Wednesday March 17th in Costa Rica

Cloudy but 30 degrees C. Up and off before 0800, back to Braulio Carrillo National Park that we had passed through another day when we went on our river cruise. This time we were headed to the Rain Forest Aerial Trams, the small green metal cable cars that hold 6 people and a guide, and glide slowly through the forest canopy, from down nearly on the ground, to up over 130 feet in the canopy, through a green forest.

It was a peaceful and quiet ride gliding along, we were the first car launched that day, and our guide was again very informative and well prepared. We saw lots of rivers, and lush green growth, and heard birds, but didn't see much except green, green and more green.

The road that leads to Braulio Carrillo National Park was green and lush, many of the hillsides were covered solidly with fern growth, and very pretty. But an extremely busy road for truck traffic, which was coming over from the Caribbean side, from the port of Limon, to the Pacific side of Costa Rica, a journey for them of about 4 -5 hours.

We saw lineups of trucks waiting to enter into San Jose as we left town, apparently their entry is controlled, and they can't enter the capital city until after 9 AM or so. The road is somewhat twisty and turny, and very narrow in most places.

After our 1 hour canopy ride, we headed off to another Buffet lunch at Rio Dante Restaurant, right out in the jungle. Before lunch we went for a jungle walk, about 1/2 hour, and again very interesting as our guide Orlando and the paramedic Wilbert showed us so many things about the jungle there. Orlando caught a tiny tree frog, bright red, with venomous skin, and bright blue feet. The natives had used the venom on their arrow tips in bygone days for hunting, to partially paralyze their prey. Wilbert seemed to be keeping a close watch out all along our route, a cement pathway through the jungle, perhaps for snakes. Costa Rica has some, but we didn't see any. Wilbert gave Lary a huge seed, nearly 2 inches in size. Lunch was delicious, there was a roof covering the restaurant, but no sides, and a kind of atrium in the centre with green plants. There were manicured lawns with flowering shrubs and trees, including orchids blooming right near the restaurant.

Back to the hotel by 1500, group photo near the painted cow at the hotel courtyard near the swimming pool which we hadn't even had time to enjoy, we had been so busy all week.
They were also changing all the fresh flowers in the lobby and public areas of the hotel, the gingers, heliconia, and other incredible flowers, all grown right there in Costa Rica. It was so pretty to see how they arranged them all. What a dream to have such luxuriant plants and flowers all around, growing in the most humble of houses yards.

Before Happy Hour, we had hurriedly packed up our suitcases, and then off for a 50 minute bus ride across town to a very fancy hotel up in the hills, looking down on the lights of the capital city of San Jose, where we had the most disappointing meal of our whole trip.

Wonderful service, waiters in very formal black, most of the time very attentive, but food paltry, not that much of it, and nearly cold to boot. Nice salads, but the hot dishes were scarce, not hot, not really even warm, and only 2 desserts, it was as if we had come late to the meal, and they couldn't be bothered to put on a good one for us. Tenderloin was like shoe leather. Most folks couldn't even get their teeth into it, we just bounced it around then left it on the plates.

What irony, out in the middle of the forest or the jungle we had been given feasts, often cooked over wood, in open air shelters, veritable feasts, and here in the fancy smancy 5 star hotel we felt like we were getting leftovers. And the guide had hyped it so much for us all, bummer.