An Unforgettable Journey to a Rich Land --Part VITrip Report by Ruth Marie Lyons ( April 5- 7, 2001) |
||
|
Photographs by Jack Dodge |
||
|
|
|
|
|
Thursday,
April 5: Xandari Plantation Breakfast
at 6 a.m., bags turned over to the cart driver as we started the walk out at
7:15. It was a bit easier than walking in around noon as we did three
days ago. We
waited for the planes under the trees by a little general store drinking
cold Fantas and making small talk. All of us realize that we are
coming to the end of a fantastic trip and none of us want to think about it.
It will be difficult to say good-by to each other. Our
flight was smooth till we reached the mountains around San Jose. Due
to the wind currents and the mountains we had another roller coaster ride
right to the landing. The pilot managed to put us down pretty smoothly
and there was reliable Luis waiting for us with our excess luggage in the
back of the bus. Have you noticed that I have not mentioned shopping even once? That's because we were far too busy doing other more important things and because we were not really a shopping group. But we did need to get some presents to take back to friends and relatives. So the time was now. Luis headed the bus to Sarchi, one of the towns where handicrafts are for sale.
Sarchi
is such an artisan center that even the trash cans and bus stops are
decorated with colorful paintings. The most famous product is the
painted oxcart but we managed to resist buying one. Charlie took us to
a local restaurant which was part of a shopping complex. We ordered
our meals and then went away for an hour to shop while the food was being
prepared (good plan, yes!). After lunch, we took about 30 minutes more
for those who needed it and then we headed back toward San Jose stopping in
the suburb of Alajuela for our last two nights in Costa Rica. Alajuela
was the home of Juan Santamaria, the country's national hero and for whom
the airport is named (more on Juan later). Alajuela was also the home
of Xandari Plantation, our final destination and what a destination it was!
We had truly fallen into the lap of luxury! One of the group
referred to it as 180 degrees from Corcovado. They were completely
different, that's a fact! The hotel is located on a coffee plantation
and belongs to an American couple. He is an architect and she is a
graphic artist. They split their time between Xandari and California.
Each villa is slightly different although each has a large bedroom, a
sitting area, a small food preparation corner, a wonderfully spacious
bathroom with large walk-in shower and a delightful veranda complete with palapa.
The villas are strung out on a hilltop on either side of the reception and
dining room. The view is toward the central valley which is surrounded
by mountains. Watching the sun set and the lights of the city come up
was enchanting! Since
we had been living in each other's “back pockets” for almost two weeks,
I suggested that each couple have dinner on their own. No one
disagreed. The meal was quite different to the ones we'd been having
but as far as I'm concerned the high point of dinner was dessert - tiramisu
for me, chocolate fondant with raspberry sauce for Jim. Friday,
April 6: The central valley was so beautiful at night that we left our
curtains open. Awaking early, I slipped on my robe and, so as not to
wake Jim, quietly made my way to the veranda to watch the sun rise and
listen to the birds serenading. I'm feeling very nostalgic and it is
going to be very hard to leave tomorrow. We
went to breakfast at 7 - a nice buffet. Charlie and Luis were to
arrive at 8:30 to begin our city tour, but they were there by 7:30 so we had
them pull up chairs and join us and Mary and Jack. By 8:45 we were on our way into San Jose. Luis carefully maneuvered that huge bus through the morning traffic taking us right down town to the National Theater which is a source of pride for Ticos. Inaugurated in 1897, the building was paid for by coffee growers through a voluntary tax on every bag of coffee exported. The reason? A famous European opera star who was appearing in Guatemala had refused to perform in Costa Rica for lack of an adequate theater. Click for a better view of the grand salon of the National Theater. National
honor in this case resulted in a work of art. The theater is built in
the European manner with lots of marble, gold leaf and trompe d'oeil.
