Today was the most beautiful day yet here in Costa Rica, very adventurous, and very rainy. We started the day early and had some delicious breakfast up on the balcony of our hotel overlooking the volcano (it was not raining yet!). In a little kitchen downstairs the hotel had prepared fresh watermelon, pineapple, and papaya as well as rice and black beans with eggs, and some good coffee. After a couple of helpings each, we headed out to our Suzuki Jimmy to hit the road toward the volcano.
It was a beautiful ride around the base of the volcano to the other, more active, side. Also slightly terrifying because of the lawlessness of the streets of Latin America, but Jason handled the driving very well. Along the way we saw some sort of aardvark/badger/racoon animal on the side of the road who was quite large and lumbering. We have yet to figure out what it was. When we arrived at the Volcano National Park, we encountered a sour young man who was also a bit badgering and who wanted to be our tour guide, but we decided to go it alone. We hiked first through some drier landscape with what were probably 16 ft tall grasses and some sparse trees, then got into some denser rain forrest. As it started to rain, the canopy above us kept us rather dry! We ended the hike on a huge pile of lava rocks that were left over from the volcano's 1992 eruption. There was a beautiful view from the lava flow of the adjacent crater lake, Laguna Arenal, and some occasional views of the volcano when the clouds cleared. There was a sign forbidding us from going further, and I had to remind Jason that the high risk threshold in Latin America probably meant that the risk was real - we headed back to the Jimmy. After spending some time at a lookout point, we headed back and dropped off the rental car. I was so freaking happy to get rid of that danger-magnet!!
By then it was really starting to rain. We went to a little shop and rented some bikes to ride the the "nearby" waterfall. We told both the bike rental man and another man at the Jeep-Boat-Jeep shop (see tomorrow's entry!) we were planning to ride there, and both were rather non-chalant about the whole affair. What they did not say was that the ride was a 4 km, steep trek up a muddy dirt road in the pouring rain. The ride was wild! Every Costa Rican we passed could not help but laugh at us, riding away in our soaking wet jeans with our backpacks. When we finally arrived at the top and tied up our bikes next to some horses waiting for the return of their riders, we quickly saw that the ride had been worth it. Through the jungle and across the canyon was the most beautiful 70 meter waterfall cutting through the trees into the forrest below. We then climbed down a steep, steep staircase built into the side of the valley to the jungle floor and the bottom of the waterfall. The water was green-blue surrounded by walls of green stretching up hundreds of feet. Standing on rocks right near the water's edge, Jason proposed to me, and I said yes (of course!). Now we are officially conprometidos - promised to each other. We celebrated by taking a treacherous ride back into town, getting into some dry clothes, and going to a Mexican restaurant. The restaurant had no walls and was completely open the the air, which felt great, and also had the Phillies game on - an additional treat! We shared a bottle of wine and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves taunting the Yankee fan staff.
More adventures to come. Buenas noches!
Our apologies for the odd formatting. We are at an internet cafe with a decade old computer that is mostly in spanish. Alt 64 is @!
ReplyDeleteWe will change this soon. Even typing this comment is so frustrating! @▼♣♠♦
Just read the first four days all at once. I'm jealous of your adventures! Congratulations on being conprometidos!
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