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......
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Slowly catching up to today....
La Fortuna
Well, we have spent 3 days and nights here in La Fortuna. It's a wonderful place, but not somewhere where we would consider trying to look for a home. I'm not really sure why, it just doesn't feel right. If we needed to choose today I think we would go straight back to Monteverde and Santa Elena, that was by far our favourite place as a family so far.
Anyways, here in La Fortuna, the main attraction is the Arenal Volcano. Everywhere has a spa to pamper you, they use products made with mud from near the volcano, etc. There are many many zip lines and canopy tours, and of course the Gondola up to the look-out tower for the spurts of Lava. This is what we did a few days ago. It was fantastic. You could see Lake Arenal from one side of the platform, and the Volcano from the other. A year ago the Volcano changed it's Lava flow direction, and it now faces directly towards the look-out platform. Lucky us, But Unlucky us, the best time to see the Lava (obviously) is late at night. Being the slow season (we seem to always catch up with both the slow season and the rain.... humm), there were no night tours yet. But we did get to see the 'white' lava during the day, and it was absolutly incredible. We stayed at the top for as long as we could to take in this beautiful site. I hope you like the pictures.
Once we were done, we headed back to the hotel. We spent some time in the actual city of La Fortuna, looking around at the shops and tried a few of the restaurants. I wish I could tell you something really really exciting, but this place just didn't do it for us.
I've tried to get the photo's on here, but it's not working. You can find them here.
To The Volcano
Last night we went out for a nice stroll, we were on the look out for some cool gifts for family back home. After walking and looking for an hour or two it was time for dinner. We were half way to this cute little Indian Restaurant when we noticed that Oscar had fallen asleep on Chris' shoulder. We thought he would wake up, but he didn't, and so Chris left for the hotel, and Callym and I stayed for dinner. We've found it a little harder to be hungry here at times, the altitude, heat, humidity, and so on can really mess with you! Anyways, we had a lot of packing to do, our ride was picking us up at 7:50 the next day and we were off to the Arenal Volcano! Oscar ended up getting around 12 or 13 hours of sleep, and the next beautiful and refreshing morning we were ready to go. There are two different ways to get to La Fortuna, one way is to drive the entire way - a 4 and a half hour drive and only the last 25 minutes is paved. That is a big deal! The second way, and the way we opted for was to take a taxi to Lake Arenal, take a boat across, and take another taxi to our hotel. Taking this route would actually cut off an hour and a half! So, early in the morning, and completely refreshed we were off. The drive was a bumpy one to the lake, but the boys did fantastic. We were nearly to the lake when we all heard a loud "Klu- Klunk" It sounded like something large had fallen off the van. Chris said it was something to do with the Trannie. Our driver called the other van that was taking people to the lake, and it seems as though their van had broken down as well. Too Funny! So we were waiting for another van to come and get us. We were only 5 minutes away at this point. As we were waiting the other van drove by us and smiled, they knew how we felt. So, when we finally got another car, it was 5 minutes to the lake, and we were off on the boat. The boat ride was beautiful. Lake Arenal is huge and calm. The boat ride took 30 minutes, and there was another taxi waiting to take us to the Hotel. The road here was paved and was too amazing! 25 minutes later we were at Los Lagos. Our new home for the next 3 days.
Los Lagos is a resort and spa. Something very common here due to the Volcano. Everyone is offering massages, and treatments with Lava or mud from the volcano. We are off the see it in the next few days. A real Volcano! Too cool. I hope we see some great spurts of Red Hot Lava coming from it!
Lukies Off.....
