that I had the wrong kind of board for catching waves so far out in the ocean. I thought that I knew what I was doing by paddling past all the beginners catching waves that had already broken towards the shore, but it turns out that they were trying to catch those waves because they all had longboards like I did. Someday I'll finally figure out how to surf and I'll trade my longboard for a shorter one that I can paddle further out into the ocean. Until then though I'll spend my time catching the smaller waves on a board that could pass as a small boat. With any luck I'll be able to figure out how to actually stand up on the thing when I head out there again tomorrow.

Ocotal Beach

I left my wonderful eight-dollar hotel room early this morning to catch a six o'clock bus that would begin my journey to Playas del Coco. I've spent a lot of time juggling around the itinerary for my last three days in my head and until yesterday I really hadn't come up with anything solid. I finally decided I'd head to Playas del Coco, famous for it's scuba diving, for the first of the three days and I'd spend the last two days at Playas del Tamarindo learning to surf. After yet another long jouney by hand-me-down busses from the United States, I finally reached Playas del Coco at one o'clock this afternoon. The idea was to do one or two afternoon dives and then head down to Tamarindo, but since I arrived so late the earliest I'll be able to dive is tomorrow. Diving tomorrow is fine, it just means that I'll spend one less day at Tamarindo. The thing that really disappointed me though was that I would effectively have to chalk this day up as another one burned in transit.

It stinks to have only three weeks to travel and to have to burn a few of those days just to move around in a country. I usually try to do at least one thing that's worth while on my transit days so that I don't feel like the entire day is wasted. In Coban I went to the coffee plantation, in Copan I went to the bird park, and before leaving Roatan I went to the local butterfly garden.

I had to make a serious effort today to find anything remotely worthwhile to do. After booking a diving trip for tomorrow I asked one of the staff at Rich Coast Divers what there is to do in Playas del Coco except for dive. The guy got a blank look and said, “Ummmm... dive”. Coco is great and I'm glad I'm here, but the beach is nothing to speak of. I'd just as soon hang out on the beach at Utah Lake as I would on the beach at Coco. The guy at the dive shop did mention one other thing to do though. He said that two miles south of Coco is another beach covered in volcanic sand and rock called Ocotal beach. With my options limited to the garbage-can-brown sand of Coco or the mysterious volcanic formations at Ocotal, I chose Ococtal.

While in India I visited a black sand beach on the southern coast that was absolutely spectacular. I remembered how amazing that beach was, but only with hesitation. I figured that no beach so close to Coco could have too much to offer and I didn't want to get my hopes up for something that would likely turn out to be sub-par. When I got to Ocotal the beach was about what I expected, but I walked along the shore anyway for the sake of doing something besides just walking back to Coco.

As I walked towards the south end of the beach I noticed a small outcrop of volcanic rock stretching out into the ocean. Having nothing else to do, I kept walking as the sand met the lava rock and followed the shoreline around to a spot where the rocks jutted into the sea, forming a tiny peninsula. As the sun lowered past it's late afternoon position I pulled the lens cap off my camera and started taking pictures.

At first the rocky peninsula didn't strike me as a very impressive place, but as I started looking for photo opportunities I discovered more natural beauty. My first discovery was a small rocky overhang that caused waves to crash in unique patterns as they came into the shore. After a few pictures I noticed pools of calm water that provided perfect reflections of the cloudy sky. Next came experimentation with different textures. I tried to capture the rough ocean in some shots and the calm pools in others. Occasionally I would frame both the pools and the ocean in the same shot. The wet lava rocks were another opportunity to experiment with textures. I found one rock with two orange mineral formations growing on it that provided a colorful contrast to the dark brown surrounding them. After two hours of snapping pictures and wandering around the edges of the peninsula, Ocotal beach had become a completely magical place.Working to discover natural beauty in a place when it otherwise would not be there is a completely new concept to me. I used to think that beauty is either there or it isn't. Now I wonder how many places like Ocotal Beach I passed up without realizing how amazing those places really are. There are some places that anyone could see the beauty in. Take Semuc Champey for example. A blind man could see the natural beauty at Semuc Champey. Places like that are great because they're so incredible and inspiring. At the same time though, when it takes work to see the real beauty in a place it's easier to appreciate the beauty that is there. Also, after learning to enjoy a place like Ocotal Beach, places like Semuc Champey become that much better.

