Slowly catching up to today....

To get from La Fortuna back to Heredia we decided to re-hire a fantastic driver named Arnold. He was the driver that took us from Heredia to Puntarenas, and he is amazing. He told us where we were driving through, interesting things along the way and drove so nicely over the enormous bumps.
So, Arnold picked us up right on time at noon on Monday from Los Lagos and we were on our way. The drive was beautiful (but we have come to almost expect that here). We drove straight up to a rain forest, different from a cloud forest. Here is rains all the time, there are clouds but in a cloud forest it doesn't always rain. Here it was unbelievable. The quiet and freshness in the air was magical, I was sure there were fairies hiding somewhere around us. I wish I could tell you what the view was from the top, but we were so engulfed in a cloud that you could only see about 10 feet in front of you. I should mention, on our way up the land was covered in greenhousees. Here is where they grow fabulous flowers and plants for export to N. America and Europe. On our way down the land was taken over by coffee plantations. Oh yes, and a cigar factory, we actually passed by a plant where you could come in a roll your own (I thought of you Ron!).

So, we passed through San Ramon, a gorgeous city that we decided we must see more of. Who knows, we may be back here after Belize.....

So, we are now in Heredia. Being homesick a bit still can you guess what the first thing is that we did????


McDonalds

Ugh.

We felt that afterwards! But it was nice, the boys got their happy meals and a toy, and we felt a little better (after a walk). Afterwards we unpacked, and just chilled. Here we have 2 seperate bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room with a tv, a washroom (but no sink?) and a cute little balcony. It feels like a home, something that we have really been craving. It's nice to be in a seperate room than the boys, and last night we watched a movie while the boys were in the next room sleeping. It's been 7 weeks since we've been able to do that!

Today we headed off the the mall, we were looking for the market, but that didn't pan out. The mall was cute, but 90% shoe stores. (ironically Chris needs new shoes, but we didn't find any for him!)

The most exciting thing that happened today was that we made ourselfs dinner for the first time in 7 weeks. It was so cool. I went to the veggie guy across the street and bought 3 large fresh carrots, an onion, 3 banana's and a huge tomato all for 40 cents. Then I went next door to the butcher and bought 2 handfuls of ground beef for 2.40$. Spaghetti was 60 cents, sauce was 75 cents and the cheese was about 1 dollar. It was so yummy, and the boys actually finished their dinner, quite a feat since they haven't done that for a while.

So, we are here. We are happy again, and we feel like we're home somehow. This is where we started our trip, and if you remember, we didn't like it then, but it feels so good to be back. It also feels like our trip here is over, maybe because we've done a complete circle. Not sure.

We're going to go on a coffee tour on Thursday, and we're off to Belize early Saturday morning. Till then, we love you all.

The Lukies......