Costa Rica

Joee’s flight got in at 5:45 Monday morning. I woke up every 30 minutes the night before making sure I wasn’t going to miss the 4am shuttle going to the airport so I could surprise him. At 6:30 Joee finally cleared customs, came out of the terminal and my brief solo journey officially ended.

We only spent one night in San Jose, which is more than enough. The following morning we left for Arenal. As soon as we got on the bus we met Ronny Sunshine. He looked at us and announced “I’ll be on the news tonight, 10 o’clock.” To which Joee replied that he would also be on the news; the old man had met his match.

Ronny Sunshine is a living remnant of the 60’s New York drug scene. He made his name by taking photo’s with celebrities, who for someone reason always said “Yes” when he asked. We know this because he showed us a magazine article, dated 1994, written about him. Ronny Sunshine was the entertainment for the trip. He repeated the same two questions to everyone he met, “Guitar or base?” and if they were in school, “Doctor or lawyer?” He also made sure to show everyone his new teeth that he acquired for apparently a great price thanks to Costa Rican dentistry. Every time he returned to his seat after roaming the bus he would bless it in a jumble of Arabic and Christian prayer. After the seats filled he was never hesitant to ask any standing female if they wanted to sit on his lap. We later Googled him and found nothing, which leads me to believe his reputation along with the better half of this brain cells didn’t make it out of the 60’s and 70’s alive.

Ronny Sunshine

Once in Arenal we set up a tour to see the volcano, which is what Arenal is known for. A small van picked us up nearly as soon as we checked in to make the 45 minutes journey to the national park. At the park we trekked to a covered observation point and sat at the base of the volcano waiting patiently for it erupt. In front of us fire flies filled the skies, while behind us our tour guide made Cuba Libres. Drinks in hand we watched the volcano erupt as molten hot rocks tumbled down the side of the volcano, glowing in the blackness of the night. After four or five eruptions we left for the second part of the tour: hot springs. On the way down the bus driver stopped to show us a sloth that was in the middle of the road. I felt bad for it as the driver picked it up by the scruff of the neck so some British tourists could pose for pictures.

 Volcan Arenal

At the hot springs we shuffled along the pitch black trial as we made our way down barefoot. The hot springs themselves were equally as dark and only a few headlamps lit the area. We all dispersed between two pools for 45 minutes before making our way home.

The next morning we were up early to cross the border into Nicaragua. At the bus stop we met Adam, a teacher from Mississippi who was on the volcano tour the night before, who informed us that the rumbling that had filled the night skies wasn’t planes, but the volcano erupting. We all waited for the morning bus then piled on to make our way to Nicaragua.