This morning we set off from our stunningly beautiful hotel in San Carlos Valley to travel to Guanacaste, which will be our final destination of the tour. En route to Guanacaste, we visited the hanging bridges. We were given the choice to take a guided tour or venture off on our own, and thinking the guides would be able to spot wildlife and supplement our information, we chose the guided tour. Unfortunately, we were sorely mistaken.
The hanging bridges were beautiful! Gorgeous greenery, a little bit of wildlife consisting of snakes, birds, and monkeys, along with streams and waterfalls made for an incredible afternoon. Our guide Fernando was not a great contributor to our experience, however. His strategy was to walk up front and tell something to one person. That person would then, out of either kindness or pity for the rest of the group, relay the information through our group (passing through both English and Spanish speakers who would attempt to translate to each other) until it reached the last person. It was similar to the common game played in childrens camps, telephone. Our guide would generally say about three words to the first person, along the lines of "There's a frog." By the time it would filter down to the last person, however, the information would be that of "There's something on the right side of this giant forrest." Needless to say, Fernando did not receive a tip from anyone except the first guy. Rolando however, always on top of things, tossed him a water bottle as we were driving away to supplement his low income.
(Above: my parents and I at a waterfall by the hanging bridges)
After the hanging bridges we made a pit stop at a shopping center. My mom made a b-line to the shops, while my dad and I hung back at an ice cream shop. We noticed that in the little standard rides that children can take for a quarter, which are the same as in North America, there is honking programmed in to the music! It never ceases to surprise me how nonchalant honking is in this culture.
When we returned to the bus, there was a bee on my window. I removed my shoe and asked Rolando permission if I could kill it, and he proceeded to both de-wing it and be-head it all in a half a second and with one hand! This guy is unstoppable!
Our day ended with us arriving at our beautiful hotel, which is right on the beach and also has the largest infiniti pool in Costa Rica.
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