Arenal y La Fortuna

The weekend started early. I got picked up by Patricia, Rochelle and Dave at high noon Thursday to leave for our 6 hour drive to Arenal. We rolled in to town around dinner time, checked in and headed straight to a placed called the Lava Lounge. Perfectly appropriate since we’re in a volcano town. The Arenal Volcano is the main attraction and is surrounded by hot springs. Like other spots in the country it’s filled with canopy, horseback riding and safari tours for visitors.

Our itin went something like this…
Thursday eve -
Dinner, Patricia light headed on Sangria, my Disco Bus business idea comes to life when Rochelle sees the may possibilities of my fledgling idea.

Friday –
Bfast at a local soda, seeing the town of La Fortuna, Feria, Hiking the Silencio trail, steakhouse dinner splurge pre-disco, really enjoyed a Palmito salad and T bone with my sidekick Patri, a TON of dancing a la disco, going forward you can call me Baila-rina

Saturday –
Perro (dog) wake up call way too early for two that had just danced for 4 hours, Parade, Patricia wears her cranky pants most of the day (even a smoothie didn’t help), lot o’ rain this day, Patricia changes in to her happy pants when we find the hot spring spot for ‘mature’ gals like us, back to the hotel for clean up and rest up cause you know what’s coming… but first, sangria para cumpleanos de Dave (Dave’s turning 40 in cuatro, i mean cuarenta, minutos!) *

Sunday –
Gallo pinto for brunch, a super sweaty walk with no rain (yay) from La Fortuna to our hotel (only one snot rocket sighting, these seem to be common here) and a sad goodbye-for-now with Patri, an hasta luego only, definitely not an adios. I expect to feel a bit of separation anxiety…

*Somewhere in here I discovered that I was robbed of $225 dollars from my hotel room. Como se dice “totally effing sucks”!!!???? But, I’m happy with self that I chose to employ the Tico tactic of Pura Vida – no tears, no yelling, no blaming…just deep breaths. $225 goes a long way when you’re on my kind of budget and while CR is sort of cheap, it’s not really and every cent still counts. It’s partly my fault for taking my chances in a room without a safe. So, lesson learned. Every traveler has them along the way.

So, after also witnessing a fist fight that afternoon between two grown men in a local soda and watching two little boys see their father get bloodied I realized that my life was still better than that of many others. I needed that money, I worked hard for it and I really get frosted when people take without asking. I’d just give it if you want it or need it. I like to think I Pay It Forward whenever possible - this I learned from people like Baba, Titi, Dena and Uncle Ray – give and share of yourself, give what you can if you can. I’m lucky that I didn’t lose more and I hope that whoever has my cash is putting it to good use for themselves or their family. C’est la vie (oops, that’s French).