From our Villa at Hotel Borinquen…that smoke is actually steam rising from the hot springs

This is exactly what our villa looked like, only we were higher up. Duh.

This is Brendan. I said he was 10, but he’s actually 13. My bad. He and his mom are here for 2 weeks. In their family, when the child turns 13, the mother takes the child on a 2 week vacation for just the two of them. It’s a wonderful idea!

This is Leah with Eli. He’s always smiling and happy. Don’t you like his sense of fashion? That’s the swing set in the background.

Behind him is our rental car and to the left is our hotel.

Our classroom.

Me doing split time in the front prepping to move into butterfly.

Leah getting after it. This move gets her into the big circle spin.

Now the big circle all around. Looks amazing with fire!

These guys are funny. Look how little he is. He picked up and carried that piece of fruit up the tree. Then, he carried it around the tree as a moved closer for the pic. Funny!

Coconuts for my Pops. I can’t bring one home, but Sam, can you show him this?

Native tree. Love the exposed climbing roots.

These are the hammocks at our school. I like the one furthest to the right just off the edge.

Classmates: Steven, Rachel, and Matteo.

Don relaxing in the hammock.

Costa Rica–Hiking Day, the waterfalls, surfing, poi, and Video Chat

I awoke and greeted my day feeling tight, but not sore. Don was still sleeping. We actually fought over the covers when I got back from using the bathroom. It was funny, actually. *giggle* I leaned over, kissed him, got dressed and headed down back to The Bakery Café for my morning coffee. He wanted to sleep in, and I didn’t mind having some time to reflect on things.

You see, the thing about being down here is that I’m afforded time to delve deeply into myself and really think about things. Often, I’m in such a rush, making lists, juggling so many things! It’s like I handed over all of the balls I’d been juggling and stepped away for a break. It is quite refreshing. It is also a bit unnerving because I’m constantly paranoid about forgetting something. With each passing day, though, I’m letting go of it more and more. I’m more in tune with my body. I’ve not been completely vegetarian on this trip. More often than not, though, I have been. But in the evenings, I’ve had some animals. It’s ok. I’m still feeling good and not feeling heavily weighed down! Like I said, no juggling. Just thinking, relaxing, and doing a giant EXHALE.

I wrote for awhile until my breakfast was ready. I nibbled it up, sipped on coffee, worked out the kinks with Skype, because tonight, we were going to talk with the girls and I wanted to be sure everything worked like it was supposed to! Don joined me and we had 15 minutes until Poi class started. I crossed the street to the bookstore and talked with the lady from Connecticut who owned the shop. I handed over my postcards, paid her the postage, and just like that, they were “mailed'” and on their way to their destinations! I crossed the street again, went up to the table, grabbed my bag, then headed over to class.

Today, I had to focus on working on my forward and reverse figure 8s, doing a basic butterfly maneuver, and keeping my head straight, instead of lowering my chin. Over and over in my head, split time, legs apart, and….SMILE. I whacked myself a few more times today than the first day, but that meant that I was actually taking many more chances with my poi. This made me feel good. We also had a new classmate join us, Leah. She’d been taking classes before, and decided to start up. She has extended her original stay from 1 month to another month. Apparently, this is quite common down here. We have to get back and can’t stay another week!

After an hour and a half of dancing and twirling the practice poi, we had to head back up to the room, to change clothes because it was time to go to the waterfalls. They said it was about a half an hour hike to get there and to wear hiking shoes. The locals, Pablo and Edgar, were in flip flops. We hiked and hiked and hiked until we got there. When I say we hiked, I meant we HIKED! Over tree roots, on top of rocks, around rocks, rock climbing, balancing on a tired, worn out old rope against the boulder, through mud, until…..there it was! This beautiful waterfall, and only 4 other people were there. Granted, as we walked up, the middle aged woman was stripping off her top and yanked off her undies. I threw Pablo a look like, um…are we SUPPOSED to get naked? (I’ve not ever been skinny dipping and I supposed now was as good a time as any to do it.) He grinned and told me that I didn’t have to, unless I wanted to. I didn’t want to, just yet. ha ha! Instead, I took a dip in the cool, refreshing waters, swam to the waterfalls with Don and let nature wash my crazy, wild hair! We hung around there for a bit, then swam back, dried off and made the trek back.

