 |
|
Hello. We have left you quite behind
in group emails, which is a shame because now I have far too much to write
about. Our time in Costa Rica is almost over and we are preparing to head
north to Guatemala. Mexico will be the next stop after Guatemala, and that
somehow makes me feel like we are getting very near to the end of our
trip. Mexico was our jumping off point when we headed into the Pacific
almost four years ago, so it is strange to be almost back there again.
Sometimes I really look forward to a house again. Take for example this
afternoon when I was trying to make lunch. I couldn't find something, so I
was searching in our fridge, having to bend way over into it so that I was
just about standing on my head, moving papayas and lettuces out of the
way, looking for something that I actually never found. In a house at home
you can just open the door, and everything has a place of its own. The
fridge door is not also the major counter space as it is on our boat. I am
sure that conveniences like that loose their novelty very quickly though.
We have enjoyed our time in Costa Rica very much.
The weather is beautiful, with sunshine day after day. Rainy days here are
as rare as entirely clear and sunny days were in Panama when we were
there. The boat is finally starting to dry out after all of the humidity
we have been subjecting it to. We were starting to grow mold everywhere
because things were so damp, and opening some of our lockers and
floorboards was a real challenge because all of the wood had swollen with
the humidity. It is nice to get to a dryer climate, and I am sure that
Margarita appreciates it.
About two weeks ago we rented a car to do some
inland travel and visit some more tourist spots. It seems that we
invariably go to higher, colder places when we do land travel, and this
time was no different. We headed for the hills. We spent our first night
in the touristy town of Fortuna near Arenal Volcano. The town is in sight
of the volcano, which is active, so we were hoping to see a bit of a show,
but it remained covered by cloud the entire time that we were there. Most
of the second day was spent in the car. The Costa Rican roads are small
and overloaded. Even the Interamericana highway, which runs the length of
the Americas, has only two lanes in Costa Rica. The smaller roads often
don't even have a center line painted on, and on those roads that do, the
locals will totally ignore it and drive in the middle of the road. It was
very intimidating when the oncoming traffic did this. Some of the roads
are covered with potholes, so that it is sort of like an obstacle course,
dodging the big pits. Then there are also lots of fairly major roads which
aren't paved at all. Almost all of the tourists rent 4WD cars because of
this, so sometimes when we pulled into parking lots there was a whole
lineup of cars looking just like us, often even the same model. The nation
as a whole seems to be making a very strong effort to improve the quality
of their roads though, so things may be getting better. There were road
works all over the place. As we started going through one of the road
works, behind a truck, we were stopped and one of the workers passed us a
small red flag. The man explained what it was for to us, but it was in
fast Spanish and we couldn't really understand, so we just decided to go
with the flow and move along. We assumed that we were being used as a
messenger and were supposed to bring the flag down to someone further
along that needed one. So, every time we passed one of the workers on the
road we stopped and tried to pass them the flag. They kept waving us on
through, saying "ultimo" (last one), but we didn't know which group was
the last group. We were feeling quite silly by this time, making up
stories about the stupid car of gringos that couldn't get rid of their
flag. Finally we reached a man who was willing to take it. He was indeed
at the end of the road works, and there was a line of cars behind him
waiting to come through. Then we finally figured out the reason that we
had been given the flag. It was a signal to show the man at the other end
that the traffic from our side was all through and he could let the cars
on his side start through.
Our next stop was another volcano, this time Poas
Volcano. It was quite a bit higher and colder there. We were actually in
jeans and coats and wishing for sneakers. For this volcano we walked up to
the rim of the crater and looked in, but volcano craters are never quite
as impressive as I imagine them to be. A crater is just a big empty bowl
shape. This one had a green lake on one edge, a strange, opaque green. Up
there the clouds kept blowing by and changing very fast, so that our
visibility could halve in distance in a matter of seconds. Then we walked
through a dwarf cloud forest, which was strange and dark and gloomy. It
was not somewhere to visit at night. It reminded me of the typical fantasy
evil and untamed forest, where even the trees take on strange characters
of their own and don't grow in the right way.
