Santa Elena, Costa Rica -- night

It has gotten to the point where so much has happened that it will be difficult to review everything.

I'll start with today's events. We arrived in Santa Elena at a little after 2pm, at which time we looked and eventually found Dona Virginia Zamora. Yorlen had recommended that we stay here since it was cheap and we would get some good home-cooking. After arriving and settling in for a few minutes, Dona Virginia prepared a nice, big lunch, with rice, beans, sardines, yucca, chayote, accompanied by a glass of the juice of maranon. After the long four-hour drive from La Fortuna around the Lago Arenal to Tilaran, and then on dirt roads up and down the mountains to eventually reach Santa Elena, I was definitely hungry for a heavy meal.

After eating, Paul and I drove up to the center of town to buy tickets for Sky Trek and Sky Walk at 7:30am tomorrow morning, then went to get a cup of coffee to give us some energy for the afternoon and evening. We then drove up to the Reserva Biologica in Monteverde, only to find out that it was closed. So we went to a hummingbird gallery to take some photos of hummingbirds. We tried to climb a trail behind the building (which wasn't allowed), but we got stuck when the way became too steep and too dense.

So we went back in the car to descend towards Santa Elena. I stopped three times at different places to ask local residents if they knew the Sanfords. Supposedly, this was a dairy-farming family that lived in Monteverde. Vicente had lived with them for a time, and Vicente's sister had visited them just a few years ago. I figured I would look for them to get a possible tour of a Costa Rican dairy farm, but not one person recognized the last name. And I talked with people who had lived here for many, many years: one Tica and two Quakers. It became apparent that I wasn't going to find the Sanfords.

So Paul and I continued descending the slope to Santa Elena. On the way, we saw a sign for some trails; we turned in. When we approached the entrance, we quickly walked onto the trail instead of paying the entrance fee. And so began our arduous evening. To put it simply and quickly, we walked so far down the trails that the sun set on us while quite far from the entrance/exit. Our only source of light was the light from Paul's digital camera, which was not strong, but was nevertheless very much better than nothing. Many times we found ourselves going off the trail, unintentionally of course. To add to the pressure, we would occasionally see two glowing green eyes either on or near the trail. Those eyes belonged to snakes. Several times we encountered barbed wire fences, which we sometimes jumped and sometimes turned away from. On several occasions, due to the lack of light, I lost my footing and fell to the ground. After about an hour of stumbling our way through the dark trails, along with sweating bullets, we finally found out way to an exit (which was not where we entered). I felt absolutely thrilled, but I was spent. I walked out onto the main road breathing heavily and sweating heavily. My relief was nearly immeasurable.

We returned to a delicious meal with Dona Virginia; she cooked rice and beans with a very tasty chuleta, accompanied with string beans and broccoli. It was exactly what I needed.

Now, I've spent the rest of the night calling Yorlen and Rosaura, and writing this entry. It's now about 10:30pm, and I have to wake up at 6am to go to the Sky Trek and Sky Walk tours. Once again, I unfortunately cannot review the events since Paul's arrival and our experiences in San Jose, Guapiles, Puerto Viejo, Manzanillo, Jaco, Quepos, Manuel Antonio, and La Fortuna and Arenal. I hope to find time tomorrow to at least chip away at these writings.