As I said in my previous post, my parents and sister arrived last Thursday. The next day they visited one of my third grade classes. This was pretty hilarious as the students tried out their English on my parents and sister. It worked out overall though, as my family got to experience over 20 third graders yelling in random English, which was pretty funny.
We went to lunch at this restaurant right near my house. The restaurant was really good and I'm glad I tried it, since I've been tempted this entire year but did not want to spend the money to go by myself. Some of the entrées came with side dishes which in Spanish is guarnición. The confusing part was that the English translation was garrison. I was not prepared to eat two forts.
I then badly misjudged how difficult of a walk it was to the waterfall. Sorry, Mom. But still, the waterfall was pretty and we took a cab down from the waterfall to meet my host family. My host family was very nice and we had some good coffee and tortillas. The 2 year old was adorable and did not resemble the earthquake which he can be sometimes.
Saturday was taken up with me showing my parents where I use the internet and then a tour of the national park next to the volcano and hot springs. Eco Termales hot springs is the best in my opinion. I have not done Tabocón yet, but Eco Termales was not that expensive and the food was good and the springs were pretty and relaxing.
Sunday was a lazy day, sitting in the hotel and swimming in the hotel pools. Monday and Tuesday were very busy. We took the jeep-boat-jeep to Monteverde from Arenal. After checking into our really nice cabin, we went on a fascinating insect/ butterfly tour. Then we did a night hike in the cloud rain forest where we saw coatimundi, a large rodent type animal which I forget the name of, Mexican hairy porcupines and lots of spiders.
Tuesday we went on a coffee/ sugar plantation tour. All very interesting with delicious candy and good coffee during the tour. Then it was time to say good bye which came too soon, but it was great to be able to show them around and do new things with my family. 8 months is a long time to have been gone, at least for me.
I then badly misjudged how difficult of a walk it was to the waterfall. Sorry, Mom. But still, the waterfall was pretty and we took a cab down from the waterfall to meet my host family. My host family was very nice and we had some good coffee and tortillas. The 2 year old was adorable and did not resemble the earthquake which he can be sometimes.
Saturday was taken up with me showing my parents where I use the internet and then a tour of the national park next to the volcano and hot springs. Eco Termales hot springs is the best in my opinion. I have not done Tabocón yet, but Eco Termales was not that expensive and the food was good and the springs were pretty and relaxing.
Sunday was a lazy day, sitting in the hotel and swimming in the hotel pools. Monday and Tuesday were very busy. We took the jeep-boat-jeep to Monteverde from Arenal. After checking into our really nice cabin, we went on a fascinating insect/ butterfly tour. Then we did a night hike in the cloud rain forest where we saw coatimundi, a large rodent type animal which I forget the name of, Mexican hairy porcupines and lots of spiders.
Tuesday we went on a coffee/ sugar plantation tour. All very interesting with delicious candy and good coffee during the tour. Then it was time to say good bye which came too soon, but it was great to be able to show them around and do new things with my family. 8 months is a long time to have been gone, at least for me.
Peter, the rodent was an Agouti. We also saw a blue headed Motmot (that's what the guide called it, though looking on line it may actually be called some other type of motmot.)
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