Tales of the Cloud Forest Part II: To Grandmother's House We Go
Today our merry band, now four people, Tina from California joined us. Today we finally got away from the city.
The road conditions were pretty decent at first. I enjoyed the lush scenery. I love how vivid the greens are out here. (For any of you Mel Brooks fans, my title for this blog was nearly "Everything's so GREEEEEN!")
We stopped in a really fabulous topiary garden. There were bushes formed into all sorts of interesting shapes...usually with funny faces on them. I took plenty of pictures I'll share later.
Then we got to the long and winding road part of the trip. I learned the hard way that I should have taken my dramamine as I was soon as green as the scenery. It was then that we stopped at our tour guide's grandma's house for lunch. One I got over my wooziness, the meal was fantastic....fresh veggies, seafood......and a dessert that we dubbed "Not-Flan".....it was a custard type consistency that was actually made out of corn meal. Very tasty. I was also delighted that we actually got to see somebody's home.
Finally we made it to La Fortuna, home of the incredible disappearing volcano. We do have a great view of the volcano from our hotel.....for a few seconds a day when the clouds clear enough. If you come to Costa Rica...I'd recommend coming during the dry season. I found it ironic that when Wisconsin was gray and rainy in June I was fantasizing about coming here....where it is gray and rainy. Although I'm told the sun will be making an appearance tomorrow.
Still, we are having a lot of fun. I got a big kick just hanging out in the hotel bar, where it is always happy hour, drinking mojitos with my travel companions and comparing notes on our different trips over the years. Tori and I both got valuable advice from Angela...who is at the tail end of a 2 month journey to Central America. In return Angela learned about the wonders of American pot luck, an idea Angela plans on taking back to Australia with her.
Tomorrow Tori and I are going on a "Safari Float." We'll be on a raft, slowly floating down the river, watching the animals....and hoping that none of them hurl their feces at us. I'm taking a perverse pride that by the end of this trip I'll be able to add "howler monkey" to the kind of shit I can recognize by smell.
In the meanwhile, I am enjoying the quiet in the lobby now that the drunks have gone. It was a good opportunity to joke around in Spanish with the hotel clerk who said "I think the whole country can hear them!" To which I responded "Could you speak up a little bit? They can't hear you in Nicaragua!"
The road conditions were pretty decent at first. I enjoyed the lush scenery. I love how vivid the greens are out here. (For any of you Mel Brooks fans, my title for this blog was nearly "Everything's so GREEEEEN!")
We stopped in a really fabulous topiary garden. There were bushes formed into all sorts of interesting shapes...usually with funny faces on them. I took plenty of pictures I'll share later.
Then we got to the long and winding road part of the trip. I learned the hard way that I should have taken my dramamine as I was soon as green as the scenery. It was then that we stopped at our tour guide's grandma's house for lunch. One I got over my wooziness, the meal was fantastic....fresh veggies, seafood......and a dessert that we dubbed "Not-Flan".....it was a custard type consistency that was actually made out of corn meal. Very tasty. I was also delighted that we actually got to see somebody's home.
Finally we made it to La Fortuna, home of the incredible disappearing volcano. We do have a great view of the volcano from our hotel.....for a few seconds a day when the clouds clear enough. If you come to Costa Rica...I'd recommend coming during the dry season. I found it ironic that when Wisconsin was gray and rainy in June I was fantasizing about coming here....where it is gray and rainy. Although I'm told the sun will be making an appearance tomorrow.
Still, we are having a lot of fun. I got a big kick just hanging out in the hotel bar, where it is always happy hour, drinking mojitos with my travel companions and comparing notes on our different trips over the years. Tori and I both got valuable advice from Angela...who is at the tail end of a 2 month journey to Central America. In return Angela learned about the wonders of American pot luck, an idea Angela plans on taking back to Australia with her.
Tomorrow Tori and I are going on a "Safari Float." We'll be on a raft, slowly floating down the river, watching the animals....and hoping that none of them hurl their feces at us. I'm taking a perverse pride that by the end of this trip I'll be able to add "howler monkey" to the kind of shit I can recognize by smell.
In the meanwhile, I am enjoying the quiet in the lobby now that the drunks have gone. It was a good opportunity to joke around in Spanish with the hotel clerk who said "I think the whole country can hear them!" To which I responded "Could you speak up a little bit? They can't hear you in Nicaragua!"