Pam's Blog

The bus ride from La Fortuna to Santa Elana is a brutally long one. It is slow and winding around the lake. There is not a road throughout the mountain and,a lthought there is a boat, it didn’t sound like it was a ferry. We stopped at a restaurant about half way for lunch. It was Sunday and thrown was sleepy with most things closed and not a lot of traffic. Once done with lunch, we took off but didn’t even get out of town when Fabio pulled over. Ricardo announced to the bus that it was someone from the restaurant and they had something that had been left behind…it was one of our group member’s camera!

Ricardo has told us a time or two that Costa Ricans are happy to help.nthe first day he gave us his phone number and told us to call him if we needed him, and if we didn’t have a phone, to just ask someone to call him for us.

Our first stop out of La Fortuna was a hike up the mountain towards a former lava flow. Most of the hike was quite easy. It was more difficult when we got to the actual lava rocks. About halfway up, someone spotted a Tucan. From our perch, with binoculars, we could see it perched on a bare branch quite a distance away. I am tickled to have spotted it, since I was suspicious … I didn’t really think I would see one. 

At one point on our walk up to the lava flow Ricardo stopped the group at a bush. He gave us some informatio about the indiginous people of Costa Rica and how they lived. The bush he was standing in front of was use as a dye by taking separating the leaf and the stem and squeezing the yellow liquid out of the stem. He asked for a volunteer, looked at me and said “you are a good volunteer”. He asked me to put the leaf of the bush between my lips and the squeezed the yellow stuff on my pinkie finger, making it yellowish orangish. He said this is the way indiginous people becalmed engaged! After a little yucking it up, he carried on with his talk, although one point he stumbled on his words and said that he was a bit nervous now after the engagement. It was pretty funny and several people asked to see my yellow fingernail.

Although there isn’t much of a chance getting run over by lava, there is still a chance of getting caught in an explosion of toxic gas (that has a name/term I can’t remember at the moment). As recently as a couple of years ago a couple of hikers and a guide were on the mountain and this type of gas eruption happened and, although the guide got them to safety, they all died from the poisonous gas eating the from the inside out.

Arenal exploded in 1968 killing people living on the mountain. It had been “asleep” and suddenly became active. Postcards show glowing hot lava running down the mountain but there hasn’t been that much activity in several years. Some people in our group said they saw smoke coming out of the top to it but we did not witness that. Although still active, it isn’t spewing. We were quite lucky two days in a row to have clear weather and see it from a distance and a bit closer up. It is often shroud in clouds. It has that perfect volcano shape that you conjure up in your mind when you hear the word volcano.

With a population of about 10,000, La Fortuna has made the most of capitalizing on the volcano. Lots of tour companies are available for horseback riding, four wheeling, and other activities. We had lunch at a soda recommended by our taxi driver and then stomped around town shopping. Bev bought a messenger bag with a peace sign on it, perfect for her. We also bought a small bottle of guapo, the local liquor that smells and tastes like vodka.

We hung out at the pool where the wifi signal is a bit stronger and Bev checked her email and I wrote postcards. The pool water was warm and, although not huge, it had one of those bars built into the side of the pool so you can sit in the water and have a drink. 

While we were sitting there I made a call to our friend Ken via FaceTime and his first words were “hey, where are you guys?” And when we told him the pool he said “you have wifi at the pool in Costa Rica?”

It seems surprisingly modern in some aspects with wifi, volcano showers, and large yummy breakfasts yet still quite behind the times when it comes to infrastructure. The roads, in particular, could use improvement and, although most places are clean, not everything works quite right.

We checked in to our hotel, Mountain Paradise, where every room has a view of the volcano, Arenal. Each room spacious room has a two shower bathroomand one shower is a waterfall shower! Our first room had a whole host of problems: the key card wouldn’t open the door, the safe wouldn’t open, the toilet mostly flushed, and the air conditioner didn’t work. We switched rooms the next morning and that room was functioned much better.