I love the flood of new thoughts and ideas that comes with traveling to a new place. When I travel, and especially when I travel in exotic places, I'm exposed to so many new cultures and people and places that it's impossible not feel a little creative inspiration. There's opportunities every day for new things to write about, new ways to take photographs, and new ways to experience a culture. After going so many places that contrast so differently with each other I feel like I have such a better understanding of the world and where I fit in. Of course I hope to have more opportunities to travel and to continue to be exposed to inspiring new thoughts and ideas, but even if I don't have opportunities for travel in the future, at least I'll always be able to better recognize what is worthwhile and inspiring about everyday life.

Monteverde Cloud Forest

Today was pretty mellow. While traveling I usually keep a pretty loose itinerary and try to make each day more exciting and more memorable than the one before it. It's tons of fun because every single day is amazing and even though I don't always know where I'll be or what I'll do the next day, I do know that I'll remember it for the rest of my life. Traveling that way is such a blast, but it also takes a lot of effort and gets pretty draining after awhile. I always tell myself that I need to pace myself and that I'm going to sleep in the next morning and spend some time relaxing the next day, but there's always a reason why I have to keep pushing. I've told myself every day this trip that I'd sleep in the next morning, but out of seventeen days so far, I've only slept in three times. If I don't have to catch a bus or a ferry early in the morning then I have to wake up early for a tour or to go on a dive. It's definitely worth it and it's tons of fun, but like I said, it also gets pretty draining.

Fortunately today was one of the three times that I was able to sleep in. I laid in bed until nine or nine thirty and then I ventured out of my room to get a shower and a bite to eat. Breakfast was “Gallo y Pinto con Huevos”, rice mixed with beans and sauce and served with fried eggs. I love the meals down here. Four or five bucks will buy a giant plate of beans and rice with either eggs or steak, chicken or pork, depending on what meal it is. The rice and beans probably would get old after awhile, but that won't happen before I fly home on Friday.

The hotel I'm staying at is kind of funny. When I got off the bus yesterday morning I walked into the first legitimate travel agency I saw to book the eXtremo. The place asked if I needed a place to sleep and ended up giving me a clean room, my own bathroom with a hot shower, and unlimited internet access all for only eight bucks a night. This is easily the nicest room I've stayed in during my whole trip and it also happens to be the cheapest room I've stayed in. I almost want to stay in Monteverde longer just so I can stay in this awesome eight-dollar room. The funny thing about the hotel is that it doubles as a popular travel agency. My room opens up into the lobby/office of the agency and there are people coming in and out all day to book different tours. My private bathroom is across the hall from my bedroom, so when I shower sometimes I have to sneak across the hall all wet with no shirt on and hope I don't offend anyone in the crowded lobby.

After a hot shower, a filling breakfast, and a few hours of relaxation, I headed off on a public bus (see: former US school bus) to Monteverde Cloud Forest. I hiked through the cloud forest for a couple of hours and I have to say it probably was the most legitimate rainforest experience I've ever had. I read about this place several months ago and wanted to be sure to come here, partly because I was curious to see what a cloud forest really was. It was easy to figure it out after only a few minutes of hiking. A cloud forest is a forest filled with clouds. I had read that in my guide book but for whatever reason I didn't believe it. I figured that the weather is so unpredictable that it would be unreasonable to expect any place to have clouds all the time. Monteverde is different. Something about the climate in the mountains here causes clouds to always cover the forest. I was really impressed with how well cared for the place is. There's a dirt pathway about the width of a sidewalk that winds through the forest and is very well maintained. A lot of times when I go hiking it's fun to wander off a ways and explore different areas, but this path was so great that all I really wanted to do was follow it through the cloud forest and enjoy the views. Most of the scenery was made up of dense, fern-covered trees, roots, and vines, obscured in the distance by the ever-present clouds. Occasionally I would pass a small, exotic flower near the side of the pathway that was a burst of color, contrasting well with the green and brown rainforest surrounding it.A lot of people hire a guide at Monteverde to help them spot wildlife, but I was lucky enough to see a few animals without one. Towards the beginning of my hike, as I was concentrating on taking a picture, I heard some small animal rustling through the forest nearby. I looked through the trees and briefly spotted a small black furry creature, but couldn't quite make out what it was. Later I heard leaves and branches shaking above me and looked up to see a small monkey climbing through the canopy. As I pointed my camera into the trees, hoping to get a picture that I knew would never turn out, the monkey stopped and peered right down at me. I snapped a shot of the thing but got only a silhouette of the monkey and the leaves. After pulling my camera away I stared right back at the creature. He waited and stared back at me for a few seconds before finally disappearing upwards into the canopy.I booked a night walk through the rainforest during which an experienced guide was going to point out nocturnal wildlife as we hiked through the trees. Unfortunately the clouds of the cloud forest often bring rain and that was the case tonight. The combination of the rain and lightning made bad conditions for humans and animals alike and the tour was cancelled. Instead I bought a few delicious pastries from a bakery next door and spent an hour chatting with other travelers in the lobby of the hotel/travel agency. Of course I wish that I could do the night walk through the cloud forest, but it'll have to wait until my next visit to Costa Rica. Tomorrow I'm headed to the Pacific beaches for some real relaxation. I want to get a couple more dives in before coming home and there's no better place in the country to do it than at Playa del Coco, known for it's large marine wildlife. With the exception of tomorrow morning, when I have to wake up early to catch a bus to the coast, I swear I'll sleep in every day for the rest of the trip.

