Rearview Mirror: VOLCANO!

Our next stop in Costa Rica was Hotel Los Lagos in the Arenal area, close to the volcano. Had to haggle with Los Lagos for a nice room since they had us assigned to a room right by the parking lot. I would not have been happy.

Got room 249

This was an awesome room with a great view

which was quite a hike to get to, over a hanging bridge and up a steep path.

But it was quiet, away from the crowds, and we were very happy there. We also got a great workout walking up and down that path! This is a very large and busy property. What a difference from Chachagua! We had a gorgeous view of the volcano beyond the rolling, grassy lawns and flowers.

It was shrouded in fog most of the time, making it all the more mysterious, but when the clouds parted, it was magnificent!

"Peekaboo!"

There are replicas of this volcano throughout the property.

SEE?

Told you!

Yes, there's even a replica in the bar. What? You thought I was kidding???

We went down to check out the crocodiles, frogs, butterflies and ant farm that Christian had recommended seeing. We peered through the wrought iron fence at the crocodiles lazing on their islands

Come and get me!

and walked into a domed butterfly garden with giant, bright blue Monarchs fluttering around.

In the Garden of Eden (or is it Inagadaveda???)

The ant farm was especially interesting, with rows and rows of the Leafcutter ants we had seen in the forest marching on branches above our heads, carrying bits of leaves back to their nest. They are constantly in motion.

This is quite the ant farm!

The swim up bar quickly became our new home away from home. We spent every afternoon and evening here. It was fun, lively, and the warm water from the natural hot springs (you know, there’s this volcano nearby?) was very inviting.

A water slide shoots you into the warm pool if you are so inclined, or you can walk in with dignity and your makeup intact like me.

Whee! Clearly, Kyle is not worried about his makeup

There is also a larger slide into a cold water pool, which didn’t seem that appealing to me, but all the kids loved it, including Kyle. It’s long and steep, you zoom through a scary tunnel and plunge into the cold water. Gasp! To my credit, I tried it. Once.

Kyle met lots of young people his age here and was trying his best to work through the language barrier with a cutie from France. I sat on a barstool in the pool, nursing my Margarita and watching all the happy people talking and laughing in the pool. There’s a little island in the middle where you can climb on if you get tired of the warm water. At night, lights all around the pool area turn different colors. The bar also has a dry side and this is where we ate dinner every night.

It was useless to try and resist the Margaritas!

We filled up on nutritious fare like nachos and French fries. Well, hey, we were on vacation!

Can you see the horses? They went thataway. The iguana is fake

We were sitting at the bar, when, to my astonishment, a group of horses went galloping up the sidewalk. I grabbed my new camera, focused and clicked! But I clicked the off button instead of the shutter button. That's why you can't see the horses in the above picture. Pretty slick, right? I've always been very coordinated.

Our wonderful room was quite spacious and had a front and back door with porches on both sides. We had a refrigerator and flat screen TV! One evening, I went outside to watch the thunder storm.We had just come back from the pool and were feeling lucky that the rain had waited until we were safely indoors. Yup, everything was going our way. I settled into one of the comfy chairs on the porch and watched the rain falling softly. Kyle came out to join me, cleverly closing the door behind him, and we were locked out of our room. (!!!) “Gee, Kyle, I sure hope you have a key.” I said.

“What? No!”

It was a long, soggy walk down to the lobby to get new keys. We walked solemnly, rain soaking through our hoodies, neither saying a word.

On Day 2 in Los Lagos we went river rafting. We rode with a van full of fellow adventurers and our entertaining guide, Carlos, stopped along the way for us to try dragon fruit. It is so strange – a kind of hairy looking red fruit and when you peel it, you find what looks like a clear egg that is edible. You just have to be careful not to eat the seed hiding inside.

Weird, right? (internet photo)

Back on the bus, we rode for another 20 minutes while Carlos explained how to paddle, what to do and what not to do. I started getting a little scared. What had I gotten us into? What if I couldn't remember the instructions??? When we got there, he led us down a long muddy road, stopping along the way to point out poison ivy and poisonous red frogs with blue legs. (They aren’t poisonous unless you eat them – Whew! Good thing we filled up on dragon fruit!!)

Isn't he cute? (internet photo)

We got down to the river and the rubber boats and were given life vests, helmets and paddles. A review and practice session ensued. You have to sit on the side of the boat with one foot tucked underneath the seat in front of you so you don't fall out and listen closely to your captain's instructions. We were assigned to a boat with Captain Warner and two other couples - one from the Grand Cayman Islands, and a newlywed couple from New York. Captain Warner instructed us to hold our paddles together and yell, "Pura Vida!" which is the Costa Rican equivalent of "This is great! We're all gonna die!"

