Bloggings, Restaurant Reviews, Reviews - Travel, Travel

Proyecto Asis and La Fortuna Waterfall

April 25, 2016 Andi Leave a comment

So last night was our second night at Volcano Lodge and we received another phone call while we were sleeping. We went to bed again pretty early maybe 9:30 and the phone started ringing around 11. I couldn’t believe it; I was in such a good sleep! So I answered and it was security and the guy said something about our car being unlocked. I was like “our car is unlocked?” and the guy said “yes your car is unlocked”. I said ok and hung up. Seriously?! My sister shot up and was like “this is a set up!” So now we are thinking if we open our door to go out and check the car we are going to be robbed or ambushed. So we debated about it for a bit and then Don decided he was going out to check it. Our door didn’t have a peephole or a window to look out at the car so we had to open it. So he went out and the car was unlocked, so he locked it. As he was coming back the guy from next door came out and he was like “oh your car was unlocked too?” The security here is too caring and it’s freaking us out!! Are they just going up to cars and seeing if they are unlocked?! Never heard of that. Really hoping tonight we can go a night without a phone call.

We woke up early so we could drive to an animal rescue center called Proyecto Asis. Proyecto Asis was about a 40 minute drive from our hotel. We got there about 8:15 and we saw the same family from our dinner last night! How crazy.

There was probably about 10 people on the tour. At Proyecto Asis you can choose from different types of tours. We chose to do a tour of the center and then volunteer. Overall it took about 3 and a half hours. Our tour guide was named Carlos and he was awesome and very knowledgeable. He explained that they tried to rehabilitate animals so they could be released back into the wild. If releasing them back into the wild wasn’t possible because they wouldn’t survive they would live out the rest of their lives at the center. Most of the animals were previously pets.

We got to meet all of the animals: wild pigs, spider monkeys (a baby spider monkey!), birds, white faced monkeys, coatis, and many others. We actually think we saw a coati eating in the middle of the road yesterday. We learned about their stories and whether or not they would be able to live out in the wild again. Here’s a few animals we met.

Perla the White-Lipped Peccary OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Kelsey holding Jessica’s hand (spider monkey) while also being photo bombed by Carlos.

Once we were done with the tour we had some snacks and then we helped prepare meals for the animals. Meal prep pretty much included cutting up various fruits and vegetables.

Helping feed the animals was a really cool experience. We all had different animals to feed, but in the end we all fed the monkeys. Proyecto Asis was well worth the trip. We learned a lot and had fun. Definitely go here if you are in Arenal. I have a lot of videos that I need to go through from Proyecto so probably more stuff to come later.

Once we left Proyecto we had another adventure planned: La Fortuna Waterfall. But first we wanted to have lunch at a soda. I had read about the Costa Rican Sodas before coming and basically they are small family run restaurants that you could compare to a diner. You can get authentic Costa Rican food at sodas for very cheap. We tried Soda La Hormiga because it looked good and it was on our way to the waterfall. The food was great; we all had traditional Costa Rican dishes that came with meat, rice, beans, and plantains. It was also super cheap. Unfortunately, I can’t find any pictures from here.

After lunch it was time for the waterfall. It was a perfect day for the waterfall because it was hot! It was about $10 a piece for us to hike down to the waterfall and swim. The hike was pretty easy because it was just stairs…but it made our legs so sore! By the time I got down to the waterfall my legs were crazy shaking. La Fortuna Waterfall was beautiful and incredible. The swim was refreshing. Even though we went in the afternoon and it was crazy hot it wasn’t that crowded. If you are in La Fortuna/Arenal you have to see La Fortuna Waterfall. Just take your time getting down to it and especially be careful when climbing around the rocks to get in. It’s really slippery. When we were leaving we saw a girl that had broken her leg and was being transported out.

The waterfall was great. We were pretty tired after the hike and we went back to the hotel. Once we got back we went back to the pool again. When we went back to the room again though our key cards were not working so we went to the front desk and I told the guy to please not call us tonight. I told him we have gotten phone calls the past two nights and if anything is wrong with the doors and lock I will come back and let them know.

We got cleaned up and went back to town to eat. We stopped at another soda called Grandma’s Spoon Soda. It was also great and cheap. I had the churrasco and Kelsey had some fish that the owner suggested. I am blanking on what Don had but it was all good. The owner kept suggesting things and we got a couple of drinks. Really great place.