Good thing too, because it was time for surfing! We ran up, grabbed our rash guards, made a quick snack of tortillas with avocado, then headed out to Playa Grande. We had to hoof this leg of our hike because we were 20 minutes late! This terrain, similar to the one to the waterfalls, is not for anyone out of shape. Lots of hills to climb, rocky beaches, beaches with shells, soft beaches, mud, and rocky terrain. Not as dangerous as the other, but a solid hike, and definitely a workout. I don’t think I’ve ever sweated this much in my entire life and I’m not one to really sweat!

Just like before, we went to the turtle sanctuary, dropped off our personal belongings, I grabbed Surf Betty and began to comb and wax her up. She’s a monster, and I had to carry her solo out to the beach. Truthfully, I was winded with that small hike, nearly 400 meters. Then, I got into the water. It is warm just like yesterday, but the waves are much bigger. The current, where we were surfing met coming from two different directions. This day was gonna do something, that’s for sure!

This time, I was was Gee-jay (short for Guillermo). Don had been promoted to the advanced class (no surprise). Geejay was determined to get me up. I’d paddle, I’d push up, and only get to my knees. Then, he sternly coached me, breaking down the mechanics of it all. Refusing to let me use my knees any more. He said, only get on the board if you pop up. No more knees. Unacceptable, Bianca. Don’t take shortcuts! If you know me, you know that’s the kind of coaching I respond to. It’s harsh, but for whatever reason, it works. Then he said something that made sense, pop up like you are jumping high. I said, like I’m jumping on a tall box? A really big box, like 3 feet high? Yes! Exactly! So I did just that and that, my friends, is the first time I was up on a board riding a wave.

The next time, he said, now concentrate on legs apart, they were too close together. And don’t walk on the board, it is very dangerous! (I’ve been watching too many surf videos with people who do their walks on the board. Meanwhile, down the beach, Don was rocking his waves and Pablo was surfing a wave while doing a headstand!! Nevermind the ear infection he’s had since last week! Crazy guy!) I rode two more solid waves for a little bit and I was quite pleased. I was rocked a couple of times, but for the most part, I had much success. I was very, very happy. I have to admit, I actually wore a bikini! The thing about Costa Rica, no one cares. I was actually encouraged to buy and wear a much teenier bikini. Don was nodding his head yes, but I don’t know if I am that brave. “Welcome to Latin America” is what they responded when I said, “but it is so small!!”

After we were done for the day, the tide was coming in much quicker than before. We were very lucky because it hasn’t rained since the evening before. Had it rained, we would not have been able to go to the waterfalls. Also, because it hasn’t rained, the sun has broken through more because there aren’t clouds to filter it. Seeing the sunlight through the jungle really is quite incredible!! On the hike back, I noticed an entire colony of crabs!! It was awesome! Next time, I’m totally going to take a photo. These crabs were brilliantly colored red and blue and they were the size of a small child’s fist.

As with all of my walks, I’ve been putting flowers in my hair. It’s been fun. I nearly lost my traveling rock and my water bottle when the water rushed in. Luckily, I clutched my rock and my water bottle was found about 10 steps away from where I was standing, once the water receded. Also, on the path, there are many white and purple flowers. It’s like walking down the aisle on your wedding day. I feel fancy each time I walk over them. Oh, and there are always a million different colored butterflies on our path, not as many lizards of varying sizes, and a couple of monkeys. Oh and birds, although, we only hear them, don’t see them. Today, in the surf shed, I saw a bat! ha!

When we got back to the room, I willingly took a cold shower and I liked it! That’s how hot and sweaty I was. We are sure to stay plenty hydrated! I also spent some time french braiding my hair. It’s been unruly, so I wanted to try something new. I have 4 french braids in my hair, then I joined the two on each side into a larger stacked braid. Right now I have what appears to be two french braids, but they are really 4. I hope it holds up. I like it out of my face.

