Zipping Through the Skies
On Tuesday, we drove around the area scouting for souvenirs,
and went to a Zip-line “canopy tour.”
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| Me Zipping through the canopy |
That was really exciting. There were 12
zip-lines we went on, going from platform to platform, progressively higher
above the jungle. We even decided to do the “extra” two lines which we had to
hike straight up to reach. I didn’t know whether I’d make the hike, and my
grandson kept say, “we have to rest for Nona (which is my name—Italian for
grandmother).”
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| Climbing on fragile bridges |
My grandchildren
took the lines as superman and supergirl, even upside down, but at my age, I
took each trip in the normal way. The guides loved to bounce the lines on the longer
ones, but I asked them to forgo that on my excursion across the skies, and they
did. Back at the hotel, my grandkids went swimming and I rested—I had had a
fun, but tiring day!
Pokemon
Now I must mention Pokeman
Go, which is as popular there as in the United States. On the resort or
everywhere we could get wi-fi, my grandson was catching pokemons. Even up at
the restaurant, we had to look for them. I finally had them catch one on my
phone just so I could say I was “with it.” The next day at the Pợas Volcano, when
we bought our tickets, the gatekeepers were playing Pokemon
Go on their phones, too.
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| James playing Pokemon |
We drove back to San
Jose, but this time we took the “expressways” even if we had to pay the tolls.
We stopped to buy fresh Lychee on the way and it was wonderful. My granddaughter
Jenni tasted one and said it was an acquired taste, so James and I ate the
whole package. The outside shell was a little different than the Hawaiian ones
I liked, but inside they tasted the same.
Poas Volcano
We stopped at the Pợas Volcano on our way back to San Jose,
and I again had winding two-way roads with trucks blocking our way. But the
volcano was enjoyable, even if by the time we arrived the whole mountain top
was covered with clouds and we couldn’t see anything. The volcano center was
interesting, but it was so cold (at 8,855 feet above sea level), that we ate
“top ramen” to keep us warm.
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| James at the volcano--picture |
Back at our hotel in San Jose, we were so anxious for “real
food” that we walked to the big modern Best Western hotel which had a Denny’s
at it. The food there was the most expensive food we ate, and even though it
was after 6:00 p.m., both grandkids had breakfast food.
Nature Tour
Our last real day
in Costa Rica, we turned in our rental car and took an all-day “Jungle Tour.”
It was entertaining in a different way! In the morning we hiked through a
“Humid Forest” which is different from the rainforest we’d been driving through
and our guide (who had a Bachelor’s Degree in Natural History) showed us all
kinds of wildlife and plants indigenous to the area. Poisonous dart frogs and tree
bats intrigued us and I even got bitten by a vicious ant that lived in the
hollow thorns if a tree. The guide touched the thorn and they would come out to
attack him, even to committing suicide by jumping at him. I held onto the rail
and apparently one of the ants went from the thorn to the rail and onto my hand
and bit me. My hand stung and swelled up, but it wasn’t bad.
Then we went on
board a jungle boat and toured the Tárcoles River, where
we saw crocodiles close up and even watched “Mike Tyson” the largest crocodile
in Central America sun himself on the beach. We learned a lot about the ecology
of the river and the jungle and it was entertaining. A dinner at a local
restaurant and a stop at the largest (and cheapest) souvenir shop in the area
completed our trip.
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Crocodiles on the beach
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Our San Jose hotel which we reserved for a week, even when
we were in Guanacaste, was very Spanish in its design, with a central courtyard
and two TVs—one flat screen that I found a Miami channel that gave the news in
English so we knew if the world had gone up in war, or in truth, just continued
on as always, even without us watching it. It had three bedrooms, a full
kitchen and living room, with two-and-a half bathrooms. There was no
air-conditioning here, but it wasn’t as hot as Guanacaste, so we didn’t have a
problem.
Going Back Home
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| James relaxing! |
Our trip home was a
snap, except that gathering our luggage to go through customs in Houston, then walking all over the airport to the various gates put my back into spasms.
It was a wonderful trip and I enjoyed it tremendously,
especially my bi-lingual grandson’s translation and their help with my luggage
and everything. I would recommend the trip to anyone. It is the best-educated,
safest, best economical country in Central America. If there had been time we
could have taken a chocolate or coffee-plantation tour, or done many other
fabulous things than we had time for.
Or to save money, you could just as well go to the big
island of Hawaii and not worry about a foreign language.
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