30.08 20080

Day 3 of TweetFest: Costa Rica Style

No alarm clock, hell no clock at all.

The sun beckons once again for me to join her.  But this morning, I must deny her.

I curl up a little longer and snuggle closer to Lee.  So tired after yesterday's horseback riding and adventures to the water fall with Macarana.  This must be paradises snooze button. Finally, the birds sing me to enough of an awakening to crawl out of bed.  I breathe in deeply and hear Arenal great me again this morning with her slow rumbing eruption.

Puffs of grey smoke plume around her. Good morning, Arenal. She grumbles to me that this day will bring much joy. I sneak in a couple hours of work...fill some orders, answer some support questions...Tweet a little :-) Today we meet with Nico Pisani to make final arrangements for the arrival of our fellow TweetFesters.  I couldn't be more excited to be sharing this exprerience with...well - Anyone! First this morning, we go to visit Nico's business partner, Gene. Gene is building a home a short way from their resort.  And this house is gorgeous! To drive up, the house does not look like anything special.  But then you follow the porch to the back and... WOW! It is a modest 2000 square feet, and the view is - well breathtaking. Here Arenal towers majestically over Gene's back yard of luscious plant life.  A babbling and lively creek is only a few steps away through the vegetation. The home itself is made of insulating concrete.  The outside painted and adorned with leftover stones that were used for the swimming pool, adding gorgeous accents to the rustic setting. The interiour is still  under construction - but still amazing. The main entrance is wide open and incredibly inviting as the natural wood encased ceilings tower above.  A 5 foot wide screen tops the wall on both sides and allows the welcomong breeze to sneek in to keep the home nice and cool. The ceiling is layered with beautiful beams of solid wood harvested from the neighboring forest, giving a warm and inviting feel - despite the concrete walls. Nico decided to borrow Gene's truck so he could haul us all around for our last minute preparations for TweetFest. We climb in, along with Nico's cool and lovable dogs, Cacique and Romeo.  Nico calls Cacique his overgrown Chihuawa (he's at least 50 pounds) and Romeo a little crazy (he's probably 15 pounds and has dual personalities).  One minute Romeo is a loving little pup, the next he's like the bad guy in the Gremlins.

Both are incredibly adorable.  We all pile into the back of Gene's small truck. Then we are off.  We pick up the kids and head to the west side of Arenal to visit her "active" side. This is the side where most of the physical results of her bellowings take flight and reconnect with Mother Earth in the form of humongous glowing boulders.

About 20 minutes into the trip, we turn onto this rustic pot holed filled road.  It feels like any road in very rural America.  Only in America you aren't getting closer and closer to one of nature's most powerful forces, Arenal the Volcano. I could only imagine that the road is in such disrepair because of its proxity to Arenal.  Afterall, why would a struggling government invest money into repairing and upkeeping roads that very likely could be bombarded with hot, glowing boulders from a volcano? It kind drove home the very accurate reality that we were in the "kill zone" of the volcano.  Both invigorating and scary at the same time.

As we approached the river that runs through the valley beneath Arenal, it all felt worth it. Here in front of us was a rolling river of icey blue briliance.  Cold to the touch and energizing as you stepped into its cool folds. The kids immediately jumped in and started exploring.  All the kids, ours as well as Nico's puppies. I walk in ankle deep and feel that this is close enough.  No urge to trudge along and look for whatever it was the kids were looking for.

After several minutes enjoying the rivers cool touch, we climbed back into the truck to make our way to a completely self sufficient and eco friendly resort that lies even closer to the majestic Arenal. We pull into the parking area and are immediately greeted by the owners son and grandson atop a gorgeous brown mare. They invite us to partake in their completely ranch provided lunch buffet. I make a plate of fresh salsa and peppers and fresh baked breads and chicken and pork ribs. Add in a Bavaria dark beer and I am set. The owner joins us after a few moments and begins to tell us more about our meal.