The marble had to be imported from Italy but all the beautiful exotic wood
in the building was local. There are murals on the ceilings and a
smoking room which was used by gentlemen during intermissions. Charlie
told us about his grandfather, a musician, who had come from Spain. He
played many times at the National Theater as well as for silent movies when
they came into vogue. He also was an impresario and brought other
musical groups to the theater. His financial demise came when he
agreed to fund an opera which would star a local tenor who had made good
internationally. Unfortunately, high living and loose women had taken
their toll on the tenor who could not perform on opening night. He had
lost his voice in the process which meant that Charlie's grandfather lost
his fortune. Although the major portion of the Gold Museum was closed, what we saw was very impressive. The Jade Museum was definitely closed so we made our way to the National Museum which was a real treat! Housed in a nineteenth-century building converted from a military fortress after the army was abolished in 1948, the museum is small but rich.
An exhibit on the modern history of Costa Rica joins pre-Columbian art, natural history and religious art. Even though the indigenous people of Costa Rica have not been studied in depth, they produced some excellent art work in the form of flying panel metates along with pottery, gold and wooden artifacts. Even the medal for the Nobel Peace Prize won by their president in 1978 is displayed.
Click for a larger version of this metate. Leaving
the National Museum we headed for lunch. I was sitting in the single
seat on the right side of the bus right where the door was. As we
rounded the corner of the next street, Luis slowed down and opened the bus
door. Very strange, I thought, why is Luis opening the door? The
very next moment a young man hopped on board, turned to me and said, “Ruth
Marie?” Just about blew me away! It was none other than Marco
Madrigal who had been my correspondent for the past 18 months while this
trip was being planned. Tall, slim and personable, he jumped right
into a conversation asking how the trip had been, if it had met our
expectations, were we pleased with our accommodations at Xandari, etc.
He was just as nice in person as he had been during our exchange of e-mail.
As we got off the bus at the restaurant, I introduced him to each couple so
he finally had faces to put with the names on his list. |
|
* Check out our list of birds sighted in Costa Rica*
Back to Getting There
|
|
Day
or night, the views from charming Xandari Plantation were breathtaking.
(Click thumbnails for larger versions.) The
restaurant was in a courtyard surrounded by little shops so we spent about
30 minutes after lunch for people to make a few last-minute purchases. Charlie's
last act as “mother hen” was to determine from the CRE office who was
picking each of us up at departure and at what time we needed to be ready.
So each of us knew what was happening to us tomorrow. The
time had arrived to return to Xandari and tell Charlie and Luis good-bye.
Jack made a group photo with his digital camera and promised to send it to
all of us. There were good-by hugs all around and then Charlie and
Luis walked back to the bus and out of our lives just as they had walked
into our lives almost two weeks ago... And our lives are much
richer for having spent that time with them stretching our brains, testing
our stamina, learning new information, tasting new foods, hearing
different views on ecology and the political situation in Latin America.
It was a bittersweet moment to watch them leave.... There
had been no time to walk the trails at Xandari yet, so even though it was
4 o'clock, Jim and I decided we needed to try to get to at least one of
the waterfalls before night fall. I did not take my hiking staff
which was a mistake, but I managed anyway with Jim to help me. We
ran into Mary along the way so we joined forces and saw waterfalls 1, 2,
3, and 4 before the sun began to slip down behind the mountain. The
trails at Xandari are, for the most part, very well groomed. Only
waterfall 5 eluded us.... we just ran out of light! The sunset that
night was the most spectacular we had during the entire vacation so I have
taken that as an omen we will return. In fact, as we walked, Mary
indicated that if we did plan another trip, she and Jack would like to be
on our list. We are planning another trip and they are on the list.
