Cuentos de Costa Rica- Puro Paseo AGAIN! ♬ the Ballad of los Come-Huevos ♬

Pri, Mary, Luis y yo!

It seems I am always on vacation in Costa Rica (well of course I am, because I’m sure as hell not working!)  I’ve been actively traveling since I arrived, and that is due to the intrepid spirit of my compañeros aventureros. I was invited to go with Pri, Luis, and their friends to a place they spoke of with great excitement- La Fortuna in the region of San Carlos.  We would be staying for a few nights in a cabin outside of a town in a rural province, a base from which to set out for the incredible natural formation there…

Volcan Arenal

The car journey took a few hours, and my friends noticed that I was exceptionally quiet the entire time. I had to explain with some embarrassment that, although I did know Spanish, I had NO IDEA what they had been saying! It then dawned on them that they had been speaking in almost pure Costa Rican slang… they could not stop laughing! We arrived at our cabin and unloaded our belongings, but we were eager to go see what we came there for. So we packed some snacks and drove to find a spot for come-huevos- literally: “egg-eaters,” it means experiencing for free what you would otherwise have to pay for (they finally started teaching me the slang!) We used this phrase a LOT during the trip, as by the end of it we had fully converted into come-huevos. My initiation began in a spot along the road where we could see the dominating feature of the landscape: a 5,358 ft high cindercone volcano rising sharply and dramatically from the otherwise flat terrain, the impressive Volcán Arenal. We then drove to the national park to do some hiking. At the entrance, I passed for Costa Rican and thus got in to the park for free! (come-huevos strike again!) We spent awhile there and took some amazing photos of the volcano and then went back to the cabin to eat and prepare for what we had planned that night.

We drank some birras (Costa Rican for “cervezas,” don’tcha know) and made our way back to the volcano to try to see an eruption. We were extremely lucky that the summit wasn’t obscured by clouds, as that is the case on almost every other day of the year. From our viewpoint in the national park, we could see the crater ringed in fiery shades of red, orange, and yellow. However, there wasn’t much activity. Mariana decided that we couldn’t just sit around and hope something would happen; she took matters into her own hands. She began a very entertaining lava chant. We all laughingly joined in and, surprisingly enough, the gods of geothermal energy answered! Hot lava burst diagonally out of the top and bounced thousands of feat down the peak, explosive splashes of color igniting the side of the mountain. We squealed in delight and celebrated our success with dancing and of course more drinks!

The next day we headed to the hot springs! A magma-heated river flows away from the base of Arenal, and as a result several resorts have set up shop, purchasing this land and charging for access to the heated water. Again, the come-huevos foiled capitalist intentions. We drove along and looked out for more of our kind… cars parked on the side of the road indicated their location. We pulled up and found a whole bunch of come-huevos! We all went down to the stream, which didn’t have paved walkways or railings to hold onto while getting in the water, but this didn’t deter us because we were happy to be in untouched (and free) nature!

la poza

Later on we did give in and buy a day-pass to one of the resorts. We had previewed another one and weren’t impressed- we explained this to the proprietors in a conversation made quite awkward by the fact that we had a farting machine in the car (funny in any language!) We decided on the most famous resort, reluctantly legitimizing its claim to this natural resource, but wow was it cool! It had dozens of pools of varying temperatures and we thoroughly enjoyed soaking in them. But we could not deny for long our come-huevos customs. We had seen another place along a bridge where several cars were parked, although we had no idea why. Our curiosity overcame us and we stopped to investigate. There, 30 feet or so under the bridge, was a waterfall! The rushing water had also created a poza (swimming spot) a deep pool perfect for swimming. The other people there were locals, who explained that they came almost every day, and showed us all the secrets to enjoying our time there- a rope swing you could throw yourself off of into the water, a place on the waterfall you could stand and jump from, even a way to get under the waterfall by alternately swimming and pulling yourself along the sheer rock wall against the strong current. We spent hours there amusing ourselves, and even went back again the next day!

The entire trip was great- the sights and activities themselves were amazing- but it was made all the more fun by the fun-loving company I kept … and also I am now a professional “egg-eater” =)