Pura Vida seems to be the catch phrase here in Costa Rica. Along with "Feliz Mama' or something like that. They are celebrating Mother's Day this week.
This trip has been amazing to say the least. Let's start with the house...
Wow! The house (and all the houses in the development) are built into the mountainside, right there along with nature. As I'm sitting on a lounge chair at the pool, that each of the houses have, I feel like I'm practically sitting in the rainforest itself. My view is in a word, magnifico! In the distance is one of the many coves that lets out into the Pacific. The water is several shades of blue and green. To my left, the jungle. To my right, the jungle. Mountains and volcanoes in the distance. Awesome.
The food has been incredible. With our package, we have a cook, one of the locals. Haiti is wonderful. We can't really communicate beyond buenos dias and mucho gracias, but she can cook up a storm! Each day she creates a new fruit juice concoction for us and I'm pretty sure we've been eating cut up mangos, papayas and guavas...just had to stop and look up at the massive hawk hovering over us...
We've had to become one with nature in this house. Many parts of it are open to the elements and there have been some pretty crunchy looking, large bugs in various places as well as there being geckos everywhere. Something woke us out of our sleep two nights ago. It was loud and weird sounding. It was about 3am and it sounded like there was a monkey in our midst. Lights on, no monkey. 3am, bleary-eyed we looked around the room for the culprit. Nothing. We were told the next day it was probably a gecko. They are some loud buggers!
So far haven't seen a monkey. Or a snake (thank god) or a shark (thank god). I'm starting to think the Discovery Channel shoots their documentaries in a zoo and just tells you it's places like Costa Rica or Kenya. We've been told we will definitely see monkeys tomorrow on our trip to Nicaragua...
Onto other adventuras...
Our first full day, we kayaked in the Pacific and rode horses on the dirt road and on the beach. Awesome. Didn't see any sea life from the kayaks, pretty sure sting rays only exist in aquariums. Actually we have seen some evidence of them out there with a little splash of the water with possibly a fin. Horses were cool until we rode through a swarm of mosquitoes, and into a thorn tree that I had to grab with my hand to keep it fromm hitting my face (had to dig a lovely splinter out later with a needle and tweezers).
Yesterday was the best day so far. We went to Rincon de la Vieja which is a national park with a volcano. We ziplined over canyons, repelled down into them, climbed back up the wall (I struggled about half way up, legs were jelly, they had to pull me the rest of the way...Muy embarrassing.) They seemed to help all the women while they let the men flounder. Vic was very impressive. After zip lining we did white water tubing that I'm fairly certain would never be allowed in the U.S. We went down the Rio Negro in tubes over, between and around boulders that churned up that water something fierce! We saw a few people wipe out but luckily Vic and I managed to stay in our tubes. This was not something for the faint of heart. There was a liittle boy, about 4 or 5, who was led by a guide in another tube. How he managed to get this boy down the river through the rapids I just don't know! All of the workers and guides were awesome. All the while during this part of the day we just kept thinking to ourselves as we looked at the jungle around us, wow. This ain't your ordinary canyon river rapids ride on some track at Six Flags! Next was horseback riding to a waterfall. Apparently horses like guavas. I could smell the sweetness as he chomped away. The waterfall was beautiful. It came down from a "cliff". I put cliff in quotation marks because by many standards, it's not really a cliff, but by my standards...it was a cliff. It was maybe about 10 feet up. The two young boys with us jumped before anyone could even tell them where to stand. Then Vic went and I walked with him. Then I became a chicken shit. There were rocks below. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to jump out far enough. Vic jumped and I stood up top. For a loooong time. The kids started chanting for me to jump. They came back up to guide me and show me where to stand. Vic tried to instill confidence. Legs were jelly, literally shaking. I was scared I wouldn't be able to push off to jump out far enough with jelly legs. Finally (probably ten minutes later), I did it. Water up the nose, but glad I did it. Would have regretted it if I hadn't. We ended the day with the hot springs that are naturally heated by the volcano. Seriously cool. A man covered me in mud and we soaked in the natural hot tub.
Great day...
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