Our Costa Rica Gift Of Happiness: Day 3, Part Two

Deb and Barbara: This is our "wonky" day: we traveled from El Silencio to Arenal Springs Resort and Spa––and, yes, Deb took another Gravol against her better judgment. Okay, if only someone had told her that the winding road lasted for 3 miles and then straightened out for the rest of the trip, she might not have shamed herself. However, upon reflection, the combination gave us the best laughs of the trip thus far (see photos for proof).


PS Many profuse thanks to our genial hosts at El Silencio for a superb 5-star/leaf stay!!

En route between El Silencio and Arenal Springs, we stopped at an iguana reserve established by the owner of this restaurant to protect the majestic creatures (plus Deb needed to pee).

He says they call him "Papa Iguana".

The rust colouring is a mating call. He waggles that impressive chin to attract the ladies (rivalling Colin's gelatinous basket).

There were literally hundreds of iguanas in the trees (they eat leaves––not humans, although Deb was not entirely convinced of this truth, high on Gravol as she was.)

We thought Deb was fine at this point--although we should have suspected something was up as she wasn't talking.

Yup, there it is. (This moment brought to you by Gravol.)

We arrived at Arenal Springs in the afternoon––too late for further excursions. However, the hotel had other plans... bottle is empty now, display has reverted to a crumpled towel on the floor. Thanks, Arenal Springs Resort and Spa!

The view from our adjoining hotel rooms. Under all that cloud cover in the distance is one of the ten most active volcanoes in the world. Sitting on the porch here was warm and tranquil as we watched gorgeous birds flit by.

Checking out the grounds.

Although you can't tell from this picture, Deb has just unwittingly walked right into the pool, thinking it was a path to the sushi bar. Feet are soaked, but WARM, as the water is fed by thermal hot springs. 

More tomorrow after we come back from our hike and tribal ceremony! Can't wait!! Costa Rica is truly clean, safe, beautiful and diverse. A paradise. We're eating the salad and drinking the water. The drives have been breathtaking. The people friendly and helpful and kind. Woo-hoo!!

Our Costa Rica Gift Of Happiness: Day 3, In Transit

We're just getting ready to head to Arenal Springs, but thought we'd post some more shots of the wonderful food and fun of El Silencio before we leave. Mmmmm.

Bread basket

Trout tartare

Pumpkin and ginger soup

Fresh pasta with chicken

Homemade gnocchi with fresh tomato sauce

Chicken with blackberry and cassava chips

Cafe crema

Our Costa Rica Gift Of Happiness: Day 2, El Silencio Lodge And Spa

Barbara: Deb mentioned in this morning’s comment that there was a small warm fuzzy surprise in our beds last night—Phil literally jumped out of the bed when he felt first a tail-like protuberance, followed by a warm, gelatinous mass.

Colin: This had nothing to do with my basket—let me just get that out of the way.

Phil: I’ve seen Colin’s basket—and gelatinous is one way to describe it.

Barbara: Okay, boys, let me finish: the “mass” was none other than a delightfully warm squishy hot water bottle encased in a soft felt blanket which warmed the bed and to which my feet stayed glued the entire night (not because it was cold in the room, but because it was sooooo cozy). The rooms at El Silencio are perfect. There are 16 separate cottages, outfitted with the most comfortable white-sheeted beds and huuuuuge bathrooms and outdoor hot tubs. You feel as if you are alone in the rain forest (but in a safe, sophisticated, no-want-of-a-luxury way.) Jo, in reference to your concern about heat, the rain forest could be your place. It is relatively cool here in the north. Probably low 70sF, low 20sC—and yes, it does rain. But it is more like a mist, and you don’t feel cool if you are hiking the woods for hours as we did this morning (or ensconced in front of the main room fire, wrapped in blankets.)

Deb: Today’s spectacle came in the form of a three-hour hike in the rain/cloud forest with our eco-concierge Andrey. It was in a word, spectacular! Off we went covered in layers of warmth and plastic, walking sticks in hand, to wind our way into this magical forest. We encountered three, count em’ three, gorgeous waterfalls. I am proud to say that my DNA is forever ensconced in this magical place in the form of my magical urine, which I generously deposited not once, but three times during our sojourn. I am sure in the very near future you will hear tell of miraculous growth in the rainforests due to an undetected and unexplained presence there.

