Loud Volcanoes and Dense Jungles - Playa Hermosa/Central America/Costa Rica

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Playa Hermosa/Central America/Costa Rica

Waiting...waiting...waiting. Of course our flight has been delayed; everything in Costa Rica is slow. But for some reason that is okay here, because when you are in Costa Rica everything is considered pura vida, or pure life. Even the airport security guard beamed at me and exclaimed, "Hola! Pura Vida!"

In the pura vida way of life there are no deadlines and a watch is considered superfluous; everybody walks around in slacks and listens to rhythmic reggae; forty-year-old men wake up at five o'clock in the morning to go surfing; hitchhiking to the next town over is the obvious thing to do if you have no car. You spend days wandering dusty towns and ducking under huge waves. Watching the locals roll joints becomes habitual, along with petting stray dogs and clucking at the chickens that peck at your feet while you walk down muggy streets. In Costa Rican towns, TV is a luxury and showers are colder than a witch's tit. Little girls giggle at you as you walk by and they try to sell you jewelry that their mother made with shells from the beach.

Laying in a black sand beach, facing our hotel at Playa Hermosa

In Playa Hermosa, which translates to Beautiful Beach, the sand is neither white nor gray. It's a soft, shiny black, like wet tar on a newly paved street. The reason for this unusual coloring is because it's not really sand at all, but ash from a past volcanic eruption within one of the country's 112 craters. The sand vibrantly glitters in the sun, and the backdrop to this beach is a dense, loud jungle.

With the luxury of a horse and a tour guide - not a difficult task to find - one can properly enter the jungle and explore its raw beauty. A one-hour time period inside the jungle showed me tucans, monkeys, and even a sleeping two-toed sloth, hung upside down on a branch and exposing its furry round little belly, to my delight.

At the very top of the mountain, the natives made a wooden seating area with giant banana tree leaves for a roof and four wooden sticks to hold everything up. You look out from the top, and the view makes your eyes nearly water. The sun is setting and the skies are orange, pink and purple. A cloud is positioned just right so that it sends rays of sunlight across the skies and some leftover ones splash the coast as it curves into the foamy sea. It is so satisfying to know that at one point in time, you were the only person to see the world from that angle.

Costa Rican beetle, compared with a pack of ciggs

Here is the beauty of Costa Rica: it still has soul. But the question still lingers...for how long? Every year, more and more outsiders hear about this small Central American country and frequent its jungles and beaches. As a result, marine pollution is increasing, well-beaten paths are found in previously untracked jungles, beachfront hostels are popping up, and there is more air pollution than ever before. Unrelated to tourism, there is also the increasing rate of deforestation, which ruins the homes of rare Costa Rican animals in order to make room for agriculture and cattle ranching.

Historically, Costa Rica is at the top end of the ladder: violence has briefly erupted just twice in its democratic history, and presently its agricultural crops and newfound tourism are allowing Costa Rica to prosper. In comparison to its neighbors, the Costa Rican standard of living is high: according to the World Factbook, the average life expectancy rate is 76 years old, with an HIV/AIDS prevalence rate at 0.6 percent. Nearly the whole country - 96 percent - can read and write.

Despite the positives, Costa Rica is still a third world country with relative financial struggles. The roads are full of potholes and are often made of dirt, and driving from one part of the country to the other was the sensual equivalent of sticking everybody in a box and kicking us there. Trash is left on the street under the blistering sun where it rots, and its stench oozes into the atmosphere and rudely invades your nostrils. As I walked down a street in Jaco, the main town by Playa Hermosa, a girl was squatting in the street in broad daylight and relieving herself. Seeing my alarmed face, she nonchalantly smiled, wiped herself with her hand, and kept on walking.

Myself (left) and a friend, Carla, posing on the beautiful Flamingo Beach

There is always something to see in Costa Rica, somewhere else to visit, a new story to hear. If you plan on visiting, don't miss out on the hot springs. You drive around the vast Lake Arenal, weaving around potholes in futile efforts, to arrive at the Arenal Volcano - a massive peak that is still very active, with molten lava oozing out of it and shooting up with great force. At night, bright orange sparks spurt out and sharply contrast the pitch-black sky, and the volcano powerfully rumbles for auditory effect while the ground shakes in unison. Having the opportunity to visit an active volcano is more amazing than any firework show, and if the rumbling ground wasn't enough sensory entertainment, the whole thing is witnessed from the inside of a steaming hot river that is naturally heated from the lava of the volcano. The hot springs resemble a giant hot tub - but with waterfalls, a jungle along the sides, and of course, a supreme light show. The hot springs aren't free though, and are approximately $25USD a day to visit. It's expensive, but very worth it. The springs are open until 10pm and you can usually cut deals with local hotels for a reduced price.

Sadly, every year that passes further deteriorates Costa Rica's gorgeous ecosystems. This is partly due to lack of funding, partly due to the need for more land to farm, and partly due to increased tourism. It is truly disheartening to think that when I have children, they might not see the beauty that I saw. I really hope that they do.


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