So read a small hand-painted sign that was hammered into the ground on the impossibly rocky drive into the rainforest. Truer words were never hammered. But I'll get to that. First to catch up on La Fortuna.
When I last wrote I pondered whether staying in a hostel made me feel young or old. After I caught up online, I retired to my room to journal and whatnot with the 2 other girls in my room getting ready for bed. With a crash, cacophany and smell that could only come from 5 20-something guys, invaded the quiet girly sanctuary we had created. So I did the only thing I could - I left the girly sanctuary and went out with the guys, 2 Aussies, 3 Canucks. All the moments were of the "You had to be there" variety, but I had so much fun and laughed more and harder since I can't remember when! Probably since the last time I went out with a herd of dudes until 3 in the morning.
The next day I did my first tour - horseback riding to the waterfalls of La Fortuna. It was so great!!
The riding was really fun, despite my rebellious, cantankerous horse - he just wanted to eat and HATED being directed. The falls were awe inspiring for 5 minutes.
Then 80 loud American tourists invaded and the beautiful falls became a Schlitterbahn field trip. (I know I am an American tourist too, but I'm quiet and the rest of my group was 2 people from Germany and Austria.) Our guide had wisely picked an out of the way spot further down the river, so after a bit of picture taking we rejoined our guide in the quieter area for a mini-picnic of mango I brought and shared with my tiny group. The hike to and from the falls was super strenuous and I loved it. The other 2 people in my group began to hate me, I think, because I was being somewhat of a cheerleader about the whole thing. They couldn't respond with anything but glares because they were breathing so hard.
After the hike, we got back on our horses and went to this representative indian reservation. I thought it was going to be cheesy, but it ended up being really interesting and informative. The Indian tribe were called Machaua I think. The rep gave me his card, but hell if I can find it in all of my junk. On the ride back, our guide let the horses go into a full on gallop! All I could do was giggle the whole way back. (The working title for this blog entry was going to be Thighmaster - I was SO SORE from holding on for dear life, plus my butt killed from the bruising gallop!)
I spent the rest of the day recovering in a hammock at the pool. The music was still horrific, thank god for my iPod.
The next day, I took a jeep-boat-jeep to Santa Elena (its not as adventurous as it sounds. The "jeeps" were tourist mini-vans. Ah, marketing.) I finally got a pretty picture of Volcan Arenal - no fireworks from it, by the way - from the boat.
The views of the mountains from the actual mountain were drove in on were glorious! Green! Pretty! Lovely! Majestic! I keep trying to find adequate adjectives to describe all this stuff, but really its just so beautiful, it's impossible to do it justice.
We got to Santa Elena in the early afternoon and it was everything I had hoped. This is my absolute favorite place so far. The town is small and lovely (though when the "jeep" pulled up in front of my pension to drop me off, other hotel agents descended like papparazzi on Paris. When I brushed one of them off explaining, Sorry, I already had a reservation, I got a "Whatever." If I hadn't been so flabbergasted, I would have whatevered her back, but whatever. Grr.). The pension I am staying at is owned by a brother/sister team from Austin, and the place drips bohemian Austin (In the front room, the lyrics from Rent's 'La Vie Boheme' are scribbled one the wall in chalk - yes, I found my Costa Rican home). Its a huge house, with rooms converted into dorms, and singles and doubles. They have a large community kitchen, where people have been making all kinds of amazing looking gourmet food. I could barely get it together enough to make some oatmeal this morning, but you can bet I'll be at the grocery store later for fixin's. The staff is super laid-back, friendly, and informative. They know everything, and err on the side of giving back to the community so that when I asked about a twilight tour through the forest, they gave me all my options, but recommended one in the Children's Eternal Rainforest because its non-profit.
The twilight tour was outstanding, and our guide was incredible. The tour starts at sundown and you hike for 2 hours in the dark with flashlights as he points out all the animals, insects, and plants we see. Last night we saw a sloth (moving around in the trees! I have to say it looked like a very hairy 5-year old with claws), 2 scorpions, countless roaches (not too scary, not in my house), a tarantula, an oligo (I think - in the raccoon family, but it looks like a cross between a monkey and a lemur), and 3 birds: two-tailed mannequin, blue-crested mot-mot, and an orange bellied something related to the quetzal (my dad will know.)
