Caroline's family!

Then a couple days later, CAROLINE’S FAMILY ARRIVED!!  We were SO excited!  Met them at the airport along with one of Mr. Williams’ old friends, Ed, who is actually living in Costa Rica for a few years, and he was kind enough to let us all spend the night at his house and then take us around all day Saturday on a road trip through some of the famous small towns in the mountains northwest of the Central Valley!  We saw three towns especially known throughout Costa Rica for their woodwork, dairy products, and coffee, as well as a HUGE waterfall in the middle of nowhere!  Ed has the coolest toys of anyone I know, and Sam even got to take a turn behind the wheel of Ed’s Kubota!  We finished off their first full day in Costa Rica with a delicious supper Silvie cooked at their house!

Ed's house

Ed's toy (one of them anyway)

Bajos del Toro waterfall

cute couple in the Zarcero topiary

dinner time!

Caroline's two families

And then it was Easter!  Church was packed with a whole 25 people, and it was really special how everyone (including Bishop Monterroso, who just happened to be at Cristo Resucitado that Sunday) so heartily welcomed Caroline’s family.  Then we made a spontaneous decision to travel to the Heredia-Cartago soccer game in Cartago.  To give you some context, there are 12 teams in the top fútbol league in Costa Rica, which is very competitive, and right now Cartago and Heredia are the top two teams, so this was a big game, and it was evident!  From the moment we got there, we wondered two things: 1) why there was a line of police officers right down the middle of the stands in one place, decked out in nearly full riot gear, and 2) why half of the Heredia fans were locked up in a metal cage.  Well, we quickly learned about the police: after Cartago scored a goal, dozens of their fans came running right up to the police line, shouting and gesturing all manner of rude and unspeakable things to the Heredia fans.  And sure enough, when Heredia tied it up a few minutes later, dozens of Heredia fans did the same.  As for the metal cage, we came to the conclusion that it’s either a prison release program so inmates can still cheer on their team, or simply where they put the rowdiest of the rowdy visiting fans so no one gets hurt ;)  Let’s just say with Heredia down 2-1 with time running out, we decided it would be safer to duck out early and head home… Enjoyed eating dinner at a fancy hotel restaurant right in the Plaza de la Cultura in San José next to the Teatro Nacional, where we had such a good time I'm proud to say the people at the neighboring table kept turning around to stare at us :)

Cristo Resucitado

toma chichi!

Just like Sewanee, Cartago is known for its fog and clouds...

Bright and early Monday morning we headed to perhaps the most famous of the many volcanoes in Costa Rica, Arenal.  Our first destination after dropping off our stuff in the cabin was to Ecocentro Danaus, a small wildlife reserve/ reforestation project, but it quickly became our third stop instead, as our unofficial taxi driver Randall took us first to see a water buffalo his brother owns (it was huge), and then to look in a tree in which he had seen a sloth the day before (it had moved on).  But that was no problem because at Danaus, it didn’t take Mrs. Williams long to find a different sloth!  In fact, we saw three in total, which Caroline was not happy about because at that point she had been in Costa Rica for two months without seeing a wild sloth!  In addition to the sloths, we (with much help from Sam’s sharp eyes) saw poison dart frogs, a chestnut-mandibled toucan, a boat-billed heron, and many tanagers and other smaller birds!

 

Mrs. Williams spotted this sloth!  Looks like Chewbacca from here!

hey there little buddy!

On Tuesday morning it was off to the canopy tour (aka ziplines)!  After the safety talk, they told us we were about to enjoy a Costa Rican “massage,” which we were not amused to find out meant a half hour ride on hard seats on a 30-person trailer pulled by a tractor on a terrible gravel road!  But then after a good hike to the top of the mountain/big hill, we were ready to zip!  The cables ranged from a couple hundred meters to a whole kilometer!  Many of them cross valleys and so have pretty good views, in particular the two nearest the 225-foot La Fortuna waterfall.  But my favorite was one of the long lines that squeezed through a virtual tunnel of foliage – if you’ve seen Return of the Jedi, it felt like being on one of those zippy flying bikes the Stormtroopers use!  Kapi kapi!  Thank goodness on the way back to the starting point we had signed up to ride horses instead of another dadgum massage.  Then after the best and cheapest lunch in town at Soda Viquez, we kinda relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, enjoying the normal pool as well as the volcanically-heated, piped-in hot springs at the hotel.  At dinner, Sam ordered the finest assortment of meats I’ve ever seen on one plate – AND it came with guacamole!  I mean, our garlic fish was nothing to scoff at, but Sam’s pieces of fried fish, chicken, and beef were absolutely all that and a bag of chips… Mmmm.

