Stage 6: from Pacayitas to la Suiza

In the morning, we have another generous hearty Costa Rican breakfast with gallo pinto (rice with black beans), scrambled eggs, corn tortillas, and cheese. However, Chris misses the sweet breakfast and asks the friendly lady for honey and then gets homemade guava jam. However, it is amusing that the German actually spreads jam on his corn tortillas. At the beginning of the tour, we pass idyllic farms with huge properties where "se vende" (for sale) is often written, which can make one daydream. We find that every small village in Costa Rica has three things: a church, a school, and a soccer field. Most of the small houses have their front doors wide open so that you can see into the living room, and we feel very safe. The people along the way wave and greet us warmly and seem genuinely happy that we are passing by. The cars and motorcycles honk as they pass by or even stop and ask if we need any help. We often smile at the kitschy Christmas decorations of the houses, which are still everywhere and somehow seem strange to us in the heat and tropical atmosphere. For several days, we have been accompanied by the exotic calls of the Montezuma oropendola bird (black with a yellow tail), which we also regularly see, but can hide well from the camera. From a distance, we see a large lake, and a little later, according to the map, we pass through a place called 'Alto Alemania', so we're back in Germany so quickly. Otherwise, today's stage is quite uneventful. We only pass through the largest town on the Camino, La Suiza, which is not particularly worth seeing. But here we can eat something, shop, withdraw money, and get more band-aids from the pharmacy. Our feet do not like today's stage at all because we mainly walk on asphalt or rough stones, and together with sweating a lot, this produces blisters on our feet despite wearing well-worn hiking shoes. Even more, we are looking forward to reaching today's comfortable accommodation, Casa Quinto Atirro, with a tropical garden and resting on the beautiful veranda.