Peace Out. . .

Enough digression about this morning. Back to yesterday. We stopped for lunch at a local place named “Freddo Fressa’s” – where we had our choices of five typically Costa Rican dishes (I will find the name at some point). It’s beans, rice, plantains, some potato-y like thingie, a tomato slice, and your choice of steak, pork chop, chicken, or a beef/tomato stew-esque thing.

Being the area for strawberries, they brought us a pitcher full of strawberry milkshakes. It was a good meal, and we all had the tres leches cake for dessert.

We piled back into the van, and headed to the backside of the Poas volcano for the La Paz ("the Peace") waterfalls. If you are in the San Jose area, the place is a must stop for an afternoon. First, you go into an aviary with all sorts of tropical birds. Including a macaw that surprisingly hopped onto Julia’s shoulder, then hung out on Carol’s wrist, and then visited with Maddy. Just when we thought we were done, it hopped onto my back. It would peck at us, but not cause any real pain – except when it spun around Carol’s arm. Doing a 360 mctwist scared it, because the macaw grabbed on tight – and my wife has the bruise to prove it.

From there, we went into the butterfly house, the snake house, and the frog house. It was pretty nifty searching for the different types of poison frogs right out in the open room. The tree frogs were hard to spot, but we got used to finding them on the undersides of the huge tree leaves. In the butterfly house, we could watch them emerging from their cocoon, and then drying their wings. When described to us, the place had the chance to be hokey, but it was great.

Then, it was off to the waterfalls. There are five of them – four major and one minor (but beautiful in its own right). The bigger four range in size from 75 to 110 feet high – and they are intense. All of them involve some climbing up or down – but it is all very accessible to the average tourists (not just the Iron Tourists). The mist and spray from the falls felt great, and again, I was surprised at how comfortable the temperature is (remember, it is winter here).

These folks also get tourism – the trail ends at a souvenir shop (sort of like the letting out part of a major Disney ride), but also with drinks and snacks. Fernando had driven the van down to that point, so it was easier than climbing all the way back up.

After the lengthy ride back to Villa Blanca, I wandered around the grounds a bit, stopping by the family chapel (the grounds had once been owned by a former President of Costa Rica – kind of the equivalent of Kennebunkport or Crawford).

Dinner was good. Carol and I split a bottle of Chilean red wine that was a blend of Merlot, Cab, and some grape neither of us had heard of. I had sea bass and shrimp, she had the marinated shrimp, and the kids had various meats, on which they did not enjoy the guave sauce (on the pork chop) or the guacamole-esque sauce (on the steak). But they were fine with the food.