Today was so nice. Well, I went to bed late as usual last night and that wasn’t very nice, but oh well. Typical. I got out of bed at 8 am and starting washing up. 5 minutes into in my phone rang. “Good morning and we are here early!” Oh man, I told them it would be about 10 minutes and made record time with getting dressed. Good thing I did all my showering and prepping for stuff to bring the night before! The drive out and seeing the countryside was very nice. We stopped at an artisan’s shop that makes oxcarts (Guinness book of world record-holder actually) and looked around the shop. They had excellent wooden products. I bought a bracelet and a set of wooden coasters, all very pretty. Hopped back on the bus and I napped until we stopped for an excellent lunch, I got the “casado” which consisted of rice, black beans, plantains, salad, beets and chicken. I got to know some of the other people on the tour. There was a little boy with an Indian father and a Bulgarian mother. He was the cutest little thing, so happy go lucky, never heard him cry. He must have been 2.5-3 years old. Grandma had purple hair. I met two couples; one of which currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin. But, they spent 12 years in an ashram in India! Unbelievable. The other couple “live” between Florida and Australia but travel just about constantly. They spent years in Jakarta, Indonesia where their kids we to the international school there. He is from NY, she is from Australia. They met traveling and just kept it up. She was telling me that after their Costa Rica trip they were “talked into” going on a cruise (where they would be going back to Central America!) and then to NY for a wedding. Constant travel, but they seem to love it. They both seemed young; have kids that are 26 and 28, but are both retired. She was a nurse, he was a financial accountant for Kaiser. I don’t know, I feel like there has to be something else going on for them to have enough money to support all that travel.
After lunch, it was hiking time. We hiked a short hour around the base of the volcano Arenal. Very pretty, but I thought I was going to be able to see some active volcano action, which I did not. I got stung by something and momentarily freaked a little, but it was fine. I saw some beautiful flowers, leaf-cutter ants and some very, very large leaves.
From there we went to the hot spring resorts, and that was lovely. There was pool after pool of waterfalls and warm thermal water. I get lost roaming the pathways of the grounds and finding all the hidden waterfalls and entrances where there was no one around. It was pretty amazing and beautiful. I went in and then chatted with my new couple friends until it was time for dinner. Dinner was a Costa Rican buffet and it was excellent. First course was salads, seconds was rice and meat and such. I was laughed at when my desert plate consisted of a second spoonful of rice and 2 small desserts. Wow you eat a lot! Yeah, that’s pretty much my trademark :)
On the way back, Manfred the guide gave me his card and told me to keep in touch. I’ll keep his card because I feel kinda bad, but it’ll probably end up in the trash. I have no reason to keep in touch. I passed out all the way to the hotel. It was a busy day, but a really nice one!
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