Once we were done eating we went back to the hotel and tried out the bar. They had a happy hour, it was 2 for 1. This was surprising because it was like 8 or 9 pm. I tried to see if we could watch the Blackhawks game but they didn’t get the channel. Probably a good thing because they lost and now they are done. We talked to the bartender for awhile and he told us about the volcano back in 2009 when it was erupting. It sounded so crazy. He said you would hear it rumbling and you would see it at night. That would have been a cool sight to see but I would also feel a little scared I think.

Bloggings, Restaurant Reviews, Reviews - Travel, Travel

Hanging Bridges

April 24, 2016 Andi Leave a comment

So last night was interesting. We have all been nonstop since Friday so we were really tired and fell asleep around 9 pm. I was in a great sleep, probably one of the best I’ve had in awhile , when I heard a phone ringing. It takes me awhile to realize it is the hotel phone on the table right next to me. I am finally able to answer it and I’m still in this weird sleep feeling. When I answer the phone I hear “Hello, security, checking about your door locked?” It is hard for me to understand him, not so much because he has an accent but because really I am still asleep. I see Kelsey looking at me, looking concerned as I reply back, “Are my doors locked?” The guy says “Si” and something about door lock again. What he is saying is not registering. I’m annoyed, I’m tired, and now I’m feeling a little weird. I end the conversation by saying “yes our doors our locked” and I hung up the phone.

Now I’m feeling awake. It’s pitch black. Thoughts are running through my mind. What did this guy mean? Is something going on outside? Should I be worried? I’m laying there looking out the giant window that is covered with a sheer curtain and I’m thinking, “what could be out there?” Finally, I notice Kelsey is awake and I can tell she is thinking the same thing I am. She is freaking out. This is how scary movies begin. Don is the least concerned one and he is basically back asleep. Kelsey and I are freaking out, but quietly. What should we do?! Why is someone claiming to be security asking if our doors are locked at 11 pm?! After a few minutes we get Don to call back. He explains we are bit concerned about a phone call we got. The guy explained that he was calling to check if our key cards for the room worked since earlier they were not. THAT WAS OVER 3 HOURS AGO! We went to the front desk after swimming because our stupid key cards to open the room didn’t work. The guy reset them and we went on our way and got into our room. The guy explained it was just a routine call to make sure we were okay. I was kind of pissed now because what the heck did they think we were doing for the past 3 hours, just sitting outside our room?! I was also mad to be awoken when I was sleeping so good. Crazy!!! Maybe we jumped to conclusions too fast but I don’t trust anyone!

So this morning we woke up around 7:30 and had breakfast. The breakfast at Volcano Lodge was pretty good and it’s included in the price. We took a few pictures of the pool area.

20160424_085215 — Pool with the kiddie pool.

20160424_085235 — Normally you would see the volcano here but it is cloudy.

20160424_090733 — This is what the lodge grounds looked like walking back to the rooms.

After breakfast we decided to drive to Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges Park. This is a park in the middle of the forest that has six suspension bridges. It is pretty cool. The longest bridge was 97 meters, which is 318 feet. The bridges were of various heights but most of them were pretty tall making you feel like you were walking among the highest trees. The tallest ones were 45 meters or 147 feet. People can choose to take a tour guide to Mistico or just walk it themselves. We chose to walk it ourselves because it’s cheaper. I think a ticket for the hike was about $20. It takes about 2 hours and it is pretty easy walk. The hardest part was going down a steep area to get to a waterfall, but you don’t have to go there. The other hardest part was getting over the fear of the suspension bridges. These bridges seemed to move a lot. It advised that only 15 people be on them at once. They would get really shakey. At one point I thought Kelsey was just going to stop in the middle, but we got her through. I have to admit I was scared too but the views were awesome. We didn’t see a lot of wildlife but we did see a lot of birds, a small snake, and two pretty big spiders. Here’s some pictures from the Mistico Hanging Bridges.

One of the two spiders we saw on the hike.

View from below one of the hanging bridges.

After the hike we needed to get lunch. We wanted to try this German Bakery that we kept seeing on the drive to Arenal so we headed towards what we thought was it. We got to the place but it was called Los Heroes. It was still European food but it was not the German bakery. Still, though the place was very cool looking and the food was good. I had the schnitzel, Kelsey had the goulash, and Don had some kind of brat. Everything was good.

