Roommate Reunion

This summer I was so excited to have Allison back as my roommate for a few weeks.  It was hard to believe that it had already been 3 years since we moved out.  When we moved out, I certainly didn't think that I would ever be moving back into my same condo and resuming life in Colorado Springs in just a couple of years.  So it was pretty crazy to be able to offer Allison her same room for the summer.  Funny how life turns out so different than you thought, but great nonetheless and just as it should be.

So Allison temporarily moved back into her old room and it was like we had never moved out, yet each of us has experienced and grown so much over the 3 years.  It was great to be able to catch up and spend some quality time together.  I was reminded of how much I enjoy our conversations about a wide variety of topics.  She also came with a list of things to do while in Colorado.  Time was short, but I'd say she did a pretty good job of packing a lot of it in.  One of the things was to hike Pikes Peak.  I'm always up for a hike, so early her last Sunday morning we hit the road to get an early start on the trail.  We opted for the back side leaving from the Crags Campground.

Looking pretty excited for it to still be so early, dark,
and chilly

It was a perfect day for hiking.  Chilly at the start, but progressively warmer as the day went on and the sun came out, and no threat of storms.

Overlooking the Crags I think

A little marmot friend that was surprisingly comfortable
with me getting so close

Excited to see my first cairn of the hike

How could you not just be loving life when you're enjoying
a hike with views like this?

This trail has quite a variety to offer.  It starts off in the trees, then opens up to wide dirt trails, crosses a road with lots of cars driving to the top (really weird when you feel like you should be on a secluded mountain), and finishes with some rock scrambling to reach the summit (my personal favorite).

Wide open trail to see the views

Those rocks can make you feel quite small

But we can conquer the mountain!
(or at least act like we did)

Thankful that there's no threat of lightening on this day

This cairn was hard to spot and seemed to
be lacking

So we did our part to add a couple of rocks

That's a little better

See, weird to have cars driving up beside you when you've
worked so hard to get to this point

The rock scrambling! Yay!

We made it! 14,110 feet to stand on Pikes Peak

A photo shoot with the two of us would not be complete
without a jumping picture ;)

Proof that it's official

Of course mango had to be part of the trip

Free with my Safeway coupon app!
And I discovered it's a great and easy way
to refuel on a hike.

Love the views from the top of a mountain

Soaking it all in

Before we knew it, we were back at the bottom and celebrating a successful hike!

Woohoo!

When we got back into town, we rewarded ourselves with the best ice cream in Colorado Springs.  I can't think of a better way to celebrate a hike, especially when it happens to also be National Ice Cream Day!

Josh & John's - yumm!!!!!

One last thing, speaking of random holidays, we also got to celebrate Cow Appreciation Day while Allison was here.  And this was the 5th year in a row for me and Meredith to get to celebrate together.

5 years of being cows to get free food

Pura vida! (Part 2)

To get to our next destination after Monteverde, we set up a Jeep-Boat-Jeep transportation option.  We heard from everyone that it was the best way to get from Monteverde to La Fortuna. Otherwise you have to drive all the way around the lake on a road that is apparently worse than any of the others we had seen.  We didn't have any interest in trying take roads any more treacherous than we had already experienced.  So for only $25 per person (a great deal) we were picked up from our hotel, driven to the lake to take a boat ride across, and then picked up by another van on the other side to take us to our hotel.  Talk about service!

A little glimpse at the typical road conditions

Driving is more about finding the easiest path and less about
staying on your side of the road

Even though it was quite cloudy and rainy, we still got to
see some pretty country-side views along the way

Arrival at the lake, but we have no clue what's going on.
We're just sitting on the bus.

A great perch for our bags to keep them off the mud
while we try to understand the chaos

Which boat are we supposed to get on?  Who knows?!

Apparently the volcano was somewhere over there, but
we couldn't see it through the clouds

We're finally on the boat!  And boy were we happy with
our seat choice.  Notice that our flap is down and
the zipper works.  Others were not so lucky when the
rain picked up.

When we made it to the other side, we were in charge of getting our own bags up to the waiting vans.  This was the challenge my mom had read about online.

Hey, you do whatever it takes

Up the slippery slope we go!

We did make it without any falls and were on our way to our next destination.  For this location, we stayed at the Arenal Paraiso Resort.  With its own hot springs, complimentary breakfast buffet, restaurant and spectacular views of the volcano, we didn't need to go anywhere.  That turned out to be a good thing because we were farther from the town and we weren't really very impressed by the town itself.  But we were quite content and happy to have no agenda and be able to just enjoy the relaxing atmosphere.

