Feb 14, 2008 – Thursday – La Fortuna to San Jose, Costa Rica

2008 Costa Rica Southern Skies Fiesta, Volcanos & Rainforest

We leave the Tabacón resort this morning, returning from La Fortuna and Arenal Volcano to San Jose and the Central Valley. First stop is El Silencio de Los Angeles Cloud Forest. This is the first Cloud Forest I have experienced up close, and it is fascinating. We see lots of fauna and flora, including several varieties of hummingbirds, army and leaf-cutter ants, orchids and other amazing flowering plants. The cloud forest lives up to its name as the clouds silently drift through the forest canopy, nourishing all the life below. We have a very nice lunch at the adjoining Villa Blanca restaurant, and I admire the folklorique mural on the wall depicting historic industry in Costa Rica.

We get back on the bus for the drive back to San Jose, however there is the inevitable shopping stop at Sarchi. Thank goodness it is only a half hour this time before we are underway again. I really find the shopping part of these tours to be boring and a waste of my time. We run into rush hour traffic as we approach San Jose, which makes us late for our Farewell dinner. We all rush through our Courtyard Marriott hotel check-in, and manage to get to the restaurant before they cancel our reservation. This is a different restaurant than last week. The dinner is very nice – no band playing this time, a few short speeches are made, and I get to talk with some of my fellow Canadians in the group.

I have to be the first to leave the restaurant, since my flight tomorrow leaves at 7:45am. I am told my airport transfer is arranged for 5am, so that means I have to get up at 4am – a killer hour. Also, due to a scheduling mistake by Continental Airlines, I now have to overnight in Seattle-Tacoma, so I won’t be returning home to Victoria, Canada until Saturday instead of Friday evening. Back to the reality of a more crowded, hectic pace, with travel stress and decisions to be made, after a sublime two weeks in rural Costa Rica.