What does waiting in lines, applying bug spray repeatedly and moving at a super slow pace so you can gab with your friends remind you of?

If you guessed summer camp, you are right!

Our day with the group of students from Indiana and Texas universities was dominated by waiting. I guess we had forgotten what traveling with 30 people is like (as in bathroom breaks all the time, nonstop giggling and mostly stopping at touristy places James and I would never go near).

Through Heidi’s local knowledge we were able to enter a beautiful waterfall/hiking trail that is off the map. James swam with the bikini clad coeds in the rushing water and like a camp councilor, I watched bags and cameras.

The hike was the gem of the day. Not so much explaining how to use latrines to people who have not traveled abroad. I think the next 2 weeks for them will be a crash course in living in nature, in addition to the important aid they are providing to Nicaraguans. Through travel they will hopefully learn more about themselves and their limits.

After the cataracs we piled back into the van and drove to Gracia to take a lunch break,. Surprisingly the plaza only had fried chicken places and we resorted to a meal of french fries. An interesting note: we thought aros de cebolas meant rice with onion, however, aros is not arroz; we got onion rings. So a completely fried lunch it was, yumm.

The town of Gracia has a beautiful church in el centro that was delivered there by accident. Sergio relayed an interesting story of how there church was intended for Puntoarenas, Chilie, but by a shipping fluke was unloaded at nearby Puntoarenas, Costa Rica. The local priest said that he was indeed waiting for a church, and took it away. The church was constructed entirely out of metal sheets that were sent along with the plans for assembly from Spain. The finished product is majestic (and the metal bolts can still be seen).

A few more hours in the bus, this time with me in the jump seat, we got into Leberia and parted ways with the group. We found the hostel that our guide book* said could arrange transport to Rincon de la Vieja. The hostel receptionists arranged for a 4×4 driven by the affable Offie to come at 8pm (an hour later) to take us to the isolated eco lodge just outside the national park.

Crash, boom, shift, ouch. Our 45 min ride over the rocky road tossed us around the truck and at last when we pulled up to the hotel, we discovered that we did not have reservations and they were completely full. Fortunately Offie (for anther $5) took us to a hotel where he likely got a commission where we luckily could stay. It is here that I type this up, and looking around, there seems only to be about 3 other couples staying.

The windy night greeted us as we checked into our cabin style room and apparently James did not get any mosquito attention. I, on the other hand, have a few welts I’m trying not to scratch.

We woke up this morning and headed to our daseyuno fuete. For the Costa Ricans, you ought to eat breakfast like a kind, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper. So we sat down to a heaping plate of fruit, rice, beans, flavorless queso blanco, eggs and plantains.

Laced up our shoes and after one or two false starts (James heard right, I heard left) we ran into some lovely Italians who drove us to the entrance of the National Park. There we hiked for about 4 hours on a challenging trail including many unmarked sections, several river crossings and at least 10 boulders to scramble over all to see these fantastic volcanic hot springs.

Once you accept the sulfuric sent, these amazing natural formations will impress you! Absolutely worth the trek through 4 habitats (jungle, plains, desert, forest) you will be impressed.

We lapped a group of elderly Germans at least twice (it was a loop) and have no idea how they managed their way out. Perhaps entering at the less steep exit? James commented that “by 80 I’ll be so good at hiking” just like the Germans.

We began the 3km walk back (uphill, in the sun, at noon) to our hotel and made it without sunburn or complete exhaustion.

Resting now in the hammock, I’ll have to relocate to the bar to post this.

*new guide book (about 10 yrs outdated) since our Lonely Plant some how disappeared…