Sigue!!

I still haven't figured out how to post pics in order so they are a bit confusing. Yesterday began with getting our car and driving out of San Jose. I had no anxiety, fear about driving, nada. I love Latino culture and armed with a GPS, felt totally confident to get around. Soren had a bit of culture shock—getting used to food taste, how things smell, crowded towns, the shanty huts. The road to Sarchi is winding through the Central Highlands where coffee, sugar, corn fields are growing. Life is everywhere in a tropical climate—green, huge, warm and wet. We passed kids of all ages in their school uniforms, catholic churches, discotecs, men working hard on roads and in the fields. The land sloped so much at points where the cattle had no flat ground to stand. Sarchi was a fun stop and good intro to Costa Rica. The town is known for its festively decorated oxcarts but now they mostly make woven furniture, wood souvenirs and smaller oxcart versions of party trays/beercoolers. A pretty iglesia there had a cherry or mahogany type stained wood barrel vaulted ceiling as background to beautiful crystal chandeliers.

Arbol de platano.

I am like Dora the Explorer with my map and my backpack.

On the way to Arenal Volcano, we stopped at a tourist place and made hotel arrangements (Soren did homework). So we are at the foot of the volcano (it's active hasta 1968 after a 300 year nap!). This evening we walked to the hot springs and shared them with two guys from Ukraine, Valentin and Denis. They were very talkative and answered all my questions about post USSR Ukraine. They talked about their country being like the US west in the 19th C—free and often unfair trade—capitalism gone wild. They wanted to know how I felt about Obama. While sitting in the spring we could see an orange haze of smoke cresting the volcano as it got dark. AMAZING. It would have been romantic minus the two Ukrainians, a son, and plus a certain Cyler. It is after dinner now and I have used a decent amount of Spanish and am looking forward to tomorrow! Pura Vida ya’ll! (Pura vida is like saying "OK great. Sounds good." Literally it means "pure life.")