Costa Rica: Alajuela and Arenal
let's see...how long has it been? about three and a half years, it seems...
for those of you who do not know, i decided that i am going to use this journal only for travel notes, and in the past three and a half years we didn't do much traveling except for weekend-long trips and trips to russia
and finally, here we are, on our first long trip since Kirill Scottovich O'Neil was born, and, in fact, vacationing for this long for the first time without him, thanks to grandmas and grandpas
of all places, this time we decided to go to Costa Rica, and unlike our previous trips where the main goal was to do stuff, the goal of this trip is of the opposite nature -- we (or at least, i) really need a break before Kirill Scottovich becomes the big brother later this year
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today is tuesday, if i recall correctly, but our trip started on sunday
we landed in San Jose -- the costa rican capital -- in the evening, took a taxi to our bed & breakfast place called Hotel Los Volcanes in Alajuela, got to our room, read, and went to bed
in the morning we had an excellent breakfast served on the hotel's patio and then went for a walk around Alajuela -- we had a few hours to kill before our shuttle to the Arenal Volcano area
the town of Alajuela is pretty small, and after wondering for a block or two we came across their main park -- Central Park -- where all the benches were occupied by the locals...it seemed that no one was working that day, even though it was monday
we blended in by taking one of the benches in the shade and read for the rest of the time
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our shuttle picked us up early, and thus we arrived to Arenal earlier than expected as well -- instead of the promised 4 hours, it took us only 3, and i was glad that we decided not to drive ourselves -- the roads and drivers are pretty crazy here...we were on a two-lane mountainous road, when after a turn our deriver had to slam on the breaks because there were two trucks coming towards us -- one of them passing the other via our lane
the hotel we are staying in Arenal is called Lomas Del Volcan (note how they love volcanos around here)...that day we ended up settling in and then having dinner at the hotel's restaurant
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the next day after breakfast, we took a dip in the semi-hot tub and then went to see the rain forest in the afternoon by means of the hanging bridges...on our two-mile hike, with the help of our guide, we spotted a humming bird and her nest, three poisonous eyelash wiper snakes, two types of monkeys, two black vultures, one turkey vulture, the legs of the tarantula hiding in its nest, two tucans, a wild pig, leaf cutters, a parrot, and finally someone resembling a racoon
at night it started raining, pouring in fact, and the rain is still coming...we are sitting on our porch overlooking the volcano which we cannot see today at all due to the fog and catching up on our reading
tomorrow we are heading for the beach
for those of you who do not know, i decided that i am going to use this journal only for travel notes, and in the past three and a half years we didn't do much traveling except for weekend-long trips and trips to russia
and finally, here we are, on our first long trip since Kirill Scottovich O'Neil was born, and, in fact, vacationing for this long for the first time without him, thanks to grandmas and grandpas
of all places, this time we decided to go to Costa Rica, and unlike our previous trips where the main goal was to do stuff, the goal of this trip is of the opposite nature -- we (or at least, i) really need a break before Kirill Scottovich becomes the big brother later this year
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
today is tuesday, if i recall correctly, but our trip started on sunday
we landed in San Jose -- the costa rican capital -- in the evening, took a taxi to our bed & breakfast place called Hotel Los Volcanes in Alajuela, got to our room, read, and went to bed
in the morning we had an excellent breakfast served on the hotel's patio and then went for a walk around Alajuela -- we had a few hours to kill before our shuttle to the Arenal Volcano area
the town of Alajuela is pretty small, and after wondering for a block or two we came across their main park -- Central Park -- where all the benches were occupied by the locals...it seemed that no one was working that day, even though it was monday
we blended in by taking one of the benches in the shade and read for the rest of the time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
our shuttle picked us up early, and thus we arrived to Arenal earlier than expected as well -- instead of the promised 4 hours, it took us only 3, and i was glad that we decided not to drive ourselves -- the roads and drivers are pretty crazy here...we were on a two-lane mountainous road, when after a turn our deriver had to slam on the breaks because there were two trucks coming towards us -- one of them passing the other via our lane
the hotel we are staying in Arenal is called Lomas Del Volcan (note how they love volcanos around here)...that day we ended up settling in and then having dinner at the hotel's restaurant
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
the next day after breakfast, we took a dip in the semi-hot tub and then went to see the rain forest in the afternoon by means of the hanging bridges...on our two-mile hike, with the help of our guide, we spotted a humming bird and her nest, three poisonous eyelash wiper snakes, two types of monkeys, two black vultures, one turkey vulture, the legs of the tarantula hiding in its nest, two tucans, a wild pig, leaf cutters, a parrot, and finally someone resembling a racoon
at night it started raining, pouring in fact, and the rain is still coming...we are sitting on our porch overlooking the volcano which we cannot see today at all due to the fog and catching up on our reading
tomorrow we are heading for the beach