Finally got around to editing this. This is filmed with low-resolution point-and-shoot cameras, handled with wobbly camera work, and edited with no prior film-editing experience.
Backpacking through unfamiliar environments and not showering for a week during spring break had become a tradition by my senior of college. While walking to Columbia’s business school library one night in February 2010, I received a call from Seth who asked, “We’re booking tickets to Costa Rica right now. You in or out?” Although a group of us had talked briefly about hiking through Costa Rican rain forests, I’d fallen out of the loop and hardly knew the details or costs. “I’m in,” I said.
Spring break was only a month away and our group of nine had yet to book plane tickets. To ensure we’d be on the same flight and to bypass the headache of coordinating purchases, Anthony generously charged the $1,194 Expedia plane fare to his credit card. He then e-mailed us the ticket confirmation:
February 16, 2010
The e-mail ended with: “You guys owe me $276! Love Anthony.”
Botflies, Mosquitos, and Sharks. Oh, My!
Anthony created a Google Sites page and even reminded us to get vaccinated by Columbia’s Health Services department, in particular a woman named Yvette. Unfortunately, I ignored this precaution and never had the pleasure of getting stuck by Yvette. I’m sure she’s a sweet lady. Fortunately, even though I ignored my fellow hikers’ warnings of wading in fresh rainforest water and did so nearly every chance I got to cool down from hiking in near 90-degree weather, I haven’t noticed symptoms from parasites ranging from the incurable and life-threatening Chagas disease to the just plain gross Botfly. But stay tuned.
Some of us began brainstorming mosquito management. Anthony recommended DEET insect repellent. He proffered this quotation from a New York Times article:
In one particularly vivid field trial against mosquitoes in Alaska, published in 1988, volunteers in permethrin-treated uniforms who also used a repellent containing 35 percent DEET on their exposed skin were bitten an average of once per hour over eight hours; volunteers in untreated uniforms who did not use DEET averaged 1,188 bites per hour.
I psyched myself up by fantasizing that immediately after arriving in San José, I’d be fighting off bull sharks on a daily basis.
Anthony, ever the compulsive worst-case scenario planner, carried a satellite phone for emergency calls. Our parents could call this phone in case they worried that Sandinistas or Colombian drugrunners kidnapped us at the dodgy San José Coca-Cola bus terminal.
Equipment and Supplies
I packed too much food and reluctantly decided to throw away a seven-pound Ziplock bag of gorp at the Corcovado ranger station even though travelers were supposed to abide by one of the most hallowed laws of hikerdom, leave no trace. I violated that law big time. I tried to rationalize my guilt away. Perhaps leave the saying really implies “leave no trace of wildlife” and an ancient scribe got lazy and left out the last two words. Maybe Smokey the Bear had an evil twin who would wag a furry bear finger at you and say, “Only you can prevent forests.”
More from Anthony:
1. Cash: Please bring enough USD with you. Below is the breakdown for on-ground costs (i.e. stuff I didn’t pay for in advance for you).
Bus from Puerto Jimenez to La Palma ~$10-20
Misc activities in Puerto Jimenez ~$30-40
Bus from Carate to Puerto Jimenez ~$10-20
Lodging at Puerto Jimenez ~$63 in total per person for 3 nights (around $20 per night)
Lodging at San José (at Marriott located in a former hacienda) ~$103 in total per person for 2 nights (around $50 per night)
Misc food costs ~$100
TOTAL: comes out to around $320-$360.
$38 transport from San José to Puerto Jimenez
$26 Costa Rica Govt Departure Tax What bullshit right! a fuckin departure tax. While at San José airport, there was a sign breaking down this $26 and explaining where each dollar went. At the bottom of the list was some dude, the airport director or something. Probably some crony appointed by his friend whom he supported and then won the elections.
I was smarting from the pain of having spent close to one grand at the end of this trip.
Permetrhin sprayed on tents and clothes. Show picture of Seth with gas mask.