Quite a bit different from our stay at the ranch

Our casita

A great back porch looking right at the volcano

They had the best towel creatures I've ever gotten!

So cute!

One of 12 hot springs

 It was definitely rainy season.  There would just be sudden downpours.  Luckily there were some great trees to hide under and the swim-up bar was covered :)

Uh oh, the rain is starting to find its way through the
tree cover

Time to head to the covered swim-up bar

Volcan Arenal

Pura vida!
A little rain doesn't stop the fun.

The whole place was full of quite the interesting plant life.

Pandanus tree!!!  Brings back fond memories of Pohnpei. 

Hummingbirds love to drink out of that little spout

This was one of the craziest flowers.
Here it is just starting to open up.

A view from the bottom as it opens

And it just keeps opening up until it gets all the way up
to the top and then it's done.

I found the same "apple" tree that we had in Pohnpei.
Help me get some dad! :)

We did take one trip into town when we first got there just to see what the town was like.  We took our taxi driver's recommendation on a restaurant to try.  It's always a good idea to trust a local.

Soda Viquez - super nice workers and delicious food!

Fun, fresh fruit drinks

Soursop!!!!

Casados of course!  Gotta try all the different ones.

We didn't stay long in town.  Our food was definitely the highlight.  Then we were ready to just get back to the resort to enjoy to hot springs!  Everyone told us that it had been cloudy for days and it was very unlikely that we would get to see the volcano.  We really wanted to see it, but had accepted that we might not.  Well, we got our suits on and went to the hottest hot spring and were just sitting and enjoying the serenity of the place.  All of the sudden, it was like the clouds cleared and there before us was the volcano!  We couldn't believe how close it was.  It had been right across the street and we had no idea.  Other people had been there for 3 days and didn't even know where it was.  On our first night we saw it while relaxing in naturally heated water and even got to see the sunset on the side of volcano.  Quite a gift!  Of course we didn't have a camera with us that night because it had been so rainy and cloudy, so you'll just have to take my word for how beautiful it was.  The pictures we got later are still pretty amazing.

Arenal Volcano

Our backdrop for lunch...not too bad!

 And can you guess what we ate for lunch?

Another rendition of Casados of course!
When in Costa Rica...eat like a Tican

I even drank my first cup of coffee ever!

Costa Rica has some good coffee

A typical view of the volcano this time of year

But what a treat when the clouds clear away.  That really
is steam coming off of the top.

On our second day there, I convinced my mom and dad that we should go on the trail that we had seen signs for.  The map showed that it would take you to waterfalls.  Great!

Here we go - jungle hiking!

Beautiful views

I'm pretty sure they're already thinking,
"What have we let her get us into?!"

 It didn't take long for me to remember why I don't really prefer hiking in tropical climates.  Everything is very wet, muddy, and slippery.  And there are mosquitoes!  We finally got to one part that was pretty steep and questionable.  Being the good daughter that I am, I offered to try it out and see how bad it was.

Hmm...I don't think we should keep going, but I'm not
sure how I'm going to get back up that slippery slope

It took a little crawling in the mud

and a helping hand

But I made it up and it was confirmed that
it was time to turn around

I guess now we know why they have the signs ;)

They might not ever trust me to take them on a hike again.  But I think I'll stick with Colorado hiking anyway.  It definitely made me appreciate the dry climate of Colorado.

We spent our last night in Costa Rica back in San Jose.  We needed to be close to the airport for an early morning flight.  I'll admit that I resisted the thought of staying in a Hampton Inn.  I always like to stay at local places that you can't stay at normally.  But this was the nicest Hampton Inn I've ever been in.  If you ever need a place near the airport in San Jose, I would highly recommend a stay here.  Super friendly workers, they took care of the airport exit fees so that we wouldn't have to deal with the line at the airport, and had a free shuttle to a nearby shopping center so we could get out even without a car.

Ole, ole ole ole! Ticos, Ticos!

The shuttle took us to a shopping center with self-serve
froyo.  I couldn't resist.

They had an assortment of flavors I had never tried before.

Froyo shops have the same look and feel no matter
what country you're in.

And one last round of Casados before we have to go

This was on the wall in the airport.  It was like, why did
we even take the trip all the way out there to see the volcano?
We could have seen it just as well right here without even stepping
out of terminal. Haha!

That pretty much sums up the whole trip.  Costa Rica is a wonderful place full of warm people, pura vida culture, and abounding in beauty.  I already can't wait to go back!