 

there's a waterfall behind us I promise

Mrs. Williams was all Smiley Miley the entire time!

Wednesday before we had to leave, we squeezed in a very early guided birding tour at the Arenal Hanging Bridges with a knowledgeable guide named Walter.  It became quite clear to us just how well trained his eyes were; at one point he stopped us, pointed to a tree ten feet away, and told us there was a good-sized lizard in plain sight.  Well we stood there for at least a minute searching fruitlessly until finally he showed it to us, and it just seemed so obvious!  I’ve been very impressed not just with Walter’s but also with our other guides’ extraordinary ability to find things I wouldn’t be able to find if I stood in the same place looking for an hour!  Anyways, it rained off and on, but we still managed to get good views of a chestnut-mandibled toucan (through a scope this time), a black-throated trogon (my Mom’s favorite Costa-Rican bird I think), honeycreepers, tanagers, lizards, and even a troupe of spider monkeys swinging through the trees!  We also learned that the funny looking birds we’d seen from the hot springs the day before were called chachalacas, also a term used for people who talk too much (we all fondly thought of Omar from our hotel in Heredia)! ;)

good camouflage

We took the public bus home, which greatly surprised the hotel staff (Fernando asked me several times, thinking he must have been hearing me incorrectly).  I get the feeling most tourists pay a lot extra for private transportation, but they’re missing out on Costa Rica’s phenomenal and cheap public transportation system (necessary because not everyone has a car here), as well as the experience!  Made it in time to meet Caroline after class and get a tour of Heredia and her university before a yummy dinner of hamburgers (alas, nothing like a good hamburger to humbly remind you of your Gringo-ness) and arepas.

The next morning we were up early again to head north to the rainforest region of Sarapiquí!  It was a little stressful arriving late for our chartered wildlife cruise on the Sarapiquí River (oops), but we eventually made it, and enjoyed relaxing for two hours on a boat spotting all kinds of sweet wildlife - a keel-billed toucan, lots of kingfishers and mangrove swallows and egrets and herons (including a bare-throated tiger heron), some sleeping bats, turtles, basilisks (known here as Jesus Christ lizards because they can run across water), iguanas, and most scarily, caimans, which are kin to crocodiles!  The tour was organized through Selva Verde Lodge, where they have set up plantain feeding stations in the trees right next to the dining area, and what a cool feeling it was to eat lunch while watching all sorts of birds come land on the feeders – collared aracaris, both species of oropendola, honeycreepers, etc.

Hi!  I am a king, and I fish.  That is why they call me a kingfisher!

I walk on water.  Just like Jesus.  That is why they call me a Jesus Christ lizard!

Eet mor froot loops

one time, many people CAIM,AN not many people left because I ate em!  That is why I am called a caiman.

notice Erick in the back snoozin :)

I am Carolina blue.  But that is not why they call me a red-legged honeycreeper.

what are you lookin at?

Our moms make us wear collared shirts.  That is why we are called collared aracaris.

I have a big gizzard. That is what makes me a lizard.

I like to do art.  That's where I got the name dart!

  

Thursday night, we all (Caroline’s two families and me) dined at a restaurant that’s famous for two things: 1) its traditional Costa Rican folk dance show, and 2) its view - high up on one of the mountains surrounding the Central Valley, it has a GORGEOUS view of San José, Alajuela, and Heredia!  Food was great, drinks were great (we tried guaro for the first time, the national mixed drink, and loved it!  Don’t worry I was fine this time), picture background was great, and they even sang happy birthday to Mr. Williams, and perhaps more importantly to Sam and me, gave him a big ol hunk of birthday cake, which we selflessly offered to help him eat.

Friday was Mr. Williams’ actual birthday (29^th if you’re wondering), and sadly their last full day, but we used it well, rafting the Pacuare River, which is widely considered one of the best rafting rivers in the world!  The 18 km stretch we rafted was mostly class IV rapids, but the other reason the river is so renowned is the scenery – rainforest on either side for most of the journey with a dozen gushing waterfalls, and even a canyon at one point.  Saw so many egrets we stopped caring, and three toucans as well.  And the day continued to get better as we had a birthday dinner at a charming Italian restaurant to celebrate Mr. Williams' birthday and their last night in Heredia.

 

"would it be weird if I lay down on the floor for a few minutes in the middle of the restaurant?"

getting ready to raft the Pacuare!

a Cookie Monster birthday cupcake :)

On Saturday morning, Omar was sad to his “family” go, and so were we!  But what a wonderful week!  I think what I’ll miss most are the many wonderful suppers together filled with laughter and stories.  Life is never boring with the Williams family!