Vacation Before Vacation Part One

 So we were out of town last week. My rantings and ravings part uno!

Arenal garden in front of the church. Extremely cloudy this trip!

We’ve gone off on a vacation before our real vacation. Three days in Arenal/La Fortuna, two days at Copey de Dota/Santa Maria and two days in San Jose. I’m not looking forward to the drive back because Backstabber Bridge is still closed, so it’s about another hour up to Liberia and another hour over back home to Tamarindo. There is a ferry, but there seems to be some confusion about how to reserve a spot, and a small number of spots available. It doesn’t help much that the ferry seems rather poorly run on it’s cruise to the Nicoya Peninsula. 

Sorry to start on such a downer note, but as I like to say, it is what it is. 

 Arenal and La Fortuna were lovely as usual. We made two trips to the Chocolate Fusion for delicious treats, and we had the usual amazing time at the villa we stayed in near the waterfall. We also spent a wonderful day having a spa day at one of the spas that features hot water pools of natural waters off the volcano at close to a 100 degrees F. 

The hottest pool at the natural spa

 I’d been afraid that the trip was going to start off on a bad note. There’s been extensive flooding throughout some of the areas we planned on traversing and I was just not sure what we would find. On the trek around Lake Arenal we encountered three mud slides we had to inch through, and three downed trees partially in the roadbed. The comedy was that the last tree down was some sort of palm, and in the wavering lights of our tiny car we both came to crazy conclusions as to what it was. Jim said it looked like a space ship and I thought it was an enormous python in the road. 

Front view down to La Fortuna from our villa

 After Arenal and the spectacular views from our villa we headed out east of La Fortuna and then south. We passed large fields filled with pineapples growing. I knew that several of the big fruitcake companies in the States had pineapple plantations there but we’d not been anywhere in those areas. No bad roads or flooding at all, and we drove through the famous (in Costa Rica only!) Tunel Zurqui before we ended up lost a few moments later near Heredia. 

 We drove around for awhile looking for a sign back to our highway lost as could be before stopping to ask a construction crew how to get to our next city of Cartago. Turns ont one of the guys in the crew lives there, said if we gave him a ride he’d put us on the right path. So off we went! To Cartago and beyond. Where we promptly got lost again, driving past the mall in Cartago we shopped at seven years ago and the main cathedral in town that houses the Virgin of Los Angeles. 

The cathedral in Cartago

 

There was just one problem with getting lost in Cartago, my Ibs decided to rear it’s ugly head. I started threatening to jump out of the car and just go to town on the sidewalk like those homeless folks do in the other Los Angeles. When I spotted the McDonalds I shrieked at Jim to stop, and an accident was avoided, thankfully. 

We ate and were soon back on the road to Santa Maria and beyond to Copey de Dota. From Cartago to the turnoff towards Santa Maria my dear husband was nearly causing me to crap my pants in fear. He’s in his early 70s now, and his nighttime driving skills suck so hard. He gets confused, mistaking the edges of the roadways. There was heavy fog, and he could not understand you just do not flip on your brights during fog conditions. Considering we were now on mountain switchbacks that looked like a drunk contractor followed a snake around the mountains when planning the roads I took over driving duties. I am no spring chicken at 64, but I don’t run off the road! We got to Copey de Dota in one piece and to the guesthouse we’re staying in. 

The Copey Learning Center. New Building from when Jim taught there.

 

This morning we had a tough conversation, about how both of us have worse eyesight, and deteriorating nighttime driving skills. The upshot is unless it is an emergency there will be no more nighttime driving anywhere. In Copey I woke up sick and feverish. I fear I have the newest variant of Covid. I can barely walk or stand here, we’re high up in the mountains so breathing is an issue. This morning we met our friend Ana, looked at her school and took a look at the new school in Copey. Jim used to teach English at the old building there. I was so dizzy and sick I ended up just going back to the guesthouse and going to bed. Jim went out and visited our former landlady and her family and now is having a reunion with his former students. 

Dota Coffee in huge bags and silos waiting to be shipped out all over the world!
 

 I do not want anyone to catch this crap I have so I masked this morning until I decided I needed to stay in bed. We’ll see how I am doing in the morning for our drive to San Jose and our suite at the Balmoral. We’d planned on going to museums and shops the last few days. I really want to have coffee at the Cafe Alma tearoom in the Theatre Nacional

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