Day 8 (In Which We Celebrate Our Safe Arrival Home with Traditional American Homecoming Feast at Taco Bell)

Day 8 (In Which We Celebrate Our Safe Arrival Home with Traditional American Homecoming Feast at Taco Bell)

I woke up to the tightly controlled chaos of Nancy making final preparations for our departure. Almost all of the packing was done the night before. I recall getting a phone call in the middle of the night. We had left an interior light on in the car. Isaac and I generally take about 20 minutes to fully wake up and realize what is going on, so thankfully Nancy went out to address the problem.

We called for housekeeping to inspect our room. This was to make sure we didn’t steal the toaster oven I suppose. During the hectic check in, we did not understand that we needed to inventory the room upon arrival. It was only at final inspection that we learned we were short a towel and a bowl. I explained that two other towels had been stolen the night before at the pool (I was completely paranoid about or cameras, cash, passports and GPS the whole time we were there and always kept one eye on them whenever we were off of the resort property. It was only on the last night, inside the resort compound that someone stole our crappy hotel pool towels.)

When the inspection was over, the housekeeper made it clear that we were to leave right then and turn in our keys immediately. We checked out and were billed for the purloined towels. (Almost $20. It was too early in the morning to argue in broken Spanish.) We grabbed a quick bite at the grocery store (no veiny bottle openers there either…..I looked.), gassed up/ returned the rental car and arrived at the airport.

The porter at the airport worked only for tips, but knew the system well. He carried our bags, made sure we had the correct customs forms, provided us with pens, and directed us to the correct desk to pay our $26 per head exit tax. You read that right….Costa Rica charges you money to leave the country. (I don’t know if the tax is waved if you show proof that you purchased a wooden frog or not.) The entry fee is at least embedded in the cost of the plane ticket.

The waiting area and most of the airport was made of logs and a tin roof. (They were building a larger airport about a half a block away.) Within an hour, the place was packed with Americans who naturally wedged into every square inch of the gift shop to spend their last few colones. The little restaurant proved to be too much of a temptation (they had an honest to goodness grill next to the counter with shrimp and steak in the waiting area for Pete’s sake.) and I enjoyed the last Tico meal with an Imperial lager.

Shortly before our plane arrived, a great rain storm commenced. Thankfully American Airlines provided us with umbrellas for the walk across the tarmac to the plane.

We arrived in Miami and literally ran through the elaborate system of trains, moving sidewalks, customs, immigration, baggage claim, re-checking the bag, going through security a second time (where we got to watch an amusing little piece of improv theater in which a traveler was trying to convince a TSA agent to let him bring his bag of duty free liquor on the plane. I hope the janitorial staff at Miami International had a nice party that night when they found his unopened bottles next to the trashcan.), another train back out to our gate where we arrived halfway through the boarding process. Total plane transfer time was 45 minutes of non stop, full speed motion to end up two gates down from where we arrived.

Our plane left the gate and was fourth in line from taking off when the pilot explained that our route had changed. We were now going to travel up the west coast of Florida which was not only going to be a longer flight, but we had to go back to the gate to get more fuel. At this point I was actually a little grateful that we were not all seated together. The last of the granola bars were gone and we were exhausted. A large youth group was returning from their mission trip to Trinidad and treated the plane like their own private church van. Thankfully for everyone involved, I did not overhear the young woman seated behind Nancy and Isaac reviewing her pictures from the previous week and loudly commenting to her friend how this person looked “So Gay” and this other guy was “such a faggot.” I was so tired, hungry, and pissed off that their church would have held a special service to pray for my soul by the time I was done. (My sister and I have no tolerance for youth groups who behave poorly in public. If your sponsor isn’t keeping you in line, we will step up and help them out.)

We arrived in Greensboro well after 10:30. We stumbled to the car and found the only take out restaurant that was open, Taco Bell. Neither Nancy nor Isaac will normally go to Taco Bell for any reason, but they were both indulged me. Nancy laughed at the size of my order, but I explained 1) I had not eaten in 12 hours 2) I was ordering for them because even though they said they weren’t hungry, as soon as I started eating they were both going to want something and 3)It is Taco Bell. They are inevitably going to forget something. (All three things proved to be true.)

The next day while Nancy did laundry and worked on a trip web page, and Isaac overloaded on Phineas and Ferb (in glorious English), I wandered off to help with a locally made movie. We had lots of time together the previous day and were happy to be in our own little worlds for a while..

What did I learn? It is hard to say. I know that we had the most exciting experiences when we were trying new things that we normally would never do. I was also surprised at how much we enjoyed hiking over rugged terrain. The trip made me want to learn and practice more Spanish. I learned that without a computer to keep me awake at night, I tend to follow my body’s natural sleep habits. Isaac has an incredible knack for finding animals in the wild. Nancy takes very good care of Isaac and I. She surprises herself at what she can do. She trusted my Spanish and other times when things were out of her control.

Thanks for reading and for the kind comments. If you will excuse me, I have to go find something to open this bottle with.

