November 2

For our 2nd day off we woke up late, made a big eggs/potatoes/onion breakfast, and hade it with the last of the loaves of bread we bought yesterday. Obviously, we have a bread addiction. Grant has always had one, but I’m not sure where my bread addiction came from. Then we went on a walk up to Millon, which is the neighborhood above the Conservatory. It’s officially part of El Castillo in terms of directions, but it does have a different name. Our first stop was Essence Arenal to check out the hostel for my parents. We met Kelly first, who showed us the rooms and pool (very nice, and the pool has a magnificent view of the lake and volcano. You also have the option of staying in “safari tents” which have wood floors and mattresses. More rustic, less expensive). He let us hike the trail that leads through their property, which was pretty wild. It’s single track, and it snakes through the forest and along the river. We made it to the ridge at the top of their property where we met Nico, who is the other owner. He was working with some guys to make a sauna where their shaman will do ceremonies. He was accompanied by his 6 month old Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy who was so beautiful, so regal looking, and very well behaved for a puppy. We took the service trail back to the main hostel and went into the kitchen for a glass of water. They have a live in cook who prepared an amazing breakfast for one of the guests while we were there. They start dinner every night at 7pm, it costs $10, and the guests participate. We’re going to join one of these days. We ended up talking to the guest, Justin, for about an hour. He was an interesting character. He went to school in Florida, but he dropped out and moved to Costa Rica, where he sold drinks along a beach where there wasn’t a bar. He got into some kind of gambling and made some money. He invested it in gold, and he is going to open a gift shop somewhere close by with his mom when she retires. He was full of stories, and had the sort of slow speech of someone who has done a lot of drugs in his life, but he was smart underneath that. The whole time we were in the kitchen, loud dance club music was playing which was a little against the vibe from the area. Justin offered to drive us further up the hill, or go with us to the hot springs, but he had to eat his breakfast first and we wanted to go, so we parted ways.
We contined up the hill, and it was ultimately good we didn’t go in the car because the road went from passable in a car (dirt road though, of course) to passable in an ATV, to singletrack. We climbed very high into the hills. The trees, secondary forest probably, got so dense and the clouds hung between the trees. We rounded a corner and startled a family of monkeys the same as the ones we saw in Matapalo. We walked a little further and the trees cleared so we could see the ridge behind the one that we live at the base of. It was so beautiful, so pristine. I tried to capture it on camera but it’s next to impossible. Since grant’s camera isn’t waterproof we turned around when it started to drizzle. On the way down I saw my first 2 toucans! They are much different from macaws, they sit very high in the trees and they are very nervous birds. They fly as awkwardly as the macaws do. I tried to take a few pictures, but they’re very far away. On the way down we stopped and thanked Nico, and we also stopped at the community art center on the way home to say hi to Danielle, who works there every day. We always pass by on our way home from work, but we haven’t stopped yet. She’s 22, and gaining residency because her son (1 and a half years) was born here.
When we got home I made banana bread, which was a success. Grant made rice with chetoye, onion and achiote coloring and hot peppers, and it was a nice change from plain rice. I also went to the pulparia (small store) to buy eggs, which scared me but Alberto apparently understood me well enough to give me 15 eggs for the correct price (1400 colones, or $2.80).