Costa Rica - Day Seven

The funny thing about the mornings where we departed from a hotel was that we generally had to get our bags outside our door quite early - at least an hour or more before departure time. That meant that we had to finish getting ready and putting away everything - toiletries, pajamas, etc - far earlier than on other mornings, which tended to lead to fairly leisurely mornings after the initial rush. That last morning in the Arenal area, we had a leisurely breakfast (yummy syrup) and then I wandered around with my camera snapping pictures of the property. Less animals here than Laguna Lodge, but more of a scenic property with the terraced levels and cute bungalows, and cloud-shrouded non-volcano in the background.

Onto the bus and rolling down the gravel road from our hotel, when we came to a stop for an extended period of time right before the washout in the middle of the road (where a pond on one side overflowed into a waterfall right off the road into a creek). Eventually, both Marcos and Sergio got out of the bus and started poking around under one of the front tires as we peered out the window at them. Turns out one of the airbags that helps the suspension of the bus was refusing to inflate or deflate, or something, and Marcos was afraid the bus wouldn't make it over the washout. They asked everyone to move to the back of the bus to help put more weight on the back tires and take weight off the front tires. We did so, Marcos started things back up, and got us over the washout with no problem, to the cheers of everyone. We didn't suffer any further mishaps for the rest of the trip, so I guess either the air bag stopped being a problem, or it only was going to be a problem for big ditches.

As we drove out of Fortuna into the countryside, we were stunned and amazed by the extent of flooding there was everywhere. The first signs were rushing brown rivers, engorged by the rainfall of the last several days, but then we started seeing lots of standing water in fields and yards and around people's houses. Finally, we came around one corner to discover one entire field submerged in water, with a number of people standing on the road looking forlornly into the field. On the other side of the street, the ditches were full of water, and cows and horses stood on dry patches amidst marshy land. Sergio remarked that they were used to getting a few hours of a rain but that it'd rained steadily for something like 12 hours already, and the ground couldn't take it - it was oversaturated. All the flooding meant people's farmland was submerged and ruined. Who knows how many crops and how much of a setback that rain was to the people living and farming in the area? It was kind of sad.

As we continued driving, we passed through several smaller villages and some of the larger towns and cities. In every town, there was a church, a school building, and a soccer field, it seemed. In one field, we saw the biggest cattle I've seen anywhere - a big white monster with a huge hump, that dwarved all the other cattle in the field with it. Eventually, we drove into the Monteverde region, through the Children's Eternal Rainforest, which apparently was paid for by money from schoolchildren all around the globe to keep a portion of the rainforest preserved. This was rather like driving through the Braulio Cabrillo National Park early in the trip - everything was shrouded in dense fog, with a ton of moisture in the air. In fact, we even saw a number of waterfalls in one region of the preserve - waterfalls like the ones we were unable to see while driving through the Braulio Cabrillo park. I think all the increased rainfall helped increase the waterflow through the waterfalls. What was really striking was that one of the falls was bright white, but then another waterfall on the same cliffside was completely brown. Says a little about how much runoff there was from the rain, I think.

Eventually we drove out in a more open, hilly area, where the hills were covered with plantations and various cultivated plants, and the scenery was quite striking. Our only stop for the day was in this region, at a cloudforest reserve for a hike into the cloudforest. Cloudforests differ from rainforests in that they largely consist of regions of high humidity, but less rain. There was also something about how the winds converged in the region, but I don't remember the explanation for that. We were split into two groups, and each group was handed a bunch of bamboo walking sticks, and assigned a guide. I don't remember our guide's name, but he was quite informative and interesting. He showed us a pretty pink flower growing by the side of the path, the impatiens, and talked about how he'd heard it was a popular flower in the US, but in Costa Rica, it was a weed. Grew everywhere, and you couldn't stop it from spreading. He told us how the impatiens was like a natural repellent - and possibly also good for stopping itches from bug bites, we weren't entirely clear. Possibly good at both - repelling insects and helping heal the itches when you *were* bitten. In fact, for both the rainforest and the cloudforest hikes, our guides told us about the medicinal value of various plants, most of which involved boiling the particular plant and making a tea or something out of it, and then drinking it each day to help cure various ailments. Just like the various edibles of the rainforest, however, I've completely forgotten what the plants were or what they were for, so I'd just go on being sick.