The next day we went for a couple of walks in the
Monteverde Cloud Forest. We had heard that driving up to Monteverde was a
nightmare because the road was so bad, but most of the road was newly
smoothed out and graded in preparation for sealing, so it was quite a
reasonably smooth ride. Once in Monteverde we really enjoyed the hikes.
After one trail where we had a crowd of people constantly on our tail, we
managed to find trails with fewer people. We even saw four howler monkeys
in a treetop sort of wrestling each other around, stretching out like they
were in sun chairs, and, of course, doing the barking howl that has given
them their name. Later we went on another walk. This had suspension
bridges up among the treetops. The trails were really beautiful in the
setting sun, with the different types of leaves making interesting
contrast effects. Looking down to the forest floor it was impossible to
see the actual floor itself because of the thick growth.
The next day we went horseback riding. None of us
is much good at riding horses and Mom is the only one with any clue at
all. The rest of us have no clue about trotting or cantering and most of
the time are lucky if the horse obeys us at all. It is a bit of a shame
because it seems like something that would be a great deal of fun if you
did know how. These horses were some of the most responsive and best
looked after that we have seen for trail horses. They gave us several
opportunities to practice our trotting and cantering skills, but I still
couldn't get the hang of it and had a very bouncy ride. My horse was the
slow one and took a great deal of encouragement to keep up with the rest
of the pack. There was an area where all of the horses started to canter
except mine, which refused to be pushed beyond a trot. Our guide decided
that he would make my horse canter, so, telling everyone else to wait, he
followed behind me on his horse, smacking mine to make it move. And he did
get it going, it's true. My horse knew when it had better obey. It did not
often seem to feel that when I was giving commands though.
After that it was time to head home. We decided to
take a ferry across the Gulf of Nicoya instead of driving around as we had
done on the way out. We thought that that would be quicker. Big mistake.
We ended up waiting for the ferry for two and a half hours. There was a
line of 180 cars in front of us when we got there, waiting their turn and
there was only one ferry, which held thirty-some cars, and the loading-uloading
process was very slow. When we first arrived, of course, we had no idea
how long our wait would be. Even as the ferry took half an hour to return
we remained in denial. It was really, really hot. There was scarcely any
wind at all, and to make matters worse, we had a bit of a time crunch
because we were trying to get our propane tanks filled before the place
shut. We wondered how on earth the locals stood for this, but looking
around, we realized that the wait really didn't bother them at all. They
were dancing to the salsa music put over the loudspeaker, talking, and
playing games. It was party time! This was just one part of their
vacation. We eventually made it across, to our great relief. By the time
we finally arrived in the town it was quite late, but we checked out the
propane place anyways. They were indeed shut, but we asked them if they
could please take pity on the poor waifs and fill our tanks (or something
to that effect), the man opened the gate for us, and five minutes later we
were back on the road, with full tanks once again. Hooray!!
Back on the boat we prepared for the arrival of
some friends. They were coming out to spend a few days with us. It was
only two people so they were able to stay with us on the boat, giving us
lots of flexibility. With more than seven people it becomes a real squeeze
fitting on our boat. Even with two extra people they end up having to
sleep in the living area and there is not enough space for all of us at
our table. We spent a few days with them relaxing, and using all of our
toys, like the windsurfer, kneeboard, and sailing dinghy, stuff that we
are normally too lazy or too busy to use. We also found some pretty decent
boogie boarding waves. We moved slowly and visited several anchorages that
we wouldn't have visited otherwise. Having friends out is always a good
excuse to take our time.
And now we are on our lonesome again, about to
leave Costa Rica and head on to Guatemala, then Mexico. Today we had a
very blustery boisterous sail with the wind gusting up to 40 knots, and
the boat heeling up to 35 degrees on a wave. That is not what we are used
to. It made us appreciate the moderate wind that we have been having up
until now. Wish us luck up the coast. Bronwen
.
|
