Day 20
Santa Elena
Sleeping in a cloud isn’t always as restful as one would imagine. Seems ironic that this was the rainbow we saw the night before. Isn’t that interesting foreshadowing of the night to come.Last night our cloud as storming, pouring rain. Since all of our electronics were in backpacks on the floor I kept having nightmares that our room was flooding, ruining all our computers and kindles. Since there were no chairs or dressers, our bed would have act as the electronics Noah’s Arc. I woke up Paul and had him check the floors under the windows with his phone flashlight. I could have done that myself but I like to share my panicked moments with him. The flashlight woke the girls who wondered what was happening. I like to share my panicked moments with them, too. In the morning I was glad the Arc was unnecessary.
Breakfast always tastes better when you’re a little cold, a little damp, short of sleep, and a former Swiss banker makes it for you in a cloud. It also helps that everything we ate and drank (except for the bread) came from their garden. The coffee, jam, fresh oj, melon, pineapple, bananas. It was a simple breakfast, but one of the yummiest I’ve ever had. Cloud comfort food Swiss Banker style, a new family favorite.
The girls visited the parrots and the white tiger kitty, did a sloth-watch, and fed three puppies. Then we drove to see the volcano Arenal and La Fortuna. Cali wanted her sisters to experience the volcanic hotsprings, so we returned to Los Lagos. No objections here.
The trip through the mountains was a mix of stunning vistas and treacherous road grades. At one point we were driving below a terraced field where cows were grazing when one seemed to jump out of the sky and onto the road. It was so unexpected, no cow, then big cow.
He stood there looking at us, then as quickly as he’d appeared, he jumped back up into his field. It was almost comical.
At another point we were going up a hill that our Yaris couldn’t manage. I almost jumped out of the car to lessen the load, but we made it. At the next severe incline the four of us got out and walked up, just to make sure we could get the car up the hill. Our next option was going to be to get the luggage out, too, but we didn’t need to.
We got to the volcano safely in order to sign the active volcano waiver of no-guaranteed-safety. The hotel rooms for larger family’s with a trundle beds slid under each double. No fighting over covers tonight, girlies. We went to the see the butterflies, crocs, frogs, and ants.
The ant display is clever. It’s surrounded by water so they aren’t crawling all over you. Then there are branches that go from the exhibit up and out into the jungle–their little ant highways. Still a little too crawly for me, so I didn’t stay long.
We got to the hotsprings and relaxed in the pools. Ahhh, back to my new happy place. At supper
there were birds present and one confused giant beetle. He ended up flying into Kier’s hair. You
know the bug is huge when your sisters are yelling, “Get it out, get it out!!” and are referring to the monster bug that is not in their hair, but in yours.
Cali was happy she got to show her sisters one of her favorite places in Costa Rica. I was happy to
sit in the volcanic hotsprings one more time.