Working hard at doing nothing

Before I start let me say thanks to everyone who has sent comments and emails about how much you are enjoying the blog, we are enjoying making it for you! And really that's why we are suffering through...WOW! Arenal just shook the ground! Anyway we are suffering through all this strange foods, being away from home, family, and friends so you don't have to. Ain't we the best. If anyone has any questions please ask and I will try and answer, you know me, if I don't know the answer I will make something up. So ask away. Oh before I forget I wanted to tell you how to pronounce Arenal cause it ain't nothing like it looks. Its 'r-n-all' that's all the Spanish I will give you now...there may be a test later. And before I forget, we will not be doing the Tarzan Swing and stuff till fri., but we will be going to the Tree house Restaurant tomorrow night, we will try and get there about 7:00 pm our time which is 8:00 pm central time. See you there! Or maybe you'll see us I should say.

Well the waters at Tabucon are great! Its basically a series of pools and waterfalls they have built the resort around. The higher up the water you go the hotter it is, so you can pick the water temp. you are wanting and work your way down to cooler waters as needed. Its all surrounded by lots of wild looking native trees and plants. It ends up at a reg. swimming pool, with a pool bar. Also included was a 3 course meal for lunch. Started out with a salad bar that also had lots of fruit, cheese and thin sliced meats. The Pineapple was the best I ever had, they grow it here so its very fresh and does have a better flavor because its allowed to ripen before picking. I also thought this would change the taste of Banana but Rafa, who used to run Banana farms for Dole and Chiquita said that it does not because Banana will continue to produce its own sugar even after being picked green. Now you know something most people don't. I had the beef with the meal and while it was OK I was expecting a bit better from this fancy place but Kevin, who has been here 3 times before said the beef is much leaner here because the cows have to graze on the steep slopes around here instead of on nice flat USA farmland. Makes sense, so it was a good piece of meat by the standards here. We finished our day at Tabucon by the pool bar, just relaxing and watching Arenal, and there may have been a drink or two.

We then headed into La Fortuna. Oh yea, when we got to Tabucon I parked the car facing in like we do in the states, and the lot guy came over and had me turn the car around and back in, which is the way everyone parks here, I do not know why. Also they will guide into your spot which means they will put you so close to the next car you can barely get out of your car. But that's like everything here, they pack as much as they can into as small a space as possible.

Anyway, we went to La Fortuna, actually by accident. We meant to go to a little town called Guaria but we missed the road, mainly because there was no road sign. Heck there are very few street signs in Alajuela, I have no idea how people find their way around down here. So anyway I was trying to loop back around in La Fortuna and turned the wrong way down a one way! I had to throw it in reverse and back up to an intersection before the on coming hit me and then we almost got hit by a tour bus...I'm starting the get hang of driving like a native here! We found the road and started off. This road was worse than the one I told you about earlier, we followed a little truck for a while, the scenery was great, but all along the way we saw typical houses. These are small about 500-600 s.f. probably 1-2 rooms. Most do not have glass windows but just the opening cut out for them, when rain comes they will put boards up till its over. Some are clean and painted others are a collection of whatever but what amazed us was how many had a satellite dish! And several time we have seen people out front of these places talking on their cell phone or listening to their iPod, just goes to show its good to have priorities. Well we finally made it to this little town, now we knew it would small but it turned out to be bigger on the map than in real life. We knew we were there when we saw the little bright blue church (with well manicured soccer field behind) and one 'store' about the size of a tool shed. We pushed on for a bit just to see what the road would do, it got smaller and rougher oh and smaller, finally we turned around because we needed to get back to the hotel before dark as rain was coming and you never know how bad it will be.

We got back here just as the rain started, it rained for about 1/2 hour but not really hard. Then we sat on the back porch watching the thunderstorm behind Arenal as the sun went down. It was really pretty cool but as I watched it I could see why ancient people might think the Gods lived in the volcano, here you had all this rumbling, smoke, lava, and lighting, and if they got too close they would die because of the poision gas being put out, no wonder they were spooked by it all.

Well I have droned on enough for now, I'm gonna go watch Arei for a bit,
miss you all,
Don