Some of the highlights of the cloudforest hike were the feeding gallery where they'd set up a few feeders to attract the various birds, particularly various Tanagers, as well as a hummingbird feeder that attracted at least four or five varieties of hummingbirds in the time we stared at it (we passed it both coming and going). Our guide also told us about epiphytes, and how they weren't parasites, but then showed us a true parasite of the forest - the ficus tree which wraps around another tree, eventually strangling it to death until what remains is the ficus wrapped around a dead tree. He showed us one example where the ficus had completely killed the tree inside so that the middle was hollow and we could walk right through. Later in the hike, I spotted another one and asked him about it. In that case, it turned out, the host tree had not yet been killed but you could see places where the ficus roots or limbs had wrapped around the trunk of the host tree and penetrated inwards, thus beginning the strangulation process. Not only that, but there were actually two different ficus contending for that tree. Poor thing never had a chance. Our guide pointed out the red bananas which he said weren't really edible (which is odd b/c I see them sold at our grocery store, but maybe it's a different variety), another huge leaf-cutter nest (he told us some more about the leaf-cutter society and what they do with the leaves), and pointed out interesting facts about the various types of plants you find in the cloud forest. At one point, someone noticed a big black millipede on the path. When he saw us all crowded around trying to take photos, he went and just picked it right up so we could see it better. Apparently that kind of millipede isn't poisonous or anything, but will sometimes curl up into a tight little ball if frightened. I guess crawling around a guy's hand didn't frighten it at all since he even tried poking it a little to make it curl up, and it'd just unwind and keep crawling all over, until he finally put it back down. We eventually found our way back to the hummingbird feeder, where we stopped and watched for a while longer. I always thought that hummingbirds *had* to keep their wings flapping quickly to keep their hearts beating or their metabolism going or something to that effect, but that can't possibly be true since I saw several hummingbirds fly and just perch on a branch. And in a couple cases, apparently the hummingbirds at the feeder would get tired of beating their wings to hover in place, and just come to rest on the feeder, gripping with their feet while they greedily drank. Lazy birds =). It was pretty cool, though, since this second time by the feeder produced even more varieties of hummingbird for us to look at.

Eventually, though, our guide herded us back to our bus since we were only supposed to be at the cloudforest reserve for like a 45 minute hike, and then we had to be on our way. We climbed back out of the cloudforest area and picked up the tour members who'd opted not to go on the hike (I guess maybe b/c it was once again pretty rainy and cold). We stopped at a cloud forest restaurant to get lunch - here was where I mistook cabbage salad/slaw for arroz con pollo, thus accidentally telling my bf not to bother with the white rice and ending up with no rice at all. My excuse is that the food was at a long cafeteria line type thing where you slid your tray down and asked them to add stuff to your plate, and so I was preplanning while craning my neck at the food from a distance, and trying not to take too much food. My bad. During lunch, there was a TV in the corner playing some really cheesy soap opera which had to do with angels and heaven and some girl who was dying, and some romance, and people in white outfits and fake wings, and lots of overdramatic acting. There was no sound (not that any of us understood Spanish), so we were having fun speculating on what was going on. We were among the last to get our food, and wondered where everyone else had disappeared to as we finished eating. Turns out there was a gift shop next door that was actually one of the best ones I'd seen all trip - large, with a huge selection of stuff - wood stuff, photo albums made of leaves and banana paper, banana/coffee paper pads, t-shirts, etc etc - and one of the cheapest as well. Since I'd already bought a lot of wood stuff, I had to refrain from looking too carefully at their selection, but I gave in and picked up a photo album to put some Costa Rica photos in, and at the very last minute as I went to checkout, found a wooden bracelet that I really liked for $4, so I had to pick that up as well. My bf got himself a Costa Rica t-shirt, and poor Sergio ended up standing by the cash register, trying to hurry us back to the bus, since everyone was taking so long. It must be a pain trying to get 44 people moving on schedule! Luckily, the rest of the tour group was in the store too, so it wasn't just us holding things up.

That was our last stop until we reached the Doubletree Resort in Puntarenas on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica (Arenal was somewhere in the middle). It was still quite a drive from the cloud forest restaurant to the Pacific Coast, so we didn't reach the Doubletree until late afternoon, after driving through several more towns and cities. Apparently the Doubletree/Hilton management had only taken over this hotel at the New Year, so they were still in transition, to a certain extent. Doubletree completely embraced Caravan - they had a special orientation set up for incoming Caravan groups in one of the conference rooms, where they gave us fresh-baked cookies and greeted us with information about their events, food, schedules, etc. We were given all-inclusive bracelets, which meant we could get unlimited food and drinks (including alcohol) at any of the bars and restaurants on the resort at any time. Of all the hotels we stayed at, the Doubletree was definitely the most resort-like - several pools, bars, restaurants, dance lessons, pool volleyball, beach volleyball, tennis courts, shows at night, etc. We were assigned our rooms (my bf and I discovered that the signage was very lame when we followed the signs and ended up walking down all four sides of a square to find our room halfway down the fourth side, instead of walking the short half-hallway from the front desk to our room), and went to settle in. We ended up having to wheel my parents' suitcases over to their room because they had sent all the suitcases with my last name to my room. Only such mixup all trip. The rooms were a bit disappointing - they had the Hilton/Doubletree bedding and amenities like nice thick towels and such, but they smelled musty and dank, and they were kind of dim and not particularly attractive. This seems to have been leftover from the previous hotel. While my bf and I had a room with a view of one of the pools, my parents' room had a view (almost) of the ocean - it actually was a view of the small hill between the ocean and the room, but if you walked out from their room, you were a short walk from a gorgeous view. We ended up staking out some lounge chairs facing the ocean along the top of the small hill. My bf went with the guy we were hanging out with to get some drinks, and brought me back a delicious virgin pina colada (I'm not a drinker, so that biases me, but I swear pina coladas are way better if you leave out the rum). I love getting that kind of drink in tropical areas because they use real coconut cream and it is so yummy. We all hung out, watching the sunset, which was really spectacular since the sky was quite cloudy, creating gorgeous patterns and colors.

