La Fortuna

Well, I suppose it is possible to mark this blog as a failure. I am just not very good about keeping it up to date.  I am currently off the farm and exploring this amazing country.  I am ending my second day in La Fortuna and will be heading for Monteverde come 8:30 tomorrow morning.  Though my stay here was pretty short, I did get to see and enjoy a lot and I expect Monteverde to be even more impressive than this place was.  On my first day here, I arrived, checked in and headed to the bar for some food. Before I knew it I was a few hours deep into a conversation with a very interesting old man who happens to be a published author.  His book, Hunter of the Cats.  Not really about cats he assured me but I suppose it could be worth at least looking into. In any case, he has promised me a free guest house if I ever come to La Fortuna again.  Emily is welcome too.  Realizing the sun was setting and I had not even left the hotel yet, I quickly made plans to visit the local hot springs.  There are plenty of hot springs here, and most come with a price tag.  I elected to go to the local spot, and also the free one.  I got hot faster than my cab was scheduled to arrive but it was ok, as a result of standing on the side of the road waiting, I got to chat with a security guard at a nearby hotel.  Since leaving the farm, I have spoken spanish nearly exclusively, with the exception of the hotel employees.  I am not sure I am improving that much, but I am gaining confidence.  Today was a milidly eventful day,  I went on a 4 mile hike up a mountain to an amazing waterfall.  The swim and the scenery were well worth the sweat I poured on the way up.  When I returned, I ate an amazing lunch at a local place, so much good food for so little money. I have found while here I much prefer a huge lunch and hardly any dinner. After that I went to a nature preserve, which was actually really disappointing. It was like a small zoo for just frogs and reptiles. Unfortunately, the entire country is littered with amazing and beautiful plants and animals, and I was duped into paying for things that in some cases I had already seen just walking through the jungle and what not. Which as a side note has become one of my favorite things to do on the farm.  Grab a machete, and roll into the jungle to pick oranges and look for ripe bananas.  Anyways, I have been eating some amazing food here. I have been looking for the less flashy places that the locals seem to like and it has paid off a ton. None of the food is that fancy, but damn it is good. I know this post has been scatter brained and is ending suddenly but I will end it by saying that I really love this country. And I expect I would love most of central america, but I am not the biggest fan of traveling alone. At least not right now.  Vamos a ver.  Por ahora, pura vida mis amigos.