Leaving Orosi

We left Orosi on Saturday at 7 am. Our last week of school was the most fun. Ceallan and I made lots of friends and the ladies at our school gave us lots of treats. We hiked with our teachers to the river and a natural hot spring. We had to hike through coffee fields and it was really fun. The sun was really bright and it was so warm. The hot springs were really warm. The weird thing was that it was right next to the big cold water river, so you could be in both warm and cold at the exact same time.

On Saturday we dropped off Ella and Alyssa at the airport and they looked sad. Ronny (from our first hotel in Alajuela) picked us up and we stayed there that night. We got a car and the next morning we drove north to Sarapiqui, where Meghan (my uncle’s friend) and her family live. They have an eco-retreat alongside the Rio Sarapiqui, which is a beautiful and fast water river. If you went into the middle of the river you could have fun being pulled away by the river’s rapids. The road we took was unbelievable! At first it was a very calm drive through farm land as we drove up into the mountains. Then it began to get rough. It was like driving on the moon! There were big craters and giant boulders and landslides and sometimes no road at all. I shouldn’t even say “road”, I should say trail. There were actually two ways to go, the calmer way that went through cities and our way. But of course, Dad was driving and he likes to be a risk taker. It was kinda fun but also seemed a little dangerous. There was a huge waterfall that we stopped at and it was really beautiful and you could see rainbows over it. The road hugged the side of the mountains and on the other side were cliffs, and if you swerved you would be a goner. But the views of the mountains and valleys were incredible!

Once we got to Meghan’s, the bridge to their place was out (at least to cars) so we had to hike in a little ways. Their place was so cool. They had a great kitchen and bar and hang out place and a gift shop. Everything was open to the world, except it all had a roof. We stayed back in the jungle where you could hear howler monkeys in the morning and birds. There were lizards and little neon green and black poison dart frogs. At night we had our own natural mosquito protection—BATS! The bats at night would swoop around us while we ate and later as we slept. You see, some bats lived in our house up in the ceiling. When we would wake up in the early morning, lying in bed, we would see bats flying around our rooms, over our beds and heads, eating their late night snack.

We hiked in the jungle and we got a little muddy. There was a great swimming hole in the river, just below some rapids. There was a nice little sandy beach. The second day we went for a chocolate tour (another one). It was awesome. To get into the reserve we had to cross another hanging suspension bridge and it was really long. And best of all you could rock it. I love that. We ate cocoa in three different ways. We first had hot chocolate, which we could add different flavors like chile, corn meal, nutmeg, vanilla, cinnamon. I chose the corn meal and vanilla and it was the absolute best. It did not taste like corn, it just tasted like fantastic and fresh hot chocolate. It was so fresh because we had just roasted the cocoa beans and ground them up. Next we tried creamy liquid chocolate and finally we had fresh chocolate bars that were shaped like dog paws, turtles, leaves.

Every morning we eat rice and beans all mixed up together. This is called Gallo Pinto, which means spotted rooster, and it is so good. And we would usually have eggs and sometimes fresh homemade corn tortillas. We also have lots of fresh fruit like papaya, pineapple, and watermelon and fresh squeezed juice. Mom’s and dad’s favorite was the pineapple juice. Sometimes we would have pancakes and bacon.

Our last day there we went…WHITE WATER RAFTING! We went down the rapids of the same river we swam in, the Sarapiqui. It was so much fun. We went down really, really fast water and there were sometimes BIG rocks and BIG waves. Our guide was named Jose and he was very nice. We sat right in front of him so that he could always see us and be extra safe. Sometimes we would have a swim break when the river was calm. But it only lasted for 30 seconds or a minute because then big rocks and rapids would come. Halfway through we had a break with a snack of fresh papaya and pineapple and delicious watermelon. I ate the watermelon and pineapple. There was a 15 foot cliff right over the deep water river. I jumped off all by myself and we have pictures. The water was cool but that was just fine because it was a hot day. There were three different teams and a couple of kayakers who were our safety patrol. When we would pass a boat we would all do a water fight and splash each other with our paddles. Then we got back and dried off and went to a farm, sitting in the back of a big farm truck. It started to pour down rain while we were in the back and we all got soaked. But Meghan and her kids (LLuvia and Aiden) got wet and really muddy. At the farm we had a big lunch of fried fish, cabbage salad, fried plantains, fried yucca (like a hashbrown), and fresh salsa. Everything was outside under a big awning, and the fireplace and outside stove was really neat. After lunch we went fishing for Tilapia and we used soda bottles with fishing line wrapped around them. They were so hard to catch. I only caught one, but usually when I fish for bass, walleye, perch, or pike, I catch about 20.

The next morning we had a big breakfast and we were a little sad to leave. We drove to Playa Samara on the Pacific Ocean. It was a beautiful drive. We drove out of the mountains and towards the coast. Sometimes the fields and plains looked like Africa with green hills behind them. Yesterday we went to the beach, but after a few minutes there was a huge storm and everybody got out. It poured and we got soaked getting back to our hotel. We had a nice hot shower and waited for the rain to quit. We played and talked and then went to a pizza place and they were very nice there. Right now we are just relaxing and it is raining again. But then again, it is the rainy season in Costa Rica. And now we have another adventure in front of us.