Costa Rica 2006/2007

COSTA RICA 2006/2007

Day 2: Christmas 2006; monday December 25 Fortunately we wake up pretty late: 8:00am. Could be worse with the time-difference being 7 hours later than in the Netherlands. Free breakfast: scrambled eggs, banana, strawberry yoghurt. I don't eat much because at 11.30 we have our first domestic flight. I have airsickness so I don't want to be ill... Mr. Arburola is a great host, not only for his hostel, but also for his country. Speaks very good English. He tells us his story about 12 years of guiding in National Parks and suddenly finding out that the company he works for is broke. Now he does the work he really loves and that does not go unnoticed. He loves this country and living in it. He bought a piece of land, even closer to the airport. And the permits for a new hostel are already taken care of. The ride to Pavas Airport is $25 and takes over half an hour. On the way we stop for gas and Alonso gives us a typical sandwich: a meat-pie. At the airport he waits until we get out again to let him know that the checking in went fine. We haven't planned all our nights yet and he assures us that we are welcome anytime. Thank you Alonso! Make reservations for this Hostel
This is our travelplan: First San Jose-La Fortuna (Arenal Volcano), Then a van-boat-van tour over the lake to the other side: Santa Elena. Then a bustour to Alajuela again and from there a returnticket to my friend Simone in Drake Bay.	We have booked a flight to La Fortuna with NatureAir. Costs $65 pp because only one way. Pretty exciting because the Arenal-Airstrip hasn't been open for a long time again. There have been some crashes in the past and it makes me a little scared. And above all I am nervous about the weather conditions: I might get sick... A really nice American couple from Miami tells us great stories. It is as if everybody is more friendly over here than back home. And they are taking the same flight! That's nice. They just booked this flight yesterday, and it was possible because there were non-confirmed bookings.. We didn't confirm either! We should reconfirm our next flight in time! The flight itself is not so bad, half an hour, but my stomach can't handle it. I feel bad during the whole flight and in the end it goes wrong... I really am frustrated: I almost made it!!

At the airstrip Arenal there's a van for our transport to the town. Telling the driver that we are supposed to have the owner of the Cerro Chato Lodge picking us up, made no difference. This van will take us there... To bad: Mr. Miguel Zamora of the Cerro Chato Lodge wás picking us up, he was only 5 minutes late and drove right behind us the whole time! At the drop-off point at first the vandriver wanted us to pay for the ride; lucky for us Mr. Zamora was there to make it a free ride. What a cute little house with private bathroom just for us! For only $ 16 pppn. Clean nice bed, fan, hot shower, breakfast $ 3. We drop our bags and decide if we want to take action this afternoon. The sandwich Mr. Alonso gave us is now our lunch and we decide to go with the other guests in a van to go hiking. There are several tours available. We take the hike around Arenal and then one of the hotsprings (swimmingpools that are naturally heated by the hot earth around the volcano) with dinner.

	First a little background info about the Arenal Volcano. This 1633m high volcano is maybe the most beautiful and active volcano in the world. It's a real prototype of a volcano: it's almost perfect cone shape is recognizable from a very long distance; it often spits lava blocks and gas clouds or ash clouds into the air. The rumbling sound makes a clear statement: this volcano is not yet to be calm. On unusual clear nights it's possible to see the eruptions. It's last big outburst was on July 29th 1968. Well, we didn't have an unusual day. As almost always the top of the cone was covered in clouds. No luck at night either. We DID hear the rumbling two times. It sounded like a heavy thunder in the distance. The hike in the National Park around the volcano was very cool! We had about 3,5hours before pickup, and Miguel got us water and cookies. The trail goes through an area of (not domestic) cane that's meters high. Suddenly at a certain altitude there's the changing to rainforest (with moss on the trees and everything), and after that you walk on old lava rocks from the eruption in 1968. The views were fabulous. The most of the trail we did without other people around, but there on the lava, there were lots of other people. Americans, Indians, and of course Dutch people (we are éverywhere).

And then the hot springs. Wonderful. We went to the Baldi (prices, menu and pictures over here). Dinner was a buffet and it was very good food and much different stuff to choose from. The Baldi is superbig and there are dozens of different pools with different temperatures. They say that Tabacón is even bigger but I wonder if it's possible to see everything then. It was eveningtime (around 6.30pm when we got there) but there weren't any mosquitoes or other bugs and the water was glorious. It seemed to be more fluid and soft than at home. Timo can go swimming for hours and hours, I get wrinkly more fast and then I want to dry first before getting into another pool. But what I didn't think of: In the Netherlands you get out of a warm pool into the cold air. (or hot sauna to cold bath) but over here everything is warm! Although it was Christmas, thus busiest time of the year, the eveningtime had very few people here. That was very nice. At 9PM Miguel came to pick us up again and take us to our lodge. The whole day, including transport, fees and towel: $ 55 pp. Securety payment for the towels was $ 5. We got a wristband to make sure what was paid for.	Back in our cozy little home we were welcomed by a little army of ants! Welcome to the jungle. They were everywhere in the bedroom. Especially on the floor and in our bed! We killed dozens of them and put a shirt under the door to keep them out. They didn't go for the sweets we got, because that bag was not even touched. 24,5 °C at 10:30pm. Nice bed.

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