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The day after the POCHO we had a chance to relax. After a lie in many of the guests stayed in or around the hotel. We had lunch with a whole group and checked out pictures of the previous day. In the evening we traveled to a(nother) jazz club in San Jose for the closing party. Of course there were again some speeches, this time even more touching, because we were all so much more a part of it now. There was also a short video, a first version of what was to become the POCHO video clip. But what everybody was waiting for were the results…how many cyclists joined, how much money was raised etc. Well, let’s put it this way…San Jose may have this Ronald McDonald type of place sooner than anyone could have hoped for!! Maybe next time when we’re in Costa Rica, we can actually go there and know we’re kind of part of it, in a very small way…

With the POCHO behind us it was finally time for…yeah, what do you call that? Traveling around with a bunch of people, most of whom you’ve never or only recently met, and all that in preparation for a wedding… Pre-honeymoon? Wedding-Journey? Crazy-Dutch-People-Trip??? Well, whatever you want to call it, it started that next day. Together with all our luggage we were squeezed into a kind of mini-bus that would bring us to our destinations. The first destination was only a two hour drive: Hacienda La Isla, our first hotel.
Actually, hotel doesn’t really cover what we found on arrival. Hidden between bits of forest and garden, small clusters of rooms create an impression of camping in the middle of nature. Big doors stretching the whole length of the rooms open to a shared veranda that opens up directly into those gardens and the forest. The rooms themselves are spacious and exude a kind of understated wealth. You can imagine were VERY pleased with the choice!
The afternoon was free to spend lounging on the veranda, walking in the gardens, or dip in the pool. We left the latter to the kids, some of the guys and Renée and Ed’s dog and enjoyed the first two.
Dinner took place in the dining room, a roofed terrace overlooking the creek that meandered through the grounds. Just before sitting down we discovered an alligator at the edge of the water…I’m not sure of the significance of it lying in wait that close to the dining area, around dinner time…
Our early morning start the next day had everybody wondering when our actual holiday would start But it was worth our while, cause we were going white water rafting. Cause I’ve never done anything like that I was quite nervous, but I just kept thinking…’Emanuël is a good swimmer, Emanuël is a good swimmer…’
It took about an hour to drive to the meeting point of the ‘Exploradores Outdoors’ the company that would take us rafting. We started there with a sturdy breakfast of gallo pinto (the traditional rice and beans mix) with egg before heading out to the Pacuare River. During that short trip we were given our instructions, explained the commands our guide would give us and told what to do or not do. Although the explanation was in English, it was basic English and interspersed with something I can only call local slang, so we’d be told things like ‘careful with your paddle, cause a black eye in Costa Rica is NOT SEXY!’ Or listen to your guide, cause an upside down raft in Costa Rica is NOT SEXY!’ Of course this resulted in the guys asking what IS SEXY in Costa Rica…you can imagine the conversations following that had very little to do with rafting…
At the starting point we were split in groups of 5 or 6, given our paddle, life vest and helmets and introduced to our guides. Thankfully the most important of the instructions were repeated and practiced as soon as were seated in the boat and then we were off.
The Pacuare River is one of the top 10 white water rafting locations in the world, with rapids of the highest level, level 5, when the water is high. Luckily this is the dryer period of the year, so the river was lower and we only had one level 4 rapid to look forward to. It took us a few rapids to get the hang of it, to respond instinctively to the commands. It’s very strange to respond to ‘Paddle Forward’ when you’re sideways in the river and have no idea where the guide wants to go. But we had a real good guide, who got us to understand that we needed to just paddle and he’d get us where we needed to go (he did the actual steering, we only needed to put some power behind whatever he did…I think…).
Miraculously, we even got to the point where our guide tried a few more daring things…we did a few rapids backwards, we did one standing in the raft (as far as that was possible :D) and we did one while spinning circles!
