Today is the first day of the tour I am taking with my parents during the week off vacation from school. Last night my host dad dropped us off at our hotel, and I immediately knew that the trip was going to be awesome when I saw the words "Free Spa."
(Above: the local coffee-making machine. No need for electricity.)
(Above: A Costa Rican beetle.)
The hotel was really nice, I felt out of place after not seeing paved roads in the past month. The first thing I did was take a warm shower; heaven!! We lounged by the pool before heading off to our tour orientation and then headed to dinner. At dinner I spoke with the chef, who I discovered lives right next to me in Heredia! If there's one thing I know, it's to always befriend with people who are good cooks.
Above: my mom lounging by the pool
This morning we woke up at 5:45 to set off in our bus to see a volcano. Our tour guide, Rolando, is very talkative and funny, but at the same time very serious and punctual. He welcomed us to the tour with the introductory joke, "What is the difference between a tourist and a hitchhiker?" With the answer being five minutes.
We drove for about an hour through beautiful greenery, with Rolando giving us information about culture, history, and wildlife the entire time. It was fun understanding certain things he would reference that I knew very few other people would understand. For example, he briefly pointed out a bird that is supposedly the main character in a local mythical story, Quatzalcoatl, which I had recently studied in my Spanish class (the story idolizes the quality of working together with other people rather than having jealousy), and one time he referenced the Costa Rican "discos" to which some people misunderstood as the popular 70s movement, but I knew he was referring to the discotecas, which are dance clubs. After a month of struggling through an intensive, challenging Spanish class, it was worth it for these few select moments of being in the know.
Before we knew it we were at the volcano! We first hiked to an active volcano.
We then hiked to an inactive volcano, which they called a lagoon.
We then headed to a restaurant to have a lunch of rice and beans, a choice between fish or chicken, fried plantains, and salad, along side coffee and strawberry juice, with a desert of rice pudding. We sat overlooking the natural beauty of Costa Rica.
Lastly, we were off to the coffee plantation! We learned about a local coffee machine (pictured below) where you can pour hot water straight into a device filled with coffee beans, and it filters out coffee-- no buttons or electricity needed. Then, the workers of the coffee plantation performed an animated skit detailing all about the history of coffee in Costa Rica. One of the facts we learned that resonated with me was that, when buying decaf coffee, it is good to look for beans that have been brewed in water or steam, because regularly the caffeine will be removed with unhealthy chemicals that the public generally does not know about (which over time may increase a person's risk of obtaining serious health problems). It's great to see a select few Costa Ricans interested in health, but I have a funny feeling it might be a very long time before anyone will be able to succeed in increasing the awareness of health among the country.
All in all we spent about four hours total on the bus today. The leather seats, plentiful leg room, air conditioning, and purified water dispenser made for a comfortable trip, and there was nothing to distract us from the scenery while we traveled.
We returned to the hotel, ate a dinner buffet (our unanimous favorite item was the warm brownie with chocolate chips, walnuts, and caramel sauce drizzled over it), and we're now off to bed, completely exhausted, at 8 o'clock. I feel like we've spent a lifetime on this trip and it's only been one day! This is our last night in San Jose before heading off to Tortuguera tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing what this next province will bring!
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