Flashback Series: Journey From the Center of the Earth

In the time between leaving Rio and starting to volunteer in Costa Rica, I had three little mini trips to get from A to B. First, I flew back to Ecuador with Cecilia and we spent one last day together at the Equator, then I flew to Costa Rica and spent a few days on my own in Heredia, and last, I was spoiled with my family on vacation in Dominical. I went from friend travel to solo travel to family travel – quite the transitioning, but each experience just added to the variety of ways I was learning to enjoy exploring new places. 

QUITO

First, I had to say goodbye to my beloved travel companion Cecilia. After having one last airport sleepover (thank you cheap flights), we had a flight back to Quito, and got ourselves into the city center without a problem. We had booked an excellent hostel recommended to us by a girl in Rio, which was coincidentally right by the street where Kate’s iPhone had been stolen just a month earlier. But instead of revisiting our favorite places in Quito for our last day together, we had one final destination in mind: the center of the Earth.

High five for a trip well done, from both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. 

Well, at least we can say we've been there,
even if it's not real.

I guess it was technically only the center of the Earth’s surface, but it’s still kind of true. Ecuador, which means Equator in Spanish, is situated directly on top of the Equator, but because of the high altitude of the Andes Mountains the air isn't boiling hot like most equatorial climates. The trip was only 40 minutes north of Quito by bus (we paid about 45 cents total) to reach the monument. There is a large monument with direction markers each way at the “Mitad del Mundo” (Half the World) complex, which includes tons of tourist shops, cafes, and a little central square. But of course the most important reason to visit the monument was to get a picture with one foot in the Northern Hemisphere and one foot on the Southern Hemisphere.

Hopefully none of the tourists who have that picture on their mantle read this, because the irony is that the Mitad del Mundo monument was built before GPS and modern technology…and it’s not on the true Equator. It’s close, but not quite exact. Luckily we were clued into this fact long before we started our trip, so as soon as we arrived at the monument, we followed the directions and walked around the park. After about ten minutes, we found the sign we were looking for then turned up a small little dirt road to the exact GPS positioned Equator, with a small, pretty little outdoor museum surrounding it. 

The Equator Museum was really interesting, with an admission ticket that included a guide through the museum about the native Ecuadorians (before the Inca, then Spanish conquerors) and their way of life. After the tour the guides demonstrated a series of tricks (some dispute whether they’re real or not but I believed it) that can only be performed on the equator, due to the center of gravity. What sort of ‘tricks?’ I was able to balance a raw egg on the head of a nail, with one foot on either side of the Equator, when a tub of water is drained the water doesn’t swirl one way or the other, it just falls straight down on the Equator, and when you walk in a straight line on the Equator, heel to toe, with your arms straight out to the side, it’s extremely difficult to do when you close your eyes and throw off your center of balance. It was really neat to experience and a great way to end our last day together in South America. 

That evening Ceci and I had a nice dinner and talked about how much we would miss each other. It’s really lucky to find not only a good friend in life, but a good friend who you can travel with: a true test of friendship. We had met on a very random encounter in Vietnam last October, and then five months later there we were, traveling together for over a month. We had done everything we wanted to do and more, and had tons of fun doing it together.  Luckily, we knew we weren’t saying goodbye forever. She was returning to Denver the day after I left, and we're hoping to see each other there before I take off for Russia this fall. 

The next morning I woke up early, said goodbye to Ceci (I prefer to use the Band Aid technique when it comes to goodbyes – fast and painful for just a short time), and started my two hour journey to the airport via three different buses. I was on my own again, for the first time in weeks. I said goodbye to Quito, the “long, skinny city,” and hoped I would be back someday. But now I had a new country to look forward to, a place that I would be able to see a lot of and spend about six weeks in.

HEREDIA

Heredia in Costa Rica's Central Valley. 

I landed in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, later that afternoon, and waited for my hostel pickup. San Jose doesn’t have the best reputation as far as things to see or do, so based on advice from a few different people I chose to spend three days in Heredia, a very cute little town just north of San Jose. It was also close to the place my uncle was working, so I was hoping to meet up with him if he was free in the evening after work, until the rest of the family arrived to join us at the end of the week. 

My first impression of Costa Rica was that it had become completely Americanized. I had just spent time in some of South America’s major cities and in none of them did I see the amount of American fast food chains in one concentration that I did in Heredia. On one street I counted a McDonald’s, a Quiznos, Burger King, Papa Johns, Taco Bell – the list actually goes on, all within a block of each other. And there were even more within the town center. However, beyond fast food the rest of the town was pretty typical for Costa Rica, with small little shops for clothing, groceries, stationary, and local restaurants, all along the streets.

Central Heredia.

