A Day Lost, A Blue River and Onward

Once again, I am lost.  After somehow unknowingly losing a day and overstaying in La Fortuna, I turned too soon and took a ‘shortcut’ to Bijagua that involved going over a dirt and rock road for about 15 km with potholes the size of small swimming pools (in a Toyota Yaris). The good news is that I made it here but now have only one night to stay.  Too bad!  The hosts and staff are really nice and didn’t charge me for the night I missed.  Wow!  Amazing!  The forest around my cabina has four sloths (two with babies) and other wildlife, and the restaurant, the Hummingbird Café, has delicious meals!  Ah, such is life! 

Backtracking a bit – I am still not sure how I lost a day, but when I checked out this morning my lovely hosts (Adrien and Irene) kindly asked if I had a copy of my reservation.  After going back and forth in Spanish, I realized it was the 19^th and that I just misplaced a day!  They didn’t mind and I was happy to spend the extra day at their place.  Irene, is a homeopath and a lovely woman who showed me a beautiful and rare bird and made delicious breakfasts.  We became close despite the language barrier and we promised to email.  I also was happy to have spent the extra day because the sun came out, the volcano showed itself and I met four great people who loved looking for birds as much as me!  We found SO many and they invited me along for a nighttime frog tour at their hotel which was amazing! 

Tomorrow I will get lost on my way to Monteverde and will be in a cloud forest (if I find it).  Looking forward to it!  Here are too many photos and I have tried to pick out just a few of my favorites.  I have hundreds and mostly of birds and reptiles.  I do not know the names of all of these and intend to find out when I can get a book.

 

Thanks to my new friend Linda Purvianace for this photo.  Mine was blurry!

The Rio Celeste

 

Vampire bats

Glass frog

Sloths with baby

 

Finally - Arenal!

 

Volcan Poas to Volcan Arenal the LONG Way!

Hello from La Fortuna - Disneyland for the adventurous!  It's at the foot of Arenal Volcano, although you'd never know it.  It has been overcast and rainy since I arrived here yesterday and, despite not being able to see the volcano, I LOVE the rain! 
Starting with Poasito, 4 km from Poas  Volcano and (supposedly) 45 minutes from Alajuela which is where my plane landed.  I have learned a few things about traffic in Costa Rica.  For instance, a Calle runs north and south with odd numbers on one side of the center of town and even numbers on the other side - so Calle 9 is clear across town from Calle 10!  An Avenida runs East and West.  All of this might not seem like a big deal unless you have taken off from the car rental lot and are 'trying' to head North out of town.  Two hours later I arrived at my lovely place in Poasito.  Poas volcano is currently closed due to activity.  The views were amazing as it is at almost 8,000 feet altitude and so was chilly and windy - but breathtaking.  The owners, Matt an Leah, just took over the place having moved from Houston only six months ago. 
After a lovely evening and morning, off I went toward La Fortuna at the foot of Arenal Volcano - a three hour drive.  While the saying goes that all roads lead to Rome, in this case all roads lead to San José.  Street signs are just a thought here and though I was on the right route, there is no indication which direction you are traveling in and I was not traveling in the correct direction - several times!   A lesson learned and onward.
Five hours later . . . I am now staying in a little cabin with a 'view' of Arenal (maybe).  The couple who run the place are lovely and I am enjoying them - so kind!  Today (my first full day), I went to Mistico Hanging Bridges which is amazing - a 4 km walk through rainforest with 6 hanging bridges in some cases 80 + feet above the ground.  I saw (I use the term loosely because they were in the canopy) two sloths - one with baby and one howler monkey.  Just as I arrived at the last hanging bridge by the exit, it started to pour!  I mean REALLY pour!
After a cappuccino while waiting for the rain to stop, I asked the woman at the register her opinion of the best and least expensive hot springs in the area.  There are many and they can be quite expensive - $60 - $85 are some of the prices.  She gave me the name of a place which was $30 (not too bad) and I, of course, went to a place with a similar name.  Duh!  It ended up though being only $20 for a day pass and was really cool - umm, actually hot!  Sat in the hottest of a series of springs going down the hill with a sweet couple from outside Toronto.  Blah, blah, blah.  Enough words - here are some photos.

