I searched online.  One offered a private driver to head there from Flamingo Beach for over 200 dollars.  Another tour group offered a day tour that included the waterfall, but a big part of the tour was climbing on this big volcano that didn’t really excite me.  The tour organization said that they didn’t know if the tour would happen because I was the only one who signed up.  So much for the low season.  Then I learned the tour was cancelled.

Ugh.

But I didn’t give up on searching.

I then finally found this great tour guide, a gentleman named Meme from Meme Adventures.  He had raved reviews on Trip Advisor.

I also really wanted to see the Guaitil, a town where all the Costa Rican potteries are created.  As someone who loves shopping, especially for exotic house decorations and clothing, it was very important for me to see the people behind the artisanal items and have the opportunity to purchase artisan items.  Meme mentioned on his website that he does tours to Guaitil, but didn’t mention anything about the waterfall or going to destinations that were not on his list.  So, I asked Meme if he could take me to the pottery town.  He said no problem.  Then I asked him, “Is it possible to go to Llanos del Cortez Waterfall too?”  He said, “No problem,” and gave me a great deal.

Et voila!  Thanks to Meme, this is what I got to see:

 Here is a peak in the potter town, including the process of making potteries.

As I am typing this, I am not going to deny that I am falling asleep.  I’ve probably put you guys to sleep.  Yes, it’s nice to have a memory of relaxing in a paradise, but there is no truly real great story to tell about this part of the trip.  No drama happened.  Nothing extraordinarily different happened during my two days stay at Flamingo Beach in Gaunacaste.  I just waded in the pool.  I drank smoothie.  I watched the sunset.  I ate food.  Although I did have one small drama.  I accidentally dropped one of my sound processors in the pool, but I picked it up right away and it continued to work like a miracle.

Anyway, the lesson of these moments is that travel adventures that have a lot of drama, especially unplanned dramas where lots of events go wrong, are far more interesting stories to tell.  When I share crazy stories, I find people are more amused and enjoy listening to them more.  I even personally have more fun sharing those stories.  While one may feel angry and upset during the unpleasant dramas, our feelings about the drama change a week later.  We change our feelings from frustration and upset to humorous and thrilling.

After riding a bus where I was the only one on the bus (Another great perk of low season!) for a few hours from Monteverde to Arenal Volcano, I decided that getting a good dip in the hot water would be well worth it.

Wow!  I can understand why it’s such a magical place for honeymooners.  There are lots of “little private pools” giving couples exclusive time and space to themselves.  Water cascades were everywhere.  Rainforest surrounded the hot tubs.  There was even a slide, which gives a message that it’s family friendly too.

A lovely woman who was raised by an American mom and a Costa Rican dad walked me through the plantation along with the very friendly owner of the plantation.  I’m not going to go into the details of the process of making coffee because I think I’ll bore you, and you can always google info about it.  So, I am just going to touch upon a few very special highlights of the tour.

Seeing what coffee beans actually looks like before they reach the stores was a “WOW!” moment.  It looked like a bright red grape.  It gave me a greater realization that we can’t just pick the commodity straight out of the ground and send it straight to the stores.  There is a long process to get the real good hot coffee in a cup.  It involves picking the beans, drying them, roasting them, pouring them into a bag, shipping them, and then grounding the beans to turn into the great liquid we drink.  Nowadays, when I get coffee, I think about all the people involved in the process.  There has to be hundreds of people along the way.  On top of all, I have a better understanding of how the price of coffee is determined.

I sure did get to try a few samples of coffee.  What amazed me is that a change of process of producing coffee can change the flavor.  For instance, coffee that were roasted after being dried out tastes different from from coffee that were roasted without having been dried.

Some of my most favorite moments in life are dreaming of my flying like a bird while sleeping at night.  The feeling of being able to move with the wind at a high speed, choose my own path of journey, and see the world above me is such an exhilarating experience.   Often times in my dreams, I am flying through exotic destinations.  Perhaps these dreams are a sign of longing for more travels?  I think so.  I should admit that I often get reoccurrence dreams of flying through Lacoste, France, where I studied for two semesters during my undergrad studies.  I do still long for going back to France to enjoy the serene scenes of mountains, beautiful buildings, and delicious food.  However, I have to push myself to move on and see new destinations.  I have to remind myself that there is still so much of the world out there that I haven’t seen, and I will come across many more beautiful places.

Thus, zip-lining gives me the closest real life experience of flying.  Even though I am attached to a long cord and cannot choose which path to take, I can still feel like as if I am flying along with the wind and see the world above me.  Seeing the trees above me along with mountains in the background was such a surreal experience.  Seeing the rainforest in Monteverde confirmed that there are indeed many more beautiful destinations aside from Provence.