After we were cleaned up, we had a phone call from our family. Skype, unfortunately, was unavailable, so we used Tango on our phone. It isn’t as great of a connection as Skype, but we did get to see and talk to our girls for a little while. We even got to sing to Mari! Gosh, we miss our Sugarbean and Sugarbaby something crazy!!

After the phone/video chat, we needed food! We went to Sano Banano and noshed ourselves food drunk. Iced tea (Costa Rican style) and pineapple/mango smoothie for starters, Vegetarian quesadillas for an appetizer, Chicken Curry & Pollo Casado, finished off with warm chocolate cake. Yum! We could’ve stayed for the show 2 Nights in Paris for free, but we wanted to go back to the room.

First we stopped at the market to pick up some diaper cream or zinc oxide for Don because the sun has not been his friend! We also got some more tortillas and avocados, and a bit of baby oil to massage out the knots in our bodies. We both have lots of bruises on our bodies. I have a gnarly one on my left knee, and a scuff on my right foot. Don has a rash where his ribs protrude. He has a rash guard, but it isn’t enough. Worth it, though. You can say we are bonafide surfers now. He’s better than I am, but I’m just glad to be called a surfer instead of a knee boarder. ha!

We chatted up our classmates a bit and prepared ourselves for another day. We are nearing the halfway point in our trip.

Costa Rica–Day 1 of School

After a restful night, I stretched out of bed and felt a new soreness. I couldn’t believe we made it!!

We got dressed and walked down the block to The Bakery Café. Our hotel is at the top of the hill near the town’s Central Park. Our hotel has about 13 rooms. The park has 1 set of swings and a play yard with a couple of round concrete benches, lots of native trees and flowers. The Bakery Café is at the bottom of the hill, to the left. About 250 yards away is the ocean down a path. Across the street from the café is a bookstore. On the otherside, next to the café is a school, and kids are attending. You can hear the roar of the ocean and it is fantastic!!

We just had coffee. Plain coffee with milk for Don and café a la carmelo (coffee with caramel) for me. We sat and sipped our coffee, talking over the thoughts of the day. First poi, then later surfing. Eli (pronounced El-lee), our surf instructor actually came in for coffee with his female dog, Booger. She’s a small black terrier come de la calle/streetdog, and so cute! Eli has dreadlocks down to his waist. He dresses like a surfer. He has caramel brown skin and he smells like a mix of strong Axe and stale cigarettes on his breath.

We met up at Central Park in Montezuma with our practice poi. I traded mine with our classmate Brendan (who is 10) and so I was reppin’ Texas Tech with my new black and red poi. YES! We had class for about an hour and a half. Twirling the heck out of those practice poi. I discovered that going forward is much easier for me than going backwards. I only hit myself twice. Once in the temple (and wow, I really had a headache, it was tender when it hit) and again somewhere else, I forget. There’s only 3 of us in the class, so we get a lot of one-on-one attention!

Afterwards, we went back to our room and changed clothes. (We were quite sweaty from the humidity and workout. Yes, my arms felt like they were going to fall off, 10 minutes into the workout!) We took a walk to the beach, snapping photos, holding hands, strolling, and letting the waves kiss up to our ankles. All of God’s beauty in front of us, his grace holding my hand because I was in paradise with my husband. I froze that moment in my brain. No matter what we went through the day before, it was worth it for that moment. (And we both agreed that the $40 for information from that kid was money WELL spent, otherwise, we would’ve most certainly have taken a wrong turn).

We got back to the room, loaded up on supplies that we’d bought at the supermarket in Liberia and made ourselves a light lunch of fried yucca chips, macaroni and cheese, and an egg over easy. Then it was time to surf!!

We met up with the other classmates. Four were in the beginner class with us: Katherine, Rachel, Klaudia, Alayna. There were two in a more private beginner session, a father and son, Paul and Jackson. Then three in the advanced class, Matt, Steven (an Aggie) and a fiery redhead named Katelynn. We hiked an hour to Playa Grande, through amazing foliage! We passed lots of natural spring creeks, rocky beaches, soft beaches, even singing the Indiana Jones theme song because of the jungle-type atmosphere!