The vegetables are all grown on the ranch. The bread is of course baked in their own stone ovens. And the pork...well the pork was a result of an unfulfilled destiny. Apparently within the efforts of animal conservation, this resort is attempting to increase the population of a certain native bore.  This particular bore was unable to fulfill his fatherly duties, if you know what I mean. So the sterile male was made into lunch. Primitive - yes. Delicious - absolutely. After our delictable and most honored meal, we made the final arrangements for the TweetFest group to revisit this incredible place in three days. Upon this final bargain, we start our trek back to the east side of Arenal. We decided to stop at the location of Sunday morning's adventure - the jungle canopy tour via the steel zip lines. As we check out the views from this high altitude, the children uncomfortably start to joke about our upcoming zip line adventure.  They seem a little nervous, but I am sure they'll love it once they get going.

It was about this time that a zip liner came zinging in...screaming like a little girl all the way.  I see the color in my children's faces slowly drain.

I chuckle a little on the inside as I think of the exhilariation they will enjoy in a couple of days... After a few more minutes of enjoying the splendid views, we continue our journey back to our cabanna.

A quick shower and a couple of tweets and we are off to our evening adventure... Baldi Springs. Baldi is a resort that houses 25+ natural hot springs.  All varying in tempurature and depth. Let's just say that after the gazillion steps down to and back from our majestic waterfall and 4 hours on horseback the previous day that this hot springs adventure certainly hit the spot. We sampled only about a half dozen of the available springs...but this was plenty. My tired body was relaxed and rejuvinated by the very same waters that were heated by Majestic Arenal.  It was an absolutely sublime experience. And the most awesome thing is that TweetFest is staying at this resort the last 2 days of the event.  Which means we get to sample the rest of the naturally heated pools with all of our friends. Honestly, life doesn't get much better. And with that, it is off to another night's restful dreams at the base of Arenal.  I know I will be well rested and ready for another day's adventures. PuraVida, Amigos!  Buenos Noches...

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30.08 20080

Day 2 of TweetFest: Costa Rica Style

I awoke this morning to the beautiful song of a stange bird outside of our cabana window.  Sun beckoning me to join her outside with the songs of all of the morning creatures... so I did.

Taking a towel out poolside, I began my daily stretch.  A slow rumble from overhead as Arenal erupted to great the morning, sending a towering spiral of grey smoke towards the early sun.

I love my life.

My morning stretch is always invigorating, but awaking my body in this serene place is beyond words. I could do this every morning.  One day I will do this every morning. After my one on one time with Arenal, I go to wake the rest of the family. Sitting on the cabanna porch eating our breakfast of dinner leftovers and water, we spy on a small group of little brown monkeys.  Apparently they were after their morning snack on the outreaching branches of  our neighbor grandfather tree. We could hear them laughing back and forth. Butterfiles of astounding color, dragon flys as big as birds and plants beyond description. We have already had to download the pictures from our digital camara - twice. A green lizard kept us company all morning on one of the larger plants to the left of our porch.  It was mesmerizing to watch it shift positions, body color changing as different parts came closer to the tree...reaching out its long neck to catch his next nibble.  We named him Larry.

Larry doesn't talk much and appears to be in no big hurry to get anywhere.  After all...Larry is a Tico :-) Both of our kids are digging this serene adventure.  You would think that they have never seen nature before.  Of course, nothing they have ever seen state side could compare to Costa Rica.

I think we have created two future professional wildlife photographers. After our slow morning, Nico picks us up for next adventure.

Today we ride horses through the rain forest.

