The Rest of Costa Rica

Hey all,



So I finished up my time in Costa Rica, on Friday morning with a stop at the excellent coffee shop in the town of Tamarindo, called Cafe Cafe, then hit the road heading for a volcano. It was a bit of driving through mountains, but pretty good roads. I stopped for lunch at a German Bakery. They were real good at advertising their business, they had signs posted along the road for at least 30 KM. I had the sauwerbraten, which was mighty tasty, it was a restaurant, bakery, gift shop and internet cafe all rolled into one.

About 2:30 in the afternoon I got to Volcan Arenal, a huge volanco that was largely obscurred by clouds. At the gate to the national park, the ranger told me that it was about 90 minutes round trip, so I figured that it would be about 50 minutes hike up and 40 back down. I parked in the lot and started hiking. It was amazing, there was this jungle grass that was 7-8 feet tall; the whole area smelled alive, I think the literary term would be verdant. I made real good time and at about 30 minutes I arrived at a large area of volcanic rock. Since I had gotten there so quick, I figured that the continuing path lead top more of a view, so I kept going. About 5 minutes later it started pouring rain, after trying to stay dry under a tree, I was soaked and I just kept walking. Turns out that the path went to this lodge that was half-way around the volcano. I turned around and hiked back to the car soaking wet.

That night I stayed in a really nice hotel, they were all seperate little wooden huts, but they had really nice wood floors, two huge king size beds, a huge bathroom and a nice little sun porch that looked out on the volcano. Included in the cost of the hotel was admission to this hot spring that the guidebook compared to roman baths. It was about 15-20 different pools that were hot springs water. All different temperatures, some with swim up bars, but most were too hot to stay in for a long period of time.

The next day I headed out, aiming for a coffee plantation that was half-way up another mountain. I headed out navigating the only way there was, by going town to town. It was like traveling in rural England and Ireland, even if the roads had been marked, it would have been no use trying to figure out north vs. south or east and west. I ended up getting myself thoroughly lost in the mountains and just had to follow my way to the big town along the only major highway in the country. I found my way south, then back north into the mountain. By the time I got to the coffee plantation, it had been pouring rain for a half hour and they were closed.

I pretty much made my way back to San Jose, the capital, where I spent the night in a Best Western, that was an okay hotel. The most notable things about it were the restaurant across the street that had some really excellent food, and the Denny's that was attached. The "Grand Slam" breakfast there was the equivalent of $9.00, an outrageous amount.

Evan