We had a great time in Rincon last week with Kate. The sun was a welcome change from all the dreary rain here in Tamarindo, and it always fun to jump into Sandy and go somewhere new. The drive up only took about two hours. In a rental car it would either take longer (if you pretend you care about the car) or less (if you don't mind flirting with chance of a breakdown from rutted roads). After a quick spin around the area to get acquainted, we picked up a hitch-hiker on our way back to the lodge. We never really understood his name (sounded German, he said it was French) and we suspect that we didn't quite communicate effectively with him. The conversation went something like this: "Sure, we'll give you a ride, but we are only going back down to the first lodge" "Ok, good, good, I'll go anywhere." Three minutes later: "Well, here we are." "Is this all you are going?" "Yup. You are welcome to ride with us into the entrance if you like." "No. I'll get out here."

We think he said "thanks" but aren't sure. Funny guy.

After a great lunch, we decided to hike up to the hot springs which were "an hour away" according to the waiter. It may have been karmic revenge from the French/German short-term hitcher, or it may have been another failure to communicate, but whatever it was, the hot springs definately were not a one-hour hike away. Granted, we stopped a few times to admire towering trees and spider monkeys, but the three of us are pretty fit hikers and after nearly two hours we were notably not sitting in steamy hot water. Since the sun was going down we gave up and turned around for the lodge. Thinking we would save some time, and not thinking about the copious amounts of rainfall in the last few days, we took route marked on the map as the wider, less hilly path. Wider and less hilly translated to knee-deep mud for much (if not most) of that trail.
After another two hours or so of slogging through the mud, we made it back to our bungalow in good shape, albeit a tad pooped and plenty covered in mud.
A great meal did wonders for our moral and we made plans to head off on a horseback ride the next day- Bb and Kate overcoming their aversion to horses in light of a much stronger aversion to more hiking through the sticky mud. (to be continued)
Here is a link to some pictures.

Labels: Costa Rica, photo, travel, vacation, weather