Luckily the river wasn’t only rapids. Regularly there would be a stretch of relatively calm water and a few times we could even leave the raft to swim a bit. Those stretches would also allow us to enjoy the nature around us. Our guide pointed monkeys out to us, the beautiful Blue Morpho Butterfly, several kinds of Herons and some Black Vultures.
After about two hours of rafting we went to the shore and had lunch. Our lunch consisted of tortillas with all sorts of filling, all brought with us on the rafts in barrels. By the time we had to get back to the rafts we were somewhat dry again and all of a sudden the water actually seemed cold. But we didn’t get much chance to dwell on that. Soon we were all wet again and fully focused on paddling. It took another one and a half hour to get to the end, where it was only a short walk to where we had breakfast that very morning. After a drink we headed back to Hacienda La Isla, where we spent the rest of the afternoon lazing about until it was time for dinner.

One of the first things Renée had asked me when I confirmed we’d be coming for the wedding, was to do her hair and make up… Somehow I seemed to have given her the impression in the past that that’s something I’m good at… Well that evening was our first chance to see how good… After dinner I got out my bag with beauty stuff. I actually brought enough to fill a small overnight bag…overcompensating I guess I started out trying to get her hair done, but very soon handed over that task to Eveline, another Dutch friend of Renée’s. I then gave her make up a try together with Tanja, an Australian friend of Renée’s…Let’s put it this way…it’s a good thing I don’t have to make money in the beauty industry!! Either way, the gin and tonic Tanja brought with her ensured we had fun and more importantly Renée finally got a chance to relax after weeks of stressful preparations (although I think she did stress out a bit about not having the perfect hairdo straight away…).
That following day we had to say goodbye to Hacienda La Isla and continued our journey to our next destination. This next destination was to be a pineapple plantation, where we had a lovely lunch and a tour around the plantation. Although we’ve been to a pineapple plantation in Hawaii we didn’t get as close a view of the workings of a plantation as we did here. We started in the fields, where we were shown how pineapples grow and how one plant provides aside from the pineapple also stems for two new plants. From there we were taken to the work floor, where the pineapples are checked, categorized and packed for (mostly) export. Turns out, Costa Rica is one of the biggest exporters of pineapple!
But we still had quite a stretch to go that day, so we all got back into the bus to travel the last part for that day. An extremely bumpy dirt road eventually brought us to a river crossing, where we transferred to a little boat that would bring us across to our next hotel, Maquenque Ecolodge. And again, hotel is not really the right word (and Lodge doesn’t really cover it either). The rooms were actually luxurious cabins, overlooking the rainforest, or the lake.
After a nice dinner we had a chance to do an evening walk through the jungle, which of course we didn’t want to miss. Our guide showed us little frogs, huge spiders and enormous ants, called bullet ants, whose bite can be lethal. Add to that his mentioning poisonous snakes and tarantulas an you may understand we weren’t entirely comfortable during that walk (I swiped almost nonstop at my arms thinking something was crawling over me…) but hey, it did add an edge of excitement! We ended the walk at the stretch of land slicing through the lake at the hotel’s grounds. Our guide pointed out little reflecting spots…not fireflies…no alligators, or at least the light of our flashlights reflecting of their eyes… Turned out we were pretty much surrounded by them!!
But it wasn’t alligators that kept us awake that night… sometime around 4 in the morning we were roused from sleep by howler monkeys! I’d have never believed an animal that small can make that much noise!!

That morning Renée was heading out ahead of the group for some last minute preparations at the wedding site. She’d asked Eveline and me to join her, together with her parents. So after having had our breakfast we got into Ed and Renée’s car (they’d driven separately, a lot easier with their baby boy Youp and the dog Chico), and headed for Rancho Margot. We stopped for lunch in a village called Muelle, where a huge number of iguanas has made their home in some trees next to a touristy restaurant.
