it's nothing short of a miracle that for the next 365 days, david and i have overlapping vacation for 7 of them (and not a second more). that long overdue week begins this saturday afternoon, when we'll be taking a much needed roadtrip up the beautiful michigan coast to visit family and do some camping before the arctic chill sets in again (since when is it september?!). we promise to be back for our monthly update after that! hope everyone is well. enjoy!
olla de carne (meat stew), one of costa rica's national dishes. VERY TASTY. this was one of our favorite things to eat in costa rica. like most peasant food, it's extremely hearty but inexpensive to make, and uses less expensive cuts of meat/starchy vegetables (many of which i'd never heard of before, and i know from starchy vegetables) that cook for a long time and get wonderful and mushy and flavor infused. i don't think you're allowed to claim costa rican citizenship unless you can make this dish. it's so common, ironically you can hardly find it on a menu at any restaurant...you just have to know who to ask and they will make it for you.
our failed attempt at the summit of irazu volcano...this is a farmer we met on the bus (juan miguel?) who lives a meager 17k from the entrance to the park. he told us it would be a nice afternoon walk to get there. about two hours/one kilometer/second degree sunburns/hypoxia from the elevation (depending on how you want to measure it later), we headed back downhill.
in the small town (population 18) we crossed through in our descent of defeat, we stumbled into this bar amid the 1:2 house:church ratio and drowned our sorrows to some 80s tunes.
a week later, we did summit irazu. the smart way. on a bus. it was chilly up there, but absolutely beautiful.
this is just before the entrance to the park...as you can see, we're above the cloudline. exactly where i'd like to spend an afternoon walking for 17k with my below sea level acclimated lungs/erythrocytes.
costa rica is full of plate techtonics. there are many volcanoes we simply couldn't find time to visit, but the "must see" volcano on any trip to cr is the big boy, arenal. or maybe big girl. regardless, this monster still spews lava daily, so you can't actually climb on the rock itself (many tourists have died from unexpected lava belches, so now it's just off limits). the next few days were spent getting as close as possible...
above, the view of arenal from our hostel on a very rare clear day (the only one during our stay there).
you may remember david's awesome blog about cerro chato, which he still believes was a life changing day for him. cerro chato, or "sleeping indian" is arenal's younger brother. we know this one's a boy because the range of mountains actually looks like the profile of a sleeping indian:
above, from left to right, you see his nose, lips, chin, stomach, and then the extra bump that determines his gender. unlike his volatile older sibling, cerro chato blew his top several years ago, leaving a large crater that eventually filled with pristine forest rain water. if you're willing to endure what was the most grueling 4 hour hike of my life (2 hours each way), it's very much worth the site, the swim, and even the 5 days of semi-paralysis that ensue.
here is where our journey began. at the base of the range, the land is relatively flat, grassy, and very hot.
here is one of many cows we became acquainted with in costa rica. she and i shared a very special connection (i love cows), and david will attest that when we again emerged from the jungle, this pretty heifer was very concerned because i was in a world o' hurt and not being quiet about it.
this is about as high as we got, halfway through the ascent, before we entered the legitimate jungle for the first time on our trip. it was truly thrilling...to be continued.
*two comments. first, the pictures are decidedly ash heavy because, as you'll recall if you follow the blog, my whole life got stolen the day we returned from our arenal excursion, including but not limited to the camera *i* was carrying around and photographing daveed with. bummer.
second, i had forgotten (read, repressed) what a royal pain in the arse it is to load pictures and then caption them on this blog server. i've gone about it all wrong, and am going to have to continue in a new window or i'm soon going to throw my laptop off our balcony.
