As all of you know, my parents came for a 2 week visit. Prior to their arrival we decided that we would visit the Arenal Volcano and the Monteverde Cloud Forest during their first weekend. The plan was that I would pick my parents up at the airport and we would head straight up to Arenal, getting there by early afternoon with enough time to see the town and spend our first night there.
A few weeks prior to my parents’ arrival, I had a chat with Mitzi about our plans. During that discussion, Mitzi told me that she had never been to the volcano. What? Mitzi has lived in Costa Rica her whole life, and grew up in San Jose, which is only a few hours south of the Volcano. How had she never been?
It quickly dawned on me that the reason she hasn’t gone is financial. The working class Ticos don’t really ever travel, and often don’t get to experience the tourist sights of Costa Rica as they are just too expensive. Mitzi was raised by her grandmother, met German when she was 19 and had Alejandro at 20; there was never a financial opportunity for her to go. So of course I invited Mitzi along. I told her that I would pay for her entire weekend as a “thank you” for my 5 weeks of Spanish instruction with her. Seeing how much she enjoyed the experiences of the weekend made it worth every penny. I would have liked to invite her whole family, but that just wasn’t realistic with my parents also visiting.
I asked around for hotel recommendations, and was given a recommendation for Arenal Observatory Lodge which turned out to be a great place to stay. There are probably a hundred hotels in the vicinity of Arenal; however most of them are on the side of the volcano where the lava used to flow. Some time ago, the lava switched sides, and now there are only 3 hotels on the “right” side of the volcano. The Observatory Lodge is one of those hotels. However, keep in mind that when I say “the right side,” I mean the right side for viewing the lava at night. If that thing happens to erupt, the “right side” quickly becomes the “boy are you are screwed, side.”
The day of my parents’ arrival, I rented a car in Quepos, and after an hour at the car rental place (their credit card machines weren’t working… not a rare occurrence here) I picked Mitzi up in Parrita and we headed to San Jose. Prior to leaving my house at 7:00 a.m., I checked the flight information online and all signs pointed towards an on time arrival. Mitzi and I drove up to San Jose, arriving at what should have been the perfect time to pick up my parents. As it turned out, their flight was significantly delayed (over 4 hours), so Mitzi and I hung out at the airport waiting for them. Usually if there was a flight delay, I would leave the airport and find something else to do… but this is Costa Rica and the time on the screen kept changing, so I didn’t want to leave to go somewhere else and then have my parents show up looking for me.
As you can imagine, there wasn’t much excitement at the airport, unless of course you consider seeing Justin Timberlake’s Mom exciting. Yup, you got it, I saw JT’s Mom. Some of you may be asking yourself “How in the world would she know what JT’s Mom looks like?” But if you did just ask yourself that, clearly you don’t know me at all.
When I was packing up my apartment for this journey, I came across a video tape that had been saved for years… it was an IN-SYNC HBO concert that my sister Claire had taped for me. Yes, this was before the time of DVD’s, so it was a VHS. I had packed and moved that video tape more times than I care to admit, yet I can’t even remember when I last had a VCR. This time however, I was serious about getting rid of the things I didn’t need, so when I came across the tape I tossed it. That was a big step for me, though I have to admit the only reason I didn’t hesitate (correction: only hesitated for a minute, and considered trying to find a VCR to watch it one last time) was because my friend Sharon had recently bought me Justin’s “Live from London” DVD. So really, it was simply an upgrade.
You will all be proud to know that when I saw Lynn (yes I know her name too) I resisted the temptation to go up and talk to her… though it was difficult. But after I ran through my list of things that could come out of me talking to her
1. front row tickets to Justin’s next concert
2. an invitation to a private red carpet event
3. Lynn realizing I am the perfect woman for her son
4. Lynn thinking I am a little nuts and wishing that she could just go on vacation without being bothered
I decided that the last option was probably the most likely (though clearly I am his perfect match), so I resisted. Had it actually been Justin, there isn’t anyway I could have passed that up… but his kinda trashy Mom who was smoking cigarettes, much easier. And oddly enough, after a few days with no internet I returned to numerous emails from friends about Britney’s visit to Costa Rica. While I didn’t see Britney (didn’t even know she was here until she was gone)… I do find it ironic that she was in the country at the same time as Lynn. What are the chances of that?
I, for one, would like to see Britney and Justin get back together: though only if they promise not to ever wear matching denim outfits again – or matching outfits of any kind for that matter. I just don’t understand the matching outfit syndrome. Like when you see married couples with matching shirts at amusement parks or on vacations; who decides that is a good idea? And they are never cute shirts… so it isn’t like the husband buys a shirt for himself and when he gets home and shows it to his wife she says “Oh honey, I wish I could have that shirt” and he says “Baby I thought you would like it, so I got you one too.” Clearly the husband is never the instigator and is forced to just go along with it, because I can’t fathom that any sane man would make a conscious decision to wear a shirt that matched his wife’s. Who are these men, and how in the world does their wife talk them into taking part in this crime of fashion? Oh wait, that’s right, my Mother talked my Father into packing old underwear for their trip to Italy… so I guess anything is possible. But at least no one could see my Father's old underwear... the matching shirts are on display for all the world. But you know, come to think of it, I have not seen a single matching shirt crisis in Costa Rica... add it to my list of things I love about this place.