At Rancho Margot we again had cabins, these even bigger than the ones at Maquenque. Every cabin came with it’s own veranda, with a view at the gardens and the Arenal Volcano. We got to there sometime around midafternoon, and after a walk around the grounds, to get a feel for what would be happening in a few days, we spent most of the afternoon lazing in the hammock at our cabin (I shared one with Eveline that night) and in the little hotel pool.
At some point during the day I’d managed to get an email out to Emanuël to see how the jungle hike they‘d planned to do had been. At some point at the end of the afternoon I got a reply, and I’m pretty much copying here (and translating): ‘The jungle hike was great, but not without dangers.’ Nothing more…no ‘but we’re all fine’, no ‘just kidding’ just ‘not without dangers’!!! The next email mentioned something about falling and a nest of bullet ants…at that point I decided I didn’t want to know!! (We heard later that they’d actually gotten themselves in the middle of a nest of bullet ants and some people had gotten bitten, luckily without any serious consequences.)
We decided the men were able to take care of themselves and continued our lazy evening. Dinner was followed by another session of hair and make-up, this time with much better results, mostly at the hands of Eveline. Eveline and I ended the day with a little panic about a BIG insect in our bathroom (following which I chose not to use the toilet anymore that night) and some antics with a mosquito net that resulted in neither of us using the net (very unpleasant odors and sizable holes…!). May not sound like it, but we had good fun!
The next day was a day of preparations. Flowers were gathered and arranged to decorate the site of the ceremony, the restaurant, the bar and the dance floor. Hair and make up were given a last trial run. Locations for pictures were chosen, discarded and chosen again… Sometime that afternoon the rest of the group arrived, which included a friend of Ed, Ineke and her husband, Eduard, who’d be taking pictures on the big day, together with Emanuël. They took the whole tour as well, made some suggestions and all in all caused the whole schedule to change again ☺
With all the nervous excitement for the day to come we were glad to get to bed. We (Emanuël and me) of course especially so, because we’d had to miss each other the previous day and night

The day after we arrived back in San Jose was all about the preparations for the POCHO. In the morning there was a meeting for the Dutch cyclists, to make sure everyone understood what was required of them, what to keep in mind and when to be where. That afternoon we went to choose our bicycles, which turned out to be cool orange mountain bikes. I loved mine instantly, but then, I’ve never had a mountain bike, probably only cycled on one once or twice, so they could have given me pretty much anything…if it would cycle I’d be happy Only thing I knew to check was whether or not saddle and handle bar where at a good height for me and whether or not the gears were working properly…I guess my spinning lessons are good for something after all!
That same evening we all gathered at a local jazz club, also owned by a Dutch guy, where we enjoyed some nice food and listened to some inspiring stories and speeches. I say inspiring, cause one of the speakers was a Belgian lady, who’d been struggling against cancer herself for a while, and who’d come to say goodbye to the country she’d fallen in love with (Costa Rica, of course), just in case she wouldn’t have a chance to do so later… The strength that shone through her story encouraged me (and I’m sure many others) to surpass myself cycling up that volcano the next day.
The reason this lady was one of the speakers, was because the POCHO is a cycling event aimed at collecting money for a cancer related good cause. The name is a combination of Poas and ocho, with Poas being the name of a volcano close to San Jose, and ocho Spanish for eight. Eight, because the idea is to cycle up the volcano eight times and get sponsored for doing so.
The cancer related good cause that was chosen for the POCHO was Funda Cancer. Funda Cancer is led by a couple who’s lost a daughter to cancer. They explained the organizing team of POCHO that one of the biggest problems in Costa Rica is that many people don’t have the money to come to the city to start or continue a treatment. Can you imagine that 25% of the cancer patients there dies because they can’t come to the hospital to be treated? A huge step toward solving this issue would be a Costa Rican version of our Ronald McDonald House. A place where patients, and where necessary even family can stay, ensuring they can finish treatments and have a better chance at gaining the upper hand in their fight against cancer.