eXtremo

Zip lines seem to be the can't-miss activity in Monteverde, Costa Rica and there was no shortage of options when I pulled into town on the bus this morning. One zip line in particular leaves such an impact on it's riders that many people, myself included, hear of it's reputation long before coming to Monteverde. I didn't consider any of the other zip line providers for even a second. My first priority this morning was to book a ride on... the “eXtremo”.

I first heard of the eXtremo from the four Swedish girls I met in Guatemala. I was intrigued by the talk of a zip line that not only runs through the rainforest like the others, but is also built for speeds that will leave a rider's legs shaking for hours afterwards. One of the girls spoke of looking at the landscape below, in an opening in the forest, and seeing cows that were barely recognizable because they were so far down. Another girl told of being absolutely terrified and taking the rest of the day to recover from the experience. My mind had been made up and I placed one solid item on my agenda for Costa Rica. With a classy name like “eXtremo”, I knew this zip line wouldn't let me down.

Now for some cold hard facts. The eXtremo was built by a local Costa Rican landowner in response to the plethora of pansy zip lines operating in the area. The series of fourteen lines crosses several times over a wide canyon and winds through the rainforest on each of it's ends. The forest is impressive and the canyon dotted with grazing cows, albeit barely recognizable ones, could pass for a snapshot from Switzerland. The scenery in itself is spectacular enough to draw visitors, but of course the real draw is the anticipation of wild thrills while soaring through the air and dangling from only a thin cable. The zip lines of eXtremo reach up to a half-mile in length each and tower 450 feet from the base of the canyon.After suiting up in a harness, helmet, and pair of leather-padded gloves, I was off to the eXtremo with nine other riders. An employee briefed us on how to brake and how to stay in control while on the zip lines and within two minutes my body was barreling down the first cable. One by one an employee clipped each of the riders onto a cable, put a second clip on for safety, and gave them a hard shove that began their rapid acceleration downwards towards the next platform. As I waited for my turn I listened to the clip riding against the cable. The sound conducted all the way back to the platform and made the cable scream like a banshee, the pitch rising higher and higher as the rider flew further down the line.

When it was my turn I crossed my legs, leaned back, and waited for a good hard shove. Screaming through the air was one of those surreal experiences - one of those moments when I asked myself if this actually was for real. As I descended from the platform I clung to my harness with one hand and with the other I looped my thumb and fore-finger around the cable in back of me to keep from spinning out of control. I looked down to see that the cows were barely there just before soaring through the rainforest at the other side of the canyon. I jammed my right, glove-covered hand against the cable and came to a sudden halt just as my body rested above the next platform.

The fourteen zip-lines would have been well worth the forty dollars I paid for the experience, but leave it to the good people at eXtremo to throw in a few extras. About half-way through the series of zip lines each rider took a turn rapelling ninety feet straight down through a narrow opening in the forest. When it was my turn I clipped in and dropped about seventy of the ninety feet in pure free fall before an employee quickly stopped me, beleeing from below. The second extra was called the “Tarzan's Swing”. I clipped into a rope and stood backwards with my feet at the edge of a high metal platform. One of the eXtremo men held me by the harness and tilted me away from the platform before dropping me into a free fall.I fell backwards about fifty feet before Tarzan's Swing caught me by the harness, gave me a good jolt, and sent me flying hundreds of feet into the rainforest. After a few good swings back and forth two eXtremo guys caught me and I was off to the next zip line.

At the last zip line, as each of the riders went on his way, clouds started to gather in the distance. The eXtremo guy started clipping couples together in tandem and sending them down two at time so that we would beat the coming rain storm. As the last rider I rode together with the employee and pulled into the last platform just as heavy drops of rain began to fall from above.

The eXtremo was a fine introduction to Monteverde, Costa Rica. I enjoyed Guatemala because it felt like authentic Central America, but Costa Rica is fun because it is so tourist-friendly and because there are so many wild ways to experience the country. With my fix for thrills satisfied for the time being, I can spend the next two days exploring the nearby cloud forests, hiking through wet, canopy-covered trails and searching for exotic rainforest wildlife.

