So after a total fiasco of getting all of Lorna’s stuff on the plane Mike and I made it to the gate with plenty of time to spare. We waited for a little while before boarding. Once on the plane and off the ground we started partaking in the complimentary beverage service. After about 6 or 7 drinks our flight landed, we made it through customs and found Lorna and Diego (Lorna’s brother) waiting for us. Then it was off to the Toruma Hostel where we were sleeping that night. We dropped off our stuff and headed for the bars and discos for a night of continued drinking and dancing.

We stayed out till about 1:30 before Lorna and Diego decided it might be a good time to call it a night since they had a 20 or 30 minute drive to their house, and I guess we needed our rest for the weekend adventure.

  Friday morning we decided rather than go to Arenal (the big erupting volcano which was the whole reason Tom and I were going in the first place) we’d head for the Caribbean and I’d plan a future date to return to do the adventure lava tour. Lorna shows up around 9:00 and we grab a cab to get to the airport Budget Rental where we rented Suzi the Sidekick (Suzuki Sidekick) our trusty stead for the weekend. Next it was off to Cartago (where Lorna lives) to pick up her friend Marcella. Driving in Costa Rica is crazy but a blast at the same time. Basically if you drive like a complete idiot without hitting anything, your considered a good driver. Driving in heavy San Jose traffic is tough at first but I quickly get the hang of it and am often confused with the Tico’s (Spanish for Costa Rican) for my crazy driving maneuvers.

Once we get the four of us in the car we start heading up to the volcano Irazu, which is an active volcano but just not currently erupting. On the way up we stop to eat at a local restaurant on the side of the road which was just incredible. I ordered the Lengua which was incredible, I received a HUGE plate and it was probably the best I’ve ever had Mike ordered the Casado which looked great and received high praise and the ladies had this awesome cheese tortilla which I had quite a bit of. After completely stuffing ourselves we continued our journey up the mountain dodging horses and cows most of the way up. Once at the top we hiked up to the crater and saw the dormant side along with the active crater which currently had a lake in it. It was beautiful up there, we hiked all around the craters before heading back to the car and heading to a scenic overlook even farther up (we’re already well above the clouds). From this spot on a clear day you can actually see both the Pacific and the Caribbean… all we see are the tops of clouds.

  We then head down the mountain and end up in a valley called Orosi where we stop at this church which was built in the 1600’s because the Virgin Mary appeared on a rock in this location. The Rock is in the basement of the building where you can still go down and see it. We went to the basement got pictures with the rock found this underground stream with holly water, splashed some on for good luck and then decided why head to the beach tonight when there was so much to see around Cartago. So we call Diego to let him know we’ll go to the beach in the morning and head for a drive. We see so many wonderful places… Waterfalls, Gardens, Ruins, vegetation etc… Marcella and Lorna teach us Spanish as we go (we’ll see if I remember it). We stop at the Casa del sonador (The Dreamers House) where these woodworkers were who basically carve statutes etc out of driftwood. This house was incredible, everything it it was hand carved and you could walk through and check out all the sculptures, doors etc. I bought this root which had this old mans head carved out of it.

 As the sun set we started to get hungry (at least I did, of course) so we headed to another restaurant in Cartago called La Chicharronera where we ordered 6 appetizers which were incredible… Marcella is going to have to send me the names for them but my favorite was Ceviche (raw fish in a lemon juice marinade) YUM!!!. Mike and I then headed to a little bed and breakfast (Hotel Los Angeles) so we could get ready for the nights activities, Lorna Marcella, Mike and I were heading out to see a live band (Matif, I think). On the way back to the hotel, the girls had us pick up 4 small bottles of Cacique Guarro so they could take them in the club so we could mix our own drinks and save money. I love Tica’s (Costa Rican Women) not only are they beautiful they come up with ideas like this. Once in the room, showering was an electrifying experience, basically Costa Rica doesn’t have running hot water. Instead they run their cold water into a electric (YES I said Electric) powered heating system. So basically you have a water pipe with a electrical wire taped to it running into the shower head which is a large electric motor. In the case of the first room there is quite a bit of bare wires involved. Since I was the first to shower I was very curious why Mike kept yelling at me to see if I was OK. I later learned while he was in the shower that not only when you flicked the motor from Warm to cold or hot would, it spark and pop in the shower. It would also dim the lights quite a bit making the person in the room think you may have just electrocuted yourself.