Finally, we arrived at the the turtle sanctuary, where the school has a shack where they keep their boards. There’s lots of cabins among the well-landscaped area for the volunteers who work with the turtles. Apparently, there was a hatchery that I’d totally missed. There’s also a rudimentary shower totally fueled by the natural spring water. It is quite refreshing, actually. We leave all of our personal belongings in the shack and they lock it up. We are assigned a board and then given about a 20 minute introduction/safety course. Then, we go to flat grounds and talk about the principles of surfing:Good position, paddle 1-2-3-4, pop up, legs shoulder width apart, feet perpendicular to the board. Sounds easy enough, right? You see, I’ve been surfing a handful of times before this and I always get stuck on the pop-up portion. My body doesn’t understand those mechanics.

Out we went. One by one, the instructor led us through the training and some were more talented than others. Don popped right up on his first wave. He looked like an old pro. No, really, in his board shorts and rash guard, he was shredding that wave!!

Then came my turn, and no popping up. Again, and again…poor Blue, my instructor was getting quite frustrated. But I kept at it. We even went back to the beach where he gave me a land tutorial and marked my board for the best position. After all, I’m quite coachable…if you only know how to explain it for me to “get it.” For the next hour and a half, I got tossed and flipped like a ragdoll. My sinuses were completely clean, and then some. I got on the board on my knees a few times, but never even close to standing. The last time I was rocked something fierce. That pride thing is ridiculous and a silly burden. I got choked up out of frustration and waved off Blue. I called it a day and chugged some water. He came to me and gave me an inquisitive glance. I told him I was frustrated with myself, but tomorrow, I promised to be better and I WOULD BE getting up! He smiled and appreciated my spirit. He thought I’d given up, but no, I just needed to reflect on what I was doing.

After we washed off and the boards were washed and put away, we hiked back.

On the way back, I actually looked up quite a bit more to enjoy the scenery. We passed a centuries old Indian made oven back from the times of Moctezuma (over time the name had been changed to Montezuma).

When we got back to the hotel, we showered, threw on some clothes and went out. I was so thirsty and spent, that I parked myself at the corner of Chico’s bar, ordered an Imperial beer, and sat to watch Mission Impossible with Tom Cruise. I needed to zone out. The beer was nice, then a 78 year old man came up and started talking to me. Over the next hour, he proceeded to tell me his life story (shocker) and I relayed it to Don. He was Puerto Rican, but left the country at age 18 to join the Korean War. He’s since lived in New York, Miami, California, then settling in Las Vegas. He has been retired for 30+ years and comes to Costa Rica for 3 months in the summer to avoid the Vegas heat. He’s been married 3 times, divorced 3 times, his most recent marriage at age 60, to a 20 year old who looked like Halle Berry. ha! I asked him why the divorces, he said, well, to be honest, I had too many affairs. LOL!! He said he’s been living life too much and that even though he’s made mistakes, his children are the great loves of his life. To which, he imparted child rearing wisdom to  me. It was a fun, lively, and heartfelt conversation, where we showed one another photos of our children, laughed quite a bit, and toasted our beers. He went by Cuco, but he said that was only his name in Costa Rica. No one outside of Montezuma knew he went by that and no one in Montezuma knew his real name! Good times.

We then went to the local pizzeria, ordered a large ham and mushroom pizza and 2 Mexican Cokes to go. We went back to the room, noshed on pizza, practiced poi for 10 minutes, played a round of Mad Libs and passed out!

After all, tomorrow was day 2 of school, a hike to the waterfalls, and a video chat with our girls!!!

Costa Rica–The Adventure to Montezuma

It was Father’s day and the first time ever that I was unable to talk with my father. It was a bit tough to swallow, but I did my best to concentrate on the amazing things surrounding me. I’d gotten up early to catch the end of the sunrise and journal some thoughts while I enjoyed some coffee overlooking the vast valley from our balcony. it was also my friend Gen’s birthday and having coffee outdoors is something she enjoys and so with each sip, I said a silent prayer for her.