My Room in Poasito

Sunset from the Room and Below Night View of San José and Alajuela

A waterfall along the way to La Fortuna

 

A View Along the Way

Some of My 'Neighbors' Below

 

 

Mistico Hanging Bridges

Two Guardians of the Bridges Emmanuel and Anean

 

Goda Ferd and Takk Fyrir

My Iceland adventure is concluding and I have squeezed as much as I could into this trip considering the unfortunate closure of the Southeastern section of the ring road.  I love Iceland and it needs to be further explored.  The scenery is incredible, the people are intelligent and friendly (but not overly so) and there is so much to see and do here.  The center of the country needs 4wd vehicles, but has some outstanding scenery; there are hotpots, pools and hot springs everywhere that could take up weeks of exploration and, with the exception of the South, there are few people on the roads (especially the gravel ones!). A week is not enough but it is the time I allotted.  I’ve met some really interesting people and have seen some amazing sights, although no aurora was in my forecast for this trip.  Maybe next time . . .

There are a lot of photos for such a short trip, but I really had to pick and choose.  I have hundreds that I haven’t shared that are of incredible scenes.  Iceland is really a beautiful place and you could literally spend months exploring this place if the weather and your finances allowed.

For those who asked – here is what I have lived in for the past week.  It served me well, but the Wifi sucked!!!  Iceland is big on roundabouts to get around towns (always interesting) and one lane bridges (probably a necessity).  It’s been a driving challenge sometimes in a manual transmission van with six speeds.  Why?  It reminded me of Spinal Tap with the amp that goes to 11 and made me smile along the way.

I spent the last night in Dingvellir Park at the end of the Golden Circle.  It was super cold and I woke to a dusting of snow on the hills around me.  Time to head home!

By the way, the title means good luck and thank you.
See y'all soon.

Ta da!  Here it is! 

For inside pics, Happy Campers, Iceland

Love the moss in Iceland.  It covers everything!

This area is full of cairns and it's considered good luck to add a rock
(which of course I did).  The road department actually leaves a pile
of spare rocks for people so they can!

The beach in the town of Vik.

More beautiful scenes along the road.

Geysir (where the Icelanders say we got the word geyser).
I could have watched it go off all day.  Fascinating!

The real Gulfoss Falls (the falls in the first blog needs to be corrected, but I don't know what it's called!
This one is huge and noisy and wet!

The rift between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. 
Also the most important site to Icelanders as important meetings were
Held here by their Viking ancestors since somewhere between 800 and 900.
You can actually snorkel in lake and see the rift.  I met a nice couple from
the Toronto area that were going to do it the next day.  Cool!

An Incomplete Circle!

The ring road is broken!!!!  I found out this morning in Myvatin (about ¾ of the way around the ring road from Keflavik) that one section would not be repaired until at least Friday due to a flood that washed away the bridge!  Okay.  So I began my journey after spending a night in Myvatin and going to their version of the blue lagoon (blue, hot, not nearly as crowded, not as expensive and smells like the devil himself belched sulfur).  I can still smell it!  The campground was really nice and had a cappuccino machine for cheap, so I was okay with it.  Left there at 8:30 and here I am in Selfoss in the South of Iceland.  I had to stop myself from stopping at every beautiful landscape so that I would get here before dark.  I did, however, make one stop to walk up approximately 700 stairs to see a caldera (actually two calderas).   Turns out the island is not that big and I made it in plenty of time to walk into town, meet some people and take some photos.  I saw some socks in a window of a shop and went in to inquire as to their cost.  Turns out they do not sell them.  They will sell you a pattern on how to make them and sell you yarn.  The only things they had for sale were from India and Nepal!! Hmmm.  Since I bought a bottle of wine (the liquor store was hidden behind an apothecary (drug store) and had I not met some people from Pittsburgh, I might never have found it.  Anyway, since I bought a bottle of wine and didn’t have a corkscrew, I was in a dilemma.  While walking, I found a second hand store and inquired if they had a corkscrew.  They didn’t know what the thing I bought (for less than a dollar) was.  I, being a wine connoisseur, figured it out right away and showed them.  They, not being winos, smiled and still sold it to me for 50 kr.  Hope I can get it on the plane!  Here's some photos. 

Gravel Road Sheep Face-Off

Village on a Fjord

More Icelandic Horses

Game of Thrones???

Fog Moving In - I Later Drove Through This Fog!!!

Godafoss Waterfall

Smelly Hot Springs

Lake Myvatin at Sunset

Caldera 1

Caldera 2

The Amazing Corkscrew
Wine Glass