One of the guys in the pension gave me his extra free ticket to La Ranararium, so I'm off to chill with frogs. Love it here!
PS. Here is my familia!
When I last wrote I pondered whether staying in a hostel made me feel young or old. After I caught up online, I retired to my room to journal and whatnot with the 2 other girls in my room getting ready for bed. With a crash, cacophany and smell that could only come from 5 20-something guys, invaded the quiet girly sanctuary we had created. So I did the only thing I could - I left the girly sanctuary and went out with the guys, 2 Aussies, 3 Canucks. All the moments were of the "You had to be there" variety, but I had so much fun and laughed more and harder since I can't remember when! Probably since the last time I went out with a herd of dudes until 3 in the morning.
The next day I did my first tour - horseback riding to the waterfalls of La Fortuna. It was so great!!
The riding was really fun, despite my rebellious, cantankerous horse - he just wanted to eat and HATED being directed. The falls were awe inspiring for 5 minutes. 
Then 80 loud American tourists invaded and the beautiful falls became a Schlitterbahn field trip. (I know I am an American tourist too, but I'm quiet and the rest of my group was 2 people from Germany and Austria.) Our guide had wisely picked an out of the way spot further down the river, so after a bit of picture taking we rejoined our guide in the quieter area for a mini-picnic of mango I brought and shared with my tiny group. The hike to and from the falls was super strenuous and I loved it. The other 2 people in my group began to hate me, I think, because I was being somewhat of a cheerleader about the whole thing. They couldn't respond with anything but glares because they were breathing so hard.After the hike, we got back on our horses and went to this representative indian reservation. I thought it was going to be cheesy, but it ended up being really interesting and informative. The Indian tribe were called Machaua I think. The rep gave me his card, but hell if I can find it in all of my junk. On the ride back, our guide let the horses go into a full on gallop! All I could do was giggle the whole way back. (The working title for this blog entry was going to be Thighmaster - I was SO SORE from holding on for dear life, plus my butt killed from the bruising gallop!)
I spent the rest of the day recovering in a hammock at the pool. The music was still horrific, thank god for my iPod.
The next day, I took a jeep-boat-jeep to Santa Elena (its not as adventurous as it sounds. The "jeeps" were tourist mini-vans. Ah, marketing.) I finally got a pretty picture of Volcan Arenal - no fireworks from it, by the way - from the boat.
The views of the mountains from the actual mountain were drove in on were glorious! Green! Pretty! Lovely! Majestic! I keep trying to find adequate adjectives to describe all this stuff, but really its just so beautiful, it's impossible to do it justice.
We got to Santa Elena in the early afternoon and it was everything I had hoped. This is my absolute favorite place so far. The town is small and lovely (though when the "jeep" pulled up in front of my pension to drop me off, other hotel agents descended like papparazzi on Paris. When I brushed one of them off explaining, Sorry, I already had a reservation, I got a "Whatever." If I hadn't been so flabbergasted, I would have whatevered her back, but whatever. Grr.). The pension I am staying at is owned by a brother/sister team from Austin, and the place drips bohemian Austin (In the front room, the lyrics from Rent's 'La Vie Boheme' are scribbled one the wall in chalk - yes, I found my Costa Rican home). Its a huge house, with rooms converted into dorms, and singles and doubles. They have a large community kitchen, where people have been making all kinds of amazing looking gourmet food. I could barely get it together enough to make some oatmeal this morning, but you can bet I'll be at the grocery store later for fixin's. The staff is super laid-back, friendly, and informative. They know everything, and err on the side of giving back to the community so that when I asked about a twilight tour through the forest, they gave me all my options, but recommended one in the Children's Eternal Rainforest because its non-profit.
The twilight tour was outstanding, and our guide was incredible. The tour starts at sundown and you hike for 2 hours in the dark with flashlights as he points out all the animals, insects, and plants we see. Last night we saw a sloth (moving around in the trees! I have to say it looked like a very hairy 5-year old with claws), 2 scorpions, countless roaches (not too scary, not in my house), a tarantula, an oligo (I think - in the raccoon family, but it looks like a cross between a monkey and a lemur), and 3 birds: two-tailed mannequin, blue-crested mot-mot, and an orange bellied something related to the quetzal (my dad will know.)One of the guys in the pension gave me his extra free ticket to La Ranararium, so I'm off to chill with frogs. Love it here!
PS. Here is my familia!
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