Since seeing Lynn, I have been hoping that the timing of their visits was not a coincidence, and a Britney/Justin reunion is in the works. Though not likely; Britney is still just a little too crazy, and by little, I mean bat shit crazy.
Ok, back to waiting at the airport. After my parents arrived we headed up to Arenal. Throughout the day I was doing my best to play “interpreter” for Mitzi because even though she knows a lot of English, with my parents’ accents and the rapid pace at which the Russells talk (I came by it honestly), it was a challenge for her to understand the conversation. It was really good for me to practice my Spanish in that way; however it was terribly frustrating that my Mother insisted upon telling long, somewhat pointless stories, with the need for me to then interpret them. I got to a point where I stopped interpreting and told Mitzi that it wasn’t worth it… but then my Mom would ask why I hadn’t interpreted what she had said, and I would be forced to do so. I think my Mom thought she was traveling with Claire (my sister who is 100% fluent in Spanish), not with me (who will be lucky if by the time I leave Costa Rica I can get through a grocery store trip without having to refer to my Spanish dictionary). As she is always the one backseat driving and often reminds me that my “hands should be at 10 and 2” her insistence for telling stories when it wasn’t safe for me to look in my dictionary was less than ideal.
The drive to Arenal was mostly in the dark, as a result of my parents’ flight getting in so late. Not ideal by any means, but the main reason Mitzi wanted to come was to see the lava flow at night, so I was not going to let her down. Arenal Observatory Lodge, while fantastic, requires a long drive down some bumpy roads, which are even more challenging at night as there are no street lights. We arrived at the hotel about 10 minutes before they closed their restaurant at 8:30 p.m., which was lucky because aside from a little airport snack, Mitzi and I had not eaten since breakfast. And by my calculations, the closest restaurant was about 7000 miles of bumpy roads away.
We sat down at the restaurant and as we were eating dinner, we saw the bright red light of the lava flowing down the volcano, pretty spectacular. We were also able to see the same view from our room, so we watched it for a little while from our deck. (We tried to get pictures of the lava flow, but they didn’t turn out, however, you can see it’s splendid glory if you go to the hotel’s website. http://www.arenalobservatorylodge.com/) After watching the lava for a few minutes, I laid down in bed and was out cold. As I found out the next day, Mitzi was so amazed by the sight of the lava flowing down the side of the volcano that she stayed up for hours watching it; though I am not convinced that she was just unable to fall asleep because of my parents loud snoring.
Mitzi said that she tried to wake me up a few times, but I didn’t budge. No surprise. I am a woman of many talents people, not only am I good at feeding chickens, I am a really good sleeper; though my sleeping abilities were tested significantly during my parents visit due to their snoring. At one point, while I was lying awake in the middle of the night, I decided that I can’t ever marry a man who snores, as I would be left with no other choice but to kill him in his sleep. Though luckily, after going to Yuli’s house, if I am forced into such a situation, I know the perfect place to bury the body.
The following morning we were awoken by the sounds of the volcano “churning” (which I originally thought was just an increased noise level in the snoring). I don’t know quite how to describe the very loud noises the volcano made, but think of the sound of a giant’s stomach grumbling, very loudly, after not eating for 7 years. It was a pretty spectacular sound, and for a few moments even drowned out the noise of my parents talking about birds. Thank you Mother Nature.
After breakfast (including gallo pinto of course), we took a guided tour that included some very shaky bridges, interesting plant and bird facts, a waterfall and a hay ride (minus the hay). Our guide was very good, but continued to make howler monkey noises in hopes they would respond. Not only did the monkeys not respond, but I am pretty sure they were thinking “Do you really think we are that dumb? This isn’t the David Letterman bird calling competition.” (Which I just recently found out Lara’s sister was a part of back in high school.) And yes, I feel comfortable speaking on behalf of the monkeys, as we have spent a lot of time hanging out together over the past 2 months.
While my Mom took this picture, she failed to follow these instructions her ENTIRE trip, as she took some thing from EVERYWHERE. Rocks for her fish tank, restaurant napkins, water bottle labels... you name it, she took it. No wonder she has to pack old underwear to create room in her suitcase, this woman has no ability to differentiate between the things that are worth taking, and those that aren't.
The volcano in all of it's glory. My Mom got these volcano pictures, nice job Skeemers.
Imagine the loud giant noise going along with this picture... wish I had an audio track of it.
An anteater from our morning hike.
The small waterfall we hiked down to, pretty, but nothing like the La Fortuna Waterfall.
Me and Mitzi at the waterfall.
Ok, this flower is posted for a reason... as you all know (or should know), I don't do drugs of any sort. The grape vine and barley is enough for me.... however, this plant is very interesting. It is called "Queen of the Night." The reason for the name is that during the day this plant is "harmless," but at night, if you are in close proximity to the plant, you will get a contact high, which apparently feels just like a marijuana high. Also, as with marijuana, if you ingest any of the leaves, you will apparently end up being as high as a kite.
One of the swaying bridges we hiked across, this one was actually the most stable of them all. One of the bridges they would only let two people at a time cross, not very reassuring.
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