Day 4 - March 5

Today was the day to say good bye to the Le Cameleon Hotel in Puerta Viejo and make our trek to the Arenal region. We had our customary breakfast by the water. I'm doing better at eating less and staying close to my normal food and I feel much better. The ocean was really boiling today and red flags are everywhere on the beaches. Not a day for the faint of heart to swim! 

Got on the buses at 9:00 am and started our long day. Jimmy helped pass the time on the bus by sharing Costa Rican geography and history with us while we drove. He hung a map of Costa Rica at the front of the bus and used a laser to talk to us about all sorts of interesting subjects. I could never remember it all but I do remember him talking about the different Teutonic plates. And another thing that captured my interest was the building of a dry passageway across Costa Rica. With climate change, the Panama Canal is in trouble and boats are getting backed up there for months. The project for a dry passage way will cost billions of dollars and is being funded by a company in Denmark. But there will ultimately be a high speed rail across Costa Rica for an alternative shipping route. 

We stopped at a restaurant about three hours into our drive to have lunch. It was a buffet prepared specifically for our group and the food was delicious. We had a jungle backdrop with beautiful Costa Rica birds singing and flying close enough for us to enjoy them. After lunch we boarded the bus again, and headed to our next stop, a pineapple plantation tour. 

The pineapple plantation tour was tons of fun and very informative. We all rode on a wagon pulled by a tractor and the guide talked to us about the process of growing and harvesting pineapples. Once again, I am in awe of the manual labor involved in planting and harvesting pineapples. This is done with actual human beings. There are no machines that can duplicate the process needed. Ethylene gas is used to control the growing season of pineapples, another remarkable fact. 4 liters are diluted with 4000 gallons of water and sprayed onto the plants at the appropriate time. It was the discovery of this by Edward Dole that allowed for pineapple growing to be controlled so that pineapples could be harvested for the world to enjoy. We tasted the most amazing pineapple you can imagine and saw many toucans in the trees. The tour ended with fresh pina coladas which were doctored with local moonshine. Also to enjoy were crackers with fresh pineapple marmalade. Just a delicious treat. 

Back on the bus.........oh, I'm having a hard time hanging on to my good attitude. I am really really really sick of the bus. But Tim is ever positive and cheery, in spite of the fact that he is crammed into the seat with his knees wedged against the seat in front of us. 

We had yet one more stop to make - a salsa lesson. We drove about another hour and arrived at the dance studio. All of us are exhausted but we dragged ourselves onto the floor. It ended up being a ton of fun. Salsa is an eight beat dance with pauses on the 4 and the 8. I could tell my line dancing experience was helping a bit. Nothing about dancing comes natural for me but I'm slowly improving. Tim and I were partners and we had a great time and laughed a lot! 

Back on the bus and my good mood was truly evaporating. We finally got to Baldi Hot Springs which is one of the fanciest hotels I've ever seen in my entire life. I found it off putting and overwhelming in the space that I was in. Added to that, Tim and I are in a room a full third of a mile from the front desk, all uphill. But I managed to rein myself in. We got checked into the room and went downstairs and had dinner in the hotel restaurant. Dinner was on us tonight. It was decently good but probably my least favorite meal since arriving here - and definitely the most expensive. After dinner, Tim and I hung out in the hot tub a bit which was really wonderful. All these mineral pools are heated from the volcano and the hottest ones are HOT. I loved it. Tim not so much. 

Tomorrow is another FULL day.