Turrialba

We got to stay up a little later last night to celebrate the victory.  Everyone was excited and fired up.  The pool celebration was cut short by lightning and an impending storm, but everyone was in a great mood.  We did it.  So crazy to think that we had the opportunity to watch it in a completely different country.  Crazy to think that we ended the drought.  Crazy to think about how we're the first team to come back from a 3-1 deficit.  What a wonderful night!

Everyone slept in this morning, but I couldn't sleep last night.  I was excited about the game and still couldn't believe that it really happened.  Even on my run this morning, surrounded by a beautiful landscape, a gorgeous beach, I couldn't stop thinking about the game.  Cleveland wasn't a joke anymore.  We could be proud of our city and have a championship to back it up.  Last night someone said to me that sports people are weird.  Well, that's me.  I'm one of those crazed fans.  Running on the beach, looking for howler monkeys and my mind is still on that game.  Incredible.

It was a good morning to sleep in and drive.  This was our first overcast morning and it actually started raining a little as we left.  We ended up leaving around 8:45 and our estimate was that we would arrive in Turrialba some time between 2 and 3.  We drove up the coast past Dominical, then went east on the same highway we took to the cave.  We continued on past that and kept driving up, up, and up into the mountains.  Our first restroom stop was about 2 hours in and you could notice the change in temperature.  Costa Rica doesn't have an average temperature because it has roughly 200 microclimates.  The mountain conditions were very different from what we experienced in Uvita and you could see the change in the vegetation as well.

We continued to wind through the mountains, making a restroom stop every hour or so if there was a good place to stop... plus someone was always needed to stop :) It was somewhat difficult because in the mountains, a lot of the land is protected for conservation or the roadside is too narrow.  One of the cool things about the drive was that every saddleback we drove through was full of wind turbines.  Costa Rica has a goal set to be carbon neutral in the next 20 years.  All of their electricity comes from wind turbines or hydroelectric plants.  They take full advantage of the mountain passes and all the rivers.

One of the larger towns we stopped in was Cartago, which happens to be Adrian's hometown.  Cartago is the oldest city in Costa Rica.  It was founded by the Spaniards in the 1560s.  It has the oldest buildings in Costa Rica; however, none of the original buildings are there because volcanic eruptions and earthquakes have knocked them all down.  Cartago is located in a valley below Volcan Irazu, the second highest point in Costa Rica, and also an active volcano (the last eruption was in the 1990s).  Cartago is also the focal point of a pilgrimage made in devotion to Costa Rica's patron saint every July.

We wound back up in the mountains and an hour later, found our way going back down on switchbacks.  Turrialba is another valley town in the shadow of a volcano.  Turrialba's volcano was a little more active in May, with ash blowing over the city.  You can still see clouds of ash, but the winds have shifted and it is staying primarily in the mountains.  We checked into our hotel, Turrialba Bed & Breakfast, which is right off of the town square.  This is my fourth time in Turrialba and the fourth place that I've stayed: it's really nice and I love the proximity to town.  Once we got settled in, we walked to the square and had a chance to shop.  Most students are all stocked up on food, so after a very short trip to the market, we went to Pops for ice cream, where we found another Rustic group.  We then ventured to a souvenir shop where the students found they highly sought after hammocks.  It was a short walk back to the hotel and we relaxed, read, played cards, or played pool until it was time to meet for dinner at 6:15.

The restaurant was a short bus ride away- only about 10 minutes.  We went to El Tomate Rojo, a place that catered all of our meals last trip when we stayed at Mau's house.  We didn't have a lot of activity today with the long drive, so I think that no one was as hungry or just really tired.

When we came back we got our instructions for tomorrow: breakfast at 7:30, leaving for rafting at 8.  We have about an hour drive to where the rafting will begin, be on the river for about 4 hours, then we'll end near the town of Siquirres, which is in Limon province.  It will take us 2 hours to drive back to Turrialba.  Our last day here will be a full one.

Going to bed early... need to be ready for a day of Class V rapids!