Buenos Tardes,
We spent about 3 1/2 days in the Arenal Lake area the week of Thanksgiving. Here Thanksgiving is simply known as Thursday!! I posted some pics of our trip so you can try to get a feel for what we encountered.
The photo on top is of the Arenal Volcano. I took this pic from the central park area of La Fortuna, the city which is literally just miles from the base of the volcano. The two pics below are from the middle of the park. Flowers of all colors, shapes, and sizes are abundant wherever we go. Behind the church steeple in the photo on the right you can barely make out the Arenal Volcano. The park is really beautiful, and you can find lots of the locals using it at all hours of the day and night.
The animal in the next row is a coatimundi, or coati for short! It is a member of the raccoon family, and not afraid of humans. They are not aggressive, but like any animal in the wild it is best to keep one’s distance. We saw this one on our drive to La Fortuna in the middle of a rainforest. Next is the main church in La Fortuna, beautiful and spotless. Next to that is some old man Deb has taken a liking to! Lucky man. The chickens we included for our friend Marilyn. Chickens are colorful and noisy. We have one that wakes me up every morning around 4 o’clock. I”m tempted to show it how I make chicken soup!!! These cacti are located in downtown La Fortuna, about 7-8 feet tall.
Next row has a house across from our room, very typical of homes in Costa Rica. Lake Arenal is the largest lake in this country, and is surrounded by tropical flora. This photo does not do any justice to how beautiful it is in that region.
Two pics from our trip to a Hot Water Springs Spa. The temps in the six pools ranged from 96 degrees to 103 degrees. It was so relaxing. Had dinner there, an added pleasure.
Finally, waterfalls in Costa Rica are not rare. We saw this double leveled waterfall while traveling through the rainforest on our way to La Fortuna. Spectacular. It was just a little past this that we saw the coati in the pics above.
I will probably be posting some random pictures we have this coming weekend. Our wish for all of you is that you are happy and healthy. And hopefully, our blog helps to bring a little sunshine to your life and a smile to your face.
Deb’s up next.
Pura Vida.
Hola Everybody,
Our trip to La Fortuna and then beyond that to Tronadora on the other side of Lake Arenal was interesting. We met with a property manager up there to see about possibly renting a place there next year. She was very interesting. She had been in this country approximately 8 years. We saw a couple of places and then had lunch with her and her seven year old daughter. We decided that although we could have rented a place right on the lake, there really isn’t much to do there. We did find out that the rainy season up there can last into January! It was raining that day, at times, really heavy. Because it’s the rain forest, it is warm and very humid. That was the day after we had soaked in the hot springs spa. It was quite a ways to get there from La Fortuna so when we got back to our hotel, we collapsed on our bed for hours.
It was fun to see the beautiful rain forest and to experience a different climate but we were so excited to get back to the Central Valley where it is so nice and cool. We had air conditioning in our hotel room so we could stay pretty cool when we were there. There are fun shops to visit, one being my favorite, a chocolate shop. I have to have my dark chocolate fix. There were other shops as well. Lots of woodworking items, T-shirts, hats, jewelry, handbags, etc. We were told that these were all handmade in Costa Rica. Tons of restaurants to choose from. Restaurants don’t stay open very late. Grocery stores do, though.
Manrique was the hotel manager and he was a pleasure to work with. He spoke very good English so it was easy to understand him. We found a nice little breakfast place a couple of blocks away from our hotel and got to know our waiter, Diego. Another wonderful Tico. He taught us some more Spanish. Ticos are happy to teach Spanish to foreigners and when they know English, they love to practice speaking English. There are lots of Ticos who don’t speak our language, but we are always able to communicate our needs to the point that they understand. Tim is very good at interpreting what they are saying. We manage just fine.
There are a couple of large shopping malls not too far from us. They have many of the stores we have in the states. There’s Old Navy, Tommy Hilfiger, many designers and so many more that I can’t think of right now. However, when you go into these shopping malls, there are no directories to find out where the store you are looking for is. You just have to wander around until you find what you need or ask someone but they don’t always know or don’t understand what it is we are looking for.
I got my hair cut at one of the salons in one of those malls. It was so needed! I now have my own hairdresser here in Costa Rica by the name of Sylvia. She works out of Escazu, which is the city we look down on from here in Santa Barbara. It is very Americanized, very modern. Lots of fabulous restaurants, very upscale. It isn’t cheap, either, to eat in these places. If you can find a little Soda (which is a neighborhood restaurant), it is much cheaper. Here, it seems, there are little sodas on almost every block as well as little fruit/vegetable stands, and little corner grocery stores. That is probably because so many people walk and so it is handy for them to stop near their homes to pick up what they need. I noted how many shoe stores there are to Tim and he replied that it’s probably because they wear their shoes out walking everywhere. That could be. People walk along the highways even. Women walk by themselves at night! We would never do that in the states.
We leave on Monday morning for Panama City, Panama. The one thing we have planned to do while there is to visit a village where indigenous people, the Embera people live. We will travel by bus for about an hour and then by some kind of watercraft to where these people live. We will learn about their culture and traditions and will share a meal together. We are really looking forward to this experience. It’s not put on, it is all authentic. We are allowed to bring gifts for them if we want. Haven’t decided what would be appropriate that they could all enjoy. We’ll have to work on that. It’s the least we can do since they are inviting us into their world, sharing so much with us. So, next week (after Friday), we will have more pictures and experiences to share with you. Check our blog on Sunday next week for our trip to Panama. This weekend we will post pictures from various places and activities.
So sorry to hear about our friend, Don’s loss. We are with him in spirit right now as he grieves. We think of him all the time.
Lots of Love to You All,
Deb and Tim
Deb & Tim's Adventure 