Enough Excitement for the Whole Week

My mom finally arrived on Tuesdsay! After 3 days of sea kayaking, sleeping on the ground, peeing in the jungle, and cold showers, I was so ready to drop off the girls from my final group with Rustic and relax by the pool at a nice hotel with my mom. Though sea kayaking was cool, it wasn't exactly what I (or any of the girls for that matter) was expecting. We were actually in a gulf so it wasn't rough kayaking, just long and boring at times. My arms were burning after the first 15 minutes, no joke. But I had to put on a smile and positive attitude for the girls, who were fairing far worse than myself. They were not ready for the camping part of the trip either, especially in the rain. But we made roughed it and made it through with some good times like: learning how to properly open a coconut and make coconut candy; drink fresh lemon grass tea from natural lemon grass we found in the wild; visit an animal sanctuary with various types of monkeys (a spider monkey climbed on me and actually sat on my shoulders!), birds, and other animals that were being nurtured and cared for until they were ready to be released into the wild; and see dolphins jumping in the water from a distance. Everyone was thrilled to get back to civilization, but we got to experience a part of Costa Rica that not many other people get to.

So when my mom came, we explored San Jose a bit, but the city is not one of Latin America's finest, so after hitting up a couple of museums and a market, we went back to the hotel and relaxed. We got a rental car yesterday so today we set off for the Poas Volcano, which I had been to back when I came here with my high school 6 years ago, but barely remembered it. We got our fill of excitement within the first 10 minutes of setting out on our journey to the volcano when while merging onto the highway I "grazed" a police vehicle. I say graze because my mother claims I hit it, but we were barely nudged by the police car because I slammed on the breaks when it came into my lane. Back at home this would have been a ticket and a half, but the police officers just came over and made sure we and the car were ok, and sped off within 5 minutes. Pura vida! (Costa Rican saying for basically everything: awesome, great, thanks, cool, etc).

So despite that minor set back, we got to the volcano pretty early, but when we tried to see the massive crater and lagoon that the volcano is known for we were hugely let down because of the damn early morning fog. We took a 30 minute walk to one of the volcano's other, not as cool lagoons, and then decided to give this crater a second shot. Luckily, the fog had cleared and the view was amazing! Just like I had remembered it.

After the volcano we went to some la Paz Waterfall Gardens, which consist of 6 waterfalls and different animal houses. There were hummingbirds, monkeys, butterflies, birds, frogs, etc. It was cool, but after seeing all of those things in the wild, it felt fake and wasn't as good as the real deal. But the waterfalls were pretty cool. Oh, and they didn't top the sloth we saw hanging from a telephone wire on the way to the gardens! Amazing, it was probably only 15 feet up!

Since it was only around 2 pm and we still had half a day left when we finished there, we decided to give a the Cafe Britt coffee tour a try. Our handy guide book said there were only 3 tours offered throughout the day and they're during high season (we're in the low tourist season now), but being the apparent optimist that I am, I thought they would somehow be able to arrange a special tour just for us when we arrived. After going in the complete opposite direction and 15 kilmoters out of the way, we finally made it to the coffee place and no, of course there were no tours, there was but just one a day, at 11 a.m., though the gift shop was open until 5 p.m. and would we like to browse through there. Of course we would. At least there was free chocolate and coffee.

Two hours (when it should have only taken 30 minutes) and a half a dozen u-turns later, we finally arrived, exhausted and sore (the hikes to the volcano and waterfalls was rough!), to our hotel. Tomorrow we get to have more adventures through the twisty-turning roads and unmarked highways of Costa Rica to pick up my stepdad and stepsister at the airport! Pura vida!