Heredia was a lovely little town and a great introduction to Costa Rica. It was a very gridlined, square patterned area, with low rolling volcanic hills surrounding the Central Valley (you can kind of see the hills beyond the town in the above picture.) The central park had a beautiful cathedral with benches and a children’s park. I was lucky enough to be in the plaza during a school band performance, which I watched as the sun was setting in the perfect, mild yet tropical temperature. It was fun to watch the parents with their children, the families, and the teachers with their students – I realized how much I missed teaching and being around kids. That night I was treated to a wonderful Japanese dinner by my uncle and some of his work friends. It was great to see him again and learn a little more about what his company does in Costa Rica, a place he travels to frequently for work.  

The next day I spoiled myself since I had permission to check into the DoubleTree hotel early - I gave myself the full treatment and ate my free chocolate chip cookie, laid out by the pool, had a swim, showered (hot shower - even bigger bonus), and had coffee in the lobby while waiting for my family to arrive. I even made friends with the coffee shop guy, who decided to educate me on the weather patterns of Costa Rica. I learned that the Central Valley (San Jose area) was one of the best places in the world for coffee cultivating, due to the rich soil and cool conditions. He also gave me a map and taught me about all of Costa Rica's volcanos. It was a very educational waiting time, which was good because I was so anxious to see my grandparents for the first time in almost three years. And then - there they were. My aunt, uncle, and cousins showed up shortly after, and we all settled ourselves in and did some catching up that afternoon and evening at a nice dinner close to the hotel. Us girls even had a chance to test out the hot tub that evening before getting ourselves ready for the next day. 

Cousins reunion - ready for a week of fun.

DOMINICAL

Our sunset view from the house

New home for the week!

The next morning we were up bright and early to pack up the SUV and head to the coast. We had a house rented in Dominical, a little beach town in the south, along the Pacific Coast. The house, though high up in the hills and at the end of a long, windy, and bumpy road (we decided we would only leave the house once a day to minimize the time spent driving on this crazy road), was stunning, with a beautiful view of the tropics and the Pacific Ocean below.  We all settled ourselves in and planned out our week a little bit, which worked out to about one activity a day. However, we made sure to include time to relax at the house, because how could you not enjoy your time with an infinity pool and a view like that?

We tested out three or four different beaches along the coast throughout the week, each about a 10-15 minute drive once we reached the main highway. All of them were great, but we found some favorites and had fun playing in the waves, taking pictures, and exploring the area at each one. To me, Costa Rica’s coast was a lot more rugged and untouched – not as pristine as some of the beaches I’d seen, but more natural and less built up. It was a nice change from the packed beaches in Rio, and nice that the beaches weren’t completely full of tourists. Some of our other activities included hiking in a nature reserve park, ziplining (special shout-out to both of my grandparents for zipling for the first time in their lives), swimming in a waterfall pool, and horseback riding (I didn’t partake, but the girls had fun.)

The ziplining champs!

With new friends Ricky and Mickey.

After starting our mornings with fresh tropical fruit and coffee, we were spoiled every day with fantastic lunches and dinners – I had really missed my grandmother’s cooking. We used the grill nearly every night and even had a nice dinner out at a restaurant on the sea. We were joined here and there by a couple who had vacationed with my aunt and uncle in Costa Rica a couple of times in the past. They were a wonderful addition to our little group, and joined us on a few of our activities. They even braved the drive up to the house to come visit us when their plans for the day fell through.  

Road to our house. 

When we weren't out adventuring, we took advantage of our time at the house by visiting the local horses who lived down the road, swimming in the pool, entertaining the neighbor's dogs who often came to visit us, encountering giant bugs and frogs, and just relaxing and admiring the view. On the day I stayed back with my grandparents I did nothing but suntan and read. In other words, it was the perfect vacation.

Lunch with the family.

But aside from all of the activities, the fantastic weather, and the wonderful food, my absolute favorite part of our time in Dominical was spending time with my family. My choice to spend so much time away from Minnesota meant that I had missed out on trips to the lake and family holidays, so the week we had together was so important to me. I was able to spend time with my grandparents, both still in excellent health (something I realized I had taken for granted until I learned that not everyone’s grandparents were like mine), I was able to catch up with my uncle and aunt, whose liveliness and enthusiasm kept us all energized, and I was able to have fun with my cousins and admire what lovely girls they were growing into. That was what I came to Dominical for, and everything else we did was a bonus - the most important part was that we were all together. 

Goodnight Pacific Ocean.

But of course, good things always have to come to an end, but at least we had made some great memories to hold onto. We all said goodbye at the end of our fabulous week together, and were already looking forward to the next time we'd see each other, hopefully this summer up at my grandparents' cabin. But before I could start thinking about the summer, I had a new adventure waiting for me about six hours from Dominical. Next up was my month of volunteering in Sarapiqui - it was finally time to put my Spanish to the test and embrace a new learning experience.