The beautiful thing about the POCHO is that it’s based on a zero cost principle. Everything gets sponsored, done by volunteers, or donated. Some of you may have heard of Alpe d’Huzes, which is based on the same principles. Actually, it was one of the organizers of Alpe d’Huzes who started the idea of setting up a similar event in Costa Rica.
Because Alpe d’Huzes is a Dutch initiative, it was of course to be expected that at least part of the organizing team in Costa Rica would be Dutch too. And that’s where my friend Renée and her hubby to be, Ed came in. Together with some Costa Ricans and some other Dutchies in Costa Rica they organized the POCHO and scheduled it to take place a week before the wedding…yes seriously!
Of course the really nice thing about that timing was that a lot of the people travelling to Costa Rica for the wedding, made sure to be there in time for the POCHO. Most of them chose not to cycle, they just walked up and stayed at the top to cheer for the cyclists. But some others, like me would actually take part. To ensure the threshold to participate wouldn’t be too high, it was decided that participants could either enlist as individuals, or as part of a group. Individuals were then given the choice to either cycle up only once, or as close to eight times as possible. Groups could choose to switch cyclist after every round, with the total number of times up the volcano adding up to eight too.
To make sure there’d be enough time to actually cycle up eight times, the start would be at 6 in the morning. Most of the guests coming over for the wedding were staying at the same hotel in San Jose, from where it was a good hour drive to the Poas. So at 4am a little bus left from San Jose, filled with participants and supporters. The Poas is another one of those volcanoes with almost always clouds around the top, so when we arrived it felt like it drizzled a little. Luckily, by the time we were getting ready for the start the sun had started to come out…surely a good omen.
Many of the participants were quite experienced, or had at least done similar cycling tours before. I on the other hand (together with a few others) had hardly prepared at all. I’d just hoped my spinning would be enough to get me there (even though I hadn’t been doing much spinning lately ).
It turned out that people would get me there. Within seconds after the start signal I was one of the last cyclists. I managed to keep up with a few ladies, but after a few hundred meters it was just me and another one of Ed and Renée’s friends… Even one Dutch guy who’d decided to run instead of cycle up, decided after running along with me, that I was going too slow. Together with my cycling buddy I’d cycle a few curves and then take a break to catch our breath. The thin and moist air makes it much harder to get some control over your breathing, so we felt we deserved it . While we were making our way up some late starters passed us and soon the first cyclists started to come back down for their next round. We’d cheer for everyone, causing somewhat confused looks on the Costa Rican faces the first time. But when they’d pass us the second or third time they’d join in the cheering!
In the meantime, Emanuël was walking the same stretch as the cyclists were battling, together with some other friends of Ed and Renée’s we’d met the previous days. At some point, probably around two-thirds up the volcano they actually managed to catch up with us! Of course that gave us another excuse for a break

I have to tell you, until you’ve been part of something like this, it’s hard to explain how amazing it is to be there, struggling up that mountain, having people around you cheer for you, people you know, but also people you don’t know. It’s exhilarating and humbling at the same time. And to know that everyone is there, not because there’s a price or fame to be won…but because we’re trying to make a point, trying to change the world even if it’s just a little bit…goose bumps time and again…

All in all it took my cycling buddy and me about two and a half hours to get to the top. At that point we could proudly say we’d cycled almost 10km, starting at a height of 1894m, ending at 2510m, which brings the average incline at almost 7%. But there were parts where the incline was actually closer to 15%!! Let me tell you, those parts are excruciating!!
After something fresh to drink, an energy bar and a banana, my adrenaline and exhilaration at making it there hadn’t diminished the least bit…so I decided to…wait for it…yes…GO AGAIN! My cycling buddy from the first round had already decided to first go and see the volcano crater, together with Emanuël and the group he walked up with. So there I went, on my own, all the way back down. And that’s when you really realize how far you’ve cycled…and how steep that mountain really is!! I had my breaks squeezed tight all the way down, even though apparently it was perfectly doable to go faster, judging by the speed at which some cyclists passed me by on their way down. But I guess I like my life a bit too much to risk cycling at up to 70 km per hour, possibly straight into oncoming traffic!