After lunch we came back to the hotel to check out the pool. It was awesome. We spent most of the afternoon here and happy hour began at 4 pm which made it even better. 2 for 1 drinks! We talked with some people from Pennsylvania that told us about some free hot springs that we might check out and also about the La Fortuna Waterfall that we plan on going to tomorrow. After swimming and checking out the hot springs at the Volcano Lodge we got cleaned up and ventured out to break #1 rule of driving in Costa Rica: No driving after dark. We went to La Fortuna and ate at a bar called Kazan. It was your typical bar food. Kelsey had nachos, I had chicken fingers, fries, and a salad and right now I can’t remember what Don had. Everything was delicious. Great bar food. We walked around a bit and then went back. Driving at night was scary at first but it’s really just one road to town.

Bloggings, Food Blog, Reviews - Travel, Travel

On Our Way To Costa Rica!! IAH to LIR

April 23, 2016 Andi Leave a comment

Today Don and I woke up at 4:45 am so we could catch the 5:30 shuttle back to the Houston Airport. We only got a few hours of sleep but it was way better than trying to sleep at the airport.

Kelsey’s flight got in a little bit before 6 am and we met her at our gate. We had breakfast at Ruby’s Diner in the Houston Airport.

We heard all about Kelsey’s flight. Kelsey gets really anxious while flying so she usually has a few drinks. Luckily she was able to get some sleep on her previous flight. To prepare for our flight to Costa Rica she had a beer after breakfast. I kept thinking to myself “I wonder how this is going to go…” haha. We boarded our flight a little bit before 9 am. The flight was good. Kelsey had more beer, Don ordered Buffalo Trace, and I had Coke. I was planning on driving once we landed. The Buffalo Trace bottle was so cute and small! Don was happy to see it on the flight. United Airlines also provided these delicious cookies called Stroopwafel. I thought at some point we would fall asleep on the flight but we talked the whole way. It was good.

We landed in Liberia, Costa Rica around 11:30 am. It was Kelsey’s first time exiting the plane down the stairs so that was exciting.

We then found our shuttle to the Alamo Car Rental place. We were surprised to see that Alamo, Enterprise, and National all operated out of the same building. We rented a Toyota Corolla and we asked the guy who helped us where a good place for lunch is. He told us the place down the road was good so we went. The restaurant was called La Choza de Laurel. I ordered the Costa Rican Lunch which consisted of beef, rice, beans, salad, and a plantain. It was delicious; we all liked the food a lot. If you’re picking up a car from Alamo/Enterprise/National at the Liberia airport go to La Choza de Laurel!

After lunch we stared on our journey to the Arenal area of Costa Rica. This area is named after the Arenal Volcano. We were going to stay at the Volcano Lodge and Springs. The drive was interesting. This happened about 15 minutes into it.

The first part of the drive was pretty uneventful. It was just a typical 4 lane highway, but then it went down to 2 lanes so there was oncoming traffic. There wasn’t really much indication this was going to happen and every so often there would just be barricades in the highway that you would have to avoid. It was pretty crazy. At one point I had to swerve onto the shoulder to avoid an oncoming ambulance.

Once we got off the highway we were on a curvy, hilly, and crazy road all the way to the Volcano Lodge. Luckily, it was paved and it was a good road.

On the way to the hotel we caught our first glimpse of the volcano…later Don and Kelsey got some really awesome shots of the volcano. It was so cool because we could see the top and I read that it is often hard to see the top because of cloud coverage. It was seriously one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.

We also saw some monkeys on the power lines, but we unfortunately did not get a picture of them. Then we got stuck behind this truck for pretty much the majority of the drive.

We wanted to get to the Volcano Lodge before nightfall so we were hurrying. On the drive though we did get some awesome shots of Arenal.

We finally got to Volcano Lodge and Springs around 5 pm. The place was impressive! We were so happy to be done driving. Our room was awesome. We had a little back patio with a view of the volcano.

Once we checked out the place we ate at the restaurant at the lodge. It was pretty good. We even were able to watch the Cubs game but they lost. We had our first of many Imperials here, Costa Rican Beer. After dinner we decided to check out the jacuzzi that I believe we read was provided by the natural hot springs from the volcano. The night was clear so we could see the outline of Arenal. It was a good first day!

Bloggings, Reviews - Travel, Travel

Costa Rica!! Overnight Layover in Houston.

