Costa Rica 34

L assured us that it was not going to be an easy walk for us to get to downtown. We were located almost at the top of the hill that descends into town before flattening out a bit to allow for stores, hotels and restaurants. He had stayed at this hotel before and had done the hike up and down this hill many times. It was only three blocks straight down this hill so we thought we could do it just fine. We picked our way down the hill, using the sidewalk whenever we could. It was in such disrepair that at times it was just easier to walk in the street. But a bit more dangerous. It appeared that the major form of transportation there was off-the-road motorcycles, or dirt bikes. Loud and powerful. With big tires. I suppose they had to in order to get around these clay hills, especially after a rain when they would sure to be slippery.

After a pleasant little lunch, we checked in at various tour agencies and booked ourselves for our next adventures. I wanted to go on a guided horseback ride here and, in fact, it was part of our itinerary. I wanted to take the eight hour ride, B and L wanted the three hour ride. Turns out that we did neither. The weather turned really cold and it started to rain while we were arguing/discussing this. Having had more than my fair share of riding in the cold and/or rain when we owned our own horses, I quickly decided we could do without this adventure….this time! So we booked our jungle walk and our jungle sky walk and returned to the hotel.

Let me tell you, going up that hill was a lot worse than coming down! If I had had a sharp knife, or probably even a dull one, I would have cut my legs off and carried them! That was to be the first and last time we attempted to climb back to the hotel. After that, it was always a taxi. I know, only three blocks. But three very steep ones. The taxi never even got out of second gear!

We had ourselves a little siesta, getting up in time to dress in warm clothes and head out for our 5 PM appointment. We were (God only knows why!) going to take the English language guided tour of the Serpentarium. Or as I affectionately call it…..SNAKES ALIVE! If you can’t wait for my account, you cn visit them here: www.snaketour.com