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The last few days have been less eventful - with one notable exception. Mainly this is due to most of the family (in fact everyone except suzanne) being down with a poorly tummy. Nothing serious but it's kept us all quiet and not wanting to stray too far from a loo!
The first day was just a quiet day - after a scrumptious breakfast again in elisabeth's colourful dining room, we all chilled by the pool for a while, (potentially the source of tum trubble) the returned to the cabin where we read and chatted. The kids kept themselves busy with a bit of body art and some niggle-free time, followed by Siena's cafe del Sol keeping us all supplied with coffee, sweets, nuts and whatever else we had in the fridge and cupboard! We didn't bother going into town, nobody seemed too bothered.
By the end of the afternoon, though, we fancied getting out so we dropped back into Santa Elena and went to the bat jungle. Here they have 80 odd bats - all behind glass, but it was good fun, even if we learnt that we'd need to eat our own weight in fruit, nectar or insects every day depending on which kind we were. We bought some chocolate from the small producer, then went to what we hoped would be a nice restaurant, one recommended to us - Sophias. I guess it would have been nice had it just been the two of us, but the kids were niggly (having had a fantastic day!) and the experience was dampened by few of us wanting to eat much and frequent trips to the loo!
So eventually we headed back thinking - regrettably - that we might as well just eat at trattorias/pizzerias; the food has been good, eaten and the atmosphere friendly most of the time. The costa Ricans are by and large very friendly, and nearly all of our experiences are positive here.
The next day would have been ideal to have had a lie in, most of us feeling sorry for ourselves but we had a 7 am start with a rendezvous at the stables at El Sol. This time it was dads turn to go with Finn and Derry; we'd failed the previous evening to get to the supermarket in time, and we were also running critically short of medicines; add that to a poor nights sleep and it didn't bode well.
Luckily Derry can do this like falling off a horse - or not in her case - and Finn is a bit of a trooper, so it went better than we'd thought. So no breakfast with the potential for a 5 hour ride in the offing. The horses were exceptionally well trained - I haven't ridden many but with this one it did exactly what you asked it to do, and the experience was the better for that. We rode down into the river valley for about an hour and ¾, through some fairly tough terrain - mud, rocks, hills, steep ascents and descents. We were joined by mike and beth, honeymooners from New York,but conversation was a little subdued as we tried not to think of going to the loo! They watched Derry most of the time to see what they should do !
Once down at the waterfall and river, we stopped for breakfast of scrambled eggs, beans and rice (of course!). breakfast proved not to be too much of an issue since none of us was particularly hungry! Our guide also caught a couple of fish - which he returned, and mike&beth with the two guides went jumping off rockes so e5m up into the river pool. Good fun, but we didn't feel like it -as well as not being prepared! We stayed a while, rock balancing and chasing lizards (Finn made good buddies with his basilisk which decided to lie down on its back and sunbathe in his hand!)
The ride back was a little longer, being more uphill, but the horses didn't let us down. By then end, though, we knew we'd been for a ride, our legs and bums ached and we enjoyed climbing down. We took a dip in the pool to cool ourselves, then joined Siena and Suzanne who had had a quiet morning not eating breakfast either!!!
The rest of the day was a write off - good job we hadn't planned anything, since the youngest 2 crashed for a couple of hours or more to sleep off their illness. This was not before Derry had had the chance to sample and enjoy elisabeth's peppermint tea as a partial cure. Finally later on we went into town where we sought the sanctity of johnnies pizza again, which they nearly ate, and finished the day quietly. We had a short and abortive trip to the bank where the machines refused to give out the cash they had promised, so we were in for a tight time until we could get some travellers cheques cashed.
So ended our time at El Sol. We'd had a great time in spite of feeling rough - Elisabeth has created a haven where you can live at a different pace - where the doors aren't locked, the clock has a secondary role and where it all just flows along nicely. Her inner voice clearly works for her and her guests, all of whom are happy, relaxed and become a part of El Sol which they carry with them beyond the gate.
We had a final breakfast then did the traditional 'don't bug me while I'm packing' routine. We were pretty much ready early on, (suzanne's finally getting the hang of it now J) so we had time to pop to the bank (nice idea but its a half hour event, signing every travellers cheque, writing your address on each one, then watching while they write their own forms out in triplicate. Some life moves a little too slowly, even for people who have been way from the stresses of work for 2 months!
After that we visited the serpentaria for a quick wander around - clearly we haven't had enough of animals in CR yet! - before a final farewell to Elisabeth and El Sol. We started our journey back to pura vida - the first 30k was dirt road again - the main highway from Monteverde to San Jose being strewn with landslides, trees, one way bridges and big potholes (or big lumps where they have overcompensated for the potholes). Eventually we got a decent road, but not before we'd been held up behind trucks queuing for gravel to drive it 500m up the road where they're laying the new one! Shortly after that I was watching a few cars behind us indicating with hazards, flashing and driving strangely as they passed me, only to discover that I had a flattening tyre. So we stopped after a short while in the car park of a chemical plant to change it (the first piece of flat, dry land I found) where 2-3 guys came over to have a look - I thought I was going to be shooed off the premises but au contraire the main guy got on his knees and did the majority of the work changing my wheel. Clever things these Toyotas, you don't need to get the bags out of the car to let the spare wheel down, an added bonus - which we discovered once we'd got all the bags out !! anyway 15 minutes later and we were back on the road.
We made it back to pura vida with 5 minutes to spare before the car rental collection time (I consider it careful planning) and felt a little like it was coming home. It feels also strangely like the end of the holiday, but of course we have 3 weeks still to go - so it's just the end of a phase. Nhi and berni weren't cooking tonight, so we took a cab out to a restaurant in Alajuela - a humble affair, more like a fast food joint - strange how we're recommended that from such a high class chef, but potentially there aren't any classy restaurants in town - and after all our brief was for simple food, pasta for the kids!
We ate quickly then came straight back - they're all still a bit worse for wear and an earlier night would do us all good. And, of course, we have a highlight tomorrow.....
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