Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Wednesday was much like all the other days of our honeymoon and we were not able to sleep in. We woke up very early to pack up and drive two hours to the ferry in Paquera that would leave at 11 am.
While I had hoped to say one last bittersweet goodbye to Oreo and Cocoa, oddly enough, only Oreo was waiting on the patio that morning when we woke. Oreo ended up getting more than his share of leftover fish as we scooted out of the house at 8:30 am.
After taking the ferry again back over to Puntarenas we decided that we would try and squeeze in one last activity in Costa Rica. Going to see a volcano had been on our to-do list but there were not any volcanoes located near us on Peninsula de Nicoya. Additionally, after doing some research, we found out that none of the volcanoes in Costa Rica seemed to be actively spewing lava, so we did not put this activity on our priority list of things to do.
Since we had some time to kill before checking into the Adventure Inn again in San Jose, we decided to take a trip out of the way to one of the volcanoes near San Jose. The Arenal Volcano was one of the most popular volcanoes in the Costa Rica guidebooks, but this volcano was too far out of the way for us, so we choose one not far northwest of San Jose call the Poas Volcano. One of the good things about the Poas Volcano was that you could drive up to it instead of having to do a long hike like most of the other volcanoes.
After leaving the ferry in Puntarenas, we experienced yet another funny situation. It just wouldn’t be a normal day in Costa Rica if we didn’t have some crazy encounter with an insect.
Just as we were driving down the road from the ferry and I was settling in to take a nap, I was startled by a large brown spider positioned on the front windshield right on my side. My first assumption was that it was on the inside, so I was somewhat relieved to find that it was on the outside of the vehicle.
Luckily I had learned my lesson about Costa Rica and had my window rolled up because just as soon as I had noticed the spider, he scurried off across the windshield to my side window. I tried telling Bryce that he needed to pull Jimny over and get this gimongous spider off the car before he hitched a ride back to our hotel, but before we knew it, he had crawled to the side of the car out of sight.
We continued on our way, only having experienced my fourth heart attack of the trip, which was not relieved when Bryce started claiming that the spider would make its way into the car via the air vents and that only “maybe” would the air filters stop him from coming inside.
After the spider scare, we spent several hours zig zagging through confusing steep roads to get to Volcan Poas. The closer we got to the volcano’s top elevation of 8,700 ft, the colder the air got. We finally reached the park at 4:30 pm, only to find out that it closed at 3 pm.
Since this was an impromptu trip that we decided on along our trip, we did not have wi-fi service to research what time the park closed. The long, twisty, sometimes-stressful drive would have been a complete waste had it not been for the beautiful scenery and green foliage we enjoyed looking at on the way up and down the streets to the volcano.
Of particular note at the the higher elevation were gorgeous hydrangea plants that were scattered alongside the roads and bloomed with soft blue and lime green flowers.
One of the most interesting things we noticed on our drive up and down the volcano were large sections of farmed land covered by dark tarps. There were many of these farms situated on slopes and scattered in the valleys of the hills. We never could figure out what they were for but they seemed to be protected by gates and tall shrubs, which was unusual for the region. Our assumption was they were either marijuana farms or coffee plantations. It was more likely that they were coffee plants though because the rich soil and cooler climate probably provided the perfect growing conditions for a such a plant.
Much like the first day in Costa Rica, our drive back to San Jose was very stressful. Not only did the crazy drivers and streets return in full force during rush hour, but another familiar-looking visitor also returned.
It was dark and we were on our way to return Jimny when I saw a dark shadow scurry quickly across windshield. It appeared to be that same dark brown spider that had crept across our windshield earlier that day when we had gotten off the ferry. Apparently he had hitched a ride from Puntarenas to the volcano to San Jose and this time he had waited for the perfect opportunity to try to hitch a more comfy ride inside the vehicle because Bryce had his window open this time.
Bryce was able to roll his window up just in time to prevent the creepy eight-legged creature from coming inside the vehicle but now he was hanging out on the roof of the vehicle, most likely ready to pounce on us the moment we opened one of the car doors. I promptly elected Bryce to get out and shoo him off the vehicle, which he was able to do and we continued on our merry way to the car rental place. I was more than happy to turn over the Jimny and finish the last few hours of our honeymoon on foot.
Our flight the next morning was scheduled to leave at 8 am and we had to be at the airport two hours early, which meant we had yet another early wake up call to look forward to. Despite having to wake up early almost every morning for our honeymoon, in return, we had a long list of amazing activities we had accomplished in Costa Rica.
Eager to return home and boast of all our crazy adventures, the next morning we waved goodbye to Costa Rica and a few lizards on the runway as we began our trip back to the states. Although we may never return to Costa Rica, we were glad our fresh marriage had survived the crazy adventure.
{ E M & P I E } 