El Hermano y la Llanta

The first day of Eric and Trevor´s visit to Costa Rica, started out innocently enough. A day at the beach, cooking a great dinner, etc. Then, rumor spread of a Bingo night at a nearby bar that was a fundraiser for the beach clean-up crew. Always willing to do our part to help, we quickly rushed over to Bingo night and threw our money down for a lucky card. There were 9 prizes to be won that night, and somehow our group managed to win five of them. It was absolutely ridiculous and more than one of the more experienced Bingo players was ready to take us out at the knees. We ended the night with two sailing trips, dinner for two, a month membership at the tennis club, a 30 minute massage, and two whole pies from Nogui´s. Needless to say, we had our work cut out for us to add all this fun into an already fun-packed week, but we somehow managed.


The rest of the week included golfing, a trip to a nearby village that specializes in traditional pottery making, lots of game playing, and of course great food. Our boat trip was rained out the first day, but we came back the following day to perfect blue skies and more coconut daiquiris than anyone should ever drink. While snorkeling we once again found a blowfish (this time an extremely spiky one that we couldn´t hold on to), starfish, eels, and lots of fish. The sunset was beautiful and after dinner, we stayed on the beach for hours.

For the weekend, we decided to head to Tenorio Volcano National Park. We had heard great things about Rio Celeste, a river in the park that is a spectacular blue color due to the volcanic minerals. The only problem is no one could tell us how to get there besides look for the dirt road near Bijagua. The drive started out easy enough, but soon the car started shaking violently. We made it to the next gas station only to find 3 large holes in our tire where you could see the metal weave of the tire breaking. They didn´t have any tires that were the right size so they sent us to the next tire place down the road. We stopped at three or four more places who all said they didn´t have any tires to fit, but by this time we were being told that if we kept driving on the tire we were going to die. Problem was, our spare tire also had a few holes (in true Costa Rica style, it was patched again and again without ever being replaced) and was almost entirely deflated. At the sixth stop, we refused to go any farther and said they had to help us figure out something. He blew up the spare tire as much as he could and said we could make it about 5 miles and hope for the best at the next shop. Thankfully, we were lucky at the next stop and he had a new tire to sell us, although the spare is still deflated in the back.

We made it to the tiny town of Bijagua and drove around forever looking for a place to stay. Unfortunately, our little low-riding Hyundai hatchback was no match for the dirt roads full of potholes and boulders. When we finally found a place to stay, they informed us that there was no way our car could make it the 11km to the National Park entrance. As always, he knew a guy who knew a guy who could give us a ride the next day. The trip out there was exciting to say the least, and our driver stopped along the way for us to try water apples. They are a bell-shaped fruit that have the texture of a pear, but taste like a flower (have you ever tried that fruit, Jessica?). We were greeted at the park office by an entire wall of jars full of the dangerous species of snakes, lizards, scorpions, and bugs that you might encounter in the park. We signed in and began our hike into a Jurassic Park like jungle, surrounded only by the sounds of the bugs, and a heavy mist that had settled in the trees. The first view of the river was at a spectacular waterfall ending in a bright turquoise pool, unlike anything we had seen before. There were no people anywhere and we felt as if we had discovered our own private paradise. We continued our hike, finding the point where the two rivers meet and the water turns blue, and ending up at a set of hot springs. Careful placement of rocks had made a perfect pool that allowed enough cold river water in to mix with the hot springs to make a great place to sit. We stayed there for awhile and had a picnic lunch before hiking back.

A great week overall and now back to the office to finish the quest for our construction permits. Looks like we can have them by the end of the week and if the construction crew is ready, begin the houses next week! Very exciting news for us. We hope all is well in the US and we miss you all!

Hugs,
Team Wander