Eileen & Dana´s Adventure

They had no idea what they were getting into, but they were about to find out! [For those of you who don’t know who they are, I worked with Eileen at The Emory Wheel, back in the good ole days when she was the GM. Dana is her daughter, who also worked in the Business Office. It was a jolly newspaper reunion!] Eileen was disappointed that I didn’t want to spend any time in San José, but after landing in the country she soon learned why. So we piled in the car and headed to Arenal, Costa Rica’s most (and one of the world’s few) active volcano. It was a sight when we arrived but spectacular when we reached the lava side, it was something else. We had incredible luck and were not stuck in the rain, which meant great viewing for the natural night show, when spurts of lava burst from the volcano mouth. Heated pool, guaro sour, volcano, light show. Amazing…
Next day, it was time for the canopy tour, which meant flying around on a zip line over a hundred meters above the jungle floor! Dana had a nice little encounter with the guide on that adventure… he was smitten!
Back on the (steadily declining) road, we headed around Lake Arenal to the Monteverde Cloud Forrest, where we stayed in a tree house hotel. Hiked around in the jungle in the morning with a guide to tell us how many different ferns grow in this type of forest and where the congos are (I’m still not convinced the one he showed us wasn’t pasted on the telescope lens!) The afternoon took us back to the road, across the Gulf of Nicoya in the Puntarenas ferry, from Paquera through Jicaral to Jabillo. (If that made no sense to you, don’t worry about it; it made no sense to Eileen and Dana at the time either. They only understood that it was far and the roads were worse than earlier and it was raining… but eventually we reached my house.
Still not sure exactly what the girls thought of my house or the family, but we did look at a hotel at a nearby beach the next day. Playa San Miguel is isolated and beautiful, hidden on the Pacific coast of Guanacaste, only on the path for those willing to search.
One more night in Jabillo meant relaxing without driving, but then it was on to Carrillo, and I don’t even want to talk about the detours on that trip! Suffice it to say that we arrived and enjoyed more beautiful Guanacastecan beaches and quality car bonding time on the way there!Altogether too short, but the next day brought lunch in Sámara and then it was back to San José, where we parted ways – I was off to a capacitación for the recently-established Comité Tutelar de Jabillo and Eileen and Dana were headed back home to Georgia.
Thanks for a wonderful adventure! I am so happy to have shared it with you!