Saturday, March 14, 2020
A Day Devoted to Costa Rican Wild Life
Ola!
Our day began with breakfast in the huge dining room of the Barcelo Hotel in San Jose where we had several stations and a wide variety of foods from which to choose: Llew and I tend to have made-to-order omelettes when we are on vacation and we did so today, as well. Right after we were done eating, our bags that were placed outside our rooms, were piled into our bus and we were off and away.
A Visit to a Wild Life Refuge:
After riding in our bus for about 45 minutes, we arrived at our first port of call for the day—a Wild Life Refuge called Rescate Animal Zooave. It was a very good idea of Caravan Tours to bring us here because it is a zoo of sorts, in that it provided us with the opportunity to see a lot of the wild life we hoped to see on our travels, right here in this place. Hence, we would not need to get back home disappointed—because we would have seen them all, albeit in an enclosed space.
So here’s the thing: This place is a projected venue for the care of animals and birds that have been injured in the wild. They are brought here and nursed back to health with tender loving care. One they have healed, they are released back into the wild. This is also an assisted living community of sorts as it a final home for a variety of elderly animals and birds that would probably not survive in the wild as they are too old or disabled.
Once that concept had been understood, we were taken into a theatre to see a short film that explained the aims and objectives of this place. Then we were free to walk through a beautifully landscaped area of several acres that house all sorts of animals and birds. We were fascinated as indeed one is likely to be in any zoo. So here is what we saw: all sorts of colorful birds such as scarlet macaws, turquoise blue macaws and emerald green macaws; owls, loads of parakeets and parrots; unusual birds such as currasows, toucans and quetzals; big cats such as margays, ocelots, puma or mountain lions; also iguanas, peccaries; really large birds such as guans, ostriches and emus; any number of monkeys including the Big Three: capuchin or white faced ones, howler monkeys and squirrel monkeys. Some people saw a sloth--but, for some reason, we missed it. Bummer! These are extremely rare animals and I was really sorry I missed it.
After about an hour of seeing these animals placed in a form of captivity in cages or in vast enclosed spaces, we were ready for lunch. This was a very modest affair, served buffet style, in the restaurant attached to the venue. I had a big salad with pork chichones (which is roast pork) and roast chicken. There was also cassava with garlic, which is a native tuber and very popular in this area. I think it is the blandest vegetable in the world and despite its creamy consistency (like a sweet potato), it has absolutely no flavor in my opinion. So, overall, it was not a really good lunch at all.
For me, the highlight of this visit was that I actually managed to see a wild toucan perch on a tree—this one was not confined in a protected space (which made it even more exciting to me). I got some stunning pictures of it.
After lunch, we piled back in the bus and started our long drive north towards the town of La Fortuna to get to the vicinity of the Arenal Volcano which is the most popular volcano in Costa Rica (and which is still active).
En Route to the Arenal Volcano:
The drive was really spectacular as we were in and out of the cordilerras (mountain ranges) in this part of the country. The mountains were covered with greenery in the form of natural vegetation (most of the trees are in bloom as spring has sprung here) or in the form of plantations). This made for a really interesting drive.
Visiting a Church and Topiary Park in Zarcero:
We passed through the town of Zarcero where we stopped to visit a really beautiful church that had a lovely painted ceiling inside and a very nice altar. We paused for prayer before we took a few pictures and returned to the front. From there, steps led us down to a most unusual garden—a topiary garden called Parque Francisco Alvaro which consisted of a series of topiaried arches under which we could walk. Since 1960, a gardener named Don Evangelisto Blanco has been transforming the park’s cypress trees into various fanciful shapes—there is an ox and a cart, an elephant, etc. We took a few pictures in this unusual space, but because it was very hot and we were not given a lot of time here, we did not linger.
Instead, we crossed the street and went into an ice-cream parlor called Pops where Llew and I ordered chocolate sundaes that were really good and made a nice break from the long drive.
We also drove through the town of Cuidad Quesada which was really nothing to write home about. We realized on these long drives that Costa Rica is punctuated by these little wayside towns that do not offer very much by way of tourist interest but are important local hubs that offering schooling and other civil amenities for its people.
Arrival at the Town of La Fortuna:
Long before we actually entered the little town of La Fortuna (which was clearly buzzing with tourist energy, despite the damper set by the coronavirus), we could see the towering size of the Arenal Volcano right in front of us. The peak which contains the active crater was shrouded in clouds but it was still a stirring sight.
We arrived soon enough at our hotel, Magic Mountain, where Llew and I were delighted to discover that we had an astounding view of the Volcano right in front of our room which also overlooked the pool. We did not waste much time—we just climbed into our swimsuits and went out to use it as well as the lovely hot tub at the back that was in front of a towering cascade of water. After soaking in the hot tub for about half an hour, I joined the Traylor family in the bar. I ordered a tonic water and fixed myself a gin and tonic while Llew enjoyed a glass of wine on our patio where we found that the entire mountain had disappeared behind the clouds—so bizarre!
Dinner at Magic Mountain Restaurant:
Dinner was early—at 6.00 pm, but we sat with Bueno and Tess who told us that they had found out that Mass at the local church was at 7.00 pm and that they would be taking a taxi to get there in time for it. We were delighted and asked if we could join them as we will have no time for Sunday Mass tomorrow. We ended up having a nice dinner of a big salad (I am sure to have one with every meal), a piece of fried fish and a freshly made penne pasta with Alfredo sauce. I skipped dessert completely.
Mass at the Local Parish Church of Don Bosco:
We left to get dressed for Mass in a little while and with a taxi that we had asked the hotel to arrange for us, waiting to pick us up, we were off and away. The church was reached in less than ten minutes and as we were early, we walked a bit around the main plaza or square which is dominated by the church. Five minutes later, we entered the church and listened to a Mass in Spanish. Of course, we could not understand much, but Bueno, our new friend, who speaks perfect Spanish, informed us that the priest had given instructions pertaining to the new precautions to be taken in view of the virus (no sign of peace exchanged, the collection was made after Communion, etc.).
After Mass, we walked around the town again, entered a supermarket to try to find a SIM card (no luck still) and into a couple of souvenir shops. It was a little past 8.00 pm and shops were closing. We bought a packet of coffee and thought we would take it home as a gift.
When we found that the shutters were closing, we hailed a cab waiting in the plaza and returned to our hotel.
It has been another nice day and we looked forward to the bits of our tour that lay ahead.
Hasta Manana!
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