कुण्डाः अतिमूल्याङ्किताः भवन्ति

Yesterday was a very calm day as announced. After defeating the coconut and the dog eating half of it (I hope he doesn't have diarrhea from so much fat🙈), we watched and searched for animals on the property. It is simply difficult to describe in words. Here a hummingbird, there a gecko, oh, a green poison dart frog, in the background the screams of howler monkeys in the tall trees, the toucan flies past you. The kids haven't dared to go into the river yet, which directly borders the snapping turtles. They are cute to look at, but Noah's book says they can bite off your finger. They are skittish and disappear when you come near, but they want to play it safe.

We left around 10:00 am towards a waterfall and wanted to do some hiking. The potholes in this area are huge. I'll take some pictures for you today. You have to drive huge zigzags (even the super trucks🙈). Some of them are 30-40 cm deep. Simply unbelievable. This leads to taking 20 minutes for 5 kilometers. 

I had heard about it, but the roads we have been on so far were in very good condition.

Well, anyway, we suddenly stood in front of a bridge………….. We knew we had to go over it if we wanted to get to the waterfalls and I also knew that there was a hotel there, so somehow it must be passable, but for heaven's sake I DON'T WANT TO DRIVE OVER THERE! There were steel beams on both sides of a suspension structure that didn't look very trustworthy to begin with, and then there were simply steel plates about 1 meter wide placed on top. 

🥺

Then a car came towards us and we knew it was possible... So let's go then. Near-death experience is a pretty good way to describe it, and when we were over it, we both laughed out of relief. Oh man, you have to get used to that. 

About 500 meters further, we stood in front of the next bridge. It says in Spanish (bridge in bad condition, only light vehicles! 😳) 

Okay, you know "light" is subjective. What do you mean? Bicycle, motorcycle? Shortly thereafter, an SUV drove across...

I lost my desire for the waterfall. I begged Marco not to drive over it and he showed mercy. We parked our car right next to the bridge and saw that Tico teenagers were bathing and having fun in the river. That seems to be an adequate alternative, because the waterfall was still over 5 km away and it was 1. warm and secondly, we can be sure to be here before the monsoon 😅. About 5 Tico boys around the ages of 13-15 came with us, apparently they knew the way. The river was not deep and had a powerful current. It was not cold at all and the kids had a lot of fun. Mama was a little scared because the currents were really brutal, but there were young girls and, as I said, the boys and Marco didn't quite understand the concern, so I kept quiet and went inside 🙈😂. It was beautiful! Pools are overrated. The older boys worked for almost half an hour to free a fallen tree in the water and when they finally managed it and celebrated wildly, they used it as a boat to float downstream. 

It is such a beautiful experience to see how young people here keep themselves busy and how video games and computers do not yet play a major role, or at least a secondary one. Simply go out, meet friends, experience adventures. 

When we got back home, it started raining. Yesterday with a lot of noise. Since our house has no windows, only fly screens, it is correspondingly loud. It is very difficult to have a conversation. We had time to play and read.

In the afternoon, Marco spotted a green iguana high up in the trees. It was clearly unaffected by the rain.

Today we will continue driving south. Our destination is the area of Cartago. From there, we will continue towards the Pacific coast and further south. We will only stay one night in our next accommodation, which I booked yesterday via Airbnb. But it looks very nice.

Oh yes, the meal with the house manager didn't work out. But I almost expected that. She is still very nice. We made a simple dinner at home.

We are excited to see what awaits us today.

Pura Vida!