Phil: After viewing the trout pond, one particularly feisty one ended up on my lunch plate. Delicious. I want to say something about the “Hot Lips” flower we saw on the trail. What can I say??? What ... can … I … say…???

Colin: This has been … wet. But my shoes were dry. Deb bent my room key. I had to go up and down the stairs (between the room and the main lodge). The waterfalls were spectacular. The food was exquisite. The people are lovely. Good senses of humour, very informative, they seem to know everything about everything. If we could just ditch the two broads, we’d have a great time. (I also marked my territory with an eco-friendly Sharpie.)

Barbara: I will say this: I didn’t want to pack heavy, dirty boots for trail walking, but I guess I had no idea there would be so much rain in the rainforest (…idjit…). So I packed rubber-soled Mary-Janes—and you know what? They were fine, given that the trails, while wild, were groomed and not really muddy. Couldn’t believe that my feet stayed warm and dry the whole time.

Deb: Although we did not see any scurrying animals, we did see and hear plenty of colourful birds including the yellow-thigh finch, common bush tanager, green hermit hummingbird, grey-breasted wren, and the clay-coloured robin, which is the national bird of Costa Rica, seen everywhere in the country from rainforests to cities. And where you might ask are my bino's? On the back windowsill at home! grrrr arggghhh!

Barbara: I’m intrigued with the water system they have here. Water in Costa Rica is generally safe and clean, but El Silencio has an ingenious eco-friendly approach to water, piping it in from a nearby spring, filtering it for sediment, and purifying with ultra violet light. No chlorine!!! You can safely drink ALL the water here—and they use the same purified water in the hot tubs. No chlorine!!! And then all the used water is cleaned and recycled. I bow to their eco-savvy ways here. El Silencio is owned by a Costa Rican family who I have it on good authority is a wonderful family, very committed to environmental responsibility and supporting the local communities. They grow their own organic vegetables for 40% of their needs and buy the other 60% from the local farmers. Their staff of 25 comes from a nearby town of 200. No guilty pleasure here!

Deb: Now we’re going to hit the hot tubs and sit down for another meal—after all, it’s been a couple of hours since we’ve eaten. Pura vida!

Hot Lips flower

La Promesa Waterfall

We were offered the wonderful chance to plant a Dama tree (or Lady tree) on the property.

Our Costa Rica Gift Of Happiness: Day 1

Barbara: We arrived safe and sound!! It was a great and easy first day. We arrived in beautiful Costa Rica midday after a 5 ½ hour flight from Toronto. (Note to dear readers: don’t watch the movie Contagion during a flight. Gesundheit. Yeah….)

Deb: We were met at the airport by two guys with the biggest smiles in the world: Andrey, manager El Silencio Resort and Spa (our first stop), and Jimmy, our trusty driver. Andrey greeted us by saying, “Welcome home,” and as the day progressed, we could see just how proud they are of their country. And rightly so.

Phil: The generosity and hospitality of the Costa Ricans is even more wonderful than I remember from our last trip.

Barbara: Andrey asked us right away if we preferred to go straight to the hotel and unwind (something I would normally prefer), or if we wanted a tour of a coffee plantation. We all decided that if we could have just a quick bite first, then we’d be good to go for the coffee plantation.

Deb: They took us to a great little joint where we all had chicken and rice Costa Rican style. (Note to self: might be better to be a little nauseous on the winding roads than stoned out of my gourd on ONE Gravol.) Did make the trip to the coffee plantation a “trip” though.

Colin: I picked coffee beans. The red ones are the best ones. The workers can pick up to 20 bushels in 10 hours. I picked 15…. Beans… Took me a half hour. My back is killing me.

Just a side-Barb here: The coffee plantation is called Espirtu Santo and is a fair-trade co-op, with sales around the world and 10% of the their product staying right here in Costa Rica. Our lovely and gracious hostess, Carrie, was so engaging, friendly and informative, we wanted to take her with us.

Phil: To get to seventh heaven you have to go through some serious cloud. They don’t call it a rain/cloud forest for nothing. Visibility on the road between the coffee plantation and the hotel was at times only a foot ahead of the headlights on roads best suited for all-terrain vehicles.