After the sunset, the four of us young people went off in search of activities for the next day. On the schedule was a trip to the Manuel Antonio Park, which was supposed to have some gorgeous beaches and interesting wildlife, but it was a four hour roundtrip busride to get there, starting off at like 6:30AM or earlier. After spending all day on the bus, no one was looking forward to a four hour roundtrip bus ride, especially since we were only spending like an hour and a half at Manuel Antonio. I had originally wanted to go to the park, but it started to sound less appealing when people put it that way. Talking to the hotel people, we found an interesting looking ziplining company that involved horseback riding to the ziplines, ziplining over waterfalls and canyons, then rappeling down a waterfall, and swimming in the waterfall pool, which sounded fantastic. Unfortunately, they would only send transportation for a minimum of six people (plus it was $99 for the whole package, including transportation and lunch, per person). We spent quite a lot of time trying to find other people who would go with us, wandering around to see if we could find other tour group members, hanging out in central locations and approaching anyone who looked familiar, etc. We actually talked to several members of the tour for the first time that way. In fact, we got to chatting and meeting more of the tour members at the Doubletree than we had for the six days preceding. It was that kind of relaxing place. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find any takers - most people just wanted to relax at the resort. We eventually had to give up that idea (and also decided against a different "adventure park" whose highlight feature was a "Superman" zipline - a single line, 3000ft (I think) long, where you rode facing down in a "superman" position instead of facing up, like a typical zip line. That would have been neat, but we decided it wasn't worth the price). We went by the bar that was between the two sections of the buffet restaurant, started chatting with another few people from our tour, and checked out the interesting list of cocktails. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't drink, and am often quite proud of proclaiming that I never have had a drink, just a sip. Can't claim that anymore, though I didn't start that night. That night, I had a sip of my sister's "Coco Amore" (I think it was called) - amaretto, vodka, coconut cream, and evaporated milk, and it was yummy, despite that afterburn of alcohol I don't like. I do love the amaretto flavor - and the coconut cream.

Dinner at the Doubletree was disappointing. They were having an "Italian night" and the food was uninspired. Lots of it, yes. Chefs there to cook up your pasta concoction (you chose what you wanted to put on it, handed it to them, and they basically mixed it up and heated it on the stove, added sauce, and handed it back to you), a meat carving station, salad bar, etc, big dessert bar... but the food was pretty bleah. Actually, our assessment of the food at the various hotels was that Laguna had the best drinks (yummy different juices every day) and Lomas del Volcan had the best food (not that many choices but tasty, filling ones), while Doubletree had the worst food, and Barcelo was somewhere in between. The restaurant area was interesting though - it was this big high roof that didn't appear to have any supports in the middle, just crossbeaming up in the roof, and it was open on the sides to the pool. It was a cute area to eat, even if the food wasn't much good. Somewhere along the line here, we decided to go to Manuel Antonio after all since we'd seemed to exhaust a lot of the possibilities of the Doubletree already, and we didn't really want to just sit around all day. That meant we needed to get an early start, despite having had dinner around like 8pm. We didn't go to bed early though - we stayed up to check out the "cultural show" around 9:15PM, out of curiousity. This ended up being pretty boring. We'd been warned that Costa Rica wasn't long on culture (more on nature), but we thought it could be interesting, but the first three acts were just girls of various ages performing dances that seemed to largely consist of swishing their skirts. This could have been interesting except it felt a lot like an amateur talent show - varying degrees of talent, girls watching each other to see what to do next, etc. Then a moderately talented singer came on and warbled for a while. My bf had bailed by then, but we stuck it out until we discovered the next act was the skirt-swishing girls again, at which point we all left. It wasn't just us young people either - our friend's parents had left earlier, and my parents left shortly after us. We all decided to hit the sack, since we had to be up super-early for Manuel Antonio the next day.