For the first time since before the pandemic, we packed up and flew out of the country (US) for a little while. We obviously didn’t move around much at the height of the pandemic, and then we had a very old dog to take care of… and then a very new dog to train. And a year of school year-round, and work… and it has just been too long. I do not enjoy being in airports and on planes, but I don’t want to be a person who doesn’t travel, so it was long past time to pull some resources together and get out of dodge for a minute.
It ended up being a lovely, lovely break.
Fabulous-and-talented husband’s mother owns a house in Costa Rica, near Lake Arenal, and she invited us to stay with her for the week. We flew into Liberia and rented a car to get around. My MIL’s house is somewhat secluded, but not remote. It’s a lovely, comfortable house, with lots of windows. One of my favorite things about it was the covered patio, where I could do yoga in the mornings; it was warm and sheltered from the rain. So perfect.
We met at piglet named Abejorro (bumblebee) at a local brewpub. And we saw all manner of wildlife, including howler monkeys, a two-toed sloth, a few common house geckos, leaf-cutter ants, one bat, and lots of birds, including woodcreepers (sp?), keel-billed toucans, Hoffmann’s Woodpecker, euphonia (sp?), great kiskadees and social flycatchers, cattle egret, great egret, black-headed and turkey vultures, summer tanagers. I saw a currasow-shaped bird, and I think I may have seen a scarlet-rumped tanager and a groove-billed ani, but those were on car rides, so … ? We popped in at Playas del Coco on the way back from Tilarán and saw magnificent frigatebirds, brown pelicans, and an elegant tern in the ocean/surf. (Neither my fabulous-and-talented husband, nor my MIL, are birders, so birds were not the focus of this trip.)
The plant life in Costa Rica is, of course, incredible. I am in love with the epiphytic plants (air plants!) and the varieties of monstera growing on the trees.
Our most ambitious outing was to La Fortuna, where we went on a chocolate/coffee tour (we got to make our own chocolate bars!), and went on one of the zip lines. Very touristy, but you know what? I was a tourist, so it worked out very well for me.
This was a good, but very long, day. Driving to La Fortuna took almost 2 hours — Costa Rican roads are paved and in good condition, but they’re winding roads, so travel isn’t quick. We were lucky to catch a break in the rain from about 10:30a to 4p, which is when we were most active. The drive back was in driving rain, in the dark.
Despite it being the dry season, it rained… a lot: at least 1/2″ every day, with a couple of inches of rain on some days. It rained so much that it was starting to cause slides, and Lake Arenal was having to drain surface water. We talked to the owner of Raja’s Curry Point (IG: @rajascurrypoint, linktree: https://linktr.ee/rajascurrycr), a wonderful Indian restaurant in Nuevo Arenal, and he told us that he learned in a conversation with a lifelong resident that there are 7- or 15-year cycles where the mountains get a lot of rain during the dry season. (I wonder if these rains are exacerbated by climate change? As I am not an expert on Costa Rican climate, I can’t make any kind of assumptions about this — but we have enough unusual and unexpected events where we are that when the impact of a weather event is exaggerated or not quite right, it’s a question I ask.)
BTW, Raja’s Curry Point has amazing masala chai. The chana masala was delightful, and so were the samosas. Really good. I had the leftover chana masala for breakfast the next morning — heated it on the stove in a skillet and then cracked an egg into it, shakshuka style — so good. 10/10 highly recommend. (I didn’t take photos of the food because I was so busy enjoying it.)
It was a delightful trip. It was good to see and visit with my MIL. Costa Rica is beautiful. Costa Ricans in general are very patient with tourists whose Spanish is muy malo. (Points at self — my second language is halting Italian. A few rungs below that: ASL. And then French… and then Spanish. Lo siento, pero mi español es muy malo… muy, muy malo. ¿Cómo se dice in español… everything?)
Here were the challenges:
- There was so much rain that we didn’t get out as much as we would have liked. That situation, however, meant that we were able to spend a good bit of time relaxing and visiting, which is something we both needed.
- Nothing in Costa Rica is close by. From where we were, it was at least 90 minutes of driving to other things we wanted to see. Next time: plan to spend a few days being a tourist and birding before heading to see my MIL, and use the time spent with her in her house as a retreat.
- It was a very good idea for us to drive back to Liberia the day before our flight. It made returning the car and getting to the airport much less fraught.
I am so grateful for the much needed break, and for safe travels. And now, as they say, back to our show.
Bien, bien!
Carmen Yount 