Deb: It was only the constant reassurance from Andrey that Jimmy could drive this road with his eyes closed that assuaged any panic.

Barbara: And then we arrived at El Silencio Lodge and Spa! Oh man. Gorgeous, peaceful, lovely sanctuary. A 5-Leaf hotel (which signifies the highest compliance with eco-friendly practices that a hotel can have). Phil kept saying that he never expected a hotel with such high environmental standards to feel so posh, comfortable, and decadent.

Deb and Barbara: So we will sign off tonight fire-side in the dining room, sipping a lovely glass of red wine and awaiting our first dinner in Costa Rica. Just so you guys know, we’re under no obligation from the Costa Rica tourism board to say any of this, so trust us when we tell you that anything we say will be a reflection of our true experience in this country.  Thank you Gift of Happiness.

Costa Rica Countdown!! And Packing For A Purpose

Barbara: Well, this is it, folks! Our first adventure of 2012 and the year is only 3 days old. Tomorrow we leave for Costa Rica!!!!

We’ve been running around these last few weeks, goggle-eyed and holiday-zombied. Not only have there been holiday to-dos and house-fulls and parental duties (speaking for Deb), but children home who must now be packed back off to school (sniffle, sniffle).

I was so paranoid about my ability to pack coherently for our trip under these circumstances that I started a week ago. You know, throwing this and that into a suitcase as thoughts occurred. Making sure I’ll have all the wardrobe necessities covered. But not to worry—inspired by Deb’s order, I did take stock yesterday, eliminating any extraneous items (I mean, who needs 5 bathing suits for 7 days, especially when 2 of them are so old, they risk disintegrating like wet tissue?). There’s more yet to do today, but mostly I am set.

And speaking of packing, one of the travel docs we were sent by our gracious hosts included a link to a site that I had never heard of before. They do seem to be well established so I imagine many of you might already know them, but if you don’t, we thought it would be good to introduce them to you. The organization is called Pack For a Purpose and they help set you up if you want to bring truly necessary items to your destination country. You simply go to the site, enter the country you’re visiting, determine what the needs are, then click to the participating hotels. You bring as much as you want from the list and drop it off at the nearest hotel.

As luck would have it, The Harmony Hotel is one of the hosts of Pack For a Purpose and that’s the final hotel on our itinerary. Deb and I plan to bring school supplies and soccer balls.

We do wish we’d known about this program well before leaving because we might have been able to organize a donations collection. That said, now that we know this is an option, we’ll pay more attention the next time we travel. But we are just THRILLED we discovered them in time for our trip—we’ll keep you all posted on how it works once we get down there.

Fair warning for our Costa Rican travel diary: we will post daily, but we will probably only get to post at the end of each day (or during cocktail hour :) ). Tomorrow’s post will go up after we travel and settle in at the first hotel (so don’t look for one at our usual 8am).

We can’t wait to take you with us on our grand adventure! See you in the rain forest.

Costa Rica Gifts of Happiness from the Costa Rica Tourism Board!

11:23pm

Deb: ...was the time I laid my head down on New Year's Eve. First time in my life. And I kept saying, "For heavens sake, you've only got forty minutes to go." But I couldn't. I didn't. I was tired. I had been sporting a two-day migraine and I was spent. We had had a lovely day though. My Mom and Dad came over about 2pm with some dear friends and their moms. We have been doing this for about three years now and it is lovely. Chat, cocktails, pizza, and Pictionary!

Though in previous years we would start around 7pm ending with a resounding "Happy New Year!" at midnight followed by a mass exodus. We had to change it up this year because my Mom needed to be home by 7:30 to meet the caregiver who gets her ready for bed. So rather than scrap the evening, we chose to change it up to an afternoon/early eve. With the sky dark by five, it still gave us hours to feel all New Years Eve-y.

We drew bad pictures, we ate, we laughed, we had a festive cake with sparklers, and  we sang Auld Lang Syne. We did our countdown at 6:43 in a fun random way and we shouted out Happy New Year! just as if we were trying to drown out the tolling of twelve bells.

Everyone was gone by 8 and my husband and I hunkered down with tea to watch a movie, which we quite enjoyed although my eyes were fluttering back and forth from full to half-mast. Any other day I would have just gone to bed, but I am an eventist damn it. Have been all my life. So staying up until midnight on New Years Eve is important to me.