We just have to save the money and earn the leave time from work in order
to return. All
eight of us had dinner together, each of us taking a turn to say what we
had enjoyed the most. There were lots of votes for Tortugero and the
Savegre Valley but all in all we were glad that we did everything that was
on our itinerary. Mary
and Jack leave very early in the morning. Ann, Charles, Jim and I
leave around midday. Irene and Arnold are the lucky ones. They
have an extra day because MartinAir does not fly every day of the week
from Costa Rica to England. So we bade the Dodges good by after
dinner with promises of getting together in the US before we return to
Costa Rica. The lights of the central valley continued to sparkle
this evening just as before but perhaps a bit more poignantly...... Saturday,
April 7: Tried to get the major part of the packing done before we
met Irene and Arnold for breakfast. It will be a long time before we
see them again and we still needed a bit of time together. We spent
from 8:30 till 10:00 eating a leisurely meal. When
Jim and I returned to the villa to close the suitcases in order to be
ready for our 11:20 pickup, we had a phone call from our transfer guide
Aron telling us that he would be there to take us and the Bradfords to the
airport at 11:20 and asking that we be sure to have our tickets, passports
and money for the required exit stamps easily accessible. I assured
him we would be waiting with all in order. At
11:10 we walked to the pickup point. Ann and Charles were there as
well as Irene and Arnold to bid us good by one last time. 11:30 came
and went and then 11:45 and no Aron. It was rather strange because
this was the first time in 2 weeks that CRE personnel had not been on
time. After having been in the local traffic a number of times with
Luis, I was concerned that there might have been an accident. I went
up to the reception and asked the young lady to call CRE. After
several minutes and some checking, we found that Aron and the driver were
in festival traffic in Alejuela. They were hoping to reach us by
noon. They actually arrived at 12:15. We threw our luggage
onto the bus and jumped on. Aron was great! The first thing he
did was ask to see our passports, tickets and exit stamp money. When
he was satisfied that we were prepared he proceeded to tell us what had
happened. There
is a Saturday market in Alejuela and they thought they had allowed enough
time to deal with the traffic for the market; however, they had not
realized that Alejuela would also be celebrating Juan Santamaria Day on
Saturday. The actual day is April 11 but that falls in the middle of
the week this year so the celebration was taking place today. On top
of that it was the beginning of Holy Week and more people were leaving the
city for vacations. So
just who was this Juan Santamaria fellow anyway? Back in 1856 there
was a war that had an impact on Costa Rica. A US adventurer, William
Walker, who had gained control of the armed forces of Nicaragua and who
dreamed of controlling all of Central America, invaded Costa Rica.
The strong national identity that had been forged during the colonial
period of isolation brought volunteers from around the country to defend
the nation. In a battle that lasted only a few minutes, the
well-armed invading force was routed at Hacienda Santa Rosa in Guanacaste.
The army pursued Walker's forces into Nicaragua, where a second battle
occurred. In the fighting at Rivas, a brave young campesino
from Alajuela named Juan Santamaria volunteered to set fire to the Walker
stronghold, losing his life in the act. He became the national hero
for his part in this crucial battle. Walker's dream ended in 1860
before a firing squad in Honduras. So much for dreams of grandeur! The
traffic seemed to be lightening or else the driver was finding ways around
it. Aron continued to do a good job of distracting us by asking us
where we had been on our journey and what we had liked the most. He
had his paperwork so I didn't think to reiterate that our airline was
Delta. We pulled into the airport, jumped out of the bus, threw the
luggage on a trolley and purchased our exit stamps in quick order.
Following Aron we raced into the terminal. I was looking all over
for the Delta desk and did not see one! So I remarked to Aron that I
did not see Delta which caused him to recheck his papers. Out we went,
back to the bus and a quick drive got us to the proper place.
Finally we were standing before the immigration official who took our exit
papers, checked our passports, and very cordially bade us good by.
The line was rather long and now we had about 40 minutes till take off.
Somehow Aron managed to get us into the business class line for
check in and it was accomplished in a matter of about 5 minutes. We
bade him good by, passing through security with about 30 minutes to spare.
Actually I really didn't relish sitting in that waiting room any longer
than that so our wild ride to the airport worked out just fine. CRE
came through again, although a little breathless this time. I even had time to purchase a bottle of Costa Rican rum to take home. While walking out to board the plane, I became very nostalgic. Of all the traveling we have done this has been one of our best trips. Most of the time we travel on our own: this time I'm glad we decided to have CRE help us, and we will use then again when we return. In fact, Charlie and Marco are already conspiring on our next itinerary. END |
||
|
The only bird book you'll need in Costa Rica |
|