After Guatemala, all our excitement in May revolved around my sister’s visit to see us here in Costa Rica. We had such a great time! Mary’s flight was delayed by a few hours, so that gave Isaac time to finish cleaning the house a bit, and it gave me time to do a bit more work on my homework.

We started out the festivities by bringing Mary to a couple of our most exciting gay clubs. The first was La Avispa (the wasp), San Jose’s oldest gay club. They just renovated for their 25th anniversary. Normally, La Avispa is packed. As luck would have it, it was dead. So we stayed for a drink and then decided to head over to Bochinche’s. Translated to English, that would be Ruckus. And on a Friday night, that place is quite the ruckus! It’s totally packed with men and women all out for a night on the town and taking advantage of the all-you-can-drink special for about $6 until 1:30am. Pretty good deal!

Then next morning we headed out for the Guanacaste province to a part of Costa Rica called Lago Arenal. Lake Arenal is a man-made lake that is just gorgeous, and is by one of Costa Rica’s active volcanoes. It’s their most active one actually. We went at the perfect time, as the volcano was really active and we got to see lots of eruptions and plenty of lava flowing. You’ll see a picture of the volcano by day. We took night photos with the lava flowing, but it’s too hard to see the lava in the dark.

While we were there, we also went on a rainforest tour by “zip line.” Believe it or not, it was Isaac’s first time, though he’s lived here all his life. He was a bit scared, but he did a great job and had fun! At the end of our tour we were greeted by some indiginous tribesmen who tried to sell us some of their wares. Their speech (translated) was interesting and they were very nice. But their goods were pretty pricy.

We spent a couple of nights at the villa of friends of mine, Villa Decary, in Nuevo Arenal. Though they were vacationing in Paris at the time, their long-time employees took wonderful care of us. The most fun here was watching Mary be woken up at 4:30am to the sound of the howling monkeys. She thought she was being attacked. It was hilarious! But it is true, they have a deep, guttural sound that is more like a monster than what you would imagine a monkey would sound like.

The most popular destination in Costa Rica has to be Tabacon. It is an incredibly well landscaped hot springs park where the water is heated by the volcano. They also offer spa services. We couldn’t be in the area and not stop in to relax in the hot springs and hang out there for a few hours. We captured this really cool picture too of me and Mary in front of the largest waterfall they have. Isaac tells us that this is the waterfall where most of the women lose their bikini tops, so the guys are always staked out in front for a free show!

After a couple more nights in San Jose to get homework done and for Isaac to take his French tests, we were off for the beach. We headed south to Manuel Antonio National Park. The beaches there are lovely. We spent a couple nights there (where Isaac ended up leaving his wallet. It took us over a week to figure it out, and the hotel never called us. What a pain!) After that, it was just east of Manuel Antonio to the more remote area of Savegre. Our poor truck. I wasn’t sure we were going to make it. The roads are just awful. Each time we have gone out to these kinds of areas we have been sorry that we took the truck. This time, the clutch went out. But thankfully, it wasn’t until we got back home.

However, the long and bouncy ride there was certainly “vale la pena” as they say in Spanish. That is to say, it was worth the pain. Once we got to the lodge, Rafiki Safari Lodge, we were pretty close to heaven. This place is breathtaking. It’s in the jungle and along the Savegre River. A family from South Africa came and bought something like 370 hectares of land (which I think is like 1,000 acres) about five years ago. It took them about a year to build the road out there and then another year to finish the lodge and tents.

But what a place they have! We were the only guests. So we got spectacular service, which I’m guessing is the norm, having been out there a couple of times now and knowing these people. We started out by having breakfast, then jumped on some horses to ride out to the place where we would be starting our white water rafting trip. Isaac was also afraid to ride the horse, but he was a trooper and made it all the way with a smile on his face.

We decided to go rafting in what they called the “mini me” raft. And we’re so glad we did! It was a lot more intimate and provided us a chance to really get to know the river better. As in get dumped INTO the river! Not once, but twice!

We stopped halfway down the river for lunch and then later on for a little hike out to see a waterfall, which we jumped off. On our hike we saw animals like a couple of poison dart frogs (only found in this one part of the world).

That night we had dinner with our hosts and a few too many drinks. Our “tent” was the Four Seasons of tents and sported a bathroom larger than my living room. I was so tired that I don’t remember the sleeping part of the night.

That just about brings Mary’s 10 days to a close and it really went by quickly. We had such a lovely time with Mary and look forward to seeing her again. It also made us more anxious to see Paula, Bert, John, Hai Nhu, and my parents. One of these days…