Once down I ate another banana, drank a little more…and prepared to make my way up for the second time. And again I was lucky, two young Dutch cyclists instantly joined me and together we got to the top in about one and a half hour! We took short, regular brakes, but far less than I did the first time up. By now the air was a lot dryer, so breathing got easier and somehow it helped that we knew what was coming.
At the top I discovered that Emanuël hadn’t yet returned from the crater, so together with 2 other (again) Dutch cyclists I continued on for about 10 minutes to the visitors center where we found everyone. Most of us instantly decided to walk back down and find a place to have lunch. I left my bike at the finish, where Renée would pick it up it for her trip back down and got in one of the buses that would bring us back to the starting point. There we found a lovely restaurant, with a view of the turning point (where cyclists would turn from coming down, to start back up again), so we’d be able to see some people cycling by.
Our timing turned out to be perfect, cause soon it was raining heavily. I was absolutely impressed to still see cyclists go up that volcano again and again regardless… We, however just sat there and had a very nice meal. By the time we were done the POCHO was finished as well and everybody had started to come back down. We all got in the bus that would bring us back to our hotel and started to look forward to showers and bed…
We joined most of the Dutch group later that evening in the restaurant across the street. It’s nice to sit at the other side of the world, with people you didn’t know until a few days ago and to feel as if you’re among old friends. But then, what would you expect after a day like that…

The day has been so inspiring to me, that I’ve decided to see if a similar event can be set up in Germany in the area we now live in. Of course, I hardly know anybody here, don’t know about rules, regulations and laws, but I’m sure I’ll be able to find people who do know all that. My personal goal is to have a similar event here sometime in the autumn in 2013…I’ll keep you posted here on my progress (and doubtless on my frustrations too ;)) and of course I expect to see at least the majority of you at the resulting event, be it on a bike or as supporter!!

Yeah…there you are one day shoveling snow in your brand new snow boots… And a day or two later you’re strolling around on your sandals…

As some of you know, one of my closest friends for almost 20 years, Renée, is getting married in a week…in Costa Rica!! And I’m her witness, so gotta be there! (As if we would have missed it if I hadn’t been!)
Anyway, that’s why we’ve traveled to San Jose on Thursday 16.02, a little over 2 weeks before D-Day. Because you don’t get to go to these parts of the world every day, we immediately decided we’d turn it into a holiday, hence the two weeks early arrival. After exploring some suggestions from Renée, we chose to combine our stay in Costa Rica with a few days in Nicaragua. Nicaragua borders Costa Rica in the north, and you can either travel there by road, or by plane. We chose the road, cause that way we’d at least see a bit of the country we’d be traveling through. So after only one day in San Jose we took the bus to Granada. 
The bus trip was an adventure in itself. The bus was big, with lots of space around the chairs, the chairs themselves were nice and soft so we sat down with good feelings….until the bus started driving… Roads in Costa Rica aren’t of the ‘Autoroute du Souleil’ kind. Although our route was all paved (no dirt roads or anything), there’s humps and bumps all over the place. First thought of course is ‘lucky those seats were soft!’…yeah very lucky, especially since also the springs in the chairs were very good. Oh, and the backs of the chairs could be pushed backwards VERY easily (no need to press any buttons or anything!). So picture this: with every hump or bump in the road (and there are many!) we got launched either upward, backward or forward….yes, soft chairs, so easy landing, but still…does airborne ring a bell?!?