Don and I took the carrito down for the last time to the restaurant. We loaded up on breakfast. Two coffees, banana pancakes, 2 eggs with hashbrowns, and traditional Costa Rican breakfast. That was probably the best Americano coffee I’ve ever had. It was so good, I had almost 3 cups.

Anyway, we bid adieu to our little romantic getaway and prepared ourselves for not only a journey, but another location that would be a bit above camping. A far cry from the luxury resort we just left. ha ha! Let me break it down for you:

We were going to travel from Liberia, south about 190 kilometers (gotta love the metric system) or 118 miles to Punta Arenas. From there, we will have to hop on a ferry with our car and travel an hour and a half to Parquera/Tambor. From there, we were to travel another 60 kilometers or 30 miles to get to Montezuma. We were told the trip to Punta Arenas would be about 2 hours and the drive over to Montezuma would be about an hour.

We left Liberia at 1PM. Sure enough, it took us about two hours to get to Punta Arenas. The road was well-paved, but because it was only one lane on each side, you were at the mercy of the slower lead cars. There were many, many times it was too difficult to pass. The drive over was filled with pleasant conversation. Great conversations was one of the reasons why I fell in love with Don, early on. We were both feeling quite content with the trip! And then, just as we were approaching the ferry, an older teenager jumped in front of our vehicle with a ferry sign. He proceeded to force feed us information about the ferry and where we were going, tips and tricks, that sort of thing. Then gave us a sob story about how this is his job to work in the heat giving information and that he wanted the 10000 colones for the time. We had yet to convert currency, so he jumped into the rental and navigated us over to a bank to exchange dollars. Then, when we finally got back to drop him off, he said, ok, 10000 colones…each! I just said, whatever and shrugged him off. We handed over the bills and afterwards, Don leaned over to me and let me know we just paid the guy $40. Then there it was, that nasty pit in my tummy. It could’ve been worse, right? Lesson learned, but it doesn’t feel great to be taken advantage of.

We had an hour to kill and found a steak taqueria to enjoy a quick lunch. Our server was an older gentleman from the Dominican. He was feisty and I liked that. I’d recounted the story of what had just happened to us and I could tell that he was physically getting a bad taste in his mouth. He was doing this grimace with a spit motion. I dunno, he was getting upset. He went on to tell me how in his 10 years of living in Costa Rica, he, himself has had similar experiences. But then he made a scrappy-fighter gesture, gesticulating heavily as if to say, “don’t mess with me, you don’t want none of this.” And that was the end of the story. I was slightly rejuvenated in my spirit.

We finished lunch, hearts of palm salad and fried yucca for me and grilled chicken, beans, tortillas, and fried plantain for Don. We went to the ferry, waited in line for a ticket, walked to the office to pay for the ticket, then drove the car into the hold of the ferry. We walked up to the sun deck to watch the journey.

While there, a small framed German girl sat next to me and we struck up a conversation. I’d seen her hop out of a tourism bus labeled as Montezuma. Turns out, her name is Klaudia and she is from Germany, living in LA studying to be a journalist. She will be staying at La Escuela del Sol for a month to learn how to surf and speak Spanish. In a few ways, she reminded me of our friend Toch, back home. Any way, there we sat, taking in the beauty of it all. We neared the port and while they were docking the ferry, the downpour began.

At this point, Don and I had to split up since they only allowed the drivers with the vehicle. I carefully climbed the two flights of stairs down in the rain, ever so grateful to my sister for giving us a wetbag to keep my cellphone and documents dry. I stood shivering in the holding area for about 10 minutes until Don appeared. Then it was chaos! With a strong prayer, we set on our journey, following a bus because well, it seemed it knew what to do. I remembered the boy mentioning going left when we came off the ferry, the same direction as the bus. In that downpour, we snaked along this incredibly winding road for about 15 kilometers before the bus pulled over and we had to keep pressing on. We knew we were going the right direction by the signs, until we came upon a set that didn’t have Montezuma listed. But, it did say Cobano and Don remembered the boy mentioning us to take a left to Montezuma from Cobano. So we pressed on in that direction. The rain had slowed to a trickle, but the road was effectively one and a half lanes. I said aloud, I miss lines painted on the road. I miss street lights. I miss reflectors. I miss sidewalks (because there were SOOOO many people and dogs walking in the middle of the road…at night…in the rain…in the pitch black). My hands were gripping the handle so tightly, they were cramping. My right leg stretched out, bracing myself. It wasn’t that Don was driving so fast, it was that the turns were so sharp and I wasn’t sure which side was the coast and which side may or may not be a valley for us to roll down. Again, no guard rails. I get anxiety just thinking about it all over again.

