Well I’m sitting here typing away with a bump on my head, a sore neck, and a nice skid-burn on my back. Would you believe it’s all thanks to a waterslide?
Spent this weekend on a trip to a beautiful place called Arenal. It’s an active volcano that’s about a 5 hour bus ride from San Jose. The bus left the ISA office at 6 in the morning on Saturday, so we had the pleasure of waking up at 5am. We were kinda smart the night before, deciding not to give’er hell. However, we did still go out to a place called “Jazz Café.” Care to guess what they do there? Anyhow, we got there at about 9, paid our 2500colones (5 bucks) cover charge, and grabbed a table. There were about 15 of us. The bar was really cool; it was very dark on the inside with only dim lights on the walls, and candles on every table. Then the stage was lit with a kind of bluish light. The band came on at 10, and started the night off with a couple jazz songs in English! They played for over an hour, and sounded great. It was a neat change of pace, a really mellow night with some chillin music. Good sendoff before Arenal.
So 5 in the morning came real fast. Rosalba (my Tica madre) was up earlier than that to make us some breakfast. The woman must never sleep! (Actually, that night she didn’t get much sleep thanks to some drunk person misdialing our house at 3:15 that morning. Apparently she didn’t really get back to sleep after that). We got to the bus on time, got our seats, and promptly passed out. The bus stopped at a restaurant at 8 for breakfast (yeah I ate a second one. What of it?), and hit the road again till 11:30. We found ourselves at a huge waterfall, looked like about a 200 foot drop into a large pool. Most of us went for a dip, some people thought it was too cold but the water was actually really nice once you got in. We tried to swim to where the water was falling, but the current made by the falling water was incredibly hard to swim against. As soon as you got within 15 feet of the fall, you couldn’t really see where you were going and you were pretty much swimming on the spot. When you stopped, it just pushed you right back to the shore. It was fun to try tho, and one of the guys had a waterproof camera so he got some good pics.
From there, we went to a small town near the base of the volcano called La Fortuna. We got some lunch, had some fantastic fish n chips, and went up the road to our hotel. This place was nutty! We were staying at the base of an active volcano! Mind you, the lava flows down the other side of the mountain, so it was safe and all. But the thunderous sounds the volcano put out at regular intervals were a constant reminder of the power of that mountain.
One nice thing about staying at the base of a volcano is the natural hot springs that occur there. We spent the rest of the afternoon and part of the night at a place called Baldi Termae, a group of 25ish hot pools heated by the volcano. It was great to be able to relax in the hot water… until we found the waterslides. Anyone who knows me should know that I freakin love waterslides, so I led the charge up the stairs to the top of the highest one. None of us had any idea what we were in for.
The first 10 feet or so had to be wet by hand, so there was a guy there with a bucket of soapy water. I heaved off, and tightened my body into the luge/rocket position. Went around the first corner gaining speed, and then went down the drop and into the second corner.
I’m pretty sure whoever designed this slide designed it to hurt people. And he was a good designer. You drop into the second corner with the sideways momentum from the first, and it sends you up the wall. Then the slide sorta just drops away. So after being unexpectedly flung airborne, you come down hard moving sideways (this is the point where most of us nailed our heads, weren’t really expecting the whiplash y’know?). Then you are dumped into the water before you really have time to understand what just happened.
Well it was a hell of a ride, and of course we didn’t really admit how much it hurt once we got to the bottom. We just cheered and told everyone else how much fun it was and how they all just HAD to try it. So there ended up being about 30 of us who all went down, halfway through that group we started congregating at the bottom and cheering the people who got the most air, laughing at the people who came down hard, and booing the people who didn’t have enough speed to go airborne and consequently avoided any pain. That’s weak. I rode 4 times. Hahaha
That night we had a great buffet dinner, then headed back to the hotel and randomly gathered on the balconies of our rooms to sit and stare at the volcano. It was pretty unreal, the clouds were kinda thick up there but most of the time you could see the orange glow at the top of the mountain. And like I said, every little while there was a loud rumble that reminded you that the mountain must’ve eaten some Mexican food recently. Or drank too much tequila, depending on which end you think a volcano represents.
It wasn’t a late night for most of us, since Sunday was now our day to do whatever activities we wanted to get done before noon. Me and 5 others shelled out a little more dough than the rest of the crew in order to participate in a rousing morning of “canyoning.” I’d never heard of it before, but it basically consists of rappelling down waterfalls. Seriously.
We strapped on our harnesses, made sure everything was out of the way (any guy who has worn one knows what I’m talking about…), and headed to the first platform. They gave a quick talk about how to rappel, since you get to control your own speed and jumps and such. They do, however, have a safety at the top and the bottom to stop you if it looks like you’re straight up falling. That was reassuring. But the first drop was 160 feet, and safety lines or not, that’s a little daunting to look at. No time to think about it tho, they just tell ya to swing around and get ‘er done! So that’s exactly what we did. The first one was beside the waterfall, and it was a total thrill. Once you get moving, the fear disappears and you’re left with the rush of descending the face. The second one was smaller, 85 feet, and it was down the center of the waterfall. So you got soaked, but it was a blast. The third was a 100 foot drop down a dry face that I did in 3 jumps. That video is
the one I posted on facebook, it was my best descent of the day for sure. The last 2 were down the falls as well.
So, understandably, the weekdays are spent in anticipation of the coming adventures of the weekend. This weekend we are going to head to Montezuma, supposedly one of the nicest beaches in Costa Rica. I’m really looking forward to it, because it is the first trip that we organized without the school, so anything goes. I can’t wait to finally sleep in… I haven’t slept past 8am since I got to this country 2 and a half weeks ago. That’s the other thing. I can’t believe it’s only been 2 weeks. When I walk around the neighborhood, it feels like I have been here for months! January 5th is a distant memory; so much has happened since. Everything keeps moving forward, there’s always something to look forward to and constantly things to stop and appreciate. My grasp on the language is coming along; I’m able to talk about simple things with my Tica madre and can understand what she’s getting at most of the time. It’s pretty cool.
What else…
Perhaps some random thoughts and shout-outs:
- Read a Mark Twain book called Pudd’nhead Wilson. Pretty good book, short, but definitely worth a read.
- Shout out to Michelle, Byung, and Allyson: we gotta hit up a sake night soon. I’m very interested, especially if there is tempura involved.
- I miss snowboarding.
- Shout out to the dude that sells the burgers and burritos in the courtyard at school. I know you probably aren’t reading this, amigo, but you kick ass.
- I miss my car. And driving my car. And listening to loud music in my car.
- Shout out to Rhawn for his comment on my last entry. That was hilarious.
- I don’t miss McDonald’s. Not because I no longer like it, but because a few of us went there last Thursday and I had a big mac. Countries I have eaten a big mac in: 4.
- Shout out to Nicole Sewall for her b-day. Happy Birthday cuz!
- Lindsay so stupid.
- Shout out to Aaron for helping me get this on the internet on a Spanish computer.
- And last, but not least, yes, I miss my family. Mom, I know you were probably reading this thinking “what the hell, he misses his car and shouts out to random people, but no mention of me” or something along those lines. So rest assured I miss ya, and you too fazha, and perhaps rinzy as well. Not Sydney. Unless she’s not whining about going up the stairs, then maybe Sydney too.
If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to write me. Your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Thanks for reading!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment