Back from Central America and besides this wound on my foot that may need to be amputated I am in pretty solid shape! So how was it? Amazing!! This trip had highs, lows, laughter, tears (from laughing)... so you can imagine, this will not fit in one post. Let's get a few boring things out of the way. It was an easy trip. From Burlington we had only one layover, it was short, and the flights were more or less on time. You can drink the water for the most part. It is the worst place I have ever driven... and I have driven in some f****d up places.
We flew into Liberia and after a short very hot trip through customs we headed over to Budget to rent a car. It went pretty quickly. We did get a GPS and I would recommend the option. Roads are not marked and it is easy to find yourself turned around and on what we would consider a not well maintained hiking path. So we roll out and at first the roads were pretty good. Paved well marked... seemed just a little too easy. Well, the good times didn't last. After a bit the road turned to a "country road", ie. an unpaved road that traded in gravel for large rocks the size of grapefruits. Driving 1 kilometer took about half an hour in second gear. Seriously. This was a relatively well maintained road by the way. After a couple wrong turns we found our way to La Anita ranch. It was great. We had a nice little cabin on the grounds at the foot of the mountains. It was clean and comfortable except the 2 twin beds w/ a weird divider masking as a king. We had 2 lovely diners and a very nice breakfast. Dinner the first night for instance featured a well cooked white fish (tilapia?), w/ a delicious cilantro pesto, fresh vegetables straight from the on sight farm and pickled peppers that were spicy and very good. At each meal we had fresh pressed local juices and delicious local coffee. It was simple and very good. On the advice of our host Paolo (or Pablo, different people pronounced it differently), we met up w/ a guide and cruised 12 miles through the rain forest, into the dry forest, and up to the rim of a local volcano... we think it was Rincon de la Vieja. It was a long and pretty tiring hike but very fun. We saw the indigo butterflies, different orchids, birds, other crazy shit. The volcano peak was socked in so it was difficult to see the crater but we then descended to one of the most amazingly beautiful waterfalls I had ever seen. It was great and even though we speak very little Spanish and our guide spoke very little English we managed very well.
Here is the catch... to get to the trail head we took a "shortcut". In Costa Rican "shortcut" means barely passable road where you might be killed! Looking at the "map" I laughed. The main directive? Do not turn if it seems illogical. You are driving off road in the f*ing jungle! Non of it is logical!!! The boulders on the road were larger, the potholes/sinkholes deeper, and the rivers deeper. My special lady was a little nervous when we crossed the first stream she was nervous. The first bridge, a little more so. When we had to fjord our first river she thought I was crazy. When we got to the rickety wooden Romancing the Stone bridge she got out and walked. I made it over ok. It was touch and go. That was a crazy drive. Seriously, crazy. But the ends justified the means.
Tomorrow, part II, Santa Teresa!!! Stay Tuned1!!!!
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