Our stay at Steve and Jocelyn, originally planned to last for two days finally grew to six. Steve was able to locate an additional problem in the transmission, and we had to take it down and replace a part that broke in the accident. He spent a lot of time driving me back and forth to Liberia for frequent visits to the Toyota dealership, and I hope one day I will be able to help him as much as he helped me.
Meanwhile, Jocelyn was cooking us delicious food that gave us a break from Central America meals.
On Sunday we stopped at Playa Conchal before saying goodbye. After a few hours brake, we took the road to the highlands, in direction of the Arenal volcano. Quickly, as we were going up, we realized the weather on the other side of the mountain was really bad.
What a contrast with the hot and windy weather we had previously. As we entered the rain forest it was – guess what – raining really hard. The visibility was low as well. To admire the Laguna Arenal, it was not a problem as the fog was adding to the dramatic splendor of the lake and the jungle. But we had to forget about seeing the active volcano.
We could not even see the base of it, in fact. Sad story, but I shall survive, since I already saw the monster in action a few years back.
At the end of the day, we passed the town of La Fortuna, and as the night was falling, we reached our destination.
Lucy and Mark invited us few days back to spend a night on the ground of their unusual hotel. Mark, another refugee from journalism, used to be a sports writer in a newspaper in Hawaii. He is now on a sabbatical leave with his wife, and together, they manage the tree house hotel. Guests rent a cabana built on trees and can enjoy fully the rain forest.
We had diner with the couple, and decided to go explore the vast forest behind the hotel the following day. I stayed few more hours with Mark drinking a bottle of red wine, and watching the rainfall. It continued all night and we got somewhat wet, which is not really a big deal, since last time we saw heavy rain was back in the U.S.
We woke up at 5:30 a.m. to go for a two-hours walk in the forest. There we got drenched. The rain hadn’t stop all night, and it looked like it will not stop for the next 200 years.
We found a lot of orange, banana and lemon trees in the jungle, as well as a lot of other fruits I could not identify. There was a cascade down the road, as well as a river, which brown water was flowing intensely.
Back on our campsite, I folded back the tent and we had breakfast with our hosts.
We are now back on the road driving south, toward the Pacific Ocean. Two more days in Costa Rica, and we will – hopefully – be in Panama.
While you’ve been on the road, the hit movie “Avatar” has been playing here. The Costa Rican rain forest looks a lot like the fictional world of Pandora, sans the floating mountains, of course. Great pictures.
Nick — So glad you are rolling along now. Good luck that everything is on track! – brian
Wow great tree house reminds me of that Robin’s crusade disney movie. So the trans is fixed so cool surprized you could drive as far as you did broken. Panama sould be a great adventure to pass through I’d imagine.
I am happy for you guys. I can tell that you are enjoying every minute in Costa Rica. If we could just have some of that heavy rain here in southern California…
I has been rainy these days in Costa Rica, not the average for January.
Im very glad that you visit my country, you are such an inspiration.
Will keep reading this blog
Looks like things are going alright! Costa Rica is such a fun place.
Travel boy what the hell is going on. Are you on vacation or going around the world. Hell fire you been in central american for months. Get your ass in gear and get around the world already. Man i may be dead before you get back to new york city. Well have fun and becareful Joe from bama
Sounds like you two are back on the road again and doing what you intended to do… TRAVEL! Keep up the good reports and the GREAT PIX. It’s starting to look and feel like a travel adventure. Hopefully there will be a book and book signings!
Looking forward to meeting the “World Travelers” one day! Cheers…
Sounds like you two are back on the road again and doing what you intended to do… TRAVEL! Keep up the good reports and the GREAT PIX. It’s starting to look and feel like a travel adventure. Hopefully there will be a book and book signings!
Looking forward to meeting the “World Travelers” one day! Cheers…
PS – I know it’s way to early to be thinking in this mode… but have you thought about how you’re going to sit in one place, day after day, after this trip has come to a successful conclusion? That itch to explore won’t simply fade away… Just early food for thought!
Fantastic pics Nick! I’m enjoying the trip very much, I feel like a cyber castaway. Too bad you don’t have video. Looking forward to your next posting.
I’d like to mention to Bill Brown, another poster on this blog, that I was telling my husband this morning that I would love to take the kids to tree house on vacation because it resembles the world of Avatar. They would love it. Then I saw the post on this blog and it was soo funny that I was saying the same thing this morning!
Hey! Great to see you guys back on track. What exactly is that part… looks almost like a sheared output shaft or something of that nature. Regardless… good to hear you’re up and running again. Hopefully it didn’t cost too much.
I was afraid you guys were planning to stay in Costa Rica forever! Good to see that Panama has finally arrived.