Cano Negro

I left La Fortuna at eight o'clock this morning on a guided tour of Cano Negro, a nearby national nature reserve. During the drive to Cano Negro we stopped at “Restaurante Las Iguanas”, a touristy place well known for the iguanas that gather in the nearby trees. The restaurant sits right against a gully where trees grow from the bottom right to the height of the base of the restaurant, so it's a perfect place to see the animals in the tops of the trees. There's even a man-made lookout point where tourists view the trees and from which the good people from Restaurante Las Iguanas throw food to the iguanas to keep them coming. It's kind of a funny little enterprise they've got going - they throw food into the trees to bring the iguanas and the views of the iguanas draw the tourists. Regardless, though, of the motives of the restaurant or the iguanas, the whole thing was pretty entertaining. I got within just a few feet of a five foot iguana resting in the top of a tree and walked across a bridge crossing the gully and spotted fifty or sixty more iguanas covering the canopy of the forest. I read in my Lonely Planet book that the best time of year to spot wildlife at Cano Negro is from January to March, so I decided I had to make the trip there. After a quick snack I boarded a small boat with about twenty other tourists and we were off with our guide to spot wildlife along the banks of the “Rio Frio” (”Cold River” in English). The river trip reminded me a lot of one I took down the Kinabatangan River in Borneo. The Kinabatangan was unique because the animals were so exotic. Also, it was much more isolated than Cano Negro - I went searching for proboscis monkeys and wild boars while riding in a canoe with only four other travelers and a guide. Unfortunately American tourists have already discovered Cano Negro, but the wildlife is still incredible.

Our guide had a pretty good knack for spotting birds and animals, but even without him they wouldn't have been hard to find. During three hours on the river we passed a wild cayman (like an alligator) about every five or ten minutes. We also passed flocks of white great heron birds as well as many different species of falcons and kingfisher birds. My favorite sightings were the monkeys. A few times during the trip we spotted howler monkeys or spider monkeys perched in the trees. One time we saw four spider monkeys at the top of a palm tree, one of which was hanging upside down by his tail and picking and eating seeds from the tree. Another time we saw a spider monkey swing from branch to branch through different trees along the banks of the river. The monkey soared fifteen or twenty feet through the air when needed to grab on to the next tree branch.The most interesting (and grossest) sighting of the day was of a snake on the side of the river eating an iguana that was about two feet long and five or six inches across. The snake had wrapped his mouth completely around the iguana and had it about half-way down when we showed up. I don't know whether it just takes snakes a long time to swallow those things or if it was a classic case of biting off more than he could chew, but progress seemed to be slow. Our driver put the boat right up on the shore, only a few feet from the snake. The creature was so preoccupied that it pulled his body under some tree roots, but still clung to the half-eaten iguana. After the snake sighting we headed back to the dock, accompanied by the sounds of howler monkeys barking like st. bernards in the distance. After a quick lunch we took a bus through Cano Negro and past Restaurante Las Iguanas back to La Fortuna.

Independant travel is usually much easier than people seem to think it is. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred I won't book ahead for a room but it still is easy to find a vacancy at an affordable hotel. Unfortunately tonight was that one time out of one hundred when it isn't easy.

This weekend there is a triathalon near La Fortuna and the hotels booked up months in advance in anticipation of the event. When I found a room last night the owner of the hotel told me he had a room for one night but was booked for the weekend. I was sure that I'd be able to find something when I got back from Cano Negro, but I didn't have too much luck. After an hour of searching for a room I hopped on a bus to Tilaran, about an hour away, which would make a nice stopover on my way to Monteverde Cloud Forest. When I got off the bus in Tilaran there was a huge party in the town's central park for the triathalon - great news except it meant that Tilaran was probably booked up as well. A local kid told me that Tilaran was, in fact, booked for the weekend and that my next option was to take a cab to a city called Canas, about thirty miles away. The kid had a vested interest in me taking a cab - he just happened to have a car which doubles as a cab to Canas when needed. There may have been a room in Tilaran, but I didn't want to take the chance of being stranded without one either, so I paid the kid fifteen bucks to take me to Canas. As far as I'm concerned, taking a cab to a hotel under desperate circumstances is breaking every rule in the book. Cabbies always get a kick-back from hotels if they can bring someone in, and the traveler foots the bill. Unfortunately I didn't have a whole lot of options tonight, and sure enough, I ended up paying twenty bucks for a room that wasn't worth five bucks. All things considered though, it's not such a bad situation. If that one time in a hundred costs me a fifteen dollar cab ride and a hotel kick-back, that's not such a bad price to pay for things to work out the other ninety-nine times.