The end of Semana Santa

New Beige in front of Lake Arenal, Costa Rica

Cascadas La Fortuna

New Beige at the nice families house where we camped

Jon and Melanie

Cafe Cassava

Daniel making his hammocks

Hummingbird

 

Saturday, April 7 2012

Today we had a nice filling tipica desanyuno de pinto gallo (rice and beans) con huevos (eggs), plantanos fritos (fried plantains), y juego de naranja (orange juice), at our hotel in Liberia, Costa Rica.  The usual morning routine of unpacking the hotel room and repacking the car followed.  We then conducted our auto east and up into the volcanic mountains with Marcie driving under Joey’s watchful eye.

Our destination today was the Lago/Volcan Arenal region.  We intended to go to the famous and very expensive hot springs of Tabacon.  But when we drove by it looked like the road to Coventry’s Phish festival with cars parked precariously all along the side of the road, police writing tickets and groups of party goers walking with coolers.  So we decided not to battle the crowds and to drive on thru.  Luckily we talked to this guy who clued us in to a nearby waterfall that we could hike down to and swim in.  It turned out to be a pretty nice spot and not too crowded considering it’s the peak weekend Saturday of Semana Santa. 

After the cascades I ended up talking to this family who lived along the side of a country road at the base of the very active Volcano Arenal.  After some initial confusion as to what we wanted they agreed to let us camp in their yard for free.  The confusion included the man of the house pantomiming peeing and pooping to see if we needed bathrooms.  The whole family came over to talk to us (en espanol) and make us feel welcome.  They refused to take any money and Marcie and I ended up playing soccer with their 7 year old dauter. 

It doesn’t seem like we’ll be able to see the volcano erupt tonite because as with most nites there’s a cloud cover obscuring it’s peak.  Possible Manana.   Right now we’re sitting outside of our truck listening to the concierto de ranas (concert of frogs).

~Jon

* For those of you who are wondering about Joey.  Joey is the patron saint of this trip and he watches over us as we drive.  We suspect that he is related to Panjim Shard (Jimmy Sharp).  He is very greasy.  He has a mullet, a moustache and a gold chain. We picked him up in Jimmy’s garage before we left for the trip in January. 

**He is not to be confused with Jimmy’s Mom’s dog also named Joey.

Easter Sunday, April 8 2012

We awoke this morning to light rain beneath the Arenal Volcano on the family farm of our host Felix.  Felix was up early doing farm stuff with his son-in-law and we had a breakfast of egg and avocado on toast before packing up our stuff.  Our 7-year-old friend Melanie came over to help us pack up and I gave her some coins from the previous countries we had visited and even my lone American dollar that I still had in my wallet.  She was super excited.  We drove the truck about 100 ft. and stopped at the heady looking Café Cassava for coffee.  We met the proprietors Leina and Daniel and had some decent conversation with them while drinking their excellent coffee.  Daniel also hand makes hammocks and jewelry, which he sells on the floor beneath the restaurant.  They passed on some important information to us while we were discussing the surrounding greenery.  Volcano Arenal has not erupted for over a year and the experts say that it is apparently going into a dormant stage, so we wouldn’t have been able to see it last night even if the sky was clear. 

We drove on to the Tabacon Hot Springs River Spa which Jon and I have both been to but is one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been in the world and I really wanted to go again.  Yesterday it was very crowded because of Semana Santa but today everyone had to go back home so we thought it might be a little less crowded.  We also learned a very important secret from our hosts last night; locals go to the same hot spring river that supplies water to Tabacon for FREE!  It’s $60 to visit Tabacon for the day and $45 if you go after 6pm, which is what we were going to do.  However, since we became privy to local information we just parked New Beige on the side of the road, climbed down the hillside and waded up the hot river a little bit past the local crowds until we came to our own secluded hot spring pool.  Most excellent. 

After the hot springs we drove to the mountain town of El Castillo, 9km on a dirt road with a sign at the beginning that stated, “El Puente es Mal”  (The bridge is bad).  The bridge in question was a one lane bridge with grass growing on the surface of the boards.  We went for it anyway and somehow made it over.  We then visited the Butterfly Conservatory.  It was a little pricey at $14 each but it did have nice displays of butterflies, insects, flowers and frogs as well as a walking trail through a rainforest habitat and a gazebo with a volcano view.  We then stopped at the grocery store and got a room at the Ecozoo. 

Today is Easter and marks the halfway point of our no meat diet.  I generally make my Gram’s butterhorns and we have ham sandwiches with the leftover ham but alas no ham today.  We usually spend Easter with the Longs and the Knothes at Juan and Pegs house on Kiawah and I’m sad that we are missing that this year but we’ll be back next year-don’t worry.  Happy Ham-Sandwich Day everyone!!!