After zip-lining through the rainforest, I walked on several canopy bridges.  While the bridges were high above the world, the experience was no where near as surreal as zip-lining.  There was no feeling of high speed and flying.  I often hear that the benefit of walking on canopy bridges is being able to see many of rainforest species as majority of them are in the tree tops.  However, I did not see any species.  I am sure if I went with a guide who has experiences in being able to spot species, I would have been able to see them.

Check out these videos of my flying through the rainforest!

AND YES! I went on the Tarzan swing!  Be aware – if you have phobias of falling, I would NOT watch it!

Well, yesterday, I posted this status on Facebook:

So much for traveling during low season…the restaurant at my hotel is closed for lunch and dinner and the closest restaurants from the hotel where I am staying is one mile away… I’m a smarty pant for bringing crackers and bars with me! At least I’m at this hotel for only two nights, and I hope the restaurant at the next hotel will indeed be open, or I’m going to have to make a change of plans… Oh la la .. the dramas of traveling!

So, when I arrived at Monteverde, I didn’t see any nearby restaurants in sight.  I also looked on Google Maps, and it showed that the closest restaurants were at least a mile away from the hotel.  As I was exhausted, I just stayed at the hotel, watched the sunset, relaxed and ate crackers and a granola bar.  Relaxing was extremely important, as I knew that I had a big day ahead of me – Zip-lining and hiking in the rainforest and visiting a coffee plantation.

The green arrow is the hotel where I stayed

Now, here is my today’s Facebook status:

Learned a lesson today – Don’t pay attention to Google Maps, especially when traveling abroad – it turns out that there are a ton of restaurants and shops “on the other side” of the hotel that I didn’t see yesterday on the way to there AND also on Google Maps! For now on, hotel concierges are my best friends!

I did ask the hotel concierge where the closest restaurants were located yesterday, and he did tell me that there were several about 200 to 500 meters from the hotel, but I just wanted to get a confirmation by looking up the Google Maps, as I indeed didn’t see any yesterday on the way to the hotel from San Jose.  So, I just thought either I didn’t really  know the math and thought that 200 to 500 meters equal to a mile or that the hotel concierge was underestimating the distance.  Well, he was indeed right – they were all right there!  Ah well!

At least this afternoon after my two tours, I got to enjoy walking around the area by visiting shops including one ENORMOUS art gallery.  There is apparently a huge art community in Monteverde where there are not only Costa Rican artists, but also artists from other countries, in particular from the states.

I didn’t bother to get dinner, as the hotel served a NICE BIG breakfast, I had a very nice lunch at my first tour, AND a lovely snack at my second tour.  So, my body is very well nourished for the day.

Stories about the tours will follow in the next post!

Here I am in Costa Rica for ten days just to explore and have fun!   On the very first day, I arrived in San Jose so that I can have a taste of a big city life.  As soon as I looked out the window from the airplane and also taxi to the hotel, I thought to myself, “Wow!  Costa Rica kind of reminds me of Peru.”  It has a Latin American flare to the scenes, and even a touch of Spanish too.  However, I will say that the cars do look much nicer!  I can’t help it to say that because when I arrived in Peru three years ago, my first impression was that most cars, including taxis, looked like they needed to go in the garbage!

As soon as I arrived at the hotel, I didn’t miss a beat to see the city by heading straight out as soon as I dropped off my bags in my room.  While many people look like typical Latin Americans, Hispanics, there were also quite a few Caucasians although  it was hard to tell if they were tourists or not.  As someone who loves to shop for handicrafts and international specialities, I headed straight to Mercado Central, thinking that I’d find lots of artisanal items.  Ugh – I found nothing but junk souvenirs and food, which I didn’t want to take a chance to try, as I have a history of getting food poisoning.  After that, I just walked and observed the city.  I was honestly too tired to explore the museums.  I will be back in San Jose on the last day in Costa Rica and so, if anyone know of a good place where I can find handicrafts and artisanal items, please do chime in!  I heard that Plaza de la Democracia might have some things – does anyone have info about the place?

In the following morning, I headed to Monteverde to explore the rainforest.  What amazes me is that Costa Rica is so small that I’d think that it would take only two hours to travel across the country.  So, I thought that traveling to Monteverde from San Jose should take only 30 minutes to an hour.  It actually took about six hours including one 45 minute rest stop and a few hotel pick ups and drop offs in San Jose and Monteverde.  I guess that since Costa Rica is so mountainous, the roads are windier and as a result, longer distance!

Stay tuned for more adventures…