Hiking in Santa Elena

At seven in the morning, our alarms went off for our morning hike. Ro, the hostel director, had told us about a nice hike to a beautiful lookout spot that would only take us about two hours. We decided to wake up early to beat the heat. The hostel had put out a small breakfast spread of corn flakes, bananas, watermelon and toast, so we got ourselves some food and water for hiking energy. Jil came out to tell us she was staying in and Niki decided she would catch up on sleep after a tossing and turning night. Both of those girls plans sounded very tempting now. I was afraid to see just how "steep" Ro was saying this hike is. Although I was tempted to just stay back with my cousin, I decided to go anyway. How often do you get to hike in Costa Rica on a cool and sunny morning?

At about seven-thirty, Erin, Nicki and I headed out with lunches in our daypacks and cameras too. We walked through the town of Santa Elena and beyond. Up hills that We did have to stop and ask a policeman for directions (again, thank God for my translators, haha), but other than that, the trail was easy to find. On our way, on the outskirts of a small town, we come up to a beautiful cliff edge with an amazing view. (See pic below) We all snapped away with our cameras and were even able to stop a local man walking by to take a group pic. I took one last look at the amazing view, before we continued walking toward the start of the trail. A small service drive took us back about a quarter mile or less, and we found the dirt two track more or less that was the start of the nature hike.

I was surprised to see that the first thirty yards of our hike was downhill. Maybe this hike wasn't going to be so hard after all....WRONG. We turn the corner and come up to a huge hill. Pumping our arms and talking away, we make it up the first big hill to find another and another. My muscles burn as we climb, my heart rate increases. Erin and Nicki, total rock stars in my eyes. We stop for a quick water break and breather and hit it again. I love to walk and hike, don't get me wrong, but I have grown up in Michigan, on very flat land. Costa Rica, much different! These hills were the steepest I've ever seen, so steep you could put your hands on your thighs as you walked because you were basically climbing up, rather than stepping forward. Plus, it's even harder at elevations like that because air is much thinner. The voices in my head changed from "Push yourself, you can do it!" to more of a whiney little kid saying "Oh my gosh, how much longer, I'm tired!" What also weighed on my mind was the fact that Ro told us it was a two hour hike. Did that mean from town or from the start of the trail?If that was the case, we still had a good hour and a half and there was no way I was going to survive that. Pushing myself as hard as I could, I finally stopped and said I'm going back. I felt bad and disappointed in myself, but then I remembered the fact that I wasn't even going to go and still did, and for that I was proud. Plus, there was no point in being miserable. I have not trained for stuff like this, where these girls have been traveling for years and have hiked like this often. They were so nice about it and explained that this was even a hard hike for them, and that made me feel much better.

Switching a few things around our backpacks, I wished them good luck and continued back downhill, which was challenging as well believe it or not, at that steepness, slippery red clay and loose gravel stretches are kind of tough. All I could think about was how good it would feel to finally relax and let my fatigued muscles recover from an awesome workout.

Getting back to the hostel at about 10:30, Niki and Jil were still sleeping. I grabbed my banana, water and my phone and sat down in the hammock chair in the little loft community area. I had opened a few windows on the wall of windows overlooking the town to let a cool breeze in and worked on my blog for a while, giving my jello feeling legs a rest. Niki woke up and joined me with her book. I dozed in and out as I swayed in the hammock.

After lunch, and a nice rest, Nicki and Erin came back, warm and tired. They said they hiked another good hour after I had turned back and that the view was great, but a little cloudy in one direction. My mind was relieved to know I did the right thing :)

A little while later, we set out to find this special tree Ro had told us about. It was only about a twenty minute hike he said, and this tree was awesome because you could climb the inside of it. Basically what it is, is a series of vines that wrap a tree in a web like fashion and slowly over take the tree inside. Over time, the vines grow thick and mesh together, the tree inside dies and rots away, and we are left with an amazingly strong cast of the tree that you can climb the inside of. Ro did warn us, however, to not bring any valuables because as people have climbed the tree in the past, their things sitting at the bottom of the tree have been stolen. So we just grabbed water bottles and I figured the other girls could share pics because they still wanted to bring their cameras.

Before our hike to the tree, we needed to walk to the bus station to buy our tickets out for the morning to our next destination. The same bus that brought us to Santa Elena, would take us back an hour, where we would board another bus and so on. Unfortunately, even though we'd only be on it for an hour, we still had to pay the full four hour fee of five something to get our ticket. The five of us, got our tickets and then headed out for this famous tree. Up a gravel hill and back down the other side, we stopped and asked some locals where "the famous tree" was. They chuckled and a nice man walked us in the right direction. Up more hills, my legs were burning after the morning hikes impact on them, we finally come to a little trail off the dirt road. It doesn't look like much really, just a little footpath little kids would make leading to their tree fort. We walk about twenty yards into the woods to find a tree similar to what Ro had described, just not as cool. We all kept commenting on how lucky we were that we didn't have to pay money for it. Ro's photos on his cell phone were a little misleading apparently. Nicki and Jil attempted to climb it, outside only because the tree inside wasn't fully eroded, we snapped some pics and headed back to the hostel. Stepping back out to the dirt road, a man walks by and rattles off in Spanish proudly, "Did you see the tree?" We laughed as he walked away because honestly, it was nothing super special.

About thirty yards down the road, all while laughing about "the tree", we pass another little foot path into the woods and no one says anything. I look into the woods and see another kind of vine looking tree again. "You guys, what about that tree right there?", I say, pointing into the woods. "That's it! That's the tree!", we say as we backtrack excitedly. Now THIS was what Ro was talking about. This tree was much more webby and cast like, and completely hollow this time. Nicki Post enthusiastically, climbs the tree with much more ease this time. Her body ascends as we get little glimpses of her through windows made by this vine. Before we know it, she is a decent way up, as we snap pics of her and the tree. Everyone takes turns climbing and snapping pics. I climbed just enough to see up inside and then jumped down because I'm totally afraid of heights. Plus, I'd much rather climb barefoot. Nicki Post was a complete monkey, totally fearless, and was able to get the best view out of all of us.

Walking back to the hostel, they kept telling me good eye. I joked that it had something to do with my Pocahontas braids and that I had the ability to plug into nature like the movie Avatar. Haha.

When we got back, Niki, Jil and I went to this little Taco Taco place to try some of their awesome smelling food before dinner. Niki and I split veggie tacos to hold us off for dinner. Although they were a little expensive, (7 bucks for three tacos and chips with salsa), it was amazing. A slice of fried avocado atop a bed of spicy slaw, blackened corn salsa and some type of pepper and onions, all wrapped in a homemade tortilla, was just what the doctor ordered and was just enough for the two of us. Jil enjoyed the same thing, plus a cold Pepsi out of a glass bottle.

The rest of the afternoon and evening were pretty chill. We took turns showering, paying for our last night at the hostel and relaxing. We made stir fry veggies and noodles and wraps for dinner and then played some little word and charade games. By about nine thirty, we were starting to call it a night. Jil and Erin had went over to a local bar a block away to listen to live music and dance while Nicki continued to read her really good book she was in the middle of. I fell asleep playing my Spanish studying game on my phone, while Niki watched some episodes of Modern Family on her iPod. Even in Central America, we can still rely on our technology a bit! :)

Pic:
1) View from our hike