We arrive at the stables a little after 1 in the afternoon.  Rain is just pouring on us.  Do you think we care? Not even a little. The stable hands select our perfect steads and help us mount.  Mine is named Macarana. Now these horses are NOT like the dude ranch horses that you might find stateside.  These horses are well feed and well maintained.  A little reverred even. And Macaran is no exception.  She is a white and grey speckled beauty.  Strong and completely grounded beneath me as I sit upon her high saddle. I rubbed her neck and spoke softly to her.  "Please take it easy on me, Girl.  We can have a great ride, just try not to get too close to the ravine."  Macarana whinnied, as if to tell me she'd take good care of me. We started out in a drizzling rain trotting through her own grazing lands.  We saw at least 3 new born colts with their Mama's and at least 2 dozen of other family steads.

We were also joined by the stable dog, Tequila. Tequila was a small black and brown pointer type pup and she took great care of her family of horses.  Her job was to go out ahead of the group and scare away any snakes that could harm her friends. The noble and gallent Tequila. The rain continued to fall (duh, rainforest!).  But I didn't even notice.  The views were outstanding.  Trees as old as our homeland stood reaching towards Arenal the Volcano like worshippers at Sunday prayer.

Toucans adorned the tree tops, monkeys chatting away beyond our vision.

Macarana apparently liked to be the "lead dog" as we galloped to the front of the pack.  As if in response to our original bargain, Macarana did not go too fast.  She went just fast enough so I wouldn't bounce right off of her back.  Macarana took good care of me. We made our way through the winding jungle to our next stop.  There was an outpost where we were to tie up our horses - so we could travel the next leg on foot. Just beyond this outpost was a trail of stone steps leading down the mountain.  The trail descended well past our view. Without hesitation we took the trail. It must have been 500 steps down, winding around grandfather trees and vegetation that I have never seen before.  Birds of all colors cooed and sung to us as we descended.

Descending further and further down...

Then we could here it.  The sounds of rushing and slamming water.

You could smell the water in the air, even so far above the valley floor. We were on our way to visit a waterfall. Words cannot describe the site of her.  Hundreds of thousands of pounds of water crashing down over hundreds of feet of sheer nothingness every second.

Joining the pool beneath her in a crash of life and vibrancy.  Throwing cool mist about her in a 100 feet in every direction. You could feel the rejuvinating powers of this massive ionic field pulsing around you.  The air was cleaner here and it instantly healed you as you took in each breathe. Simply put, it was amazing. We found out in a short time that you needed that boost from natures truest cleansing field to even start thinking about the journey back up the mountain. What felt like 500 steps coming down felt like 1500 going back up.  What can I say?  Only that I was so flipping happy for the rustic bench that had been strategically placed half way up the stair case to allow me a short break to work up the energy to continue my climb out of the heart of the jungle.

Even without the bench, I would have had to stop and take a breather.  But, man - so worth it to be in the magical circle of that amazing waterfall.  I would so do it again. Then it was back to Macarana to begin our journey home to the stables. At this point, the rain had dissipated.  And the world that this cleansing bath left us was amazing. The toucans were out in numbers, singing what I could only guess was a song of thanks for the refreshing and cleansing bath that nature just provided.

A double rainbow towered above us, marking our path back to the stables with brilliant color. Along the path, we stopped many times to take in one spectacular view after another.  On one such stop, Tequila (the stable dog) took off into a row of bannana trees. An unseen bird was calling to her.  "Where ya going?  Pretty Bird" was all we heard. Too cool to hear these mimicked calls coming out of a raw forest.  And for us to have heard it...this hidden bird must have been HUGE! And Tequila enjoyed chasing after this voice from the trees.  But is was soon back to her duties, as the horses were tiring and could apparently smell their home. The entire family of horses started to gallop as we neared their stable.  And who could blame them? A long day of carrying us on their back, enduring our stops along the way to take in their home land. But the day was almost over. We entered the stables and slowly dismounted.  I whispered my gratitude into Macarana's ear.  She nudged me with her head and whinned her understanding. Then it was back to our rooms for a quick shower and another ride to dinner. Chicken, fresh salsa, rice, cervasa...how can you go wrong? So another day in paradise winds down.  I can only wonder what tomorrow will bring? Pura Vida, my friends.  Until tomorrow...

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