Pura Vida! (internet photo)

Then we were bobbing down the river, following Warner's orders, "Lean in! Lean out! Paddle forward! Paddle backward!" The scariest command was, "Get Down! Get Down!" which was yelled in an urgent tone that meant to quickly move to the floor of the boat, hold your paddles upright so you don't smack your neighbor in the face, close your eyes and pray. We were literally paddling for our lives.

This is what it looked like (internet photo)

We got stuck on a rock at one point and our boat started to flood. Warner had us lean to the right to empty the boat then yelled urgently, "Back to your positions!" but I couldn’t climb up the steep, slippery sides of the rubber boat. It was physically impossible. Kyle was yelling at me, Warner kept shouting, but I couldn't move. Kyle finally gave me a hard shove and our lives were saved! Grand Cayman girl almost fell out because she was having trouble too (which means I'm not the only spaz).

It was 2 ½ hours of pure exhilaration. There was thunder and lightening in the distance and rain pouring on our heads as we paddled furiously with our metal oars (!!?) When the river calmed down a little, Kyle looked at me curiously and said, "Uh, Mom, what's wrong with your face? You have black streaks running all over." The rain combined with the river water splashing into the boat had melted my mascara and it was running in attractive black streams down my face. Anybody remember Tammy Faye? Yeah, probably like that only worse. I wiped at my face in between paddling and asked Kyle if it was better. He said, oh so very honestly, "Well, at least you don't look horrible any more." Everyone was laughing and Newlywed New York girl, who happened to be a freelance makeup artist, said, oh so very diplomatically, "You have the smokey eye look going on!"

Warner did such a great job of barking orders and making it fun at the same time. He has been doing this the longest of the other boat captains – 18 years – and his knowledge of the river and equipment made me feel safe even when it was scary.

Yay! We survived the rafting trip!

They prepared fresh fruit for us when it was over

We were given water, beer, towels and a place to change into dry clothes.

Then they drove us to a nice local restaurant where a delicious lunch was prepard for us – chicken, beef in yummy sauces, homemade tortillas, rice, papaya which was prepared so it resembled squash, a veggie silimar to potato, salad. Then they did a demonstration of coffee making – pouring boiling water into a special filter filled with locally grown coffee grounds.

This is how we make coffee in our neighborhood!

But wait, there's more! After coffee, they served us all a slice of sugar cane which we were instructed to bite and suck the juice out of but not eat. Then they had volunteers put the sugar cane through a press. Kyle helped along with the New York Newlyweds. The sugar cane juice was pressed into a bottle, then they twisted the cane and pressed again. They doubled the cane and pressed a third time, extracting the rest of the juice.

They had us all try the sugar juice, then the adults were given the fermented alcohol from the sugar cane – which is basically moonshine, and burned all the way down!

Cough - now I know why they call it Fire Water!

I highly recommend this company, Wave Expeditions. Kyle and I both felt this was so worth the money. We got way more than we expected and it was truly a day to remember and one of the highlights of our trip.

The next morning, I woke at 5:30 – heard something scrabbling outside our door. I crawled on all fours towards the door and saw a shadow moving back and forth. I flung open the door but nothing was there, so I Went outside and sat on the front porch looking at the fog shrouded landscape and listening to the birds and unusual wild life noises. Monkeys? Monsters? When I went back inside, I heard a fluttering noise and thought a bird had flown into our room. I didn’t see anything though, until I looked at the far wall and saw what I thought might be a bat. It was actually a huge butterfly and stayed on the wall the entire time we were in the room.

Just stopped by to say hello (or suck your blood. Your choice.)

Our last activity in Los Lagos was a horseback ride to a waterfall. This time, the horses were not gaited and looked sad. I rode Milionario and Kyle rode Snake. It was about a 45 minute ride, then we left the horses and hiked down a steep. slippery stone path to the waterfall.

There was a steep ravine on our right, nothing to keep us from plummeting to our death if we slipped. Gasp. I worried about the little kids with us. The waterfall was breathtaking and worth the long hike. After we huffed and puffed our way back up to the horses, we were taken to an idiginous area where native Costa Ricans greeted us with their traditional Kapi Kapi greeting

and gave us a presentation including a drink of sugarcane mixed with a couple other ingredients. It was sweet, slightly alcoholic. They described their culture and way of life in their native language while our guide translated. They had colorful, hand made masks, flasks and jewelry on display and I bought a little canteen sort of thingy which I'm sure will be useful for future horseback rides.

On our last day in Los Lagos, Kyle showed me a Mirador (lookout point) he had discovered. We walked past more hot springs which I hadn’t seen before and up a long steep road. It was foggy, misty, and we couldn’t see the volcano. At the top of the hill, there was some construction going on

Hey! Why didn't we ride those pretty horses!

which looked like it might be a future restaurant with a spectacular view. On the way down, the sun came out a little. We passed some horseback riders who had ridden to the lake by the volcano. I was mad at myself that I didn’t know about this possibility.