Strength and Honor
Big Matt

Day 7 ( In Which We Take All of the Lessons That We Learned in the Previous Week and Have a Grand Day Out).

Day 7 ( In Which We Take All of the Lessons That We Learned in the Previous Week and Have a Grand Day Out).

Since we started planning this trip months ago, Nancy declared that our last day was to be spent lounging by the pool, relaxing, and preparing for the return trip home, but when she got up that morning, she decided that there would be time enough to rest when we got home. We were going to check out Rincon de la Vieja volcano National Park.

We had been hesitant to venture out so far on our own since we knew that we would have to return to Liberia, and in all likelihood spend a good deal of time on unmarked dirt roads.

We drove for an hour on the Pan American highway towards Nicaragua and missed the dirt road exit to the national park. We wrongly assumed that since it was one of the largest tourist draws in the area that it would be clearly marked.

We drove for about an hour on a two lane dirt road through the country side and up the mountain, sometimes going 20 minutes at a time without seeing another car or house. (Had we tried this earlier in the week, we would have been fighting since we both would just naturally assume that we were lost.) I took the potholes slowly and carefully like Carlos would have. About 40 minutes up the mountain, we hit a traffic jam.

Part of the road to the National Park goes through private property. A while back, a toll keeper with a gate appeared at the border of the private property and started collecting 700 colones per head for anyone coming in. No one seems to know if his toll is legal or not, but I wasn’t going to argue. The line to pay the gatekeeper was about 12 cars long.

Another 15 minutes past the gatekeeper, we came to a small hotel with a gift shop, (no penis shaped bottle openers….I looked.) and an adventure tours desk offering tubing, zip lining, ATVs, horseback riding etc. There were busloads of American tourists everywhere. It did not seem like a National Park, so we kept driving another 10 minutes. We came to a sign that said “Safe Parking for Rincon De La Vieja” and so we pulled in and parked. I walked up to the building which also did not look like a National Park office and a bored teen sitting at the counter playing with his Iphone told me that the National Park was still further up the road.

We pulled into the nearly empty parking lot (I guess most out of towners never made it past the zip lines.) for the national park and checked in at the Ranger’s station. The trail we were taking was 3km (a little over a mile and a half) and was marked “High Difficulty”. There were signs urging us not to feed the coatis. (We never saw any, it was to early in the season, but I like the fact that the coati density in this park is such that it requires numerous signs to remind curb snack sharing with them.)

The first part of the trail led us through thick jungle. There were giant banyan trees that looked like they were out of a science fiction movie. Long lines of leaf cutter ants would cross the trails. We had to climb steep ravine walls using roots and rocks as foot steps. At one point, it seemed like the trail ended because a tree had fallen across the trail. We back tracked, found a way around and saw that the tree had carved notches in it and was now a bridge over a creak. Several times we crossed creeks one at a time on slippery rocks holding onto ropes for balance. Isaac loved the physical challenge of climbing and exploring but did not care for the thick mud which we occasionally had to muck through.

Isaac insisted on leading the expedition with Nancy behind and I brought up the rear. At one point a large black bird swooped through the trees and landed on a tree behind me. I maneuvered myself to get a better look and saw two toucans in the canopy; their enormous, brightly colored bills were unmistakable and impressive in a way that pictures don’t do justice..

Isaac spotted numerous lizards and another agouti.

About half way through the trail we came to a waterfall where we rested and explored. The second half of the trail took us through a starkly different environment, the volcanic mud pots and geysers. The trees gave way to low brush and brightly colored rocks. Every few 100 meters we would come to another geological vent spewing mud, steam, geysers and always the overwhelming smell of sulphur.

On the way to the park we saw where the Costa Rican’s were trying to tap this geothermal energy to make electricity while still maintaining the natural beauty.

By the end of the hike we were exhausted and stopped back at the ziplining place since it also had the one restaurant in the area. Isaac filled up on watermelon while Nancy and I watched the caballeros heard horses down the street out front.

On the trip back down the mountain, we got stuck in another traffic jam. Several hundred head of cattle meandering the other way down the street completely surrounded our car. It was a surreal moment to be completely surrounded by giant slobbering cows while safely in our air-conditioned rental Kia.

A little further down the road, we slowed down in a small village where a construction crew was working on the road. I had noticed several people staring at our car, as we drove through town, but now the entire road crew had stopped work and were pointing at the front of the car.

I felt sick, sure that we were a victim of the punctured tire scam, but if I was going to be robbed, it was going to be in full view of the village at least. I asked the workmen what was wrong and they replied in Spanish. I pulled on to the shoulder and walked around the front of the car where I saw a plastic frame of the car hanging down almost to the ground. I panicked a little and considered just ripping the plastic off. Before I could tell Nancy what was wrong, one of the construction crew was on his belly in front of our car snapping the piece back into place.

I thanked him and we returned home.

Isaac and I swam while Nancy packed. (I know this sounds bad, but it works out better for everyone this way.) While we were swimming, someone stole Isaac and my towels. I did not know this would matter until the next day.

Rincon De LaViaje was hand’s down our favorite day of the vacation.

Strength and Honor,
Big Matt