Costa Rica Page 6

Saturday, June 24, 2006: I woke up at 5:50am to get the luggage out by 6am and we got moving to breakfast at 6:35am to find J&C looking through the leicas at a pair of pteroglossus frantzii (frey billed aracari) in a far off tree which were so beautiful. They're actually a species of toucan, indigenous to CR, and among the most colorful of the toucan family. FYI. I ate with J&C then we basically drove all day on the geriwagon back through Alajuela and San Jose where we started on the first day and then up over the pacific side mountains to our final stop at San Gerardo de Dota. In the itinerary we were supposed to stop at a butterfly garden, but we seemed to skip that part. It was still a very long day. The drive was up and up windy mountain roads through coffee plantation after coffee plantation and I did actually partially tune in to Marcos for some of the interesting coffee discussion about monoculture and how there is a push toward organic coffee growing where there are at least 3 other species of trees and there is less monoculture, more native and indigenous. Marcos gave his speech as he has every single day about wearing plenty of sunscreen and close-toed, comfortable shoes and the importance of bug spray, none of which were necessary, also as usual. I wore Tevas and went without both sunscreen or bug spray.

The cool air in the mountains was absolutely fabulous to be in after the heat down in the jungles of the coast. We exited the bus at our destination- an organically run coffee plantation where they shuffled us into an open-aired large banquet hall where there were several other enormous tour busses (I noticed the OAT parent company with some serious geriatrics in droves- like 45 people per bus) and got to eat a very forgettable lunch of chicken fajitas. After, Marcos gave us a tour of the place where we saw the picking, the various stages of production and finally ended (of course) in a gift shop before we could get back out to the geriwagon. As we were paying for our purchases at the register the skies opened up and a torrential downpour was unleashed from the heavens. We ran onto the bus through the downpour to continue our drive through the mountains. The drive through San Jose was definitely effected by the downpour since there were several flooded streets holding up traffic including our geriwagon. It was a bit frustrating losing all that time in a traffic jam. The rain persisted the rest of the day, although it was not torrential.

Above the group in the rain and to the right you see the little gazebo over the lake and above it is the main lodge building. Below is my bungalow to the right and some lush fuscias and plants to the right.

We got to our destination in the fabulously cool mountains, in Quetzal territory, at the El Trogon lodge, which I instantly fell in love with. This was the one little enclave type place I knew instantly I'd love to come back to. It's very secluded, down this tiny very steep road to the lodge, over a bridge adjacent to a barn-like house complete with smoke coming out of the chimney in this delightful and eerily still valley, teeming with green trees, brown pebbles and clear water. El Trogon's marketing of course contains a Quetzal, as this is where they can be found in the trees. After checking in, we went immediately out for a walk to see if we could spot a Quetzal, and no luck.

The lodge itself is situated around a pond which has a little gazebo on it, has a large main building where the dining room is, next to a game room/rec center with some pool tables, a tv, and a large wrap-around porch with wooden rocking chairs set up where you can get some of the always-present tea or coffee or hot chocolate and take it out to the deck and watch all the mountain gem and brown tailed hummingbirds come close to you and get some juice from the feeders hanging all over. The lodge's rooms are very rustic timber single-room independent little huts with these amazing slate bathrooms with rain shower heads and I was instantly in love. It is truly very rustic- this is no hilton, but again, I was in love. And the grounds are just so absolutely splendid. They even have peacocks roaming the grounds and have stocked the little pond with trout which you can fish out if you like and the chefs will make you a freshly prepared trout almondine fillet for dinner. The first night the brave ones in the group went out in the rain in the yellow raincoats the Trogon will loan you and got out the fishing gear to try and catch some trout. I wasn't interested in trying or standing out there in the rain, so instead sat on the porch with my hot chocolate just watching them out there in the rain. For dinner the trout was absolutely amazing and I had this really good pizza, a bit of chicken a la king and after they brought out a surprise birthday cake for Tommy and Joy. We retired to our rooms after dinner in the pitch darkness of the jungle grounds and I read for a couple of hours before tossing and turning most of the night. Most of this is probably attributable to picking up a new book from the Trogon's book exchange little take-one-leave-one-library which was scaring the pants off me...

Did I mention that I was in love? I just want to come back here and hole myself up with some man I'm likewise in love with for a fabulous secluded week in the woods smelling the smoke from the little valley house, drinking hot chocolate on the deck in the chilly mountain air, watching the humming birds and foliage while the fog rolls in reminding you that you're actually in the heavens- a 7,000 foot elevation cloud forest. No phones, no tvs, just peace and quiet and fresh made trout if you care to catch it. Oh, and they have zip lines on the property which you can do, too! We were going on them tomorrow and I was actually pretty excited about it. It's up in the canopy after the canopy tour which I was also looking forward to. Ah, love is so wonderful.

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