october 23

Today is our first day off. We woke up after 8am, then made a 2 egg, splash of milk and 2/3 grren pepper and lots of garlic frittata (How to: put everything in the bottom of the pot, let cook on lower temperature until ¾ of it cooked. Untick with spatula and flip using a plate to cook the other side). We got into walking clothes and walked in the direction of Rancho Margot, away from La Fortuna. When we passed by Majestic Lodge the 2 dogs who ran with me the other morning joined us on our walk. We continued to where the road splits into two, with the right side dead ending in the river. We sat by the water with the dogs for an hour. The water isn’t cold the way it would be in California, but it was still cool. The middle of the river was running pretty fast also. The dogs kept going in the water, but not too far. One looks like a cocker spaniel, the other is part beagle, part jack russel, probably. We got to watch 2 guys on ATVs cross the river while we were sitting there. It was pretty funny, since the river was a little deep and neither seemed to totally know what they were doing. They made it across but not without getting soaked. We took the other side of the road to Rancho Margot to check it out. We told the dogs to wait, so they disappeared when we went into the ranch. The whole place was really nice. They let us into the common area and bar, but there was a sign that prevented us from going further because we aren’t paying guests. They offer tours of the farm, kayaking trips, horseback riding, and they have places to stay. We met one of the guys who seemed to be in charge, and he told us that as volunteers at the conservatory we were welcome to have some food with the rest of the staff, but we weren’t sure if he meant for free so we decided to stick with our original pizza plan. As we walked away from the ranch, the two dogs popped out of the bushes on the side of the road and walked back with us! It scared me when they dropped out of the bushes but it was nice to see them again. We stopped in for lunch at Pizza Johns, and we ended up staying from 1:30-5pm. It had started to rain on our walk back, so John gave us a tablecloth to dry off with and we headed upstairs to select a table. We were the only ones there when we arrived. He lives in a Tico shack next to his restaurant, which is set a bit back from the main road, across from Jose’s house who works at the Conservatory. The restaurant is 2 floors: the bottom is a kitchen, pizza oven and shadded patio. Upstairs is all seating, and there are no walls. Every surface possible is covered with writing, which John said had started only two years ago. There is so much writing that it’s already creeping up onto the ceiling. After selecting out table, listening to John tell us about his life in the USA, and his journey into Costa Rica living, we ordered our pizza then followed him downstairs to keep him company while he cooked. He was nice enough to let us use his internet briefly while he was cooking. He had all sorts of stories about the people who live in the area, how he came to move here, how to get around, everything. He has 3 dogs (taco, rico and lucky) who adopted him when he came here, and two cats. While we were talking a Swiss family showed up and took a table upstairs also. They were kind of odd; everyone was dressed all in white, including their 5 year old daughter and 8 yr old son. Even after eating, everyone was remarkably clean. When the pizza was finished (8 slices per pie: grant got the meat special and I got the vegetarian) we talked with John and the swiss family while eating. John gave us complimentary ice cream that he had made himself (a scoop each of chocolate, vanilla and banana) and it was the best ice cream I have ever had, hands down. He also undercharged us by what would be 50 cents. He was incredibly kind. The swiss family left after ice cream, but we were joined by a guy named Jonathan who is 19, from the neighborhood above the conservatory, and he is fluent in english. He wants to be a fashion designer, but the school is prohibitively expensive. We all went downstairs and sat around the warm pizza oven and talked until it was a little after 5pm, getting dark, and still pouring down rain. Since our clothes were still damp from the walk to Pizza Johns, Grant and I opted to walk home. We ended up running the whole way though, although we stopped and bought a plantain at the smaller store on the way. Leche passed us running as we started toward home, so we ran to catch up. Grant ended up scaring him since it was dark and Leche didn’t hear us behind him. We got home soaked and so full we didn’t need dinner. We just had maple tea with a little bit of that raw brown sugar.