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Published: December 22nd 2007
After months of planning, weeks of packing related emails and days of excited anticipation, I made my way to San Jose airport on the 14th of December to meet Hannah and Emma, my friends who were coming out to amuse me over Christmas and New Year. The girls work in my old school and shortly after meeting each other we realized that we all had something strange in common- we all had freakishly small hands! We therefore named ourselves the Small Hand Gang (SHG) and have shared several adventures over our 2 year friendship (accidently signing up for naked massages in Budapest probably being the funniest!). I knew there would be good times ahead in Costa Rica (Baby)- for some reason we can’t say the words ‘Costa Rica’ without adding ‘Baby’ on the end. Hmmmmm… very strange, I know!
Anyway, I was armed at the airport with a specially prepared small handed poster to greet the weary but excited travelers. Unfortunately, the mood when they arrived was somewhat dampened by the fact that Hannah’s backpack had been left in Spain when they changed planes- whoops! Nevermind, at least we had a bed for the night! Kind of…. after eating a
Small Hand Gang vests!
Hannah and Emma are looking very pleased with themselves after surprising me with their SHG outfits!nutritional dinner consisting of mainly rice and beans, we returned to our hostel to find a strange man sleeping in my bed, and no other ones spare! Oh the joys of travel!
The next day we headed to a town called La Fortuna, hoping that the airline would keep its word and deliver Hannah's bag there. Luckily, all turned out well and it was delivered that evening- phew- there were new knickers and toiletries for me in that bag, how would I have coped without them?!?
I was especially glad we got it back as I got out of the shower to find Emma and Hannah standing there in specially made 'Small Hand Gang- Costa Rica Baby' vests! Although explaining what they mean to people who ask is kind of an embarrassing situation!
La Fortuna was a lovely little town and we were staying in the best hostel EVER- a place called 'Gringo Pete's' where dorm beds were 1 pound 75p a night. It's probably one of the nicest places I've stayed, as well as the cheapest. The only problem was that the American owner (Gringo Pete, who looked like Father Christmas!) had a massively booming voice and
woke us up early every morning talking about all sorts of boring rubbish.
The main attraction at La Fortuna is a volcano called Arenal (yes I know, I said no more volcanoes but you are not allowed to get near this one as it's massively active!) The girls and I decided to do an organised trip where you take a walk through a rainforest (sounds fun, but was actually a bit boring if you are not interested in botany), a look at the volcano, then a trip to the hot springs in a nearby posh hotel.
Apparently only 15% of people who go to see Arenal ever get to see lava as the top is often covered by cloud. The people in our hostel who had been the night before had seen loads of lava spurting out the top, so we were very excited! Well, I guess we could be included in the 15% who did see lava, but only just! As we walked through the rainforest it started to pour with rain and all the clouds just rushed in! We stared through the dark at the grey clouds for 20 minutes, and on 3 occasions saw some
bright red rocks trickle down from beneath the clouds. Not quite the experience we'd imagined, but I guess at least we saw something!
Then onto the hot springs, which the lonely planet describes the setting as a somewhere Steven Spielburg might use for the Garden of Eden. It was fabulous- we were definitely lowering the tone by being there! None of my photos came out though because of all the steam (one of the pools was 41.5 degrees celcius)!! Even the rain couldn't spoil all the fun!
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Alison
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Welsh Dragon
Loved the picture of the dragon - can't imagine why!!! Great to see photos of the three of you allbeit looking rather damp. Just like to say 'nadolig llawen' (sp?) take care and have a great time.