Friday, February 20, 2009

Traveling



We left San Jose today to go to the Arenal Volcano. We had heard that the roads are terrible, so we rented a 4 wheel drive. They didn't come in automatic, so I'm doing the driving, which suits me fine.
The drive was really beautiful. The first two hours were crossing a mountian range. There was farming on steeply terraced mountain sides and lots of little towns and people. Costa Rica has the highest literacy rate in Central maybe even south America. There were schools and school chilren everywhere.
    The drive was fun. It brought out my inner Mario Andretti. It was up and down and switch backs and following trucks at 5 mph. and getting passed on curves. I actually really enjoyed it after i figured out what all the road signs meant and got Marty on board as navigator.
     We saw lots of cows and all kinds of crops. They were harvesting sugar cane. The combine looked like a corn picker, except the augers were vertical. 
     We arrived at our destination with out getting lost once. Unfortunately, the "getting some sun plan" hasn't worked out yet. This a tropical rain forest. Although it is suposedly the dry season, it misted and rained alot today. But it is warm and the vegetion is lush and that is what counts. Hopefully tomorrow the rain will lift and we can see the volcano
We stopped for a break in a little town and were intrigued by the topiary park. We also went drove by an obstetrician's office that had 3D ultrasound pictures posted. We were so surprissed.