Mind of Migg

We woke up early on day 5 since we had crashed before 9pm the night before. It was nice to take in the view from the back porch and front porch of our little bungalo before leaving. We didn’t have much free time since it was a travel day back to San Jose, but we made the most of it.

We headed into La Fortuna for breakfast. We found a little soda (small, roadside mini-restaurants. I have no idea why they’re called sodas) that was recommended by the front desk of our hotel. The funny thing is, the place we were staying was full of older, American or European people who chose the spot because it had standard food and was away from the locals. They seemed surprised that we wanted a simple, local meal.

The food at the soda was solid, but the best part was the coffee and the juices. All natural blended juices from all kinds of fruit is standard fare there. After breakfast, we walked around town, getting in all of our souvenir shopping and then taking in the town itself.

We even ran into Anthony and Vivian walking around town too. We grabbed a few snacks for the drive back and then stopped off at the soda for another blended juice before heading back to the hotel. We packed up, took some more pictures to kill time, then had a quick lunch before leaving.

I was a little nervous about the trip back. On the way up, we were on the inside of the steep narrow roads, but heading back meant we would be on the outside, where we saw random sink holes that dropped all the way down the hill. Fortunately, I think our driver was thinking the same thing, because we took a different road back, that had less steep, narrow sections. It was a nice drive, taking in even more of the countryside as we went along.

We reached our destination, the Holiday Inn Express next to the airport, around five in the afternoon. We were a little bummed to be there. On the one hand, it was nice having normal amenities and a quiet room. On the other, we had grown used to the buzz of the jungle and the occasional bug in our room. Our trip was pretty much over by that point. We went for a swim in the evening, and stayed up late packing and getting everything ready. We also stayed up late to monitor our flight. Our TV had a local Denver station and the newscast showed all kinds of snowstorms. On top of that, our flight wasn’t listed on the departures screen in the hotel lobby. We triple checked the airline website and official Denver website to make sure our flight wasn’t delayed our cancelled.

Fortunately for us, it wasn’t. We left our hotel at 4am and were on our way. We were lucky that Denver had cleared up the night before, so it was freezing, but clear and sunny. The flight there wasn’t bad, but by the time we boarded for LA, I just wanted to be home. We landed with the usual relief of being home combined with the sadness that our trip was over. It was a great vacation and Costa Rica is a beautiful, amazing place. The people are super friendly and the sights are awesome. I can’t wait to go back someday.