But the game of rationalization began. "I have to get up early in the morning.” “We have had our version of New Years hours before.” “I could just kiss my husband now and say Happy New Year!” “I could get a good night's sleep and start the year fresh and well rested instead of clinging to something that would ultimately amount to nothing."

Having convinced myself, I went to sleep at 11:23pm.

And at midnight I awoke to the sound of cheering and pots and pans and fireworks. I laid there comforted by the fact that this revelry was going on right outside my window. Our street was celebrating for me. Or with me I suppose. After all, I was listening and smiling with my eyes closed. And I appreciated it. I drank that cup of kindness yet for Auld Lang Syne and then nodded off, secure in the knowledge that 2012 had arrived fully and safely. I woke again a few hours later when I heard the boy and the girl come in from their party. A few whispers, a few giggles, the removal of shoes and the setting of the house alarm. They were slipping off to bed, the New Year’s party smell clinging to their persons. Again I was smiling with eyes closed. And I confess, counting my blessings that I was going to wake up with my head instead of theirs.

But on this morning, this first morning of 2012, I had a lingering feeling of disappointment with myself. Why didn't I stay up that extra 40 minutes? I made a choice that I thought was prudent and wise instead of fun and spontaneous. And in the warm light of a sunny New Year's morning, I feel I made the wrong choice. I wish I had stayed up. It is so unlike me not to have. I wanted to try this new me on for size. Thank heaven I kept the receipt because I am returning her. Like the saying goes "you can sleep when you're dead". Next year, midnight baby! I may be in bed at 12:02, but MIDNIGHT I'll be rockin' it. Yeah I gave in. I caved. I reacted to what I thought I needed given the last few months of my life.  I chose UNWISELY. Yet I am choosing to forgive myself because I did what I felt at the time I needed to do.

So I'm good. My choice to go to sleep before midnight was sooooo last year. As a result this year has started with a lesson learned. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Happy New Year, Everyone. I have huge high hopes for 2012! It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?  TWO THOUSAND AND TWELVE!

Peace. Joy. Health. Lessons.

PS (posted later): When I came in from the gym today I found my husband laying on the bed in the afternoon, which is very rare indeed. This is the man who asks me at the start of every day, “What can I do for you?" and then does it. He has been in full-out mode for a month, dealing with all the stuff I have been dealing with. I asked him if he was feeling okay. He said, “I'm spent". He is. We both are. And it made me feel a little better about my early bedtime last night. Maybe this year ... it was the right choice.

Barbara: Deb, I laughed out loud when you said you were glad you kept the receipt because you were returning that new you. And I know you maybe might not return her after all, but that said, I really like the fundamental idea of being able to try her on and deciding, Hmmm, not so much.

I actually had a bit of a similar celebration as you. Back several years ago, Deb and I often spent the Eve together, but I think the long trek home at the end of the night put a crimp in that. Like you, Deb, I also began celebrating with family, usually Phil’s brother and his wife (who have to come from far out of town). But this year, as every year, we didn’t think about New Year’s until the last guest had left after Christmas and the last dish was washed and put away (right around midday, the 27^th). And this year, Phil’s brother had other plans and so Phil and I decided—right away, actually—that we would celebrate quietly, tete a tete. We took our kids and a boyfriend bowling on Sat afternoon—where we, like you, enjoyed an early countdown to New Year’s (courtesy of bowling alley management) at exactly 5:40. We laughed, we played badly, we had fun. Then we brought the “kids” home to get ready for their respective parties, ordered a big tray of sushi, and opened a chilled bottle of Proseco to enjoy the rest of the evening in quiet coziness.

We, however (not trying to rub it in!), did manage to make it past midnight. In fact, I think we finally turned out the lights at 2am. Not bad, huh? (but were also roused out of deep sleep twice when one couple then the other child came home much later.)

Today it was a late sleep-in and then a really hearty midday brunch of scrambled eggs (but what scrambled eggs), bacon, buttered toast, and pancakes. Mmmm.

Maybe not quite ready yet to tackle 2012 head-on, but certainly smiling at the prospect. (and packing for Costa Rica, baby!!!!!)

What was it you said, Deb? ... right: "Peace. Joy. Health. Lessons." Yes!!!