We flew out of SFO at midnight:thirty Friday morning. Five point five hours later we were in San Salvador, El Salvador. The flight on Avianca Airlines was great, with comfortable seats and good legroom on an airbus. Food and drinks were included. The San Salvador airport is small and easy to get around, we landed, got off the plane at gate eleven, and boarded again at gate ten in the same waiting area. We didn't even use one minute of our 45 minute layover time to find the connection.
The next flight to San Jose, Costa Rica took an hour.
On the other hand, we have a decent little car now.
It seemed to take forever to break free of the traffic in San Jose. Though we only had to drive 46 miles (74 KM) to La Fortuna, it took us three hours. The area around San Jose was choked, and in one spot we made 5 KM in one hour's time. This is a boom for the locals, however, who walk between the cars selling plastic bags of fresh orange juice, long net "strings" of cashews, bananas, mangos? and guavas? and assorted other fresh fruits. We had a lot of time to sit and breath diesel fumes and look at the shacks, junk-car-part lots, and jungle.
Thus far Costa Rica was a sort of head-scratcher, as in, "People live here, why exactly?"
Once we hit San Ramon and turned north on the 702, things changed for the better.
There is an impressive old cathdral in San Ramon. I wish I had stopped for a few photos of it, but after just sitting still for so long, it felt good to actually be going somewhere.
The road narrowed and wound up and down the green hillsides. We passed through villages, each with severe speed bumps and a little three or four room school that had the blue-white-red-white-blue horizontal-striped flag fluttering in the warm breeze. Every bridge was a one-lane affair above rushing streams, and as we got further north the trees grew thicker. Past the village of Los Angeles the rain started, off and on, and then it turned into a steady drizzle at La Fortuna.
The volcano itself is hidden in thick clouds, which rise to maybe a thousand feet, then descend with the rain and mist to just above the town. They have a bird feeder here, and drop slices of plantain onto it. It is a popular place for the birds.
There are many different colorful birds flitting around through the trees; bright greens and blues and reds. Some look like parakeets, some like little rainbow finches. Then there are these big brown grouse looking birds that huddle together in one tree top.
It sounds like my stereotypical, preconceived idea of what a rain forest would sound like, all hoots and hollers and squacks and caws, ooo-ahhh! ooo-ahhh! Tookie-tookie-tookie, chirps and screetches and whistles and chatter. Even a friendly rooster or three next door.
I spent a lit of time watching the little flashes of color flit through the trees, swooping rainbows streaking up to the feeder.
We walked out in the warm mist and drizzle to eat just down the street at Rana Roja, with "comida típica" (authentic Costa Rican cuisine).
Gail had a black bean soup, we split guacamole with chips, and I had fried pork chunks with pico and black beans. The chips were thick and sturdy, ad there was a special hot pepper and onion salsa that was great on the pork and guac. The margarita was fresh squeezed and not at all sweet, the local craft beer was fair, and the prices OK. Overall it was pretty good, but not great.
However, the best surprise of the afternoon was finding the Red Frog Coffee Roaster right next door to our guesthouse. The guy's name is A Roy, and does he know his beans. He goes to pick up the beans himself, just after they are picked, from Tarrazu and the Occident Valley. He has a small roaster and does each little batch himself, and the coffee is magnificent and complex in taste, like a good wine. Full flavored, not bitter at all, and most certainly not watery like the normal cup of Costa Rican brew.
We spent a quiet hour with him, drinking coffee and talking local life.
Perhaps this was our first dose of Pura Vida.
Back at the room it rained a real heavy, thunderous tropical rain. It didn't sound like thunder on the metal roof tops, it sounded like a continuous roar. We stayed inside, read, and drank wine we bought at the grocery store right next door, before turning in.
It was a warm night, and we slept well.
Up early, I walked around the corner to the bakery for a 5am cup of watery coffee. Right then I decided we would return to the Red Frog for breakfast and some good solid coffee.
This time I had a different coffee. Last night's was a blend of medium and dark roasted beans, this morning it was a dark breakfast roast of Tarrazu beans. Again it was smooth, not bitter, full flavored, with a long after taste.
Gail had one cup, which set her hand to trembling and made her feel a little high. I had two cups for good Pura Vida.
I usually drink coffee with cream, but this coffee is so smooth I am drinking it black.
I talked to A Roy and watched him as he roasted the less-than-a-week-old beans. The smell was intoxicating. I asked him if he could still smell the beans, since he was exposed to it every day. "Of course," he said, and went on to explain that he roasts by smell and sound. I tried to pay attention to the sound of the roaster and watched as he pulled samples, until he was satisfied with the batch.
For breakfast, A Roy made Gail a mixed fruit smoothie, created and blended fresh.
I had the "typical breakfast" of Gallo Pinto with meet, cheese and maduro, with an egg on the side. This turned out to be a delicious mix.
It was a very slow, mellow and warm morning. But, we had to get going because we had a 10:00 reservation to go relax at the Eco Termales Hot Springs. I read several articals about the various hot springs resorts (here is a good comparison) and chose Eco Termales for a few reasons. They are smaller, limiting guests to 100 total in any given time slot (only 12 other people there with us today) and they do not have water slides; thus fewer kids. So it is quiet. They have a range of water temperatures, free towels and lockers, and you can buy entrance to the springs without having to buy a meal there. Most of the hot springs require you to buy either lunch or dinner buffet, but we just don't eat that much to make the extra cost worthwhile. It cost us $36 for six hours of sitting under waterfalls, floating in hot pools and napping on water beds.
I was good for the day, but I don't think I could make a whole trip of doing that, day after day. Still, it was very relaxing, and different. Amazingly enough, my "fütball season" cough which dogs me every year (coaching in the rain) disappeared in that six hours of humid heat.
This whole experience was our second dose of Pura Vida.
We got back to town, and grabbed tamales and a beer. The sky was clear, and only Arenal was clouded in. A little walking around, coffee at the Red Frog (a medium roast this time) and it was dark by 18:00. Here the winter days are still over eleven hours long, while at home we have about nine hours of sunlight these days.
Suddenly the clouds lifted, just for a moment, and a donut circled the summit of Arenal. I snapped a photo, then the clouds moved back in.
Pura Vida.
Tomorrow we head further up the Volcán Arenal to hike, explore and stay at the old scientific observatory.