Update on Sunday - 3/19/06

From: Robert Thomas Baird
Sent: Mon 3/20/2006 12:54 PM
To: Robert Thomas Baird
Subject: from costa rica




It has been only 3 days in Costa Rica, but yesterday, Sunday, seemed like a week of living all packed into a day that covered a lot of ground. A few of us began with Mass in San Jose in a very old church, back to breakfast at the Grand hotel, a bus ride through San Jose and then a long walk through the grand park in San Jose, where 1000s of ticos play soccer on ground that might be rough for motorcross events. The park was beautiful with massive trees--the trees in Costa Rica apparently just keep growing for 100s of years, and have no qualms about reaching 100s of feet. The park was very busy as an arts festival was in session and we walked through 100s of stalls looking for deals on crafts and items. Many folks at home will be receiving some nice gifts upon our return--handmade silver jewelery, intricate wooden boxes, leather work, and on and on. We kept walking through a lake and on to the national soccer stadium, where our own U.S. team recently played in a World Cup qualification match. There we caught our bus, but not before we were able to visit with our guide William´s son, who plays soccer for a 2nd division professional team, who were playing in the practice field next to the national stadium.

We then continued on to lunch, after driving through the Costa Rican countryside, mountains, coffee, strawberry, flower plantations. Every small town had a soccer field and since it was Sunday, every town had a game going. For lunch we ate traditional Costa Rican, beans chicken or beef, rice, plantains, fresh strawberries with milk (think fruit smoothie). Both of the lunch spots we have eaten at on the road serve many tourists, but there are locals crammed in eating, so the food is the real thing and filling. After that we went on to the Poas Volcano and Botos Lake. the volcano was not only shrouded in mist, but we were shrouded in fog at the viewing station-our trip to Botos lake was our first walk-via trail-through real jungle, and the pictures reveal that. Botos was clear and the view was nice from there. On the walk back down, the jungle trail offered shafts of light, provided by the water vapor of Poas.

We then pushed on to La Fortuna falls. We arrived and 20 Costa Ricans on motorbikes--a major form of transport here--were reving up and blasting away. After they left it was a bit more quiet and we enjoyed a spectacular waterfall, being able to walk up behind the falls. Next stop on our journey--remember, I said it was a long day--we stopped at a great road-side shop, where we ate fresh strawberries and bought homemade candies and water and drank coffee.

On the last leg of our bus ride to hotel de Cataratas we had to stop because we smelled something burning. Our trusty driver Geovani determined it was one of our air conditioners, so we turned it off (it was only about 60 degrees anyway) and headed on as darkness fell. We arrived at the hotel Cataratas and it is very large and has many bungalows and a nice pool, miniature golf, good coffee and food. That night our guide, William, played his guitar for us by the poolside and we rested after a very long day. We had a minor theft about 10 minutes after moving into our bungalows and we were a bit worried about what that might entail for the rest of our stay. Within an hour or so the local sheriff had already captured two guys and retrieved some of our cash and goods. As events unfolded we began to feel much more comfortable as it became apparent that not much happens around here without the locals hearing about it and setting things straight.

When we woke this morning we were surprised to see that our hotel was at the foot of two volancos, which towered over us like something out of Jurassic Park, it being dark last night when we arrived.

best

Roberto