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Be warned, this missive is quite hefty and make take 2
or 3 readings to get through.
Canadian Consulate Parties: Well, just because it's Canadian doesn't mean it's not culture. The parties continue each month with varying numbers of attendees. One month we had some visitors from out east. In our conversation I found out they had seen The Great Big Sea in concert, yes, I was jealous. This last one fell on a day that my sister was visiting. She was a very popular since I asked her to stop at the duty free on her way and to bring a 6-pack of Molson’s. There were some pretty happy faces that night. :) My Last Visitor: Speaking of my visiting sister I should tell you what we were up to while she was here. Her first day was spent on the infamous 4in1 tour that almost everyone who visits me has gone on. It's a long day but worth the time investment. Thursday she was on her own, adrift in the chaos of downtown San Jose. She's braver than me as she took the bus on her first day, both ways. I guess she managed to find the Criminology & Forensics Museum but was a little disappointed in the small number of preserved body parts. No comment. That evening was the party, I will reiterate, happy Canadians with beer, very entertaining. Friday morning found us on a bus to Manuel Antonio at the insane hour of 6AM; actually it was the getting up around 4:30 to get ready that was insane. We weren't sure if we should get off the bus in Quepos, small town near Manuel Antonio, as we weren't actually sure where the hotel was. We stayed on and a few minutes watched the sign for the hotel pass us by. Quickly getting up the courage to plead for the bus driver to stop (in broken Spanish I might add) we disembarked and trekked back to the entrance. I should note that ordinarily I wouldn't have asked but it is quite common for the drivers to stop on the side of the road to pick up and drop off passengers that wave them down or request to be let off. We had to wait a bit for our room as there were repairs being done. As it turned out we couldn't get our reserved room, but fortunately a group was leaving from one of the deluxe suites and they put us in there for no extra charge. The French-Canadian owner was very gracious and stored our bags as we walked to Quepos for a walkabout. I think we hit nearly every souvenir store in the town in less than an hour and a half. After returning to our room and having a refreshing nap we hit the beach. Now, I may have said nice things about Jaco, I take them back. Manuel Antonio is a beautiful beach, white sand, clean, very little noise. Yes, it does cater to tourists, but darn it, that's what we were. Upon our return to the hotel we decided to have dinner there. The meal prepared by the owner's boyfriend was stupendous, I highly recommend the Tilapia (fish). Yum-my. The rest of the evening was spent learning to play chess, on a conquistadors & Aztecs chessboard, while a little drunk from the wine at dinner. Highly amusing. The next day was spent lounging around the pool, snoozing in the hammock, reading in bed ... you get the picture. We spent the remainder of the afternoon wandering about Quepos until it was time for the bus, we were a little worried about whether it would stop or not as we were not in Manuel Antonio itself. Happily it arrived, in the pouring rain and we had to make a run for it. That evening we repacked and crashed in preparation for the trip to Arenal the next morning. At the more civilised hour of 8AM we took a private bus to Arenal. We checked into our hotel just outside of La Fortuna (appropriate name for a town that close to an active volcano) then had lunch at a neighbouring hotel. We got a taxi to the Tabacon Resort (we missed the shuttle bus) and spent the afternoon and into the evening exploring the different hot spring pools and meeting French, British and American people enjoying the atmosphere. This time I found even more pools than the last time plus discovered that you can go farther up the hot spring river and get really boiled. Of course we hit the hot spring waterfall last before showering and catching the shuttle bus to La Fortuna for dinner. We went to a restaurant recommended by a guy at my office; let's just say all his recommendations have been top-notch. The food was indescribably good; once again I recommend the fish. Wow. I mean WOW. The next morning we were up early, note that it’s hard not to get up early in this country as the sun must have it's alarm clock stuck on "you must be nuts". A bus came to pick us up for our canopy tour. I had heard of these trips so many times I wasn't that excited, just curious. Well, after a 45-minute horseback ride and a 15-minute hike I was more than curious let me tell you. Once at the top platform we had a review of the safety measures and the techniques to do the "zipping" from tree to tree on a steel cable no bigger than my index finger in diameter it was time to take the plunge, so to speak. As we were going to buy the video (made by the friendly, and quite handsome, guy with the video camera who joined the our group of 10) we were chosen to go first. Now being the older sister of course it was up to me to set a good example for my little sister, I should note that she was called "little sister" by the 2 guides during the whole tour after that. Strapped into a rather intimate fitting harness I clutched my leather brake to the cable and was hooked up. After a deep breath I lifted my legs and was off. The ground dropped away rather swiftly and I was zipping over the treetops, I managed not to look down and reached the first platform very quickly. After being secured to the platform I was unhooked from the cable for the next person to go. I quickly got out my camera for some shots of my sister as she flew towards me. It wasn't until I shot off a few pix and put my camera away did I realize just how high up I was. My pulse was a little quick. :) There were a total of 7 zip lines and 9 platforms, the last being the fastest. Everyone in the group was laughing and cheering each other on by the second zip line. By the time we got to the last one we were all old pros at it and went for the speed. After a rest break back at the corral we hopped back on our mounts and headed back to the stables. Of course it was noon by this time so it was pretty toasty out and the horses weren't too keen on the trip but we got them moving and made our way down the trail. After retrieving our things (you couldn't bring wallets, bags or even wear a belt) we got on the bus and headed back to our hotels. After a quick shower we checked out and had just enough time to catch a ride into town with the husband of the hotel owner and have a quick lunch before the bus came. Tuesday morning came too quickly and before I knew it my sister was wining her way back to Vancouver. Everything worked out great for her trip as the rainy season really started in earnest the next day. Legal Prostitution I forgot to mention an interesting little bit of Tico law that I learned a while back. Prostitution is legal here. Yes, here in the heart of Roman Catholic country, it's legal to sell sex. Okay, well it's legal to sell it other places too, just not legal to buy it (contradictions abound). I only remembered because when I was out on the Bohemian Night Out one of the local brothels was pointed out to me. Unfortunately we passed by rather quickly so I didn't get a good look. Sorry guys can't tell you which building it was; you're on your own when asking directions. Shoe stores & banks Lastly I'd like to mention the veritable plethora of banks and shoe stores. I don't know if there is any direct correlation but I was not the only one to notice this. When you get downtown it seems that there is a shoe store on every block, sometimes there are two. Of course they all carry matching handbags, sort of a Tica (female Tico) obsession. As for the banks I can't even to guess, except that perhaps because of the rather archaic banking system they need more of them so the people don't spend days standing in bank line ups instead of hours. Yes, it happened to me once, and just so I could pay my cable TV bill. |
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