16.09 20080

Day 7 of TweetFest: Costa Rica Style

I woke up this morning a little disoriented and wondered for a moment where I was.  I guess all of this traveling around the gorgeous sites of Costa Rica and living in different resorts had left my mind a little foggy.

As if to comfort me with a sight of a familiar face, Arenal quietly grumbled to get my attention.  I peaked outside the sliding glass door that led to our balcony and there was Arenal, holding court over another gorgeous Costa Rica day.

To our surprise, she was sending her white waves of smoke and steam from both of her peaks.  This was an incredibly rare development.  It was speculated by the Tico folk that this double smoke stack affect may indicate that Arenal was planning on changing the path of her lava once again.

How cool that we not only were able to gain so many amazing views of Her Majestic presence during our visit, but to also witness her rare signs of change?  We were truly lucky folks, indeed.

I placed a towel on the cool tile floor and commenced to greeting the day with a bit of stretching.

And oh, how my muscles welcomed this therapy!  Yesterday brimmed with so many physical adventures and my body held up pretty good, even if it protested a little this morning.  Nothing some yoga wouldn’t quiet.

Today was to be our “tourist shopping” day.  After yesterday the group agreed that a relaxing day at the Baldi resort and a sprinkling of shopping would hit the spot nicely, thank you very much :-)

After a scrumptious buffet breakfast, Lee and I spent some time on our balcony simply sharing a few moments with Arenal.  Knowing that our time here in Costa Rica was coming to an end the following morning, we attempted to soak up as many moments as humanly possible.

The adventures that we were lucky enough to experience have been phenomenal; the white water rafting, horseback rides through the jungle, hiking to a magnificent waterfall, wading in the rivers at the base of Arenal herself, enjoying two natural hot spring resorts, zip lining like mad men through the open air miles above the tree tops, private fire works in paradise, a magical boat ride on Lake Arenal, exploring the beauty of Rancho Margot, scenic montages at every turn, 3 fabulous resorts, great food and most excellent company.

But these quiet minutes are true gold.
These are more like the moments that we would share in our daily lives,
if we lived here in bountiful Costa Rica.

I could definitely get used to this lifestyle.

Soon it was time to get everyone to La Fortuna to check out some local wares.  The TweetFesters had the privilege of touring the city at their own pace and discovering each unique shop on their time.

Lee and I joined Nico and May for some speed shopping to check out the local merchandise offerings, but then we were to pick up some food for our TweetFest Bar-B-Que back at Palo Verde.

I was so excited to be returning to our original home away from home, Palo Verde.
I wondered if Larry the Lizard would come out to say hello?

But we weren’t off to town just yet.  First we needed to visit Nico’s partner Gene.

I had previously written about Gene’s gorgeous home and I was thrilled to be paying him another visit.

On the dirt road that lead to Gene’s casa, we stopped to visit a small family of horses in a lot on the side of the road.  This paddock was beside a piece of land that Nico owned, so we knew that it was alright to visit with these gorgeous creatures.

There were about 8 adults and two young fawns, ranging in a multitude of common markings and colors.  And they were pretty calm.  I had a feeling that they might even let us pet them a little, if they were coaxed with the right temptation.

I decided to pull some fresh greens from my side of the fence and try my tempting scheme to draw them in closer.  To my delight, they appeared to be open to the idea.   I know, kind of a girlie moment, but whatever.  It made me happy.

I was pleased to see that a smaller mare was making her way towards me.  She gratefully took the treat from my hands and whinnied her approval.  She even gently nuzzled towards me as a show of gratitude.  I was digging this!

We were soon joined by one of the youngest, who also welcomed my treat.  I guess the grass really is greener on the other side of the fence.

Soon the entire heard had made their way over to us.  We spent about 30 minutes feeding them handfuls of grass and sneaking in a stroke of their nose whenever possible.

Then we were off to Gene’s Place.

After a brief meeting to discuss business and banking structure with the experts who have actually been living the Costa Rican lifestyle, we were off again.

Before climbing back into Nico’s car, he grabbed two large handfuls of passion fruit from a small tree in the front of Gene’s property.

We were going to stop and feed the fruit to the horses.
The little girl inside of me began to giggle and smile furiously.

This time when we stopped, the horses came right up to us.  They were thrilled to find the surprise sweetness that Nico had snagged from Gene’s tree.

And I was delighted to offer it to them.

But soon it was time to head to town for our shopping experience and barbeque supply run.

We arrived at Nico’s pad about mid day.  We had to stop and let the pups out for a quick walk before we could hit the local venues.

Romeo and Concique were as cute as ever and I was very happy to get a chance to visit with them again.  After all it had been at least 3 days since my last puppy fix.

The other Tweetfesters had taken a cab into town from the resort and we spied them from Nico’s window.  I hollered like the country girl that I am, but they didn’t hear me.

Oh well, they were apparently deeply immersed in their shopping adventure and were not about to be distracted from a strange woman yelling from inside one of the brightly colored second story buildings.

And who could blame them.  I would not have answered either.

We took the pups across the street to the beautiful park we visited on our first day in Costa Rica.  It felt like coming home.

I had to laugh out loud when I saw how Nico walked them to the park.  Actually it appeared that Concique was in charge of this field trip as he literally walked Romeo across the street, thanks to Nico tethering them to one another.

Arenal was amazing today.  She slowly oozed heavy smoke from both of her peaks.  The smoke was being driven downward across her scarred face.  Nico explained that after a good rain, the atmosphere was such that it would push the smoke down around her midsection instead of allowing it to escape to the heavens.