    Once we made it to Puerto Viejo we went straight through town to a beach (Punta uva) at the very end of this long gravel road. It was great, pretty deserted set in this large cove with blue water.

After spending a few hours on the beach and hiking the terrain nearby we headed off to find a room. Our home for the night was the Hotel Puerto Viejo,

    The next morning I was up roaming around about 9:00, this is where I met and had a long talk with Andy from Canada. She had been in Central America for a month or two and was leaving for a few days to go to Nicaragua for a month and then to Guatemala until the money ran out. I then went and got everyone up and packed up the car so we could head to Cahuita for a little hiking and spend some more time on the beach. After lunch we made the short drive to the Cahuita where we went hiking down a fairly easy trail through some woods, this is where we ran into Jenny and Yael who I had met the night before at the Disco. We talked for a second and we continued on our original directions. Once at the end of the trail we hung out on the beach and saw a monkey before heading back up the beach instead of following the trail back. After a while of walking along the beach Lorna decided to cut across the jungle to find the trail which was a possible mistake since it was pretty dense. We eventually found the trail and headed back to the main beach without any problems (It’s been a week now I’m sure the Malaria would have happened). Once on the beach we found Deigo and Oliva who were not too far away from Jenny and Yael who called me over to where they are. Now Jenny is from San Francisco and Yael is from Switzerland and they met a few weeks prior to this and decided to travel together. Yael only knew me as Texas from the night before and her main question was if we had a Sheriff in my town, which turned into them both attacking me since Texas believes in capital punishment. You see Yael was very much opposed to it and didn’t seem to like my un-opinionated attitude about it, especially my belief that me nor probably anyone I know will be affected by it so why worry. But even so she turned out to be very interesting not to mention beautiful, kind of made me mad that we decided to leave and not stay another night… But we have rainforest to see so we headed back towards the car to round everyone up. Mike and I decided to grab another bite to eat before starting our journey back, we chose this woman’s backyard restaurant for our dinner. I ordered the rice with chicken and it was really good, and you know… it even surprised me that I wasn’t bothered eating chicken while live chickens walked around the yard and our table.

    Our final day we slept in had breakfast (yum toast), and headed to pick up Lorna and her friend Ronald. Then it was off to the Tapanti Rainforest for a day of hiking. Once we got to the gate Ronald told us to be quite and did all the talking, basically they thought we were Ticos and let us in for the cheaper price. Once up the mountain we checked out a scenic overlook, which was beautiful but not much of a hike. We the headed for our first trail which turned out to 400meters and pretty lame, UNTIL it ended at the river and you know me… that’s where the real trail starts. First we tried to cross the river, but the current that didn’t look too strong actually was, so we then headed up the river bank climbing large boulders and having a blast. Since we had one other trail Lorna wanted us to see we headed back to the car and went and found the final trailhead. This trail was incredible, very rough, right in the middle of the rainforest straight up a mountain, very dense just plain fun. It took us about an hour to complete this trail of 2K. We then did a short 1200 meter hike back to a swimming hole in the river, but the water was way too cold to swim so we headed off to eat.

We stopped at this real nice restaurant called La Casona del Cafetal which was right next to this huge lake where I had this incredible sea bass with this fruit sauce (Major YUM).

After lunch we headed to the local supermarket for all my Costa Rican wares (Guarro, Spices, Cigarettes, sugar cane tea, the only thing I forgot was my cookbook). We saw the most beautiful women at the supermarket, Mike and I almost opted to stay there but we headed over to Ronald’s brothers bar for a few more beers before dinner. This is where we lost Lorna since she had to go home and cook, Mike and I hung out with Ronald for a few hours and we all seemed to get along really well. At 7 we took Ronald home and headed to Lorna’s where we cleaned up as best as possible for dinner (we were pretty messy after the days events). Dinner with Lorna’s family was perfect, the food was wonderful and we had many very interesting conversations from fashion to politics.

After a few hours of eating, drinking (Lorna’s dad pours a mean Guarro) and conversation we headed off to get Ronald for a night of dancing. Once in San Jose we couldn’t find the disco so Ronald had me stop where he asked a passing cop. Next thing you know the cop is taking off and Ronald is telling me to follow him. Basically we’re chasing after this cop who’s giving us a police escort to the disco. After 2 or 3 hours of dancing in the Disco we feel it’s time so we drive Ronald and Lorna back to Cartago and head for our Hostel where we call it a night.