After a bus tour of San Jose, we headed out of town. Ricardo gave a some history about San Jose as well as Costa Rica. After Costa Rica’s civil war the president abolished the army. They put effort into education and going to school through until age of 16 is mandatory by law, and until 18 mandatory by parents. Costa Rica boasts a high literacy rate. I’ve read as high as 95 percent. 

Along the small (sometimes only three or four tables) places to eat called “sodas” there are some influences from the USA. Burger King, McDonald’s, hallmark, and amazingly enough, an Apple store. The architecture is unremarkable. There were very few buildings worth admiring for their outward appearance. 

We stopped at Sarchi, a town known for beautifully painted Ox Carts. We observed artists as work, saw a few Ox carts and had a chance shop at the tourist trap. The Ox cart was a fundamental piece of Costa Rican history used to transport coffee from the center of Costa Rica to the coast for export. Ricardo told us the story of the coffee trade in Costa Rica and how it went from a plant grown and harvested amongst under the shade of other trees to a monoculture back to a plant grown in the shade of other trees. 

Our next stop was Zarcero, population 3,200, is home of an impressive collection of shaped bushes in arches, faces, and animals in front of the church. Most towns are organized around a main church and across the street or directly in front is a park or town square. This one was filled with this unique landscape. The guidebooks caution over and over again about petty crime and being wary about pick pockets. At most of these busy and high tourist areas we have seen police officers. This was no exception… And they were kind enough to have there photo taken with me!

We also wandered in the church, a pretty, clean, spacious, and ornate thing. Part of it was facade, specifically the brick and the marble columns. Bev noticed a mother and very young son in the back of the church, the mother teaching the boy how to cross himself and kneel.

Cuidad Quesada is a noisy town with lots of traffic on the main drag. The church is unimpressive brute the park/plaza/town square across the street is fairly large with mature trees and a gazebo. Ricardo recommended a soda for lunch and we sat at the counter and ordered casada, the standard Costa Rician fare consisting of rice, beans, meat, plantains and something that I might call succotash that I later found out was made from squash.

We booked our trip through Gate 1 Travel and part of the tour fee goes towards helping rural schools. The school year runs from mid February to mid December, so school is just getting back in full swing. As we exited the bus we were each individually taken by the hand and escorted to a plastic chair on a cement slab sort of patio. The students sang and danced and then asked us questions. Where are you from, what is your occupation, what kind od Costa Rican food do you like? They sang “America the Beautiful” and some of our group joined in. They had a large us flag and a large Costa Rican flag and when the heard that two of our group members were from Canada, one of the girls ran inside the building and  brought out a little Canadian flag.

The principal of the school told us how many kids are in each grade. The 44 students wear the public school uniform: blue pants and white shirts. There are four teachers (one is the principal) and two of those teachers teach in the morning at this school and the afternoon at another school. She also listed the improvements made because of the Gate 1 donations. Even with the declaration and emphasis on literacy, it is easy to see the need support in the rural areas. The rooms are sparse, desks old, and there was one small bookcase of books. Two of the things the teacher listed as improvement were a ceiling in the buildings and the installation of two sinks. She used a microphone and speaker, which was also part  of the Gate 1 improvements. I saw a blue balloon in one of the classrooms with the continents drawn on it to look like a globe. It’s a far cry from what we have in the second grade classroom I volunteer in every week. 

After the “program” we were free to wander around and invited to have a snack of pineapple, which is delicioso here!

Ricardo did a nice job of welcoming us. He’s friendly, easy going, knowledgable, and helpful all with a sense of humor. He told us at our orientation meeting that he is 50 years old, has a son, 28, from his first marriage and a son, 14, from his second marriage and that he is improving both being a father and husband the second time around. 

The group is about half retired married couples. There are two families, two young couples, and a smattering of single women, mostly in pairs. Our group is 40 all together and more than half were at the welcome meeting. For most, this is their first time in Costa Rica. One woman stated she has come to practice her Spanish. A good number of people speak quite a bit of Spanish. Almost the entire group is from the USA. Two women live in Toronto. The Americans are from California, Texas, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Utah, and Arizona.