Advertisement
Unfortunately both flights got in very very late Friday night, so none of us got much sleep, but the good news is that all our family arrived safely, and we are very grateful..
Even with 4 hours sleep, we walked the grounds a bit before breakfast. It’s bright so early, everyone was soon up and enjoying the traditional Tico breakfast of eggs, fruit, rice mixed with black beans, and coffee and juice of course. Our driver Carlos arrived early and we piled in. More than enough room for all, but not much more for luggage if we’d had more.
Jean in the way back with Andrew, as neither of us get car sick, then, closer to the front was Heather & Dario and Megan, right behind driver was Anna & Mike, and David sat shotgun. We wondered if we’d ever get there, going thru unfamiliar tiny roads (don’t forget, we had driven there twice during our time here so far and thought we knew the way, but the driver’s GPS didn’t seem to be working, and he would stop a local and ask, and everytime we saw the local shake his head – that was disturbing). And then the
driver kindly wanted to arrange us to have lunch outside of the La Paz Waterfall area, to save money – but we didn’t want to leave the place once there – too inconvenient. He kept explaining things to Dario, having understood that he was the easiest to speak with – I could understand that he was extolling the virtures of sodas (cafes) in general, and this one in particular. But we finally got him to understand that convenience in timing was more important than price, and also we wanted to make sure people still following their eating plan had good choices.
Unbelievably, there were NO hummingbirds at the usual feeders, which was very disappointing, but the day was clear and we enjoiyed the Trout lake, Aviary (with 2 sloths), and monkey enclosure before having a buffet lunch that suited everyone’s needs. Unfortunately by then the weather was coming in. We managed to walk thru the Butterfly house, snakes and insects, saw the 2 bulls yoked to a traditional cart, and the great jungle cats, before taking refuge during some loud thunder in the 1800’s reproduction of a Tico home. When it let up we headed down the stairs to
see 4 waterfalls – and the heavens opened up and we all got drenched. We had the grandkids with us but the others went down every single stairs and saw every one of the falls. We are brave people!
After that Carlos picked us up, dripping, for the 2 hour or so drive down the mountains un til it finally flattened out in the farmlands near La Fortuna. The volcano Arenal was out in all its glory.
This place is amazing – huge! 7 bedrooms, 5 of which we are using. I’ve just posted some of them – there were so many I started to get confused. All I know is that we lucked out with the suite on the ground floor! And it’s sort of becoming the “party room” – we get lots of visitors. So Heather & Dario have one en suite room, and Anna & Mike the other. And then Megan and Andrew each have a room and share a bathroom, I think – only went up there once. There is a large living room, and dining room, but tonight we ate outside under the huge overhang. The dinner was prepared by Yadi the chef,
also Jordy’s mama: chicken, beautifully herbed; 2 tilapia dinners – unbelievable, and 4 empanadas, rice, salad, chimichanga. Except for the fact that the girls need many more veggies, it went down a treat.
We were entertained by finding 2 huge toads on the terrace, and a stray cat. And by the fact that there are birds aplenty right on the grounds. In fact we spied TWO tiger herons and 4 Black-bellied whistling ducks sitting on the bridge over a little lagoon. And a roadside hawk pair that is calling to each other constantly but I love the sound.
Exhausted, we all sought some cool in our respective bedrooms well before 9. Best sleep ever. So good to have everyone here.
I've listed the photos in chron order, sort of, with David's photos of birds labeled. Two new ones today 😊
Advertisement
Tot: 0.1s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 7; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0771s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb