I have 6 more work days left at the ranch, and then from there 3 weeks to fill however I so choose. I’m thoroughly looking forward to working at Pizza John’s, spinning pizzas and living la pura vida and whatever else is ahead. And traveling to another part of the country, even though today I found out that where we are planning to head is apparently one of the wettest areas of the country, year-round. Just my luck! Oh well, if anything I’ve grown used to the frequent downpours and uncertainty of when it will stop falling.
Speaking of downpours let me recount to you the adventures of this past weekend.
Last Saturday morning began an adventure that started rather spontaneously, as great, epic, and memorable adventures often do. We randomly decided to go to the national park for the volcano, until we heard from a few locals that not only does the national park cost $10 to get in, but there aren’t that many trails and it’s not that great. The volcano observatory lodge is closer to the ranch, and only costs $4 to enter. When you aren’t making any money, anything that is even remotely cheaper is going to automatically be the best option! The change in adventure location also prompted our motley crew to change our mode of transportation. Dustin suggested we rent mountain bikes from the ranch, an idea that of course I immediately agreed to. So Saturday morning dawned bright and beautiful, the perfect day for an all-day, out-of-doors adventure. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and I was absolutely pumped.
Jean Baptiste, Dustin, Andrea, and I selected our bikes, donned helmets, filled up our camelbaks and hit the bumping road. Dustin and I sped off, being more of the serious biking types, though I will say that Dustin is much more experienced than I am. Neither of us had been biking in a while though we had both arrived in good biking shape. Nevertheless I powered up the rocky hills as best as I could and made sure to hit a good number of puddles on my way down, just to feel the spray of the water hit and feel just that much more alive. It was exhilarating being on a bike again and feeling my adrenaline and heart pumping and sweat pouring off my body like rain drops. Whoever said “girls don’t sweat, they glisten” was clearly not an athlete.
After a brief pit stop at the bridge to survey the great Arenal Volcano and its surprisingly clear state, we headed up the road towards the observatory.
Jean-Baptiste, Dustin, Me, Andrea
The jungle changed a bit as we climbed and we entered a pine forest! Glimpses of the volcano kept us going and eventually we got to the entrance. It was literally straight up for 1.3 km, which is only about a half mile but it sure felt like more than that. I’ll admit, I didn’t make it all the way up without getting off my bike, though I definitely tried. By this time we had traveled 10km, which really isn’t all that much, except for the fact that it was in the hot sun, over many rocks and up and down many hills and twists and turns. And at 3000 feet no less! ;) Whatever, it’d been a while since I’d biked and we all know that Indiana is not a hilly place. I’m a flatlander through and through though I have many plans to change that.
We all finally made it to the observatory lodge and by this time it was the lunch hour so we sat down at the restaurant with an incredibly close and spectacular view of Arenal, as well as the lake. I devoured a cheeseburger and fries (anything that isn’t rice and beans!) and promptly fell asleep on a very comfortable couch after lunch while Dustin and Andrea played a game of chess and Jean Baptiste rested his eyes too. After this break we decided to go exploring and go for a hike as there is over 9 miles of various hiking trails and sights to see on the property. The volcano went in and out of visibility, as did the sunshine. We hiked out to a waterfall, deep into the jungle and decided to continue on to a hanging bridge and then on to Cerro Chato, a now sunken volcano that has a lake where its exploding crater once was. Right before we were about to walk across the hanging bridge it began to rain. And then pour. Luckily we’d grabbed some neon yellow reflective jackets that turned out not to be waterproof but at least they were bright!
We found a shelter to wait out the storm. When the downpour didn’t stop after more than a half hour we decided that it probably wasn’t going to stop any time soon so we made a literal run for it, scampering back down the now trail-turned-river and muddy conditions. The jungle takes on a whole new look during a downpour. There’s water everywhere and when you decide to run through it, the intensity level quickly increases. We ran and laughed and dodged sticks and stones along the trail and loved our drenched lives. Back at the observatory we sat up in the lookout tower and watched the volcano and watched some large hot stones fall down the side of it, crashing and steaming along the way. It was perfect. Eventually the rain dissipated and we decided it was time to head back. The way back was much easier than the way up as we were energized by fake fruit gummy dinosaurs and some slices of bread, along with a much-needed break and a nap. Dustin also made the great choice of buying chocolate covered espresso beans which likely also aided in our increased energy. Anyway, we zoomed down back to the main road from the lodge and jean baptiste and andrea were completely wiped so they headed back towards the ranch while Dustin and I decided to continue the adventure and head into La Fortuna, about 20 km from where we were at that moment. There’s a shuttle that goes back to the ranch at 6pm so we figured we would ride into town and catch the shuttle back towards the ranch.
The ride into Fortuna was incredible!! Not only incredibly difficult at some points, but also incredibly awesome! Once we got to the main paved road it was fairly smooth sailing, despite the few massive hills we had to conquer. I’ll admit, I got out and walked up part of them. By this time my legs were freaking out: “what! Another hill! nooOooooOOooo” The sun began to set, which looked awesome with the mostly clear volcano smoking in the distance. The downhill into Fortuna was some of the best downhill I’ve ever experienced. That is a moment in which you truly feel free…zooming down a hill at who knows what insanely fast speed, feeling the wind in your hair and the sun on your face and smiling this massively goofy smile because you just love your life in that moment so incredibly much! Obviously, I was happy to have made the choice to ride into Fortuna. We made it just in time to grab the shuttle back (there was NO way I would have made it back, especially once it got dark) and had it drop us off at Pizza John’s since we had missed dinner. We enjoyed good conversation and delicious pizza, as always, and played stick ball in the yard with Mao, an incredibly entertaining 6-year-old Tico.
I also had the pleasure of waking up in time to catch the last bit of night blend into dawn around 5am the other day. I told you I’ve been enjoying waking up early! This day was great, and dawn is indeed a magical time. The last star eventually disappeared into the growing light and the clouds were perfect. It was a great mixture of clouds and clarity, with pinks and oranges and light blues appearing all over the horizon. If you’ve never watched the sun rise, I definitely encourage you to do so! The birds along the lake were flying around, I watched a couple kingfishers searching for fish for a while, on power lines above the lake. Everything slowly but surely sprung to life all around me and I soaked up every second of it that I possibly could!
Another blog is on its way so I’ll cut this one off here.
Love Life!
Cheers,
Katie
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