Personally, it felt very eerie to watch this phenomenal.  The smoke appeared to be commanded by some supernatural force.  Very strange.

I was grateful to switch my attention to Romeo and Concique.  Romeo had climbed ontop of the park’s lovely pool as if to claim it for his own.

Concique obediently stayed close by until Nico encouraged him to engage in some good old fashioned horsing around.

After a few more minutes of play, Nico took the boys back up to their pad so we could continue on with today’s to do’s.

We heard a voice holler over to us from across the street.  To our suprise it was Juan, the owner of Rancho Margot trying to get our attention.  We waved back and had to smile at the unexpected chance to spend some more time with him.  He soon joined us at the park.

We expressed our gratitude for his hospitality the previous day and offered to do what we could to support his dream of a self sufficient, environmentally balanced resort.

Juan had been a consistently gracious person and this encounter absolutely reinforced his character.

Soon we were on our way to check out the local craftsmanship at the quaint stores that lined the streets of La Fortuna.  There were thousands of samples of varying Costa Rican crafted wares.

Many items were made with the environment in front of mind.  For example, the journals and notebooks offered here were made out of coffee or other local plants instead of tree pulp.

There were jars, plates, vases, toys and home decorations carved from the bark or downed wood of the indigenous trees or even from bamboo.  Not from living trees.  I found it astonishing that so much could be used and harvested from what nature was willing to offer, without taking away from the local ecological balance.

This country showed it’s true intentions of environment friendly activities and lifestyle in the most unexpected of places.

We walked to many of the stores, taking in all the hand made wares and skillfully crafted jewelry.  What a fun shopping day this had turned out to be!

Then it was time to gather our supplies for the evening’s VIP TweetFest bar-b-q at Palo Verde.

Let’s see….cerveza – check; hamburger – check; turkey dogs – check; cheese and buns – check; salad fixins – check: soda for the kids – check.

As we were wrapping up our grocery gathering, Nico pointed out a brand of products that appeared to be very common place here:  BioLand.

This company offers a wide range of products that they profess to produce in an environmentally friendly fashion.  I thought it pretty cool that the people of Costa Rica support such a company and actually attempt to live in harmony with nature and her many inhabitants.

Now I want to be honest with you here and admit that I haven’t always been the most environmentally conscious person.  I mean, I don’t litter and I tread lightly when camping and other outdoor activities…

But I never made it a point to be aware on a daily level.  I guess I always thought it was a hassle to live in an environmentally friendly way.  After all, if it was so easy to do – why weren’t more folks in the good old USA doint it?

After seeing how the Tico folk lived in a much more harmonious way with their surroundings, I couldn’t logically deduce why more weren’t at least making a very small effort to do the same.

I guess my eyes have been opened up to much more than just the beauty of Costa Rica.

OK, enough ranting…onto the Bar-B-Q.

We took our trunk full of supplies, gathered up May and the puppies and headed to Palo Verde.

The other TweetFesters understood the evening’s agenda and were heading to Palo Verde as well.

Man, oh man, it was so nice to be back to our first stop on this incredible journey.  We congregated right outside of our original rooms, found the grill behind the pool and began working on dinner.

The other TweetFesters began to arrive and soon the party was on.  We had all your normal barbecuing fair as well as cerveza, concique and Ruuuuummmmmm!

Add a little great hits from the 80′s music and the party had officially started.

Many TweetFesters decided to slip into their swimming suits and enjoy the festivities from the underwater stools offered in the warm waters on the poolside of the bar.  Others choose to “supervise” Lee’s cooking skills and I decided to simply hover around and enjoy it all.

It was an incredible night of camaraderie, story telling, sharing of ourselves and even business talks.  Hands down my favorite evening of the trip.

Then it was time to head back to the Baldi resort.  Poor Nico had to shuttle us back in waves, as he had the only vehicle since our chariot had not accompanied us this evening.

Some folks decided to hit the hot springs one last time before our reluctant departure the next day.  Lee and I decided to sit and spend some more quiet time with Arenal.  I felt that we had to explain to her that we were leaving.  What a sad, sentimental talk we shared…

The next morning brought our departure from this wondrous land.  I won’t share much of our sorrowful two hour drive back to the airport, or our departing visit to the coffee shop on top of the mountain.  Or even mention that our prancing pony came out to bid us a fine farewell.

The jovial spirit of the previous evening had left the group and we were left to quietly try to take in as many last minute views as was possible by our over filled minds.

I had enjoyed my visit to this new world.  I welcomed the adventure and I have grown while embraced in her bountiful bosom.

I will never forget this virgin trek to Costa Rica.  Even when I return, I know that I won’t experience the same magic as I did as I was exposed to a new and wondrous world for the first time.

As we made that last turn to leave Arenal behind, she bellowed to us.  I felt a stirring in my core as I understood that she was bidding us farewell.

One last magical moment as we left her court.

I had to wonder to myself, do the inspiring moments ever end in a place such as Costa Rica?

I can’t imagine that she ever runs out of layers of wonders to share or sights for you to bare witness to.

To see such things, every second of every day in this country changes you.  I know that sounds all wishy washy – and I don’t care.

To witness the world in such unspoiled glory and to understand how we are supposed to live in harmony on this planet, opens your eyes to new possibilities.

Simply put, it changes you.

After all… once you experience the wonders, once you witness her glory, once you see with your own eyes the way our world can be, once you embrace this transformation – it can never be undone.

So are you ready?  Come on, now…don’t be afraid.  I promise you will not be alone.  Come on in Fella’s, the water’s fine :-)

Welcome to your transformation.

Pura Vida!