El Volcan and departure

Today is my last day in CR and it is with definite mixed emotions that I leave. On the one hand, I am sick AGAIN, faced with the reality that no one in this country must wash their hands regularly. I´ve become obsessed w/ hand sanitizer, but to no avail. So, the thought of staying healthy for over a week at a time is a definite draw to go back to the US. Then, there are my family and friends...all of whom I miss very much and look forward to seeing. However, on the flip side, this experience has only opened my eyes to how much of the world there is to see and I cannot imagine staying in the States for much longer once I return...a few weeks at most, then off again to parts unknown as of yet.

I haven´t had a chance to write about my adventure last weekend and wanted to get it down before I throw myself into the Christmas rush as soon as I step off the plane in Boston. This was the trip I imagined myself taking last weekend:

The rental car is delivered exactly on time and it´s an automatic (because I forgot to ask about that when I booked it). I pick up Angela at her house, go to my house and pick up my bag and we hit the road. We drive safely and with out any problems to Fortuna and the trip takes a mere 4 hours, much to our surprise at how easy the roads in CR are to navigate.
We check into our hotel and enjoy a hot shower, followed by a comfortable sleep in our gorgeous resort room. In the morning, we awake to rumbles of the nearby volcano and as we look out our window, we are greeted with an awe inspiring view. I change into the clothes I carefully packed and we are off to a lovely breakfast at the restaurant nestled serenely in a lush, tropical rainforest setting. Next, we set off to explore the volcano, taking in the delightful vistas and many photo ops. Angela returns to the hotel for a massage and I check out the hot springs, all of which excede my expectations. Later that evening, we dine at the Observatory Lodge, where we take in the sights of lava, freely flowing from the magnificent volcano. We finish off the night at the local disco, where we both meet the men of our dreams and decide to settle down in Fortuna to have babies and...ok that last part about marriage and babies was not in the plans, but it´s about as far fetched as the rest of the story I've written so far.


Here´s what really happened:
The car was dropped off over an hour late. It was a manual. Angela cannot drive a manual. I can barely. Did I mention that there are a lot of hills/mountains in Costa Rica? And that I´m not so great with first gear? Um, yeah. Anyway, we did go to my house to get my bag but left without it somehow so I was stuck w/ no clean clothes for the weekend. Or contacts. Or anything. Great. The drive took 7.5 hours because we drove about two hours out of our way and had to backtrack. There are NO signs in CR. Like, worse than Boston.


Our hotel was really fabulous and the showers were hot. The roads were a nightmare and I had to drive the whole way, everywhere. It was cloudy for all of the time were were there, with the exception of 30 minutes. At first, we thought it was hoax and the entire town existed for no reason at all and that the volcano did not exist. We did catch a glimpse of it though, so that theory was out. Angela did get her massage and I did check out the hot springs at our hotel. (I had a bathing suit, shorts and a T-shirt with me that I took to school earlier in the day to go to the beach.)
We drove up to the Observatory Lodge (will have to describe the roads later, but let´s just say that I´m VERY glad we had a 4 wheel drive vehicle). They don´t let anyone in after 5pm unless you´re a hotel guest. WTF????? Ok...down the hill we went. We did find a place to check out some lava flowing and that was cool. Even with the clouds, we could tell that it was lava and very hot at that.

The ride home was better and only 6 or so hours. The views in the daylight were magnificent. We were only 20 mins from our houses when we had to cross the last bridge. Ah the bridge. This is a story for another time. However, here are a couple of photos taken from the car, looking down onto the "bridge" as we drove over it:


















I have to get to the airport and pray that flights are running close to on schedule so I don´t wind up spending Christmas in NC.

See you all soon!!!