Hotel Arenal Vista
El Castillo, Costa Rica
I'm sitting on my porch overlooking Lake Arenal.
Impressively, there are four American high school cross-country athletes, boys, doing hill work up the long steep driveway. A kid with a backward blue baseball cap is leading the way. Three of the four removed their t-shirts after two laps. They've already done ten laps. I wonder how long they'll be at it. I'll ask them at breakfast.
There is a cool breeze coming off the lake. There is a slight drizzle and every species of bird must be living in the jungle behind me. If you listen carefully, you can hear them in the attached audio file. Birds and Howler monkeys You might even be able to hear the howler monkeys in the distant background. What a symphony!
Yesterday began with a whimper and ended with a bang. Where do I begin? I'll try from the beginning.
We met for breakfast at the usual 7 a.m. There was no food selection to be made. They served us rice, beans and scrambled eggs. Take it or leave it. I took it, along with some tasty, strong Nicaraguan coffee which I refilled three times.
We loaded our bags on the van at 8 and hopped in. We were transported from San Juan Del Sur to the Costa Rica border. It took us about 20 minutes to get through customs. They shuffled us from one person to another, each wanting to see our passport, one asking for my declaration form. I was curious as to weather someone would cross-check the passport number on the form so I wrote in a made-up one. No one blinked.
We re-boarded the van and drove another hour south where we had lunch and met up with the guy who brought our new bikes. Disappointing, these bikes are not nearly as good as the ones we had in Nicaragua and we will have them for the next seven days. They are a no name Chinese brand, only 21 speeds, cheap components and mechanical brakes. They gave me a medium instead of a large. That might not seem like much but it is. Even with the seat in its highest position, I couldn't extend my legs, making it difficult to get any momentum, especially on those steep rocky uphills. Thankfully the bike rental guy is bringing me a new one this morning.
We ate a long lunch again to avoid the peak heat. We were on the road by 2:30. Ordinarily we would have had plenty of time to make it to the hotel by the 5:30 sunset. We were first delayed by a couple of wipe outs. On one, going up a steep incline, John couldn't clip out fast enough and he fell sideways, right into Crystal who then topped into the ditch on the side of the road. She got pretty banged up, long scratches on her right leg, a deep cut on her knee. She's a real trooper though. She cleaned her wounds quickly, applied a band aid and off she went.
Not much further down the road, when we had stopped for a little water, Margaret let out a big scream. She had been bitten by a bug. It took awhile to get some ointment out of the van but once we did, and applied it to Margaret's arm, she felt better.
We stopped a couple of times along the way to admire toucans and other birds. We had lost some time but so far so good.
Along the way we needed to cross four rivers. The first three were about 50 feet wide and shin deep. These were easy to cross but our feet and shoes got soaking wet.
At about 5:20, shortly before sunset, we encounter a much different river. It was 750 feet wide, at times knee deep, and a mildly strong current. Our van led the way. It got stuck about a quarter of the way across. We tried hard to push it but it would not budge. Oh boy.
Given our remaining distance, the impending darkness and the fact that we had no bike lights, we abandoned the van and our driver, Antonio and our bags.
We biked for another 30 minutes, the last 15 of which was in the pitch dark. The intermittent cars weren't expecting us. This was jarring for them and for us. Their approach was too close for comfort.
We reached the top of a hill where we stopped to gain our bearings. Fredder then realized that we had missed the turn a couple of miles back. Ha. Yet another obstacle to overcome.
We backtracked and finally found the turn. The last quarter mile was incredibly steep. In first gear, pumping my legs as hard as I could, my heart pounding and my lungs sucking air, I made it without having to get off the bike. Phew. A good way to end an interesting day. Or so we thought.
We ordered a round of beers, Dave joined a French Canadien girl for a game of pool, and we received good news that our bags were on the way. Antoni had called a friend with a pickup truck who towed the van back to the original side. They had unloaded the bags into the truck and using its four-wheel drive, were able to make it across. Antonio will drive the van the long way around this morning.
As we started our second round of beers Fredder approached and in his soft Nicaraguan accent sheepishly said; "I'm sorry to have to say this guys but we're at the wrong hotel. Ours is back down the road a bit." I thought he was joking. The others looked incredulous. When it was clear that he wasn't kidding, John let loose on him. I was taken aback by the severity John's reaction. I had been amused by the absurdity of the situation, feeling that this error was an ironic topping to our trail of mishaps. Not John. He was seething, demanding that Fredder pay for our beers. An odd demand, I thought. Fredder tried apologizing again, said that he was willing to pay for the beers, and added that he "wanted to talk it through and wished that John wouldn't be so angry." John said "let's finish this discussion outside", which they did. What was said after that, I don't know. I think it remains unresolved.
The tension dissipated and I joined Dave and the Canadien woman at the pool table. Someone decided we should have dinner at that hotel while Fredder arranged for our transport to our hotel. Great. When I suggested that we ride bikes instead, that went over like fart in church. Yikes.
We had a great dinner there. I had a pizza and a large bowl of delicious chicken soup. Yum. After more beers and laughs, the bags arrived, fully in tact. Antonio had even discovered that a few of us had left out sunglasses in the passenger door pocket. Wonderful.
After a little difficulty figuring out how to split the bill, we left. It was a short ride to out hotel. Bill, Dave and I had a nightcap at the small bar before heading off to our rooms for a shower and a some sorely needed sleep.
Today we have about a 35 mile ride where our destination is a home stay in the rural community of San Juan Ilama. We will be sleeping there for a couple of nights. The forecast is for rain all day today. My shoes are already soaked so that doesn't matter. My only concern is the wet rocks on the steep terrain. I dealt with that on last year's trip and it can be tricky. I have some scars to prove it.
We have a late 8 a.m. breakfast this morning. I'm going to sit here for a little while enjoying this spectacular view and listening to the bird concert some more. I couldn't be more content. I just wish Margot was hear to enjoy it too.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Lake Arenal, Costa Rica
No comments:
Post a Comment