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Published: November 6th 2008
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With less than 24 hours from returning from Nicaragua, my family arrived here in CR! I was most definitely excited to see them all since it had been over 8 weeks since I left the states. Even my brother and I shared willing hug - a true Kodak moment for my mom. I eagerly greeted my teary eyed parents, glad they made it through customs and immigration in the airport. Remembering when I arrived, the people did not speak a word of English. Regardless, we headed to Las Orquideas Hotel to check in. Our brightly colored with picturesque flowers hotel served as a great place to stay for us. Side note - the orchid is the national flower of CR and they are sure beautiful! After we got settled we headed off to meet my host family. I took a few deep breaths, said a small prayer and headed inside. (The prayer was for 2 reasons, hoping all would go smoothly and that my Spanish as a translator would also not fail me.) It turned out that things couldn’t have gone better! I was so pleased and so was my family - host and real. Tired and excited for the next
days and activities to come we headed to our hotel, but not before travel and tour guide Courtney explained the itinerary for the days to come.
Less than 24 hours after arrival in a foreign country, my parents were headed to the rainforest. Talk about a change, from the cool crisp air of a October day to the mountains of CR in less than 24 hours. And right away they got to experience how Ticos drive through the mountains thanks to our driver whose driving skills very much resembled that of a Nascar driver on steriods in the mountains and to top it all off, in a mini van - now imagine that! Although we made it there safely, our stomachs were glad too. Turubari Tropical Park was the name of the park we went to in Turrubares, CR and it is located only about 2.5 hours from Alajuela. While we were there we went horse back riding through the mountains and saw Turubari Volcano as well as a couple other. Besides riding through the mud, it was beautiful scenery and my horse cooperated. Although she didn’t like the other horses to be near her especially my brothers horse,
what a coincidence! Then my mom, dad and myself along with our tour guide hopped into a little green bug looking machine which took us across the park to the other side. We choose the safest way to get across. Other choose the canopy route which was more adventurous and the other very crazy people, actually only person, who happened to be my brother choose “the superman” to get across. Flying on your stomach for 1 mile extremely high above the forest going 40-60 MPH you get to soar like an eagle. Watching in fear from the other side as my brother came flying down reassured me that I was glad to had taken the “safer route.” After a delicious typical CR lunch, complete with a favorite dessert of mine, Arroz con Leche (Rice with milk, like the pudding but much better!), we were headed to explore the rest of the park. We saw an awesome butterfly garden, crocodiles, iguanas and much more. It was a really neat park and very well conserved like many of the other parks in CR! Overall, everyone had a great day and a lot of fun.
Next up on the agenda was to
see a Volcano and I picked Arenal because it is one of the 5 active volcanoes in CR. We woke up bright and early again and headed on a bus to Arenal, but before stopping at Sarachi, a small town known for its handcrafts from woods and tons of souvenir shops. Then after lunch at our hotel in Arenal, we headed to Baldi Hot Springs for the afternoon. And boy was that relaxing and hot! There were 7 different pools or so of hot, like 100 degrees plus, of water! It was awesome to float around and there were even 2 swim up bars! After a relaxing afternoon, we had dinner at our hotel. Although it was early we had to go to bed early because the next morning would come all to soon...
Yes, 5:30 AM is way to early to be awake, up and ready to leave, but needless to say I was all of those along with the rest of my family. We were headed out to go on a fishing excursion on Arenal Lake. It was pretty cloudy, but we ended up being able to see much of the volcano which was awesome. And my
mom and I were in 1 boat while my dad and brother were in another and guess who “won” the fishing and caught the most fish? Well, I hope you guessed my mom and I! Of course the girls won, I caught the first fish and my mom caught the second, both Rainbow Bass. Although it rained a bit, it was fun, but a long 4 hours. The most exciting part came when we were able to see monkeys in a tree right next to the lake. They were howler monkeys. After lunch, we were headed back to the central valley, but not before we drove through the cloud forest which literally we were driving through clouds. Once again tired, we had another exciting day planned for Sunday...
Hmm.. CR what comes to your mind in terms of what to see and do there? Well if the beach, mountains and volcanoes comes to your mind, you are so right. And since we tackled 2 of them, I had planned the beach for Sunday. Isla Tortuga (Tortuga Island) was the destination of the day. We left early in the morning for our island tour on the Pacific Ocean side. We
had absolutely delightful weather, hot CR sun and cool turquoise blue water. On the boat, we had all the juice and pop you wanted as well as an assortment of fresh fruits, pineapple, papaya, and watermelon. Once we arrived at the island, we were able to spend the day there. They also had snorkeling and so my brother and I hoped on another boat to go out to the rock formation where the snorkeling was supposed to be good at. We feed the fish bread and saw the most gorgeous and colorful blue and orange fish. They looked like fish right from a picture or book. The island is actually protected by the government and thus there is only a small part that is for the public and the res is the natural forest. The company that takes people there has been around for over 30 years, the name is Calypso Cruises. They made a huge feast for us for lunch complete with dessert and more Guayabana fruit drinks - yum! We spent the rest of the day relaxing in the sun and enjoying the white sand beach. Needless to say, here in CR, we are a little closer to
My crazy brother doing the superman!!
a 1 mile ride above the canopy going 40mph!! the equator than in the states resulting in a hotter rays from the sun. Some people, meaning my family and especially brother, decided not to listen to me and resulted in a nice fried to a chicken, crispy skin, sun burn once we arrived home at night. Overall it was beautiful and a very fun day.
Wow, how fast a week goes when you have plans for everyday and from morning to night. Monday meant back to school for me for only 2 more weeks of Spanish classes, but my parents and brother headed to see San Jose. Then we met up with my host family and ate dinner together. More time bonding and getting to know one another via Courtney’s translation services, which are pretty good if I do say so myself. I did have some fun in how I translated words to my real (US) family though, that really makes it interesting. The language barrier really didn’t hold us up and I think everyone had a fun time.
Tuesday morning came and a Delta plane whisked my parents and bro back to there home land where they belonged. They really enjoyed CR and loved seeing where
I live. It was helpful and good to put a picture to the words that they have been hearing about.
This week has gone faster than I can believe and with my time here running out I am traveling again this weekend! It’s beach time!! Its not every weekend you can head to a beautiful beach for $5 (for the bus fare!) - Playa Tamarindo here we come!
More exciting news, in 1 week I get another special visitor - Danny!! And if you have made it this far, thanks for reading! Until next time, take care amigos!...
Love,
Courtney
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