I kept counting down the kilometers from the odometer. I tried to relax a bit, but most of the relaxation came when the English music station played a song I was familiar with. I sang along and was distracted long enough for us to reach Cobano. Just 7 short kilometers to Montezuma. They were having some sort of festival/party in Cobano and on any other day we would have stopped. We kept going to Montezuma. After wandering around for about 10 minutes, we stopped and asked some locals for help. We found the spot and were so happy to be in our room. It was 10 minutes before 8PM. At 8PM is when Empanadas y Amigos welcome orientation began. We dined on the empanadas, said some hellos, listened to the information, and went back to the room. We settled in for a long day that began at 8:15 with Poi and Surfing at noon.

We were supposed to stay at the school until Sunday morning, but after that journey, we elected to forego that stay and head back closer to Liberia on Saturday. We just couldn’t chance missing our flight.

That night, we slept soundly as the rains continued to pour down for the next several hours.

Costa Rica–Guanacaste, Rincon de la Vieja…Hotel Borinquen

It was my 35th birthday. Five years ago, I was on board a party barge, surrounded by my close friends and loved ones. I was growing a month old fetus in my belly, and she is now my spritely 4 year old Sugarbean. I dreamt of this vacation many times.

When the alarm set off, I laid in bed, stretching and feeling my body. Moments later, my phone rang. Per tradition, my Mother and Father’s phone call arrived precisely at 6:18AM. The sang a sleepy, but happy “Happy Birthday to you!” I showered, dressed, and crept down the hall to our sleeping beauties. They were nestled side-by-side, slumbering for the last few hours. I wiped a tear and kissed them both, whispering a about 20 “I love yous” in their resting and perfect ears.

Kent, our friend, was already at our house waiting to give us a ride. (Right, what a friend! To show up at our house before 7AM on a Saturday no less. We are truly blessed!) We hugged Carol and loaded up into the car to be whisked away to DFW.

I sat in the back of his car filled with such high nervous energy. But one by one, the birthday texts began to light up my phone. Then my sister called. All of my loved ones may not have been physically with me like they were five years ago, but they were present and accounted for. I asked Kent to turn up the music and I stared out the window to that place between dreams and memories, his music my gateway. I allowed anxiety to course through my veins, but it was quickly blanketed with all of those thoughts and well wishes.

The four hour plane ride was uneventful. I whiled away the time on Facebook responding to the ample birthday wishes. Once we were far enough from the States, I lost connectivity, then plugged into “The Vow” the movie for the rest of the flight. I had it on the background as I edited the newborn session from the week before.

When we arrived to Costa Rica it was very warm and incredibly humid. Customs was easy enough. The gal actually opened our eyes to a much easier, well-paved drive over. Our new plan was to take Nacional 1 down to Punta Arenas and catch a ferry over to Parquera. The trip should take about 4 hours.

When we left the immediate airport area, we weren’t assaulted by vendors and taxis. Yes, they were there, but it seemed they were already assigned to others who would be arriving. At the car rental, we were upgraded to a Nissan Hi-Trail 4-wheel drive, instead of the smaller Kia Sport. He emphasized the tires, letting us know they were very good and would be helpful!