April 22, 2016 Andi Leave a comment

All of us started our travel to Costa Rica tonight. Don and I got to O’Hare around 6:30 pm for our 9 pm flight to Houston. All of us were a little worried about all the flooding that happened earlier in the week in Houston but so far our flight and Kelsey’s flight was on time.

Our flight ended up being delayed by a mechanical problem. It was a little worrisome because I thought I heard someone from the plane tell the United worker at the desk that there was “smoke coming from the cockpit”. We were just told that they were looking for a part that needed to be replaced and it would probably take an hour. I was kind of worried about this. A mechanic finally came and he had a small box and said it would be less than 15 minutes. So we started boarding a little bit before 10 pm. The flight was crowded and we ended up having to check our bags. We were a bit worried though because we wanted our bags in Houston since we had an overnight layover. We told the guy this and he wrote a note on our bags with a napkin. This did not seem like a good way to check bags…but what could we do?

Luckily, the flight to Houston went well. The only weird thing that happened was they gave us these snacks that were labeled as “Asian Snack Mix” and they had pieces of wasabi in them. They were pretty spicy! You could hear people be in shock when they ate those pieces. Pretty funny. We arrived around 12:40 am to Houston and our bags showed up. Then we went to the Hampton Inn near the airport. We had enough points for a free stay here so it seemed like a good idea to get a few hours sleep rather than stay at the airport all night. We would only get about 4 hours of sleep because we were going to take the 5:30 am shuttle back to the airport but it was definitely worth it. While we were sleeping Kelsey was on a flight from Las Vegas to Houston and she will be meeting us in the morning for our flight to Costa Rica.

Bloggings, Gaming, Geekery, Reviews

Pandemic Legacy April Review

April 20, 2016 Andi Leave a comment

We lost our first game! We each played the same characters as the March campaign: the quarantine specialist, operations expert, dispatcher, and scientist. Starting out the game the objectives were the same as the last one, accomplish two out of the three objectives. The objectives were cure the three diseases, make military bases in every region, or eradicate one disease. This game was especially harder than the previous ones though for us.

When we got to the second epidemic the city that Don’s character was in, I believe it was Johannesburg, outbroke so he had to take a scar. The operations specialist has the first scar since we started playing legacy. He chose the scar that would make him discard a card whenever an epidemic card is pulled.

During the second epidemic card we were instructed to pull the next legacy card. This one told us that the yellow disease which is c0da has mutated even more. Basically from the description it sounds like this disease creates zombies. The cities that are infected with the yellow disease are called faded cities now. They get a faded sticker and instead of yellow cubes they get faded markers, which look like little zombie figures. Faded cities are bad because if they outbreak they spread to the surrounding cities even if the surrounding cities are of other colors. They work just like the regular cubes in that if you run out of them and can’t put anymore on the board you lose the game. Also if you are in a city that becomes faded your character takes a scar. Basically the only way to control the faded cities are to keep quarantines on the yellow cities.

We were going through the cards and we were realizing we were not close to any of the objectives. We made a plan of how to get the cures but the blue cure was complicated. This game as well as the last game I found myself struggling as the scientist to get enough cards to create cures. It should be easy for me to cure because I need one less card than everyone else, but instead I am struggling to get cities of the same color. I am wondering if this is because we are not using the researcher. Maybe we should switch it up next time by taking out the scientist and putting in the researcher.

We were no where near getting military bases up so we opted to try to eradicate the black disease because it had already been cured. Things seemed to be going on track and I would be able to cure blue on my turn. We failed to realize though that the red disease was getting out of control and on Ian’s turn, right before mine, red exploded twice and we ran out of red cubes, meaning we lost the game. It was very disappointing. I think even if we found the cure for blue in the next turn we still would have struggled to eradicate black. Eradication of diseases is one of the hardest things to do in pandemic so next time I think we are focusing on military bases. Even though we lost we will be able to replay April’s campaign one more time before we have to move on.

Since we lost we got to add 2 to our funding, meaning we will get event cards in the next game. This will be nice. And even in losing, you are able to pick 2 upgrades. I believe for our upgrades we chose to keep 2 military bases to be in every game. This will help us accomplish our goal in the next game.

GarbledSyntax

Monthly Archives: April 2016

Proyecto Asis and La Fortuna Waterfall

Hanging Bridges

On Our Way To Costa Rica!! IAH to LIR

Costa Rica!! Overnight Layover in Houston.

Pandemic Legacy April Review

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