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Published: April 21st 2014
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Big hugs from the lovely Alex and we leave Sarapique and head toward's Brian's home town of La Fortuna. He is going to take us to visit his family and his insane mother has offered to cook us all lunch. We are the first tour group he's taking to visit his family so we promise to be on our best behaviour.
At a rest stop on the way we get to see iguanas en masse near the appropriately name Iguana Cafe. There's a tree next to the cafe absolutely heaving with iguanas. We see one orange guy and find out this is the colour they change to during their mating season.
Eventually we arrive in La Fortuna and visit Brian's family. We meet both brothers, a nephew, mum and dad and 91 year old grandma who is so happy to see her grandson. We are given an amazing lunch cooked by Brian's lovely mum. The brothers banter a lot with each other and it's funny to watch the dynamic between them having only had Brian's side of the story up until now.
Brian takes us to see the house he has recently bought - loads of plans and
work to be done. Two dogs are chained up outside the front door and Brian has no clue who they belong to. He has friends renting a room in his place while he's away so assumes they belong to them. Hilariously the two dogs don't let him get into his own house!
We are then taken in our minibus on a tour of La Fortuna, which as it's really small involves going round and round the square about five times. The driver is laughing thinking Brian is crazy. Doug asks if maybe Brian is lost and eventually he takes the hint and we pull up at our hotel.
As we can't check into our rooms for another hour or so I quickly sort some clothes to take to the launderette across the road. The lady weighs my bag, I write my name on it and am told it will be ready in two hours - fantastic. I take a quick wander around town but find I'm so tired I head back to the hotel and luckily my room is ready. I'm loving having a room to myself. On these style trips it's the luck of the draw whether
you have to share or not. This time all the other women are in couples so I get a room to myself by default. I have a couple of hours before we are due to go to the thermal pools - we are in the shadow of Arenal volcano - so I take yet another shower (to cool down more than anything else) and have a little nap. Mm lovely air conditioning!
We set off at the allotted time in two taxis and are dropped off at Paradise Pools. A protracted buying of tickets and hiring of towels and locker keys and finally we are allowed to change into cossies and try out the pools. It's so wonderful sinking into really hot water. It makes your skin feel so lovely and soft. There's a cold water pool to plunge into accompanied by a sharp intake of breath. Getting back into the warm pool after this is wonderful.
There are two main pools and lots of smaller ones, including jaccuzis to try. It gets dark while we are there and we look up at the stars as we soak in the hot water. I tire of the necessarily repetative
travellers conversations 'where are you from', 'how long have you been in Costa Rica' etc etc and the boys footie talk, so get away by myself to have some quiet, thinking time watching the stars. The water is so hot and silky on my skin. Wonderful.
Those of us not having dinner at the pools head back early and I write up a bit of my travelblog before setting my alarm for another early start the next day.
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