This ended up being a very good thing. Our journey over to our hotel consisted of some paved roads and another several that were washed out paved roads, very bumpy, with potholes the size of tiny kiddie pools. During that trip, we saw 2 chickens, crossing the road, lots of people on bicycles, dogs, lizards, and a couple of vaqueros riding their horses. They share the road here! We drove along the mountainside, climbing up the volcano. I was white knuckled much of the way, clutching the map and nervously giggling, trying to calm my fears. No, there weren’t any guard rails, not that it would have mattered.

I conjured up enough guts to look out the window and I was rewarded with the greenest, most lush valley I’ve ever seen. There here heads of cattle and horses sprinkled here and there. It was absolutely breathtaking!

As the road curved and winded closer to the hotel, we saw signs for another resort adjacent to ours that was full of adventurous things. Horseback riding, ziplining, ATVs…all sorts of fun, all eco-friendly. Then, the road changed from paved to well-laid brick. We drove up to the reception, where they directed us to the parking area. Everything is vibrantly green, and birds and howler monkeys serenade us in the distance.

We were greeted with fruit juices made with strawberry, watermelon, and apple juice. (Yeah, I know, I actually drank watermelon juice and liked it!) Ricardo, a day-shift worker, shuttled us to our Junior Suite (actually, a fancy-fancy villa) 6 at the top of the resort! The room smells of cedar and has a sitting area, the master suite, and a bathroom the size of our bedroom! It had a two person jacuzzi tub and a walk-in shower the size of an apartment kitchen! Our villa overlooks the lush green valley and we can see the steam rising in the distance from the natural hot springs. Water trickles down the makeshift gutter from the freshly fallen downpour. It’s all so very natural and so, so, so clean!!

We walked down the steeper than steep paved hill to the bottom where the restaurant was located. It was a wide open space, intimately lit and we quickly became the only customers. At first, I thought it was because it was much too late for lunch (already nearing 4PM), but actually, there weren’t many people staying at the resort. It just lended itself to the exclusive “fanciness” of this stay. We ordered a mojito, a capirinha, hearts of palm salad, arroz de la abuela (chicken and rice, sofrito style), traditional Costa Rican meal of tenderloin, potatoes, with rice and beans. To start, they brought us a plate of cheese and fried cheese with a corn tortilla. That capirinha was tequila, vodka, and muddled limes. Not the greatest, but it would do!

Once we were finished eating, we called the carrito (golf cart) to take us back to the suite. We lingered for a bit, food drunk. Then, we got up, changed clothes, called the carrito and had it drive us down to the sauna, naturally heated pools, and mud bath. The sauna was a short walk from where we were dropped off, but it wasn’t it. Honestly, it looked quite menacing in the dark with the smoke billowing out of the wooden box. *skip* Then, we walked past the tranquil pool to the naturally heated pools. Before we took a soak, we went to the mud baths and covered ourselves with mud. We let it dry, then washed off in the adjacent outdoor showers. On our way to the shower, we saw the largest free-roaming toad I’ve ever seen in my life. Don mentioned a possibility of it being poisonous and I immediately kept clear of the toad. We then walked over to the heated pools and wow, were they hot!!! The one we got in was 96.8. When I was submerged from the chin down, a downpour began to dump on us. I just sat there grinning happily. My entire body was relaxed!

We lingered for a bit chatting with an older couple who couldn’t say enough great things about Memphis, B.B. King, and all things guitar. The dude was HAMMERED! But they were great conversationalists! Our bodies were jelly, but we walked over to the reception area and hitched a ride on a carrito back to the suite. We cleaned off and went to dinner. This time, Don had a sauvignon blanc, I stuck with water. We ate sea bass with tomato, olives, and capers with asparagus and mashed potatoes, grilled chicken with a blue cheese sauce, asparagus wrapped in bacon, and grilled vegetables. Our server brought out a tres leches cake with a blue cherry that had been soaked in blue curacao! It also had a candle on it and the waiter serenaded me for my birthday!

That evening, I soaked in the jacuzzi with a bath bomb before sleeping soundly without interruption for 9 hours straight! What a great birthday indeed!!

*if you would like to see pictures, I would suggest you follow me on twitter.com/biasia I’m posting images there via Instagram. You can also follow me there as HelloMrsBianca.