Second leg of my Costa Rican trip back in August 2018. With this Covid 19-lockdown I am taking some time to look back at some great journeys I made. This was one of those I cherish.
Getting to and from Tortuguero is an exploration as such. So-called “travel days” normally are a bit boring, except for the close encounters again with a sloth, a bunch of animals relaxing at the shore of the river and the motor of our boat that broke down and got us crashing into the shore. No worries… everything would be fine…. not much that I could do anyway, so I sit back and relax observing the beautiful scenery around us. Our connecting bus is nicely waiting for us in Pavona, the transportation hub… with ONE store aka place to go to the bathroom. The bus will take me all the way to my “hotel” in La Fortuna, as was part of the agreement. Even the driver was in awe with the location and the views at this place! And then I got welcomed by a lovely family: Jonathan, mum Laetitia and Spongy, the poodle. Mum Laetitia has cooked a nice dinner for me. Where did I end up? Heaven??
The next morning I have a déjà vu…. I entered the bathroom and see on one wall a big gecko and on the sink a big black cricket. Looks like a scene I remember: Cambodia? The pampering continues with a delicious breakfast with a mass amount of fruit. At 7 am a minivan is picking me up. Together with a girl I met in Tortugeuro we booked the tour so we were sure the tour would happen. It is not extremely hot, but still hot and humid enough to sweat like hell. We are high up and there are quite some climbs on the “little” hike to get me out of breath. We pass by a waterfall and natural Jacuzzi’s that smell like rotten eggs and we end up at a place where two different streams join: by some sort of weird reaction it looks like one part of the stream is becoming a bright blue. Beautiful hike and so lucky with the weather, the moment we are done and ready for lunch it starts to rain like hell and doesn’t stop for the rest of the day. I am physically exhausted but happy and while dozing off in the van on our way back I look forward to the homemade dinner mum Laetitia will make for me…. I think…. because she only speaks Spanish and I think I asked her if I could get dinner by 8 pm.
While getting refreshed in my room with a view, I get reminded of how thin the walls of this typical lodge are. I hear a very loud MEEUUUUUUUHHHHHH!!! I was sure a cow, which normally should have been grazing in the meadow down below, was standing in my bathroom, but that would have been quite exceptional to get up the stairs, open the door and walk up to me. And here is where I have my second déjà vu….During our last trip as a couple without kids, my then fiance and me were hiking across Canada. At one moment we stayed in a cabin in Jasper National Park. It was October… high season for moose to “make babies”. Somewhere in the middle of the night we heard such a loud scream of a moose in heat, we were sure it had busted into our cabin. We peeked through the curtains of our window and saw that huge beast standing almost nose to nose with us with only glass separating us.
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