Anyway, we got to Granada, without any real problems. The border crossing was kind of interesting: everybody out of the bus to have passports checked and stamped to leave Costa Rica; back in the bus to drive to a Nicaraguan luggage check point, where they look at your back pack, think ‘nah too complicated’ and approve your luggage for entrance in Nicaragua; followed by a guy from the bus company, who collects all passports, some taxes (or was it maybe his tip ?) and then walks off with them to have them stamped for entrance into Nicaragua; all in all an hour of question marks, insecurity and lessons learned. From the bus stop we found our way to the hotel on foot. Granada is not a very big city, so we found it fairly quick. The hotel, named Con Corazon is actually a foundation, started by two Dutchies, who, with the help of a group of investors, built the hotel, with the goal of combining their love for the region, with their ambitions to do something for that same region. The result: a beautiful hotel, set up with a basic elegancy that’s just breathtaking. And all profits, yes 100%!! go to improving Nicaraguan children’s education. The hotel is managed locally by different (Dutch) people every few years. These people leave jobs and lives behind to live on their savings in Granada, so none of the profits need to go to their ‘management salaries’. A beautiful concept, in a beautiful place…thanks Renée for this perfect recommendation!
I mentioned the basic elegancy of the hotel… Pictures won’t do it justice so I’ll try and explain it a little. Take the rooms, the floor of the bedroom is plain concrete, BUT there’s a lovely little heart drawn into it. The few bits of furniture (bed, bench, nightstands and shelves) are basic, but locally made, with colourfull fabrics, and lovingly carved wood. Breakfast and optionally dinner is had in a kind of central courtyard. The center of it is filled with exotic flowers and plants, the chairs and tables are of the same beautiful simplicity as the furniture in the rooms. In a corner are a few hammocks, a big swing and a life size chess game. And the breakfast itself… No towering buffets, or huge stacks of food that doesn’t get eaten. Every table gets a personal meal set: muesli, yoghurt, some fresh fruit, a bun, butter, marmalade and peanut butter. Again simple, but good and  more than enough.
The first two days we spent in the city. Granada still has quite a few buildings that are left overs of better, wealthier, colonial days. The contrast between these monumental buildings, and between these monumental buildings and the surrounding buildings are very stark. Most of the buildings are low, one, maybe two floors. Many of them are not too well maintained (understandable, half the year it rains a LOT, so maintenance is quite a bit more of a challenge). Even the more monumental buildings are often either being renovated, have been renovated recently, or need to be renovated (again). BUT, the atmosphere is heartwarming, life is lived on the streets, people are friendly (even though it’s hard to communicate if you don’t speak spanish) and you can see potential on every street corner. Hardest to comprehend is how certain parts are very much slum, but not slum as in too many sheds and people in too little space, with skinny kids with too big bellies. No, although the houses are more sheds than anything else, there’s space between them, some have lovely little gardens around them, kids are actually chubby, and half of the sheds have a satellite dish on the roof.
High light of those two days was a chocolate workshop. In 1,5 hour we were taught how to make chocolate. Starting with the cocoa pod, via fermentation to drying, then roasting (which we got to do ourselves), separating the cocoa itself from the shell around it (while the beans are still hot! I actually burned my fingers doing it!), then grinding the cocoa to a paste, which can be used as the basis for either cocoa drinks or the actual chocolate. We got to make the Mayan, the Aztec, and the Spanish cocoa drink. The Aztec one had chili in, which made it a bit too sharp for most of us, but the other two were actually really nice. With the same paste that formed the basis for the drinks, the chocolate bars are made. These last steps take too long, so we got some already made chocolate and some ingredients to mix in. Emanuël made a rum bar, I added almonds. Those mixed bits of chocolate were then put into a mold and put in the fridge to be picked up the next day. 
The following two days we travelled around in the area around Granada, with our guide Jimmy the Man. Jimmy is a local who’s supported in his attempts to create a better life for himself by two Dutch guys. These two Dutch guys help locals start their own companies, by helping them realize a step by step business plan. Jimmy has already toured around enough people to have done some schooling, get himself a phone and a computer, and now he’s working towards his own car.
