it´s hard to to describe the last few days of my life but i´ll try

i´ll start from now and work my way back to the celestial waters of tenorio and the horrendous journey to get there. i´ve got the top bunk in a hostel called tranquillo backbackers in san jose and have to get up at about 4-30 to get over to the bus station. amy and i drove 5 hours down a dirt road and on the two lane interamericana into the valley san jose and heredia sit in, surrounded by volcanoes. it was a great drive, but sometimes slow, cruising behind a caravan of trucks going 40 kmh and near impossible to pass.

we started at sol y luna lodge (address to come when i get them off amy), which is the best lodging option on the other side of this guachepelin hotel´s private road to the park (can you believe it, a hotel gets to charge you entrance to a national park!) Wonderful people, clean new rooms (only 1.5 yrs old), lots of local charm, which mostly manifested itself during the local football game on the pitch the hotel built and maintains. Maella, who is part-owner and also chef pointed out toucans to me and made a mean banana pinapple smoothie, which can become a kind of pina colada at night if you add rum.


this morning we did a short walk around an area of rincon de la vieja national park filled with bubbling mud pots, called pailas here because they resemble the vats used for hot sugar cane syrup. we were recuperating from what we came to find out was a 19 km roundtrip hike up two peaks, inactive crater von seeback (1898 m) and active crater rincon de la vieja.

it was some of the most amazing hiking i´ve ever done and some of the whackiest. the first part of the hike up was slow going (mainly becuase amy and i hadn´t been sleeping so great on wooden slat beds) through a mix of tropical wet and dry pre montane forest. it was an enchanted dark trek up past giant ceiba trees, strangler figs, regular ol´deciduous growth. when we got to sitio copelares trail intersection, we decided to take the longer von seebach crater hike first, you know get it out the way early. we didn´t realize what we were about to tackle was what lonely planet calls a rocky scramble to the top. the book also advises travelers to take a guide. thank god for amy who at the very least recognized that the piles of rocks, when present, indicated our trail (karins), and at at least one point got us off the ledge of a cliff any back on track. we summited without quite realizing that´s what we were doing. the views from the top were great. von seebach was a bit of a dud (an amazing dud), a smooth green carpet covered the crater where lava once spewed forth.

luckily, we didn´t have to climb all the way down through the field of sharp igneous rock, because there was a path that ziggzagged us over to the other crater. the trek over was easy in comparison and offered beautiful views of lush green hills and lago los jilgueros on the one hand and a barren lunar landscape of ash on the other. we hiked to the top of a point and looked down a long saddleback to our destination - rincon´s active crater lake (1806 m). walking the sack i experienced what i think was vertigo. if i concentrated on my next step it seemed like the landscapes on both sides of me were rushing to catch up with my vision. it was cool.

i made it to the viewpoint without falling over the edge. words can only go so far in expressing the natural beauty i have experienced on this trip. the bubbling sulphorous lake opened before us milky turquoise white and the clouds created shadows on its surface. we hung out no longer than the advised 15 minutes breathing in the fumes, and started back across the sadleback.

the hike down rincon was nothing like the scramble up seebach. it was steeper, but the earth was packed mud and felt soft under my feet. the way down followed the path of the water that must daily form rivers that run down the slope of the mountain. for about an hour we were walking down empty trenches about 1 meter deep. then we had to repel down ropes to get to the colorado river, which has its starting point right next to the trail.

after lunch and about an hour of hiking the afternoon hours-long deluge began. at around 4-30 we arrived back to the lodge drenched, boots water clogged and heavy from water, exhausted, happy.

in between hikes we had a beach day at playa hermosa. we stayed in a wonderful little place i think called the iguana inn. it was a little odd b/c we had a separate shower and a separate toilet and neither of them were in our room. we snorkeled around coves all day and caught the sun on isolated clear-water beaches.
i´m getting tired.

but one last thing--on friday i had a hellish 12 hour adventure getting from monteverde by taxi to a little town to irma, picking up a local bus going to liberia, meeting up with amy and ryland who had rented a car from a town on the pacific coast, and getting to this crappy-ass place called rinconocito, who had ignored our reservation and booked the place full. exhausted, we headed off to the nearest hotel with a vacancy to spend a short night near volcan miravalles. in the morning we righted ourselves and, switching to plan b, headed to the rio celeste lodge (close to volcan tenorio) with no reservations, just hope and fatigue. we were welcomed by kasta and alexander ordinez, two wonderful people, who shuffled other guests around to make room and showed us true kindess. goes without saying the lodge was awesome - there were a few cabinas situated on a house-farm and the majority of the food we ate was homegrown (pollo, eggs, milk and butter).

after getting settled in, it was a quick drive to the rio celeste trail head. i can´t say enough good things about the hike and the people i did it with, so i'll let the photos here speak for themselves. the rio and waterfall live up to the name -- celeste, celeste, celeste. i´m off to bed. love to all.