Costa Rica Day 1

November 13, 2015

My last journey of 2015 and fast approaching the magic 100. I would end the year at 97 and Costa Rica would be that country. My friend Naitro joined me on the trip to share in another adventure. We had a great time in New Zealand earlier this year.

I wasn't sure that I would make this trip as the day before my departure, I was diagnosed with hamstring tendinitis of the right leg, in much pain.

I was worried about the weather as I'd been tracking I and it had been raining nonstop for weeks. The forecast shoes the pattern continuing. I emailed back and forth with the host of La Fortuna, our accommodations, and he said that other than afternoon showers the weather was good and the volcano was clear most days. This would not turn out to be true, by the way.

I anguished and even at 2:45am, departing at 5am, I was just making the final call. It could have gone either way. I had cancelled only four trips in my travel years, Corsica, Brazil, Belize, and Turks and Caicos. Thus far, I haven't corrected this. They were all for different reasons but I would not have this happen again.

I showered and I was airport bound, it was a quick, easy check in and to the gate in no time. The flight was full but I was off to sleep before take off and slept almost all the way to Miami.

I had only a short layover and had to rush to make my gate but I had been notified of an upgrade. I flew first class to San Jose.

I was pampered and stretched out, my leg appreciating this. They brought me a fresh fruit plate, a broccoli and cheese soufflé and a buttermilk biscuit...delicious.

There was a 1 hour time change in reaching Costa Rica, equivalent to US central time.

Arrival (customs and immigration) was very easy and took no time. As I was out among the first passengers, I was done in minutes. Now, the luggage was another thing...a good 30 minutes. Once through security, I saw the hertz counter and headed there. I had a reservation with Sixt but my host suggested that they had a better overall package. I had the agent price out my comparable and he was 85 dollars higher. He initially tried to change the car or coverage to lessen the price but I was willing to go to my Sixt reservation. He met there price and all were happy.

As it would be another 30 minutes before Naitro would arrive I picked up the car and returned to the airport, I parked and went in search. We ended up texting each other and Almaty walked right into each other. I looked up and she was texting me. We both shocked each other. A big hug and we were on our way.

Eduardo, our host, had told us to expect 3 hours to Arenal. The Hertz agent said 2 1/2 hours should do it but there was a bridge out and we needed to avoid that. Exactly was was the question, we didn't know. We set the GPS for the coordinates given as the city and hotel name wouldn't come up.

It took a couple of tries to get pointed in the right direction to leave the city. Once corrected, north northwest, we went.

Over an hour in to the interior we were met with an orange barricade with "No Passar". We stopped and stared. Other vehicles moved through in each direction but, only a few. We did take this as - "things are fine".

We continued forward and cautiously. Driving for 20-30 minutes. We saw other cars now and then, scooters, and even a bus. I didn't really think that there was a serious problem. THEN...we approached a police car. They stopped and even with no English spoken, we knew...bridge out. We were so close to LA Fortuna...maybe 45 minutes. We would have been there by 4:45pm. The police couldn't speak English so, they couldn't tell us where we were or how to reroute.

Retracing out steps to the barricade, we stopped a guy in the road, a woman in a market, and her daughter. Nine of them really got is very far. Reaching the barricade, we found the police again but this guy was different, he spoke English and explained the tortuous circumventing that was necessary.

We started down a road roll. I don't know where but when it ends, turn left. We drive on broken pavement, dirt, huge ruts, and over rocky areas at times. Reaching a left turn, we were in a quandary. If thus the left? There was still more road ahead. What to do? We tried the "left path". This lead us to another car that we'd seen turn down the detour that we had and had made the obviously bad choice that we had. We both turned around and went straight up, the very steep incline that we should have taken on in the first place.

The hill was very steep and at the top...a cow, now cows. They were crossing the road, in the road, they owned the road, the car we were following, stopped and came back to see of we had any insight, we both spoke English so...that was easy, I told him to keep straight until the end and take a left. Leaving the cows behind, about 15-20 minutes later, we reached the main road and turned left. We have pavement! Now the pain sets in. It's 67 kilometers to,La Fortuna but the traffic jam that quickly appeared would last through many cities and several hours. I thought my leg would fall off or I would go insane. I wasn't sure which would happen first.

The sun had now set and it was closing in on 7pm. I made a statement that we would be there by 7pm. Major faux pax. First stop was a serial, killing waiting to happen. GPS recalculated, thus location with a similar name, was not the one but did tell me, how to get where I was going...another 30 minutes Grr!

We'd finally made it to La Fortuna. We were serving, and we were tired. It was a must that we eat. Naitro found a brick oven pizza place that we went in search of and what a pic it was. Just in time to hear the torrential downpour and nor feel it, we were ordering a tasty meal. The pizza was the thinnest of cracker crusts with a delish tomato, basil, and ricotta. We both had some mushrooms added and the pizza was so amazing that we both ate all of them. YUM!

The walk back to,the SUV was a misty rainy one but , we'd survived worse. On the way I saw some shops that I must visit before leaving,

Felt and a bit rested, on we went. Twenty minutes of mountainous climbing into, the Arenal Park Area, it's POURING down. We made our turn off sad there's no more pace, to and we have over 7 kilometers to go, the first assents were at such steel angles test we had trouble and don't see how a car would make it. It was very dangerous, the road was so badly rutted that the max we could tolerate was 15mph. I was pitch black and no lighting, adding to, the ambience,

Finally the turn by Sky Adventure and our sign, Tropical Garden Inn. There was a quick turn in but no real place to park...I parked pit where I could. Go,shoot me.

We grabbed pit baggage and climbed to the reception. There was a phone and a number to call. I tried twice an nothing...Spanish and some numbers. The couple that arrived just behind us, tried them phone and the girl must have had magic fingered, Eduardo explained that we had rooms and the keys were inside,

We were so tired. I tried to rest and blog...keeping my leg,off the ground, while Naitro,freshened up for a clean rest.

What a day it had been - the stuff that makes a blog great even though it wasn't easy. We'd finally arrived at around 8:30pm. UGH!

Rest time - I hope for a beautiful tomorrow.

Show me the goods, Costa Rics