On our first day with Jimmy, we started out at the Mombacho volcano, a big one, overlooking Granada. The top of this dormant volcano is covered with cloud forest. This means that a large part of the day the top is hardly visible from the city, cause it’s hidden in a cloud. Walking around in that part, is eerie. All you see half the time is the forest surrounding you, constantly dripping from the moist in the cloud. And then all of a sudden the cloud disperses, the sun can reach you (which brings the temperature some 5 to 10 degrees up!) and you have this amazing view of  Granada, Lake Nicaragua and the islands called Las Isletas. Much lower on that same volcano we went to enjoy the canopy… This is a very popular activity in Costa Rica, it’s advertised everywhere. What they do is, they build platforms high up in the trees and tie ropes between them. Then they put you in one of those safety harnesses, hook you up to one of those ropes and… send you over. For the heroes amongst us there was the option to either go Superchico (or chica) or up-side-down…and yes Emanuël tried them both! (I have to admit I was the only one not trying any of them…). Pictures will follow to show what it entailed…
From there it was down a little further for lunch followed by a tour of the country side by horseback. My horsie, Rossio, was super sweet and listened very well, so my ride was nice and smooth. Emanuël on the other hand, could almost walk along with the horse, so his ride was less comfortable. The tour took us by several plantations: coffee, banana etc. Also, we saw some of the fruits that just grow here, even got to try a little one, called ‘cas’, which is a little smaller than a prune, is really hard and tastes like a cross between a Granny Smith apple and a lemon.
By the time we got back it was time to head towards Las Isletas, also called daughters of Mombacho, cause they were created by one of Mombacho’s eruptions. It’s best to go there either in the morning when the birds are still there, or at the end of the afternoon when they are returning to the islands. We arrived just in time to do a quick 1 hour tour, before dark. Las Isletas is a collection of about 360 islands in Lake Nicaragua, near Granada. Many of the islands have houses on them, some of them privately owned, others lodges to be rented out to tourists, some of them restaurants. Other islands don’t have houses on them, but they do have other inhabitants. One island houses 5 monkeys, who are very much adapted to the presence of tourists, as soon as they see a boat coming they try and find a branch that reaches far into the water expecting some food. Of course we came well prepared, so I fed them a ‘very healthy’ muesli bar. Another island houses two trees that fill up with white birds, until it’s like you’re looking at some weird version of a Christmas tree. Another typical bird for this part of the world is the one called pendulum bird. The males of this bird build tear shaped nests, hanging from branches of a tree. The females then get to choose a male by deciding which one built the biggest nest. The trees where they build their nests are easily spotted, cause they too look like a(nother) weird version of a Christmas tree. The birds are mostly black, but with a bright yellow tail end. First time I saw them I thought I’d seen a plain crow or something, till I noticed the tail…
On our second day with Jimmy the Man we went to see a different volcano, this one called Masaya. This one has a more active crater, with smelly smoke rising from it (where the Mombacho vulcano including it’s crater is all overgrown with vegetation). Both the Mombacho and the Masaya volcanos are part of a chain of volcanos that stretches out over the whole continent. Part of that chain are active, dormant and dead volcanos, but also crater lagoons. After Emanuël and Jimmy walked around a rim of a neighbouring dead volcano, we continued toward one of those lagoons. On our way there we made a short stop for a smoothie (in the best set of chairs and table ever! See pictures) and to have a look around at a local market. From there we went to a viewpoint, at the upper rim of the crater that contains the lagoon. We had a lovely lunch there, including some ‘gallo pinto’, the main dish for breakfast and lunch around here. Gallo pinto is a mix of rice and beans with herbs, with the herbs depending on the region or the person preparing it. After a lunch we continued to the shore of the lagoon, where we spent a lovely hour or two relaxing and reading.
As much as we’d enjoyed Granada, the next day it was time to travel back to San Jose. Again a journey of about eight hours, this time with less springy chairs, but also with less legroom and unfortunately an ill passenger. But we got there and made our way to the hotel Renée had arranged for us. The next days would be quite busy with the preparations for the POCHO, but I will tell you all about that in the next post!